Mar 2010
From the Pastor
March/31/2010
Congratulations to the newest members of the Catholic community of our parish, who will have been received into the fullness of our Faith this Holy Saturday evening: Angel DeBlasio, Tabatha Gerber, Lolita Howard, and Michael Spall, being baptized, confirmed and receiving First Holy Communion; Tiffany Guarneiri, receiving First Holy Communion and Confirmation; and Rodrigo Pastrana, receiving Confirmation! May they feel the power of the Holy Spirit and the Son of God come over them and lead them to a deep commitment to live out their Faith!
With gratitude for their recent two-year term of service, I thank the outgoing officers of our parish’s Home and School Association for taking up the responsible mantle of leadership and showing us the wonders of a very successful program during their tenure: our Presidents Irene & Bayard Hey; Vice Presidents Desiree & Richard Alaniz; Financial Secretaries Kim & Paul Weber; Recording Secretaries Vicki & Jayson Chung; Treasurer Laura Alexander; and our Parliamentarians Cindy & Tim Swilley. Their leadership has allowed them to discover new and creative ways of fund-raising and links of communication that help our parish school advance in academic, spiritual, and social achievements. May their examples of volunteerism and service inspire many others to continue the hallowed traditions we cherish! The new officers for the next two-year term of service will be announced shortly.
Thank you most kindly for your generous support of the Guatemalan Mission Collection. The collection netted $22,384, and there are numerous donors who signed up to sponsor the education of a child or two at Ak’Tenamit. If you have not yet donated to this worthy cause, green envelopes are still available at the entrances to our church. The children of Guatemala appreciate you and will be praying for you!
Thank you to the wonderful team of Michelle Gemma and Mimi Meister, who put forth a most successfully fabulous and entertaining Spring Trunk Show featuring a Fashion Show and British Tea last week for the benefit of our school. Team members are: Shannon Boueri, Amy Fairchild, Jill Gallo, Greta Gillis, Louis Glover, Michelle Harrington, Lisa Harshberger, Chrissy Hubiak, Ruthie Lesane, Louise Plunkett, Nancy Porter, Alexandra Raciunas, and Dolly Steinman. May God bless them for their volunteering to serve in this fund-raiser.
Our next big event for the benefit of our parish and school will be the Golf Tournament on May 15th. We hope you’ll come join us for a wonderful opportunity of fun, fund-raising and fellowship. I hope to join in the festivities as I celebrate my 39th priestly anniversary that day.
You have all heard of the recent attacks on Pope Benedict XVI regarding the scandals that have been plaguing the Church during the past decade. The latest is based on an article in The New York Times, once a flagship of higher, class journalism, which has sunk to lower levels because of its mediocre-to-less editorializing, that is now taking the place of factual reporting. There are several glaring inaccuracies and outright errors in its reporting. (Sadly, Maureen Dowd repeats the same innuendos in her syndicated column without checking out the facts). Very fortunately, the Vatican’s official news service and newspaper were able to soundly refute these hastily-made accusations veiled innuendos. Unfortunately, not everyone reads the English version of L’Osservatore Romano. For some more objective presentations on this matter, I urge you to go online to an excellent editorial by U.S. correspondent to the Vatican, John Allen, who’s written a thorough rebuttal to the Times article for the National Catholic Reporter, (which, by the way, is not my favorite “Catholic” paper): “Keeping the Record Straight on Benedict and the Crisis.” Likewise, George Weigel, Biographer of Pope John Paul II and Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, and the author of “The Courage To Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church,” in his recent article, “Scoundrel Time(s),” has taken up the same cause as John Allen, and given another strong defense of truth and the Pope. But I don’t know how many people will take time to get away from the distortions of the times to read these two men’s exposes and view the other side of the story. In this “Year For Priests,” please remember to pray for Pope Benedict, too. He is always under attack from the insidiousness of the anti-clerical, anti-Catholic and anti-God forces that “prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.”
Next Sunday, we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, the highlight of the eight days of the Easter octave. It will be marked by a special Holy Hour of adoration and reflection on the wondrous mysteries of our Lord’s lavish mercy upon those who call upon Him in truth. We will celebrate the Holy Hour and Benediction at 3:00 P.M. in the church. It is an opportunity to learn more of the revelations of Jesus to St. Sister Faustina. Will you take time to join us?
Have a blessed Easter (8 days long in the octave), and remember to receive the Holy Eucharist worthily at least
once during this season (5th Precept of the Church)!
Very Rev. Canon Tom
With gratitude for their recent two-year term of service, I thank the outgoing officers of our parish’s Home and School Association for taking up the responsible mantle of leadership and showing us the wonders of a very successful program during their tenure: our Presidents Irene & Bayard Hey; Vice Presidents Desiree & Richard Alaniz; Financial Secretaries Kim & Paul Weber; Recording Secretaries Vicki & Jayson Chung; Treasurer Laura Alexander; and our Parliamentarians Cindy & Tim Swilley. Their leadership has allowed them to discover new and creative ways of fund-raising and links of communication that help our parish school advance in academic, spiritual, and social achievements. May their examples of volunteerism and service inspire many others to continue the hallowed traditions we cherish! The new officers for the next two-year term of service will be announced shortly.
