Resurrection of the Lord Catholic Church

Feast date: Oct 28

St. Jude Thaddaeus

St. Jude, known as Thaddaeus, was a brother of St. James the Lesser, and a relative of Jesus. Ancient writers tell us that he preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Lybia. According to Eusebius, he returned to Jerusalem in the year 62 and assisted at the election of his brother, St. Simeon, as Bishop of Jerusalem.

He is an author of an epistle (letter) to the Churches of the East, in particular the Jewish converts, directed against the heresies of the Simonians, Nicolaites, and Gnostics. This Apostle is said to have suffered martyrdom in Armenia, which was then subject to Persia. The final conversion of the Armenian nation to Christianity did not take place until the third century A.D.

St. Jude was the one who asked Jesus at the Last Supper why He would not manifest Himself to the whole world after His resurrection. Little else is known of his life, but legend claims that he visited Beirut and Edessa.

He was beaten to death with a club, then beheaded post-mortem in 1st century Persia. His relics reside at Saint Peter's in Rome, at Rheims, and at Toulouse, France.

Saint Jude Thaddeus is not the same person as Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Our Lord and despaired because of his great sin and lack of trust in God's mercy.

St. Jude Thaddeus is invoked in desperate situations because his New Testament letter stresses that the faithful should persevere in the environment of harsh, difficult circumstances, just as their forefathers had done before them.

Therefore, he is the patron of desperate situations, forgotten causes, hospital workers, hospitals, impossible causes, lost causes, and the diocese of Saint Petersburg, Florida. He is represented as bearded man holding an oar, a boat, boat hook, a club, an axe or a book. Nearly every image of him depicts him wearing a medallion with a profile of Jesus. He usually has a small flame above his head and he often carries a pen.

We remember him October 28 in Roman Church, and June 19 in Eastern Church.

St. Simon the Zealot

Little is known about the post-Pentecost life of St. Simon, who had been called a Zealot. He is thought to have preached in Egypt and then to have joined St. Jude in Persia. Here, he was supposedly martyred by being cut in half with a saw, a tool he is often depicted with. However, the 4th-century St. Basil the Great says he died in Edessa, peacefully.

Pope Leo XIV presides at “Walking Together in Hope,” a celebration of 60 years of “Nostra aetate”, the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Interreligious Dialogue.

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Signed on 28 October 1965 by Pope St Paul VI, the conciliar declaration "Nostra aetate" set the foundations for a culture of encounter and dialogue in the name of peace for all peoples.

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Pope Leo XIV joins religious leaders at Rome’s Colosseum for the Community of Sant'Egidio's annual Meeting for Peace, calling for an end to war and a renewed commitment to reconciliation and prayer.

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The Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin speaks about the importance of combining research and care and praises the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital for its work during a conference at the facility on Tuesday, October 28.

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The Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Coast held celebrations over the weekend to mark both the ongoing Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year and the Diamond Jubilee of the elevation of the Cape Coast Church to an Archdiocese.

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Olena Mosendz, a young Ukrainian mother whose husband is fighting at the front, tells Vatican News what life is like for the many women trying to balance work and helping the war effort with caring for their families.

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Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, stresses that space is a ‘common good’ to be protected for the benefit of future generations.

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WASHINGTON – In the midst of the ongoing federal government shutdown, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a plea for lawmakers and the Administration to work in a bipartisan way to ensure funding of lifesaving programs and an end to the government shutdown. Archbishop Broglio cited the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a government program that aids needy families, as an example of an impacted program.

“As this government shutdown continues, the U.S. bishops are deeply alarmed that essential programs that support the common good, such as SNAP, may be interrupted. This would be catastrophic for families and individuals who rely on SNAP to put food on the table and places the burdens of this shutdown most heavily on the poor and vulnerable of our nation, who are the least able to move forward. This consequence is unjust and unacceptable. The U.S. bishops have consistently advocated for public policies that support those in need. I urgently plead with lawmakers and the Administration to work in a bipartisan way to ensure that these lifesaving programs are funded, and to pass a government funding bill to end the government shutdown as quickly as possible.”

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholic education, which has changed over the centuries, must continue to evolve to help young people face the challenges not only of technology but of confusion about the meaning and purpose of life, Pope Leo XIV said.

"I call upon all educational institutions to inaugurate a new season that speaks to the hearts of the younger generations, reuniting knowledge and meaning, competence and responsibility, faith and life," he wrote in an apostolic letter.

Titled "Disegnare Nuove Mappe Di Speranza" ("Drawing New Maps of Hope"), the letter was issued only in Italian Oct. 28. It marked the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Catholic Education. 

In the letter, Pope Leo formally declared St. John Henry Newman "patron of the church's educational mission alongside St. Thomas Aquinas."

The pope was scheduled to formally proclaim St. Newman a "doctor of the church" Nov. 1 in recognition of his contribution to "the renewal of theology and to the understanding of the development of Christian doctrine." He was born in London Feb. 21, 1801, was ordained an Anglican priest, became Catholic in 1845, was made a cardinal in 1879 by Pope Leo XIII and died in 1890.

Even in the face of the digital revolution and the advent of artificial intelligence, Pope Leo said, Catholic schools and universities show "a surprising resilience."

When they are "guided by the word of Christ, they do not retreat but press forward; they do not raise walls but build bridges. They respond creatively, opening new possibilities for the transmission of knowledge and meaning," he wrote. 

Pope Leo asked Catholic educators and educational institutions to focus on "three priorities":

-- "The first regards the interior life: Young people seek depth; they need spaces of silence, discernment and dialogue with their consciences and with God.

-- "The second concerns a humane digital culture: We must educate in the wise use of technology and AI, placing the person before the algorithm, and harmonizing technical, emotional, social, spiritual and ecological forms of intelligence.

-- "The third concerns peace -- unarmed and disarming: Let us educate in nonviolent language, reconciliation and bridge-building rather than wall-building; may 'Blessed are the peacemakers' -- (Mt 5:9) -- become both the method and the content of learning."

At the same time, the pope said, it is obvious that Catholic schools cannot ignore technology or avoid it, but they must be discerning about digital platforms, data protection and fair access for all students. 

"In any case," he said, "no algorithm can replace what makes education truly human: poetry, irony, love, art, imagination, the joy of discovery" and even learning from mistakes "as an opportunity for growth."

In the letter, the pope briefly traced the history of Catholic education from the "desert fathers" teaching with parables, to the monastic study and preservation of classic texts and scholasticism's highly structured and interdisciplinary curriculum.

But he also noted the huge array of Catholic saints throughout the ages who insisted that learning to read and write and add and subtract were matters of human dignity and so dedicated their lives and their religious orders to educating women and girls, the poor, migrants and refugees and others on the margins of society.

"Wherever access to education remains a privilege," Pope Leo wrote, "the church must push open doors and invent new pathways because to 'lose the poor' is to lose the very meaning of the school."

"To educate is an act of hope," he said.

Catholic schools and universities, the pope wrote, must be "places where questions are not silenced and doubt is not banned but accompanied. The 'heart speaks to heart,'" he said, quoting St. Newman's motto as a cardinal.

Parents, as the Second Vatican Council affirmed, are the first and primary educators of their children, the pope said, but "Christian education is a choral work: no one educates alone."

Those who teach in a Catholic institution, he said, "are called to a responsibility that goes beyond the employment contract: their witness is worth as much as their lesson."

And while the human person is at the center of all educational initiatives, the goal is to help that person learn to see beyond him- or herself and "discover the meaning of life, inalienable dignity and responsibility toward others," he wrote.

"Education is not merely the transmission of content but an apprenticeship in virtue," Pope Leo said. "It forms citizens capable of serving and believers capable of bearing witness -- men and women who are freer, not more isolated."

The pope also called on Catholic schools and universities to be models of social and "environmental justice," promoting simplicity and sustainable lifestyles and helping students recognize their responsibility for caring for the earth.

"Every small gesture -- avoiding waste, making responsible choices, defending the common good -- is an act of cultural and moral literacy," he wrote.