November 9, 2022

 

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

 

We awake today to the news that Proposal 3 has passed, altering our state constitution to allow for unregulated and unsafe abortion on-demand in Michigan. As people of faith who witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ and His teachings, we are deeply saddened by this grave assault on the dignity and sanctity of unborn, innocent human life. We grieve for the many women who will continue to be harmed by abortion in our state. And most importantly, we grieve for the lives who will be lost because of this unjust and perverse law.

 

Over the last several months, advocates for life across the Archdiocese of Detroit and the entire state of Michigan worked tirelessly to spread the truth about Proposal 3, imploring voters to make an informed decision at the ballot box. They have been clear about the devastating impact of the vague and broad language of Proposal 3, invalidating dozens of laws and safety regulations. I offer my deepfelt gratitude to all who prayed, spread awareness, voted, and otherwise worked against this proposal; and I share in their sorrow at the outcome.

 

Abortion is now legal in Michigan at an unprecedented level, and millions of lives are at stake. We must pray and ask God for his mercy upon us for allowing this evil to happen in our state. For this reason, I want to invite all the faithful to join me in the first two weeks of Advent, from November 27 to December 4, in doing penance, giving alms, praying, and fasting. We must use these spiritual practices to make reparations for the great sin of abortion in our midst.

 

We also renew our commitment to accompanying women and families in need, with greater resolve than ever. This work is more critical now, as the unborn have been stripped of their basic right to life and their mothers face the harmful lie that the death of their children is a solution to their struggles. In response to the passing of Proposal 3, we must step forward with no judgment, open arms, and effective resources to help women reject the “solution” of death and empower them to choose life for their children.

 

In the Archdiocese of Detroit, we do this largely through Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan, our charitable arm, and through the Archdiocese’s Evangelization and Missionary Discipleship Department. In particular, Walking with Moms in Need (WWMIN) is a ministry to help parishioners identify and create local resources that provide assistance to pregnant and parenting moms in need, and Project Rachel is an important ministry for individuals who have been harmed by abortion. I urge you to please consider joining a WWMIN ministry at your parish or getting involved in other prolife works of mercy in southeast Michigan. For more information and to get involved in these ministries, visit aod.org/walking-with-moms-in-need and evangelicalcharity.org.

 

We will continue our efforts to build a culture of life in which abortion is unthinkable, all families receive the support they need, and the dignity of all people is recognized. We do this with confidence in the ultimate victory of Christ, whose resurrection to life has defeated the powers of death.

 

St. Gianna Molla, the patroness of mothers, physicians, and unborn children, pray for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, who carried the Savior in her womb, pray for us.

 

Sincerely yours in Christ,

 

The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron

Archbishop of Detroit

Our CSA goal this year is $211,447. Anything raised above the goal will return to the parish, while any shortfalls must be covered by the parish. Thus, your support is greatly needed and appreciated.

You can also easily give by visiting: sja.aodcsa.org or by clicking on the button below.

I am grateful to those who have already contributed to CSA 2022. As of today, we have $188,975 in pledges and gifts toward our $211,447 goal ($183,702 has been paid thus far toward our total pledged amount). This amount represents gifts from 595 families (we have 3,335 families registered). We have thus achieved 89% of our goal!

Jeff Cavins discusses how this Sunday’s readings allude to many different kinds of endings and beginnings, as we prepare our souls for the end of Ordinary Time and the beginning of Advent.

The Sunday Readings are:

First Reading: Malachi 3:19-20A

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 98:5-6, 7-8, 9

Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12

Alleluia: Luke 21:28

Gospel: Luke 21:5-19

Friends, as we come toward the end of the liturgical year, we begin to look at the apocalyptic writings in the Bible. What’s indeed revealed is the end of the world in one sense—not so much the end of space-time, but the breaking down of all the frames of reference that we use to understand our lives. Because of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, something new had happened. Our Gospel for today, taken from the section of Luke called “the little apocalypse,” shows the shaking of three worlds: the world of religion, the world of politics, and the world of nature

Plumbing Isn’t His Thing Round THREE: This may be inaccurately labeled as Round Three. This article is really a “prequel” to my “awesome” and terrible skills as a DIY plumber.

This goes back to my time as Cardinal Maida’s secretary. This is one of my all-time “blooper” stories that will never be forgotten. I have plenty of them from my time as the Cardinal’s priest secretary, but this one topped them all. And, since I’ve been sharing my vast “Clark Griswold” type experiences in the plumbing world the last two weeks, the following had to be retold! It was too priceless not to reshare now.