Thank you most kindly for your generous support of the Guatemalan Mission Collection. The collection netted $22,384, and there are numerous donors who signed up to sponsor the education of a child or two at Ak’Tenamit. If you have not yet donated to this worthy cause, green envelopes are still available at the entrances to our church. The children of Guatemala appreciate you and will be praying for you!
Thank you to the wonderful team of Michelle Gemma and Mimi Meister, who put forth a most successfully fabulous and entertaining Spring Trunk Show featuring a Fashion Show and British Tea last week for the benefit of our school. Team members are: Shannon Boueri, Amy Fairchild, Jill Gallo, Greta Gillis, Louis Glover, Michelle Harrington, Lisa Harshberger, Chrissy Hubiak, Ruthie Lesane, Louise Plunkett, Nancy Porter, Alexandra Raciunas, and Dolly Steinman. May God bless them for their volunteering to serve in this fund-raiser.
Our next big event for the benefit of our parish and school will be the Golf Tournament on May 15th. We hope you’ll come join us for a wonderful opportunity of fun, fund-raising and fellowship. I hope to join in the festivities as I celebrate my 39th priestly anniversary that day.
You have all heard of the recent attacks on Pope Benedict XVI regarding the scandals that have been plaguing the Church during the past decade. The latest is based on an article in The New York Times, once a flagship of higher, class journalism, which has sunk to lower levels because of its mediocre-to-less editorializing, that is now taking the place of factual reporting. There are several glaring inaccuracies and outright errors in its reporting. (Sadly, Maureen Dowd repeats the same innuendos in her syndicated column without checking out the facts). Very fortunately, the Vatican’s official news service and newspaper were able to soundly refute these hastily-made accusations veiled innuendos. Unfortunately, not everyone reads the English version of L’Osservatore Romano. For some more objective presentations on this matter, I urge you to go online to an excellent editorial by U.S. correspondent to the Vatican, John Allen, who’s written a thorough rebuttal to the Times article for the National Catholic Reporter, (which, by the way, is not my favorite “Catholic” paper): “Keeping the Record Straight on Benedict and the Crisis.” Likewise, George Weigel, Biographer of Pope John Paul II and Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, and the author of “The Courage To Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church,” in his recent article, “Scoundrel Time(s),” has taken up the same cause as John Allen, and given another strong defense of truth and the Pope. But I don’t know how many people will take time to get away from the distortions of the times to read these two men’s exposes and view the other side of the story. In this “Year For Priests,” please remember to pray for Pope Benedict, too. He is always under attack from the insidiousness of the anti-clerical, anti-Catholic and anti-God forces that “prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.”
Next Sunday, we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, the highlight of the eight days of the Easter octave. It will be marked by a special Holy Hour of adoration and reflection on the wondrous mysteries of our Lord’s lavish mercy upon those who call upon Him in truth. We will celebrate the Holy Hour and Benediction at 3:00 P.M. in the church. It is an opportunity to learn more of the revelations of Jesus to St. Sister Faustina. Will you take time to join us?
Have a blessed Easter (8 days long in the octave), and remember to receive the Holy Eucharist worthily at least
once during this season (5th Precept of the Church)!
Very Rev. Canon Tom
From the Pastor
March/25/2010
We begin, once again, the most sacred and most important week of the Christian calendar: Holy Week. These
days have precedence over all other celebrations. Palm Sunday (properly called Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion), calls to mind Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem to accomplish the Paschal Mystery. Accordingly, the memorial of this event is included in every Mass. On Holy Thursday and Good Friday, the Eucharist is distributed only during the Liturgy, though it may be brought to the sick at a different hour. On Holy Saturday, the Eucharist is not to be distributed before the Easter Vigil; it may only be given as Viaticum (literally, “with you on the way”) tothe dying.
Funeral Masses may not be celebrated during these days. The last opportunities before Easter for Confession
will be Monday at 9 AM, Monday night at the 7 PM Penance Service, and Wednesday at 9 AM. Though we
are called to fasting, and abstinence from meat once more on Good Friday, Lent actually ends with the conclusion of Holy Thursday’s evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The following days are called the Easter Triduum, from the Latin for “The Three Days.” These are the holiest days of the Church year!
What really do the liturgies of the Triduum celebrate? Most all of us believe we know the answer. We assume
that Thursday commemorates the day Jesus instituted Holy Orders and the Holy Eucharist; Friday commemorates the day He was executed on the cross; and the Vigil commemorates His emergence from the tomb. We assume, further, that the liturgies of these days are dramatic reenactments of events -- touching, tragic and triumphant-- which happened during Jesus’ last days, and culminated in His victory over death. In other words, we assume that the Paschal Triduum is simply springtime’s parallel to winter’s Christmas. As we gather on these days, we often think we are to be engaged in acts of historical “reconstruction” that re-create scenes in the “Upper Room,” on Calvary, and at the tomb. People have been encouraged to imagine they are actually present at these events -- comforting Jesus during His tearful watch in Gethsemane, walking with Him along the Way of the Cross, and witnessing His miraculous “return to life” on Easter morning.
This view is reinforced by popular hymns that focus on the “historical facts” of the celebration. But is history to be the central focus of celebration during the Triduum? Certainly, early Christians anchored their belief in the historical (“this-worldly”) circumstances that accompanied Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion “under Pontius Pilate.” Jesus’ life, career and death were, in other words, attached to a specific time, in a specific place. For sure, His proclamation of God’s arrival in the present moment (God’s “reign”), His challenge to understand God as being in our neighbor, and His obvious rejection of elements of what people thought was “religion” (especially when used as a means of social or political control) -- all this took place not in some cosmic cloud of unknowing, but in a remote province of the Roman Empire, at a time of a sociopolitical transition.
