Sunday: 5:30PM Vigil Mass $432; Sunday 8:30AM $2175; 10:00AM $413; 11:00AM $359; 12:30PM$741; 8:00PM $419; Week Masses & donations $420; Total $5,159 — Thank you!
–During Lent every year the Archdiocese launches the Stewardship Appeal (formerly Cardinal’s Appeal). This applies to all the Parishes of the Arch. The goal assigned to our parish is $24,500, using same formula for all parishes, (1/6th of annual Sun. Collections). We have received the envelopes. In a couple of weeks time we’ll have an in-pews appeal. I am inviting all parishioners to participate and to see it as a Lenten effort. I have been your pastors for 5 years and we’ve always met our goal and we should be proud of it. I am told by the Stewardship office that all the soliciting letter have been sent to our parishioners and if you have not received one is because we haven’t got your address. It does not really matter at this stage. There are envelopes at the back that you can use to send your contributions directly to the Arch or to pass them on to me and I will gladly forward them.
Make a Gift
This of course includes me. If all participate it becomes less onerous for everyone. I have told you many times before that it is no use using language like we like our parish but we don’t care about the Archdiocese. If you truly love your parish you meet the goal because if we don’t we’ll never hear the end of it and it will all be my fault; they will be thinking that I am a lousy pastor, not able to inspire and motivate you. That is how it works in the real world. So if you like your parish, help me out!! You also know that the Stewardship money goes to help the enormous religious and charitable activities of the Archdiocese. If it weren’t so I would be the first to complain and tell you. I count on your help.
– At the 12:30 Mass we shall inaugurate the chair lift which is already functioning. I have noticed reluctance by people to use it. Of course if you prefer to fight the stairs, well fighting and not surrendering to old age is a good thing. But if you start saying I am not going to mass because I hate those stairs then you should use the lift. You know how central the Eucharist is in Catholic worship/spirituality.
We also as a parish want to express sincere thanks to Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein who will be with us today and want to honor Julia Vega their deceased Nanny who was a parishioner of ours for many, many years and who somehow also developed a great fondness for me. She was an energetic, opinionated and sweet lady who died at the venerable age of 90 and she came from Chile like Mrs. Phylicia Bernstein, the beloved wife of the Maestro and loving mother of the children. Julia’s friends will also be present. The lift is an incomparable gift that makes our church more accessible and valuable; we can certainly now join the list of the wheel chair accessible places of worship. I would also like to thank James Capozzi a friend of the Bernstein family for piloting and supervising the project and bringing it to a successful conclusion, ensuring quality, getting City’s approval, inspection etc. Now it will become our responsibility to maintain it, look after it and to use it of course for the praise and glory of God!!
–Catholic Charities Junior Board (a young adult division of Catholic Charities) present the Way of the Cross Through Central Park on Tuesday March 9th (Rain Date March 16th) and March 23rd (Rain Date March 30th). We will exercise our feet as well as our faith, while we enjoy the sights of Central Park and pray and meditate on the final moments of Christ’s Passion. We will meet at 6:30pm at the big fountain at Grand Army Plaza, outside the Plaza Hotel on the SW corner of 59th Street and 5th Avenue (look for our “Way of the Cross signs”). We will head into the Park to recite all 14 stations. For information, email mario@cspya.org.
Bishop Bambera
–Msgr. Joseph Bambera has been appointed the 10th bishop of the Diocese of Scranton, the Vatican announced this morning. He is the pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Mary of Czestochowa churches in Archbald, the Rev. Bambera has run the daily operations of the diocese for the past six months as delegate to interim leader Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia. I mention it because of my close association with the IHM Sisters who live at St. Ann’s convent and run the school and whose mother House is in Scranton and who were anxiously waiting for the new bishop. I have not heard comments yet.
–I love statistics. The latest Vatican statistics show a slight increase in Catholics as a percentage of the world’s population, and a slow but steady rise in the number of priests and seminarians worldwide. The statistics, from the end of 2008, were presented along with the new Vatican yearbook Feb. 20. The Vatican said the number of Catholics reached 1.166 billion, an increase of 19 million, or 1.7 percent, from the end of 2007. During the same period, Catholics as a percentage of the global population grew from 17.33 percent to 17.4 percent, it said.
