We continue Pope Francis encyclical letter entitled Fratelli Tutti, on fraternity and social friendship. This week is a summary of Chapter 7 by Brendan Gottschall, SJ.
Chapter 7 – Paths of Renewed Encounter
In many circumstances, peace and fraternity require healing between groups who have experienced conflict. Pope Francis outlines some ways to move forward toward lasting peace. He recognizes that true peace must be based on truth, along with justice and mercy. Unity is often best achieved when people work together to address the problems they share. The process of peacemaking is on-going and requires work, especially a care for the most vulnerable in society. Conflicts will arise but can be resolved through dialogue and honest negotiation. This does not mean that whole societies can be reconciled and forget past sins; rather, “reconciliation is a personal act” and human evils like the Shoah and the atomic bombings must be remembered as symbols of the depths of human evil (246-247).
At this point, Pope Francis writes of war and the death penalty as two “false answers” that seem to address certain extreme circumstances, but “do no more than introduce new elements of destruction in the fabric of national and global society” (255). The Holy Father makes clear that his condemnation of war and the death penalty is in keeping with the ancient teaching of the Church. In previous eras each of these institutions was permitted by certain justifications, but because of the changed circumstances of our times, those justifications are no longer valid.
Christmas Masses
To help us seat as many people as possible for our Christmas masses we will assign seating. The positive side of this is no one will take your seat. The downside is you may prefer a different seat. We need your help for this to work. You will need to check in. Someone will show you to your seat. This will allow us to have the social distancing we need. Everyone will need to wear a mask. At this time there may be a few seats left for the 4:30 p.m. mass. The 2:00 p.m. mass is growing, but we have seats available. The
7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. masses still have seats available. If you haven’t chosen a mass yet, those two masses would be good choices. I look forward to celebrating Christmas masses with you.
Christmas Giving Tree
Please return your gifts and tags for the giving tree as soon as possible.
Dolores Sillimon Funeral
Tomorrow, December 11th we will celebrate the Funeral Mass for Dolores Sillimon. Visitation will be from 10:30 – 11:00 AM. Mass will begin at 11:00 AM. Signup is not required.
You can find this week's Prayers of the Faithful here.
Fr. Mike
