Bishop Edward U. Kmiec has sent a letter to all parishes and institutions of the Diocese of Buffalo, calling for a voluntary collection for tornado recovery.

The Serra Club has been promoting vocations for more than 50 years in the Diocese of Buffalo, but the lay organization may have promoted one of the better spokespersons in its history, as Susan Santandreu is the new president.

The beatification of Pope John Paul II has brought back a flood of memories for several people in the Diocese of Buffalo who have met the man credited with toppling communism in Eastern Europe, improving relationships with the Jewish community and standing firm in Church teaching amid a changing culture.

Those simple words, “be not afraid,” launched the papacy of Blessed John Paul II, beatified at the Vatican on May 1 by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope John Paul II’s humor, as I experienced it, tended toward the ironic: not in the post-modern sense, in which irony is the short road to cynicism, but in the more venerable sense of irony as a recognition that we’re not in charge of our own lives, and that we play the fool if we try to control everything.

As mental illness is a condition that impacts one out of four families, addressing those issues is a growing concern in the United States. It’s one in which a special fellowship at St. Joseph University Church in Buffalo hopes to address with an event at 7 p.m. Monday, May 16.

With these words Pope John Paul II acknowledged that the circle of life in today’s society is in disruption, and in order to care for creation in the way God intended, people must concentrate on environmental sustainability. Pope John Paul II said that the conversion of lifestyles is what the Catholic Church wants.
 

“Imagine on a Sunday morning, going to visit the grave of a loved one, and finding the tombstone gone, and a hole in the ground where the coffin once lay.”  In his homily for the Easter Sunday Televised Mass produced by Daybreak TV Productions of the Diocese of Buffalo, Bishop Edward U. Kmiec asks us to ponder that thought.

The Vatican is preparing for what is likely to be the highest profile beatification celebration in some time, as the late Pope John Paul II will be honored on May 1.

St. Stanislaus Bishop & Martyr Parish will host a special celebration for the beatification of John Paul II, a native of Poland. St. Stanislaus has been known for many years as a Polish Catholic Church.