St. Joseph Church food drive Dec. 7 from 11:30 - 1:00pm
Food and money donations can be dropped curb side in front of the Church - 102 Van Horne Ave
. All proceeds to support Dryden Food Bank
Pope Leo to young people: Technology can help us live our Christian faith
Pope Leo XIV meets online with over 15,000 teenagers gathered in Indianapolis, Indiana, and invites young Catholics to grow in friendship with Jesus Christ, use technology healthily to deepen their faith, and avoid using political categories to speak about the Church.
By Devin Watkins
Over 15,000 young people met with Pope Leo XIV via video link on Friday, as they attended the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) in the US city of Indianapolis.
Moderated by Katie Prejan McGrady, the event saw six young Catholics ask the Pope to share his thoughts on topics ranging from the Sacraments and mental health to artificial intelligence and the future of the Church.
In his opening remarks, Pope Leo praised the American youth for taking the time to meet together in person, and encouraged them to be active members of their parish communities.
The conference gave them the chance to attend Mass, pray before the Blessed Sacrament, and receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and the Pope said these activities are “real opportunities to meet Jesus.”
Life in the Sacraments
The first question put to the Pope asked about accepting God’s mercy when we’ve sinned or let others down.
Pope Leo XIV acknowledged that everyone struggles with asking for God’s mercy and accepting that He truly does forgive us in Confession.
“Sin never has the final word,” he said. “Whenever we ask for God’s mercy, He forgives us. Pope Francis said that God never gets tired of forgiving—we get tired of asking!”
God’s heart, he added, is different than our own, since He never tires of searching for the lost sheep. The Pope invited young people to encounter Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, confessing their sins openly and welcoming Jesus’ forgiveness in the priest’s absolution.
Struggling with depression and mental health issues
Next, the Pope responded to a question about mental health struggles, such as feeling sad or overwhelmed.
He invited everyone to open themselves to a deep relationship with Jesus, entrusting their difficulties to Him in prayer.
“In the quiet, we can speak honestly about what is in our hearts,” he said. “During Eucharistic adoration, you can look at Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and know He looks at you with love.”
Young people, added the Pope, should also find trusted adults whom they trust, so that God can speak to them through others, such as parents, teachers, priests, and youth ministers.
He also invited them to pray for the gift of true friends, who push us to “seek Jesus when life gets confusing or difficult.”
“Many young people say, ‘No one understands me.’ But that thought can isolate you,” said Pope Leo. “When it comes, try saying, ‘Lord, you understand me better than I understand myself,’ and trust that He will guide you.”
Faith and technology
Answering a question about technology’s effects on faith, Pope Leo XIV upheld the usefulness of modern tools to connect people who are thousands of miles apart.
“Technology can help us do many things and even really help us live our Christian faith,” he said. “It also gives us amazing tools for prayer, reading the Bible, and learning more about what we believe.”
At the same time, the Pope noted that technology can never replace real, in-person relationships and participation in the Eucharist, inviting young Catholics to be intentional with their screen time and making sure that technology serves their lives, not the other way around.
Artificial intelligence, said Pope Leo, has become a defining feature of our times, pointing out that safety is not only about controlling the development of AI models but also about empowering people to make healthy decisions through education and personal responsibility.
Every tool should support our journey of faith and intellectual development, not hinder it, he said.
“Be careful that your use of AI does not limit your true human growth,” he said. “Use it in such a way that, if it disappeared tomorrow, you would still know how to think, create, and act on your own. Remember: AI can never replace the unique gift that you are to the world.”
Future of the Church
Pope Leo then responded to a question about the future of the Church, recalling Jesus’ promise to Peter that “the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church.”
The Church prepares for the future by remaining “faithful to what Jesus asks of us today,” he said, recalling that the Holy Spirit has guided the Church through two millennia of issues and challenges.
Young people, said the Pope, are not only the future of the Church but also her present, and he urged them to get involved by attending Sunday Mass and joining youth activities where their faith can grow.
“If you feel the Lord may be calling you to something specific, talk to your parish priest or another trusted leader,” he said. “They can help you discern what God is asking.”
