This year, because of the pandemic, I was unable to be with my family for Thanksgiving as I ordinarily would; however, I was happy to celebrate a live-streamed bilingual Mass that morning at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. There were a few technical hiccups at first, but eventually, it worked out.

Afterward, Msgr. O'Leary had a lovely meal for us, where we were able to gather with the priests of the cathedral to give thanks and enjoy each other's company.

For me, Thanksgiving is one of the most beautiful celebrations that we have as Americans. It's so easy to take the gifts that God has given us for granted, and the holiday is a reminder that we are called to be good stewards of the gifts that we have received from God's love.

Consistory

On Saturday was the consistory for the creation of new cardinals at St. Peter's Basilica.

Among the cardinals was, of course, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington. At this point in our history, when we are striving for racial justice in our country, it is a great blessing to have an African American prelate as a member of the College of Cardinals.

I'm also gratified that two of our Capuchin friars were named to the College -- the Archbishop of Santiago, Chile, who is a Basque Capuchin, Cardinal Celestino Aos, and the preacher to the papal household, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa. This is the first time in the history of the order that there have been four Capuchin cardinals.

Because of the pandemic, not many cardinals were able to be physically present in the Basilica. Two of the new cardinals themselves were unable to travel to Rome, but the Holy Father moved ahead with the ceremony.

In part because of the small number of cardinals, Pope Francis made the beautiful gesture of arranging for the new cardinals to greet Pope Benedict.

I know the cardinals were all happy about that, and I'm sure Pope Benedict was touched by the gesture as well.

Feast of St. Andrew

Monday was the feast of St. Andrew, and ordinarily, Vito Nicastro and I would gather with Metropolitan Methodios at the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston for Vespers, followed by a meal.

This year, we were unable to be together in person, but I was happy to have the opportunity to at least speak with Metropolitan Methodios, who has been so supportive of the archdiocese and the friendship between our two communities.

Virtual meeting

On Tuesday, there was a virtual meeting of the Council of Cardinals advising the Holy Father on the reform of the Roman Curia.

We were very happy to welcome our newest member, Cardinal Fridolin Besungu of Kinshasa, who replaced Cardinal Monsengwo. During this session, we continued our work on the draft of the new Apostolic Constitution for the Roman Curia, "Praedicate Evangelium."

Zoom with recently ordained priests

Later that day, I gathered by Zoom with our recently ordained priests for an afternoon of ongoing formation. It's always a wonderful opportunity to be able to gather with them. I am sorry that we are unable to be together for a meal, but we continued our tradition of gathering for midday prayer and a time of dialogue. With the increasing spread of COVID-19 and the large number of hospitalizations, we are in the process of reconstituting our team of priests to administer the sacraments to COVID patients. So, we spoke about those plans as well as several other themes that the young priests had on their minds.