On Friday, we traveled 200 miles to the northeast to a small town overlooking the Adriatic Sea to visit the Basilica of the Holy House in Loreto, where Fr. Robert celebrated Mass. This Basilica is built around and protects a very special building located right in its center, that being the Santa Casa.

Dear friends,

Africans love feasts!

We love wedding feasts, ordination celebrations, anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, and memorials. Whenever there is something important to celebrate, we know how to celebrate it-and we do not like to celebrate alone!

Today in Rome on our young adult pilgrimage, Fr. Robert is celebrating Mass at the Mamertine Prison, the oldest prison in Rome. It sits directly adjacent to the Roman Forum on the northeastern slope of the Capitoline Hill, and Tradition holds that at separate times, St. Peter and St. Paul were once imprisoned here in the prison's subterranean dungeon during their trial before their martyrdom.

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for organizing a memorable celebration of the 35th anniversary of my priestly ordination two weeks ago.

As I look back over these 35 years of service, many memories come to my mind: moments of joy and moments of challenge, moments of success and moments of uncertainty and even moments of failure ... Yet through it all one reality has remained constant and at the core of my priesthood: God's abiding presence in my life and the Holy Eucharist, the Bread of Life. I'm deeply grateful for all these.