Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

What an awesome weekend! We have not had an ordination for the Diocese in three years. Since the last priest was ordained for our Diocese in June of 2002, eight priests of the Diocese have died. This weekend the Church gets two great guys for Its newest priests: Father Christopher Jack Weldon, whom we know from last summer, and Father Jeff Martin, who is a parishioner at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. These are good, faith-filled men who will do great things for God. In addition, two men, Josh Janko, also from Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, and Eric Underwood, from the Cathedral Parish in Lafayette, were also ordained to the transitional diaconate, and are anticipated to be ordained to the Priesthood in June of 2006. Clearly, the future is looking better and better all of the time. We have much to be grateful. We congratulate and pray for all four of those who were ordained. May they serve the Church well.

Fr. Christopher, as Deacon Jack Weldon will now be called, will be returning to St. Maria Goretti on Saturday, June 25 th, for a special Mass and celebration with us. If you are new to St. Maria Goretti since last summer, Fr. Christopher’s diaconate summer assignment was with us here at St. Maria Goretti last summer. It will be great to welcome him back. The Holy Name Society is sponsoring a celebration for Fr. Christopher that will take place immediately after 4:30 PM Mass on the 25 th. Please check out the details on this event in the coming weeks. Fr. Christopher is being assigned to All Saint’s Parish in Logansport, Indiana.

This weekend also is our first annual fundraising appeal for the education of our priests. This has long been a component of Fruitful Harvest, but in recent years, the amount provided by Fruitful Harvest has not been able to keep up with the rapidly escalating costs of seminary education. To help with the shortfall, Bishop Higi has asked for a special collection to be taken up this weekend specifically for the education of our priests. You will find envelopes in your pew this weekend. They can be used for the second collection that will be taken up at all Masses this weekend. Please be generous!

Of course, the good news of this weekend reminds all of us of how important it is to pray for vocations to the priesthood, the religious life, and the diaconate of this Diocese. We still have a long way to go to provide leadership for our Church for the future. It is also time that we went beyond prayer too, by actually telling our young people that we think would make good priests, and good sisters, and good deacons, that we think that they would be good in these roles. So many of our best young people have never had anybody ever tell them that they should consider being a priest, or a sister, or deacon. How unbelievable! As a Church we’ve got to talk about this more. Do you feel like you can’t encourage your own kids to think about this? Then tell somebody else’s kid and ask someone else to talk to your child. Every young Catholic person, young man and young women, have to consider these vocations as an option. Does God want everyone to be a priest or a sister or a deacon? No, that’s not what I’m saying. But the only way to find out if God is calling, is to think and pray about it. And that can start with a suggestion from anybody. We’ve been quiet too long. And it has hurt us as a Church.

Around here at St. Maria Goretti, a great way for your family to pray for more religious vocations, is to take the Elijah Cup for a week. We’ve been doing this now for a few years. These prayers are paying off. Your family will get called up to get the chalice at the end of Mass, and then you take it home and pray with it as a family for more priest, more sisters, and more deacons. I still love this idea. It allows for several opportunities for dialogue within the family about Church, about Faith, and about vocations. If your family is not on the Elijah Cup lists and you would like to do it, please contact Mary Bellows at 846-7283 to get on the schedule. My thanks to Mary who has headed this up and organized it for us, since we started doing it. Mary, you are the best! I just know that at some point, we are going to have all of these young priests and sisters and deacons running around St. Maria Goretti, all because of the Elijah Cup and our communities commitment to praying for vocations and to challenging our young people to consider these lives of service. Don’t forget that Monday evenings in the Adoration Chapel are also dedicated to praying for vocations.

Have a great week. Let us keep each other in our prayers!

In Christ,
Fr. Kevin

The next time you look in the mirror be grateful that wrinkles don’t hurt.