reflections, updates and homilies from Deacon Mike Talbot inspired by the following words from my ordination: Receive the Gospel of Christ whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe and practice what you teach...
St. John, named Chrysostom (golden-mouthed) on account of his eloquence, came into the world of Christian parents, about the year 344, in the city of Antioch. His mother, at the age of 20, was a model of virtue. He studied rhetoric under Libanius, a pagan, the most famous orator of the age.
In 374, he began to lead the life of an anchorite in the mountains near Antioch, but in 386 the poor state of his health forced him to return to Antioch, where he was ordained a priest.
In 398, he was elevated to the See of Constantinople and became one of the greatest lights of the Church. But he had enemies in high places and some were ecclesiastics, not the least being Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, who repented of this before he died. His most powerful enemy, however, was the empress Eudoxia, who was offended by the apostolic freedom of his discourses. Several accusations were brought against him in a pseudo-council, and he was sent into exile.
In the midst of his sufferings, like the apostle, St. Paul, whom he so greatly admired, he found the greatest peace and happiness. He had the consolation of knowing that the Pope remained his friend, and did for him what lay in his power. His enemies were not satisfied with the sufferings he had already endured, and they banished him still further, to Pythius, at the very extremity of the Empire. He died on his way there on September 14, 407.
Pope encourages Benedictine religious to remain rooted in Christ
Pope Leo XIV encourages Benedictine men and women from around the world to deepen their roots in Christ and continue offering a witness of prayer and communion.
Vatican News
Pope Leo XIV addressed participants in the symposium of the Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum (CIB) on Saturday, thanking them for their prayer, “humble and silent presence”, and the “daily and hidden offering” of their lives.
Established in 2001, the CIB brings together mostly women's congregations belonging to the Benedictine family. Around 13,000 nuns worldwide follow the Rule of Saint Benedict.
A witness of communion
After acknowledging the presence of a few men as well, Pope Leo described the CIB’s work as part of a continuing journey of communion and coordination within the Benedictine family. He stressed the importance of a “spiritual synodality” in which each person’s uniqueness becomes “a treasure for all.”
Recalling Pope Francis’ description of a Benedictine “heart expanded by the unspeakable sweetness of love,” Pope Leo said that being deeply rooted in Christ enables Benedictine communities to bear abundant Gospel fruit.
Referring to his recent visits to Benedictine Shrines in Subiaco and Montecassino, the Pope said that the Benedictine tradition recalls the Gospel image in which “from a small seed a great tree has grown.”
He described the efforts of Benedictines around the world to remain rooted in Christ and serve as “his living and prayerful witness” as “a great sign and prophetic gift,” particularly at a time marked by “a thirst for authentic life, communion and peace.”
Prayer and formation
Pope Leo also recalled Saint Paul VI’s description of Benedictine life as combining prayer, study and work, helping to spread “civilization and spiritual values” and foster unity among peoples.
He welcomed the CIB’s efforts to provide new formation opportunities for Benedictine women, including through digital tools.
Concluding his address, the Pope thanked the participants for their prayer and hidden offering of their lives, as well as for their contribution to spiritual guidance, theological reflection and community life and encouraged them “to continue in your consecrated commitment to communion.”
Pope: Progress must not leave new ruins in its wake
Pope Leo meets participants in the ‘Fratelli tutti: North-South Socio-Environmental Dialogue’ meeting and stresses our shared responsibility in the face of social, economic and technological challenges.
By Sebastián Sansón Ferrari
Differences do not necessarily have to lead to division. They can become a creative force when accompanied by shared responsibility and directed towards the common good.
That was one of the key themes of Pope Leo XIV’s message to participants in the Fourth ‘Fratelli Tutti’ Synodal Meeting, whom he received in audience in the Vatican today, Saturday 12 September 2026. The event had been held from Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 September in Rome.
In his wide-ranging address, delivered both in Spanish and in English, the Pope greeted representatives of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council, the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
He also thanked representatives of international organizations, regional development banks, businesses, foundations, trade unions, employers’ associations, universities, ecclesial networks and social organizations for their presence.
