Dear St. Josaphat Parish and School Family, I write to you with difficult news. The Archdiocese has been notified that the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has opened an investigation into allegations they termed child exploitation and child molestation during a public penance service against Father Martin Nyberg. Father Nyberg, who has served your parish as associate pastor from July 1, 2024, strenuously denies the allegations.

We praise you, O God of all creation. Quicken in us a resolve to protect your handiwork. You are the source of every blessing that graces our lives and our nation.

Please join me in praying for the continued recovery of former president Donald Trump, for his family, as well as for the other victims of yesterday’s horrific assassination attempt, one of whom has died. The FBI has announced that the suspect is a young man of just 20 years.

Cleveland; Philadelphia; Boston; Albany, New York; Detroit; Tampa, Florida; Connecticut; Chicago. They all have one thing in common: Deadly mass shootings over this year’s Fourth of July holiday weekend.

I denounce the vandalization that took place last evening at the Downtown Islamic Center in Chicago.

It is always a joy for me to be among friends, which is what I find in this room as we come together for this 2024 Annual Muslim – Catholic Iftar gathering. My thanks go to our hosts tonight, the Islamic Foundation – North, to President Ahmed Nader, Resident Scholar Sheikh Azfar Uddin, and the staff and community of this wonderful place of prayer and fellowship. Your warm welcome this evening is deeply appreciated.

Today, with the approval of the Holy Father, the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith issued the Declaration Fiducia supplicans. The Declaration clarifies that there are forms of blessings, as we see throughout the Scriptures, which are “poured out on others as a gesture of grace, protection, and goodness.” Consequently, it is now permissible for ordained ministers of the Church to “join in the prayer of those persons who, although in a union that cannot be compared in any way to a marriage, desire to entrust themselves to the Lord and his mercy, to invoke his help, and to be guided to a greater understanding of his plan of love and of truth.”

Warm greetings to you as you gather for Shabbat services this morning. Thank you to Rabbi Michael Siegel, Executive Director Mimi Weisberg, and the staff of Anshe Emet for such a gracious welcome. It may be a bit of an understatement to say that it is unusual to have a Catholic bishop speaking as part of your weekly shabbat service. Then again, these are not normal times.

Today, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul published a report (the Report) on his office’s investigation of allegations of child sexual abuse against clergy in the six Illinois Catholic dioceses over a period of nearly 90 years. The Report addresses both how dioceses responded to such allegations in decades past and current policies that help ensure the safety of children and support the healing of survivors. We have not studied the report in detail but have concerns about data that might be misunderstood or are presented in ways that could be misleading. It is therefore important that we state what we know to be true.

Cardinal Wilton Gregory’s exceptional faith journey began more than six decades ago at St. Carthage Catholic School on the South Side of Chicago. There, he felt God’s call to the priesthood even though he was not a Catholic.