Faithful of the Diocese attend first of four regional jubilee pilgrimages with Bishop Iffert

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Bella Young

Multimedia Correspondent

Thirty faithful of the Diocese of Covington boarded a bus with Bishop John Iffert, March 1, to participate in the first of four regional jubilee pilgrimages. This pilgrimage, to the shrine of St. Mother Theodore Guerin on the campus of St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, Indiana, served as a way for these faithful to participate in the jubilee theme, Pilgrims of Hope.

“In declaring this jubilee year, Pope Francis established a theme,” said Bishop Iffert on the bus ride, “and his theme was pilgrims of hope. It emphasizes for us that we are on a journey … That’s why we undertake these pilgrimages, reminding us that we are moving through this world, that this world is not our truest home and that our truest home is with God.”

Along with participating in the theme of the jubilee year, the faithful were also able to receive a plenary indulgence. A plenary indulgence, “restores, so that it removes us from the temporal punishments that is also due to us because of our sin. It actually fixes us in a way, it restores us to health,” said Bishop Iffert.

There are a few requirements to obtain a plenary indulgence: prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father, receiving the Eucharist, confession and making a pilgrimage. While at the shrine of St. Mother Guerin the pilgrims gathered in the Church of the Immaculate Conception on the grounds of St. Mary-of-theWoods College. Mass, celebrated by Bishop Iffert, aided the pilgrims in furthering their mission for a plenary indulgence by providing the Eucharist and a group prayer for the intentions of the Pope.

As the faithful of the Diocese arrived on campus the members of the Sisters of Providence, who still live on the grounds of St. Mary-of-theWoods College, were waiting outside the Providence Spirituality and Conference Center, where the shrine of St. Mother Guerin is located.

The events of the day began with a provided lunch in the historic O’Shaughnessy Dining Hall inside the Providence Center before the 30 pilgrims were split into two groups. The first group, including Bishop Iffert, went on the outdoor campus tour where they observed many important landmarks in the life of St. Mother Guerin. The second group stayed at the Providence Center and toured the shrine and museum of St. Mother Guerin. Inside the museum there were many second-class relics, and replicas of the items Mother Guerin would have used every day. Also on display was a first-class relic, three finger bones hung in a casing in the shrine portion of the museum. Pilgrims had a chance to venerate these relics before continuing the tour.

While outside, Providence Sister Mary Montgomery led the pilgrims on a guided tour of the grounds. Seeing the rock that denotes the spot St. Mother Guerin and her fellow sisters first arrived on the grounds from France, and a replica of the small log cabin chapel that met them when they first arrived. Also on the outdoor tour, was the St. Anne Shell Chapel, which is adorned with hundreds of shells from the Wabash River that runs near the campus. The outdoor resting place of St. Mother Guerin was visited by the pilgrims, as well as the Our Lady of Lourdes grotto.

Following the official tour portion of the pilgrimage, the pilgrims had free time to return to any sacred site from that day for a moment of quiet prayer and reflection. There was also time for the gift shop inside the Providence Center where paraphernalia of St. Mary-ofthe-Woods College, the Sisters of Providence and St. Mother Guerin were available.

“Our life is a spiritual journey,” said Bishop Iffert, “and we’re called to holiness and that is not just for those people who live in a rarified time or place, but it is for every one of us.”

If you are interested in attending a regional pilgrimage with Bishop Iffert, go to covdio.org/jubilee for more information.

Pope calls artists to be ‘custodians of the beatitudes’ during Jubilee

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Justin McLellan

Catholic News Service

Artists and cultural figures must be “custodians of the beatitudes,” embracing their vocation to create beauty, reveal truth and inspire hope in a troubled world, Pope Francis wrote to people participating in the Jubilee for Artists and the World of Culture.

“Art is not a luxury, but a necessity of the spirit. It is not an escape, but a responsibility, an invitation to action, a call, a cry,” said the homily Pope Francis prepared for the JubileeMass Feb. 16 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, celebrated the Mass with artists from more than 100 countries and read the pope’s homily during the liturgy.

“To instruct in beauty is to instruct in hope, and hope is never separated from the drama of existence — it crosses the daily struggle, the fatigue of living, the challenges of our time,” the homily said.

Pope Francis was unable to attend the Mass because he was hospitalized for treatment of a respiratory tract infection. He had also missed the audience he planned with artists and other Jubilee pilgrims Feb. 15.

