Column
by
Archbishop John G. Vlazny
|
Archbishop's
Column by Archbishop John G. Vlazny |
Do you remember all our preparations for the beginning of the new
millennium? Well, five years have passed, and we have indeed experienced
some perilous times, but not the ones that most futurists were predicting.
By
the time you read this, my first pastoral message of the new year, I shall
be
on retreat with the bishops of the Northwest down Arizona way. If I ever
needed to devote some time to these annual spiritual exercises, it is now.
I
ask for your prayers that the Holy Spirit will redirect and renew this
wounded
healer in his apostolic ministry.
Christmas 2004 was, not surprisingly, a graced time. Thank you so much
for
the many ways in which you reached out to me with messages of
encouragement, affection and support. In recent years, I have taken the
opportunity of Christmas euphoria to write letters to all the priests and
deacons serving in this archdiocese. Since
the Christmas season doesn’t officially end until we celebrate the feast
of the Baptism of the Lord on this coming
Sunday, Jan. 9, this letter to you, the people of the archdiocese, will
complete a Christmas 2004 trilogy. Please bear
with me as I look ahead to the weeks and months before us.
The year 2005 begins with considerable anxiety for all of us as we give
public notice to all our Catholic parishioners,
friends and neighbors through private correspondence and public announcements
about the necessity of bringing
forward any claims against the archdiocese before April 29. Why? In order
to be eligible for legitimate compensation
in the fiscal reorganization plan which we hope will terminate our Chapter
11 proceedings. Please pray for all those
who will be troubled by this public notice and all those who have been
aggrieved in any way by the scandalous
behavior of clergy and other pastoral ministers. The claims bar date was
finally established in late fall, and, with the
guidance of the bankruptcy court, the legitimacy of claims is under investigation
and the available assets of the
archdiocese are being studied. You need to know that those of us who are
serving the archdiocese at the present
time, clergy, religious and laity, are doing our best to carry out this
task responsibly and expeditiously. If there is
any discouraging element in all these matters, it is the realization that
not everyone wants us to succeed. But
succeed we will, with God’s help.
Shortly after our people receive notice of the claims bar date, you will
be hearing from your pastors and me about the
annual Archbishop’s Catholic Appeal. This has become our major funding
vehicle to support the ministries of our
church here in western Oregon. Some folks will have a hard time giving
this year because of the scandal, the
litigation and now the bankruptcy. Just before Christmas, I heard from
a young couple in Eugene who told me they
could no longer support the mission of our church. They wrote, “There are
so many opportunities for Catholic, and
other, charitable giving, and we continue to take advantage of them.” That’s
good news for other charities, but not for
the evangelizing mission of our church. We need to be sensitive to these
hurts, but those of us who understand our
responsibilities a little better will have to try harder and give more
generously.
When I pondered the frustration of that young couple and some other Catholic
families here in western Oregon, I
couldn’t help but compare their reaction to the scandal with that of a
frustrated wife of an unfaithful husband who
responds to his infidelity by feeding her neighbor’s kids but not their
own. Neither you nor I am responsible for these
past wrongdoings, but the state of Oregon expects us to provide just compensation
to victims for their suffering. We
are committed to serving justice, but we are also entrusted with our Church’s
evangelizing mission, one which will be
gravely diminished without our ongoing personal and financial support.
Lent comes early this year on Feb. 9. Rites of Election for those who are
preparing to enter the church at Easter will
be celebrated in six different settings during the first two weeks of Lent.
The annual Mass for the Blessing of Oils is
set for Thursday, March 17 (yes, St. Patty’s Day!) at St. Mary Cathedral.
Shortly after Easter, I shall lead a Year of
the Eucharist pilgrimage to Fatima and Spain with 100 pilgrims from the
archdiocese. All of you can count on the
prayerful support of our contingent of pilgrims during those early days
of the Easter season.
Pope John Paul II has called for the observance of a Year of the Eucharist
in our Catholic community from October
2004, through October 2005. May 29 will be the feast of Corpus Christi.
The Holy Father has asked that this feast
be celebrated with special solemnity in churches throughout the world.
I have encouraged your pastors to plan
special celebrations in all the churches of our archdiocese on that day.
Furthermore, I am asking that special times
of Eucharistic adoration be established in parishes this year, something
akin to the 40 hours devotions of the past.
With the recent revelation that Sunday Mass attendance here in western
Oregon has declined by 10 percent over
the past two years, a particularly appropriate pastoral outreach during
this Year of the Eucharist should be extended
in every parish towards those who have been absenting themselves from Sunday
worship, for whatever reason.
Our Archdiocesan Pastoral Council continues to work on strategies to implement
the new Archdiocesan Pastoral
Plan, which I promulgated back on June 6 at Mission 2004. You may recall
that the top three priorities
recommended to me were faith formation at all levels, youth and young adult
ministry and multicultural ministry. If
these are to be meaningful goals for the evangelizing mission of the archdiocese
in the years ahead, they must also
become the primary goals for our parishes, institutions and all our Catholic
people.
As we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord this coming Sunday,
it is time for us once again to acknowledge
the gift of our own baptism by which we became children of God and sisters
and brothers in our Catholic family. The
challenges before us are many but our incorporation into Christ through
baptism assures us that we do not face them
alone. I remember you daily in the celebration of the Eucharist, and I
seek your prayerful support as well that all of
us, bishops, priests, deacons, religious and laity will truly be instruments
of God’s saving grace for the world around
us. God bless you, your families and loved ones with his joy and tender
care in the new year before us.