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Statement from Bishop Burbidge on Respect Life Month

Statement from Bishop Burbidge on Respect Life Month

Statement from Bishop Michael F. Burbidge on Respect Life Month

( en español )

For more than half a century, the Catholic Church in the United States has paused at the start of October to celebrate Respect Life Month. During this month, we give special thanks to God for the gift of every human life, made in his image and likeness. We also acknowledge the dignity of every human life from conception until natural death.

This year’s Respect Life Month theme calls Catholics to embrace “radical solidarity” with pregnant mothers and their children. We live out that solidarity as we walk with vulnerable mothers through Catholic Charities and parish-based ministries like Gabriel Project, both of which surround expectant families with the practical, material and spiritual resources they need to choose life. As Catholics, we are committed to never abandoning mothers in need. With the generous support of clergy, donors and volunteers, we offer spiritual, financial and emotional help to mothers and families across our region through these ministries.

We live out radical solidarity through Project Rachel, a program which invites those hurting from their participation in abortion to experience the healing mercy of Christ and embraces them with compassion. We also show radical solidarity through our adoption ministries, which support birth mothers who choose to place their children in adoptive homes and provide resources to couples who welcome these children into their families.

Finally, we demonstrate radical solidarity when we advocate for policies and laws that enhance family life and protect the vulnerable, particularly the child in the womb.

Sadly, despite the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, abortion remains legal during all nine months of pregnancy in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The government has many responsibilities, but the defense of life is its most fundamental. Defending life requires us to entrust the reins of government only to those who will protect the most vulnerable among us. This is an obligation we must take seriously and carry out prayerfully.

Next month, Virginia will be holding a critical election, as every seat in the General Assembly is on the ballot. I encourage the faithful and all people of goodwill to join in radical solidarity with the unborn, their mothers and other vulnerable persons by voting for candidates who defend life at every stage.

May Mary our Mother intercede for us as we strive to build a future for Virginia in which every life is cherished and protected in law.

For more information on the upcoming election, please see the pastoral letter issued recently by Bishop Burbidge and Bishop Knestout through the Virginia Catholic Conference

St Mary Special Use Permit

St Mary Special Use Permit

A very special thank you to all our parishioners who wrote or showed up or spoke at the city council meeting!  St Mary’s application for a special use permit was approved 6-1!  We are now working with the city to get the occupancy license and hopefully we will be able to use the properties in the very near future!  Please always be mindful of our impact on our neighbors, and as the space becomes available, we will try and restrict access to the houses from the church parking lot, and not from the street.

Come Support at St Mary at the City Council

Come Support at St Mary at the City Council

St Mary has been trying to get a special use permit for some of the property we own in order to be able to use it as meeting space for our parishioners.  We have a motion before the city council this Tuesday, September 26, at 7:30pm at the city council chambers on Princess Anne St.  There will be an invitation for public comments, and anyone can speak.  We would like to encourage as many parishioners as possible to come out and support us and speak about how St Mary has done positives things for the community!  We need as many people as we can, and the meeting may go on a long time, but it will be necessary for the city council to see how much support the parish has for the ability use this space to meet!  These meetings can sometimes be contentious, so please be on your best behavior as a representative of the church.  Please wear orange to visually indicate your support! Thank you!

From our Pastor

From our Pastor

Folks,

Last weeks gospel and homily on forgiveness, touched a lot of souls. Many parishioners asked if I could share my notes. I have captured them here in a manner fitting the bulletin:

What is forgiveness, which our Lord describes in such dramatic terms as absolutely necessary?
If we don’t forgive as we are forgiven, we will find ourselves burdened with unpayable debt. In the parable, the debt forgiven is a sum equal to 160,000 years salary. At 50k a year, that is $8 billion. What is the sum the same man refuses to forgive? 100 days wages, about $14,000 at the same pay rate.

So let’s talk forgiveness, lest we be thrown into the fires to pay off the unpayable debt. But let me begin with what it isn’t:

Forgiveness is NOT Pretending. It is an offense against truth to try to pretend that sin does no harm. “Oh, it’s no big deal,” is not a path to healing and forgiveness. Pretending sin does not harm is repression, not truth. Acknowledging harm is the first step.

Forgiveness is NOT Forgetting. I have heard, and even said, “forgive and forget.” The scriptures speak
of the Lord forgetting, precisely because it is a super- natural possibility. Here is a startling sentence from the Catechism where it is addressing the Our Father and the parable (CCC 2843):

It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.

It is not in our human power “not to feel or to forget an offense.” But the heart that forgives in sanctifying even the very wound!

Forgiveness is NOT Excusing. Yes, our Lord says, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” We are not God. Instead our excusing is rationalizing sin. There will be no room for rationalizing and excusing when we stand before the judgement of God. Sadly, much of what passes for compassion today is an excusing and rationalizing of sin.

Forgiveness is not blindly trusting again. Someone came to me asking what to do because her husband was abusing their children in the worst way. I had to insist she call the police immediately, and that forgiving him did not mean blindly trusting and allowing him back into their children’s life.

Jesus did not trust blindly because He knows all things, including human hearts. We must forgive, but also exercise prudence to protect the vulnerable. Yes, especially in marriage and family, that forgiveness will allow grace to heal and rebuild trust as a gift from God.

Forgiveness is NOT a Feeling. Like love it is a choice, an act of supernatural power and charity. Forgiveness is a choice.

Yes, our feelings ultimately follow our choices. Our choice to forgive cuts off the circulation to the anger, passion, and wrath that we are tempted to hold onto. Instead, it directs that energy to the healing warmth of mercy.

Forgiveness is a choice that is rooted in justice, that to each must be rendered what is due to them.
Justice requires fixing the damage done. But what to do when we have done $8 billion worth of damage?

Forgiveness IS voluntarily choosing to bear the consequences and burden of someone else’s sin. Look at a crucifix and reconsider: Forgiveness is voluntarily choosing to bear the consequences and burden of someone else’s sin.

‘By His stripes we were healed.’ No one took His life; He laid it down freely.

Your children, spouse, pastor, Church, all need forgiveness from you. As you have received, so you must give. Your own forgiveness depends on it.

pax,

Father John Mosimann

September 24, 2023