Why we need to vote

A quick video to help us understand how this election can affect each of us.

Real Men

When I am encouraging young men to consider the priesthood, I think it is important to remind them about the fact that it takes real men to make the commitment necessary. I will tell them that real men do extraordinary things.

This video is a scene from the USCCB vocations office, produced by Grassroots Films. The production itself is called Fishers of Men. ENJOY

Endorsement for president

I've been asked if there are any qualified candidates running for president 2008. I wanted share this which I found at The Curt Jester

Priestless Sundays

I've copied the following from Dr. Edward Peter's blog

A news story out of the Diocese of Fairbanks in Alaska describes an upcoming "priestless Sunday" wherein priests will be away from their parishes to serve remote missions, leaving their parishioners without Sunday Mass that weekend. I can see arguments for and against this unusual action and I don't think that outsiders are in a position to conclusively support or reject the basic idea.

One point in the news article, however, needs to be corrected: After noting that Communion services will be celebrated in most parishes left without pastors, the article asserts that such services are "not Mass but will satisfy the Catholic obligation to attend Mass."

That's wrong.

Only Mass satisfies the Sunday obligation (1983 CIC 1247-1248) under Roman Catholic canon law.* If a member of the faithful cannot attend Mass on Sunday, that impossibility excuses the obligation. Boniface VIII, De Regulis Iuris, no. 8, "Nemo potest ad impossibile obligari." Indeed, Canon 1248.2 of the 1983 Code, placed in the Code by John Paul II himself (Peters, Incrementa in Progressu, 1082), expressly notes that "If participation in the Eucharistic celebration becomes impossible because of the absence of a sacred minister . . . it is strongly recommended that the faithful take part in a liturgy of the Word if such a liturgy is celebrated in a parish church . . . " (emphasis added). Note, participation in a Word service is recommended, not required, and there is nothing in the canon about Word celebrations counting as Eucharistic celebrations.

Those of us lucky enough to attend Mass in our own parishes next Sunday should especially remember Catholics in Alaska who are not so fortunate. That said, while severe shortages of priests should move us to redouble our efforts to encourage vocations to the priesthood, they are not occasions for changing the understanding of Sunday Mass or its obligation.

* I say under Roman canon law, because there is some provision under Eastern canon law for something besides Mass to count toward the Sunday obligation. See CCEO 881.1.

I am sure that there are other canon lawyers that would argue differently, but this has been my understanding with the limited canon law courses I received in the seminary.

In the Parish

I finally returned to the parish on Friday afternoon. It was good to be back. I stayed in Jordan. While I was away, the ladies came in and painted all of the walls and put down new flooring. The outside of the parish trailer here was repainted, and a new deck was just being completed. It is looking great. Now, if I can find where everything went this past four months :)

I went to watch the Jordan Mustangs play football in Medicine Lake on Saturday. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. It's only about 200 miles away. I did ride with one of the parents so I did not have to worry about falling asleep.

Today I should be back to my normal Mass schedule. It will be good to see all of the people again. I have a baptism in Jordan this weekend and I understand I'll have one in Circle in a couple of weeks. New life is always great.

While I may be home, I'm still on orders with the Air Force and am doing some reconstitution time and will be taking some leave. I will be in the parish on weekends, but may be doing some other traveling and visiting during the week so don't expect a lot of posting on my blog just yet.

Back in Montana

I wrote the last post earlier this week as I prepared to start my trip back home. I could not post it here until I actually found a real internet connection without the filters that were offered at Manas AB.