The breadth of representation, he said, gives the meeting particular significance, and reflects a willingness to continue a dialogue which can translate into models of development that are “more human, sustainable and in solidarity”.
The Pope linked this effort to an essential dimension of the Church’s mission. He recalled that, at the beginning of his pontificate, he had told the College of Cardinals on 10 May 2025 of the need for a “courageous and confident dialogue with the contemporary world in its different components and realities”.
Dialogue with the world, he explained, is not a secondary activity for the Church but part of its evangelizing mission. The Church proclaims the Gospel amid the concrete circumstances in which peoples live and is therefore called to look squarely at the reality of men and women.
In this context, the Pope recalled that the Church is called to “embrace reality” and to expose the contradictions that can accompany scientific and technological progress, whose unprecedented possibilities bring new responsibilities.
What kind of humanity do we want to build?
Faced with technological development, Leo XIV urged people to go beyond simply accepting or rejecting particular tools. The decisive question, he said, is “what kind of humanity we want to build and what place each person will have in it”.
The Pope placed this question within the horizon of Christian faith: God has entered history and, in Jesus Christ, has taken on humanity. The Church is therefore called to discern, within history, what truly serves the human person and what may ultimately turn against it.
The transformations of our time, he added, demand a responsibility that exceeds the capacity of any single institution. Hence the need to recover the logic of subsidiarity, recognizing each actor’s own responsibility while also acknowledging the need to work together.
In this regard, he welcomed the initiative of promoting a North-South Shared Responsibility Agenda for Multisectoral Cooperation.
“When public institutions, businesses, workers, universities, communities and social organizations share their knowledge, capacities and resources in the service of the common good, a conviction that has matured within the Church’s social doctrine and that my Predecessors have developed in different ways takes concrete shape: major social challenges require shared responsibility, participation and collaboration among the different bodies of society.”
Catholic Social Teaching as a process of discernment
In the English-language section of his address, the Pope focused on the res novae, the new realities shaping our time, calling for institutions capable of regulating without stifling.
He also highlighted the responsibility of businesses, which must recognize human dignity, and not just profit, as a measure of success.
In this regard, the Pope highlighted Catholic Social Teaching, highlighting that it is not a manual of principles and rules to be applied mechanically, but rather “a process of shared discernment”.
It does not replace the decisions that different actors are called to make, the Pope said. Instead, CST provides criteria for judging whether those decisions genuinely respect human dignity and serve the common good.
A culture of negotiation
Pope Leo also encouraged the cultivation of a “healthy culture of negotiation”.
Negotiation, he said, can open paths where differences appear to have closed every possibility of encounter. In this way, those involved in the process can also contribute to the diplomacy of peace that the world needs.
Pope Leo brought his address to a conclusion by expressing the hope that the progress of our time would not leave new ruins in its wake, so that what we build might truly become “a home and a refuge for all”.
There are two simple points of this feast to draw home today: the honoring of the name of Mary, and also understanding the importance of a name through our baptism.
Revering the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary
It is of such importance that we honor Jesus and His Holy Name. Our main inspiration comes from St. Paul to the Philippians 2:9-11:
Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Reverence is extended for the Blessed Virgin Mary and her name. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains that "[w]e venerate the name of Mary because it belongs to her who is the Mother of God, the holiest of creatures, the Queen of heaven and earth, the Mother of Mercy....[T]he feast commemorates all the privileges given to Mary by God and all the graces we have received through her intercession and mediation."
The Roman Missal includes directives to bow our heads in reverence at the names of Jesus, Mary, and the Saint of the Day when they are mentioned in the prayers of the liturgy.
In the 18th century the Divine Praises or Laudes Divinae were added to the prayers at Benediction but can be prayed many times in reparation for the many abuses to the name of Jesus and Mary. Included in the litany, we proclaim, “Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother."
As we are continuing Our Lady's Thirty Days, we can think of simple ways to honor Our Lady today. One idea is designing and coloring a monogram of Mary, such as beautiful "M". Even the image of the back of the Miraculous Medal could be inspiration for contemplation of Our Lady's Name.
Our Name and Baptism
With my apologies to Shakespeare, this feast day and the Holy Name of Jesus helps us focus on the importance and significance of our own personal names. We are reminded of our reception of the sacrament of Baptism when we were given our name in Christ, which is more significant than our civil name.
