Current Mass Times

Saturday: 5:00pm

Sunday:

7:30am, 9:30am, 11:30am, 2:00pm (español), 5:00pm

Monday-Friday: 9:00am

(The 12:10pm Monday-Wednesday-Friday Mass will return on Wednesday, September 6)

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Confession

Saturday: 10:00am-10:30am (English)

Sunday: 3:00pm- 4:00pm (español)

Wednesday (During Holy Week): 6:30pm - 8:00pm

Dear Parishioners,

As we begin the month of June, I look back in gratitude to all the wonderful celebrations that took place in May, such as First Communion, graduations, our Pentecost multi-cultural Mass and reception, and the welcoming of several young adults into full communion in the Catholic Church. I also give thanks for the wonderful support from parishioners and the parish staff for Fr. John Crossin’s family and the Oblates at his untimely death. The funeral mass and reception expressed the hallmark hospitality that SJN is known for.

There are lots of activities scheduled for June, including the Diocesan Workcamp, our Juneteenth celebration, and various camps for different age groups -- the SJN Preschool Summer Camp and the Branching Out Day Camp, just to name a few of the activities scheduled this month. Regardless of how many activities we join, I hope everyone can take a breath and enjoy life at a slower pace.

As we enter summer and all that it might entail, I hope it allows you to refresh yourself. Wherever you find yourself this summer, be open to the guidance and love of the Holy Spirit. Find time to rest and slow down!

And always Live Jesus!

Fr. Joe

As summer gets busy, please save these dates to celebrate with the SJN Community.

Sunday, June 11 - Come out after the 5:00pm Mass to celebrate Fr. Joe's 25th Jubilee as an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales. Our Knights are cooking hamburgers and sausage, and we will have a playlist featuring music from the 60s and 70s. Register at https://saintjn.org/14212/celebrate-fr-joes-25th-jubilee-celebracion-del-25o-aniversario-del-p-joe/ so we can be sure we order enough food.

Saturday, June 17 - We will have our first Juneteenth Celebration from 10:00am to 3:00pm. Come out and celebrate our nation's newest national holiday! We will have food and craft vendors, games for the kids, and a playlist highlighting Black artists from across the years.

Sunday, June 25 - Fr. William N. Dougherty, OSFS, our beloved "Father Doc," will visit us. He will attend the 11:30am Mass, after which we will hold a reception. Check future bulletins for more details.

by the SJN Racial Justice Ministry

Instead of our regular Parishioner Spotlight column this month, we have this letter from the SJN Racial Justice Ministry, to better help us understand our nation's newest national holiday and what it commemorates. The Parishioner Spotlight will return next month.

Juneteenth is the oldest known holiday in the United States, commemorating the end of slavery. Known officially as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, June 19 became a federal holiday on June 19, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.

Specifically, Juneteenth celebrates the occasion in 1865 when two thousand Union Soldiers, led by General Gordon Granger, arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, announcing the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. Two hundred and fifty thousand enslaved people in Texas were declared free.

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863; however, Confederate States did not adhere to it until the Union could enforce its provisions after the Civil War in April 1865. Word of the war’s end and the Proclamation declaring all enslaved people free did not reach Texas until June 19.

For many years, the celebration of Freedom Day was confined primarily to the African American Community. Southern states held parades, picnics, and family gatherings to remember the struggles and celebrate the triumphs of Black Americans. As the celebration spread in popularity, several states adopted the holiday, often including reciting the Emancipation Proclamation in observation of the occasion.

Excerpt from the Emancipation Proclamation: “That on January 1, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as enslaved people within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free. The Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom...”

However, it is essential to understand that Juneteenth was not the end of slavery in our nation. The institution of slavery still existed at a state-wide level in Delaware, Kentucky, and New Jersey. The institution of slavery would not end in those states until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in December 1865. It is worth noting that Delaware did not ratify the Amendment until 1901. In the states of California and Oregon, about 400 enslaved people also remained post-Juneteenth. These were people brought into those states by slaveholders under terms that allowed the holders of enslaved people to keep any enslaved people they “brought” to the state when they migrated there. The 13th Amendment also freed these individuals in December 1865. To learn more about slavery in our nation following Juneteenth, visit http://www.tracingcenter.org/blog/2016/06/where-in-the-u-s-did-slavery-still-exist-after-juneteenth/.

The first of the seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching is the Life and Dignity of the Human Person. The USCCB, on its web page devoted to these themes, states, The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society....... We believe that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person. The Emancipation Proclamation was the first step in restoring dignity to formerly enslaved individuals. Like our celebration of July 4, Juneteenth recognizes and celebrates a historic moment in our country’s story and the successes and freedoms that our nation promises.  

Celebrate Freedom Day! As Catholic Americans, this newest federal holiday is one that we can embrace with enthusiasm. On June 21, in the parish auditorium, the Racial Justice Ministry is sponsoring a Juneteenth Celebration—a family-friendly event with food, games, vendors, and more! To learn more about Juneteenth, check out this site from the National Museum of African American History and Culture:  https://bit.ly/41YaQd0.

by Duane Hyland

On June 19, we will celebrate our nation's newest federal holiday, Juneteenth. This day came about due to the efforts of Union General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, when he issued his General Order Number Three, stating:

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection therefore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer."