Precisely because these faith-anchoring events are historical, however, they cannot be repeated or “reenacted.”
This is why the Church’s long tradition insists that what happened once in history passes over into the mystery of the assembly’s sacramental / liturgical celebrations. What the Triduum actually celebrates is mystery, not history.
These liturgies aren’t supposed to “take us back to those thrilling days of yesteryear” – to the Upper Room or the path to Calvary. Their ultimate purpose is not to retrace or relive the last hours of Jesus’ life – nor to catch sight of Him emerging from the tomb at Easter’s dawning. They celebrate not what once happened to Jesus, but what is now happening among us as a people called to conversion, gathered in faith, and renewed with the Spirit of holiness.
They celebrate God’s taking possession of our hearts at their deepest core -- re-creating us as a new human
community, broken like bread for the world’s life, rich in compassion, steadfast in hope, and fearless in the search for justice and peace.
As another reminder, there are NO Saturday Vigil Masses this Saturday afternoon -- only the evening Mass of the Easter Vigil at 7:00 PM, in which we will receive some new members into the fullness of the Faith through Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion. This Vigil Mass will fulfill our obligation to attend Easter Sunday Mass (and avoid the huge crowds that throng the Easter morning Masses!). Also, there is NO Sunday 5:30 Life Teen Mass on Easter Day. We will resume that on the following Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday.
I ask your cooperation with the police and ushers on Easter Sunday morning. In order to meet the Fire Marshall’s demands, when the church is filled to capacity for the 10 and 11:30 Easter morning Masses, the church doors will be closed, and the rest of the people then will be directed to the well-decorated parish hall for the overflow Masses. Also, you may really want to consider these in advance, as you can be guaranteed seating there, but not in church.
Please make time to participate in the various services during Holy Week, and may the blessings promised to the faithful be yours in abundance at Easter. The priests, sisters, deacons and staff wish you God’s choicest blessings upon you and your family this Easter!
Very Rev. Canon Tom
days have precedence over all other celebrations. Palm Sunday (properly called Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion), calls to mind Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem to accomplish the Paschal Mystery. Accordingly, the memorial of this event is included in every Mass. On Holy Thursday and Good Friday, the Eucharist is distributed only during the Liturgy, though it may be brought to the sick at a different hour. On Holy Saturday, the Eucharist is not to be distributed before the Easter Vigil; it may only be given as Viaticum (literally, “with you on the way”) tothe dying.
Funeral Masses may not be celebrated during these days. The last opportunities before Easter for Confession
will be Monday at 9 AM, Monday night at the 7 PM Penance Service, and Wednesday at 9 AM. Though we
are called to fasting, and abstinence from meat once more on Good Friday, Lent actually ends with the conclusion of Holy Thursday’s evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The following days are called the Easter Triduum, from the Latin for “The Three Days.” These are the holiest days of the Church year!
What really do the liturgies of the Triduum celebrate? Most all of us believe we know the answer. We assume
that Thursday commemorates the day Jesus instituted Holy Orders and the Holy Eucharist; Friday commemorates the day He was executed on the cross; and the Vigil commemorates His emergence from the tomb. We assume, further, that the liturgies of these days are dramatic reenactments of events -- touching, tragic and triumphant-- which happened during Jesus’ last days, and culminated in His victory over death. In other words, we assume that the Paschal Triduum is simply springtime’s parallel to winter’s Christmas. As we gather on these days, we often think we are to be engaged in acts of historical “reconstruction” that re-create scenes in the “Upper Room,” on Calvary, and at the tomb. People have been encouraged to imagine they are actually present at these events -- comforting Jesus during His tearful watch in Gethsemane, walking with Him along the Way of the Cross, and witnessing His miraculous “return to life” on Easter morning.
This view is reinforced by popular hymns that focus on the “historical facts” of the celebration. But is history to be the central focus of celebration during the Triduum? Certainly, early Christians anchored their belief in the historical (“this-worldly”) circumstances that accompanied Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion “under Pontius Pilate.” Jesus’ life, career and death were, in other words, attached to a specific time, in a specific place. For sure, His proclamation of God’s arrival in the present moment (God’s “reign”), His challenge to understand God as being in our neighbor, and His obvious rejection of elements of what people thought was “religion” (especially when used as a means of social or political control) -- all this took place not in some cosmic cloud of unknowing, but in a remote province of the Roman Empire, at a time of a sociopolitical transition.
Precisely because these faith-anchoring events are historical, however, they cannot be repeated or “reenacted.”
This is why the Church’s long tradition insists that what happened once in history passes over into the mystery of the assembly’s sacramental / liturgical celebrations. What the Triduum actually celebrates is mystery, not history.
These liturgies aren’t supposed to “take us back to those thrilling days of yesteryear” – to the Upper Room or the path to Calvary. Their ultimate purpose is not to retrace or relive the last hours of Jesus’ life – nor to catch sight of Him emerging from the tomb at Easter’s dawning. They celebrate not what once happened to Jesus, but what is now happening among us as a people called to conversion, gathered in faith, and renewed with the Spirit of holiness.