In a message for the midday Angelus, released by the Vatican after the Mass, Pope Francis wrote that art is “a universal language that spreads beauty and unites peoples, contributing to bringing harmony into the world and silencing every cry of war.”

At the beginning of the Jubilee Mass, Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça blessed artists and cultural leaders, calling them “cultural prophets” and “drivers of peace” and praying for their vocations.

Reflecting on the beatitudes from the day’s Gospel account from St. Luke, the pope’s prepared homily said that “artists and people of culture are called to be witnesses to the radical vision of the beatitudes,” emphasizing that their mission is to “give voice to the voiceless” and “transform pain into hope.”

At the heart of the beatitudes, he said, is a divine reversal of worldly expectations — where the poor, the meek, the persecuted and the suffering are the ones truly blessed. “Art is called to participate in this revolution,” he said, urging artists to “bow before the wounds of the world, listen to the cry of the poor, the suffering, the persecuted, refugees, and those imprisoned.”

Particularly in a time of deep social, economic and spiritual crises, Pope Francis wrote, artists play a crucial role in ensuring that humanity does not lose sight of the “horizon of hope.”

Yet that hope is not a “comfortable refuge” but “a fire that burns and illuminates like the word of God,” he said.

“For this reason,” the pope wrote, “authentic art is always an encounter with mystery — with a beauty that overtakes us, with a pain that interrogates us, with a truth that calls to us.”

Particularly at a time when “new walls are raised, in which differences become pretexts for division rather than opportunities for mutual enrichment,” cultural figures “are called to build bridges, to create spaces of encounter and dialogue, to illuminate minds and warm hearts,” he said.

Later that evening, after St. Peter’s Basilica was closed to the public, participants in the Jubilee were scheduled to cross through the basilica’s Holy Door and partake in a quiet, contemplative walkthrough of the basilica’s interior.

Presenting the Jubilee’s events at a press conference Feb. 12, Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça explained how artists have a special relationship with the basilica as a place where faith, history and artistic genius converge in their highest form.

And in welcoming the artists into the basilica for Mass, he began his opening prayer with a reference to one of Pope Francis’ favorite artists, the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, who famously wrote: “Beauty will save the world.”

“The beauty that saves the world is manifested in Christ,” the cardinal said, praying that artists would embrace their vocation with courage, offering their challenges and uncertainties in service of the church and the world.

Pope: Vocation of military and police is to defend life, peace, justice

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Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Services

VATICAN CITY — Thanking members of the military and the police for their service, Pope Francis asked them to be on guard against seeing other people as enemies and instead dedicate their lives to defending life, peace and justice.

“Be vigilant lest you be poisoned by propaganda that instills hatred (and) divides the world into friends to be defended and foes to fight,” the pope wrote in his homily for the Mass Feb. 9 for the Jubilee of the Armed Services, Police and Security Personnel.

The Vatican said some 30,000 active and retired members of the military and police from 100 countries — including U.S. military and members of the New York Police Department—registered as pilgrims for the jubilee celebration.

Pope Francis, who has been suffering from what the Vatican said was bronchitis, presided over the liturgy in St. Peter’s Square with a weak and hoarse voice. U.S.-born Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, was the main celebrant at the altar.

The pope read the first paragraph of his prepared homily, ad-libbing a bit about remembering how God is always close by, but then asked his master of liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, to continue reading the text because he was having “difficulty breathing.”

In the text, the pope asked the military and police to “be courageous witnesses of the love of God our Father, who wants us all to be brothers and sisters” and to be “artisans of a new era of peace, justice and fraternity.”

“I would encourage you never to lose sight of the purpose of your service and all your activity, which is to promote life, to save lives, to be a constant defender of life,” the pope wrote in his text.

Pope Francis also thanked police and prison guards who are “at the forefront of the fight against crime and violence” and all those who, in the name of their nations, are “engaged in relief work in the wake of natural disasters, the safeguarding of the environment, rescue efforts at sea, the protection of the vulnerable and the promotion of peace.”

Pope Francis took the microphone at the end of Mass to lead the recitation of the Angelus but also to insist that “armed service should be exercised only for legitimate self-defense and never to impose dominion over another nation.”

“May weapons everywhere be silenced, and the cries of the people asking for peace be heard,” he said.

