International Help of Missionaries

PASTOR’S CORNER

July 27, 2014

               Next week we will be hosting “International Help of Missionaries”, our annual Mission Co-Op speaker.  It is chance to hear more about the work of evangelization in another part of the world and support it.  This group is special to me in that they are a local group that has grown out of the work of one of my priest heroes, Fr. Paul Rehling.  Fr. Paul, now deceased, was a spiritual director for a number of years in the major seminary for Ghana, West Africa.  During that time he formed a close friendship with Fr. Gabriel Mante, another faculty member.  When Fr. Mante was named Bishop of the Diocese of Jasikan and Fr. Paul returned to our Archdiocese, their close friendship yielded a close relationship between the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and the Diocese of Jasikan, Ghana.  “International Help of Missionaries” is an outgrowth of that friendship between priests and between cultures.

              In 2002 Fr. Paul invited a small group of us to go with him on his annual trip to Ghana.  There I got to know Bishop Mante and his diocese.  I can assure you that the need is still great and the opportunities even greater.

Sacrament of the Sick

PASTOR’S CORNER

I want to remind you that hospitals may not notify us if a parishioner is admitted unless the person or immediate family specifically requests it.  Obviously, that means that oftentimes we have no knowledge of hospitalized parishioners.  The most convenient way to notify me, unless it is an emergency, is to email me or call and leave a message with the Secretary.

              I am happy to celebrate the Sacrament of the Sick with anyone before serious surgery, upon diagnosis of a serious illness, or when a sick person enters into a critical stage of illness.  Those are the appropriate times for the sacrament.  We can celebrate the Sacrament in church, at home, or at the hospital or care facility.  The sacrament is one of healing.  As such, we miss its fuller meaning when we postpone its celebration until the “last moment.”  Ideas about “Extreme Unction or Last Rites” are remnants of a past misunderstanding about the Sacrament.  The sacrament of the dying is Viaticum, that is, Holy Communion.  A plenary indulgence is associated with that sacrament.  There are also special prayers for the dying that family and friends can pray. 

              The Sacrament of the Sick is a sacrament of healing, peace, and forgiveness not only for the sick person, but also for his/her family and friends.  By their very nature the sacraments are not “private”.  Each sacrament involves the whole Church, even when there are only two members of the Church present.  I am happy to schedule the sacrament when family and friends can be present.  Many people will tell you how hopeful the experience is.

In the Sacrament of the Sick the whole Church prays for the sick.  The whole Church invokes God’s Healing Spirit.  The whole Church reaches out in compassion.  That sense of a caring community is part of the human experience which the Lord uses to sacramentally minister his grace.