The Church of St. Luke

Chief Cindy Woodhouse speaks at a ceremony in Montreal to welcome Indigenous cultural items from the Vatican. The artifacts were formally transferred to Indigenous leaders as part of the Jubilee of Hope declared by Pope Francis. / Credit: Peter Stockland

Montreal, Canada, Dec 8, 2025 / 14:48 pm (CNA).

Indigenous artifacts were formally transferred to Indigenous leaders in Montreal as part of the Jubilee of Hope declared by Pope Francis and carried out by Pope Leo XIV.

null / Credit: chayanuphol/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 8, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Bishop Michael Duca has granted a dispensation from Sunday Mass attendance for immigrants fearing deportation in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, the fourth U.S. diocese to do so.

News of the dispensation comes amid heightened presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Louisiana as part of the Trump administration’s “Swamp Sweep,” which has been reported to include the deployment of 250 Border Patrol agents to the region and plans to arrest 5,000 individuals across Louisiana and Misssissipi.

“With the recent publicized arrival of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers into south Louisiana and greater Baton Rouge, and since many of the faithful genuinely fear immigration enforcement actions, thereby making it untenable for them to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, I hereby grant a dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass for those Catholics rightfully afraid to participate in Mass because of their fear,” Duca said “with a heavy heart” in a pastoral letter dated Dec. 4.

The Baton Rouge bishop said the dispensation would remain “until the individual Catholic determines it is safe to attend Mass again” or until the dispensation is revoked. 

Duca instructed the faithful who chose to stay at home in accordance with the dispensation to gather as a family for prayer on Sunday. “Reading the daily Mass readings, praying the rosary, or reciting a novena for intercessory protection are all suitable alternative spiritual practices for those accepting this dispensation,” he said. 

Duca joins bishops in the dioceses of San Bernardino, California; Nashville, Tennessee; and Charlotte, North Carolina, in granting such a dispensation in 2025.

“National security and the protection of human dignity are not incompatible,” Duca continued in his letter, calling for “a just solution to this difficult situation in our country.” He noted that deportation efforts have affected not only the Catholic Hispanic community but also refugees and immigrants across denominations. “These are our neighbors, coworkers, and parishioners,” he said.

The bishop concluded: “For now, let us pray for those immediately affected, especially during this Advent season — a time in which we should be anticipating the joy of Christmas, surrounded by our family in celebration instead of the experience of anxiety and fear.”

“Through our prayers and actions, may those who are suffering know that Jesus’ words are addressed personally to each of them,” he said.

Duca’s letter comes after the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a special message condemning “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” in November.

The 2023 Plenary Assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), held Sept 25-28 outside of Toronto. / Credit: CCCB/CECC

Ottawa, Canada, Dec 8, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Canada bishops are urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to withdraw the Liberal Party’s reported agreement to remove religious-belief exemptions from hate-speech laws.

Sister Lucia of Fátima, left, and Dr. Branca Pereira Acevedo, her doctor for 15 years. / Credit: Sanctuary of Fatima/ HM Television/Home of the Mother

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 8, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Dec. 10 marks the centenary of the Fátima apparitions, an occasion for which the Holy See has granted a jubilee year.

When Pope Pius IX declared the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary on Dec. 8, 1854, he had a golden crown added to the mosaic of Mary, Virgin Immaculate, in the Chapel of the Choir in St. Peter’s Basilica. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA

CNA Staff, Dec 8, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

On Dec. 8 the Catholic Church celebrates the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception — a paramount feast in the Church’s liturgical calendar and one that indirectly touches on a regularly misunderstood but important piece of Church dogma.

The solemnity is the patronal feast of the United States and marks the recognition of the Blessed Mother’s freedom from original sin, which the Church teaches she was granted from the moment of conception.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that Mary was “redeemed from the moment of her conception” (No. 491) in order “to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation” (No. 490). 

The dogma was disputed and challenged by Protestants over the centuries, leading Pope Pius IX to affirm it in his 1854 apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, stating unequivocally that Mary “was endowed with the grace of the Holy Spirit and preserved from original sin” upon her conception. 

