Notes From The Pastor’s Pen – October 21, 2018

Hello,

Last Sunday the pope canonized 7 new saints, and I just wanted to talk about one of them today, St. Oscar Romero. It seems strange to refer to him as saint since like others that have only been recently canonized we are used to referring to them simply by their name as we would before their death and since.

I was in high school in 1980 when St. Romero was killed as he was celebrating Mass in the chapel of the Divine Providence cancer hospital where he lived. He was then Archbishop of San Salvador amidst civil wars in El Salvador. At the time I do remember hearing of his death while celebrating Mass, but I also admit that I know that it probably did not get as much attention because of concerns of political connections with the Church in Central America where violent revolutions were taking place and the theology of some in the Church was also being questioned. Amidst this Romero had been named the Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977.

It is often said that he was thought to be a ‘safe’ choice that would stay out of the conflicts in the country, but his position and ministry clearly brought him into the center of it. He served as an auxiliary bishop for San Salvador from 1970-1974, at which time his image of a ‘safe’ choice was formed. In 1974 he would be named bishop of a smaller rural diocese of Santiago de Maria and then in 1977 named Archbishop of San Salvador. Some consider his time in the smaller diocese is when he was most influenced to more vocally protest the violence and defend human rights of the people, others consider it was when a friend of his, Fr. Rutilio Grande, S.J., was killed in 1977 as he was helping the poor amidst the violence in the country. What we are sure of is that his words and actions would show his faith as he would disregard his own personal safety as he publicly defended the rights of the people.

His weekly national radio broadcasts of his Sunday sermons were listened to widely across the country in which he would include information of the violence that had occurred over the past week. The sermon from the day before he was killed included a plea for peace as follows:

“I would like to appeal in a special way to the army’s enlisted men, and in
particular to the ranks of the National Guard and the police — those in the
barracks. Brothers: you are of part of our own people. You kill your own
campesino brothers and sisters. Before an order to kill that a man may give,
God’s law must prevail: Thou shalt not kill!”

We recognize the saints as those we ask for their prayers and as those we strive to follow their example in our own lives. Consider learning more about some of our new saints such as St. Oscar Romero by going online (the best website I found was http://www.romerotrust.org.uk/), or even watching the movie “Romero”, I know I haven’t seen it in a while and will probably watch it again soon.

Peace,
Fr. Nick

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Notes From The Pastor’s Pen – October 14, 2018

Hello,

This week the priests of the Archdiocese of St. Louis were invited to participate in a Convocation. It is a gathering that took place from Monday afternoon thru Friday morning down at the Lake of the Ozarks that we have every four years. While the topics presented and discussed vary as do the presenters, this year’s title was “An Intimate Sacramental Brotherhood”, addressing the importance of having those fellow priests in our lives and having close relationships especially during difficult times or times of stress.

I mention this not just to let you know where I was last week, but also in an awareness that all of our lives can be stressful at times and we need to consider how we address it. We know there will be conflict in all of our lives and it provides the situation or the excuse to allow further division. We’ve had a fairly good public example of this in the US Senate over the last month regarding the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Unfortunately, the process was not taken as an opportunity to address the stated concern of the suitability of this judge for the Supreme Court, but rather, as I read expressed by both Democrats and Republicans talking about themselves and the other, was taken as a political opportunity by many to drive the parties further apart based on the political perception of this judge. Too often challenges and conflicts, like deciding to affirm or deny a Supreme Court Justice nominee, are seen as only having a possible result of further division, instead of realizing that they actually provide an opportunity of unity and growing closer together.

Consider important decisions which include some conflict that need to be made in a marriage or an important relationship. They can be looked at as who is going to win and who is going to lose, setting up an adversarial situation, or as how are we going to make the best decision. The more serious the decision, the greater impact it can have on the relationship, but it doesn’t have to be a division, it can actually strengthen and bring the parties closer if we value the relationship enough. Consider difficult situations and decisions you have gone through with someone. Even if you don’t consider that you ‘won’ according to what you were thinking when you started, the fact that you were able to achieve this decision, to work together in an important and challenging situation, gives you confidence that you will be able to do it for future situations. That you have also developed some of the skills and trust in working together that will only help in the future. And the realization that you both value the relationship enough to endure the process needed to resolve the issue.

These challenging situations can be in our government, our families, even our church. Depending on how we value that relationship, depends on what we will be willing to do to resolve the situation. And after having gone through that challenge together the relationship may not only have avoided division, but have even grown stronger.

Peace,
Fr. Nick