I am back at Malmstrom and am preparing to do my processing so I can really go home. I can't wait to see what has happened while I've been away. I hope to be able to post a little more frequently now that I am back in the US. :)

Peace and Prayers

Serving Those Who Serve (Part IV)

It is hard to believe that my time in Kyrgzystan is over. I’m writing this as I finish packing and am preparing to fly back to the US. It has really been an adventure. In my past reflections I spoke about the diversity of people that I’ve served, the sacrifices we are called to make, and the need for us to support our priests and pray for them.
As I prepare to head home I’d like to reflect upon the place where I think the people of Manas Air Base have made their greatest contribution – volunteering in the local communities. The airmen here have two private organizations that they may join to assist the locals build better lives for themselves. The Manas Service Organization (MS0) pairs volunteers from various units at the base with local communities. These volunteers go out to the local villages and help improve their schools, playgrounds and way of life. One village this summer received a new well to help provide clean running water for cooking and drinking.
The other organization that does outreach is the Manas Air Base Outreach Society (MABOS). I did most of my work with MABOS as I was the chairman. MABOS worked with several orphanages, a children’s cancer center, a children’s heart surgery center, and a few other outreach projects. It truly was a rewarding experience.
I had the opportunity to brief several distinguished visitors on the work of MABOS. As I was being introduced to one such visitor, the person introducing me commented how great it was to see the young airmen and women taking part in these opportunities as opposed to visiting the bars and strip joints. Of course, I quickly explained that we could not visit bars and strip joints from the base. However, it is good to follow up on the true meaning of his comments. So many times in life we get distracted by a desire to direct our love, not towards others, but towards ourselves. It is times like this that we are likely to desire to visit “bars and strip joints”.
When we focus our attention beyond ourselves, such as when the airmen and women participated in MSO or MABOS, we learn a greater meaning of love. For those who are not deployed to Manas Air Base, there are still plenty of opportunities for us to volunteer and pass some of that love and concern on to others. We can volunteer to assist in our own parishes for a multitude of ministries that exist. I know that I can always find project that can be passed on to qualified volunteers. We also have opportunities in the larger community. When I am back at home, volunteer with the local ambulance services and serve with the wildland fire fighting crew in Garfield County. Volunteers are needed to assist with blood drives. I mentioned the work of MABOS with orphanages. In some of our communities we have children who are almost like orphans. They could use a quality after school program to include mentors to be role models to form these young children to see value of volunteer service and outreach to others.
Find ways in your communities to reach out and share God’s love for you with others. You will truly make a difference. May God bless you, our troops around the world, and the USA.

Serving Those Who Serve (Part III)

Last week I had the opportunity to meet one of the local priests here in Kyrgyzstan. I was on a trip sponsored by the Manas Air Base Outreach Society (MABOS). The particular place that we were visiting was run by some Catholic sisters. From what I could tell through the translation and such, they were Sisters of St. Francis. While visiting their program I asked if it might be possible to visit for a bit with the local priest. I had heard that the parish offered a Catholic Mass in English at 9:00 am each Sunday. They told me that the English speaking priest was on vacation, but called the substitute who came for a short visit.

In the course of my discussion with the priest, through our driver/translator, and later looking up Kyrgyzstan on Catholic-Hierarchy.org, I found out a little about the local Catholic community. Kyrgyzstan is actually considered a Apostolic Administration, which means it is not really a diocese, but has a bishop who administers the territory. The bishop has 5 priests to help him cover the 76,477 square mile country. Sometimes, we in Montana think we have a lot of area to cover. If the priests were evenly divided around the country, the average parish would still be about twice the size of my parish in area.

On the other hand, there are only about 500 Catholics listed for the country. That means the priest to parishioner ratio is much better than Montana. This is due primarily to the efforts of missionary priests coming into the country to serve the small Catholic population.

The priest and I spoke a little about the ministry of the sisters. We spoke about the English Mass for the coming weekend which would be said by the bishop who may not even know much English. The most important thing on my list was to find out where they purchase altar wine and communion hosts locally. I found out that the hosts have to be ordered from Poland. Our interpreters at the base are always encouraging us to buy locally, but we can't do that in this case. We sent the order back to the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri. We could find some suitable altar wine on that is produced locally.