They celebrate God’s taking possession of our hearts at their deepest core -- re-creating us as a new human
community, broken like bread for the world’s life, rich in compassion, steadfast in hope, and fearless in the search for justice and peace.
As another reminder, there are NO Saturday Vigil Masses this Saturday afternoon -- only the evening Mass of the Easter Vigil at 7:00 PM, in which we will receive some new members into the fullness of the Faith through Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion. This Vigil Mass will fulfill our obligation to attend Easter Sunday Mass (and avoid the huge crowds that throng the Easter morning Masses!). Also, there is NO Sunday 5:30 Life Teen Mass on Easter Day. We will resume that on the following Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday.
I ask your cooperation with the police and ushers on Easter Sunday morning. In order to meet the Fire Marshall’s demands, when the church is filled to capacity for the 10 and 11:30 Easter morning Masses, the church doors will be closed, and the rest of the people then will be directed to the well-decorated parish hall for the overflow Masses. Also, you may really want to consider these in advance, as you can be guaranteed seating there, but not in church.
Please make time to participate in the various services during Holy Week, and may the blessings promised to the faithful be yours in abundance at Easter. The priests, sisters, deacons and staff wish you God’s choicest blessings upon you and your family this Easter!
Very Rev. Canon Tom
From the Pastor
March/20/2010
Steve Dudenhoefer, our lay-missioner and friend from our sister mission at Ak’Tenamit in Guatemala, is here to speak to us this weekend. He has been laboring in the rain forests of that country for over sixteen years, now, and is filled with stories of the new achievements at the school that you have been helping to make possible. Though the enrollment has more than doubled in the last five years, many more students are awaiting the possibility of a chance for an education at the Father Tom Moran School, and a chance to make a difference in their region and their country.
The program has been so successful, that the Guatemalan government is asking Steve and the program to go into other areas of the country and replicate the program. Your generous gift next week in the 2nd collection (special envelopes will be available, and checks can be made out to our parish or to the Guatemalan Tomorrow Fund - GTF), your sponsorship of a child or more, and your overall generous and prayerful support of our work down there will create more than a few “dreams come true.” This coming July, several Knights of Columbus (some with their sons as well as some of our state leaders) will venture there again in a labor of love, thanks to your generous support that also will help supply the needs of our next building project. Despite our current economic downturn, we know that we still have it better off than so many down there. Yet, why do we return from there so uplifted and fulfilled? It’s because, in their simplest ways, the
people there know how to express their gratitude for all we do for them.
Can you believe it - next Sunday is already Palm Sunday?!! As my Mom always said to us, “Where does the time go?” This is a fair warning to you who come regularly to our church, that next Sunday there will be crowds coming to church (the palms are free), so if you want to participate in the liturgies in a conducive way, please come extra early to find a seat. The seating will be tight. The palms will be blessed at the beginning, making them the sacramentals that they were intended to be. Here’s an excellent time to teach the little ones that these palms are not toys, but special holy objects to help bring us closer to the mysteries that unfold during Holy Week. As you leave church, please try to be considerate of those who will follow you at the later services and try to leave the church at least as neat as you found it, taking home your palms, and discarding excessive palm strings and any other residue. When you take palms home, you can place them behind the crucifix or a holy picture or in some other special place where they may be legitimately venerated
and the mysteries contained in them to be meditated upon.
We are grateful to Father Phelps and Father Steinmiller for the wonderful gift of the parish mission that they gave us this past week. They spent a lot of time in preparation for this work, and the results should continue to bear fruit as we contemplate their message and reflect upon the great gifts with which God has blessed our parish. The witness talks by our parishioners were so outstanding that many came to know themselves better because some of them really “hit close to home.” I thank our coordinators, Deacon Bruce and Karen Turnbull, and Deacon Lee and Alice Levenson, for their efforts to help promote the beauty of the message presented at this time.
A wealthy man once watched the late Mother Teresa caring for a leper that had foul smelling wounds. He said to her, “I wouldn’t do that work for a million dollars.” She replied, “Neither would I, but I am doing it to serve Jesus!” She knew the difference between what money could buy and what it couldn’t. No amount of reasoning or proof can convince us of the value of caring for the sick and dying. No cost-benefit analysis can justify giving oneself to another in marriage or having children. Simple knowledge may tell us what to believe and what not to believe.
Ordinary human knowledge, by way of reasoning and logical proof, can take us so far in life, but only the Holy Spirit’s gift of KNOWLEDGE can give us some insight into God’s ways. She knew compassion! In these changing and turbulent times in the Church, KNOWLEDGE can give us a real perspective on the reality of life. Knowing that God is the center of all creation and life itself, we become more willing to trust Him and His timetable. That’s why we always seek to learn as much about God and His Church as possible, so that we can work in cooperation with Him for the betterment of the world and ourselves.
That’s why we, as Catholics, value human life “from the womb to the tomb” – because we have learned from Sacred Scripture all that we need to know about God’s activity in our life. With only a few more weeks remaining in his schedule, Deacon Chris LeBlanc, who has been helping us on weekends for the better part of the past year, will be finishing his work here, and will go back to his diocese of Pensacola- Tallahassee for Ordination to the Priesthood in June. We have been blessed with his presence and the many talents and
gifts that God has given him that he shared with us. Please keep him in your prayers long beyond his priestly ordination, so that he may best bring Christ to the people who long to be nourished by the Word and Body of Christ.
