Today I found myself still celebrating the Second Sunday of Lent but it was Marriage Jubilee Mass afternoon at the Cathedral of St. Jude. 390 couples from around the diocese gathered for this annual celebration representing 19,697 combined years of marriage. Here are the statistics:

• 60 parishes represented  with 54 couples celebrating twenty-fiver years of marriage sometime this year
• 138 celebrating fifty years
• 122 celebrating between fifty-one and fifty-nine years
• 75 married over 60 years.

Bishop Lynch Congratulating Charles and Barbara Wellen for their 71 years of married life. Photo credit: John Christian.

Charles and Barbara Wellen were present today as the longest married couple in the Cathedral, an amazing 71 years. They have four sons, fourteen grandchildren and thirty-five great grandchildren celebrating the occasion with them. When I asked the assembly to stand and to face each other, join their right hands and renew their wedding vows, they looked at one another with the same eyes and delight at they must have shown on the day of their wedding.

Marriage is another sacrament of the Church which is in some trouble. We notice less and less young people coming to Church for weddings and from time to time I will see that a certain graduate(s) of our Catholic high schools will have gotten married on the beach, at Disney World or some other secular place. Being married in a Catholic Church no longer carries for many of our baptized the reality of yet another sacramental encounter with Jesus and so it is abandoned or ignored. Granted, it is not always easy to get married in a Catholic Church. There is a lengthy period and program of preparation but those couples who still embrace the sacrament in Church often comment how beneficial the program was to them even if there was initial reluctance. One of my pastors once commented that there is less time on Saturday for marriage in most of our Churches since the advent of the Saturday Vigil Mass for Sunday. Where once there may have been two or three slots in the afternoons for weddings, there is now likely only one.

I also think sometimes that like many other things in society and our world today, the indissolubility of marriage which the Church proclaims leads some to just ignore sacramental marriage in the Catholic Church. It has become somewhat easy to  get out of most of our fiduciary responsibilities (via bankruptcy, abandonment, dissolution of prior promises) and perhaps Church weddings just do not seem that important any more, especially a Church which takes the vows of fidelity “until death do us part” so seriously.

The bishops of the United States addressed the issue of marriage in the Church in a document released this last Fall and have established “strengthening marriage” (http://www.foryourmarriage.org) as one of the five primary goals and objectives of USCCB activity.

Today in the Cathedral the fundamental and enduring grace of the sacrament of marriage was present for all to see. I know how tough it can be to endure “good times and bad, sickness and health. . .” but 390 couples came to Mass today to ask God’s help in strengthening their promises and providing abundant blessings until “death do them part.”

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Most all the action items passed with sizable majorities. While almost every action item had one or two votes against, this preventing a unanimous action of the assembly, I have always held that if the Nicene Creed  (the one we recite and pray at Mass) were placed before the bishops, it too would garner two or three negative votes.

One item which had the largest number of “no” votes was a proposed pastoral letter on marriage. Although the bishops’ National Advisory Council encouraged a “yes” vote on the proposed pastoral, bishops who spoke today felt that while there was nothing wrong with the proposed text, there were some issues and passages which could have been rendered better . The pastoral received five more votes than necessary for passage. The bishops also overwhelmingly approved a revision in the “Ethical and Religious Directives” which guide local bishops, health care facilities, doctors and nurses in hard decisions about medical treatment in an age when technology allows life to be maintained and sustained for years. The Pro-Life Committee saw their work product, a statement on life and birth in a technological age pass by a wide margin. All of these actions are available to you now on the USCCB web site.

The long work on a new translation of the Roman Missal is over and now Rome’s approval is awaited. Sometime in 2011, the new Missal will be implemented in the English speaking world. We will have to get use to some new language and there will be a period of catechesis in 2010 and early 2011 which I and our priests will lead to get you ready for the changes.

Finally, several bishops came to the defense of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development whose collection will be taken up this coming week-end in churches throughout the U.S. Founded about 30 years ago, CCHD has given grants to many organizations and agencies and sponsored an education program on the roots of poverty. Conservatively oriented Catholics have beeb taking shots at CCHD since its inception. Several years ago it was learned that a grant recipient was ACORN which was involved in projects not in accord with Catholic teaching. Several years ago before the US Government and Congress became aware of ACORN’s malfeasance, CCHD had dropped all support for this organization. I personally believe in and support CCHD and feel that our bishops’ committee  has acted responsibly with regard to this challenge.