Ineffabilis Deus is among the papal pronouncements that theologians have long considered to be “infallible.” But what does papal infallibility mean in the context and history of the Church?

Defined by First Vatican Council in 1870

Though Church historians argue that numerous papal statements down through the centuries can potentially be regarded as infallible under this teaching, the concept itself was not fully defined by the Church until the mid-19th century.

In its first dogmatic constitution on the Church of Christ, Pastor Aeternus, the First Vatican Council held that the pope, when speaking “in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority,” and while defining “a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church,” possesses the infallibility that Jesus “willed his Church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals.”

Father Patrick Flanagan, an associate professor of theology at St. John’s University, told CNA that the doctrine of papal infallibility “does not concern the pope’s character.”

“The pope is human,” Flanagan said. “In other words, he is fallible. He can sin and err in what he says about everyday matters.”

Yet in “rare historical, narrowly defined moments” when the pope “exercises his authority as the supreme teacher of the Church of the Petrine office” and speaks “ex cathedra,” he is guided by the Holy Spirit to speak “indisputable truth” about faith and morals, Flanagan said. 

Flanagan underscored the four specific criteria that a papal statement must make to be considered infallible. For one, the pope must speak “in his official capacity as supreme pontiff,” not off-the-cuff or informally. 

The doctrine, meanwhile, must concern a matter of faith or morals. “No pope would speak ex cathedra on scientific, economic, or other nonreligious subjects,” Flanagan said. 

The statement must also be “explicitly straightforward and definitive,” he said, and it “must be intended to bind the whole Church as a matter of divine and Roman Catholic faith.” 

John P. Joy, a professor of theology and the dean of faculty at St. Ambrose Academy in Madison, Wisconsin, told CNA that the doctrine can be identified in part by the reading of Matthew 16:19.

In that passage, Christ tells Peter, the first pope: “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

“Part of what Jesus is promising here is that he will endorse and ratify in heaven all of the judgments that Peter makes on earth,” Joy said. 

“So when Peter (or one of his successors) turns the key, so to speak, that is, when he explicitly declares that all Catholics are bound to believe something on earth, then we have the words of Jesus assuring us that God himself will hold us bound to believe the same thing in heaven,” he said. 

Though the concept of papal infallibility is well known and has become something of a pop culture reference, the number of times a pope has declared something infallibly appears to be relatively small. 

Theologians and historians do not always agree on what papal statements through the centuries can be deemed infallible. Joy pointed to the Immaculate Conception, as well as Pope Pius XII’s declaration on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in 1950, as two of the most well known.

He pointed to numerous other statements, such as Pope Benedict XII’s Benedictus Deus from 1336 and Pope Leo X’s Exsurge Domine in 1520, as infallible statements. 

Flanagan pointed out that there is “no official list” of papally infallible statements. Such declarations are “rare,” he said. “A pope invokes his extraordinary magisterial powers sparingly.” 

When Catholics trust a papally infallible statement, Joy stressed, they “are not putting [their] faith in the pope as if he were an oracle of truth or a source of divine revelation.” 

“We are rather putting our faith in God, whom we firmly believe will intervene in order to stop any pope who might be tempted to proclaim a false doctrine in a definitive way,” he said. 

ROME (CNS) -- Celebrating the feast of the Immaculate Conception as the Jubilee Year was ending, Pope Leo XIV prayed that "Jubilee hope" would "blossom in Rome and in every corner of the earth," bringing with it reconciliation, nonviolence and peace.

Standing near the Spanish Steps in central Rome, at the foot of a towering column topped by a statue of Mary, the pope led thousands of Romans, pilgrims and tourists in prayer Dec. 8.

At dawn that morning, a firefighter named Roberto Leo, the fire service's longest serving department head in Rome, climbed up 100 rungs of an aerial ladder to place a wreath of white flowers on the outstretched arms of the statue about 90 feet above the ground.

Following a tradition begun in 1958 by St. John XXIII, Pope Leo blessed a basket of white roses that assistants placed at the foot of the statue and read a prayer specifically written for this year's feast, with references to what is going on in the church, the city and the world. 

