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The old Parish Pastoral Council will hand on the baton of lay volunteer leadership this coming Thursday to the new PPC at the monthly meeting of the group that advises me on various parish issues and sets the direction for our parish activity. I thank Mike Tyrrell, Gene DeMuro, Dan McCormick, and Anne Lang who rotate off the Council after serving for three years. In particular, I thank Anne who was the Chair of the PPC for the past year. She will continue to offer invaluable assistance as the newest member of Holy Name’s Finance Council. Returning to the Parish Council are Monica Tynan, Mark Steffen, Jean Carroll, Eileen Massura, and Chris Manns in addition to Donna Ciszewski who will be the Vice-Chair and Susanne Smith who steps into the Chairperson’s role. I am confident that this veteran crew will do great things during the coming year. New to the PPC will be some familiar faces and some names I am thrilled to see getting more deeply involved in the parish leadership – Mary Canavan, Milli Striegl, Joseph Sunshine, Lawrence Palmer, and John Wolf. For the first time in my term at Holy Name Cathedral, I know all the new members well, and I am excited about having them in this key leadership role. I urge all registered Holy Name Cathedral parishioners to get involved in the various activities, ministries, and services organized and sponsored by the PPC and by the four Commissions – Parish Life, Education, Human Concerns, and Evangelization & Spiritual Life. The folks listed above are the leaders. We need to renew our big list of volunteers to accomplish what these generous folks plan over the next twelve months. One of Holy Name Cathedral’s most important ministries involves the care of the sick, especially at Northwestern Hospital. An extensive and competent pastoral staff has primary responsibility for looking after the patients in their time of need. Father Bill Moriarity, a Holy Name Cathedral priest since 1992 and an accredited hospital chaplain, is part of the Northwestern’s pastoral team. Also a familiar presence at Northwestern Hospital is Maryann Hoban, one of our parish’s Pastoral Associates. With a Doctor of Ministry degree and her characteristic sensitivity, Maryann has organized a multitude of volunteers who visit the sick, bring them the Eucharist, and tend to their pastoral needs. Because the hospital lies within the area served by our parish, for decades the priests of Holy Name have been “on-call” in those situations when no other ordained priest was available for the administration of the Sacraments, particularly Anointing and Penance. The full-timers – Father Stein, Father Boivin, Father Novick, and I - take most of those calls. Father Lagges and Father Moriarity (in addition to his regular chaplain shifts) also fill-in. Recently, Father Moriarity published the statistics on the first five months of this year. The Anointing of the Sick was administered 101 times by Father Bill, an additional 44 times by the other Cathedral priests. Anointing with the Last Blessing was administered 31 times by Father Moriarity and 14 more times by the rest of us. Father Bill heard 59 confessions; 6 more were heard by the rest of us. In emergency situations, Holy Name “on-call” priests were summoned 55 times (24 times when Father Bill was away on vacation). There were just 6 calls “in the middle of the night” (midnite-7:30am). I remember my predecessor, the late Father Bob McLaughlin, telling me that the difference between his first assignment to the Cathedral (1966-1973) and his second term with Father Moriarity at Northwestern just about daily (1990-2001) was that, in the 60s it was the rare night that the duty priest was not called to the hospital. In recent times, it’s the rare night that we are called. That great army of volunteer Ministers of Care from Holy Name Cathedral continues their invaluable and basic Christian work. They visited the hospital in those five months 3,843 times bringing Communion to more than 3,000. They get no spotlight; they take no bows. Still, I get letters regularly from former patients and from the families of former patients thanking the Cathedral parish for our Ministry of Care. I thank all of those most generous volunteers who exercise their stewardship every time they walk over to Northwestern or to the Barr Nursing Pavilion or to the home of a shut-in. I thank the Cathedral priests for their attention to Northwestern, to Barr (where we also celebrate Mass monthly with the help of Deacon Mike McCloskey, dedicated Ministers of Care, and Maryann Hoban), and to the regular Communion Calls each cares for without attention. I thank both of our deacons – Mike McCloskey & Stan Strom – for their care for the sick, an essential deaconal ministry. Let’s not forget the heroic ministry that Father Jim Roache, for decades a busy Cathedral priest and now retired, continues to offer with an assist from a devoted team of Cathedral volunteers who celebrate Mass every Tuesday night at the Rehabilitation Institute. I thank Father Bill Moriarity and Maryann Hoban for the kind face they show to the sick in the Holy Name of Jesus. Let’s all pray daily for the sick, the hospitalized, the elderly, the shut-ins, the disabled, the addicted, those anticipating and recovering from surgery, the chronically ill, children who are sick, those at the hour of death, the families of the sick, and all those who look after the sick. Our suffering sisters and brothers make up what is lacking in Christ’s suffering for the good of the Church. Thanks to the Holy Name Parish Life Commission for a terrific Lake Cruise on a Navy Pier Fireworks Night a couple weeks back – a fabulous success and a good time. While many of the ministries, organizations, and Commissions graciously host summer Sundays’ Coffee-in-the-Courtyard, it is the Parish Life Commission that sponsors and coordinates the popular and relaxing mornings in the Courtyard on the north side of the Cathedral. Parish Life, thanks! Go up the Mountain of the Transfiguration this weekend with Jesus. If you are unable to describe and dissect what you see in celebrating the Eucharist this Sunday, you will be joining Peter, James, and John. They could not explain it either. Still, they were fascinated by Christ. Listen to the Gospel proclaimed this weekend. Renew your fascination with Jesus. I will finish my vacation when I wake up Thursday and come back to the Cathedral. Thanks to Father John Boivin, Father Paul Stein, & Father Mike Novick for steering the ship in by absence. I will look for you at Mass next Sunday.
Fr. Dan Mayall |
