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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Happy Memorial Day weekend! Whatever you have planned
for this weekend - race, cookout, picnic, ballgame, chilling
out or just relaxing at home - may you enjoy it with good
friends and family! On Monday, Memorial Day itself, we will be
on our summer holiday Mass schedule with daily Mass being
offered at 9:00 AM in the Daily Mass Chapel. Before you start
grilling, why not come and join us for Mass as we honor those
who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and our freedom.
This weekend we welcome our summer seminarian, Andy
DeKeyser, to our Parish. You’re going to be seeing a lot of
Andy this summer at Mass and at many of the Parish’s summer
activities. Please make a point of saying ‘hello” and
introducing yourself to him, the next time you see him.
In the next month, our Diocese will celebrate ordinations
for both the transitional diaconate and the priesthood. On
Saturday, June 2nd,
Bishop Higi will ordain Dennis A. Faker of Sacred Heart Parish
in Remington, IN a transitional deacon of the Church. That
Diaconate ordination is going to take place at 11:00 AM in our
Cathedral in Lafayette. Then two weeks later, on June 16th,
Deacons Dan Duff, David Hasser, and Christopher Roberts will be
ordained priests for our Diocese. Many of you will remember
Deacon Christopher Roberts from the summer assignment that he
spent here at St. Maria Goretti in the summer of 2003. This is
going to be a great month for our Diocese. These are all really
good guys who are going to do a lot of good for our Church.
They are answers to our prayers for more priests. We should be
proud of all of our seminarians, most especially St. Maria
Goretti’s own, Josh Bennett and Clayton Thompson. We need to
pray for these guys daily and do our best to support what they
are trying to do for our Church.
In the next few weeks, our Diocese is going to roll-out
their 3rd
Annual “Answering God’s Call” campaign to support the formation
expenses of our seminarians. We have been so blessed that the
number of seminarians for our Diocese has risen greatly in the
last few years. We have gone from three seminarians in 1999 to
twenty in 2007. Unfortunately, the costs for educating a
seminarian have risen substantially in that same period of
time. So much so, that what used to be paid for out of Fruitful
Harvest funds, is no longer able to be handled with that
campaign alone. Two years ago, the Diocese saw where this was
going and initiated a special collection just for the education
of our future priests. On the weekends of June 9th
& 10th
and June 16th
& 17th,
St. Maria Goretti will take up a second collection at all Masses
on both of those weekends for our future priests. I’d ask that
you start praying now about what you might be able to do to help
with this campaign. We will have special envelopes available
here and it is my understanding that an envelope will also come
in your
Catholic Moment
Diocesan newspaper. Please also note that the rest of our
Diocese is starting this Campaign next weekend, the same weekend
as the diaconate ordination. We are not. Next weekend, we have
our annual missionary visit and appeal at all of our Masses. We
will delay our start to this special campaign by a week. The
Diocese assigns a goal to each parish based on the number of
families and giving history. Our goal for the “Answering God’s
Call” campaign is $18,900. We must reach this goal. If we
don’t, we will have to make up any shortfall from our own
operating funds, and trust me, this year is not the year to have
to make anything up from our operating funds. As I mentioned,
we really must reach this goal. Please be prepared to give what
you can to help out with this effort. We will need everybody’s
help.
This is the last week of school here at St. Maria
Goretti. We congratulate all of our eighth graders who are
graduating at a special Mass this Wednesday night at 7:00 PM in
the main sanctuary. We are all very proud of all of you. We
look forward to all of the good that God is going to do through
each of you in the future, wherever you go and whatever you do.
I pray that you will always remember your years at St. Maria
Goretti as happy, faith-filled ones. The final school Mass is
this Friday morning, June 1st,
at 8:00 AM.
Next weekend, Fr. Charles Duster from the Columban
Fathers, a missionary order that works all over the world, will
be joining us to educate us about the Missions. We look forward
to hearing about the Missions and what we can do to help spread
the Gospel. Have a great long weekend! Enjoy the race!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong is
wrong, even if everybody is for it
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