As we think about the shameful legacy of slavery in our nation, we should also keep in mind a Catholic First - Catholics were the first to speak out against the evils of enslaving people however the effort was faltering, and took nearly four and a half centuries to bring about change.

The first Catholic to condemn slavery was none other than the Pope himself. On January 13, 1435, Pope Eugene IV issued his encyclical "Sicut Dudum, Against the Enslaving of Black Natives from the Canary Islands." In its first three sections, he expressed outrage at the enslavement of those natives, and in the encyclical's fourth section, he wrote: "...We order and command all and each of the faithful of each sex, within the space of fifteen days of the publication of these letters in the place where they live, that they restore to their earlier liberty all and each person of either sex who were once residents of said Canary Islands, and made captives since the time of their capture, and who have been made subject to slavery. These people are to be totally and perpetually free and are to be let go without the exaction or reception of money." The document was short, but it was groundbreaking. For the first time, a world leader had condemned slavery.

In 1537 Pope Paul III issued his encyclical "Sublimis Deus." This encyclical forbade the enslavement of Native Americans, declaring that "Indians and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty..." 

Between 1537 and 1839, there were no more Papal encyclicals condemning slavery and none condemning the Transatlantic slave trade. However, one Catholic Priest was making a difference in the lives of enslaved people. That man was Pedro Claver y Corberó, a Jesuit Priest ministering to the people of Cartagena, Colombia, a major slave trading port in 1610. We know him now as St. Peter Claver. He constantly ministered to newly arrived enslaved people, going to the slave ships to administer medicine and comfort the terrified people. He would also go to the slave markets and minister there as well. He would bring the enslaved people "food, including bread and lemons, as well as medicine, and temporal and spiritual care." In addition to his work with the enslaved people of Cartagena, he would travel the country caring for and ministering to the enslaved individuals on plantations, making a point to share their quarters for lodging and their food for meals. His efforts on behalf of the enslaved people of Colombia slowly led to the abolition. The Colombians remember St. Peter Claver as "The Apostle of Cartagena."

In December 1839, Gregory XVI issued "In Supremo Apostolatus". This encyclical firmly condemned slavery, ending with this appeal: "We reprove, then, by Our Apostolic Authority, all the practices abovementioned as absolutely unworthy of the Christian name. By the same Authority, We prohibit and strictly forbid any Ecclesiastic or lay person from presuming to defend as permissible this traffic in Blacks under no matter what pretext or excuse, or from publishing or teaching in any manner whatsoever, in public or privately, opinions contrary to what We have set forth in this Apostolic Letter."

Despite these encyclicals, which were strong statements against an evil practice, the Church's history with slavery is complicated. At times, the Church benefited from the enslavement of Blacks, the most local example being the construction of buildings on the campus of Georgetown University, and many Catholic businessmen and women profited from the slave trade in the United States from the time our Republic's founding. It certainly didn't help that Catholic bishops like John England of Charleston, SC, and Francis Patrick Kenrick of Philadelphia, PA, looked at Pope Gregory XVI's encyclical as only banning the transatlantic slave trade, which the United States had done in 1808, and not slavery in general, teaching their flocks that as long as they weren't buying enslaved people from the transatlantic slave trade, then enslaving individuals was entirely permitted under Catholic teaching. And while the abolition movement in the United States was dynamic and thriving, it sadly lacked a Catholic voice with the strength of William Lloyd Garrison or the passion of Frederick Douglass. Sadly, there were very few Catholic voices in the abolition movement, at least not loud.

While slavery ended in the United States with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution on December 6, 1865, it still existed in Brazil. In 1888, in response to this, and after meeting 12 formerly enslaved Brazilians, who a Catholic missionary had freed, Pope Leo XVII issued his encyclical "IN PLURIMIS." In this encyclical, he declared: "The condition of slavery, in which a considerable part of the great human family has been sunk in squalor and affliction now for many centuries, is deeply to be deplored; for the system is one which is wholly opposed to that which was originally ordained by God and by nature." He also called Catholics to free enslaved people, exclaiming: "...let apostolic men endeavor to find out how they can best secure the safety and liberty of slaves." On May 13, 1888, Brazil banned slavery in all its forms through the passage of its so-called, "Golden Law."

The legacy of our Church in confronting slavery was mixed, much like our personal faith journeys. Sometimes, we talk the talk but do not walk the walk; other times, we walk in confidence with Christ and follow His plan for us; sometimes, we stand up to injustice by using strong words which are ignored, and sometimes we stand up to injustice, and our words are heard and acted upon, bringing change. The point is not to dwell on our failures or enjoy our successes; it is to remain eternally vigilant against injustice, to call it out when we see it, and always to strive to protect those done wrong. Slavery is not dead; it exists here in this nation and worldwide. Sometimes it is called Human Trafficking, sometimes Labor Trafficking, or it is the same kind of chattel slavery that was practiced in antebellum America. We want every enslaved person in this world to know the freedom of Juneteenth!

To learn more about the Church's actions against modern-day slavery, visit https://www.usccb.org/offices/anti-trafficking-program/catholic-social-teaching-and-churchs-fight-end-trafficking.

Happy Juneteenth, and may you continue to be agents for freedom.