In the prayer to Mary, Pope Leo noted that the Jubilee year brought millions of pilgrims to Rome, representing "a humanity tried, at times crushed, humble like the earth from which God shaped it and into which he never ceases to breathe his Spirit of life."

"Look, O Mary, upon the many sons and daughters in whom hope has not been extinguished: May what your Son has sown sprout within them -- he, the living Word who in each person asks to grow still more, to take on flesh, face and voice," the pope prayed.

As the Holy Doors of the major basilicas of Rome are about to close at the end of the Jubilee Jan. 6, he said, "may other doors now open: doors of homes and oases of peace where dignity may flower again, where nonviolence is taught, where the art of reconciliation is learned."

The pope prayed that Mary would "inspire new insights in the church that walks in Rome and in the particular churches that in every context gather the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of our contemporaries -- especially the poor and all who suffer." 

Pope Leo also expressed the hope that baptism, which washes every person free of original sin would "bring forth holy and immaculate men and women, called to become living members of the Body of Christ -- a body that acts, consoles, reconciles and transforms the earthly city where the city of God is being prepared."

In a world filled with "changes that seem to find us unprepared and powerless," he asked Mary to intercede and help.

"Inspire dreams, visions and courage, you who know better than anyone that nothing is impossible for God, and at the same time that God does nothing alone," he prayed.

The pope also asked Mary to help the church always be "with and among the people, leaven in the dough of a humanity that cries out for justice and hope."

Before heading to the Spanish Steps, the pope had led the recitation of the Angelus prayer at noon with visitors in St. Peter's Square.

By preserving Mary from any stain of sin from the moment of her conception, he said, God granted her "the extraordinary grace of a completely pure heart, in view of an even greater miracle: the coming of Christ the savior into the world as man."

That extraordinary grace bore extraordinary fruit, he said, "because in her freedom she welcomed it, embracing the plan of God."

"The Lord always acts in this way: he gives us great gifts, but he leaves us free to accept them or not," the pope said. "So, this feast, which makes us rejoice for the unsullied beauty of the Mother of God, also invites us to believe as she believed, giving our generous assent to the mission to which the Lord calls us."
 

Pope: May Mary lead humanity to Jesus

On Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Leo led a prayer at a Marian statue in the center of Rome, where at dawn firefighters had placed a wreath of flowers on the statue's outstretched arm.

Mary the Immaculate Conception. / Credit: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Newsroom, Dec 8, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Mary, under her title of the Immaculate Conception, has been patroness of the United States since the mid-19th century. But her protection of the nation dates back to its earliest history. 

One of the first Catholic churches in what is now the United States was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception in 1584: the now-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Jacksonville, Florida. 

John Carroll, the first bishop in the United States, had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1792, he placed the Diocese of Baltimore — which encompassed the 13 colonies of the young republic — under her protection.

Over the next 50 years, seven more dioceses were created, including New Orleans, Boston, Chicago, and Oregon City.

“The colonies were now the U.S.A., and Baltimore was not the only diocese — so, the American hierarchy felt a need for a national protectress for this new republic,” said Geraldine M. Rohling, archivist-curator emerita for the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

U.S. bishops unanimously named Mary, under her title of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the nation in 1846 during the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore. 

“We take this occasion, brethren, to communicate to you the determination, unanimously adopted by us, to place ourselves, and all entrusted to our charge throughout the United States, under the special patronage of the holy Mother of God, whose immaculate conception is venerated by the piety of the faithful throughout the Catholic Church. ... To her, then, we commend you, in the confidence that ... she will obtain for us grace and salvation,” the bishops wrote in a letter at the time.

Blessed Pius IX approved the declaration in 1847.

The Immaculate Conception refers to Mary being conceived without original sin. Today, it is a dogma of the Catholic Church. But back in 1846, it was not. Pius IX would promulgate the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, and many believe the U.S. bishops’ declaration may have influenced the pope’s decision. 

The largest Marian shrine in the United States is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception — the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. The first public Mass for the National Shrine was celebrated on the feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1917, though the shrine was not yet constructed. 