One thing I’ve learned about the Cardinals I’ve known and worked with (and some I know now) is that they’re not always the handiest when it comes to Do-It-Yourself-type projects. They may talk the talk (because they’ve read some article someplace) and THINK they can do it, but putting a hammer and nail in their hands is another reality. Yes, they’re great and awesome bishops and were appointed by the Holy Father to the College of Cardinals for a reason, but their DIY skills weren’t one of those reasons. But then they can surprise you from time to time.

While I was Cardinal Maida’s priest secretary, I helped on the weekends from time to time at St. Paul on the Lake. I would help with at least one liturgy a weekend, return to the house, and then prepare for whatever was next on the boss’ schedule.

This one night was a frigid Saturday night. That week’s weather was horrendous; most nights saw nothing but single digits, if not lower temperatures. As I returned to “The Residence” (as we like to call it) at 75 E. Boston Boulevard and opened the front gate from my car, I saw what looked like wet ice covering the driveway under the main entrance portico. I was confused. It was too cold for water to be flowing, so the concept of the “wet” ice baffled me.

As I pulled under the portico and looked at the main entrance to the house, I noted the ENTIRE porch was not only covered with ice, but there was a cascading flow of water coming down over the door and porch. It looked like the iconic scenes of Niagara Falls in the winter. Carefully, I ran up the stairs and entered the house, only to be greeted by what could only be described as a “rainstorm” inside. Several inches of water covered the main floor, and parts of the beautiful and ornate plaster ceiling were broken into pieces on the floor. Water was coming from the ceiling and was flowing at a high rate. I ran upstairs to the second floor and screamed to get the Cardinal, who had stayed in his room the short time I was gone. Cardinal Maida emerged from his room and wanted to know what was happening. At this point, I was out of breath and tried to describe what I saw on the main level of the house. The second floor showed no evidence of damage, but it was apparent the water source was someplace on that floor. As the Cardinal and I rushed around the house, we eventually heard running water coming from a bedroom bathroom. We entered the room and found a mess of significant magnitudes. A toilet was the culprit. This bathroom was above the front porch entrance, and its pipes went along an outside wall. It was apparent now that the water line froze and then burst because of the frigid temperatures. However, the water pressure at this juncture was incredible, and water kept flowing beyond imagination. We were both standing in several inches of water. I looked at the toilet with the Cardinal next to me, and I couldn’t find any shutoff value. I noticed the Sloan valve but couldn’t find the shutoff screw I was used to seeing.

I was now panicking and somewhat paralyzed because I didn’t know what to do at this point, and I was CONFIDENT that the guy next to me had no clue either. Finally, after fumbling around a little, the Cardinal told me to step aside because he was going to solve the problem. I looked at him, rolled my eyes, and said something like, “Y E A …. like you know how to shut off this toilet? RIGHT! Be my guest … Your Eminence!” I’m sure I was mumbling something under my breath, too (that’s what priest secretaries do … I think that’s on page 4,334 of the priest secretary manual). He took the pliers and screwdriver I had in hand. And then, as if he had vast experience dealing with Sloan valves, he unscrewed the valve cap, took the screwdriver, turned the screw, and shut off the valve. Much to my surprise, the water stopped. I was absolutely incredulous. The Cardinal handed the screwdriver and pliers back to me and said, “THERE!” To which I responded, “OKAY, I take back everything I was thinking. I’m impressed … Your Eminence.” He then sloshed his way back to his room, and I started making phone calls to begin the massive clean-up.

When all was said and done, we had to move out of the house for a month because of the extensive damage. But then I had to hear the dreaded line for months to come: “He may be a wizard at technology and know how to organize the organized, but he couldn’t shut off a toilet.”

Flashback to 1960: I had to rummage through some of our old bulletins for something a few weeks ago. I don’t remember what I was looking for, but my search brought me back to the binder for the 1960 bulletins. Some of the articles and reports fascinated me, and some had me laughing. Here’s a few snippets of what I found from 1960.

At the time, we had 3,014 families in the parish. We had 1,753 children in the school. There were 769 children in after-school catechism classes. There were 326 infant baptisms, 353 first communicants, 255 child confirmations, 39 adult confirmations, 76 weddings, and 35 deaths. The total income from all sources was $364,000. The total salaries of all the priests were $4,000. The wages of the religious and lay teachers were $67,000. The organist and choir expenses totaled $4,357. And we had eight Sunday masses.

