“The most important and basic pastoral challenge facing the priest in the parish is to bring the faithful to a consistent spiritual life based on the principles of Christian doctrine as lived and taught by the Saints… Today, more than ever, prayer, the sacramental life, meditation, silent adoration, talking heart to heart with the Lord, and daily exercise of the virtues which make us more like him must be rediscovered, since these are far more productive than any discussions, and ultimately the necessary condition for all effective discussion.” (from The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community #27)

One the constant and important truths emerging from the scandals in our Catholic Church is the renewed call to holiness. In speaking with my brother priests, the parish staff and many parishioners we agree the rules and structures given to us and used by us at the parish level have produced a safer environment for the young and vulnerable of our community…but the greater call is to holiness where we live the Gospel of Jesus Christ and call others to live this same gospel message must be what we are about.
This is the positive and holy good news. If we spend too much time dwelling only on the hurts then we begin to miss the blessings and healing that are occurring in our midst. The call to holiness is a call to joy, to peace and to blessing in the Body of Christ. We all suffer injuries and hurts, some very grave like abuse and others less so like the betrayal of friendship, which cause us pain and bring forth sorrow and anger. In each and every case seeking healing and exposing the hurt to the light of healing in Christ Jesus is the important first step.
We do this when we begin to recognize blessings even in the midst of suffering and pain. When we choose to share the feelings of hurt the feelings of blessing begin to unfold in our lives. This past weekend I was on a Worldwide Marriage Encounter weekend and for the first time in the past few weeks was able to speak about my feelings to someone other than a priest friend. With these couples I was able to share me feelings as they listened with compassion and care. As the junk cleared in my soul, heart and mind we were able to laugh and share the good news of the many gifts that surround us. A lightness filled me with joy. This isn’t a plug (at least not to big of one) for Marriage Encounter but is it a reminder of having good friends who believe and share in the mission and goodness of God’s holy Church living these blessings of love with joy and care in all parts of our lives. These conversations of healing are helping me to grow in my ability to simply sit and listen to the hurt and anger filling the hearts and voices of God’s people.
As the above quote reminds us, and me as a priest, we must enter into these discussion with love and prayer if we wish to find how God is calling us to be agents of mercy, compassion and healing. I was reminded of this again when I sat with our Cathecists in the meeting with our new Director of Faith Formation for Children as they shared their stories of faith. Hearing the goodness and desire to bring others to Jesus Christ and the love of God was inspiring and full of grace. Each of these wonderful Catholics were grounded in the prayer and their one on one conversations with God.
As we move through these challenging times remember to not focus solely on the sins of our Church…they are big, ugly and can be all consuming. Don’t hide or ignore them but tackle them with the weapons of prayer and love. This is what we must do because it is what Jesus asks us to do. See the blessings in one another. Receive Jesus in the Sacraments. Celebrate the joy of life. Help to heal our Church.
Please pray for the sanctification, the purification and the healing of our Catholic Church and the world. And yes, please pray for me.
God bless,
Fr. Mark

Three things—on article and two videos

JoAnna Wahlund article about “Should the Bishops Take a Pay Cut?”

Should the Bishops Take a Pay Cut?

Catholic speaker Ken Yasinski seeking Jesus for our fulfillment…holiness is the only answer

vhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROtMhMNkBAU&list=PLPtJlDO3CxNXO3muRyMlV70-jBsKWXUVm&index=2

Bishop Robert Barron “Why Remain Catholic”

The whirlwind of coming back from vacation into the buzz of parish ministry can be a little bit overwhelming at times…add to this the beginning of the parish school year and the many other items surrounding this can be a little bit stressful. Dump on all the normal things the continued revelations and discussions about the abuse and misconduct by priests and bishops and it almost makes you want to not get out of bed in the morning. The reality of the energy draining nature of the sadness of the sins of bishops and priests. The weight, the hurt and sorrow it places on the hearts of so many and the sobering realization that this may only be the beginning (again) is depressing.

How do we live the “Joy of the Gospel” with the weight of these sins upon our shoulders? I use “our shoulders” on purpose because as members of the Catholic Church we bear the weight of our brothers and sisters in both the good and the bad. This is why throughout the story of God’s revelation there is a constant and unmistakable call to the healing of the community and the gathering of what has been scattered. God’s desire is to unite and heal in love. Satan’s desire is to separate and wound ever deeper in hate. This is why the call to unity and faithfulness at this time is so very important. God heals sin. God heals the hurts of those who have been sinned against. God heals the sinner. Once more, please believe me when I say the perpetrators of these sins/crimes must face the legal and civil ramifications of their actions and must repent and choose to abandon their sins and be joined to God’s healing mercy once more. That is our Christian hope. And, our Christian hope is hard to desire at times like these when we would rather see punishment and wrath reign down from heaven on those who acted in such evil that it is hard to describe.

