Dear Friends,

The Church recently celebrated the feast day of Pope St. John Paul II. Often God works in subtle ways to steer the events of history towards His plan for the human family. But the election of John Paul II was anything but subtle. If you remember back to 1978, after the death of Pope Paul VI the Cardinals gathered for the first Conclave in 18 years and many of them had never participated in a Conclave. So, they elected John Paul I, Albino Luciano from Venice.

Dear Friends,

Last year mask mandates were inserted into our normal routines. No matter which side of the issue you took, you were sure to know others who took the opposite position. That sadly led to tension, hostility and much worse between individuals, in families and communities at large. And now we have a mandate redux with the COVID-19 vaccine. And many of you have asked, “what does Catholic moral teaching have to say about vaccines and mandates?” As a pastor it is not my role to argue pro or con for the medical efficacy of the vaccine but to offer moral and pastoral guidance in light of the teachings of our Faith.

Dear Friends,

I write this on the Feast day of St. John Leonardi (Oct. 9). And why is that important? Well the saint, quite unexpectedly showed up in my life about 8 years ago. Saints are like that, they have a way of insinuating themselves into our spiritual journey, connecting ours to theirs.

Dear Friends,

The great Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.” Indeed! Being a Catholic Christian in today’s world can make you feel like someone who is driving a model T Ford on the freeway. But our faith is timeless. Sometimes it takes an outsider to see the reality of the Church:

"Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany I looked for the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom. But they, like the universities were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I had never any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom." Albert Einstein

Dear Friends,

ὄμνυμι Ἀπόλλωνα ἰητρὸν καὶ Ἀσκληπιὸν καὶ Ὑγείαν καὶ Πανάκειαν καὶ θεοὺς πάντας τε καὶπάσας, ἵστορας ποιεύμενος, ἐπιτελέα ποιήσειν κατὰ δύναμιν καὶ κρίσιν ἐμὴν ὅρκον τόνδε καὶσυγγραφὴν τήνδε:

Dear Friends,

Pope Francis is fond of reminding Catholics that we were not baptized with vinegar. So, let’s have a little fun this weekend. Surprisingly over the last 70years or so there have been quite a few excellent films that highlight US Catholic culture and the priesthood in a positive way. These films certainly helped break down some of the anti-Catholicism that marred much of our history here in the US and made the Faith more attractive.

Dear Friends,

On this long journey to end abortion in the US, it has often been two steps forward and one step back. That may be the case with the recent US Supreme Court ruling letting stand the Texas law that prohibits abortion after a fetal heartbeat has been detected. The court allowed it to stand for technical reasons while the merits of the law are being litigated in the lower courts. How it ultimately shakes out is anybody’s guess at this point but it is a win for the Prolife cause.

Dear Friends,

Gary Bird died on September 11, 2001. His death certificate lists the cause of death as homicide. Gary flew from Phoenix to New York the day before to attend a scheduled meeting in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. And as his wife has remarked since, “Gary knew he was going to a meeting but what he didn’t know was that it was a meeting with God.”

Dear Friends,

Watching Vice President Harris travel to Hanoi, all the while our courageous service men and women are landing helicopters on top of the Embassy in Kabul as they try to evacuate people, I wondered if anyone in the Biden Administration thought about how bad those optics were? As was the case in Vietnam, while our service men and women acted honorably and bravely, our leadership did not.

Dear Friends,

Many of you may have been thinking, since our Parish Church was shut down for so long, that the parish was gasping for breath, just on the brink. Well I am glad to tell you the life-support has been removed and we are breathing with both longs at full capacity!

As you look over this Bulletin or website, you will see more and more activity, more groups meeting again, more ministries serving our Parish and community, more events planned. They are all signs of spiritual health and strength and vigor. Our objective is not just to survive but to flourish. And we’re just getting started!

Dear Friends,

The worst day of my life was always the first day of school. I hated going to school as a child. I was just a giant heap of anxiety. At first when they took me to school, I would sneak out the door and run home. Then they started locking the door. Then I would cry. After a few rounds of the that the kindergarten teacher would put me in the restroom and I could not come out until I stopped crying. Then I would just make myself sick, literally, and vomit so they would send me home. They caught on to that as well and just made me sit in the nurse’s office till I would go back to class. That didn't take long as the nurse must have been related to Nurse Ratched. I think it was around the time I got to High School that I finally liked school.

Dear Friends,

And when the broken-hearted people living in the world agree,
There will be an answer, Let It Be….
“Let it Be” by the Beatles”

We are the broken hearted who have found the answer. Most of us have had the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” pointed at us and yet rather than remaining as victims we find the answer in faith. What we agree on even in the midst of so much disagreement is that Jesus is the answer to our broken hearts and wounded souls.

Dear Friends,

As the school year starts up once again, you may recall back in your school days when someone did something wrong in the class but the teacher did not know who did it, the entire class got punished. Even though you weren’t the perpetrator you had to suffer the consequences. The teacher’s strategy was to get someone to turn in the guilty party. Of course, the worse the consequences were, the sooner someone would turn in the perpetrator. Or maybe with enough peer pressure the guilty party would actually turn themselves in.

Dear Friends,

Quo Vadis? You probably remember the 1951 film and the title means, in Latin, “where are you going?” Recently Pope Francis issued new directives (Traditiones Custodes) actually restrictions, on the use of the pre-Vatican II Missal or the celebration of the Extraordinary form of the Mass (often referred to as the TLM or traditional Latin Mass). Where is he going with this and why? A little bit of history is needed to understand how we got here in the first place.