For His Friends

I am back from fishing and after a long day in the office found myself on a plane to South Bend and the University of Notre Dame. I had been invited to celebrate the graduation Mass, give out the certificates which precede the diplomas and preach for the seventeen members of the ECHO group who are graduating and those returning this week-end for their second year in their dioceses and those who will be beginning their two year service in the dioceses of the country starting, well tomorrow for some. We have had the privilege of three ECHO students in our diocese for the past two years who are graduating today: Anthony Paz who served at St. Jude Cathedral, Katie Muller who served at St. Paul parish and Holy Family parish, and Ellen Voegele who served at Blessed Trinity parish. Anthony is from Eureka, California and graduated with his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, Katie is a graduate of Marquette University and is from the Chicago area and Ellen is from Batavia, Ohio and graduated from Marian College in Indianapolis. The two young women are returning to continue to serve at Blessed Trinity as Director of Faith Formation and St. Paul’s as High School Youth Minister and Middle School Religion teacher and Anthony is joining the staff of St. Luke’s parish in McLean as Coordinator of Adult Faith Formation. Congratulations and gratitude and appreciation is extended to these three wonderful young people for their educational and pastoral accomplishments during the last to years of ECHO. When they are in the diocese of St. Petersburg, Brian Lemoi, the Director of Religious Formation is their mentor and thanks are also due to him. Father Joseph Waters attended the ceremonies in South Bend for Anthony who served one year with the new pastor of the Cathedral.

Happily, their places will be taken by three new ECHO representatives serving at Holy Family parish in St. Petersburg, at St. Jerome parish in Indian Rocks Beach and at Espiritu Santo parish in Safety Harbor. ECHO at Notre Dame is an activity of the Center for Catechetical Initiatives which itself is a part of the Department of Theology. During their two years in the program, its participants called “apprentice catechetical leaders” experience four important dimensions of growth: academic formation leading to a Master’s degree, professional ministerial formation, communal formation, and spiritual formation.

Our liturgy was lovely and what great readings for the Mass this week-end. One can count on the fingers of both hands the number of times in a three year cycle when all three readings can be tied together thematically and this is one of them. It was a great Saturday for me and for the ECHO program. Tomorrow I fly to Orlando for a meeting with my brother bishops of Florida. Who says summer is a time of rest and relaxation. In fourteen years I think I can prove that summer only sees a slight decrease in activities in our Church.

ET ALIA

Some readers have asked me to comment when I return on how successful I was at “fishing” the last few weeks. I caught nothing as my friends would expect but it was relaxing.

I was out-of-town when George Steinbrenner died and I regret that I could not be present to his family at the time of their great loss. I knew him as a very generous and great man whose love for his children and grandchildren was exceptional. He was generous to a number of Catholic institutions (the Academy of the Holy Names and St. Cecilia school to name two) and very generous in this community. I loved being with him as he constantly teased me about the high school which I graduated from in Columbus, Ohio (St. Charles) while he was coaching at our arch-rival, Aquinas High School. More than the Yankees should be mourning his loss. His heart was larger than his reputation was occasionally controversial. Rest in peace, good friend of the Bay area and great head of a family.

Finally, you should be reading new entries several times a week in the coming month. I missed the discipline which this exercise requires. It is nice to be back.

+RNL

Update 8/5/10: Anthony went to Amherst College, not the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Silence descends on this part of the blogosphere for about two weeks. Will be back before the end of the month with an entry plus pictures of Saturday night’s dedication  of the Santo Niño shrine at St. Paul’s, Tampa. Meanwhile, off to the bait shop!

+RNL

I am led to understand that the Legislative branch presented Governor Crist today with the ultrasound and no funds for abortion bill which they passed late in the legislative session which ended five weeks ago. You can see my first “blog” on this issue published on May 9th and entitled “No Veto Please“.  You have responded admirably to my call to contact the Governor and urge him to sign the legislation or at least not veto it which would allow it to become law. I understand that even though there has been intense lobbying of the Governor by the pro-abortion side, our letters and communications to his office outnumber those against  the the law by a margin of two to one. Good going, folks.

Now Governor Crist has fifteen days to either sign the bill into law or veto it. If he chooses to do nothing, it will automatically become law in fifteen days. The state’s newspapers all predict that he will veto the legislation now that he has become an independent and is allegedly “beholden to no one.” Well he will always be “beholden to someone” who is the ultimate judge and the creator of all human life. Raised a Christian one would hope that the Governor would allow this legislation to become law. He has maintained for some time that he is “pro-life” but in his conversations with editorial boards, he has made it clear that he is having troubles with these proposals.

Governor Crist, listen to the majority of your people whom you claim to represent and allow this legislation to become the law of our state.

If you have not yet written, e-mailed or called the Governor’s office, do so quickly. I suspect he wants this issue behind him as he continues to run for the US Senate seat. We will see what his commitment is on this important issue of human life soon enough. I hope he will stand with us in defense of the defenseless.

+RNL

Update: You can contact Governor Crist by phone at 850-488-7146 or 850-488-4441 or email him Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com.  This piece of legislation is identified as House Bill 1143.

