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John Paul Uebbing’s big moment. / File Photo/CNA.

Vatican City, Jan 8, 2023 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The infant son of former Catholic News Agency editor David Uebbing received a farewell kiss on his forehead from Pope Benedict XVI on Feb. 27, 2013, at the plaza of St. Peter’s Basilica before the pope’s final general audience.

“To see him today in the final hours of his papacy and to have him hold my son in his arms was a special kind of blessing, and a consolation from the Lord,” Uebbing’s wife, Jenny, the mother of the fortunate infant, John Paul, told CNA on Feb. 27, 2013.

“I asked the Lord to help me truly experience this morning, this last event with Pope Benedict, and to not be anxious about whether we would get a good spot or be able to see him drive by,” she said. “I had so much peace while we were waiting for the audience to begin, and I just prayed that if we were meant to get close to His Holiness, the Lord would arrange the details. And he did.”

Jenny Uebbing had come to the plaza at 7:30 in the morning with her sister and her two sons, John Paul — who is now almost 11 — and Joey. On her blog, “Mama needs coffee,” she described three hours of “pressing crowds and stalwartly holding our position against the barricade, hoping against hope to catch a glimpse of our beloved Holy Father.”

David Uebbing, John Paul’s father and former office head of CNA’s Rome bureau, described how “a security guard offered to pass him to Archbishop [Georg] Gänswein when the popemobile came by.”

Gänswein at the time was head of the Prefecture of the Papal Household and was in the popemobile along with Benedict XVI. He supported John Paul while the pope embraced him and gave a him a fatherly kiss.

Jenny Uebbing said that after John Paul was passed back to her, the Roman pontiff passed by their spot in the crowd.

“We locked eyes for a moment and I was able to tell him ‘thank you.’ That was all I could have asked for, to personally thank him not only for the moment of grace when he kissed my little son, but for his total gift of self to the Church,” she told CNA at the time.

Her sister Christina also described her own experience of sharing a glance with the Holy Father.

“It felt like I was looking at Jesus, in a way,” she said. “When I looked into his eyes, I didn‘t see only the man, the pope, but also the One he serves. There was so much love and kindness in his eyes.”

Pope Benedict holds a special place in Jenny Uebbing‘s heart, as “the Holy Father who invited me home to the faith of my childhood. In a sense, he held open the door of the Church and welcomed me inside again,” she said.

David Uebbing told CNA that “my wife and I were overjoyed at the pope‘s kindness and the gentle love you could see on his face when he kissed John Paul.”

The Uebbings moved to Rome in early January 2013. “Before today we would have already said that Pope Benedict made our lives a lot more exciting than we thought he would, but when our youngest son was kissed by him today we were speechless,” David Uebbing said.

For a child of only 10 months, John Paul already had quite the papal connections. Aside from being kissed on the forehead by the vicar of Christ, he was named for Pope Benedict‘s predecessor. Also, he was born on April 19, 2012, the seventh anniversary of Pope Benedict‘s accession as bishop of Rome. John Paul now has four younger siblings, the youngest of whom turned 3 in November and is named Benedict. One more sibling is expected in March.

This story was originally published Feb. 28, 2013. It was updated by CNA on Jan. 4, 2023.

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Vatican City, Jun 13, 2018 / 05:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican announced Wednesday that Pope Francis has named Michigan-native Msgr. Gerald Vincke as the new bishop of the Diocese of Salina, Kan., pulling him from several roles in the diocese of Lansing.

In a June 13 statement on Vincke’s appointment, Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing said the diocese is “very happy” about the priest’s nomination.

“The priests of our diocese as well as myself will deeply miss our brother priest as he moves into this new ministry,” he said, and voiced his “love and gratitude” to Pope Francis for the appointment.

Vincke “is a fine priest, a man of deep faith in Jesus Christ, and a gentle soul,” he said, adding that Lansing’s loss is Salina’s gain.

Born in Sagisaw, Mich., in 1964, Bishop-elect Vincke is the ninth of ten children and has a degree in public relations and marketing from Ferris State University in Big Rapids.

He underwent philosophical studies at the Thomas More College in Crestview, Ken., before going on to study theology at the Athenaeum Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, and at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lansing June 12, 1999, after which he served in various pastoral roles. In 2003 he was named as the diocese’s Director of Seminarians and Vocations Director, roles he held until his 2010 appointment as spiritual director at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Vincke was given the title “monsignor” by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, and in 2015, while still in Rome, he obtained a licentiate in Sacred Theology. The title of his thesis, which places an emphasis on spiritual theology, is “Following the Path of St. John Vianney for the New Evangelization with Evangelii Gaudium as a Guide.”