Later in the day, thinking about the number of priests in Kyrgyzstan, I could not help but think of the priest shortage in the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings. Rural areas, or places with small Catholic populations, experience the priest shortage in a different way than larger, more urban dioceses. Our priests are not normally serving thousands of people each, but are covering thousands of square miles to accomplish their ministry. In many ways, this affects the interaction between the priest and his parishioners. Whether it be large congregations, or large areas to cover, priests have a lot of expectations put upon them.

Oftentimes, we wonder what we can do to help out the priests. I would like to offer a few of my suggestions:

First, pray for them every day. Pray not only for the priests of your own parish by name, but for all priests of your diocese and of the world.

Second and third, pray for vocations and encourage young men who may be called to priesthood to respond to the call. These two ideas go together. If there are more young men ordained, it takes the burden off the priests who are currently serving.

Fourth, support your parish priest. Let your priest know that you appreciate what he is doing for you and your community. Invite him to dinner or lunch once in a while. Find out if there is something special that he enjoys and help him participate in that activity (skiing, card playing, hunting, a nice bottle of scotch or wine, watching a ball game with another person).

Fifth, pray for your priests and for an increase in vocations. I know, you've heard that one already, but it is important to keep those prayers going. (While you are praying throw in a couple of prayers for those called to religious life, and those who are married. Married couples are the source of priests, and religious sisters and brothers can be an inspiration for one discerning a vocation.)

Vocations need to be nourished, not just while they are being formed, but as they are being lived out.

What will happen?

I'm sure most of you have seen the news about the groups of traditional Anglicans who are looking at the possibility of coming home to the Catholic Church. Of course, we probably won't see any response to this until after the Anglicans have their Lambeth conference. We need to continue to pray for all of those involved. Our Holy Father and the members of the Curia who will be part of the process, the members of the Anglican communion who are looking to "swim the Tiber", and the Catholics who will be affected by any such move. We need to continue our prayer for unity.

Serving those who serve (Part II)

I am now at the half way point of my deployment to Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan. It has really been an adventure. In my last article I spoke about the need to be faithful in Mass attendance even when it is difficult to understand the priest. I'm going to take this article in a different direction.

Many times, as we face things in life that are inconvenient or difficult, we are quick to complain. Man life is sometimes rough. Over here at Manas, we are sleeping in 8 x 12 rooms. If you are a junior enlisted, you get to share your room. We have to walk down the hall to the latrine or showers. The food at the Dining Facility is not like it is off the stove at home, and we have to walk a couple of blocks to get there. Our TV selection is limited. We get some variety from the Armed Forces Network (AFN). On the "news" channel we get a mish-mash of news programing from the various networks throughout the day -- CNN for a bit then FOX then MSNBC. You get the idea. It is easy to think that this is roughing it. Oh, the cross that we bear. For a lot of you reading this, all of a sudden what you are facing at home does not seem so bad.

When the troops come through on their way from Afghanistan to head home, things are put even more into perspective. Many of them are sleeping in tents, or spend some nights without any shelter as they are out on patrol. Showers? Try keeping yourself clean with baby wipes. They are eating MRE's (meals, ready to eat) which may or may not be hot, depending upon time and if they have the small heaters to heat the meals. If they are lucky, someone has a radio and they can listen to the AFN radio programing, mostly hip hop type music. All of a sudden, what we are facing at Manas seems almost like paradise.
As you face the challenges for living life, it is important to remember those who are in greater need. Jesus reminded his disciples that they would have to pick up their cross daily to follow him. Those crosses seem heavy at times. I'm willing to bet that most of us, if we were to attempt to change our cross for a lighter one, would find that our cross is not so heavy. We need to pray for the courage to carry our own crosses in life. We need to pray for those who have a heavy load to bear. When our cross seems heavy, we need to remember that Jesus said for us to take his yoke upon our shoulders and he would give us rest. It's all a matter of perspective.