Ash Wednesday Mass at Westminster Cathedral in London, England, on March 1, 2017. / Credit: Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk
ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 14, 2024 / 04:30 am (CNA).
At the Mass that marks the beginning of the season of Lent, which serves as preparation for Easter, the priest and the ministers who assist him say one of two possible formulas as they place ashes on the foreheads of the faithful present, even non-Catholics who want to receive them.
The Roman Missal states that “the minister then places the ashes on those who come forward, saying: ‘Repent and believe in the Gospel’ (cf. Mk 1:15) or ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return’ (cf. Gn 3:19).”
What do you do after receiving the ashes?
There is no specified response or action for the penitent after receiving the ashes, so it is a moment to silently meditate on what the priest or minister said.
Father Mauro Carlorosi, an Argentine priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri and expert on the subject of divine mercy, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that although “there is no minimum time” established to wear the ashes on the forehead or head, these can serve as a means to bear witness.
The ashes and witnessing to the Christian faith
The priest, who is also a member of Faustinum, an international association that promotes the Divine Mercy devotion, explained that the ashes “do a lot to serve as a witness that you are a Christian and are living Lent.”
“You don’t have to be afraid to bear witness wherever you are,” he emphasized.
“But, of course, the ashes on the head that day don’t prevent the performance of your duty. If you have to wash them off you can do so; you shouldn’t take them off because you’re too cowardly to wear an external sign,” the priest explained.
For Carlorosi, “in these times we need to know how to externalize our faith, particularly as laypeople. Just as we wear a wedding ring on the hand or make the sign of the cross [passing] before a church, we can wear ashes to courageously bear witness to Christ.”
“If the ashes fall off on their own or if you wash yourself, then this should be from losing that sign in the natural course of things,” the priest recommended.
“And if an ugly stain remains on your forehead that deteriorates as the day progresses, there is no problem in removing it so that it doesn’t look like dirt. There would be no problem then with washing,” he concluded.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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A view from in St. Michael’s Abbey in Orange County, California. / Credit: St. Michael’s Abbey
CNA Staff, Jan 9, 2024 / 10:30 am (CNA).
An abbey in California launched a consulting and fundraising firm that its leaders say is helping “serve and nourish the Church during a very unique moment in her history.”
The Abbey Group was launched at St. Michael’s Abbey in Orange County, California, in 2020 after the priests saw major success with a capital campaign to build a new monastery there.
The abbey, of the Norbertine order, launched the campaign in 2006 but it stalled after “a decade of fits and starts,” Gregory Clark, the strategic planning director of the Abbey Group, told CNA. The abbey’s leadership consequently assembled “a small, internal team of confreres to rethink the project,” hiring R. Shane Giblin in the process.
Within short order the abbey had secured over $150 million in commitments, more than doubling earlier projections of $60 million. The team also found “creative ways to immediately pay off all their bank debt in the same year it opened.”
St. Michael’s Abbey Father Prior Chrysostom Baer told CNA the project had transformed to the point that it was “no longer about what the abbey needed but rather the opportunity the benefactors had to do something of great consequence for themselves and the Church.”
“This not only fit with our calling as religious, but it was simply more effective,” Baer said.
The major success of that campaign led people to seek out both Giblin and the Norbertine Fathers “asking for strategic counsel on how to move forward with their own projects,” Clark said.
Giblin and the abbey’s Father Justin Ramos “began offering pro bono counsel for about 18 months until they saw there was a real need in the Church that wasn’t being met.” The Abbey Group was launched as a result.
St. Michael’s Abbey in Orange County, California. Credit: St. Michael’s Abbey
‘Not dissimilar from what St. Norbert encountered 900 years ago’
St. Norbert established the Canons Regular of Prémontré in Prémontré, France, in 1121. The order’s task was in part to revitalize both clergy and lay faithful that had become dissolute in the faith at the time.
The Abbey Group “exists to help serve and nourish the Church during a very unique moment in her history — not dissimilar from what St. Norbert encountered 900 years ago,” Clark told CNA.
The initiative “provides strategic counsel and direction to faithful Catholic religious communities, educational institutions, and apostolates around the world,” Clark said, with a focus on institutions that have “ambitious apostolic endeavors and strong leadership but are in need of the financial and temporal resources to accomplish their objectives.”
The Abbey Group team has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for worthy Catholic projects, though it does not engage in any formal marketing. The group intentionally eschews online marketing, avoiding the common business practice to “saturate the internet with messages” of self-promotion.
Giblin, now serving as CEO and co-founder of the Abbey Group, said this is intentional. “All of our clients come to us through unsolicited word of mouth,” he said. “So our reputation is all we have — if we don’t do good work we won’t exist — and we shouldn’t exist.”
The group has already developed “a queue of clients” — it takes on just four projects at any one time, vigorously vetting each proposal for its fidelity to the Catholic Church as well as the leadership guiding the project in question.
The majority of the staff are drawn from the laity, and the Norbertine Fathers offer “spiritual guidance” to the team and play a role in the governance of the organization.
Altogether the effort is directed toward “providing worthy Catholic projects with the strategy and resources they need to fulfill what God is calling them to accomplish,” Clark said.
Giblin said he was fortunate to have had “a front-row seat to see the way Father Abbot and Father Justin were able to work with a special group of people from all over the country to courageously support this unique project.”
