Greetings in Christ, all! This bulletin article has a lot of important items in it. Please make sure to share it with parishioners who could use this info.
First thing: I am GEEKED about the upcoming festival. Please mark down your calendars for June 16-18. This is a big fundraiser for us and I would love for everyone to come by, sample the food, check out the music and just enjoy a good clean time together.
We have a significant need for volunteers for a number of things. Would you please help? If you can, please call or email Genevieve at our office and find out what we need and what you can do. Her email is: gpsenski@hfgb.org.
Now, for the heavy stuff:
I’m asking us to remember that our Church is a sacred space. Please give people a quiet space to prepare for Mass. Let’s do our socializing and chatting in the large gathering area and keep the noise in Church to a minimum. I’m one of the worst at this and need your help there too, so I feel particularly challenged on this topic. If you find yourself being driven to distraction before Mass, I think a good way to handle it is to kindly say “I’m sorry to interrupt, but would you mind heading to the gathering space?” Say that to me and I know to move! If someone says that to you, thank them and head over to the gathering space!
Finally, some very serious news. Last Friday I put a post on our Parish Facebook page for everyone, but it was too late for the bulletin. I will re-run it here with an update because a lot of what we worried about happened all over the country, though not here at Holy Family. So, here is my post, followed by an update:
Greetings in Christ, all!
I am typing this post for all Catholics who will be attending mass this weekend in the US. It’s become clear through various posts on Facebook and alerts from law enforcement that there are groups organizing to disrupt Worship at Catholic Churches this weekend. They are planning on doing so in order to express their displeasure with the possibility that the Supreme Court may rule that abortion on demand is not a right guaranteed in the constitution.
I’ve received a number of questions like “what will we do if they come to our Church?” and I would like to share my thoughts on this topic.
I would like us all to remember that, if such a thing happens here our highest priority is to imitate Christ and love those who persecute us, to pray for those who hate us and to serve those who think we are their enemy.
Already this week, numerous Catholic Churches around the country have been vandalized by folks such as these: the violence in their hearts is tragic. I beg you, do not engage with these folks in any way; do not try to reason with them and do not participate in any violence of any kind: those are their weapons.
Our weapon is love. We will do what Jesus did; love them, pray for them and make sure we never degrade our Sacred Space with violence. Our principle is simple: humans are sacred. Let’s make sure our commitment to that principle is unwavering in the face of such wounded and angry people.
For those who come to worship God at the Parishes I serve, please know that we have plans in place should such a sorrow occur. It is our plan that your priests will acknowledge the presence of those who are attempting to violate our sacred time and then begin leading the congregation in prayer together until they go away or until the police arrive and remove them.
I recall the hateful antics of different groups that threw condoms at worshippers during and after priestly ordinations in Boston and other dioceses around the country in the late 80’s, early 90’s. I remember at my ordination, there were people carrying picket signs outside of the Cathedral, protesting all sorts of things about Catholics. I was so angry at these folks and wanted so desperately to show that anger but I have slowly and painfully learned that most times, venting anger is a bit like scratching an itch from poison ivy: it’s a great feeling of relief for a second, but the long terms results only make it worse. The better thing for me was to pray for them and thank God that I was actually suffering because of love.
Most times that we suffer as a Church, it’s because we earned it by our sin. This is a time we may be called to suffer because we love and value human life. I beg of you: show respect, love and tolerance for everyone, even those who have none for you. This is how we love like Jesus, who “while we hated him, loved us and offered his life for us.”
God bless you all.
So, that was the article. Here is the update: I first want to point out that the Grand Blanc Police Department was amazing this last Sunday, keeping an eye on us and making sure we are safe. I am so grateful. We had no incidents or troubles.
This was not the case in many Catholic Churches this last weekend, as numerous Catholic Churches and Crisis Pregnancy Centers were vandalized; at least one with Molotov Cocktails.
· In Katy, Texas, someone stole the tabernacle.
· St. John XXIII parish in Fort Collins, Colorado was vandalized with graffiti.
· St. James Cathedral in Seattle, Washington was the victim of a mob attempting to enter Church.
· These are just a few of what was a minor trend last weekend.
“Ruth Sent Us,” a pro-abortion activist group, responded to the news of these and other incidents by posting the following message on social media:
“Stuff your rosaries and your weaponized prayer. We will remain outraged after this weekend, so keep praying. We’ll be burning the Eucharist to show our disgust for the abuse Catholic Churches have condoned for centuries.”
I tell you these things because I assume this is our new reality: people who do not respect the sanctity of human life will certainly not respect the sanctity of worship or houses of prayer. We will love them and pray for them as Jesus taught us.
My big concern was that I received a few messages from Catholics who told me they stayed away from Church out of fear. Do not give in to fear. Do not let anyone keep you from your Christian duty. We pray and we love and no amount of fear tactics can or will ever keep us from that.
We will stay vigilant and stay with our plan, all the while working with the police to ensure that as much as is humanly possible, we will be safe.
Thank you for your time and attention. Thank you for your dedication to the dignity of every human being. Thank you for letting me serve you. Words cannot express how honored I am to be your priest.
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