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August 21, 2018
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Each year our Archdiocese participates in the missionary Cooperative plan, which invites a missionary to preach at a parish mission appeals. This weekend, the Daughters of Divine Love has been asked to speak at our parish. The Daughters of Divine Love Congregation, is a Pontifical and International order of religious women founded by Bishop Godfrey Mary Paul Okoye, CSSP, on July 16, 1969 in Nigeria. The congregation has over 900 professed members. The Congregation, recognized by their blue veil, is uniquely joyful in their service to God and to the Church.
The Sisters are engaged in variety of apostolate in different parts of the world, including United States of America, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Germany, England, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, France, Belgium, Nigeria, Chad, Gabon, Cameroon, Mali and Kenya.
Please welcome the Daughters of Divine Love to our parish this weekend for their mission appeal.
As you are fully aware by now the Church has been rocked by allegations of sexual abuse by Archbishop Theodore MeCarrick, as well as the contents of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report.
On August 20th, The Holy Father released the following statement: (Included is the first paragraph of his statement.)
Letter of the Holy Father Francis to the People of God
“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (1 Cor 12:26). These words of Saint Paul forcefully echo in my heart as I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons. Crimes that inflict deep wounds of pain and powerlessness, primarily among the victims, but also in their family members and in the larger community of believers and nonbelievers alike. Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated. The pain of the victims and their families is also our pain, and so it is urgent that we once more reaffirm our commitment to ensure the protection of minors and of vulnerable adults.”
The rest of Pope Francis’ Letter to the People of God can be found on the Usccb.org website or go to the following link:
http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2018/08/20/180820a.html
Cardinal DiNardo in his capacity as the USCCB president has made the following statement:
"I am grateful to the Holy Father for his Letter to the People of God, responding to the Pennsylvania Grand Jury investigation and other revelations that have surfaced. The very fact that he opens the letter with the words of Saint Paul: 'If one part suffers, all parts suffer with it' (1 Cor 12:25), shows that he is writing to all of us as a pastor, a pastor who knows how deeply sin destroys lives. I find these words of the Holy Father particularly helpful: 'penance and prayer will help us to open our eyes and our hearts to other people's sufferings and to overcome the thirst for power and possessions that are so often the root of those evils.' These words must provoke action – especially by the bishops. We bishops need to– and we must – practice with all humility such prayer and penance.
"The Holy Father is also inviting, and I am asking this as well, that all the faithful join in prayer and fasting as a way to help foster conversion and genuine change of life wherever it is needed, even in the shepherds of the Church. Jesus remarked once, 'This kind can only come out through prayer and fasting' (Mark 9:29); a humble reminder that such acts of faith can move mountains and can even bring about true healing and conversion.
"On behalf of my brother bishops, I offer that only by confronting our own failure in the face of crimes against those we are charged to protect can the Church resurrect a culture of life where the culture of death has prevailed."
This Sunday is the conclusion of the Bread of Life Discourse from the Gospel of John and is a turning point for the Disciples of Jesus as well. As the Disciples grapple with doubt, unbelief and anger in the Gospel; Our own faith is being tested with unbelief, doubt and anger over the issues that are facing the Church right now. However, this is the time in which we will have to depend on our faith in God to make things right, and move us from unbelief, doubt and anger to a Church of Prayer and Action.
God Bless,
Fr. Reginald Samuels