Friends of Christ, missionaries of the Gospel
Finally, Pope Leo XIV expressed his hopes for the future of young people in the Church, inviting them to help shape her in the years ahead.
In response to their youthful desire to do something meaningful, the Pope urged young Catholics to offer their time and talents generously to build up the Church.
“Deep down, we long for truth, beauty, and goodness because we were created for them,” he said. “And this treasure we seek has a name: Jesus, who wants to be found by you.”
Young people are called to be friends of Christ and peacemakers, “who build bridges instead of walls, who value dialogue and unity instead of division.”
“Be careful not to use political categories to speak about faith,” he said. “The Church does not belong to any political party. Rather, she helps form your conscience so you can think and act with wisdom and love.”
In conclusion, Pope Leo invited young American Catholics to listen to God’s call in their lives and to discern their vocation, whether to marriage, the priesthood, or religious life.
“What greater cause could you dedicate your life to than the Gospel?” he asked. “The world needs missionaries. It needs you to share the light and joy you have found in Jesus.”
Cupich on 'Dilexi te': the Liturgy as a place of solidarity with the poor
Cardinal Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, reflects for Vatican News on Pope Leo XIV's first Apostolic Exhortation. In his meditation he recalls the words of Saint John XXIII before opening the Second Vatican Council: the Church must be the Church of all and “particularly the Church of the poor.”
By Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago
Of the many insights gained from reading Dilexi Te (DT), I was particularly struck by Pope Leo’s observation that “The Second Vatican Council represented a milestone in the Church’s understanding of the poor in God’s saving plan,” and that this milestone shaped the entire direction of the Council and its reforms.
He notes that while the theme of the poor was only marginally alluded to in the preparatory documents, Saint Pope John XXIII called attention to it in a radio address a month before the opening of the Council, stating “the Church presents herself as she is and as she wishes to be: the Church of all and in particular the Church of the poor.”
These comments, according to Pope Leo, spurred theologians and experts to give the Council a new direction, which Cardinal Lercaro, the Archbishop of Bologna summed up in his intervention of December 6, 1962. He stated: “The mystery of Christ in the Church has always been and today is, in a particular way, the mystery of Christ in the poor....this is not simply one theme among others, but in some sense the only theme of the Council as a whole. ”
Lecaro later commented that in preparing his intervention he came to see the Council differently: "This is the hour of the poor, of the millions of the poor throughout the world," he wrote. "This is the hour of the mystery of the Church as mother of the poor. This is the hour of the mystery of Christ, present especially in the poor.”
It is in this context that DT offers a particularly revealing comment that provides us with a fresh understanding of the Council Father’s reform of the liturgy. "There was a growing sense of the need for a new image of Church, one simpler and more sober, embracing the entire people of God and its presence in history. A Church more closely resembling her Lord than worldly powers and working to foster a concrete commitment on the part of all humanity to solving the immense problem of poverty in the world."
In other words, the noble simplicity that Sacrosanctum Concilium pursued in calling for the restoration of the liturgy was not just some antiquarianism or simplicity for simplicity's sake. Rather, it was in tune with this “growing sense of the need for a new image of the Church, one simpler and more sober…” The liturgical reform aimed at allowing God's activity for us in the liturgy, particularly the Eucharist, to shine forth more clearly. The renewal of our worship was pursued in keeping with the Council Fathers’ desire to present to the world a church defined not by the trappings of world power but marked by sobriety and simplicity, enabling it to speak the people of this age in a way that more closely resembles the Lord and allowing it to take up in a fresh way the mission of proclaiming good news to the poor.
The liturgical reform benefited from scholarly research into liturgical resources, identifying those adaptations, introduced over time, which incorporated elements from imperial and royal courts. That research made clear that many of these adaptations had transformed the liturgy’s aesthetics and meaning, making the liturgy more of a spectacle rather than the active participation of all the baptized for them to be formed to join in the saving action of Christ crucified. By purifying the liturgy of these adaptations, the aim was to enable the liturgy to sustain the Church's renewed sense of herself, which St. Pope Paul VI noted in his address for the opening of the Council’s second session was in keeping with his predecessor’s inspiration in calling the Council, “to open new horizons for the Church and to channel over the earth the new and yet untapped spring waters of Christ our Lord’s doctrine and grace.”
