Rev. Fr. Isidro Satou III, CSsR Cebu City, DH
In the years of his pontificate, Pius XI always and firmly raised his voice in defending the faith, the freedom of the Church, and the transcendent dignity of every human person...He clearly condemned, through speeches and letters, the atheistic and inhumane ideologies that bloodied the twentieth century. He brought to light their contradictions by indicating the Church as the high road of the Gospel, and also putting into practice the search for social justice, an indispensable dimension of the fully human redemption of peoples and nations.
- Pope Francis' address to Ukrainian Greek Catholic seminarians at the 85th Anniversary of the Pontifical Seminary of St Josaphat, November 9th, 2017
The Gospel reading for today, the Memorial of St. Josaphat, is Jn 17:20-26, which closes The Prayer of Jesus (the entirety of Chapter 17). In the preconcilar form of the Mass, this is the feast day of Pope St. Martin I, a class III feast day; the Gospel reading here is Mt 16:13-19.
St. Josaphat Kuntsevych was Archeparch of the Ruthenian Uniate Church, the precursor to the Ukrainian and Belarusian Greek Catholic Churches. His martyrdom in 1623--death by angry mob--was part of the reaction to the 1596 Union of Brest, which saw the Kiev Metropolitanate confirm its communion with the See of Rome. He was canonized under the papacy of Bl. Pius IX, with his preconciliar feast day falling on November 14th.
For Pope St. Martin I's opposition to Monothelitism, he was ultimately exiled to Cherson by order of Emperor Constans II, where he died in AD 655. After Mysterii Paschalis, his feast day was moved to April 13th.
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