April 19, 2026: Todos, Todos, Todos

Todos, Todos, Todos

At Easter we welcomed 24 people into the Catholic Church, with 15 of them getting baptized, plus a two others making their First Communion. If any of them are present, please stand.

Wow, that is an incredibly large number of folks becoming Catholic. But this happened all over the world, not just here. What gives? Well, from my research I can find three major reasons. One is that people are looking for some stability in a world that seems so chaotic. Our Catholic faith, especially our liturgies, offer a structure, a backbone (like I talked about last weekend).

Think about today’s Gospel. After Jesus sits down at table with the two companions, he “does Eucharist” with them. He takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. Those four aspects are the essentials of every Mass ever done anywhere in the world since then.

It’s a structure. It’s a formula. And it works. Lots of other denominations don’t use bread at all (or just occasionally); instead, they focus on big music, long sermons, adding a coffee bar, etc. Well, the Catholic Church is simply doing what Jesus told the disciples to do at the Last Supper and what he did again after he rose, as recorded in today’s Gospel.

I think people are looking for (and many of you long-time Catholics have always appreciated) a structure, rituals a stability. Look at Pope Leo, he’s been in the news a lot lately. He’s calm, principled, grounded in faith rather than politics. He models a way to stand firm without tearing anyone down. Many are really drawn to that type of stability and leadership. 

Second reason: I think that so many people are joining (or returning to) the Church is depicted in what happened in the Gospel story prior to Jesus sitting down at the table . . . and that is, his walking with the disciples. It’s the accompanying of people; it is meeting them on their journey. It’s all of you . . . being the reason people are coming back to church.

This was most obvious with Pope Francis and now Pope Leo. Both emphasized walking with people—not judging them, not insisting that they become pure and obey all the rules, or memorize the doctrine. And think about it: neither pope abandoned any doctrine, but they recaptured a tone that Jesus set, which somehow got overlooked.

Popes Francis and Leo are not abandoning any tradition. But they are recovering something older than rigidity—the ancient pastoral wisdom that the Church is a field hospital, not a law court; that the Eucharist is medicine for the sick, not a reward for good behavior.

At World Youth Day in Lisbon in 2023, in what would prove to be among his final great addresses to young people, Pope Francis cried out with unmistakable urgency: Todos, todos, todos. [Repeat that after me.] It’s Spanish. It means “all, all, all.” The Church is for everyone—not only for the pure, not only for those who meet all the canonical criteria. Everyone.

This was not a revision of Catholic teaching. It was a retrieval of something the Church had long professed in its creeds but had somehow been missed in real practice. Well, that’s changed—not with new doctrine, but with a new tone. Mercy has not just been preached about, but is now known and embodied.

This change was explained most clearly in Francis’ document, Amoris Laetitia, about marriage and family. In it, he said that in certain situations, couples whose marriages don’t fully follow Church rules might still be allowed to receive Communion, after careful guidance from a priest.

Or remember when a reporter asked Pope Francis about gay priests when he first took office? Francis replied with a question that didn’t change the Catechism, didn’t revise one word of moral theology, but reverberated around the world, he asked “Who am I to judge?” Five words.

I think that’s a reason people are responding—coming back or joining the Church. Not about the gay issue, but because they feel welcomed by all of you—not judging them, not “boxing” them into only one way of being Catholic. I am very proud of all of you for creating a welcoming environment that so many want to be part of. 

But here’s the really cool part. The third aspect of conversion (or a deepening of faith) is that it is always a mystery—the movement of grace in any of us. We can’t bottle that, we can’t manufacture that; we can only marvel at how the Holy Spirit is working. Ultimately, God does the inviting (we just help). And so, we become like the disciples in the Gospel and say, “Wow, weren’t our hearts burning within us at what God is doing, again?”