Next week, I will be in Rome for a meeting of the Council of Cardinals advising the Holy Father on the reform of the Roman Curia. So, on Saturday, we had a Zoom meeting with some of the cardinals to prepare the agenda and reflect on some of the themes that we will be discussing with the Holy Father.

Legion of Mary

On Sunday, we gathered at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross with local members of the Legion of Mary as part of the Legion's 100th anniversary celebrations.

The Legion of Mary was founded in Dublin by Servant of God Frank Duff.

He was from a distinguished Irish family and, at one point, was the assistant to the famous figure of the Irish revolutionary period, Michael Collins. Frank Duff was very involved in the St. Vincent de Paul Society, serving the poor in Dublin. Out of that, he formed the Legion of Mary, which, with its impulse to lay apostolate, is one of Ireland's great contributions to the Church. It is one of the very early manifestations of the laity's involvement in different apostolates. And for that reason, St. Paul VI invited Frank Duff to the Second Vatican Council.

The Legion of Mary is very much based on the spirituality of St. Louis to Montfort, who was one of the great inspirations of Pope St. John Paul II. In fact, the pope took his motto, "Totus tuus," from St. Louis' "True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin."

It is probably one of the largest Catholic organizations in the world, with several million members. There are particularly large memberships in countries where the Irish settled, or where Irish missionaries served. South Korea is one of the countries with the largest memberships, and it is also very popular in Africa and throughout Latin America. In the United States, it tends to be more popular in Irish and Hispanic parishes.

In my homily, I noted that if you go to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., they have many different shrines and altars to Mary as the patroness of many countries. In the Irish Shrine, of course, they have Mary sitting in the middle of a holy well, which is a great tradition of Ireland, and they have images from the Book of Kells. But there are also symbols of the Legion of Mary because it is one of the great missionary impulses of Ireland in more modern times.

One of the interesting characteristics of the Legion of Mary that Frank Duff instituted is the use of terminology taken from the Roman legions. One of those terms is the "tessera."

In the Legion, they have active members who dedicate a certain number of hours each week to apostolate and the auxiliary members who pray the prayers every day. The prayers are contained in a little booklet called the tessera [ ... ]

Funeral of Manuel Albacete Cintron

Thursday, I was in New York City to participate in the funeral of Manuel Albacete Cintron, who was the younger brother of one of my closest friends, Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete. The funeral was at St. John the Baptist, the Capuchin parish in New York, where Archbishop Roberto Gonzales and Father Chris Marino concelebrated the Mass with me.

While I was in the church, I noticed this Shrine of Padre Pio. When you walk in and look over at the shrine, it appears that Padre Pio is in the confessional.

I hadn't noticed it before, and it really caught my eye!