Bulletin Board with News and Events

June 3, 1963 – 44 years ago Sunday – Pope John XXIII died. I was 11 years old, just past the 6th grade. In perspective, it would be unrealistic to expect any Catholic younger than 55 to have a memory at all of John XXIII much less an appreciation of his brief Papacy. This Sunday, let’s remember a Pope of extraordinary impact. At nearly age 77, he was chosen in 1958 as Peter’s 260th successor. His heartiness, his overflowing love for humanity, and the freshness of his administration made him very popular in his time. He focused on his own pastoral duties and urged other clergy to do likewise. He promoted previously unexpected inter-religious and ecumenical dialogue. He forbade Catholics to vote for political parties supporting Communism. His encyclical Mater et Magistra advocated social reform, assistance to underdeveloped countries, and a living wage for all workers. He convened the Second Vatican Council in 1962. His final writing, Pacem in Terris, dealt with human rights and moral obligations, the individual in relation to his nation, the principle that international conflicts “should not be resolved by recourse to arms, but rather by negotiation.” He wrote in the era of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis. What words would he use to impart a blessing of peace on today’s world? Through the intercession of Blessed (he was beatified in 2000) John XXIII, pray this Sunday for his and our Church, for his and our world.

On Tuesday, at the 5:15pm Mass, the Sacrament of Anointing will be available after the homily for those anticipating hospitalization/surgery, those chronically ill, those experiencing the reality of aging, those battling mental illness, and the addicted. The anointing Masses have been scheduled quarterly at Holy Name. Keep an eye in this bulletin for future opportunities. Of course, those in urgent need the Sacrament of Anointing may contact or ask another to contact the Church office at any time to arrange to be anointed.

Also on Tuesday, June 5, at 6:30pm in the Cathedral, there will be a Penance Service along with opportunity for individual confession and absolution presented for the nearly 100 adults preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation next Monday, June 11. Their sponsors also will be invited to participate in the Penance Service. Pray for all preparing to be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Because of the priests needed for both Tuesday’s 5:15pm Mass and the 6:30pm Penance Service, no confessions will be scheduled this coming Tuesday, June 5, at 5:00pm. The regular schedule of confessions on the lower level of the Cathedral at 5:00pm Mondays, Tuesday, and Fridays will resume this coming Friday, June 8.

This coming Thursday evening in the Cathedral auditorium, fifty-two young people will graduate from the Frances Xavier Warde Catholic Elementary School. FXW is an excellent school that prides itself on the birthmark of a diversity that reflects the make-up of Chicago. Students from 5th through 8th grade attend school on the Holy Name Cathedral campus; the 1st through 4th grades are located on the campus of Old St. Pat’s Church. Up until this year, K and pre-K students went to school at both locations; next year OSP will house all the little ones. Still, FXW remains the apostolate of both parishes to families in or near downtown Chicago. Recently, a revised constitution for the school articulated a new governance structure. An “assembly of the Christian faithful” will be formed as the governing body of FXW. That group of Catholic people will cooperate with the Archdiocesan Catholic Schools Office and will become the sponsors of FXW School. OSP’s Father Tom Hurley and I will continue as ex-officio members of the Board of Directors, the group that hires and evaluates the Head of School, sets policy, and handles the day-to-day direction-setting. However, that over-seeing association of baptized Catholics – not Holy Name, not St. Pat’s – will become the body that sponsors the school. That will be a bold move. FXW’s governance model takes the responsibility of the lay faithful very seriously. For now, let’s say prayers that this new model of education succeeds. Let’s give thanks for the strengths in FXW’s development until now. And let’s congratulate the graduates!

This Sunday, June 3, at 3:30pm, Cardinal George will continue the celebration of his 10th anniversary as Archbishop of Chicago in prayer with Chicago’s religious communities. Representatives from those families will come to the Cathedral to thank God for their vocations and to pray with their Archbishop. There are 2,271 women religious, 291 brothers, and 822 religious priests active in the Chicago Church. Please take the opportunity of this powerful gathering to thank God for their witness and mission. Pray, too, for an increase in vocations to religious life.

Did you know that God has a secret? St. Paul tells St. Timothy that God “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no human being has seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16). No human being of even super intelligence can figure out on her own or on his own the reality of God. If He did not reveal Himself to us, none of us alone and not all of us together could steal God’s secret. Yet, the Catechism of the Church tells us that “by sending His only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed His innermost secret: God Himself is an eternal exchange of love – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and He has destined us to share in that exchange.” In other words, on this Trinity Sunday, we celebrate becoming part of the family. I tell couples on the verge of marriage that they are about to enter a relationship that makes really getting to know one of them dependent on knowing her husband or his wife. They are one, two persons in one marriage. The same is true of the Trinity. To know one Person, you must know all three. In the liturgy this weekend, we celebrate what has been revealed to us. God is Love. To know such truth is to know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. To be touched by such truth insofar as we practice the virtue of Love is to be welcomed into the family. The Catechism says it plainly – “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life.” Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit at it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end – no secret.

Fr. Dan Mayall