Weekly Letter from the Pastor

Dear Fellow Parishioners of St. Benedict:

Periodically my gmail account is ghosted by someone who is phishing for money. This has happened to me in the past and, although it hadn’t happened since April, it did happen again this past week. I know of other pastors in the area who have also experienced this annoyance. If you ever get an email from me asking for gift cards or any other such thing, please delete it and ignore it entirely. I do not and would not ever do that or put anyone in that situation. It is unfortunate that there are such dishonest people who seek to take advantage of the kindness and generosity of others, but there are. Google and its parent company Alphabet, Inc., are unable to control this phishing problem so it demands of us an attentiveness to authenticity in such emails. I am sorry for any inconvenience.

January affords several opportunities for making statements about our faith. As this is Pro-Life Month, we focus on the rights of all people to a life with dignity and respect from conception to natural death. This covers a wide range of issues over the protection of life, health care, education, immigration, basic civil rights, equal justice before the law, housing, employment, and a host of other issues. Let us all be attentive to the short-comings in our own lives that make us silent – or maybe not so silent – agents of injustice and inequality instead of advocates for the rights of all.

Certainly responding to Deacon Rich’s appeal for baby bottles is one way we can help. Our on-going generosity to the food pantry and St. Vincent de Paul society is another way that we are of service. Time-Talent-Treasure is the mantra of parish stewardship for sure.

Last week I invited a response to consider service in a new ministry as Sacristan, plus a reminder that as baptized Christians we all share in some way in the ministry of the church. Thank you to those who have already responded, and certainly the door is open to others who may also be interested.

Last week while I was attending a funeral Mass in a different parish I was struck by their active bereavement ministry present at the funeral. There were six people who handled all of the details, were present to the family and mourners, and filled-in as needed in the liturgical celebration. It was seamless and very helpful to everyone, and also to me as a visiting priest. I would like to begin – or perhaps re-establish – such a ministry here. We average roughly one funeral per week – not that you can guarantee any number of funerals – so a team or two of ministers could be very helpful. Our existing bereavement ministry is very good in working with the families in the preparation of the funerals. Some of the bereavement ministers are available and do attend the funeral already and assist as needed, but not all of them are able to do so given their work and life schedules. Our deacons usually attend to the wake service and the committal. We also have a new and active bereavement peer group ministry in place, to assist in the post-funeral mourning period. Therefore, the ministry I am proposing is not designed to replace, but rather to augment, what we already do. Make contact with the office if you are interested.

Next weekend we will kick-off Catholic Schools Week at the 5:00 p.m. Mass. This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the excellent school that we have, and to recruit new families and students to attend SBS. We are making excellent strides under the direction of our new principal, Mr. Donahue, and we are looking forward to some very interesting announcements from him that will serve not only the school itself, but also all of the members of our parish, and from the surrounding parishes and community as well.

This is not an easy time for Catholic Schools. Honestly, it is not an easy time for any schools, public or private. As a long time professional educator I am deeply concerned about the strong and often intrusive influence of non-professionals that set and demand policies in schools, often unaware of the pedagogical or even developmental consequences of their decisions. Certainly such is much less true here. The freedom to teach – enhancing the freedom to learn and discover – is a wonderful benefit from the Catholic School.

More on the school next week.

Blessings,
Fr. Garry