This type of encounter helps us see the beauty and the power and the imagination behind God’s creation.

By the end of his life, Orestes Brownson, who was the most distinguished American Catholic public intellectual of the 19th century, had become a ferocious critic of the Americanist path that most of his fellow Catholics had chosen.

On a snow-covered winter day in 1842, Father Edward Sorin stood before a frozen lake in northern Indiana and did something audacious. He consecrated the land, the institution he was about to found and every soul who would ever study or work there to the Blessed Virgin Mary — and he did this not as an afterthought or pious decoration, but as the founding act itself.

Jesus never directly answered, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Instead of simply saying “Yes,” full stop, Jesus gave what many consider to be sidestep answers…

When it was her turn, she walked right up to the cross, carefully leaned down very low, and gave the dark wood a kiss. Then she bounced away.

The Easter season is a time for rejoicing—not just for ourselves, but in a way that invites those around us to join in the celebration.

Because of the evidence of the empty tomb and the encounters of the risen Jesus with the women, the apostles and disciples, and St. Paul, the Church has always believed and preached the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It is the moment that definitively changed human history forever.

His great goal was the conversion of Protestant America to Catholicism, something he was convinced could happen. After all, he said, in the United States “true religion will find a reception it has in vain looked for elsewhere.”

Easter is plainly the solemn feast celebrating the resurrection of Christ. It is fine to say Happy Easter. The origin of the word “Easter” is complex.

A most joyful day in my ministry as your bishop is the First Sunday of Lent when we celebrate the Rite of Election. It is a beautiful moment when the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen is filled to overflowing with those of you entering the Church, together with your godparents, sponsors, parish priests, catechists and friends.