The Immaculate Conception is also patroness of several other countries, including Spain, South Korea, Brazil, and the Philippines. 

The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated Dec. 8, nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary. It is a holy day of obligation in some countries, including the United States, Ireland, and the Philippines.

This story was first published on Dec. 8, 2021, and has been updated.

Promo photo for the The Better Part Journal of shadows of Madonna lilies for the Blessed Virgin Mary. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Heidi Bollich-Erne

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 7, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

While teaching an ethics and culture course, Heidi Bollich-Erne was looking for a journal featuring the work of Catholic women for her students to read. After being told that it simply didn’t exist, she decided to create one herself.

With the help of a team of women, Bollich-Erne has founded what she calls the “first intellectual Catholic women’s journal.” Its purpose is to not only define the feminine genius but also to show how faithful women can embody its beauty in their daily lives. 

“I want women to find a home, a place that values their work. The journal itself is edited, written, and published solely by Catholic women,” Bollich-Erne told CNA. “The way that women write, the way that we express ourselves is very different. That’s just who we are. That’s part of the genius of women.”

The Better Part Journal is intended to give women of the Church “hope” by discussing issues that are relevant to them. The first edition of the journal will be released in April 2026. 

Before starting the journal, Bollich-Erne studied theology at the University of St. Thomas, where she “fell in love with philosophy.” She went to the Center for Thomistic Studies for her master’s degree in Thomistic philosophy but took a break from her doctorate and started teaching. 

She is now based in Texas where she has taught high school, college preparation, college, and adults. While teaching, she tried to find content to help guide discussion on gender complementarity but couldn’t find much written by Catholic women.

“I thought, ‘I want to read more intellectual women,’ but it was a struggle… So I found a friend who works at a university and I said: ‘Can you recommend … an intellectual Catholic women’s magazine? She got back to me a few days later and said, ‘It doesn’t exist.’”

Bollich-Erne started The Better Part Journal by first launching a company called JBG Publishings as “a home” for the journal. She wanted to ensure the publication would not be independently published but be part of a company that would help it to grow.

Bollich-Erne named the company with the initials of her father, who passed away a few years prior. His passing “was a realization that ‘life is too short,’”  Bollich-Erne said. “I need to love what I do; I need to really work to find meaning.’”

The Better Part Journal’s mission

“The purpose of the journal is to bring together the voices of intellectual Catholic women who are faithful to the magisterium,” Bollich-Erne said. “I want voices of all backgrounds. I want women of all areas of discipline. I want academics. I want nonacademics. I want all women contributing to this conversation.”

“We all throw around the ‘feminine genius,’ but when you ask someone to stop and give an actual definition, most people can’t,” Bollich-Erne said. Most people define it with a quote by St. John Paul II who coined the term in his apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem to describe the unique gifts and qualities women possess, but, she said, “that’s a quote, not a definition.” 

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done in this area, and I know there’s room for it to be done on a theological, philosophical level. So the idea was that we would … define the feminine genius and then show it. Live it. It’s not a theology journal and it’s not a philosophy journal. It’s truly interdisciplinary.”

The first issue of the journal is called “Uncharted” and will tackle a number of topics.

“As soon as women realized that I was serious about truly hearing their voices and not editing them out or telling them what they can and can’t write about, they gave us some really amazing work. I’ve just been blown away. I’m only so creative, but I have a great team.”

The journal will feature articles covering neuroscience and theology and apply it to Mary and the Incarnation. It will have columns by doctors and scientists to look at “faith in the formula” and “applying science to religion.”

There will be discussion of issues women face including body image, infertility, and violence. Articles will explore “the psychology of fairy tales and what that does to young girls growing up, whether that be positive or negative,” Bollich-Erne said. It will look into “what we are exposed to …from the media and what it does to us.”

“The beauty behind the journal has been the women that have come forth to lend their voices,” Bollich-Erne said. “It’s been really amazing to see how excited they are about freedom of voice. It’s been something I wasn’t expecting.”