How does the Church guide us in choosing names? Canon 761 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law stated, "Pastors should take care that a Christian name is given to those whom they baptize; but if they are not able to bring this about, they will add to the name given by the parents the name of some Saint and record both names in the book of baptisms." The 1983 Code of Canon Law which is currently in effect still stresses the importance of a Christian name, Can. 855: "Parents, sponsors and parish priests are to take care that a name is not given which is foreign to Christian sentiment."
So much thought and time goes into naming our children. We talk about passing on family names and perhaps naming after important people in our lives. Sometimes the meaning of the name is taken into consideration. We are attracted to some names and repulsed by others. We even try out the initials to make sure they flow well.
Even since Biblical times, the naming of a child was of utmost importance. With the founding of Christianity and the spilling of the blood of the martyrs, the tradition of naming children after saints was two-fold: asking for intercession from the saint for the child, and also a saint for the child to emulate. Earlier this week on the feast of the Birth of Mary, I emphasized the connection with the family of Christ. Our Christian names after saints indicate that association with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
So at this feast of the Holy Name of Mary, we praise her greatness and seek her aid at the invocation of her holy name. We also consider our own Christian name, which was conferred at our baptism, when we became part of this family of Christ. Through the intercession of Mary and our patron saints, may we deepen our love of Christ our brother and love for our family in Christ, the Mystical Body of Christ.
The Popes and 9/11: Christ’s light in history’s darkest hour
Twenty-five years after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, we recall the words of successive Popes who have repeatedly appealed for peace and reconciliation, reminding us that even in the face of unspeakable horror, evil and death do not have the final word.
By Isabella Piro
On September 11, 2001, the United States had just been struck by four suicide attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives in different parts of the country.
Pope John Paul II was at Castel Gandolfo when he received a telephone call from the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Joaquín Navarro-Valls, informing him of what had happened. Deeply shaken, the Pope immediately withdraws to pray in the private chapel of the Apostolic Palace.
He then sent a telegram expressing his condolences and closeness to US President George W. Bush.
It consisted of six lines written in block capitals—the style of official communications—but Pope John Paul II’s words are profoundly human and express the grief of the entire world. He speaks of “unspeakable horror,” describes the terrorist attacks as “inhuman,” and calls it a “dark and tragic moment” in history.
An affront to human dignity
The following day was Wednesday, and the General Audience was held in St Peter’s Square. At the request of the Bishop of Rome, there was no applause, and the faithful remained in solemn silence.
“Yesterday was a dark day in the history of humanity, a terrible affront to human dignity,” John Paul II said, before voicing the question in everyone’s heart: “How is it possible to commit acts of such savage cruelty?”
The answer to such cruelty, he continued, lies in Christ, the foundation of hope, who ensures that evil and death do not have the final word.
John Paul II in prayer
Not revenge, but unity and dialogue
Meanwhile, the 180th Ordinary General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine was taking place in Rome. Among those attending was the American priest Father Robert Francis Prevost, the future Pope Leo XIV, who was elected Prior General on September 14, his birthday.
It therefore fell to him to preside over the closing Mass on September 21 in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo.
“We cannot fail to remember the tragic events that shook the United States on September 11,” he said in his homily. “The violence that the world witnessed last week in the United States is a tragic expression of a series of problems that are becoming increasingly acute everywhere. Hatred and violence will continue to grow as long as so many people are forced to live in extreme poverty and are oppressed by so many forms of injustice.”
“While many seek revenge,” he concluded, “Augustinians must bear witness to the Gospel and to its values of unity, dialogue, peace, and reconciliation.”
Savagery of terrorism overcome by love
A year later, Pope John Paul II continued to make tireless appeals for peace.
On Wednesday, September 11, 2002, during the General Audience, the Pope recalled the “savage attack” of twelve months earlier, the collapse of the Twin Towers, and the lives of so many innocent people swallowed by the rubble.
He firmly reiterated that terrorism “is and will always be a manifestation of inhuman ferocity” and that oppression, armed violence and war are choices that sow and produce only hatred and death.