All signs trending up
The number of priests stood at 409,166, an increase of 1,142 from the end of 2007. Since the year 2000, the Vatican said, the number of priests has increased by nearly 4,000, or about 1 percent. Looking at the way priests are distributed around the world, it said: 47.1 percent were in Europe, 30 percent in the Americas, 13.2 percent in Asia, 8.7 percent in Africa and 1.2 percent in Oceania. The number of seminarians around the world rose from 115,919 at the end of 2007 to 117,024 at the end of 2008, an increase of more than 1 percent, it said. The increase in seminarians varied geographically: Africa showed an increase of 3.6 percent, Asia an increase of 4.4 percent, and Oceania an increase of 6.5 percent, while Europe had a decrease of 4.3 percent and the Americas remained about the same. The statistics showed that professed religious women remain the single largest category of pastoral workers, but that overall their numbers continue to decline. From 2000 to the end of 2008, the Vatican said, the number of women religious went from 801,185 to 739,067, a drop of 7.8 percent. Regarding geographic distribution, it said the largest numbers of women religious are still found in Europe (40.9 percent of the total) and the Americas (27.5 percent of the total); both areas have shown a significant decline in numbers since 2000, however. During the same period, the number of women religious in Africa has increased by 21.2 percent, and in Asia by 16.4 percent, it said.
– Nineteen Catholic scholars of theology and history are asking Pope Benedict XVI to slow the process of the sainthood cause of Pope Pius XII. Saying that much more research needs to be done on the papacy of the mid-20th century pope, the scholars said in a Feb. 16 letter to Pope Benedict that “history needs distance and perspective” before definitive conclusions can be reached on the role of Pope Pius during World War II and the Holocaust. Leading the effort are Servite Father John Pawlikowski, professor of ethics at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and Holy Cross Father Kevin Spicer, associate professor of history at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. “We’re not on a bandwagon to stop his eventual canonization,” Father Pawlikowski told Catholic News Service Feb. 18. “We’re saying allow some time.” Father Pawlikowski said the scholars, known widely for their research and expertise on the Holocaust, wanted to express their concerns in a respectful manner to the pope. First sent Feb. 16 via e-mail then sent a day later via overnight mail, the letter asked the Pope “to be patient with the cause of Pope Pius XII.”
– I read in Catholic papers that the Pope is taking a full week off, cancelling all appointments, including the general audience, for his Lenten retreat held in the “Redemptoris Mater” chapel with members of the Roman Curia. The week-long series of meditations was given by Salesian Father Enrico dal Covolo and began on Sunday evening with the celebration of Vespers and the introductory meditation titled “Give me, oh Lord, a listening heart” followed by Adoration and Eucharistic Benediction.
– The announcement of Bl. Brother André’s Oct. 17, 2010 canonization has caused a grateful reaction and much anticipation among Catholics and Canadians devoted to the humble porter who showed great devotion to St. Joseph. Pope Benedict XVI announced Br. André’s pending canonization in the Consistory Hall of Vatican City on Friday. The Oratory of Mt. Royal in Montreal is a magnificent place which I visited once. Of course all the brothers and priests of the Congregation of Holy Cross are rejoicing. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he joins Catholics, Quebecers and all Canadians in welcoming the news of Brother André’s canonization. “Brother André’s life shows us the power of faith and the importance of concern for the sick and others in need. In this solemn act, the Roman Catholic Church is honoring a Canadian who achieved greatness through humility, determination and service to others. “Brother André’s devotion to St. Joseph, the patron saint of Canada, led to the building of the magnificent Oratory on Mount Royal. Today’s news heightens the inspiration we feel on seeing that religious landmark, a symbol and center of faith in Montreal and all of Canada.”
–You heard me many times saying that King Solomon represents the apogee of Jewish civilization, culture. He built the magnificent Temple, one of the 7 wonders; his court and palaces were beyond imagination for their splendor. Well, among scholars this was disputed. Recent excavations have uncovered ruins dating back to that age showing indeed a high degree of sophistication & technology that matches the biblical narrative of a golden age
