Fr. John Vien

May 27, 2012

This past Monday, the Archdiocese of St. Louis and Catholic Charities of St. Louis filed suit against the Federal Government challenging the legality of the Health and Human Services mandate requiring insurance coverage including sterilization, contraception, and abortion-inducing drugs.  The Archdiocese and Catholic Charities join at least 40 other Catholic Archdioceses, Dioceses, Hospitals, Colleges, and Institutions around the country in filing suits against the Federal Government.  Archbishop Carlson has asked that the following letter be posted in the bulletin of every parish this weekend so that the faithful can be informed: 

May 21, 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This letter is to inform you that the Archdiocese of St. Louis and Catholic Charities of St. Louis are taking legal action against the federal government of the United States of America. A lawsuit challenging the legality of the HHS mandate was filed in court today.

Since the mandate was finalized this past February, the Catholic Church has pursued every imaginable avenue to correct this problem without litigation. An “exception” for “religious employers” was offered by the Obama administration, but the federal government’s definition of “religious employer” only includes Catholic organizations that serve “primarily” Catholics. It fails to protect the religious liberties of those Catholic institutions that reach out to non-Catholics, like our St. Louis area Catholic hospitals and universities, and Catholic Charities of St. Louis.

Please understand that every effort has been made to dialogue in this matter and time is running out. The mandate, with its extreme requirements on sterilization, contraception, and abortion-inducing drugs, will begin taking effect in August of this year. In a few short months, our federal government will force our Catholic institutions to choose between violating the law and violating our moral convictions.

Never before has the U.S. government forced the Catholic Church to provide a product that violates our religious beliefs. Any scenario that forces us to do so is unacceptable. As your shepherd, I simply cannot stand by while our first, most-cherished freedom is eroded…that is our religious liberty!

Religious liberty is inherent to our very humanity – hard wired into us by our Creator. We must remain vigilant in the protection of religious freedom or it will be lost. Please visit our religious liberty page on the archdiocesan website at www.archstl.org/liberty for additional information.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Robert J. Carlson

Archbishop of St. Louis

In addition, the Archbishop has announced that the Archdiocese of St. Louis is launching a six-month “Campaign for Religious Liberty” beginning today, Pentecost Sunday and lasting until November 25, the Solemnity of Christ the King.  Within this local campaign will be the United States Bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom”, a 14-day period of prayer, education, and action in support of freedom, which begins on June 21, the feast of Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More and ends on July 4, Independence Day.  During this time, all Catholics are asked to be aware of the threats to our religious liberty, and so I commend these intentions to you for your prayer and reflection and fasting and action so that our freedom of religion may be respected.  

May 20, 2012

• The 50 days of the Easter season are down to their last week.  Next Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, the final day of the Easter Season and the Feast of the Holy Spirit.  It’s the day when we all wear red to Mass to show that we are on fire with the Holy Spirit, so plan on it!  

• Congratulations to all our graduates!  Graduation is a great time to reflect on past accomplishments and to look forward to a bright future.  There are a number of St. Pius parishioners graduating from grade school, high school, college, and graduate school at this time of year; let us remember and pray for all of them. 

Our 8^th graders from St. Frances Cabrini will complete their grade school years and celebrate with a Mass on Wednesday evening, May 30.  All the 8^th Graders from Cabrini Academy were accepted into their first-choice high schools, a wonderful testimony to their hard work and to the quality education they received at St. Frances Cabrini Academy.  Special congratulations to our St. Pius graduates from Cabrini: Ava Tajkowski, who will be attending Incarnate Word Academy; and Tom Stein, who will be attending St. Mary’s High School. 

• Thanks to those who have returned their pledge cards for the Annual Catholic Appeal!  As you have heard me mention the past few weeks at Mass, it is important that all our parishioners return their cards as soon as possible.  The ACA does such good in our Archdiocese of St. Louis, and St. Pius V Parish directly benefits from grants to our Immigrant & Refugee Support Ministry and to St. Frances Cabrini Academy.  We are very close to our parish goal, and have a ways to go to meet our challenge goal, but I am certain that our parish can meet our goals with your help.  Please return your card to the rectory soon and make a generous pledge to the ACA.  Even if you cannot pledge at this time, your card still needs to be returned.  All those whose cards are not returned will be called by our parishioners and contacted by the Archdiocese, so please return your ACA pledge cards this week.

