Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop of Milwaukee
 

By the time that you are reading this LOA, we will be settling into our hotel rooms in Rome. Bishop Donald Hying, 66 brave pilgrims and I will be there for the canonization of Blessed John XXIII and Blessed John Paul II. I emphasize brave because of all the predictions about the number of people who will be there. Estimates range from 3 million on up to 7 million from Holy Week to Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27.

Now imagine the stress on the infrastructure of the city of Milwaukee if a million people were to show up for an event: hotels jammed, restaurants filled and long waiting lines for sightseeing. In Rome, the feeling of the city will be like the World Cup, World Youth Day and a Papal Conclave all rolled into one.

Let’s add one more ingredient into the mix and that is an extremely popular Pope Francis and the clamor to be in his presence. However, we will be there not for the popular show or just to do “touristy” things but because this is a spiritual moment.

I met with the pilgrims two weeks ago and shared with them my thoughts that this would be a moment of intense spiritual favor. I told them to take with them a variety of personal intentions, confident that the two new saints would be most receptive to the needs of those who traveled to honor their canonization.

We will be celebrating Mass every day at some of the most beautiful churches in the world. I will be taking with me my own prayers of petition for our archdiocese, its clergy, religious and lay faithful. I will be praying for the upcoming Synod as a moment of New Pentecost. I will be praying for the healing that is necessary for the victim survivors of clergy sexual abuse. I will be praying also for a sense of reconciliation in the lives of those clergy who have damaged the confidence in the Church and disturbed the faith of our Catholics. I personally will ask the two new saints to assist me in being a good bishop worthy of the people I serve.

I might be asking a lot, but nothing is impossible for God and these two saints who shaped the Church in ways that they could never have imagined. Of course, I would never forget you, my “Love One Another” brothers and sisters. Because of you, I am reminded as I write to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Note: This blog originally appeared as the April 22, 2014 "Love One Another" email sent to Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Milwaukee by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki. If you are interested in signing up for these email messages, please click here.