It was also designed to empower the Eucharist to once again, as St. Pope John Paull II stated in his Apostolic Letter, Mane Nobiscum Domine, to be “a project of solidarity with all of humanity”, making those who participate in it “a promotor of communion, peace and solidarity in every situation. More than ever,” he continued, “our world (troubled)…with the spectre of terrorism and the tragedy of war, demands that Christians learn to experience the Eucharist as a great school of peace, forming men and women who, at various levels of responsibility in social, cultural and political life, can become promotors of dialogue and communion.” The saintly pope concluded in a way that foreshadows the teaching of Pope Leo by noting that it will be “by our mutual love and, in particular, by our concern for those in need (that) we will be recognized as true followers of Christ (cf. Jn 13:35; Mt 25:31-46). This will be the criterion by which the authenticity of our Eucharistic celebrations is judged.”
With the recovery of the ancient sobriety of the Roman Rite the Eucharist is once again the locus of genuine peace and solidarity with the poor in a fractured world.
St. Michael the Archangel
Message on the Solemnity of Saint Michael the Archangel
29 September 2025
His Eminence Frank Cardinal Leo
Metropolitan Archbishop of Toronto
My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am writing to you on the occasion of the Solemnity of Saint Michael the Archangel which the Church celebrates on September 29th, and who is the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Toronto. St. Michael reminds us that our Christian life is not adrift, happenstance, or a series of accidents, but a vocation. Living the life of a disciple is characterized by a call to stand with God in truth, charity, and justice. During this Jubilee Year — set aside by the Church as a time of renewal, reconciliation, and hope — our celebration takes on an added dimension, resetting our gaze on the ultimate horizon: God’s faithful love and the bright promise of immortality. As “Defender of the Church”, St. Michael reminds us that our hope is not naïve optimism but the theological virtue (CCC, 1817-1821) that steadies us amid conflict and distress (cf. Dan 12:1).
As many know, St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica, anchored in the heart of the city, is named after the Archangel. Our feast recalls that the archdiocese’s very identity is stamped by the ministry of St. Michael: to worship God, resist evil, protect the vulnerable, and serve the common good (cf. Pope Francis, Address, 5 July 2013). When faced with a worldview that is myopically focused on the passing things of this world, a lost sense of sin, and promotion of harmful individualism, St. Michael’s patronage encourages us to be discerning, forward looking, and all-encompassing by recalling the primacy of God and placing our trust in God alone (cf. Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, Feast of the Archangels, 29 Sept 2007).
The name “Michael” comes from the Hebrew and means “Who is like God?” or in Latin, “Quis ut Deus?”. It is traditionally associated with the Archangel’s battle-cry and victory over Satan and as such stands as a question that humbles power and purifies misplaced zeal when taken seriously. It can serve to shape civic imaginations, and caution leaders, citizens, and disciples alike that no ideology can save, and no economic plan can heal the deepest wound of the human heart (cf. St. Gregory the Great, Homily 34). Only the living God — adored in the Eucharist, encountered in the poor, and proclaimed with expectant joy — can do that. This is the primacy of God proclaimed by St. Michael that bids us to go to hospitals, shelters, boardrooms, construction sites, indeed all places of work and leisure with a renewed vocation: to share the truth, to act justly, and to keep hope alive.
During this Jubilee Holy Year we are encouraged to engage in pilgrimages, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and works of mercy, charity and justice. The feast of St. Michael is a natural waypoint for all three. Pilgrimage is not merely a physical trip, but a journey of the heart that involves conversion and confidence in God (Spes non Confundit, 5). The very name “Michael” calls for this conversion, purification and confidence. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is not mere moral bookkeeping or airing of dirty laundry, but a restoration of baptismal grace and recommitment of self. Again, it is the same clarity of vision and recommitment, the very light of Christ given at baptism that St. Michael bears against the “father of lies”. Finally, one of the four principal roles of St. Michael is to protect and defend God’s people. Our spiritual and temporal works of mercy — feeding, visiting, welcoming — are how we “push back” the darkness in the city we love. (cf. Spes non Confundit, 7-15).