How do we live the “Joy of the Gospel”? Well, we begin as I wrote last week: with prayer and fasting for the healing of the victims and the purification and sanctification of all bishops and priests (and the entire Church for that matter). Many people have loudly complained at this answer and rightly say: Why should I pray and fast? I didn’t do anything wrong. And they are correct in their claims of innocence…but…here is the Christian part…both victim and perpetrator are our sisters and brothers in Christ…we can’t get away from this truth. If we deny this truth, then we begin to deny Christ. How do we know this? Look at the cross. Jesus chose to die for my sins and the sins of the world so that I and the world may be saved. This isn’t marshmallow every thing is okay Jesus. This is the Jesus who carries a cross knowing the sins and unafraid to call them for what they are, acts of evil destroying the Body of Christ.

Praying…the first step…(yes I will talk briefly about prayer) calls us to reach out and be unified. Even when we are screaming and cursing at God in full throated anger at the situations that press upon us we are reaching out to be unified. It is only when we begin to ignore and make God distant that we cease to pray in reality. God is intimate with us as desires us to bring everything…even our full throated roaring. And believe me I have done it many times and God always waits for me to find his silence and to rest in him as he heals and soothes the brokenness that consumes our world. Please pray…please, please, please pray. Don’t give into the ignoring of love.

Fasting prepares us to accept the cross we carry. It empties and strengthens our will to be able to do the saintly, the holy, the remarkable in the world. It allows us to speak against the evil and stand in the face of the winds of hatred seeking to consume the truth. We fast so we may be ready to hold the broken, comfort the grieving and bless those hurt and robbed of innocence.

Please pray for our Catholic Church. Please pray for those victims of abuse. Please pray for the purification and sanctification of our bishops and priests. Please pray for me.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Attached are three things.

Fr. Mike Schmitz video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdR8eyaDCHg
Fr. Mike talks about the scandal from a priest’s point of view

Catching Foxes Podcast http://www.catchingfoxes.fm/154
Two young adult Catholic’s talk about their feelings and effect of the scandal news

3. Bishop Robert C. Morlino’s letter http://www.madisoncatholicherald.org/bishopsletters/7730-letter-scandal.html

“Filled with the holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry.” (Lk 4:1-2)

People ask me many times this question: Why do always go to prayer? The very simple response is this is where Jesus is and this is what Jesus did…so maybe I should be there and do this too. I write this because of the question and anger that has come in the wake of the continued scandal of sexual abuse of our young people. I too share many of the same questions and anger as I work my way through the troubling and horrific news. It is a great sadness, a heaviness and a sense of helplessness and despair invading my relationship with God and this is why I go back to the simple response above.
When I was a young adult and began to take my faith a little more seriously than I had before I was attending a day of prayer when the spiritual director for this day brought forward this small piece of Sacred Scripture quoted above. She reminded us of the need to follow Jesus in all things and first and foremost in his example of prayer. Engaging the Father in conversation for both the strength and direction in doing God’s will. This was a profound and life changing moment and has been at the practice of my spiritual life from that moment forward. Have I practiced it completely and without flaw…of course not…but when I remember to practice it I am a better person, a better child of God.
In this moment I know the only path forward is to unite my life closer to Jesus. It is the first and only answer. I do understand and believe in the processes, the need to find within civil, criminal and canonical tools but always united with our Lord’s call for justice and not simply retribution. So, I would invite us all during this time of pain and doubt to unite our lives more closely with Jesus…through prayer and Eucharist.
One of my goals is to seek ways to renew once more my priesthood, as we should all look to renew our proper vocation as husband or wife, as son and daughter, as single or religious, we are all called to holiness and to speak courageously the call to holiness in our world and especially within our Church.
St. Pope John Paul II in his call to holiness reminded bishops and priests, “Priestly spirituality requires a climate of proximity to the Lord Jesus Christ, of friendship and personal encounter with him, of “shred” ministerial mission, of love for the service to his Person in the “person of his Body and Spouse, which is the Church. To live the Church and give oneself to her ministerial service implies a profound love for the Lord Jesus Christ.” (#13)
In rereading the quote above the words that strike me deeply are “To live the Church” our faith is not something we put on for a moment and take off the next but is truly the call “to live the Church” in all moments and in all times because the Church is the Body of Christ and we are each in our vocations called to become more and more like Jesus in our lives.
Jesus offers us his life in the Eucharist and St. Pope John Paul II continues, “For the priest, the Eucharist must occupy “the truly central place both in his ministry and in his spiritual life, because all of the Church’s spiritual good derives from theEucharist which per se is the source and summit of all evangelization.” (#13) It is a question, “Is the Eucharist central to my faith?” I hope we can all answer in the affirmative because if we can then the doubts, anger and despair that come with crisis in faith finds the peace only Jesus can offer to us as to salve and medicine to heal our hearts.
I have attached our Bishop Patrick’s statement on this awful crisis below and would ask you to pray for good and holy bishops, priests who place Jesus at the heart of their lives before all else.