The pilgrims were formally welcomed to Rome Feb. 8 with an outdoor concert in Piazza del Popolo under a steady rain. Jesuit Father Andriy Zelinskyy, coordinator of chaplains for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, was there with a retired Ukrainian bishop and three other Ukrainian chaplains.

“The goal of a pilgrimage is always to go back to your roots, to find where you are and why you are here. For Christians, it is to love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified, died and rose for us,” he told Catholic News Service. “And this is true for war-wounded humanity as well.”

The Jubilee gathering of military and police from about 100 countries “is already a sign of hope,” he said. “We come together to pray, to stand against evil and to renew our commitment to peace and defending human dignity.”

Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption updates digital tour, with North window in high def

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Maura Baker

Staff Writer

In 2010, Msgr. William Neuhaus, at time the rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington, published a 360-degree digital tour of the cathedral using panoramic photography. Now, more than 10 years later, the digital tour has been updated with new imagery of Covington’s iconic cathedral.

“I decided that with some of the recent enhancements and additions over the last 10 years that we re-conducted that tour,” said Father Ryan Maher, the cathedral’s present rector.

Father Maher said that part of the parish’s pastoral plan priorities is to “continue to be a welcoming community,” and the up-to-date tour serves as a “kind of way to welcome people virtually to the cathedral.”

The new tour was put together by Ron Rack Photography, out of Cincinnati, and features beautifully detailed and colorful photos of the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption and many of its windows, artwork and features. Various buttons allow for easy navigation and allows visitors to see details they would otherwise not be able to view in person. Notably, the tour features a large-scale, high-definition image of the Cathedral’s North window that can be zoomed in upon.

The release of the updated tour also coincides timely with the jubilee, offering a pilgrimage option to the sick, incarcerated and those who otherwise cannot visit the pilgrimage site in person. For the purpose of obtaining indulgences, according to the Decree on the Granting of Indulgence during the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025 called by His Holiness Pope Francis, 13.05.2024, “The faithful who are truly repentant of sin but who cannot participate in the various solemn celebrations, pilgrimages and pious visits for serious reasons (especially cloistered nuns and monks, but also the elderly, the sick, prisoners, and those who, through their work in hospitals or other care facilities, provide continuous service to the sick), can obtain the Jubilee Indulgence, under the same conditions if, united in spirit with the faithful taking part in person.” Digital spaces can serve as ways to help facilitate this relationship for those who cannot visit in person, with full information on obtaining an indulgence available online at www.usccb.org/jubilee2025 or at https://covdio.org/jubilee/.

Bishop John Iffert invites pilgrims to shrine of Indiana saint

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Maura Baker

Staff Writer

As part of the celebration of the 2025 Jubilee Year, “Pilgrims of Hope,” Bishop John Iffert is inviting people to join him on a set of four regional pilgrimages throughout the year. The first of these pilgrimages is upcoming March 1, where a motorcoach of pilgrims will be headed to the shrine of St. Mother Theodore Guerin in Saint Mary-of-theWoods, Indiana.

St. Mother Guerin, born in France in 1798, came to the United States as a missionary with the Sisters of Providence. Although she struggled with various health issues throughout the entirety of her life, her and her fellow sisters established a school in the so-called “new world,” and helped serve the influx of Catholic immigrants to the Americas.

The pilgrimage will invite pilgrims to explore not only the history of Mother Guerin, but grant them time of prayer in the woods of Indiana. Tours and presentations will be part of the day trip, as well as visits to the wood’s chapels and churches.

“I think this is a unique place,” said Jim Hess, director of the Office of Stewardship and Mission, who is organizing the pilgrimage, “Not many people know about, first, that this even exists, and, curious, they may want to go. This is the one of the four pilgrimages Bishop is the most excited about taking people to.”

The pilgrimage, which costs $270 per person, includes travel by motorcoach from Campbell County to Indiana, and back the same day, as well as a buffet lunch and box dinner. Financial assistance is available, and those interested are encouraged to contact the Stewardship Office at (859) 392–1540 to request it.

“I want to stress that this is something we’re doing for the jubilee year,” said Mr. Hess, “It is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We only have two busses, so space is limited, so we’re encouraging early sign-ups for anyone who wants to participate.”