A print journal in a digital era

Despite a shift in media from print to online formats, The Better Part Journal will only be released in print copies because, Bollich-Erne said, “I want it to be lasting.”

“I am a tactile person. I like to hold a book. I wanted it to be something that is kept. So obviously that’s print,” Bollich-Erne said. “But then if you want to keep it has to be high quality.”

The journal will use original photographs and crafted artwork to accompany the written works. 

“It is stunning. It looks like a book,” Bollich-Erne said. “The idea is that you read it, you keep it, and you put it on your bookshelf and you never get rid of it because the topics are lasting.”

For an article to be included, it has to be “something that I think women will find valuable, whether you’re an academic or a high school student,” Bollich-Erne said. “It has to be something that all women find valuable, or we cannot print it.”

“Many women have said they’re excited to hold their work and see it in print as opposed to scrolling past the work. There’s nothing wrong with online formats; it gives voices to a lot of people, but this is just different.”

“I had an author tell me, ‘I don’t write anymore for anyone,’ because, she said, ‘I am so tired of my work just disappearing. It’s online for a week. I spent all this work, all this time, and it was something substantial that I really cared about, and it’s just gone.’” 

“She signed up with us for a column specifically because we are in print. The idea is that this work is kept forever.”

The print journals will be published twice a year only, because “I want it to be something that takes a while to digest,” Bollich-Erne said. “Beautiful things take time.”

Looking to the future

JGB Publishings has “goals to expand substantially over the next five to 10 years,” Bollich-Erne said. The company will “take care of” the journal to ensure its message can “grow and expand.”

“To be able, as women in the Church, to truly have a serious conversation about all of these things … we are going to forge our future,” Bollich-Erne said. “We’re going to step forward in hope and show the world this is what an intelligent Catholic woman looks like.”

“We’re not stifled. We’re not sad. We’re not miserable people. We are happy. We are excited about life, and we are treated with respect. We are loved and we love who we are,” Bollich-Erne said. “I want people, especially women, of all ages to see that and to understand that.”

A still from “Trailblazers of Faith: The Legacy of African American Catholics,” which tells the inspiring story of how African Americans found a home in Catholicism without abandoning their identity or culture. Those pictured are the African Americans currently on the path to sainthood: Venerable Henriette DeLille, Julia Greeley, Father Augustus Tolton, Mother Mary Lange, Pierre Toussaint, and Sister Thea Bowman. / Credit: Black and Indian Mission Office

CNA Staff, Dec 7, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Black and Indian Mission Office in Washington, D.C., recently released two documentaries — one highlighting African American Catholics on the path to sainthood and the focusing on Native American Catholic communities in the United States. 

“Trailblazers of Faith: The Legacy of African American Catholics” tells the inspiring story of how African Americans found a home in Catholicism without abandoning their identity or culture. 

From the pioneering Oblate Sisters of Providence and St. Frances Academy to the lives of Venerable Henriette DeLille, Julia Greeley, Father Augustus Tolton, and Sister Thea Bowman, the documentary celebrates a legacy of leadership and faith.

The second film, “Walking the Sacred Path: The Story of the Black and Indian Mission Office,” uncovers the often-hidden story of Native American Catholics in the United States. The film explores the powerful intersection of faith and culture — where the beauty of Native traditions and the universality of Catholicism meet — and highlights more than 140 years of the Black and Indian Mission Office’s mission to walk alongside Native American communities. 

Father Maurice Henry Sands is the executive director of the Black and Indian Mission Office. He told CNA in an interview that these documentaries were created “to educate people about these two groups of people that a lot of people don’t know much about,” as well as “to educate people about the work that our office is doing with these two groups of people.”

The Black and Indian Mission Collection was the first national collection established at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884 and is still taken up yearly funding the Black and Indian Mission Office.

The United States bishops recognized the need to support missionary work among African American and Native American Catholics and since its creation the collection has allowed for grants to be given to dioceses across the country to operate schools, parishes, and other missionary services that build the body of Christ in Native American, Alaska Native, and Black Catholic communities.