“Reason and love,” he concluded, “are the only valid means for overcoming and resolving disputes between individuals and peoples.”
Courage to work for peace
The peace invoked by Pope John Paul II found renewed expression in the prayer of his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.
On April 20, 2008, during his Apostolic Journey to the United States, Pope Benedict visited Ground Zero.
Where the Twin Towers once stood, there was a deep void, almost a metaphor for the abyss of evil. Yet all around it is a construction site—a symbol of hope being reborn and rebuilding what was destroyed.
In silence, the Pope lit a candle in memory of the victims. He then knelt and asked God to bring peace to a violent world and to grant humanity the wisdom and courage to work tirelessly for a world in which genuine peace and love reign among nations and in every human heart.
Pope Benedict XVI prays at Ground Zero
Every human life is precious
Three years later, on September 11, 2011, the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks, Pope Benedict XVI sent a letter to the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, who would be created a Cardinal the following February.
Recalling the “brutal assault” of ten years earlier, Pope Benedict described it as a tragedy made even more grave by the perpetrators’ claim that they were acting in God’s name.
He firmly stressed that no circumstances can ever justify acts of terrorism. Every human life, he said, is precious in God’s sight, and no effort should be spared in promoting genuine respect throughout the world for the inalienable rights and dignity of every individual and people.
A palpable grief that cries out to heaven
Pope Francis also visited Ground Zero, which has since become a memorial consisting of two large pools of flowing water, each occupying the footprint of one of the Twin Towers.
The names of the 2,974 victims, representing 90 different nationalities, are inscribed along their edges.
During an interreligious meeting held there on September 25, 2015, Pope Francis described the 9/11 attacks as “a senseless act of destruction” and spoke of a palpable, searing grief that left people stunned and cries out to heaven.
The water flowing through the pools, he said, recalls all those lives that fell victim to people who believed destruction was the only way to resolve conflicts.
Yet the logic of violence, hatred, and revenge can produce only pain, suffering, destruction, and tears. Life, he said, is destined to triumph over the prophets of destruction and death, just as reconciliation and unity will triumph over hatred and division.
“Let us implore from on high the gift of commitment to the cause of peace,” the Bishop of Rome concluded. “Peace throughout this world which God has given us as the home of all and a home for all. Simply peace.”
Pope Francis pays tribute to the victims of the attacks at Ground Zero on September 25, 2015
Never again against one another!
When it comes to peace, “we cannot be indifferent or neutral,” Pope Francis said again on September 11, 2021.
The occasion was the G20 Interfaith Forum in Bologna, held under the theme “Time to Heal: Peace among Cultures, Understanding between Religions.”
In a message to participants, the Pope once again insisted: “Not neutral, but taking a stand for peace! Let us invoke the ius pacis—the right of everyone to resolve conflicts without violence.”
“No more war, no more against others, no more without others!” he concluded, because ultimately “young people and history will judge us on this.”
The"Cross at Ground Zero", a steel beam in the shape of a cross from the World Trade Center site that is part of the permanent exhibition of the 9/11 Museum Memorial (ANSA)
Remembering 9/11, 25 years later: 'We are never alone'
Twenty-five years after the terrorist attacks killed almost 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C., Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York recalls the faith that helped people through that day, highlights the memorials to mark the anniversary, and stresses that even in “our tragedies…we are never alone.”
By Kielce Gussie
“Everyone I've talked to remembers exactly where they were 25 years ago,” says Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York, referring to the anniversary marking a quarter of a century since the attacks of September 11, 2001.
FILE PHOTO: Workmen beginning the task of dismantling the destroyed remains of the 7 World Trade Center building in New York, USA on 17 September 2001 (ANSA)
Whether you were working, in school, or not yet born, the events of that day changed aspects of the world.
For Archbishop Hicks, September 11, 2001, started in the classroom during his graduate studies as a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Illinois. He remembers how the entire class sat in disbelief after learning the news.
It was an event that affected not only the places where the planes crashed—New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania—but the thousands of people whose lives would never be the same.
Faith in the midst of terror
On a day filled with terror, sadness, and shock, faith, too, was found amid the rubble.