But the best part was a few articles I found. Here’s one titled “From the Rectory:” “We might also remind you to observe the parking signs in the front of the Church, which read “No Parking.” Recently there have been a group of people who insist on coming late to Mass and leaving early. To do this they park on Overlake. The police have been ticketing all these cars in the last three weeks. If you are parking in the lot adjacent to the Church be sure that the rear of your car is not blocking the sidewalk. These cars are also being ticketed. By the way, if anyone knows a who’s who in the police force, he might ask him why they are able to release an officer to come down here to ticket cars but cannot release someone to come and direct the traffic at the corner at the busy masses.”

I’ll share more as space permits in the future.

An Eye For An iPhone: (no, you are not reading Monsignor’s column right now, but I’m talking tech) I have been saying for a little while that I think it’s about time for a new phone. It’s not my way to throw-out my phone every time a new one is released. I really don’t mind it I don’t have the latest and greatest. I didn’t even own a cell phone of any kind until I bought my first in 2014. And I still use my iPad 2, which I bought in 2012. I just need my phone to be functional and able to hold a charge and not glitch too much. I have noticed some degree of these things happening lately on my now four year old phone. As much as I use it now, I have to periodically have it on a charger during the day or it barely makes it to mid-afternoon. When I charge it with a cord, sometimes it quickly stops charging—it probably just needs the charging port cleaning-out. But, as I said, add that to the sum total of the other issues, it made sense to look at a new one.

My current phone is okay, but I wasn't sure which one to buy back in 2018 when I was looking for a replacement. There was a family who were very involved at my last parish, with two excitable teenage girls, who when they heard I was shopping for a phone, were all over the project. I wasn't particularly interesting or excited by the research, so when I told them what I was looking for, they both told me insistently—a little too insistently– that I needed to get the iPhone XR… that that would be perfect for my needs. So I listened to their generation Z advice and took the plunge in the direction of the XR.

They were so excited that actually I listened to them—a little too suspiciously excited – that they kept asking me if it had arrived yet. And they were a little exasperated when I told them one day that it had a arrived a week ago but that I had not opened it in 0.00258 seconds, as they would have, but that it had been sitting in my room for 7 days, as yet unopened.

So I set it up and they wanted to know if I liked it. “Not really!” I said. I mean it was fine, but there were some features I could have done without that I had preferred the older version on my previous phone.

Then I discovered from their mom why they had been so insistent that I “neeeeeeeeded” the XR and nothing more. Mom told me that they were both getting the new iPhone 11 for Christmas and so of course, they couldn't stand the idea that their “old” priest might get the latest iPhone before they did! My response to Generation Z on the XR? “What-eveeeer!”

So back to the current dilemma. I was reluctant, but okay, I was sort of convinced it might be time to upgrade the XR. Now if there is one feature I do care about it’s the quality of the camera on the phone. I love photography, but I have no interest in the more technical side of it. I don’t want to own a camera. I just want a phone that take sharp images, as that’s all I ever use. And of course, the later the phone, the better the camera technology usually gets. These new phones are released so often, I decided it made sense this time to look to the most recent, which is the iPhone 14 Pro. But lately, I am becoming that “old” priest and my eyes are not as sharp as they were. Relying on my phone so much probably hasn’t helped that, but I am tired of squinting with one eye because my glasses are elsewhere. So I decided it was time to get the larger screen version, that I had never wanted to have to carry around. That meant the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

So one evening this week I opened-up the Verizon app on my phone and started looking at the upgrade options. I found the Pro Max and picked the color option and memory. That was about all I needed to do, so I added it to my cart. Then I started the process to include my trade-in on the XR, which other than aging, has no specific damage. I received an estimated trade-in value (which I was amazed to see was more than I paid for my first phone new back in 2014!), so that helped. I was about to complete the process when I noticed that Verizon still had my shipping address in Farmington Hills, so I went back to look at my profile and noticed there are 3 addresses: shipping, billing and emergency locations. Okay… well my billing is all online anyway, so I changed the shipping address and returned to the cart. It was still showing Farmington Hills. I went back to the profile and changed the billing address. The order still showed Farmington Hills. By now I had been looking at my phone for a while and the lighting in my living room was not bright. I was wearing my glasses but I realized I was still having to squint at my phone to see. “This is why I neeeeeeed the bigger screen I thought.” But still I was surprised to be having so much difficultly considering that I was wearing my glasses. So I gave-up trying to do all this on my phone and opened-up my laptop to complete the order. The Verizon app on my phone signs me in with facial recognition. But I don’t have the app on the laptop so I went to Verizon’s website and tried to login. Phone number? Easy. Password…. urgh… erm…. yeah…I tried a couple of times. Failed. So then it said “check the code sent to your phone.” I waited… nothing. And like the old proverbial, to prove myself to be insane, I did the same thing several more times and waited each time…. nothing. The other option was to login through my google account. Great! I put in my gmail username and my Passworrr….... Oh, right...what’s my gmail password?… my phone just signs me in automatically.” This was getting old.

