USCCB Gen. Assembly Honors Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos

Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, the nineteenth-century Bavarian Redemptorist whose relics are enshrined in New Orleans, has been honored by the General Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

(CWN) By large margins, members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to approve a statement encouraging Catholics to go to Confession during Lent (236-1 vote), to approve a statement on Sunday homilies (227-11 vote), and to add the optional memorial of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos to the US liturgical calendar (213-1 vote). The October 5 memorial for Blessed Seelos (1819-67), a Bavarian-born Redemptorist who ministered in the United States, requires additional approval from the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship.