As we get closer to our 45th Annual Parish Festival, you’ll continue to hear our priests and committee members “push” the event at our church, particularly by selling the $100 raffle tickets that account for a major part of our all-important fund-raising effort for our school. Though the economy has not been the best, we’re still offering the same amount of prizes that we had offered in more prosperous times. If you and your friends, family-members or co-workers get-together and consolidate your donation for the purchase of the ticket, you’ll be one of those who stand a chance at winning gifts that will more than cover your expenses for the ticket. Again, I thank our volunteer Moms and Dads who will man the tables outside of church to bring us the opportunity to take home one of the cash prizes. They do make nice gifts for any number of occasions. Buy a ticket and help support Catholic education in our parish school!
Did you notice the new Baptismal/holy water font at the front entrance of our church? It’s quite heavy, weighing half-a-ton, and with its richly sculptured white marble will enhance the entrance and add beauty and dignity to our church and to the Sacrament of Baptism. It replaces a temporary wooden piece that has served that same purpose for several years. We still have a little gold-leaf embellishment to add as a touch-up for the font to finish the project that was commissioned in our 70th anniversary year by our Parish Pastoral Council. If you are interested in being one of the donors for the font, please contact Deacon Bruce or me for that possibility. Ten donors at $1,000 a piece, or four at $2,500, or two at $5,000, or even one at $10,000 will ensure your remembrance in that gift.
Were you as puzzled as I to see the very poor coverage that the media gave to this past week’s annual “MARCH FOR LIFE” in Washington, D.C.? Yet, why should we be surprised? The current administration is overtly commandeering the media in its attempt to get its anti-life, “pro-choice” (read: “pro-abort”) propaganda out to the public in order to obscure the valiant efforts of the faithful to promote respect for life in all forms. Additionally, our news reported that under new federal regulations, most Catholic institutions will have to get “in-step” with the rest of the country’s industries and organizations to offer medical “benefits” (as they call them) that will include many that are antithetical to Catholic teachings and traditional moral practices. What have we done to ourselves in allowing these challenges our basic Constitutionally-guaranteed “freedom” of religion to go unchecked?
Recently, Pope Benedict XVI spoke with a group of bishops from the U.S. telling them that at the heart of every culture is a consensus about the nature of reality and [the] moral good. In America, that consensus was grounded in a worldview shaped not only by faith but a commitment to certain ethical principles deriving from nature and nature's God. Today that consensus has eroded significantly in the face of powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such. To the extent that some current cultural trends contain elements that would curtail the proclamation of these truths, they represent a threat not just to the Christian faith, but also to humanity itself, and to the deepest truth about our being and ultimate vocation: our relationship to God.
He said that the Church's defense of a moral reasoning based on the natural law is grounded on her conviction that this law is not a threat to our freedom, but rather a 'language' which enables us to understand ourselves and the truth of our being, and so to shape a more just and humane world. “She thus proposes her moral teaching as a message not of constraint but of liberation, and as the basis for building a secure future.” He explained that the Church's witness is “of its nature public: she seeks to convince by proposing rational arguments in the public square. The legitimate separation of Church and State cannot be taken to mean that the Church must be silent on certain issues, nor that the State may choose not to engage…. the voices of committed believers in determining the values which will shape the future of the nation." He also stated that it is "imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church's public moral witness presented by a radical secularism, which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion."
The pope noted concerns about the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices; and a tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience. "Here … we see the need for an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-àvis the dominant culture and with the courage to counter a... secularism which would delegitimize the Church's participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society. The preparation of committed lay leaders and the presentation of a convincing articulation of the Christian vision of man and society remain a primary task of the Church in your country; as essential components of the new evangelization, these concerns must shape the vision and goals of catechetical programs at every level."
Benedict XVI lauded the bishops' efforts “to maintain contacts with Catholics involved in political life and to help them understand their personal responsibility to offer public witness to their faith, especially with regard to the great moral issues of our time: respect for God's gift of life, the protection of human dignity and the promotion of authentic human rights." He stated that anyone who looks realistically at the issues he described will see "the genuine difficulties which the Church encounters at the present moment."
Did you notice the new Baptismal/holy water font at the front entrance of our church? It’s quite heavy, weighing half-a-ton, and with its richly sculptured white marble will enhance the entrance and add beauty and dignity to our church and to the Sacrament of Baptism. It replaces a temporary wooden piece that has served that same purpose for several years. We still have a little gold-leaf embellishment to add as a touch-up for the font to finish the project that was commissioned in our 70th anniversary year by our Parish Pastoral Council. If you are interested in being one of the donors for the font, please contact Deacon Bruce or me for that possibility. Ten donors at $1,000 a piece, or four at $2,500, or two at $5,000, or even one at $10,000 will ensure your remembrance in that gift.
Were you as puzzled as I to see the very poor coverage that the media gave to this past week’s annual “MARCH FOR LIFE” in Washington, D.C.? Yet, why should we be surprised? The current administration is overtly commandeering the media in its attempt to get its anti-life, “pro-choice” (read: “pro-abort”) propaganda out to the public in order to obscure the valiant efforts of the faithful to promote respect for life in all forms. Additionally, our news reported that under new federal regulations, most Catholic institutions will have to get “in-step” with the rest of the country’s industries and organizations to offer medical “benefits” (as they call them) that will include many that are antithetical to Catholic teachings and traditional moral practices. What have we done to ourselves in allowing these challenges our basic Constitutionally-guaranteed “freedom” of religion to go unchecked?
Recently, Pope Benedict XVI spoke with a group of bishops from the U.S. telling them that at the heart of every culture is a consensus about the nature of reality and [the] moral good. In America, that consensus was grounded in a worldview shaped not only by faith but a commitment to certain ethical principles deriving from nature and nature's God. Today that consensus has eroded significantly in the face of powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such. To the extent that some current cultural trends contain elements that would curtail the proclamation of these truths, they represent a threat not just to the Christian faith, but also to humanity itself, and to the deepest truth about our being and ultimate vocation: our relationship to God.
He said that the Church's defense of a moral reasoning based on the natural law is grounded on her conviction that this law is not a threat to our freedom, but rather a 'language' which enables us to understand ourselves and the truth of our being, and so to shape a more just and humane world. “She thus proposes her moral teaching as a message not of constraint but of liberation, and as the basis for building a secure future.” He explained that the Church's witness is “of its nature public: she seeks to convince by proposing rational arguments in the public square. The legitimate separation of Church and State cannot be taken to mean that the Church must be silent on certain issues, nor that the State may choose not to engage…. the voices of committed believers in determining the values which will shape the future of the nation." He also stated that it is "imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church's public moral witness presented by a radical secularism, which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. Of particular concern are certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion."
The pope noted concerns about the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices; and a tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience. "Here … we see the need for an engaged, articulate and well-formed Catholic laity endowed with a strong critical sense vis-àvis the dominant culture and with the courage to counter a... secularism which would delegitimize the Church's participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society. The preparation of committed lay leaders and the presentation of a convincing articulation of the Christian vision of man and society remain a primary task of the Church in your country; as essential components of the new evangelization, these concerns must shape the vision and goals of catechetical programs at every level."
Benedict XVI lauded the bishops' efforts “to maintain contacts with Catholics involved in political life and to help them understand their personal responsibility to offer public witness to their faith, especially with regard to the great moral issues of our time: respect for God's gift of life, the protection of human dignity and the promotion of authentic human rights." He stated that anyone who looks realistically at the issues he described will see "the genuine difficulties which the Church encounters at the present moment."
Very Rev. Canon Tom
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