Very Rev. Canon Tom
The program has been so successful, that the Guatemalan government is asking Steve and the program to go into other areas of the country and replicate the program. Your generous gift next week in the 2nd collection (special envelopes will be available, and checks can be made out to our parish or to the Guatemalan Tomorrow Fund - GTF), your sponsorship of a child or more, and your overall generous and prayerful support of our work down there will create more than a few “dreams come true.” This coming July, several Knights of Columbus (some with their sons as well as some of our state leaders) will venture there again in a labor of love, thanks to your generous support that also will help supply the needs of our next building project. Despite our current economic downturn, we know that we still have it better off than so many down there. Yet, why do we return from there so uplifted and fulfilled? It’s because, in their simplest ways, the
people there know how to express their gratitude for all we do for them.
Can you believe it - next Sunday is already Palm Sunday?!! As my Mom always said to us, “Where does the time go?” This is a fair warning to you who come regularly to our church, that next Sunday there will be crowds coming to church (the palms are free), so if you want to participate in the liturgies in a conducive way, please come extra early to find a seat. The seating will be tight. The palms will be blessed at the beginning, making them the sacramentals that they were intended to be. Here’s an excellent time to teach the little ones that these palms are not toys, but special holy objects to help bring us closer to the mysteries that unfold during Holy Week. As you leave church, please try to be considerate of those who will follow you at the later services and try to leave the church at least as neat as you found it, taking home your palms, and discarding excessive palm strings and any other residue. When you take palms home, you can place them behind the crucifix or a holy picture or in some other special place where they may be legitimately venerated
and the mysteries contained in them to be meditated upon.
We are grateful to Father Phelps and Father Steinmiller for the wonderful gift of the parish mission that they gave us this past week. They spent a lot of time in preparation for this work, and the results should continue to bear fruit as we contemplate their message and reflect upon the great gifts with which God has blessed our parish. The witness talks by our parishioners were so outstanding that many came to know themselves better because some of them really “hit close to home.” I thank our coordinators, Deacon Bruce and Karen Turnbull, and Deacon Lee and Alice Levenson, for their efforts to help promote the beauty of the message presented at this time.
A wealthy man once watched the late Mother Teresa caring for a leper that had foul smelling wounds. He said to her, “I wouldn’t do that work for a million dollars.” She replied, “Neither would I, but I am doing it to serve Jesus!” She knew the difference between what money could buy and what it couldn’t. No amount of reasoning or proof can convince us of the value of caring for the sick and dying. No cost-benefit analysis can justify giving oneself to another in marriage or having children. Simple knowledge may tell us what to believe and what not to believe.
Ordinary human knowledge, by way of reasoning and logical proof, can take us so far in life, but only the Holy Spirit’s gift of KNOWLEDGE can give us some insight into God’s ways. She knew compassion! In these changing and turbulent times in the Church, KNOWLEDGE can give us a real perspective on the reality of life. Knowing that God is the center of all creation and life itself, we become more willing to trust Him and His timetable. That’s why we always seek to learn as much about God and His Church as possible, so that we can work in cooperation with Him for the betterment of the world and ourselves.
That’s why we, as Catholics, value human life “from the womb to the tomb” – because we have learned from Sacred Scripture all that we need to know about God’s activity in our life. With only a few more weeks remaining in his schedule, Deacon Chris LeBlanc, who has been helping us on weekends for the better part of the past year, will be finishing his work here, and will go back to his diocese of Pensacola- Tallahassee for Ordination to the Priesthood in June. We have been blessed with his presence and the many talents and
gifts that God has given him that he shared with us. Please keep him in your prayers long beyond his priestly ordination, so that he may best bring Christ to the people who long to be nourished by the Word and Body of Christ.
Very Rev. Canon Tom
From the Pastor
March/12/2010
This past Saturday, Bishop Barbarito returned to our parish to preside over the anniversary of many couples who are celebrating 25, 40, 50 or more years of marriage! These couples’ marriages lasted so long because so many of them wanted to stay faithful to Christ and the teachings of His Church. Sadly, many others went a different way. This is not a condemnation of them, but rather a praise of those who struggle to be faithful to Christ and to each other in a society that promotes “the easy way out.”
In July, 1968, Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae. “Experts” predicted "a change" in Church teaching on birth control. However, wiser, quieter voices said that "a change" was out of the question, for this would have reversed the accepted and constant moral teaching, set out by Pope Pius XI in Casti Connubii and repeated by Vatican II, in the document Gaudium et Spes, #50, 51. But the quieter voices were ignored in the Sixties, a confused era for Catholics seeking moral guidance on spacing childbirths.
The anti-ovulent pill raised doubts about the classical teaching. It did not involve mechanical means. It was invisible and could have medical applications. Little was known then of health hazards or early abortion effects, and few recognized the disruptive psychological dimensions of contraception. So, a campaign began to spread across Europe and North America to allow the pill for Catholics. Confessors gave conflicting advice: some saying "no change," others "wait for it," others "follow your conscience" (code for "go ahead"). Well before the encyclical, a new “elastic conscience” took hold in the Church.