Interested parties can contact the Stewardship Office, or visit https:// covdio.org/jubilee/ to learn more about the pilgrimage and what the Diocese of Covington is doing to celebrate the 2025 Jubilee Year.

Pope Francis to celebrate Jubilees for communications, and many other vocations throughout the Jubilee Year

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Maura Baker

Staff Writer

With the opening of the 2025 Jubilee Year, the Papal Bull by Pope Francis announced the year to be marked by the “hope that does not fade, our hope in God. May it help us to recover the confident trust that we require, in the Church and in society, in our interpersonal relationships, in international relations and in our task of promoting the dignity of all persons and respect for God’s gift of creation.”

This hope is especially highlighted as part of the Jubilee Year’s theme, “Pilgrims of Hope,” which likewise highlights our collective role as pilgrims.

As part of the Jubilee Year, the Holy See has declared special Jubilees through the holy year — each of which promote a different vocation, a different stage of life or a particular theme of the Jubilee. Notably, one of the first jubilees celebrated will be the Jubilee of the World of Communications, celebrated January 24–26. This jubilee will open with a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis, followed by cultural meetings, dialogues and round tables all in celebration and correspondence with the role of media and communications professionals as they relate to the Jubilee — a pattern that will repeat for each special jubilee throughout the year.

Jim Hess, director of Stewardship and Mission Services, describes these jubilees as a way that the “Church is celebrating different vocations and pathways we take in the world,” he said. “The jubilees celebrate holiness in these different stages of life.”

Following the Jubilee of the World of Communications, the next jubilees to join in the celebration are the Jubilees of Armed Forces, Police and Security Personnel, Feb. 8–9, and of Artists, Feb. 15–18. The faithful are encouraged to take moments of prayer and celebration during their respective jubilees, and to offer prayers in support of loved ones during theirs.

A full list of jubilees can be found on the jubilee calendar online at https://www.iubilaeum2025.va. For more information on jubilee celebrations in the Diocese of Covington, visit https://covdio.org/jubilee/.

The Jubilee year acclaims that the source of all hope is God’s mercy, says Bishop Iffert

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Laura Keener

Editor

As instructed by Pope Francis and together with archdioceses and dioceses around the world, Bishop John Iffert and over 300 faithful of the Diocese of Covington celebrated Mass and the opening of the Jubilee Year 2025, “Pilgrims of Hope,” Dec. 29, at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington. The Jubilee Year officially began on Christmas Eve with Pope Francis opening the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

In accordance with ancient tradition, the Church celebrates an ordinary Jubilee — a year to forgive sins, debts and extend universal pardon — every 25 years so that every generation may experience that moment of grace and mercy in their life. In the Bull of Indiction, “Spes Non Confundit” (“Hope Does Not Disappoint”), Pope Francis said that “Hope is also the central message of the coming Jubilee … For everyone, may the Jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ (cf. Jn 10:7.9) of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as ‘our hope’ (1 Tim 1:1).” Pope Francis will close the Holy Door and the Jubilee Year will end Jan. 6, 2026, the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord.

At the Cathedral’s opening Mass, representatives from each parish of the diocese processed through the Cathedral carrying their parish banner as a sign of the journey of hope of the pilgrim people. To begin the procession, near the threshold of the Cathedral, Bishop Iffert elevated the designated Jubilee Cross three times with the congregation proclaiming, “We adore your Cross, O Lord, we praise and glorify your holy Resurrection, for behold, because of the wood of a tree, joy has come to the whole world.”

During the opening procession, which included many priests of the Diocese, Bishop Iffert sprinkled the congregation with Holy Water, “a living remembrance of Baptism which is the gate of entry in the journey of sacramental initiation and into the Church.” (The Rite of the Opening of the Jubilee Year) The procession ended with the Jubilee Cross being placed in a stand to the altar’s left and will remain there during the entire Jubilee year.

Focusing on the Jubilee theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” Bishop Iffert began his homily saying, “Hope, we know, is the theological virtue, that supernatural virtue, by which we desire and expect from God both eternal life and the grace we need to obtain eternal life … the theological virtue of hope protects us both from despair and from the sin of presumption,” the sin of expecting salvation without making the necessary effort to obtain it.

There are two “kinds of knowledge” that are needed to “really engage with and live in this virtue of hope,” said Bishop Iffert. The first is the knowledge that the goal is attainable. “We have to know that eternal life with God is obtainable. That God has made this possible through His death on the cross for our salvation … If we don’t know that our goals are obtainable, we won’t have any reason to work for them.”

