Message from the Rector

February 17, 2019

Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

Please join me in thanking Dave Carbonette and his dedicated crew of volunteers – conspicuous among them were members of the Youth Choir – for organizing another successful parish spaghetti supper on Saturday, February 9. The event was, once again, well attended including the presence of new people. Stay tuned for the next supper scheduled for the spring.
 
Next Friday being February 22^nd is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. It is one of the feast days associated with the Church of Rome which we celebrate with greater attention, given our obligations as a Minor Basilica. As is our practice on such days, the 12:15 PM Mass will be celebrated with greater solemnity.
 
It is important for us to remember how significant are the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, which became the pastoral charter for our Church in the years after the Council. Even at a distance of 50 years and more, the documents of the Council Fathers retain all their freshness and pertinence for our modern times. In the Office of Readings on Saturday, February 9 (Saturday of the 4^th Week of Ordinary Time), the following excerpt was printed from the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes): “Many of our contemporaries … seem to be afraid that a closer relationship between religion and (our) activity will injure the autonomy … of societies or the different sciences. If by the autonomy of earthly realities we mean that created things and even societies have their own distinctive laws and values… this kind of autonomy is rightly demanded.… If, on the other hand, the autonomy of the temporal order is understood to mean that created things do not depend on God, and that (we) may use them without reference to the Creator, all who believe in God will realize how false is this teaching. For creation without the Creator fades into nothingness.”

Fr. Kevin

To view the Message from the Rector on the sex abuse crisis - please click here