My dear brothers and sisters, the upcoming Feast of St. Michael anchors our spiritual warfare of everyday living and fidelity. Nevertheless, our beloved patron is not a mascot for aggression but a model of adoration and service. In this Jubilee, may St. Michael teach us to choose praise over complaint, intercession over cynicism, and solidarity over isolation. Included with this letter is the Novena to St. Michael the Archangel. I would like to renew my invitation once again this year to join me in praying the Novena to St. Michael for authentic renewal of our Catholic institutions, parishes, schools and universities, healthcare and social agencies. The Novena to St. Michael begins on 20 September and ends on 28 September. Under his patronage, may the Archdiocese of Toronto grow as a city on a hill - where the beauty of the Gospel is proclaimed, the sacraments are celebrated, the poor are cherished, and hope rings out above the noise. Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.
Blog post 2
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich
Tradition vs. traditionalism
September 3, 2025
The late Jaroslav Pelikan, a historian of Christianity, made an important distinction that is helpful to remember: “Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”
That quote came to mind as I reflected on the recent decision of Pope Leo to declare Cardinal John Henry Newman a doctor of the church. A key factor in his decision to join the Catholic Church was his understanding of the development of doctrine. He observed that while Protestants readily accepted some doctrines that developed over time, such as the Trinity and the divinity and humanity of Christ, they were inconsistent in rejecting the analogous developmental history of other Catholic doctrines, such as purgatory and those related to Our Lady.
This understanding of the development of doctrine has a rich history in the life of the church. St. Vincent of Lérins, a fifth century monk, compared the maturation of the human form to the development of doctrine. He observed that “the tiny members of unweaned children and the grown members of young men are still the same members. Men have the same number of limbs as children. Whatever develops at a later age was already present in seminal form; there is nothing new in old age that was not already latent in childhood.” Likewise, “the doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming firmer over the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age.”
At the same time, St. Vincent wrote, “If the human form were to turn into some shape that did not belong to its own nature, or even if something were added to the sum of its members or subtracted from it, the whole body would necessarily perish or become grotesque or at least be enfeebled. In the same way, the doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming firmer over the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age.”
Newman’s writing on the development of doctrine greatly influenced the bishops as they addressed it in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. In paragraph 8 they wrote: “There is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts (see Luke 2:19, 51) through a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through Episcopal Succession the sure gift of truth.”
I am convinced that the bishops approached the reform of the liturgy as an exercise in taking responsibility for the correct development of church teaching as manifest in the way we worship. In many ways, the reform was a recovery of truths of the faith, which over time were obscured by a series of adaptations and influences that reflected the church’s expanding relationship with secular power and society.
Particularly prominent during the Carolingian (seventh to ninth centuries) and baroque (17th to 18th centuries) periods, many adaptations were inserted in the liturgy that incorporated elements from imperial and royal courts, transforming the liturgy’s aesthetics and meaning. The liturgy then became more of a spectacle rather than the active participation of all the baptized in the saving action of Christ crucified.
One could easily read the bishops’ Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, “Sacrosanctum Concilium,” as a correction of these Carolingian and baroque liturgical adaptations through a restoration of the liturgy’s original emphasis on active participation by the laity and a noble simplicity. These reforms were a direct response to the centuries of development that erroneously had transformed the Mass from a communal event into a more clerical, complex and dramatic spectacle.
What is at stake in accepting the liturgical reforms of the council, then, is our very understanding of what it means to be a church of tradition. On his flight back from Canada in 2022, Pope Francis observed that: “A church that does not develop its thinking in an ecclesial sense is a church that is going backward. This is today’s problem, and of many who call themselves traditional. No, no, they are not traditional, they are people looking to the past, going backward.”
In a word, the true understanding of Catholic tradition provides the church with the capacity to witness to the Gospel in new contexts. True reform is the church’s way of going deeper into the tradition in order to move forward.
Indeed, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”
Blog Post 1
It all begins with an idea.
CELEBRATION OF LIFE OF EVAN ARMIT
https://www.youtube.com/live/4hUXpeIdDKo?si=HKhlqM5YmsZ7HBKH