Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Greetings from Rome. Father Daren Zehnle and I arrived five hours late on Wednesday after a three hour delay at O'Hare Airport, missing two connecting flights in London, and a one hour delay for the third connecting flight which eventually got us to Rome.

Our day started today (Wednesday) by concelebrating Mass with Cardinal George and the Bishops of our region (Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana) at the tomb of Saint Peter in the lower level of Saint Peter's Basilica. I prayed there for all the clergy, consecrated religious and laity of our diocese. We then had a meeting at the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. Whereas the word "evengelization" refers to bringing non-Catholics into the Church, the term "new evangelization" refers to renewing the fervor of people who were baptized Catholics but who have grown lukewarm in their Catholicism or have abandoned the practice of the faith altogether.

Also this morning the Bishops of Illinois had our audience with Pope Benedict XVI and it went well. Each Bishop was assigned a topic to speak about and, since I am the Bishop of our state capital, I was asked to brief the Holy Father on the issues involved in our dealings with Catholic politicians. I told the Pope that it is a challenge when Catholic politicians take up positions that are contrary to the Catholic faith, such as supporting abortion and civil unions, and then invoke their conscience to defend their actions. I informed His Holiness of the action of our Catholic government officials that pushed Catholic Charities out of foster care and adoption services and I described for him the efforts we are making to continue serving the poor in other ways through Catholic Charities. I also summarized for the Holy Father the steps that we are taking to work with government officials through the Catholic Conference of Illinois, the recent meeting that we bishops had with the Governor, and our efforts to educate the public on these matters through our diocesan newspapers and other media. The Holy Father expressed his gratitude for this information and his support for our efforts.

I will continue to keep you in my prayers here in Rome and ask you to pray for our Holy Father and all the Bishops of our region.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Bishop Thomas John Paprocki