“Our goal is obtainable because God’s mercy is indulgent,” Bishop Iffert said. “Our goal of eternal life, and our hope even for life in this world, is obtainable only because we know that God is reliable. We know that God is trustworthy. We know that God is merciful.”

The second knowledge, Bishop Iffert said, is “to know that we might fail, in fact, the sinfulness of our lives, the sinfulness of our human nature, our tendency towards sin inclines us towards failure. It is only through God’s grace — that solid place — where we can expect success in our endeavor.”

The message of the Jubilee, Bishop Iffert said, is “God’s mercy is indulgent. God’s mercy is abundant. God’s mercy is prodigious. This Jubilee year is a reminder to all of us that God is eager to pour that mercy out on us. That mercy alone, that grace of God, that action of God, on our part, is the fulcrum where the lever of faith can be applied, the steady place, the source of all our hope.”

Bishop Iffert names three local churches as sacred sites for Jubilee 2025

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Staff Report

With every Jubilee year, the Pope grants the faithful the opportunity to receive indulgences. In the Decree for the Granting of the Indulgence During the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis calls the indulgence “a Jubilee grace.”

The gift of the indulgence, Pope Francis says, “is a way of discovering the unlimited nature of God’s mercy. Not by chance, for the ancients, the terms ‘mercy’ and ‘indulgence’ were interchangeable, as expressions of the fullness of God’s forgiveness, which knows no bounds” (Spes Non Confundit, 23).

For the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, Pope Francis has declared three ways the faithful may obtain a Jubilee indulgence — by making a pilgrimage, through performing works of mercy and penance and by visiting sacred sites designated by the local bishop.

“…the faithful can obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if, individually or in a group, they devoutly visit any Jubilee site and there, for a suitable period of time, engage in Eucharistic adoration and meditation, concluding with the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, and invocations to Mary, the Mother of God.” (Decree for the Granting of the Indulgence During the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025)

In the Diocese of Covington, Bishop John Iffert has designated three churches as sacred sites where pilgrims can visit and receive the Jubilee indulgence (see decree below). They are the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington; St. John the Evangelist Church, Carrollton and St. Patrick Church, Maysville.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption is the Mother Church of the Diocese of Covington. The Cathedral is open for visitors Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–3 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Mass and Sunday 11:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Mass. Pilgrims visiting the Cathedral will find the Jubilee Cross, which will be displayed during every Mass throughout the Jubilee year.

St. John the Evangelist Church is the Diocese’s western-most church. St. John the Evangelist Parish was established in 1854. Its current church building took 14 years to build and was dedicated on June 25, 1916, by Bishop Ferdinand Brossart. The gothic structure was designed by Leon Coquared, the same architect that designed Covington’s Cathedral, and has been fondly referred to as “the cathedral in the cornstalks.” Mass times at St. John the Evangelist Church are: Saturday 4:30 p.m.; Sunday 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Spanish (11:30 a.m. during summer); Monday and Wednesday 6:30 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday 6:45 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.; Friday noon. Adoration with closing Benediction is held Wednesdays, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and First Friday, 11 a.m. to noon.

St. Patrick Parish, Maysville, was established in 1847 and predates the establishment of the Diocese of Covington (1853). The current St. Patrick Church building was dedicated June 26, 1910, by Bishop William Maes. Mass times at St. Patrick Church are: Saturday 8 a.m., 5:15 p.m.; Sunday 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 1p.m. (Spanish); Monday thru Friday 8 a.m. Adoration is held Wednesdays, 8:30 a.m.–6 p.m.

How the Jubilee year and diocesan pastoral plan are intersecting with works of mercy

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Laura Keener

Editor

In June, Bishop John Iffert launched in the Diocese of Covington a Campaign of Mercy, an initiative of evangelization coming out of the With One Heart diocesan pastoral plan. As part of the Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis has announced that a person can receive as many as two indulgences a day by completing acts mercy. The Messenger sat down with Bishop Iffert to gather his thoughts on how the Holy Spirit may be working in the life of the local and universal Church through the theme of mercy.