• We are a bit behind in our Parish Offertory collections for this fiscal year, which ends on June 30.  If you have missed a collection or two, or can make an extra donation at the end of this fiscal year, the parish will be most grateful for your generosity.  As always, I encourage you to pray and to ask God, “What do you want me to do with all the gifts you have entrusted to me?”  Listen to God as God calls you to generosity and faithful stewardship of your time, talent, and treasure.  Thanks, as always, for your generosity to St. Pius V!

• Cell phones are an essential part of life these days, but they are a distraction in Church.  Every week I hear one or two, and now and then someone even answers their phone at Mass!  Please turn off your cell phones when you come to Mass.

• Thanks to all who have wished me well and offered me their prayers this past week as I noted the sixth anniversary of my arrival here as pastor of St. Pius V.  As I have shared with you many times, I am so grateful to God that I am here at St. Pius V and so grateful to all of you who make this such a vibrant community of faith.  I love the city, I love our neighborhood, I love this parish, I love my ministry here, I love all of you, and I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be. 

May 13, 2012

I am happy to announce that our parish community is taking the initial steps to explore some major capital improvements to the St. Pius V campus!  For many years, even from before I became Pastor in 2006, this community has dreamed about preserving and improving our beautiful Church and parish facilities.  The Parish Strategic Plan from 2006 recommended an improved sound system and upgraded lighting and electricity in the Church.  A committee called Living Stones recommended a permanent baptismal font and other improvements to the Church.  But over the years, as the economy suffered and as we struggled with what to do with an old school building, we have not pursued the dream or explored the possibilities of what we might be able to do as a parish community... until now!  I hope that you will join me in asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in supporting this dream as we move forward!

I feel this may be the right time to pursue this project.  Last summer, our new Parish Council began their term and expressed strong support for moving forward, and their enthusiasm and leadership will serve us well in the years to come.  In 2009, the Archdiocese launched a Capital Campaign for Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, “Faith for the Future”, and many of our parishioners made generous pledges to support our future priests.  It is coming up on three years since that campaign and many of our parishioners who made pledges will be completing them soon.  Archbishop Carlson has expressed a desire to have another Archdiocesan Capital Campaign, this time to fund Catholic Education and Schools, sometime in the next few years, so the timing may be right for our parish to conduct our own major Capital Campaign to raise funds that we can use here in our neighborhood church.

This past week, I convened a gathering of parish leaders to begin the dialogue and dreaming about what this project might look like.  Of course this is just a beginning and I expect that seeing this project through, from beginning to end, from dreaming and planning to raising money to construction, will take a few years.  And, as I reminded those gathered, we first need to ask permission from Archbishop Carlson to even pursue this project, so at this point we are simply dreaming, planning, and seeking information so that we have a concept to present to Archbishop Carlson and to our parish family.  Present around the table were Sr. Mary Henry, Kevin Corcoran, Rose Ehresman, Christian Clerc, Jeff Mudd, Tom Huelman, Carol King, Joe Judge, Brian Herr, Wayne Noland, and Dave Murphy.  We quickly identified some projects that seem to be non-negotiable as we seek to insure the integrity of our Church building, including repair of the tile roof, tuckpointing the Church, painting the Church interior, upgrading the electrical system, upgrading the HVAC, and securing and sealing the stained glass windows.  There are so many other things we’d like to pursue, including a permanent baptismal font, a new sound system in Church, additional restrooms, the renovation of Singler Hall, and the resurfacing of the parking lot, among other things.  So a first priority is, well, to figure out our priorities.  What is essential to help to secure the future of this parish Church and parish community?  What can we afford?  What will our parishioners be excited about and donate money for?  These are conversations that we will have over the course of many months, and I hope that many more folks will be part of that conversation as we move forward.  I’m sure that many more committees and groups will be formed as this project moves forward, but for now, feel free to speak with me or any of those mentioned above if you have any ideas. 

It’s easy to get bogged down in the details of all this, and as I said, we’re just at the very beginning.  That’s why I think it’s most important for our parish family to have a vision for what we want.  I’m not just talking about having a roof that doesn’t leak or a parish hall that is state of the art, I’m talking about a vision for who we want this community to be, now and in the future.  I hope we can all agree that we want St. Pius V Parish to be around for another one hundred years.  We want a Church building that will proudly proclaim our Catholic presence to this neighborhood.  We want a worship space that is beautiful and noble and helps us raise our hearts and minds to God.  We want to be an anchor for this neighborhood that is our home.  We want to invest in this parish today, as our parents and grandparents did in past generations, so that our children and grandchildren have a place to worship and gather and serve those in need.  I hope that you will join me in making this vision a reality as we move forward with these initial steps of dreaming about some major capital improvements to our parish!  Pray that the Holy Spirit will guide our discussions and our future work.  St. Pius V, pray for us and for this parish family!        