God Bless
Fr. Mark

Declaraciones del Obispo Patrick J. McGrath
Diócesis de San José en California

La noticia de esta semana sobre el histórico abuso sexual de menores en seis diócesis de Pennsylvania es realmente horrorosa. La confianza fue lo primero que se traicionó a través de estos ataques a inocentes; sin embargo, el encubrimiento sistemático y la reasignación de esos sacerdotes llevada a cavo por sus obispos y superiores religiosos es simplemente imperdonable.

Como he dicho en varias ocasiones, nosotros – la Iglesia y sus ministros – debemos atenernos a un estándar más alto. Estamos llamados a proteger y mantener a salvo los niños, los jóvenes, y todas las personas vulnerables. No puede haber atajos, nada puede excusar estos actos inmorales y pecaminosos.

La Diócesis de San José permanece comprometida a la protección de los hijos e hijas de Dios y a fomentar ambientes más seguros para alabar, aprender y vivir.

Me hago eco de los obispos de Pennsylvania, quienes han pedido perdón. Aunque bien sabemos que el perdón no absuelve a los perpetradores de las consecuencias de estas graves transgresiones contra los indefensos.

Finalmente, les pido rezar por las víctimas y sus familias. Al mismo tiempo les pido también rezar por la vasta mayoría de los sacerdotes – del presente y del pasado – que han sido fieles a su ministerio. Ellos, también se afligen por la terrible mancha de este pecado que a perjudicado a tantos.

Que Dios los bendiga a todos

Agosto 15, 2018

Statement of Bishop Patrick J. McGrath
Diocese of San Jose

The news this week of the historic sexual abuse of minors in six Pennsylvania dioceses is truly horrific. Trust was first betrayed by these attacks on the innocent; however, the systematic cover-up and reassigning of these priests by their bishops and superiors is just as unforgivable.

As I have stated on many occasions, we – the Church and its ministers – must abide by a higher standard. We are called to protect and keep safe children, the young and all vulnerable persons. There can be no short-cuts, nothing that can excuse immoral and sinful acts.

The Diocese of San Jose remains committed to protecting God’s children and to fostering the safest of environments in which to worship, learn and live.

I echo the bishops in Pennsylvania who have asked for forgiveness. Yet we know that forgiveness does not absolve perpetrators of the consequences of these grave transgressions against the defenseless.

Finally, I ask you to pray for the victims and their families. I would also request that you pray for the vast majority of priests – present and past – who have been faithful in their ministry. They, too, grieve for the terrible stain of this sin that has harmed so many.

May God bless you all.

