My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus:
Let it not go unnoticed that this past weekend we celebrated two beautiful liturgical celebrations: November 1, the Solemnity of All Saints, and November 2, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, traditionally known as All Souls Day, which begins this Month of All Souls. These two celebrations are not accidentally linked to each other, but express in a very complementary manner the destiny of every person. In Chapter 14 of St. John’s Gospel, we read these beautiful words of Jesus: “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you also may be” (John 14:1-3).
While some outstanding and heroic persons of faith, especially the holy martyrs, are formally declared saints through the Church’s process leading to canonization, declaring that these ever faithful disciples of Jesus now live with Him in the halls of heaven, we know that every person is called by Christ to share in His eternal life, the fullness of our lives. “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). All Saints Day calls to mind the countless numbers of persons, who in quiet, unassuming ways, faithfully adhered to and practiced the gift of faith, in good times and in times of hardship, in times of joy and in times of struggle, in times of rejoicing and in times of mourning. Without fanfare or notoriety, they lived the Beatitudes. Allow me to reiterate my message from last year commemorating this Solemnity, which, I believe, needs repeating:
“Each weekend and on Holy Days and Solemnities, we pray the Nicene Creed, the Profession of Faith, which concludes with the words: ‘I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.’ The saints honored on November 1 are those who took this creedal profession to heart. They may remain nameless in the Church’s liturgical calendar, but they are known to God and described in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount taken from St. Matthew’s Gospel and proclaimed on the Solemnity: those who in genuine humility acknowledged God as Father and Creator, Jesus as Savior and welcomed and embraced the wisdom of the Holy Spirit; those who prayed for their deceased loved ones and commended them to the mercy of God; those who exercised authority justly, humbly, mercifully and with God before their eyes; those who worked for true justice because we are all the sons and daughters of God; those who not only forgave but asked for forgiveness, seeking before all else the Lord’s merciful forgiveness; those who appreciated their dignity as one created in the image and likeness of God and respected their personhood, allowing no one to tarnish this image; those who worked for peace, sought to end divisions and created unity among people; and those who suffered persecution for the faith, especially those who suffered martyrdom and those who bore insults and slander simply because they held Jesus in their hearts and on their lips spoke His Name and proclaimed His Gospel (cf. Matthew 5:1-12).”
Throughout these words of the Beatitudes, there is a common thread with the strength of an iron chain linking together the commands to love God by loving our neighbor, especially the poorest among us. In his first Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi Te, (I have loved you), Our Holy Father, Pope Leo, penned these words: “On the wounded faces of the poor, we see the suffering of Christ Himself” (paragraph 9). On Oct. 5, 2025, we celebrated Respect Life Sunday, thanking God for all, who because of love for Jesus, have supported the Church’s efforts to build a culture of life as disciples of Jesus and ever mindful of the poor. In my homily at the diocesan Mass celebrated on that Sunday at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, I referenced the 2022 statement by Archbishop William E. Lori, the then USCCB chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, entitled: “Building a Culture of Life in a Post-Roe World.” There we read:
“Words alone are not nearly enough to bring about the revolution of love necessary to create a world where all mothers, children, and families are welcomed and protected. For this we must have the courage to love — to act and bear witness by caring for the least among us, without condition or expectation of recompense. It is only through such radical witness that hearts will be softened such that they can receive the truth of the Gospel of Life.
“The Catholic Church is the largest charitable provider of social services to women, children, and families in the United States. Only the federal government through tax dollars does more. Catholics have already done much at both the institutional and personal level to help address the problems of poverty, healthcare, education, housing, employment, addiction, criminal justice, domestic violence, and the like that push women towards abortion. Our Church understands that parents, children, and families need help not just during pregnancy, but throughout the whole of life’s journey because millions of Catholics already accompany their neighbors in such circumstances” (October 2022).
It is efforts such as these that bring the compassion and love of Jesus to our suffering sisters and brothers. Jesus turns His back on no one; the Church extends His arms in reconciliation, unites the suffering heart to His Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of His Mother, Our Mother, Mary, praying that through our good works and those whom we serve, this Mother will take our hand and lead us over the threshold from this life to eternal life, joining the company of saints.
