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From Our Pastor

From Our Pastor

Dear Folks,

As you some of you may have heard by now, last Friday I announced to Holy Cross staff and families that the Oblate Sisters will not be returning to Holy Cross Academy next year. I held off announcing it to the parish at large to give school families some time to tell their children, but for 21 years the Oblate Sisters have been a member of our parish family and I know this will come as difficult news for many of you.

I wish the very best of the Oblate Sisters, and I’m grateful for their ministry the past 21 years to our parish and our school. There’s been a lot of sadness and confusion about my decision not to renew their contracts at the school for next year, and I’d like to assure you that my reasons have nothing to do with anything scandalous. The simple fact is that priests and sisters have to move on as part of their ministry, and someone has to be the person to decide when that happens. In this case, as pastor, that falls to me. I know many of you have questions or would simply like to express your opinion to me. There’s not much more I’m able to say on personnel decisions, but please know I’m here for you, and am happy to listen.

Moving forward, everyone in the parish is invited to a meeting with me on Monday, March 25, at 7pm in the church about the steps moving forward at Holy Cross. Holy Cross is our parish school and the many blessings and graces that flow out of HCA are a huge benefit to the parish family at large, and I want to involve all of you in the next steps. So far, a lot of the feedback has understandably been asking if another religious order will be taking over HCA or, if not, what steps will be made to maintain the strong Catholic identity and high standard of education. My answer is that I’m currently doing everything in my power to make sure a religious order serves you at Holy Cross Academy. That’s my main priority, but because of the nature of the process I cannot guarantee it. But what I can guarantee is that Holy Cross will remain a school where the children of our parish are given a solid, faithful Catholic education of the highest quality. I hope to see many of you on Monday.

pax et bonum,

Fr. John Mosimann

From Our Pastor

From Our Pastor

Dear Folks,

Happy St Patrick’s Day! Remember 2 years ago when it fell on a Friday in Lent? What to do? What a crisis of epic proportion? How did the Irish, and the wanna-be-Irish survive without corned-beef ? Is my Irishness more important than my Catholicness??? Wait….. Our Orange-Loving-Pastor is Irish? One eighth in the blood! One of my great grandmothers was Delia Daggett born in county Meath. So out of respect for St. Patrick, my ancestors, and for all the beloved Irish in our parish: no orange clothes for me today!!

But back to the Friday St. Patrick crisis of 2017: well, our Bishop has stepped in to let us off the hook, letting us choose another day that week to abstain from meat. Because the law of abstaining from meat is an ecclesiastical law, it can be lifted by the competent authority (the Bishop, and in some cases by me!) However, we do we fidelity and obedience to ecclesiastical law. Why? Well, these are the rules of our family. Every family has its rules, so that the family runs smoothly, and directed to the purpose for which it exists. Church law serves the same function, protecting our rights, and imposing obligations designed to help us get to heaven.

Which brings me to the Lenten discipline of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. All three are critical for our living the gospel. It is not sufficient to say I am just doing one or the other. Why? Because each part corresponds to a part of the Gospel call of conversion. We are called to renounce sin (fasting helps here to get our appetites under control), love God (prayer is rooted in this love and feeds it) and love our neighbor (our positive acts of kindness and charityflesh this out). If we say that we are loving God without rooting out sin, then we are sorely deceiving ourselves. If we embrace great penances, but fail to love our neighbor, then we are not following through on the Gospel. All three are necessary for living the Gospel, not just during Lent, but especially during this time when we focus on our spiritual lives. We face the reality of our lives and sin, and turn to God. This is the act of ongoing conversion that we should be undertaking every day of our lives.

Anyway, enjoy your green beer today (unless you gave it up for Lent)!

pax et bonum,

Fr. Mosimann