Not only did people find faith on 9/11, but Archbishop Hicks highlights how it became something to rely on. “At the core, when everything is falling apart, people go right back to God, to faith, to hope, to those core things that hold us together as a people,” he explains.
More than 2,900 people were killed on that day alone. Out of the thousands of first responders who charged into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania, hundreds died selflessly trying to save others.
Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain for the New York Fire Department, was one example of these core values in action. “I think what you saw in Father Judge is what happened to so many people,” Archbishop Hicks underlines. “When there's a need, you jump in, and you don't hesitate, and you help…he lost his life, but that is sacrificial love.”
Father Judge became the first certified fatality of the attacks. His name is among the other 2,976 persons forever immortalized in the memorial—made from the steel of the twin towers—in New York.
A community unites
In the city where the two World Trade Center towers once stood, acts of remembrance, services, Masses, and memorials will commemorate the anniversary—from walks of remembrance and wreath-laying ceremonies to dedications and light tributes.
Family members of victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center place flowers in one of two pools in the shapes of the footprints left by the two World Trade Center towers at Ground Zero (ANSA)
But exactly at 8:46 am—the moment 25 years ago when the first plane hit the North Tower—all the church bells in the city will ring as New York goes quiet.
It will be a moment “to stop, to listen, to pray, to not forget, and to do so as a community together with God,” Archbishop Hicks explains.
The archdiocese also held a vigil Mass on the evening of September 10 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the heart of New York City. In the packed church were family members of victims of 9/11, representatives of the New York Police and Fire departments, Port Authority, emergency service workers, civic leaders, humanitarian organizations, priests, and lay people.
The Tribute in Light installation is illuminated over the lower Manhattan skyline ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, in New York
Archbishop Hicks describes the support this unity brings, especially to those who are still grieving 25 years on. “It takes a long time with something of this magnitude. So, coming together in faith and at the Mass, that helps.”
Peace is fragile
Remembering the events of September 11, 2001, also reminds us that peace is fragile. It can only be accomplished if people join together to work for it, overcoming disagreements and challenges.
The attacks ushered in a period of tension. They fractured a sense of fraternity and shed doubts on the sense of stability and peace so painstakingly built after the end of the Cold War.
Just eight weeks after the attacks, St. Pope John Paul II highlighted dialogue as “essential for overcoming tragic conflicts inherited from the past, and for ensuring that ‘the name of the one God become increasingly what it is: a name of peace and a summons to peace.’”
Seven years later, standing at the site of the World Trade Center, Pope Benedict XVI prayed for peace in our violent world. “Comfort and console us, strengthen us in hope, and give us the wisdom and courage to work tirelessly for a world where true peace and love reign…”
In 2015, Pope Francis marveled at how such love was shown on that tragic day, remarking on how “here, amid pain and grief, we also have a palpable sense of the heroic goodness which people are capable of, those hidden reserves of strength from which we can draw. In the depths of pain and suffering, you also witnessed the heights of generosity and service. Hands reached out, lives were given.”
The Mass at St. Patrick’s, 25 years after the attacks, was an example of the dialogue and fraternity the pontiffs called for to achieve peace in the world but also in our countries, cities, and families. Catholics, rabbis, imams, Protestant ministers, interreligious and ecumenical groups were all present in the Cathedral, praying and hoping together.
FILE PHOTO: St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, New York (2020 Getty Images)
“[Dialogue] begins with us. We might disagree on a number of issues. It could be about theology, ecclesiology, [or] politics. But we have to take the first step to at least stand together, and to really follow the example of peace,” the archbishop of New York points out.
His entire homily at St. Patrick's centered on the fact that healing and grieving take time. They cannot be swept away. They cannot be ignored. But hope, the archbishop says, is eternal.
“God is with us in the good, in the bad. He is with us in our tragedies, in our joys. We are never abandoned. We are never alone. God was with us 25 years ago. God has been with us during these 25 years. God is with us today. God will continue to be with us tomorrow.”
“We are never abandoned. We are never alone. God was with us 25 years ago. God has been with us during these 25 years. God is with us today. God will continue to be with us tomorrow.”
As we are continuing 
