From the Pastor's Pen

RESPECT—is a key word right now, in several aspects. As our school year starts, we have 40 more kids—a gain of 20%. This is great, but it is also a project for everyone involved. Our teachers have been preparing intensely for the new numbers. Our parent community will experience some growing pains. And of course our students have an opportunity for Respect and inclusion of many new faces. As I told “old” and “new” parents in early June, this is, together, “our” school—meaning each parent and student now enrolled.

The school year means extra school community events, and sports kicking back up with games and tournaments. It’s great to see the kids engaged and learning. It’s three years now that these events will be alcohol-free, in accord with the directive of the Archbishop, who owns the property and authorizes—or not— every activity and practice on it. The rare times we hear of this not being followed, there are consequences: a pastor held accountable, a parish sports program suspended from CYC for a time. The times are over when those arrested for DWI or in accidents, who were intoxicated at a Catholic youth event, are smiled at. Nowadays it’s lawsuits, not smiles. Any of you who work at a job, or ever did, obey the directions that come from above. As a Catholic pastor of the Archdiocese, I Respect our Archbishop, as all Catholics must, and comply with his clear directives.

Respect for one another as Americans. Recently the question was raised forcefully, whose country this is, and who belongs? Are we really still having this conversation?? No one questions the right of anyone to gather and march peacefully. But no one, or group, has the moral right to shout in unison that these are “our” streets—and that others—Jews, blacks, Muslims, or whoever—do not “belong”. Silence is a form of complicity. Get into conversations wherever you can, with neighbors, fellow parishioners, and the meeting forums we’re offering. Strangely, as I drove back to the rectory on the day some of this unfolded, a song from the late 60’s played on the radio: “America, where are you now? Don’t you care about your sons and daughters?”