These are troubled times, in the world and in the Catholic Church. All too many of the faithful, shaken by the clerical sex-abuse scandals and by the constant unfounded media attacks on Pope Benedict XVI, have begun to question their faith—which is exactly what such atheists as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens hope to accomplish by their constant trumpeting of decades-old allegations that have repeatedly shown to be untrue.
In the midst of this storm, we can turn to Saint Catherine of Siena, a virgin and doctor of the Church, through whose intercession another troubled period in the history of the Church, the Avignon papacy, was ended. When the papacy returned to Rome in 1378, Saint Catherine left her beloved Siena and spent the rest of her life in Rome, working tirelessly to reform the Church. Throughout it all, she remained devoutly attached to the Holy Father, and her conviction that the Vicar of Christ faithfully leads the Church in conformity with God's Will is reflected in a Prayer to Saint Catherine of Siena, our novena for this week.