Question: Even going back to the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis was already writing about how service is a journeying to Christ, or a pilgrimage to the face of Christ. This year, Pope Francis is allowing for an indulgence for corporal works of mercy performed. How has the Bull (Pope Francis’ official pronouncement of the Jubilee Year) incorporated the corporal works of mercy as part of the Jubilee Year.

Bishop Iffert: On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis will inaugurate the Jubilee year 2025 in Rome by opening the first Jubilee door. He has chosen the motto of the Jubilee Year, Pilgrims of Hope, and it’s really interesting.

Unlike during the Year of Mercy, where he authorized Jubilee doors all over the world and you could receive the Jubilee indulgence just by passing through one of these doors and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father with all the usual requirements of receiving an indulgence, this year, he has not authorized those Jubilee doors in any diocese outside of Rome.

In one way, you might think, well, he’s really narrowed that offer of mercy, but what he’s really done is broaden this. What he’s doing is, he’s keeping the Jubilee doors and the connection to that indulgence in Rome. But then he’s allowing folks to be able to gain that indulgence in a variety of ways — by visiting any diocesan cathedral or by visiting any other historic church designated by the local bishop, or visiting any number of shrines or and this, I think is very important to us, in performing a work of mercy, especially for a person who is needy.

There is this wonderful sentence, and I’m paraphrasing, I believe it is the letter in which the pope establishes the indulgence for the Jubilee Year, and he says, whenever we spend time with a person who is in need doing a work of mercy for that person, we are entering on a pilgrimage to encounter the face of Christ in our neighbor. I just think that’s beautiful. That is a sentiment that I’m going to be living with for a long time and a truth that I’m going to be living with and teaching for a long time.

This pilgrimage of hope, where we emphasize hope, this virtue that is a kind of fortitude, a kind of an expression, a kind of courage lifted to a supernatural level, this hope that is certain and constant and that knows that God has a plan for us and is bringing it to good, this hope is connected with our acting in a loving and compassionate and merciful way to others.

We know that faith, hope and love they all blend. Faith and hope lead us into love and charity and mercy and compassion. Well, this is, this is the journey we’re on. We’re on this hope-filled journey, not only that God’s compassion will rule in our world, but that we will be made over in the image of that compassion and that mercy.

There are three great things that are happening this year for us here in the Diocese of Covington. One is the inauguration of the Jubilee year. We’re also completing the last year of the Eucharistic Revival, which is focused on walking with another in Eucharistic faith, accompanying another in Eucharistic faith. And then here locally, as part of our pastoral plan, we are inaugurating a Campaign of Mercy. We’re inviting Catholics to enter more fully into regular works of mercy, to make this a regular part, a monthly part, a weekly part, a daily part of our life to be doing works of mercy for those around us.

These kinds of great themes come together, to me, it all speaks of one thing, which is the Church is awakening to this reality that we are the mission of Jesus, the mission of Jesus to be mercy for the world, to be mercy for one another, to proclaim the kingdom and the mercy of the Father, the love that the Father has for each one of us. This is our mission.

Everything about these great celebrations and so much of what we find in our pastoral plan and everything that the Church speaks these days seems to be clarifying that and reinforcing that we’re the living mission of Jesus, and that that mission is a mission of mercy for everyone.

That’s what the point this Jubilee Year is making by connecting that pilgrimage motif with the theological virtue of hope and with the work of mercy. And I’m just inspired by it.

Question: You mentioned that the Campaign of Mercy, the Eucharistic Revival and now the Jubilee Year as having a common theme of serving and journeying with each other. That seems to me to be a work of the Holy Spirit. With the Campaign of Mercy, we’re using the corporal and spiritual works of mercy as tools for evangelization. Tell me more about that concept.

Bishop Iffert: In the Campaign of Mercy, that comes out of our pastoral plan, which came out of consultations with people at the grassroots level, what we’re doing is, we’re inviting, first, ourselves to enter into works of mercy so that we can be more deeply converted to Christ. Not only to do volunteer work, but to do it specifically as a work of mercy for another inspired by the love of Christ. In other words, we love Christ, and so we’re going to, in action, love our neighbor, especially our neighbor who is in need. We’re going to commit to that, and we’re going to live that way.

