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 While the countries of central and eastern Europe and the former USSR endured decades of communist oppression, the Church suffered grave wounds to its spiritual life and pastoral capacity to serve its people. For generations Church leaders were killed or imprisoned. Catechists were persecuted, and churches, monasteries, and seminaries were closed or destroyed. As a result of this severe repression, the Church was greatly weakened. The bishops of the region are faced with the formidable task of restoring its church structures and, more importantly, rebuilding the spiritual center of its communities. To provide a resource pool for the numerous projects of the bishops of central and eastern Europe, the bishops of the United States voted unanimously in November 1990 to authorize an annual national collection. That collection this year will take place next weekend at all Masses. Through the generosity of Catholic parishioners in the United States, our American Church can fund critical projects in central and eastern Europe for the restoration and renewal of the Church in Europe. It is a particularly positive sign that in these difficult and uncertain times, American Catholics give strong witness of their compassionate concern for the universal Church. Our support year after year of the still-fragile restoration of the Church in central and eastern Europe fills Catholics there with confidence and hope in the Gospel. Please give generously to the Eastern Europe collection, the after-Communion second basket, next weekend, February 23 & 24.

On Thursday, February 21, we remember Father John Mary Irenaeus St. Cyr, the founding pastor of Chicago’s first parish, St. Mary’s. He was a French immigrant, born on November 2, 1803. He was ordained to the subdeaconate in Lyons, France, before sailing to America and to the Diocese of St. Louis where he was ordained a diocesan priest by the first bishop of St. Louis, Joseph Rosati, on Holy Saturday, April 6, 1833, in the Old St. Louis Cathedral that today stands near the foot of the Arch on the banks of the Mississippi. Ten days later, Bishop Rosati received a letter written in French and signed by 36 Catholic men living in a town that would incorporate itself as Chicago two months afterwards. The men – 21 French, 13 English/Scottish, and 2 Irish – listed the names of their family members totaling 128 Catholics. The Bishop answered the petition the next day by sending a letter of appointment to Father St. Cyr. “Whereas not a few Catholic men inhabiting the town commonly called Chicago, and its vicinage, in the state of Illinois, have laid before me that they, deprived of all spiritual consolation, vehemently desire that I should send thither a priest, who, by exercise of his pastoral gifts, should supply to them the means of performing the offices of the Christian religion and providing for their eternal salvation…I depute you to the mission of Chicago” St. Cyr rode into Chicago on May 1 and offered Mass in Mark Beubien’s log cabin on Lake Street, near Market. Shortly thereafter Fr. St. Cyr secured a lot on the southwest corner of State and Lake and put up a church building 25 by 35 feet, at the cost of $400. In 1836, Chicago fell under the governance of Bishop Simon Bruté of Vincennes, Indiana. He visited Chicago and found a congregation of 400 souls including several Indians later forced to migrate by federal treaty. Those parishioners included Chief Sauganash, or Billy Caldwell, a half-Potawatomi, half-European leader; and Antoine Ouilmette (for whom the affluent northern suburb of Wilmette is named), a French-Canadian fur trader who left with his Indian wife. Father St. Cyr was recalled by his bishop in 1837 and spent a good part of his missionary priesthood aboard a horse, visiting settlements and ministering to early Illinois and Missouri settlers. One trip took him to Nauvoo, the western Illinois home of the Mormon founder Joseph Smith. Smith at Nauvoo in 1843-1844 practiced polygamy marrying 49 wives ranging from age 15 to 55. After Smith’s death, the Mormons were run out of Illinois by Christians in 1846. That was when Father St. Cyr rode in and converted many former Mormons back to Catholicism. Father St. Cyr also was a frequent visitor at the home of Thomas and Sarah Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s father and step-mother; he certainly knew the future President as well. St. Cyr claimed that the President’s parents were baptized Catholics. In later years, the priest was chaplain at a convent of Carondellet, Missouri, where he died on February 21, 1883. On Thursday, pray for Chicago’s first pastor Father St. Cyr.

This Sunday Holy Name Cathedral opens our doors for two more Rites of Election, the gathering of catechumens and candidates hoping to celebrate the Easter Sacraments – Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist – at Holy Saturday’s Easter Vigil in their home parishes. Today, Bishop Francis Kane will welcome some at 2:30pm; Bishop John Manz will welcome others at 7:30pm. These are the last of five beautiful ceremonies for those joining the Catholic Church this spring in Chicago. Holy Name is proud to be the stage.

How is the date of Easter determined for Western Christians (like us)? There is some complicated history of calendars involved. The Council of Nicea (325) gets at least an assist for insisting that Easter be a Sunday and the same Sunday for everyone in our Church. One “simple” explanation of Easter’s calculation says, “The rule has since the Middle Ages been phrased as Easter is observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox. However, this does not reflect the actual ecclesiastical (Church) rules precisely. The reason for this is that the full moon involved (called the Paschal full moon) is not an astronomical full moon, but an ecclesiastical moon. The difference is that the astronomical vernal equinox is a natural astronomical phenomenon, while the ecclesiastical vernal equinox is a fixed March 21. Easter is determined from tables which determine Easter based on the ecclesiastical rules described above, which approximate the astronomical full moon.”(Wikipedia) Easter falls, therefore, between March 22 and April 25. Now, get ready for a real shocker. This year Easter is early – March 23. When was the last time Easter was this early? I will give you some hints. That year Woodrow Wilson was President of the United States; Igor Stravinsky’s ballet Rite of Spring was first performed; the 16^th Amendment creating federal income tax was passed; Jimmy Hoffa, Vince Lombardi, and Burt Lancaster were born; the Philadelphia Athletics were baseball’s champs; Ty Cobb led the majors in batting average (.390) while the immortal Gawy Cravath of the Phillies was home run champ (19). Before 2008, the last March 23 Easter was in 1913. Do we know when Easter last was celebrated on the earliest possible day, March 22? That would have been the same year Illinois became the 21^st State; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published; General Andrew Jackson invaded Florida; and Silent Night was composed – 1818! When will Easter fall on March 22 again? That would be March 22, 2285. 

Fr. Dan Mayall