This weekend, in addition to our continuation of the fifty-day Easter Season, we also enter the beautiful month of May, a month traditionally dedicated to Our Blessed Mother. When Bishop Miege founded the Catholic Church in LEavenworth on August 15, 1855, he dedicated his Cathedral parish in honor of Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception. This dogma had been declared by Pope Pius IX just a few months earlier on December 8, 1854.

This Sunday, we are hosting a very special celebration in honor of Mary as part of our 150th Jubilee Year celebrations at Immaculate Conception Church. At 2:00p.m. we will be having a traditional May Crowning ceremony in conjunction with a Living Rosary involving 75 parishioners -- including Liturgical Readers, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, members of both parish Altar Societies, Liturgy of the Word catechists and their children, and members of our Parish Youth Group, who will be attending World Youth Day in Germany this coming August.

We will be offering our Rosary for the intentions of our new Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. We are most honored that Archbishop Joseph Naumann will be with us to participate in the Rosary and to preach the homily for our celebration. Archbishop Naumann has asked each parish to have a special Mass or prayer service in honor of our new pope. As he had agreed to join us for this special May Jubilee celebration, we thought it would be appropriate to dedicate our Rosary in honor of our new pontiff. We have an ice cream social in Miege Hall immediately following the celebration!

We can be very grateful that Archbishop Naumann would take time from his busy schedule to be with us. Of the 15 Jubilee events, this is the one he most wanted to attend. Please join us this Sunday afternoon as we welcome Archbishop Naumann, as we thank God for our new Holy Father, as we mark the 150th anniversary of the Church in Leavenworth, and as we sing praises to Mary, our Mother, who has looked over our parishes these many years! I encourage you all to make an effort to join us. Bring the whole family!

Fr. Roy will be away from the parish this weekend, giving Carmelite Mission Appeals in the Springfield, Illinois area.

On Wednesday of this week, we will be Welcoming our Midwest Regional Carmelite Provincial, Fr. Bernhard Bauerle, O.Carm., from Chicago, for a brief visit to the parish. Fr. Bernhard (a native of Germany, like Pope Benedict XVI) will also be visiting Fr. Fergus Lickteig in Olathe and the Carmelite pastor of our Parish in Scipio, Kansas.

God Bless you always!