COLORADO SPRINGS. This morning, the Vatican announced that Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop James Golka as the ninth bishop of Denver. Archbishop-designate Golka will be installed on Wednesday, March 25 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. He succeeds Archbishop Samuel Aquila, who turned 75 last September.

Bishop Golka will be introduced to the archdiocese at a press conference today at 10 a.m. at the John Paul II Center. The press conference will be livestreamed at: https://archden.org/live-events.

On Jan. 7, Pope Leo XIV announced that his topic for upcoming general audience catechesis is the re-reading of the Vatican II documents.

“It is a valuable opportunity to rediscover the beauty and the importance of this ecclesial event,” he said. “The generation of bishops, theologians and believers of Vatican II is no longer with us. Therefore, while we hear the call not to let its prophecy fade, and to continue to seek ways and means to implement its insights, it will be important to get to know it again closely, and to do so not through ‘hearsay’ or interpretations that have been given, but by rereading its documents and reflecting on their content. Indeed, it is the Magisterium that still constitutes the guiding star of the Church’s journey today.”

The 2025 Jubilee Year was a year of conversion, growth and deepening of faith for the young adults at St. John Henry Newman Chapel and Catholic Student Center.  It was a reminder of our mortality and that we are pilgrims on earth who have great hope and anticipation for the coming of the kingdom. 

God is at work. Sometimes this it is clearer than at other times. These weeks of the Easter Season, within the Jubilee Year of Hope, he has been working through an incredibly rare event in the life of the Church: the death of a pope and the election of his successor. Living and working in Rome, very close to the action, has been the experience of a lifetime and a testimony of grace, which is always difficult to describe. But it’s worth trying.

Jesus promised the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to continue to lead and guide the Church.  The early Church invoked the Holy Spirit to help them make important decisions.  The College of Cardinals, successors to the apostles, continues to work under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Church with the recent election of Pope Leo XIV.