Resurrection of the Lord Catholic Church

Feast date: Apr 25

St. Mark, the Evangelist, is the author of the second Gospel and the patron saint of notaries. He wrote the Gospel in Greek for the Gentile converts to Christianity. Tradition says the Romans asked St. Mark to record the teachings of St. Peter about Jesus. St. Mark is often depicted as a winged lion in religious art.

St. Mark is also said to have traveled with St. Paul and St. Barnabas, who was Mark's cousin, on their missionary journey through Cyprus. Mark is said to have founded the Church in Alexandria.

St. Mark is sometimes called John Mark in the New Testament. Both he and his mother, Mary, were highly esteemed in the early Church, and his mother's house in Jerusalem served as a meeting place for Christians.

Correspondent Deborah Castellano Lubov reports amid the faithful queuing in St. Peter's Square to pay their respects to Pope Francis before his coffin will be sealed on Friday night. According to the Holy See Press Office, from 11 a.m. Wednesday through Thursday evening, at 7 p.m., more than 90,000 have paid their respects to the late Pope whose funeral will be Saturday, 26 April, in St. Peter's Square.

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Filipino Cardinal Louis Antonio Gokim Tagle leads the fourth recitation of the Rosary in memory of Pope Francis at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major on Thursday evening, 24 April.

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A cry for peace and mercy for the world – this is what the great musical and religious event, Symphony of Mercy, will be about. It is scheduled to take place simultaneously on April 26 in Krakow, the Vatican, and six continents. The organizers received the blessing of the Holy Father already in February. Now, the Symphony will also serve as an act of thanksgiving for the pontificate of Pope Francis. "This will be a Symphony for you, our dear Holy Father Francis!" say the organizers.

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The parish priest of the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, details to Vatican News Pope Francis’ the final gesture of closeness toward the Christian community sheltered in the compound two days before his death, and recalls his incessant calls for peace in the Holy Land.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Given the late Pope Francis' care and concern for the poor, a representative group of them has been formally invited to welcome his casket to Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major for burial.

"The poor have a privileged place in the heart of God," the Vatican press office said in a statement April 24. It was the same "in the heart and magisterium of the Holy Father, who had chosen the name Francis to never forget them."

"For this reason, a group of the poor and needy will be present on the steps leading to the papal Basilica of St. Mary Major to pay their last respects to Pope Francis before the burial of his coffin," the statement said.

The College of Cardinals decided Pope Francis' funeral would be celebrated April 26 in St. Peter's Square. In his final testament, Pope Francis asked to be buried at St. Mary Major where he frequently went to pray to seek Mary's help or to thank her for her assistance.

The Vatican said the pope's casket would be driven to the basilica from the Vatican through the city of Rome. The motorcade is supposed to move slowly so that members of the public along the route can salute him for the final time.

The actual burial is a prayerful rite that will not be broadcast live, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.

Pope Francis' tomb, in a niche in a side aisle of the basilica, is made of marble from Liguria and, in accordance with the pope's wishes, says simply, "Franciscus." A reproduction of his pectoral cross hangs above the marble slab. 

In his final testament, published by the Vatican a few hours after his death April 21, Pope Francis asked to be buried at St. Mary Major because he had entrusted his "priestly and episcopal life and ministry" to Mary.

"I wish my last earthly journey to end at this very ancient Marian shrine where I would go to pray at the beginning and end of each apostolic journey to confidently entrust my intentions to the Immaculate Mother and to thank her for her docile and maternal care," he wrote.
 

WASHINGTON – According to a new survey, nine in ten men who will be ordained to the priesthood this year were encouraged to consider this vocation by someone in their life. Three-quarters of them regularly participated in Eucharistic Adoration before entering the seminary.  “Encourage a young man to consider the priesthood or to attend Eucharistic Adoration; he could be your future pastor,” said Bishop Earl Boyea. “We express our deepest gratitude to the many priests, family members, mentors, formators, and laity who have encouraged and supported these men in their discernment of their call to the priesthood.” In conjunction with the World Day of Prayer for Vocations on May 11, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations released the Ordination Class of 2025 Study, conducted annually by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University.

“We pray for the continued fidelity of the newly ordained to the voice of God and for the faithful to whom they will minister,” said Bishop Boyea, who serves as chairman of the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations. “As witnesses of hope, we thank them for their courage to commit their lives to what Pope Francis said is a call that embraces their entire existence.” 

Out of the 405 men who are to be ordained this year, 309 completed CARA’s Ordination Class of 2025 survey, for an overall response rate of 76%. These ordinands represent 115 dioceses and eparchies in the United States and 36 distinct religious institutes.  

A few of the major findings in the report:  

• Nine in ten responding ordinands (89%) reported being encouraged to consider the priesthood by someone in their life, most frequently by a parish priest (60%), friend (52%), or fellow parishioner (42%). 
• Regarding prayer practices, three-quarters of responding ordinands participated in Eucharistic Adoration (78%) on a regular basis before entering the seminary. 
• Most of the ordinands received formation at a seminary in the Midwest (37%) followed by the South (29%), Northeast (16%), West (13%), and abroad (5%). 
• Responding ordinands indicate they first considered priesthood during elementary school (35%), followed by high school (20%).  
• Hispanics/Latinos constituted 12% of the responding ordinands. Between 2006 and 2025, the share of Hispanics/Latinos averaged 15% and ranged between 11% and 22%. 
• Ordinands who attended Catholic elementary school constituted 46% of all respondents, and 36% attended a Catholic high school. 
• Most respondents (92%) were baptized Catholic as an infant and raised primarily by their biological parents (95%) and a married couple living together (89%).  

The full CARA report and profiles of the Ordination Class of 2025 can be accessed here.   

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Benedictine abbot and a Capuchin cardinal will offer spiritual meditations on the needs of the Catholic Church to the cardinals preparing to elect a new pope, according to the Vatican press office.

Benedictine Father Donato Ogliari, abbot of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, will offer the first meditation soon after Pope Francis' funeral April 26, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office. 

Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the retired preacher of the papal household, will offer the second meditation inside the Sistine Chapel before members of the conclave begin to vote. Because Cardinal Cantalamessa is 90 years old, he is not eligible to participate in the voting.

The meditations should focus "on the problems facing the Church at the time and on the need for careful discernment in choosing the new Pope," according to the apostolic constitution, "Universi Dominici Gregis," containing the rules for running the church between the death or resignation of a pope and the election of a new one.

The two prelates were chosen April 24 during the third "general congregation," the title for the daily meetings of cardinals before the conclave begins. As of April 24, the cardinals had not decided what day the conclave would begin.

Bruni said 113 cardinals participated in the meeting April 24. Cardinals who arrived in Rome after the April 23 general congregation took their oaths at the beginning of the meeting. 

Cardinals are obliged to "promise, pledge and swear, as a body and individually, to observe exactly and faithfully all the norms" governing the period between the death of a pope and the election of a new one, and "to maintain rigorous secrecy with regard to all matters in any way related to the election of the Roman Pontiff."

The College of Cardinals currently has 252 members. The 117 cardinals who are ineligible to vote, mainly because of age, are still invited to participate in the general congregations. Bruni said he did not know how many of the 113 present April 24 were cardinal electors.

And while many of the cardinals still had not reached Rome, the cardinals began their discussions of the needs of the church and the world, with 34 cardinals speaking, Bruni said.
 

Irish writer Colum McCann reflects on his encounters with Pope Francis.

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The US-based Jewish writer Jonathan Safran Foer reflects on the legacy of Pope Francis, who "reminded us of what we continually forget: goodness is not an idea but a practice."

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