May 6, 2012

The month of May is always a festive time in the Church and in our community!  It is always the Easter season, so we continue to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection; our Church is decorated with flowers, plants, banners, and our Easter Baptismal Font, and we renew our Baptismal promises and are sprinkled with water every Sunday during Eastertime.  Besides Easter, May is also the month when we celebrate First Communions (our parishioner David Sadasivam will receive his First Holy Communion on May 12), Confirmations (our Cabrini students will be confirmed on May 16), Weddings (my niece is being married here on May 19), and Ordinations (Archbishop Carlson will ordain five new priests for the Archdiocese of St. Louis on May 26).  May is also the beginning of Graduation season, so many families will be celebrating the accomplishments of their family members who are completing their studies.  And all this is just the beginning of the summertime, which doesn’t officially begin until June, but unofficially begins on Memorial Day (this year May 28), the day we Americans honor those who gave their lives in service to our nation. 

But all these events in May might be overshadowed by Mother’s Day.  Greeting card companies, florists, and long-distance phone services tell us that Mother’s Day is one of the biggest days of the year; everyone, it seems, wants to be with or talk to their mother on that day, even if she is far away or even if she has passed on.  That’s because our relationship with our mother is the very first one we have in life, and that relationship imprints us, for good or bad, for the rest of our lives.  As you celebrate and honor your mothers next weekend, also be sure to pray for her and to thank God for the gift of your Mom.  Once again, we will celebrate Masses during the month of May in honor of our mothers.  In your pews, you will find cards and envelopes if you would like your mother to be included in these Mass intentions.  The inside card and envelope are for you to give to your mother; the outside envelope is to be returned to the parish with your mother’s name and a donation.  (And yes, we will also offer Masses for and have cards for our fathers during the month of June.)

The month of May, when we honor mothers, is traditionally the month of our Blessed Mother, Mary.  In grade school, I remember Sister telling us that if you took the “r” out of “Mary”, then you had “May”; an easy way for us to always remember to honor the Blessed Mother during this month!  Let me encourage you to renew your devotion to our Blessed Mother this month and ask Mary for her special help and intercession.  We know and believe that Jesus Christ is our only intercessor with God, and that we can always approach the Lord directly in prayer and intercession, but it also helps to have friends help us and intercede for us.  Just like our own mothers who always love us and want the best for us, the Blessed Mother is one of our “friends in high places” who wants to help us with her motherly love and assistance. 

Perhaps you can pray the Rosary more often this month.  For many, the rosary is a powerful tool to help quiet themselves and enter more deeply into reflection and prayer.  The mysteries of the Rosary, recited on different days of the week, focus our prayer on the lives of Jesus and Mary and give us inspiration in our daily life.  I remember my Dad kept his finger rosary in the car and told me that he would pray it on his way to work in the morning.  When I was in the Seminary, I started praying the Rosary and offering that prayer for all those I would encounter in my future ministry and parish assignments, so many years ago I was praying for all of you!  I still pray with that intention: that God will bless all those I will come in contact with in the future.  

The Angelus is a Marian devotion that was traditionally prayed at 6:00am when farmers went out into the fields, at 12:00 noon when it was time for lunch, and at 6:00pm when it was time to come home from the fields.  Reclaiming this devotion can help us order our own daily life; you might try praying it at the beginning, middle, and end of your work day.  During the Easter season, we replace the Angelus with the Regina Coeli, a more festive prayer celebrating Mary’s joy at the Resurrection of her Son.

There are many Marian prayers that you may have learned as a child but have forgotten.  I’m sure that most Catholics know the Hail Mary, but do you still remember the Memorare?  I remember being struck by the sheer beauty of those words when I was a boy.  How about the Hail, Holy Queen?  These simple prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary are beautiful and poetic and give us lovely images of Mary’s love and protection.  And of course, I’m sure the Blessed Mother would be pleased if you were to pray to her in your own words, grateful for her example of fidelity and asking for her intercession as you journey through life. 

May each of us draw closer to our Blessed Mother Mary during this beautiful month of May!  

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