That’s it from m perspective. Some final thoughts and notes on the meeting tomorrow.

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241 couples present  -  28 celebrating 25 years of marriage – 92 celebrating 50 years of marriage – 75 celebrating 51 to 59 years married – 45 married over 60 years….

Alberta and Fred Hartlage, married 71 years

Fred and Alberta Hartlage from St. Lawrence parish in Tampa were the couple at the Cathedral married the longest. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Mr. and Mrs. Hartlage will celebrate their 71st anniversary on November 24th. They have six children, twelve grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren.

Photos by John Christian

I remember my first year when at this Mass I approached a couple married seventy-four years. As I gave them their special awards for the longest married couple in attendance, with the microphone fully on, I asked the wife, “In seventy four years have you ever thought of leaving or divorcing him?” “No” she said, “but I have thought several times of killing him.”

Most of the time when I talk to those married many years, they will talk about the element of faith in their lives and how it has sustained them. Today the Church universal celebrated the anniversary of the Lord’s baptism by John in the Jordan. Appropriate time, I think, to recall still another sacramental moment and encounter with Christ in marriage.

As all locals who are reading this blog know, this diocese is approaching the half way point in our attempt to refocus our people on the great gift of the Eucharist to we who are Catholics. There are signs that the initiative is working and taking hold. At the end of the three years, we will probably need some measure of its successes and failures and whether or not in the end it was worth the effort. The priests are all telling me that it has been so far and that is a great marker.

It might make sense to attempt to focus on marriage when the three year program on the Eucharist concludes. Marriage is in trouble not just in our culture but also in our Church. It pains me when from time to time I read the wedding announcements only to find “So and so of such and such and a graduate of ________ Catholic High School married so and so of such and such and a graduate of __________ Catholic High School on St. Petersburg Beach.” More and more Catholics are choosing not to be married in Church. Something needs to be done and soon to at least stem if not reverse this trend. Marriage is a sacrament when it is entered properly, according to the mind of Christ and the Church. Looking out on the full Cathedral this afternoon, I could not help but think that these people were there today because three people were integral to their married life: each other and God.

Congratulations to all who came to the Cathedral today and health, happiness and holiness in the remaining years of your married life, till death do you part.

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Cursillo is a lay led movement with a team of leaders and usually one priest who plan for months prior the actual start of the week-end on Thursday evening. Team members generally prepare and serve meals, clean up, lead presentations and discussions, and place themselves at the total service of those who are making the week-end. Womens and Mens Cursillos occur about six times a year in the diocese and they never mix the sexes. A priest is also present for the week-end. At the end, the cursillistas are joined by their families for a clausura or closing Mass and then a celebration. Lives are almost always changed and faith is deepened. It was a pleasure to offer Mass for this group today, to thank God for their work in the our diocesan history of forty years and to wish them continued great success in the future.

Then I had a wedding at the Cathedral. One of the young men who has served my major Masses and Holy Week at St. Jude’s for many years asked me if I would witness his marriage to his fiancee. How could I say “no”. I am so blessed to have a corp of altar servers who serve my Masses on all occasions at the Cathedral and since they are always there for me, I am happy I can be there for them at major moments in their lives. Congratulations Renee and John Kowalik as you begin your married life together.

Now it is time to begin to think about the next major Mass in Spanish which will take place at 5:00 am at the Plant City Municipal Stadium on December 12th, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas.

Por la tarde tuve un casamiento en la Catedral. Uno de los muchachos del grupo de monaguillos que sirve en mis mayores misas en St. Jude y durante Semana Santa, me pedió que celebrara su matrimonio. ¡Como podría decir “no.”! Tengo la bendición de tener un grupo de monaguillos los que siempre sirven con migo en la catedral durante la misa y todas las otras ocasiones, ellos están siempre listos para ayudarme, con alegría estaré con ellos en los mayores momentos de sus vidas. Felicitaciones Renee y John Kowalik al comenzar su vida matrimonial.

Ahora es tiempo de pensar en mi próxima Misa en Español, la cual será a las 5 de la mañana en el Estadio Municipal de Plant City el 12 de Diciembre celebrando la fiesta de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, patrona de las Américas.