“I saw people grow spiritually through this process and I realized this was just as much an opportunity for them as it was for the abbey,” he said. “It is an authentically Catholic approach to fundraising — one that is desperately needed in our Church during this moment in her history.”
Co-founder of the Abbey Group Father Ramos, meanwhile, said the endeavor’s work “is rooted inexorably in faith and charity, and in Christ.”
“We’re aiding in discernment,” Ramos said, “to allow generous souls to participate in the renewing of the Church.”
Pope Leo XIV receives a video from the Hope Border Institute from Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Celino on Oct. 8, 2025. / Credit: Fernie Ceniceros/El Paso Diocese
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 8, 2025 / 17:13 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV became “visibly emotional” upon receiving messages on Oct. 8 from immigrants fearing deportation in the United States, a member of a U.S. delegation said.
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Celino, and Dylan Corbett of Hope Border Institute gave the pope a collection of handwritten letters from migrant families expressing fear and faith. They showed the pope a video with immigrants’ voices saying mass deportations in the United States are breaking family bonds and stripping children of safety.
“We live in a state of constant anxiety, never knowing if tomorrow will bring separation,” an immigrant says in the video.
Corbett posted on X that Leo told the delegation, which included immigrants: “The Church cannot stay silent before injustice. You stand with me, and I stand with you.”
One letter writer expressed fear of leaving the house, even to see a doctor, and asked for prayers for President Donald Trump that his heart may be filled with love, compassion, and empathy. The Trump administration is undertaking a massive expansion of enforcement, detention, and border control efforts.
‘You could see tears in his eyes’
Corbett, founding executive director of Hope Border Institute, described the 25-minute encounter with Pope Leo to CNA.
“Bishop Seitz spoke about the Church in the United States’ commitment to walking alongside immigrants and refugees in our country,” Corbett recalled, noting Seitz’s remarks had been unscripted. “And the Holy Father quickly said he wanted the Church in the United States to be more united and forceful on this issue, and that what’s happening right now is an injustice.”
“We were then able to share from our perspective some of what we’re seeing across the United States right now in terms of the campaign of mass deportations,” he continued, adding: “The Holy Father grew visibly emotional about that.”
A letter to Pope Leo XIV includes a prayer for President Donald Trump. Credit: Hope Border Institute
The group presented Leo with “over 100 letters from immigrants across the country who are at risk of deportation or who are in mixed families.” The delegation also presented the Holy Father with a video featuring “voices drawn from those letters that tell the story of the anxieties and fears, and also the hopes, right now of the immigrant community.”
At this point, Corbett said Leo “became emotional and you could see tears in his eyes.”
“He was very supportive and encouraging,” Corbett said, noting several representatives from the immigrant community were also present for the meeting and offered their testimonies.
Fernie Ceniceros, a spokesperson for the El Paso Diocese, told CNA: “The Diocese of El Paso is thrilled to know that the Holy Father was able to meet with Bishop Mark Seitz and our Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Celino and a small delegation of local immigration advocates that included clergy from with the diocese.”
“We are blessed to know that the Holy Father expressed his support of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border along with migrants all over the world,” he added.
Ceniceros shared several images of the letters given to Leo, including one in English and one in Spanish.
One of the letters sent by an El Paso priest on loan from the Srikakulam Diocese in Andhra Pradesh, India, described “feeling a sort of insecurity … due to the immigration situation” and noted that many are “scared to move comfortably even with legal documentation.”
A letter to Pope Leo XIV sent by an El Paso priest on loan from the Srikakulam Diocese in Andhra Pradesh, India, described “feeling a sort of insecurity” Oct. 8, 2025. Credit: Hope Border Institute
The letter further appealed to the Holy Father for papal support in being “a voice for the voiceless” while also “uphold[ing] the right of nations to regulate borders and the right of people to seek a better life.”
Pope Leo receives a collection of letters from migrants in the United States fearing deportation Oct. 8, 2025. Credit: Hope Border Institute
Another letter from an anonymous immigrant lacking legal status in California told Leo: “These days we are living with a lot of fear, confusion, and sadness.” The letter appealed to the Holy Father to “continue petitioning our God and to continue listening to the voice of the needy immigrant community, raising his voice alongside our brothers and sisters from separated families.”
“Thank you for listening to us,” it concluded.
Messages from migrants
One letter said:
“Dear Pope Leo, there are two members of my family without documents. I feel afraid to go out to work and that I could be separated from my family. I think that there should be demand for the immigration agents not to be allowed to get close to parishes, and the raids should stop, because they only create pain and fear. I think the pope should be openly against the raids, and the unjust treatment that’s affecting the community. Speaking clearly and concisely about the situation that we are in and condemning the way in which so-called Christians in power are acting.”
Another letter said:
“We are a mixed family. I am very sad, with a lot of pain and fear. I have not gone out for two weeks and when I do go out, I’m afraid, even when I have to go to the doctor. I think that the Church could help us in getting immigration lawyers to support us and all of those who have been detained. The Church could also give protection to families that remain here. Pope Leo, you know the whole situation that the world is living in, that there is a lot of pain and that we don’t have peace. We ask for your prayers and that you would speak to those who you should speak to. I also ask for prayers for Donald Trump for his heart to be filled with love, compassion, and empathy.”
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