Fortunately, I managed to get that password and Verizon let me in. I went to the cart and there was the order waiting to complete, still with the Farmington Hills address. So I deleted the order entirely and started over! Turns out that because I added the phone to my cart before I changed the shipping address, the old address was still attached to this order. So I set about selecting my options again, and added the phone back to the cart and now it reflected the new address for shipping. But now, even on my laptop I was struggling to see clearly to complete the task. I must reeeeealy neeeeeed that bigger screen.

And then the penny dropped. Yes, I could use a larger screen. True my eyes are not the eyes of a Generation Z teen. But I have also clearly been struggling with this cough for a while and the doctor had just started me on a new course of steroids that day…. and the number one side-effect?...

So if next week my bulletin article is in a slightly larger font, you’ll know why! I thought these phones were supposed to make our lives easier!

adawson@sjascs.org 

We know from our youth that we are called to obey our parents as commanded by the 4th Commandment. But what about once we’re grown and out of their home?

Today Fr. Mike doles out some advice for adult children on what obedience and respect for one’s parents looks like and what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about this relationship.

Sacred Scripture is the inspired word of God, to be sure. All of it has applicability to our daily lives.

But some weeks, the correlation between what we hear in the liturgy and what we see in the news is more obvious than others. This is one of those weeks.

“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end,” Jesus says in today’s Gospel passage from St. Luke. “Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.’”

It's difficult to hear those words and not think immediately of the ongoing conflicts in hotspots around the world, most prominently, of course, the Ukraine. The constant talk of escalation and nuclear threats goes straight to the “nation vs. nation” part of the passage.

And when it comes to natural disasters, well, everything from hurricanes to wildfires to droughts continues to dominate the headlines.

Just a few weeks ago, for example, the Wall Street Journal studied the already significant impact of lower water levels in the Mississippi River; an impact predicted to get worse.

We’re left, therefore, with a choice between worrying about that which we cannot control or putting everything into God’s hands.

The latter, to be sure, is the better choice.

“Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch,” we hear in today’s first reading from Malachi.

“But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.”

That’s it! You’re in. Now you can get the free FORMED app for your phone by searching FORMED Catholic in your app store.

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7:00 a.m., Joe and Rita Snyder

7:00 a.m., Sr. Elaine Hartnett

7:00 a.m., Fr. John C. Jordan, James Kosakowski, Robert Bidigare

7:00 a.m., Richard & Phyllis Zanotti

7:00 a.m., John Gaines and George J. Bugarin

4:00 p.m., Dorothy Baumann, Shirley Popovich, Patrick Urso, Courtney Jurek, Bonnie Batche, Edward & Henry Blind, Joan Weber, Dr. Lori Karol, Roger Rheaume, David Sagert, Melvin Dries, Phil D’Agostino, Alfred Blind, George Lombardi, Edwin & Delphine Staniszewski, Thaddeus J. Stolarski Sr., Rose Ferreri and Special Intentions for the Thomas family, for the J. Champine Family, and for Michael & Janet Gleason on their 50th Wedding Anniversary

6:00 p.m., Josephine Ciaravino

8:00 a.m., For the Intentions of Saint Joan of Arc Parishioners

10:00 a.m., Ronald Doak

12:00 p.m., Mgr. Ferdinand DeCneudt, Timothy Fox, Leonard Matuso, Emael L. Sarmiento, Jose R. Medina, Rosario O. Medina, Jeffrey A. Hardy, Daisy Marie Buenavista

Wednesday (November 16):

Thursday (November 17):

Friday (November 18):

Saturday (November 19):

10:00 AM - Funeral for Wanda Miller (Read Obituary HERE)

Sunday (November 20):