From the Pastor’s Desk::

In 1979, two years before I was ordained, St. Pope John Paul II in his homily in Washington DC stated: “I do not hesitate to proclaim before you and before the world that all human life, from the moment of conception and through all subsequent stages is sacred, because human life is created in the image and likeness of God. Nothing surpasses the greatness or the dignity of a human person.” Later in his homily he continued, “All human beings ought to value every person for his or her uniqueness as a creature of God, called to be a brother or sister of Christ….And so, we will stand up every time that human life is threatened.” He concluded by stating, “Everything aimed at banishing discrimination, in law or in fact, is a service to life. When the rights of minorities are fostered, when the mentally or physically handicapped are assisted, when those on the margin of society are given a voice, in all these instances the dignity of life and the sacredness of human life are furthered.

As I stated at the beginning of my letter, this was from a homily in 1979 and we are still struggling as a country and church to put into practice a culture of life. A culture of life which begins with protecting the unborn, but just as important is protecting children once they are born with adequate food, housing and medical care, to protecting the immigrant, the homeless and the elderly.

Throughout my life the rights of the individual have been held as a high standard, so much so, that now when the community suffers as a whole, too many individuals still do what they want, stating, “No one is going to tell me what to do.” There was a comic in the newspaper a few weeks ago which stated it well: It showed London during WWII, with all the windows blacked out except one, where a man in the window stated, “no one is going to tell me to black out my windows”, as bombs rained down. As I write this letter, the United States have had 228,590 deaths from Covid 19; the next country closest to us with Covid deaths is Brazil with 157,226. Lack of consideration for each other has led to more deaths because so many have lost sight of the common good which recognizes my rights end where everyone else’s begin.

We have open mass intentions in November. If you would like to schedule a mass for a beloved dead please contact the parish office at 831-3565.