Greetings in Christ, all! This weekend the noon Mass is for my 25th anniversary of ordination…can you believe it? I’m so grateful to Jesus that I get to be here and St. Mark. I love this assignment and thank Jesus every day for you. I have a write-up in a program for that Mass that will be available on our parish facebook page. I wrote a letter and a little biography in there for you all if you want to look at it.
Now, I gotta type up a tough thing and I hate doing it, but it seems clear I have to. Please bear with me. As you know, this weekend we had to have two communion services. When we replace a Sunday Mass with a Communion Service led by a Deacon, attending such a service fulfills your Sunday obligation. Why? Because the Church recognizes that this is the reality we have as a Church now. We do not have sufficient priests to cover the amount of people who come to Masses.
First things first: I am so grateful for the response that a vast majority of you have chosen: being understanding and supportive of moments like these. I am so grateful. It’s hard to not feel like a failure when we aren’t able to meet all the needs asked of us and your loving response makes it all so much better. Fr. Le and I are grateful. I have to type the rest of this article now, not for you to change, but perhaps to give you information you might need in case others come to you about this whole situation.
This last week we fielded a number of calls about Priestless Sundays and I have to admit that I’m saddened by the tone some have chosen. You can trust that I take replacing a Mass with a Communion Service very, very seriously. To ask if we’ve called other priests is objectively a strange thing to ask. Of course we did. In the case of this weekend, we called dozens of priests months ago when we saw how the schedule was shaking out. Beyond this, we received some calls from parishioners who interrogated the volunteers who answered about Fr. Le’s schedule and my schedule: “Where are they that they aren’t praying Mass?” I personally was interrogated in the same way.
To be blunt, that’s offensive. You can safely assume that we are not sitting home when we should be praying Mass. If you do not believe you can safely assume that, it might be good to find another parish where you trust the priest. Or, you can contact my Bishop and let him know that you believe Fr. Le and I do not take Mass seriously. To those who expressed anger about this or said we were lying about calling priests, I ask you “What have you done in your lifetime to encourage young men to become priests? What have you done to encourage your sons to consider priesthood?”
The facts are this: as Catholics in the US, a vast majority have chosen a way of life that does not create priests. A vast majority of Catholics focus on faith when we need something, but not when it interferes in sports, social or academic concerns. A fruit of that is that fewer young men are praying about or seeking to become priests. The numbers are daunting and the crisis in priesthood in the US is only beginning. I am not exaggerating when I tell you it’s going to get much worse.
I do not type these things to frighten you or to complain. I type this so you know reality and work at accepting it. I don’t like this reality any more than you. Doing a communion service instead of Mass makes me physically ill, but Fr. Le and I are giving all we can, I promise you. Please pray about what I’ve typed here. Please pray for Fr. Le and me. Please pray that Jesus sends us more priests.
I love you all. I promise you that it would not occur to me to not give you all I am in pursuit of He who gave His all for us.
Fjjk