Recently, I came across a short video on YouTube that looked and sounded like Pope Leo, but after checking its authenticity, it turns out to be an AI generated clip. This is just one example of how many of us can be deceived when people and organizations disseminate deceptive messages, untruths, or half-truths to advance their own agenda. It can cause you and I to be suspicious of just about everything we see, hear, and read these days.

Next Sunday, June 22, the Catholic Church around the world will celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, traditionally known as "Corpus Christi" - Latin for the Body of Christ. This feast's origins go back to the 13th century and not long after that, a tradition of processing with the Holy Eucharist was started. In many Catholic countries, it has been a regular practice. However, in our own country, it has not been very common to have a Corpus Christi procession. But, a growing number of parishes here in the U.S. are reviving the practice.

The Sunday, we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost, the event when the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus’ disciples in a special way to empower them to continue His mission of proclaiming the Good News to the world. Each of us fully initiated Catholics have experienced our own Pentecost event when we received the Sacrament of Confirmation and were bestowed the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord – which means revering God by offering Him due worship and devotion.

We’re fragile, vulnerable people who have a knack for making life look easy. It’s when we’re very young, very old, disabled or we get sick that it becomes difficult to project an image of self-reliance and complete independence. Yet, in reality, we’re all dependent, all subject to weakness when we face our limitations and have to acknowledge that we’re not ultimately in charge, that we’re not perfect. This realization is humbling and yet very healthy for us as Christians. Compassion springs from such awareness; it also engenders a sharpened sensitivity to the needs of others.

This Monday is Memorial Day, a holiday on which we remember in a special way all of the men and women who served in the armed forces and sacrificed their lives protecting our country and its freedoms. It was originally a day to remember the lives lost in the Civil War, but it was eventually broadened to encompass all wars and armed conflicts. Sadly, there have been many of them over the course of our nation’s history.

While speaking to the College of Cardinals last Saturday in his first official address since his election, Pope Leo XIV explained his choice of papal name, noting that Pope Leo XIII “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution” with his encyclical, Rerum Novarum. “In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor.”

Happy Mother’s Day! Today also is World Day of Prayer for Vocations. “Every vocation to the priesthood comes from the heart of God, but it passes through the heart of a mother.” (St. Pius X). I think that applies to other vocations as well, such as a religious sister or brother, a Permanent Deacon, and a spouse/parent in the Sacrament of Marriage. God has a plan for every child. He wants them to be happy, and their true happiness is found in discovering God’s plan for their lives—their vocation—and following it wholeheartedly.

It’s interesting to hear people of different faiths, as well as Catholics, talking about the election of a new pope. Certainly, it seems to have captured people’s imagination, and the news media is captivated by the traditions surrounding the election. There are all kinds of speculation about who the new pope will be and what he will be like. Trusting in the guidance of the Holy Spirit who has been with our Church since Pentecost, we can have great hope that he will be what our Church needs in this present time.