Sands shared that it is important for Catholics to walk alongside these communities because “we are all part of the human race that the Lord directs his work of salvation towards.”

“It’s important that we learn how to live together and walk together because as human beings we do put up walls and barriers and we see differences among ourselves,” he said, adding that racism “has caused a lot of difficulties for the two groups of people.” 

“So, we have a fundamental call as disciples of Christ, as Catholics, as Christians, to help the Lord and his work of salvation to love one another and to have a special concern for those of our brothers and sisters who are disadvantaged and in need,” he said.

Speaking specifically to the documentary on the African American Catholics on their way to sainthood, Sands explained that the six individuals included all serve as great role models for the faithful because “each of them had very challenging beginnings but went on to be great lovers of Our Lord and were a great witness to others and helped people in need as they saw the needs of people around them and were very effective in doing that.”

He added that the early Church missionaries who served Native Americans also serve as role models in how to “help people where they are to come to know Christ, to love him, and to have a relationship with him.”

Sands said he hopes viewers will feel moved to “learn more about how they can support the ministry to these two groups of people and to learn more about how they can support the work that we are doing in our office.”

Both documentaries can be viewed on Formed.

The “Sons of Thunder” vocations club at St. Bartholomew Church in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Matthew Gonzalez

CNA Staff, Dec 7, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A little over a year ago, Father Matthew Gonzalez, a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, had the idea to create a group for boys in grades eight to 12 that focuses on vocations and what it means to be a Catholic man in today’s world.

“The Lord has placed a strong desire for vocations on my heart. I am convinced the Lord is still calling young men today,” Gonzalez told CNA.

“A few years ago, I brought several of our parish young men to the Quo Vadis summer camp, a weeklong experience focused on authentic Christian manhood. They came home with a hunger for more — more faith, more fraternity, more service. That experience planted the seed,” he explained.

Soon afterward, Gonzalez started the Sons of Thunder, which takes its name from Mark 3:17, where Jesus gave that nickname to the apostles James and John. The group meets once a month at St. Bartholomew Church in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, and currently has 12 members who come together for prayer and fellowship.

Each monthly meeting starts with one of the boys leading evening prayer and another one handling the readings. Then the group watches a video from the Knights of Columbus called “Into the Breach,” a series on authentic masculinity that explores topics such as the importance of prayer and how to become a leader. A discussion follows the video.

Gonzalez shared that the aim of the group is to inspire the boys to model themselves after the ultimate Catholic man — Jesus.

“Every meeting always includes three pillars: prayer, faith formation, and fun. We pray together, learn together, and build brotherhood together,” he said.

The group also frequently visits the local seminary and takes part in community service projects.

“We’ve done a garden project in the rectory backyard, organized service for the needy and for religious communities, and held a beach cleanup day. Serving others is central to our mission,” Gonzalez said.

Another central focus of the group is to introduce the boys to the priesthood.

“People often say we have a vocations crisis. I don’t believe that. There is no crisis in vocations — the Lord is still calling, just as he always has. What we are facing is a crisis of meaning and purpose in our culture, and this affects young people deeply,” Gonzalez said.

“Sons of Thunder exists to help restore a sense of identity as Christian men, of purpose, and of mission. When young men know who they are and what they’re made for, they can hear the Lord’s call more clearly.”

Gonzalez recently started a new assignment as rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, so the Sons of Thunder will look slightly different going forward. The group’s lay leader, who has helped Gonzalez run the group since its creation, will now be taking over the responsibilities of running the group.   

“As I begin my new mission as the rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, I’m spending time learning the heartbeat of this parish family. But I absolutely hope to expand youth ministry here, and one way to do that is by beginning a new chapter of Sons of Thunder,” Gonzalez said. “I want the young men of this community to experience what our first group experienced.”

For members who are currently in the group, were previously in the group, or will join one day, Gonzalez said his “greatest hope is that they learn the faith is worth living — even when it demands sacrifice and self-gift. And at the heart of it all is relationship: a relationship with God and the relationships they build with one another. If they leave knowing they are loved by God and made for greatness, the mission of Sons of Thunder is fulfilled.”