You may be aware of the ongoing Renew My Church initiative that Cardinal Cupich has instituted which continues to be carried out in our Archdiocese. This important initiative is something that EVERY parish is asked to be a part of. There are two basic aspects to Renew My Church: ORGANIZATIONAL renewal and SPIRITUAL renewal. Many parishes will be asked to make significant organizational and even physical structural changes and consolidations, but we are all asked to enter into a spiritual renewal. This includes bold initiatives of creating disciples, engaging more people in active participation in our faith, increased awareness of and use of resources and more.
Every parish in the Archdiocese is a part of a grouping and we have one partner in our grouping: St. Anne in Barrington. Most groupings are composed of 3-5 parishes. We are not being asked to enter into any ORGANIZATIONAL renewal or change such as combining parishes, schools or closing any buildings or facilities. Furthermore, each grouping is asked to activate their partnerships at a certain time and we have no timeline for such activation yet. Parishes undergoing significant ORGANIZATIONAL changes are the first to be activated.
This organizational and spiritual renewal process is based on many factors such as finances, facilities and more. One of them is the number of priests who serve parishes. In our area we are fortunate to have the number of priests currently serving, but statistics and larger archdiocesan need will certainly change that in the near future. This change does not mean that we will have one pastor for both parishes but may mean sharing priests as we already do, particularly for daily morning and evening Mass and Reconciliation. This decline in the number and increase in the age of our priests does however mandate that we begin to evaluate the number of Masses, Reconciliation, devotional and other liturgical experiences that we share, not only with St. Anne but St. Theresa as well.
I believe that being good stewards invites us to look at such factors, particularly daily Mass now, and as a more progressive parish that we are ahead of the curve in anticipation of sacramental needs in the future, all with a realistic awareness of the number of priests and the overall sacramental demands. For example the number of funerals here at Holy Family has nearly tripled in my 10 years with you, as have the number of anointings and pastoral care visits. We number over 100 baptisms per year and weddings continue to increase slightly as well.
The average age of priests in the Archdiocese is 63. Retirement age is 70 and the number of priests retiring each year often triples the number being ordained. In addition, not all priests are able or willing to be pastors, which is the greatest need for local parish clergy leadership. We currently have 345 parishes in the Archdiocese and the number of Religious Order priests (such as Friar Johnpaul) is both aging and decreasing even more rapidly.
Thank you for embracing a spirit of Renewal that invites us to look forward, to share our resources and to build church and community in new more collaborative ways.
In the spirit of collaboration and looking ahead at our resources, we will discontinue the Wednesday evening Mass as of the start of Lent on March 6. As of March 11, Individual Reconciliation will be offered in our Reconciliation Room in Church each Monday from 6-6:45 pm. In addition, the final First Saturday Mass was offered in February. Please see the information posted by the Chapel for the many daily Mass and Reconciliation times offered by neighboring parishes. We are sorry if these changes affect any of your spiritual practices, but I would ask all of you to look beyond our own parish and seek the resources of neighboring parishes to supplement prayer and worship needs. Thank you.
Just a reminder that Ash Wednesday is March 6. See back cover of this bulletin for service times.
Last Saturday, February 23, almost 400 passengers departed on the S.S. Holy Family for our 17th annual Gala. As passengers boarded they were greeted by the sounds of steel drum music and a glass of champagne by the chairs of this event, Kathy Ahlgrim and Laurie Harris, who over the last several months have poured their hearts and souls into creating a spectacular cruise experience. It is through the gift of self by volunteer chairs like Kathy and Laurie that our Gala has flourished to be our largest fundraiser. As guests arrived in the main dining room for dinner, our cruise entertainment headliner Gene Garcia tickled the ivories with a set of popular music favorites. After dinner our auctioneer Keith Jones kept the action going with an energetic sale of our Live Auction items. Our paddle raise this year raised over $57,000 dollars to help fund the replacement of several key appliances in our main kitchen and expand the flexible seating environment we began rolling out this year in the Academy. The fun continued until the wee hours of the morning with DJ Speed filling the dance floor.
I’d like to again thank Kathy, Laurie and all the members of their Gala planning team; all the volunteers who helped solicit auction items, wine and gift cards and helped prepare our ship for departure; to all our sponsors for your gracious support of our mission; to the countless donors who gave from the heart; our friends at Concorde Banquets for providing an outstanding food and beverage experience; and finally to Bernie Schaeffer, Lan Danh, Julia Conaghan and Kathy Knuth from our staff for their commitment to making the Gala a success.