Then we’re going to do the next step, too, which is we’re going to reflect on that experience, both alone and with others, with other Catholics. We’re going to reflect on that. We’re going to ask ourselves, where did I encounter Jesus in my neighbor? Where did I encounter Jesus in this work of mercy? Where did I meet the crucified Jesus who suffers on the cross for us for mercy? Where did I meet that Jesus? And what is Jesus asking of me? What is that merciful Jesus asking of me in my attitude towards others? Then at some point, I’m going to invite people to say, okay, let’s reach out to someone who we know is a Catholic person, but who maybe isn’t as connected with the life of the Church, maybe isn’t as connected with this life of merciful care of others. Let’s invite this person to join us in doing that work of mercy and then join us in reflecting on it and encountering Jesus there. We’ll take that risk.

The whole idea, of course, is that we encounter Jesus in this way of life. And so, we’re going to invite people back to this way of life, trusting that they, too, will encounter Jesus there, and that meeting Jesus face to face in service to those who are in need, that that will be an impulse for conversion, for deeper conversion in Christ.

At some point, we’re going to, again, put out a call and say, okay, now think of somebody in your life who is not churched at all, who maybe even hasn’t heard much about Jesus, and invite them, take the risk of inviting them to do this work of mercy with you. And then maybe dare to invite them to pray with you about it. And again, the whole idea being that we believe that we will encounter Jesus in the face of our neighbors, and that that encounter with Jesus calls us to deepening conversion.

We’re going to employ this doing of these works of mercy, as a way to invite people to meet Jesus and to respond to His invitation to love others. It’s going to become really one of the great strategies for evangelization. That’s a 50-cent word that just literally means sharing the good news of Jesus, sharing the good news of Jesus with others. That’s going to be a primary strategy for us for three or four years of the Diocese of Covington. That’s a response to what we see as coming out, that it is this work of the Spirit.

Another thing, you said that all of this coming together really does seem like it’s the Holy Spirit. You know, there’s this theological concept, we speak of two offices in the Church — the magisterium, which is the teaching office, which is primarily the bishops around the world teaching in union with the Pope, but also, this office that we call the “sense of the faithful.”

The Church believes and proclaims that the whole body of believers cannot be misled. That the Holy Spirit speaks, yes, through our pastors, through the magisterium, but also in the body of believers. And that while individual believers can be misled, that the Holy Spirit dwells within the temple that is the whole Church. The whole Church, the temple of the people of God, cannot, as a body, be completely misled about the work of God and the movement of the Holy Spirit and the life of the Church, especially about anything that would jeopardize our salvation.

I really do think that this rediscovery that we’re the living mission of Jesus, we’re the living mission of the Spirit of Jesus, that we’re all called to carry on his mission of mercy, compassion, self-sacrifice, gifted self-donation, we’re all called to be that. I really do believe this is a sense where the Holy Spirit is inspiring the sense of the faithful and inspiring the magisterium towards the sense of truth to bring new life and new birth to the Church.

Question: You’ve said before about acts of service performed during the Campaign of Mercy and then here again with the indulgences, that we’re not doing these things to tick boxes. I often hear people say that when they’re involved in works of mercy that they get more out of the experience than what they give. How can acts of mercy, then, develop someone’s personal faith life?

Bishop Iffert: That’s exactly right. The Church does offer an indulgence for the Jubilee Year. Indulgences are an important category that bring not only a remission of sin, but also a healing of the effect of sin in our life, a healing of that destructive effect that sin can have on us.

An indulgence is not just a formality. It’s not a trick. It’s not a get-out-of-purgatory-early card, right? What is it? It is an expression of a desire for God’s grace to work in us in a direct and powerful way. To really change us and to help us to grow closer to the heart of Jesus. That’s what this is all about.

When we talk about the Jubilee indulgence, Pope Francis, another way he has made this is, he says you can receive an indulgence as often as twice a day during the Jubilee Year, as long as one of those you are applying not to yourself, but to the poor souls in purgatory — the suffering Church. This is the spirit. It’s not about bean counting. It’s not about adding up the number of days, right?

What is it about? It’s about inviting the Spirit of God to heal us and to draw us into deeper conformity with Christ. That is really what assures our salvation.

We believe that the more we live like Christ, the more the grace of God will be unleashed in our lives. That’s why we’re emphasizing this aspect of being part of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. These are powerful actions that change us from the inside out; that help us to encounter Jesus. By entering into this pilgrimage to encounter Jesus in our neighbor, we’re making ourselves available so that Christ can meet us, that we can see him face to face, and that he can change us and heal us, and by healing us, heal our world. That’s what it’s all about.

The Processional Cross: a catechism of sacrifice and revelation

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Sir Stephen Enzweiler

Cathedral Historian

It has been a part of the Cathedral Basilica’s pontifical liturgies for decades. It is a golden, bejeweled work of sacred art carried by gloved crucifers in high ceremony and with great solemnity leading the entrance processions of each Pontifical Mass. It is a striking object, made of fine hammered gold and gold filigree, enameled inlays, and ensconced with precious and semi-precious stones.

It is the Episcopal Processional Cross of the Bishop of Covington. Also known as a “processional crucifix,” the cross is larger and heavier than most and dates back more than 70 years to 1953 and the episcopacy of Bishop William T. Mulloy. It was in that year that St. Mary’s Cathedral was elevated to the rank of Minor Basilica by Pope Pius XII. Bishop Mulloy, who was known for his predilection for highly decorative sacred art, commissioned the cross for the occasion.

It is said to have been made for him at the Benedictine Abbey of Maria-Laach in Germany. The cross is elaborately decorated on both sides. The front, or crucifix side, depicts the sacrificial themes of the Old and New Testaments, while the reverse, the Marian side, depicts symbols of Mary and themes related to Revelation and her Assumption and Coronation.

The crucifix side is dominated by the central figure of Jesus Christ in his sacrifice on the cross. Beneath his feet we see the serpent crushed in defeat by the victory of the cross. On either side of Christ’s head are depicted the sun and the moon, titles the Church has given to Jesus and Mary. The sun is the source of light, and Jesus is “the light of the world,” while Mary, like the moon, can only reflect the light of her son. Standing beneath the dying Jesus are the weeping figures of his mother and St. John the Evangelist.

At the ends of the cross are four enameled medallions illustrating sacrificial themes found throughout the Bible. At the top, Moses stands with the bronze serpent mounted on a pole, a reference to Numbers 21:9. Here Yaweh relents and heals the sin of his people, so that anyone bitten by a snake who gazes upon the bronze serpent would live. The passage also prefigures Jesus’ own crucifixion and promise of salvation: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (Jn 12:32).

On the right is depicted the sacrifice of bread and wine offered by Melchizedek, the “priest of God Most High” (Gen 14:18). A messianic Psalm written by King David a thousand years later would compare the coming Messiah with Melchizedek: “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Ps 110:4). To the left, another medallion depicts Aaron holding a lamb in offering to God, reflecting the passage in Exodus 12 that describes the sacrifice during the Passover ritual. This ritual is repeated in the New Testament, where Jesus fulfills his role not only as high priest but as the Lamb of God who sacrifices himself for his people. A fourth medallion on the bottom speaks to us of the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. We see God’s hand reach out to stop him, pleased with Abraham’s unwavering faith.

Six kinds of precious and semi-precious stones ensconce the cruciform front. These include Chrysolite (a type of yellow quartz), Topazos, Calcedony, Beryl, Amethyst, and Chryoprase. Each stone was selected because each decorated the breastplate of the high priest Aaron in the Old Testament; they were also chosen because they are listed in Revelation as among the foundation stones in the New Jerusalem (Ex 28:15-30 & Rev 21:20). Encircling the figure of Jesus are twelve individual stones made of Beryl and Calcedony, a reference to the 12 stones of Aaron’s breastplate, the 12 tribes of Israel, 12 Apostles, and the 12 foundation stones in the New Jerusalem.

Inscribed on the round stem node beneath the cross is the promise of Christ himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the Life.”

The reverse side of the processional cross is devoted to Marian imagery and evokes her as the Mary of the Book of Revelation. In the center, surrounded by gold filigree and 12 semi-precious stones, she ascends in the glory of her Assumption and Coronation as the woman clothed with the sun, the sun and moon beneath her feet (Rev 12:1). Above her, two angels with the Holy Spirit gently place the crown of glory upon her head. Four gold medallions surround the scene with images of her royal titles: the New Ark of the Covenant, the Tower of David, Mystical Rose, and Gate of Heaven.

Together, both sides of the processional cross speak to Revelation history, the prophecy and prefigurement of the Old Testament revealed in the new sacrifice made in Christ and brought about through Mary, the premiere member of the Church whose Fiat brought about Emmanuel, God with us.