By S.L. Hansen
for the Register
The Catholic Church celebrates the “Sunday of the Word of God” Jan. 26.
When Pope Francis in 2019 instituted the celebration to be observed on the third Sunday in Ordinary Time, he continued a long-standing tradition in the Church. Various popes have instituted such days throughout the centuries. Here are some of the more recent additions to the Catholic calendar to look forward to.
World Marriage Day: Feb. 9
World Marriage Day was originally observed in a handful of U.S. dioceses as part of Worldwide Marriage Encounter (WWME), an apostolate that strengthens marriages. In 1993, Pope Saint John Paul II gave his Apostolic Blessing to World Marriage Day, bringing universal awareness to the value of marriage as a vocation.
World Day for the Sick: Feb. 11
Pope Saint John Paul II established the World Day of the Sick on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1992. Catholics are encouraged to offer prayers for those suffering from illnesses on this day. It’s also an important occasion to recognize those members of Catholic health ministry and family caregivers.
Divine Mercy Sunday: April 27
The Lord expressed his desire for the faithful to celebrate His Divine Mercy directly to Saint Faustina. In the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina-Kowalska, entry #299, the religious sister recorded Jesus saying, “I desire that the First Sunday after Easter be the Feast of Mercy.”
Saint Faustina kept her diary, recording the messages she received from Christ, from 1934 until her death in 1938. Private devotion to the Divine Mercy began to spread in her native Poland almost immediately, but it did not become a universal feast until 2000 as decreed by Pope Saint John Paul II. “The light of the message of Divine Mercy which the Lord wished to renew in the world, will be as much a beacon of hope for the third millennium, as the apostles were in the first,” the pope said.
Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church: June 9
Pope Francis established a universal memorial for Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church in 2018. Occurring on the Monday after Pentecost each year, the memorial focuses attention on the importance of “the Virgin Mary, who is both the Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church.”
World Day for Grandparents and Elderly: July 27/Sept. 7
In 2021, Pope Francis established the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly on the fourth Sunday in July, which is close to the memorial of the Lord’s grandparents, Saints Joachim and Anne (July 26). He said that the elderly “remind us that old age is a gift and that grandparents are the link between the different generations, to pass on to the young the experience of life.” The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved the transfer of the celebration in this country to the first weekend after Labor Day in September, coinciding with National Grandparents Day.
Queenship of Mary: Aug. 22
Though the Blessed Virgin Mary has long been referred to as queen, the Feast of the Queenship of Mary was not established until 1954 by Pope Pius XII. He set the feast on the octave of the Solemnity of the Assumption.
Pope Pius XII wrote, “We commend that on the festival there be renewed the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Upon this there is founded a great hope that (all) will rejoice in the triumph of religion and in Christian peace.”
Christ the King Sunday: Nov. 23
Celebrated on the last Sunday of each liturgical year, Christ the King Sunday was instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, in response to growing secularism and atheism. At the time, the world had recently experienced militant-secularist regimes in Mexico, Russia and parts of Europe that were threatening the Catholic Church and her lay faithful. The Feast of Christ the King was a message of hope in the reality that human governments come and go, but the Lord reigns forever in our hearts, in our bodies and in the whole world.
In his encyclical Quas primas (“In the first”), Pope Pius XI wrote, “When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.”
World Day of Peace: Jan. 1
Pope Paul VI instituted the first World Day of Peace in 1968 as a commemoration to be repeated “as a hope and as a promise.” The pope noted, “Peace is not pacifism; it does not mask a base and slothful concept of life, but it proclaims the highest and most universal values of life: truth, justice, freedom, love.”
Since then, the reigning pope has attached a particular theme to the World Day of Peace that reflects a current need in the world. In 2025, Pope Francis set the theme “Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace.” The 2026 theme will be announced closer to the end of the year.
