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Bulletin Column from January 30, 2022
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Dear Friends at Saint Frances Cabrini Parish and Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parish:
Praised be Jesus Christ! Allow me to offer in this column some quick updates or thoughts on a variety of topics.
My Term as Pastor
I received word this past week from the Archbishop that my term as pastor of Saint Frances Cabrini Parish and Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parish has been renewed for a new six-year term, beginning this June. This was a decision made in a shared dialogue between the Archdiocesan offices, the parish councils and staffs of our two parishes, and of course with me over the course of this past fall. I have been in West Bend a long time now it is true, but in the light of the significant capital campaigns and projects that both parishes are making their way through, everyone agreed it would be best not to try and change pastors in the middle of it all. So, I will be allowed to stay here as long as necessary to give success to these important endeavors. I am blessed to be here in West Bend and am pleased that I will be able to stay for awhile yet.
It is also the case that I am very fortunate to be pastor of two vibrant, generous, and faith-filled parishes with solid commitment to their respective missions. I have had excellent associate pastors for years, and have always had a wonderful staff of people to support our ministries. The mission of advancing the Gospel message in West Bend is one that we all share in together, and I could not serve here as a priest or pastor without all of the generosity that takes place around me. Know of my gratitude for it all and for all of you. Forward we go.
Catholic Schools Week
Catholic Schools Week begins this week across America, bringing us to our annual focused look at the blessing that Catholic Education is for our families, parishes, communities, and our society.
In their early days, Catholic Schools were intentional zones of protected Catholic identity in what was an otherwise overtly Mainline Protestant-run American Public school system, as in, an anti-Catholic (and often anti-Immigrant) public school system. This counter-cultural reality of Catholic Schools faded somewhat through the post-World War II years, and into the end of the 20th Century, when Catholics were “main-streamed” into American life. The Catholic schools boomed then because families were so large, and they rolled forward on their own institutional and demographic inertia, so much so that we essentially took our schools and our identity for granted.
That was then. In the 21st Century, Catholic Schools, including our own here in West Bend, can no longer take such earlier inertia and identity for granted for their ongoing success. Families are smaller which means our schools are smaller and also more expensive. Our schools are no less important, however. It would be fair to say that the need for our Catholic Schools to be counter-cultural zones of strong Catholic identity has again become critical as our culture, and public school systems, have grown increasingly secular and hostile to our values. This puts our Catholic Schools at the crossroads of the major cultural arguments of our day. We are wise to do whatever we can to ensure our Catholic Schools in West Bend will be strong and mission-driven. Catholic Schools Week is a great opportunity to renew our commitment to this important part of our local Catholic life.
Russia On the March
I have a memory of my childhood from the very early 1980’s about my father, a former Navy man, explaining to me why he kept a riffle in the house. I was maybe 5 years old at the time when I asked about its presence, and he responded by explaining that it was there to protect us in case the Russians came. For whatever character eccentricities my father may possess (all of which I share), his response was not that of a crazy person. In the early 1980’s, everyone knew who the threat was and what dangers it posed to the whole world on a constant basis. Watching the news of late about the Ukraine, I have been alarmed at the lack of alarm about the whole situation by so many here in America. How soon we forget the hard lessons of the past. Lengthier commentary will be offered later about these events, but for now I mention it simply as a call to fervent prayer for the state of our world. The battle over good and evil never takes a pause, and none of us are mere bystanders in the fight