August 15, 2018

My vacation time is quickly coming to an end and I am anxious too get back to the parish and begin working once more as we prepare for the fall season in the parish with the beginning of our school year, the new faith formation sessions and just the rhythm of going back to the “norm.”
This weekend we are pre-celebrating the 60th birthdays of my brother and his wife (their real birthdays are in September) as both sides of the family gather to recognize this joyous time. It’s odd to think it was just a few years ago when we were passing around a silly “40th birthday” hat from sister to brother and down the line or the beginning of the 50th celebrations where our youngest brother made for our eldest sister the “holy cow, Mauna is 50” t-shirt translated into German with the many trips and celebrations that followed as many of us followed in this decade and so now we have the second of the siblings entering the 60’s. (and I am not far behind) Time marches on….
“Do this in remembrance of me.” As Catholics we hear this short phrase each Mass at the end of the consecration prayer and it becomes engrained into our very soul. It is a remembrance of thanksgiving of the gratitude and graciousness of God’s love for us through our memory and participation in the life God gifted to us and shares with us in joy. This has been one of the things I have been pondering during my vacation. In many conversations with family, friends and in the celebration of the Mass the “remembrance of me” has been stronger and stronger. It is not just the good, joyous and celebratory moments that have been remembered but also the struggles, the hurts and the tragedies which make the fullness of life true and honest. These have been the remembrances of grace and filial love.
In many ways, our life, our life of faith, our life of family circle around the ‘remembrance of me’ as we go about the living of life. As I sat with my mom and her friends at the senior citizen lunch the other day they shared many stories bringing laughter to the table and discussing and arguing about the facts, the relationships and the shared histories of friends and family many of them gone for many years and yet the memories of love continue to animate them in the hearts of those who lived with them in community.
It is how we as Catholics are called to remember in the communion of saints, the ‘in remembrance of me’ is the invitation to hold on to the blessing of life where we believe God works in the joys and sorrows of life. It is an invitation into the generosity of God’s goodness where He surrounds us in his eternal creative love.
We are called to be active listeners of life, joyful participants life and gracious servants of life. While I have been on vacation I have been helping out Fr. Paul at the parishes he serves, celebrating Masses and being available. There has been three funerals during this time. Each of the families I have known since childhood but living outside the area for almost 40 years the ‘in remembrance of me’ was listening to the journey of the family and the person who died from those men and women I knew in their late thirties and forties and the journey of life they had shared until the moment when our creator God called them home. Being able to hear their stories was a reminder of our need as Church and as the family of families to focus on the shared story of Jesus Christ and how we are all called to live in remembrance of Him as we share the living memory of our love of one another.
We often forget in our hectic world and in the frantic pace of life to sit down and listen, to joyfully partake and to serve with graciousness those around us as we share to laughter and tears of life. In prayer let us thank God for His gift of life and live it abundantly.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Vacation is a wonderful time…to think. Vacation is an awful time…to think. I like to take time to think and usually during the busy schedule of ministry the “amount of thinking” I get done isn’t what I would like as the doing of ministry outweighs the thinking about ministry. Please don’t think that I solely think about ministry but I truly spend most of my time thinking about God and how many blessings and joys He places into my life on a daily basis…but there are also those times when my thinking about God and all the wonders also forces me to confront the evil and sin of the world.
I have been thinking, reading and praying about the unfolding scandal of the ugly sin of abuse that is engulfing our Catholic Church with former “Cardinal” Theodore McCarrick and the implications it has on the leadership of our Church. I will share with you below a few articles and links from priests, bishops and lay women and men who will write much more eloquently and with greater knowledge than I would be able to do. For me, it is even difficult to read because when you love someone so much, and I am talking about Jesus and his Holy Catholic Church, it is painful and heartrending to read and contemplate the implications of what this all means. It is especially difficult because in many ways, I and all of us, must answer the question: What can we do?
Because it is not as this is a new problem. Growing up Catholic the reality of saints is in the very air we breath. We learn about St. Paul, St. Peter early on and then we find the great saints and teachers like Leo the Great and Gregory the Great as leaders of the Church. We also hear about the reformers like St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Benedict, St. Theresa of Avila or St. Francis of Assisi who call the Church back to order. We don’t really dwell too much on what they are reforming or teaching against. And it is not as if we don’t see and hear about it even in popular culture. When I first read Alexandre Dumas’s novel “The Three Musketeers” in high school I was confronted with the corrupt Cardinal Richelieu that I could put off as just a convenient plot device or later in college when I picked up Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” and found in the first part on Hell, “The Inferno” how many of the named characters were Popes, Cardinals, Bishops and Priests. The didn’t seem to be real because of the fictional nature of the novel or the removal in time and history. And yet, they were very real. And of course, in Sacred Scripture, both in the Old Testament (see Jeremiah 23:1 and Ezekiel 34:2) and New Testament (see Matthew 26:31 and Mark 14:27) we are warned about shepherds who use their flocks for personal gain and destroy them because of rapacious appetites. So, should we be surprised…on a practical level, maybe not but on a hope filled level…of course we should be. Our Christian witness calls us to see others in the light of our faith in Jesus Christ.
So we get back to the initial question: What can we do?
The answers are not new nor are the fashionable…because we might take St. Catherine of Sienna as our model today…first she lived a life of penance and prayer. She recognized the sins of her time, even though they were not her sins, and chose through penance and prayer to be an example of holiness to those around her. Second, she spoke forcefully about the need for Jesus Christ at the center of life for the leaders of the Church, including the Pope, and the call to holiness against the scandals and worldliness of the leaders. Lastly she gave herself fully to Jesus Christ. The need for holy women religious is vital for the life of the Church and their example and call to holiness of the priests within the Catholic Church. I know my relationship with the Eucharistic Missionaries of the Most Holy Trinity (MESST) during my 13 years as an ordained priest has challenged me to greater holiness through their example of faithful obedience to the call serve God.
What can we do? Pray and live a holy life. Pray for the holiness of your priests. Pray for and encourage vocations for holy young men and women to follow the call to the priesthood and consecrated religious life.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Catholic Bishops statement http://www.usccb.org/news/2018/18-136.cfm

Pia de Solenni https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/column/with-mccarrick-timing-is-everything-3931

Ralph Martin http://www.renewalministries.net/wordpress/dear-troubled-catholics-a-letter-from-ralph-martin-about-the-current-crisis/

Fr. Dwight Longenecker http://www.patheos.com/blogs/standingonmyhead/2018/07/the-collusion-and-confusion-of-catholic-bishops.html