However, there were other problems. Natural methods were not trusted: “not ‘scientific’ enough” to satisfy a contraceptive mentality. All natural methods were called "rhythm." Married people were skeptical when told that this old "calendar method" had been superseded by the Basal Body Temperature Method or the simpler Billings Ovulation Method. Yet, some promoters of natural methods were not convinced about Church teaching—nor for the need of its essential work: to teach, sanctify and govern. They had lost heart. Others were not open to new developments, like the Billings or the Sympto-Thermal approach.
"High hopes" were also raised by the commission set up by Pope Paul VI to review the question. Since the majority report the commission presented to the Pope was in favor of change, that report was widely publicized. The more prudent minority report, the one against change, was noticeably derided.
When the encyclical appeared on July 25, 1968, knowledgeable people knew that the encyclical was not one Pope's hesitant "decision;" rather, it was his confident restatement of unchangeable teaching.
On the day the encyclical was released, it was already being undermined in Rome. Msgr.Lambruschini incorrectly told the media that the teaching was "not infallible" (a signal to “ignore it”). Others came to the opposite conclusion. But in 1968, who knew enough theology to understand that when a Pope repeats and elucidates constant Church teaching, this is infallible teaching in his Ordinary Teaching Authority? “Humanae Vitae” did not have to be proclaimed with a public ceremony, like a dogma defined by the Extraordinary Teaching Authority. It was the work of serious years of study and many more of tradition.
What most of us didn’t know at the time was how a young Polish cardinal influenced the way Paul VI presented the teaching. Karol Woytyla had written “Love and Responsibility” back in 1958. Later, as Pope John Paul II, he would develop and enrich the “Humanae Vitae” encyclical. In 1968, there was a famous debate at Oxford between some Dominicans and Professor Elizabeth Anscombe. She defended “Humanae Vitae” logically, and easily won, However, in the opinion of many crammed into the auditorium, emotions counted more than reason. During the debate, someone quoted a footnote in the encyclical by the great Dominican theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, on the Natural Law. The Dominicans were flustered, for, at that time, some English Dominicans had absorbed Marxism. One even cynically described “Humanae Vitae” as an opportunity for power struggles in the Church.
In the wake of “Humanae Vitae,” aggressive dissent seemed to freeze many Catholic leaders. To a certain extent, acts of discipline against vocal priests only made them “media martyrs.” Some of these went even so far as to attack infallibility, even though they understood papal teaching authority. The Pope was not only attacked in the secular press; the most tragic part of the saga was to come. Even though there was a compassionate pastoral tone to the encyclical, so called "pastoral statements" from some Bishops’ Conferences modified the Pope's teaching in a slippery way. Canada’s was perhaps the worst. Though these were later corrected, the damage was already done. Through the media, Catholics heard "follow your conscience,” and misinterpreted it as a green light for birth control and sterilization.
Paul VI now has been described as a prophet, though in his time he seemed to be a martyr. Actually, his letter on the transmission of human life was really his finest hour. It did have an uncanny accuracy in light of the past forty plus years. He said that contraception harmed women (H.V. # 17). He was criticized sharply for linking sterilization and abortion to contraception. But recent decades have revealed these three ugly sisters of a "culture of death" are inseparable. Though people laughed at
him, years later even many feminists came to agree with him in so much of his prophetic teachings. He argued that artificial birth control cannot be used by governments to impose population control. The Vatican-led struggles against population control at UN Conferences in the 1990's vindicated his stand. He argued that love, not just life, is disrupted by anti-natal practices.
People who actually read his encyclical find a rich doctrine of married love. But the creative development of that dimension had to wait for another Pope: John Paul II. His teaching, that the love-giving and life-giving dimensions of the marriage act must never be separated, has been vindicated by the current manipulation of human life: IVF, surrogacy, embryo experimentation, cloning, etc. Human-animal hybrids were later approved in England, where the "Mother of Parliaments," first legalized abortion in 1967.
After the 1980 Synod of Bishops on the Family, Pope John Paul II personalized “Humanae Vitae” in his own “Familiaris Consortio.” Benefiting from a real understanding of the woman's cycle, couples can cooperate with God as ministers of life, open to the Divine Plan. Pope John Paul II promoted the truly interpersonal natural regulation of fertility. This is the only real pastoral way forward: widely promoting natural regulation of fertility- the so-called "Natural Family Planning (NFP)." He said that what is truly natural in marital relations can actually be a means of grace in marriage.
Very Rev. Canon Tom
In July, 1968, Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae. “Experts” predicted "a change" in Church teaching on birth control. However, wiser, quieter voices said that "a change" was out of the question, for this would have reversed the accepted and constant moral teaching, set out by Pope Pius XI in Casti Connubii and repeated by Vatican II, in the document Gaudium et Spes, #50, 51. But the quieter voices were ignored in the Sixties, a confused era for Catholics seeking moral guidance on spacing childbirths.
The anti-ovulent pill raised doubts about the classical teaching. It did not involve mechanical means. It was invisible and could have medical applications. Little was known then of health hazards or early abortion effects, and few recognized the disruptive psychological dimensions of contraception. So, a campaign began to spread across Europe and North America to allow the pill for Catholics. Confessors gave conflicting advice: some saying "no change," others "wait for it," others "follow your conscience" (code for "go ahead"). Well before the encyclical, a new “elastic conscience” took hold in the Church.