After returning to Lansing in later on 2015, he was assigned as pastor to Holy Family parish in Grand Blanc. He currently serves on the diocese’s Presbyteral Council and the College of Consultors.

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Vatican City, May 29, 2018 / 10:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In September Pope Francis will visit the neighborhood and parish connected with a Sicilian priest killed by the Mafia in 1993, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the death of the “First Martyr of the Mafia.”

After quietly fighting the Mafia through the education of young people, Bl. Giuseppe “Pino” Puglisi was assassinated by hitmen on Sept. 15, 1993, his 53rd birthday.

Pope Francis will fly Sept. 15 to Piazza Armerina where he will greet authorities and the local bishop and meet with the faithful.

Transferring to Palermo by helicopter, he will celebrate Mass in memory of Puglisi and visit the Mission of Hope and Charity to eat lunch with guests of the mission and a group of prisoners and immigrants.

Francis will also make private stops at Bl. Puglisi’s home and parish, San Gaetano, in the Brancaccio neighborhood of Palermo. He will then meet with priests, religious, and seminarians and later with youth, before returning to Rome.

Puglisi was born Sept. 15, 1937 to a modest, working-class family in Palermo. He entered the seminary at the age of 16 and was ordained a priest in 1960 at the age of 22.

Throughout his priesthood, he was known for being outspoken against injustices – including communism, the Mafia, and problems within the Church.

He was also passionately involved in youth ministry and in promoting vocations. In 1990, Puglisi was transferred to the parish of San Gaetano, in a mob-ridden neighborhood. His approach was the same: to win over the youth and be a pastor to his flock.

“Father Puglisi was not a typical anti-Mafia priest. He did not organize rallies or make public condemnation of Mafia,” Archbishop Michele Pennisi of Monreale told the National Catholic Register in 2013. “[The] Mafia does not see that kind of priest as dangerous.”

Puglisi was considered more dangerous “because he educated young people,” Archbishop Pennisi said. He would convince youth not to steal or quit school, and encouraged them away from the Mafia, who would often use children to help them traffic drugs and other illicit materials.

Puglisi preached against the Mafia, ignored their threats, banned them from leading religious processions and even stealthily gave clues to the authorities about their latest activities in his homilies. Consequently, his life was threatened by the mob numerous times, unbeknownst even to those closest to him until after his death.

He would also urge parishioners to give the police leads on the Mafia’s criminal activity, his frequent catchphrase: “And what if somebody did something?”

On September 15, 1993, having received numerous warnings and death threats, Fr. Puglisi was shot in the neck at point-blank range by hitmen under the direction of local Mafia bosses, Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano.

Although he was taken to the hospital, Puglisi was unable to be revived and died of his injuries.

“This is a Mafia crime,” Lorenzo Matassa, an investigating magistrate with broad anti-Mafia experience, told the New York Times in 1993. “Cosa Nostra could not stand that priest’s teaching the kids in the neighborhood about an anti-Mafia culture.”

One of Puglisi’s hitmen, Salvatore Grigoli, later confessed, revealing that the martyr’s final words were “I’ve been expecting you.”

His martyrdom further galvanized the Catholic Church in Sicily to act and speak out against the mob and five years after his death four Mafia members received life sentences for their involvement in the murder.
   
Declared a martyr by Benedict XVI in 2012 and beatified in 2013, he is buried in the cemetery of Sant’Orsola in Palermo.

Pope Francis spoke about Puglisi the day after his beatification during his Angelus address, calling him a “martyr” and an “exemplary priest.”

By teaching boys about the Gospel of Christ, Puglisi saved them from the “criminal underworld,” which retaliated by killing him, Francis said. Though in fact, it was Puglisi “who won, with the Risen Christ.”

Francis criticized the Mafia for its exploitation of men, women, and children through prostitution, social pressure, and forced jobs. “Let us pray to the Lord to convert the heart of these people,” he said. “They cannot do this! They cannot make slaves of us, brothers and sisters!”

“We must pray that these members of the Mafia be converted to God and let us praise God for the luminous witness borne by Fr. Giuseppe Puglisi.”

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