August 2024

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Welcome back to school students, teachers, disciples, and catechists!

Of course, by the time you read this most of you are already two weeks into the school year. The average school year in the United States is 36 weeks of classroom time. That means that you are already one-eighteenth of the way toward earning the reward of next summer. Time passes quickly! Do more than watch it go by.As we begin this new school year, we have a unique opportunity to seize the day. Three overlapping movements invite us to make the most of the coming year.

Locally, I am encouraging all Catholics to engage in a Campaign of Mercy. This is an invitation to make the performance of works of mercy a regular part of our Christian life, and especially to reflect and pray on how we meet Jesus Christ when we do something merciful for any of the least of His brothers and sisters. As we grow in our commitment to mercy, we will eventually focus on inviting those who are not actively living the faith and those who have no church home to join us in doing mercy and seeking Christ. This is a part of our diocesan plan for evangelization.

July’s National Eucharistic Congress inaugurated the third year of the National Eucharistic Revival. This effort invites us to grow as Missionaries of the Eucharist. To be a Missionary of the Eucharist means that nourished by the Eucharist and filled with the Holy Spirit, we go out to others to bear the good news of Jesus to others in word and merciful deed.

Globally, Pope Francis has announced that 2025 will be a Jubilee Year in the life of the Church. This is a time of special celebration of the mercy of God and the freedom from sin, death, and oppression that is God’s will for all people. The Jubilee begins in Rome on the First Sunday of Advent this year. The theme of the year is Pilgrims of Hope. While announcing this theme Pope Francis emphasized the importance of Works of Mercy in opening oneself to the graces of the Jubilee Year. He noted that spending time with a brother or sister in need is itself a kind of hopeful pilgrimage to meet Christ in the other.

Each of these three movements reinforces the others, inviting us to cultivate trust in Christ by receiving His mercy and becoming mercy for others. We prepare for this journey of faith through an active life of prayer, accepting the Our Father as the pattern of Christian life and the form of our relationship with God.

This year, I invite all our students in Catholic Schools and Parish Religious Education programs; all our faculty, staff, and catechists; and all the Faithful throughout the Diocese of Covington; to live as Pilgrims of Hope and Missionaries of Mercy. We can live by the conviction that every work of mercy is a work of hopefulness in the world.

Please, during this year, help one another enter this period of Revival and Jubilee through prayer, mercy, and the journey toward trust in Jesus. Time passes quickly. Make this a year for Spirit-filled growth in holiness!

Yours devotedly in the Lord,
Bishop John Iffert