However, there were other problems. Natural methods were not trusted: “not ‘scientific’ enough” to satisfy a contraceptive mentality. All natural methods were called "rhythm." Married people were skeptical when told that this old "calendar method" had been superseded by the Basal Body Temperature Method or the simpler Billings Ovulation Method. Yet, some promoters of natural methods were not convinced about Church teaching—nor for the need of its essential work: to teach, sanctify and govern. They had lost heart. Others were not open to new developments, like the Billings or the Sympto-Thermal approach.
"High hopes" were also raised by the commission set up by Pope Paul VI to review the question. Since the majority report the commission presented to the Pope was in favor of change, that report was widely publicized. The more prudent minority report, the one against change, was noticeably derided.
When the encyclical appeared on July 25, 1968, knowledgeable people knew that the encyclical was not one Pope's hesitant "decision;" rather, it was his confident restatement of unchangeable teaching.
On the day the encyclical was released, it was already being undermined in Rome. Msgr.Lambruschini incorrectly told the media that the teaching was "not infallible" (a signal to “ignore it”). Others came to the opposite conclusion. But in 1968, who knew enough theology to understand that when a Pope repeats and elucidates constant Church teaching, this is infallible teaching in his Ordinary Teaching Authority? “Humanae Vitae” did not have to be proclaimed with a public ceremony, like a dogma defined by the Extraordinary Teaching Authority. It was the work of serious years of study and many more of tradition.
What most of us didn’t know at the time was how a young Polish cardinal influenced the way Paul VI presented the teaching. Karol Woytyla had written “Love and Responsibility” back in 1958. Later, as Pope John Paul II, he would develop and enrich the “Humanae Vitae” encyclical. In 1968, there was a famous debate at Oxford between some Dominicans and Professor Elizabeth Anscombe. She defended “Humanae Vitae” logically, and easily won, However, in the opinion of many crammed into the auditorium, emotions counted more than reason. During the debate, someone quoted a footnote in the encyclical by the great Dominican theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, on the Natural Law. The Dominicans were flustered, for, at that time, some English Dominicans had absorbed Marxism. One even cynically described “Humanae Vitae” as an opportunity for power struggles in the Church.
In the wake of “Humanae Vitae,” aggressive dissent seemed to freeze many Catholic leaders. To a certain extent, acts of discipline against vocal priests only made them “media martyrs.” Some of these went even so far as to attack infallibility, even though they understood papal teaching authority. The Pope was not only attacked in the secular press; the most tragic part of the saga was to come. Even though there was a compassionate pastoral tone to the encyclical, so called "pastoral statements" from some Bishops’ Conferences modified the Pope's teaching in a slippery way. Canada’s was perhaps the worst. Though these were later corrected, the damage was already done. Through the media, Catholics heard "follow your conscience,” and misinterpreted it as a green light for birth control and sterilization.
Paul VI now has been described as a prophet, though in his time he seemed to be a martyr. Actually, his letter on the transmission of human life was really his finest hour. It did have an uncanny accuracy in light of the past forty plus years. He said that contraception harmed women (H.V. # 17). He was criticized sharply for linking sterilization and abortion to contraception. But recent decades have revealed these three ugly sisters of a "culture of death" are inseparable. Though people laughed at
him, years later even many feminists came to agree with him in so much of his prophetic teachings. He argued that artificial birth control cannot be used by governments to impose population control. The Vatican-led struggles against population control at UN Conferences in the 1990's vindicated his stand. He argued that love, not just life, is disrupted by anti-natal practices.
People who actually read his encyclical find a rich doctrine of married love. But the creative development of that dimension had to wait for another Pope: John Paul II. His teaching, that the love-giving and life-giving dimensions of the marriage act must never be separated, has been vindicated by the current manipulation of human life: IVF, surrogacy, embryo experimentation, cloning, etc. Human-animal hybrids were later approved in England, where the "Mother of Parliaments," first legalized abortion in 1967.
After the 1980 Synod of Bishops on the Family, Pope John Paul II personalized “Humanae Vitae” in his own “Familiaris Consortio.” Benefiting from a real understanding of the woman's cycle, couples can cooperate with God as ministers of life, open to the Divine Plan. Pope John Paul II promoted the truly interpersonal natural regulation of fertility. This is the only real pastoral way forward: widely promoting natural regulation of fertility- the so-called "Natural Family Planning (NFP)." He said that what is truly natural in marital relations can actually be a means of grace in marriage.
Very Rev. Canon Tom
From the Pastor
March/04/2010
Thank you sincerely for your participation in, and support of our 43rd Annual Parish Festival. Through
your purchase of raffle tickets, sponsorships, underwriting of the event, and especially donating of your time and service as valuable volunteers, you have helped bring about another successful event for the benefit of our school children.
There were so many people involved that it becomes difficult to thank each individual. People have been coming from great distances as well as our local neighborhood to have a great time enjoying the food, camaraderie and various kinds of entertainment. Though we won’t have the final results for a few weeks (after all the bills have been paid!), suffice it to say that the parish festival has been blessed by the Lord with
fine weather and many good people who help to make it a wonderful success! May God reward you and your families for helping our school!
Our Annual Parish Mission will be observed from next Sunday, March 14th, through Thursday, March 17th. We’re happy to welcome back to our parish Father John Phelps, who spoke to us several weeks ago on behalf of the Redemptorist magazine, “The Ligourian.” Along with a Paulist priest, Father Alex Steinmiller, the two will work as a team to address our spiritual needs, especially based upon the needs assessment you answered for Father Phelps.
