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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Happy Feast of the Ascension! This Feast Day should make
all of us think about Heaven. Where Jesus has gone, we too hope
to follow. In many ways, this Feast Day is like a “preview of
coming attractions” for all of us who follow Jesus.
Hey, we have lots of news this week. The Ministry Fair is
being held this weekend in the Stuart-Gadus Fieldhouse. We
invite everyone to come over after Mass and check out the
ministries that are offered here at our Parish family. This is
also the first weekend to sign-up to help out at the 2007
Italian Festival which is being held on Saturday, July 14th.
Hundreds of volunteers are needed. Everybody should have a job
for the Italian Festival. Come over and sign-up after Mass.
Usually, we use Pentecost weekend for the Ministry Fair, which
is next weekend, but with it falling on the same weekend as
Memorial Day, the Parish Council wisely chose to move the
Ministry Fair to this weekend.
Tomorrow, our summer seminarian arrives to begin his stay
with us. We are very pleased to welcome Mr. Andy DeKeyser to
our Parish. Andy just finished his first year of graduate
Theological studies at the Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. Andy
is from the St. Lawrence Parish in Muncie, Indiana and we look
forward to having him with us for the summer. Our own
seminarian, Josh Bennett, will be working this summer at St.
Patrick’s Parish in Kokomo. And our other seminarian, Clayton
Thompson, will be working for a local landscaper and helping out
here at St. Maria Goretti also. It’s really good to have these
guys home for the summer.
This past week we received word from our Diocese that
Sarah Elmer, one of our graduating seniors who is home-schooled,
the daughter of Dave and Brenda Elmer, has been awarded the
Diocese’s Christopher Warner Scholarship. The Christopher
Warner Scholarship is given to only one graduating senior from
the Diocese who has shown extraordinary leadership and faith in
service to the Church. We are all so proud of Sarah, and of her
being chosen as this year’s recipient. You may remember that
two years ago, Clayton Thompson won the Christopher Warner
Scholarship when he graduated from Carmel High School. It is
unprecedented that two of the three past winners have come from
the same Parish. Congratulations, Sarah! Watch for the
presentation of this award at an upcoming Mass real soon!
St. Maria Goretti is once again being affected by priest
issues in other parts of our Diocese. Effective this weekend,
Fr. Joshua Janko is being sent to help with weekend Masses at
St. Ambrose Parish in Anderson, Indiana. Fr. Joshua will
continue to help through the month of June, when it is
anticipated that he will be able to return to having weekend
Masses at St. Maria Goretti. This is particularly difficult
when we already have Fr. Dale out helping with the shortage at
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. So things are going to be a little more
crazy than usual around here for a few weeks. I’d ask that you
bear with all of us as we try to do our best to cover all the
needs. The immediate effect that this will have on St. Maria
Goretti is the immediate suspension of our Saturday morning 8:00
AM Mass and 8:30 to 9:30 AM Confessions. This is not
permanent. And as soon as we can get one of our guys back,
we’ll go back to the regular Saturday morning schedule. In the
meantime, PLEASE pray for more priests! Reinforcements are on
the way with ordinations taking place next month, but many more
are needed.
Tomorrow, we will celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation
with our young people. I congratulate all of our candidates for
Confirmation. It’s a great class of young adults who have
worked so hard in their formation, and we all look forward to
all of the good that you guys are going to do with your Faith!
We welcome Bishop Higi back to the Parish for the celebration of
the Sacrament. It will be good to see him. The Confirmation
Mass is at 7:00 PM tomorrow night and is the only Mass at St.
Maria Goretti tomorrow. Why not come and join us for Mass
tomorrow night? I’ve never been to a Confirmation that I didn’t
find very inspiring.
Have a great week! Next week we celebrate Pentecost and
come to the end of our Easter season.
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Before Christ sent the Church into the world He
sent the Holy Spirit into the Church.
The same
order must be observed today.
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