HOPE IN LENT

In 2019, before the pandemic, before the invasion of Ukraine and the Gaza conflict, before the crises in our own country, when the world looked a bit rosier, the Holy Father in a homily had these words:

Why do you think that everything is hopeless, that no one can take away your own tombstones? Why do you give in to resignation and failure? Easter is the feast of tombstones taken away, rocks rolled aside. God takes away even the hardest stones against which our hopes and expectations crash: death, sin, fear, worldliness.

The theme of Jubilee 2025, a special year of remission of sins, debts and universal pardon which began on Christmas Eve 2024 and ends on Jan. 6, 2026, is “Pilgrims in Hope,” This Lent we are encouraged to put down deep roots of HOPE by connecting with God who is with us at all times. As we deepen our hope in God, we can better be part of what God is doing to bring hope in the world.

 May our Lenten journey reflect the peace that Pope Francis prayed for as he introduced this Jubilee Year:

 May 2025 be a year in which peace flourishes! A true and lasting peace that goes beyond quibbling over the details of agreements and human compromises. May we seek the true peace that is granted by God to hearts disarmed: hearts not set on calculating what is mine and what is yours; hearts that turn selfishness into readiness to reach out to others; hearts that see themselves as indebted to God and thus prepared to forgive the debts that oppress others; hearts that replace anxiety about the future with the hope that every individual can be a resource for the building of a better world.

 Disarming hearts is a job for everyone, great and small, rich and poor alike. At times, something quite simple will do, such as “a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed”.  With such gestures, we progress towards the goal of peace. We will arrive all the more quickly if, in the course of journeying alongside our brothers and sisters, we discover that we have changed from the time we first set out. Peace does not only come with the end of wars but with the dawn of a new world, a world in which we realize that we are different, closer and more fraternal than we ever thought possible."

PEACE FOR LENT

 

Noting that “every past occupation of Ukraine has resulted in various degrees of repression of the Catholic Church” there, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a message of solidarity with Ukraine.

 

“As we begin the holy Season of Lent, a time of prayer, penance, and charity, we join our Holy Father, Pope Francis, in his solidarity with the ‘martyred people of Ukraine,’“ said Archbishop Timothy Broglio. “We pray and hope that the United States, in concert with the wider international community, works with perseverance for a just peace and an end to aggression.”

Citing a 2024 statement by Pope Francis, Archbishop Broglio said that “courageous negotiations require ‘boldness’ to ‘open the door’ for dialogue.”

 Without criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin or Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by name, Archbishop Broglio took issue with the persecution ofthe Cathoic Church in Russian-occupied territories, as well as the Ukrainian government’s suppression of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate):

 As Catholics, we are acutely aware that every past occupation of Ukraine has resulted in various degrees of repression of the Catholic Church in the country; we must not tolerate the forcing of our brothers and sisters underground again. I echo Pope Francis’ plea for respecting the religious freedom of all Ukrainians, ‘Please, let no Christian church be abolished directly or indirectly. Churches are not to be touched!’

Recalling that the annual Ash Wednesday collection benefits the Church in formerly Communist nations, including Ukraine, Archbishop Broglio invited “America’s Catholics, in union with all men and women of good will, to pray for the peace of Ukraine, and to contribute generously to assisting that suffering and courageous nation.”

A statement issued on March 4 by the Presidency of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union stresses that Ukraine’s struggle for peace “will also be decisive for the fate of Europe and the world.”

The message reaffirms the European Union Bishops’ continued support of Ukraine and its people, “who have been suffering from Russia’s unjustifiable full-scale invasion for more than three years.”

As Christians prepare for Lent to begin on March 5, the bishops entrust Ukraine and Europe to Jesus through the intercession of Mary, the Queen of Peace.

Art:   Stop War Everywhere: Berlin-based Colombian street artist Arte Vilu works on a mural featuring a Ukrainian woman in traditional dress in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 28, 2022. | Hannibal Hanschke / AP

A SAINT FROM KANSAS

 

FATHER EMIL KAPAUN a heroic U.S. military chaplain from Kansas, was declared venerable by Pope Francis on Feb. 25 – putting him one step closer to canonization. He could be the first saint to be a Medal of Honor recipient. The Holy Father recognized Father Kapaun’s “offering of life,” a new cause for beatification distinct from martyrdom that recognizes Christians who have freely offered their lives for others until death.

Father Kapaun served as a U.S. Army chaplain during World War II and the Korean War. He was captured by the North Korean military and died ministering to fellow prisoners in 1951. Widely recognized for his bravery and holiness, he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2013 and in 1993 Pope St John Paul II declared Father Kapaun a Servant of God. 

After serving in the Chinese-Burma-India theater in World War II, long after many had returned to the United States, Father Kapaun earned a master’s in education from The Catholic University of America before voluntarily returning to service as a military chaplain in Japan and then Korea. 

He logged thousands of miles by jeep to visit troops on the front lines. He was promoted to captain in 1946. Four years later, he found himself among the first troops responding to communist North Korea's invasion of democratic South Korea. He shared the hardships of combat while offering Mass, often using the hood of his jeep as an altar. Father Kapaun also administered the sacraments to the dying at the risk of his life, while retrieving wounded soldiers. In 1950, one such rescue, conducted under intense enemy fire near Kumchon, South Korea, earned him a Bronze Star Medal for bravery in action.

The priest also wrote to the families of troops, assuring them that their fallen soldiers had received last rites from him.

Father Kapaun and his fellow troops were surrounded in November 1950 after Chinese forces entered the war. He initially escaped capture, but then chose to remain and tend the wounded with an Army medic. As a result, he was taken prisoner but still managed to intervene to prevent the execution of a wounded soldier.

He encouraged his fellow captives along the arduous march to the Pyoktong prison camp. Once there, he continued to sustain them through his ministry, which was forbidden by the communist guards, for whom he prayed, leading the prisoners to do the same.

Father Kapaun also refuted the guards' attempts at communist indoctrination, responding to one taunt with, "God is as real as the air you breathe but cannot see; as the sounds you hear but cannot see; as the thoughts and ideas you have but cannot see or feel."

In 1951, Father Kapaun fell ill, and was forcibly moved to the camp's hospital, where patients were left to die. He stilled the protests of his fellow POWs, saying, "Don't worry about me. I'm going where I always wanted to go, and when I get there, I'll say a prayer for all of you."

At the age of 35, Father Kapaun died on May 23, 1951. His body was buried by a fellow prisoner near the Pyoktong prison camp infirmary, and repatriated to the U.S., along with the remains of some 560 Americans from the camp, in 1954 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

For years he lay under an "Unknown" marker with about 70 soldiers and was not identified until a fellow prisoner saw a picture of Father Kapaun in a Knights of Columbus magazine at a Veteran Affairs clinic in Florida in 2003. In 2021, DNA testing confirmed that the remains were those of Father Kapaun, and in September 2021, he was reinterred in Wichita's cathedral.

Painting top: The Class of 2012 of the Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO, commissioned this painting of Father Emil Kapaun from artist Cynthia Hitschler. The painting was presented to the seminary as a gift upon their graduation.