Bishop Barbarito returns to our parish next weekend for the diocesan observance of the annual Marriage
Anniversary celebration. Those couples who have been married 25, 40, 50 or more years will renew their commitments at Mass, and then attend a luncheon with the bishop following the ceremony. Congratulations to all of our parishioners who will be celebrating their wedding anniversary! May God bless you with many more happy years together.
This coming week, a busload plus of Catholic men and women will be headed for the state capitol in Tallahassee for “Catholic Days at the Capitol.” There, we will attempt to reach many of our legislators and explain to them our position as Catholics on many of the various pieces of legislation that will come before them for a vote this session. Sometimes we get a better response from those legislators who are not Catholic, compared to those who are “Catholic in name only.” Please pray for the success of our mission.
Steve Dudenhoefer of our Ak’Tenamit (“New Village”) in Guatemala will be coming to our parish on the
weekend of March 20-21 to make his annual appeal for our sister mission school and clinic in the rain forest of Guatemala. The following weekend (that of Palm Sunday), we will take up that second collection with the aim of supporting our mission there. Though we have been inundated with the most worthy of requests to help devastated Haiti in the aftermath of the great earthquake, we don’t want to lose sight of our need also to help the second poorest country in this hemisphere, Guatemala. This summer, our Knights of Columbus (some with their sons) will be taking their annual trek to that mission to assist in building more classrooms due to the rapid growth of the school population in Ak’Tenamit. Accompanying us will be some of the state officers of the 47,000 Knights in Florida, including a recent State Deputy (head knight) of Florida. We even expect to replicate our project in a neighboring area of the country, and help the people there realize the dream of Father Tom Moran, to educate and help keep the people in their own country, developing the talents and resources that they have in abundance, but needing outside assistance to do so. May your response be as generous as it has always been.
Just a reminder for those who are joining me this September on the trip to Germany and Austria, we will
have our preliminary meeting this Monday evening in the Conference Room of the Rectory at 7:00 PM. We still have 6 seats open for the trip. Did I mention that we will be in Munich during their annual Oktoberfest? Auf Wiedersehen! Ja! Ja!
Very Rev. Canon Tom
your purchase of raffle tickets, sponsorships, underwriting of the event, and especially donating of your time and service as valuable volunteers, you have helped bring about another successful event for the benefit of our school children.
There were so many people involved that it becomes difficult to thank each individual. People have been coming from great distances as well as our local neighborhood to have a great time enjoying the food, camaraderie and various kinds of entertainment. Though we won’t have the final results for a few weeks (after all the bills have been paid!), suffice it to say that the parish festival has been blessed by the Lord with
fine weather and many good people who help to make it a wonderful success! May God reward you and your families for helping our school!
Our Annual Parish Mission will be observed from next Sunday, March 14th, through Thursday, March 17th. We’re happy to welcome back to our parish Father John Phelps, who spoke to us several weeks ago on behalf of the Redemptorist magazine, “The Ligourian.” Along with a Paulist priest, Father Alex Steinmiller, the two will work as a team to address our spiritual needs, especially based upon the needs assessment you answered for Father Phelps.
Bishop Barbarito returns to our parish next weekend for the diocesan observance of the annual Marriage
Anniversary celebration. Those couples who have been married 25, 40, 50 or more years will renew their commitments at Mass, and then attend a luncheon with the bishop following the ceremony. Congratulations to all of our parishioners who will be celebrating their wedding anniversary! May God bless you with many more happy years together.
This coming week, a busload plus of Catholic men and women will be headed for the state capitol in Tallahassee for “Catholic Days at the Capitol.” There, we will attempt to reach many of our legislators and explain to them our position as Catholics on many of the various pieces of legislation that will come before them for a vote this session. Sometimes we get a better response from those legislators who are not Catholic, compared to those who are “Catholic in name only.” Please pray for the success of our mission.
Steve Dudenhoefer of our Ak’Tenamit (“New Village”) in Guatemala will be coming to our parish on the
weekend of March 20-21 to make his annual appeal for our sister mission school and clinic in the rain forest of Guatemala. The following weekend (that of Palm Sunday), we will take up that second collection with the aim of supporting our mission there. Though we have been inundated with the most worthy of requests to help devastated Haiti in the aftermath of the great earthquake, we don’t want to lose sight of our need also to help the second poorest country in this hemisphere, Guatemala. This summer, our Knights of Columbus (some with their sons) will be taking their annual trek to that mission to assist in building more classrooms due to the rapid growth of the school population in Ak’Tenamit. Accompanying us will be some of the state officers of the 47,000 Knights in Florida, including a recent State Deputy (head knight) of Florida. We even expect to replicate our project in a neighboring area of the country, and help the people there realize the dream of Father Tom Moran, to educate and help keep the people in their own country, developing the talents and resources that they have in abundance, but needing outside assistance to do so. May your response be as generous as it has always been.
Just a reminder for those who are joining me this September on the trip to Germany and Austria, we will
have our preliminary meeting this Monday evening in the Conference Room of the Rectory at 7:00 PM. We still have 6 seats open for the trip. Did I mention that we will be in Munich during their annual Oktoberfest? Auf Wiedersehen! Ja! Ja!
Very Rev. Canon Tom