In the same Apostolic Letter, Dilexi Te, Pope Leo also wrote:
“At the same time, we should perhaps speak more correctly of the many faces of the poor and of poverty, since it is a multifaceted phenomenon. In fact, there are many forms of poverty: the poverty of those who lack material means of subsistence, the poverty of those who are socially marginalized and lack the means to give voice to their dignity and abilities, moral and spiritual poverty, cultural poverty, the poverty of those who find themselves in a condition of personal or social weakness or fragility, the poverty of those who have no rights, no space, no freedom (paragraph 9) … Christians should also be aware of another form of inconsistency in the way they treat the poor. In reality, ‘the worst discrimination which the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care… Our preferential option for the poor must mainly translate into a privileged and preferential religious care’” (Dilexi Te, paragraph 114, quoting Pope Francis in Evangeli Gaudium, 186).
In Dilexi Te Pope Leo traces the Church’s long history of caring for the poor and recalls the founding of religious congregations of women and men to serve the poor through schools, hospitals, orphanages and the work of so many missionaries serving the corporal works of mercy by educating, teaching methods of farming and bringing to fruition the natural talents of those with whom they shared their lives and above all their faith. Realizing the dignity of all people created in the image and likeness of God, these saintly women and men wanted their impoverished sisters and brothers to worship beside them in the House of God; that those they fed and clothed, sheltered and healed also would be fed with the Most Holy Eucharist and clothed in the love of Christ, comforted and broken no longer because they now encountered Jesus. Particularly poignant at this time is the reference to St. Frances Cabrini in His Holiness’ Apostolic Letter:
“St. Frances Cabrini, born in Italy and a naturalized American, was the first citizen of the United States of America to be canonized. To fulfill her mission of assisting migrants, she crossed the Atlantic several times. ‘Armed with remarkable boldness, she started schools, hospitals and orphanages from nothing for the masses of the poor who ventured into the new world in search of work. Not knowing the language and lacking the wherewithal to find a respectable place in American society, they were often victims of the unscrupulous. Her motherly heart, which allowed her no rest, reached out to them everywhere: in hovels, prisons and mines’ (quoting St. John Paul II’s Message to the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, May 31, 2000). In the Holy Year of 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed her Patroness of All Migrants.” (Paragraph 75).
There are countless, nameless numbers of our brothers and sisters who took to heart the message of this Apostolic Letter, and long before the words were written, they cried out, I have loved you! Indeed, they knew God loved them and, by their apostolic and meritorious deeds. they paved their way to the heavenly Jerusalem.
Following All Saints Day, we commemorate All Souls Day and this Month of All Souls. In a very real way, we are expected to reflect seriously upon our own personal relationship with God and the primacy that He holds in our lives as we strive for eternal union with Him. Let us pray constantly for ourselves and our deceased loved ones, that through the mercy and compassion of Jesus they may come to enjoy the grace of eternal life in the heavenly Jerusalem, our true home.
In his 2024 Encyclical Letter, Dilexit Nos (He loved us), which inspired Pope Leo’s Apostolic Letter, Pope Francis, of beloved memory, meditated upon the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, quoting St. John Paul II: “’The whole of the Christian life is like a great pilgrimage to the house of the Father.’ This too was the experience of St. Ignatius of Antioch on his path to martyrdom: ‘In me there is left no spark of desire for mundane things, but only a murmur of living water that whispers with me, ‘Come to the Father’” (Dilexit Nos, paragraph 71).
In this month of All Souls, let us also pray fervently for the victims of natural disasters and the countless innocent lives that have been sacrificed in war-torn countries throughout the world. We pray with mind, heart and soul united that our bruised, scarred and deeply wounded humanity will turn to the Author of Peace, the Savior upon the Cross, Jesus Christ, and that the recent peace agreements achieved in the Middle East will be the forerunner to a lasting peace.
In closing, I wish you a blessed Thanksgiving, which is celebrated November 27. Not only on this day, but every day, I thank God for your fidelity to the Church as we seek renewal and restoration in the image of the Good Shepherd and acknowledge Christ Our King, whom we celebrate November 23. His is a Kingdom “of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace” (Preface: Jesus Christ, King of the Universe).
Invoking the intercession of Our Mother Mary, Queen of Peace, and St. John Fisher, our Diocesan Patron, I remain,
Sincerely yours in Christ,
The Most Reverend
Salvatore R. Matano
Bishop of Rochester
