Dear Friends,

The great question to us is whether we are still capable of being truly shocked or whether it is to remain so that we see thousands of things and know that they should not be, and must not be, and that we get hardened to them. How many things have we become used to in the course of the years, of the weeks and months, so that we stand unshocked, unstirred, inwardly unmoved.

This quote comes from Fr. Alfred Delp, S.J a German priest who was part of the Resistance to the Nazis and was convicted of treason and hanged by the Nazi’s in 1945. Maybe it’s because of the extreme horrors of the Camps that we too easily become unshocked by what we see today.

Dear Friends,

The cause for the first canonization of a US born priest has begun in Chicago. This journey to sainthood reminds us once again how God can write straight with crooked lines: Fr. Augustus Tolton (1854-1897) was also the first native born black man and former slave ordained a priest from the US. As St. Paul reminds us, God often uses what the world considers insignificant to confound the rulers of this world.

Dear Friends,

I am always struck at how the secular culture latched on to the feast of St. Valentine. This simple Roman priest who gave his life for love impacted our culture in a way that all the great Roman emperors and Popes have not.

Dear Friends,

The country witnessed another horrific police involved killing in Memphis recently. Even though the number of these types of killings is low relative to the amount of interactions police officers have with suspects, it is still unacceptable and constant vigilance, training, supervision, and accountability must be in place.

Dear Friends,

The US Bishops have initiated a two-year Eucharistic Revival, culminating in a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in 2024. As part of that, our Parish will host a Vatican Eucharistic Miracles Display, Feb. 5-7. Then the following Sunday, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, will hold a Eucharistic Procession from the Church to Beardsley Park and afterwards have a Parish Picnic!

Dear Friends,

The new Congress, in its first week passed a Pro-life bill: the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act; except that 210 members of the House of Representatives voted against the bill. They voted against requiring an abortionist to care for a child they failed to kill if that child is born alive.

Dear Friends,

I’ve often thought that if I were stranded on a deserted island or in solitary confinement and had only one book to read, it would be something written by Pope Benedict XVI. His writing is brilliant, lucid, and always thought provoking. He was certainly one of the most brilliant thinkers of the twentieth century and very likely the wisest theologian to ever occupy the Chair of St. Peter.

Dear Friends,

Many of you have asked me about the case of Frank Pavone, lately a priest. He is the founder of the Prolife group, Priests for Life. In November he was permanently removed from the priesthood by the Vatican, in a case that was ruled “without appeal”. That sort of final ruling could only be issued by the Pope. The case is disturbing, though not surprising and leaves more questions than answers.

Dear Friends,

2022 is the year that was. But was it a year to remember, or your favorite year? Was it the Best Year Ever, maybe a Year in the Life of a Fool? Or was it more the Days of Wine and Roses or a time we’d rather forget?

However, those 525,600 minutes of those 365 days or those 31,536,000 seconds of the 52weeks of 2022 passed by I hope you can find many reasons for gratitude and thankfulness.

Dear Friends,

Love, joy, peace are often attached to the infant in the manger in Bethlehem. But truth be told the best way to describe him: subversive. His birth undercuts all worldly power and assumptions.

Dear Friends,

Do you give to get? Do you give with the calculation you get something in return? Or do you give without expectation? Most of the world for most of history operated along the lines of tit-for-tat. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

Dear Friends,

It’s amusing and I admit sometimes annoying to stand behind someone who is unfamiliar with the menu and trying to order at the In-n-Out Burger. They are desperately scanning the menu board for choices. And that’s just it, there are few choices on their menu: burger or cheeseburger and fries.

Dear Friends,

The dust from the overturning of Roe v Wade has yet to settle. As we saw in this past election, where abortion was on the ballot in some states, or in other cases, states have passed different laws, some outright bans, some with restriction and many are in litigation over abortion restrictions.

Now that abortion is a state level issue, our Prolife strategies are changing from state to state.