SEPTEMBER 26, 2025
mississippicatholic.com
‘The work continues’ – Bishop Kopacz marks 75 with gratitude and new chapter of ministry By Joanna Puddister King
JACKSON – Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz reached a milestone on Sept. 16 as he celebrated his 75th birthday with Mass at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle and a luncheon with chancery staff. The day carried both personal and ecclesial significance: under canon law, bishops are required to submit their resignation at age 75. In a video message leading up to the day, Bishop Kopacz reflected on the process and what it means for his ministry. “It’s special because it’s my 75th birthday. Canon law requires that I send my letter of resignation into the Apostolic Delegate,” he explained. The letter was submitted to Christophe Cardinal Pierre, the papal nuncio to the United States. Still, as the bishop reminded the faithful, acceptance of the letter does not come right away. “Every bishop is obligated to do this … but typically the nuncio will write back and say, continue serving in JACKSON – Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz delivers the homily at a Mass celebrating the diocese,” he said. That time his 75th birthday on Sept. 16 at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle. (Photo by
Tereza Ma)
of waiting often lasts a year and a half or longer. “I look at it as being an extended Advent,” Bishop Kopacz said. “A bishop knows not the day nor the hour when he will receive notice of a successor. That allows me the time then to realize – time is important – and there’s much ministry to attend to in collaboration with priests and leadership in the diocese.” The bishop spoke of gratitude for the years behind him and the ministry still to come. “Although the letter is going in, not much is going to change, practically speaking, except I’m getting older and grateful to God for living a long life up to this point and being able to serve the Lord and be active in ministry.” At the Mass marking his birthday, Bishop Kopacz reminisced about his consecration as Bishop of Jackson at the “young age of 63 and a half years old,” he quipped. With many other bishops turning
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New young saints encourage faithful to live life fully, pope says By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The greatest risk in life is to waste it by not seeking to follow God’s plan, Pope Leo XIV said, proclaiming two new saints – two young laymen of the 20th and 21st centuries. “Sts. Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially young people, not to squander our lives, but to direct them upward and make them masterpieces,” the pope said Sept. 7. “The simple but winning formula of their holiness,” he said, is accessible to everyone at any time. “They encourage us with their words: ‘Not I, but God,’ as Carlo used to say. And Pier Giorgio: ‘If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end.’” Before canonizing INSIDE THIS WEEK the first saints of his pontificate, Pope Leo FOLLOW US greeted the more than 80,000 faithful who had gathered early in St. Peter’s Square because he wanted to share his joy @jacksondiocese with them before the start of the solemn ceremony. DIGITAL EDITION “Brothers and sisters, today is a wonderful celeText bration for all of Italy, for MSCATHOLIC the whole church, for the whole world,” he said beto 84576
fore the Mass. “While the celebration is very solemn, it is also a day of great joy, and I wanted to greet especially the many young people who have come for this holy Mass,” he said, also greeting the families of the soonto-be saints and the associations and communities to which the young men had belonged. Pope Leo asked that everyone “feel in our hearts the same thing that Pier Giorgio and Carlo experienced: this love for Jesus Christ, especially in the Eucharist, but also in the poor, in our brothers and sisters.” “All of you, all of us, are also called to be saints,” he said, before leaving to prepare for Mass and paying homage to a statue of Mary with baby Jesus
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and the reliquaries containing the relics of the two young men. In his homily, the pope underlined Jesus’ call in the day’s Gospel reading “to abandon ourselves without hesitation to the adventure that he offers us, with the intelligence and strength that comes from his Spirit, that we can receive to the extent that we empty ourselves of the things and ideas to which we are attached, in order to listen to his word.” That is what the two new saints did and what every disciple of Christ is called to do, he said. Many people, especially when they are young, he said, face a kind of “crossroads” in life when they
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From the archives 8 Mobile Cathedral magnolia tree then and now
Youth 11 Youth photos from around the diocese