As regular readers can tell, I enjoy sharing my thoughts with a wider audience through the use of this blog. It first came into being when it was clear that the diocese would be leaving the newspaper era and investing more in time and talent in the “on-line” opportunities. The FLORIDA CATHOLIC which was read by a very small segment of our Catholic population cost the diocese and the parishes something near $650,000 per year, its subscription and circulation list was in decline and it was “touched” (which does not mean read) by only 20% of those receiving it. It was useful, kept us informed on coming events in the diocese, nation and world and reported on what had recently happened. I miss it, I must confess. But print journalism, at this moment, is in decline and so the Church must seek other ways of communicating and this blog has merely been one of those ways in our local Church communicates (see the Diocesan website www.dosp.org and podcast, the Living Eucharist website LivingEucharist.org, the Vocations website spvocation.org, and the Ministries of Mercy website mom.dosp.org).

When I started, Cardinal Sean O’Malley in Boston had begun a once a week personal blog and I have always enjoyed reading what His Eminence posts. Since I had originally begun writing for the FLORIDA CATHOLIC a weekly column (entitled mind you, “Out of the Ordinary”), I thought blogging would be an interesting adventure. I knew right away that I did not wish to enter disputatious argumentation so the comments received would only be read by myself. I also promised myself that I would never use this blog to attack in any way any single person or to speak terribly ill of any single person or groups of persons. I challenge you to go back through the year and a half of these entries and find one. However, those who comment on the blog are clearly not bound by any bond of charity and I would say about ten per cent of the comments make me cringe to think that the writer might profess the faith which Jesus left. But I don’t mind it and if people feel better because they unload their anger on any blog writer, myself included, then so be it.

Blogs generally have no responsibility to the truth. Many of them reflect the deep divisions and polarizations present in society today. They are meant to be controversial, to stir up emotions, and in some instances to tear down people and/or institutions. Yet some clearly navigate the waters carefully, reporting, challenging in a Christ-like manner, generating thoughtful reflections and moving people like myself to delve deeper into the real meaning of events and insights. There are some wonderful blogs about matters of our Catholic faith and I for one have gained much more insight from them in recent years and I was from the journalistic printed word or radio and television with their brief segment approach to the most complicated of issues.

On judgment day, there may be a special line in which we “bloggers” must stand before hearing those words, “well done good and faithful servant” or its terrifying opposite. For my part, I will continue to offer my reflections on life in the Church today until something more effective comes along but I am committed to kindness and reserving judgment. To those who have proffered comments, thanks. Some of you have seen that I have listened and responded in later entries without so identifying that the change or nuance in my thinking has originated with a specific comment. It has been suggested that the comment part of this bishop’s blog should be eliminated but I learn from your insights just as I hope you learn from mine. “Bloggery” like flattery may ultimately get us nowhere but it can be fun too.

My sentiments, exactly, although not my car. Gone fishing. Back to the Blog on April 11th. Happy Easter. He has Risen. Alleluia.

Theology on Tap is a program for interested Catholics who wish to know more about their faith. While it was begun for and principally attracts twenty and thirty somethings, it is open to any interested Church member. They are held in bars and restaurants so that those attending can combine post-wok relaxation and dining with learning more about their Church. This Spring’s four weeks of Theology on Tap are ended and since most of us missed the occasion of hearing the presentations, I wish to draw your attention to the podcasts of the speakers which can be accessed by going to our diocesan podcast http://blogs.dosp.org/podcast or to the iTunes store where you can download or subscribe for no charge. Apropos of this week, you might especially like to listen to Father John Tapp’s presentation on the Sacred Triduum.

Tomorrow at St. Jude’s Cathedral at 1130am is the annual Chrism Mass, a liturgy which takes it name from the fact that the Sacred Oils of the Sick, the Catechumens, and Chrism are blessed and consecrated during the ceremony. However, it is also the annual occasion for the priests to renew the promises and commitments which they made on the day of their ordination and they turn out in great number for this lovely liturgy. Delegations from all the parishes and missions in the diocese accompany the oils so the Cathedral is fairly full but there is always room for some more so if you have nothing to do and would like to experience the Church at its best, please join us. If, however, you are unable to be physically present, you can join us by tuning into Spirit FM 90.5 [WBVM] for a live broadcast.

This week marks the fifth anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II (on Good Friday, April 2nd) and last week was the 30th anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero, Archbishop of El Salvador who was wantonly murdered in his own Cathedral. We should pray for them both. The Holy Father is well along in the process of beatification prior to canonization as a recognized saint by the  Church and the latter should be further along than he is but that will come in time.

Finally, this is the last blog posting of Holy Week although my homilies throughout the week will be posted here. Easter week I am retreating “into my shell” for some R&R but will be back on the blog on or around the First Sunday of Easter (April 11th). I take this moment to extend to all my readers my prayers for a most blessed Triduum and Easter joy. Welcome to our near 1500 catechumens and candidates who will be entering the Church at the Easter Vigil and the love of Christ and my own to all of you.

Bishop Robert N. Lynch (aka “+RNL”)