On March 1, 2013, Holy Rosary Church will celebrate its centennial anniversary. I recently sent a letter to Cardinal DiNardo asking him if he would preside at a Mass of Thanksgiving on Sunday, March 3, 2013, or on a Sunday near that date to celebrate our parish’s anniversary. I hope to receive a reply from him soon.

Two weeks from now on March 4, we will formally launch the Holy Rosary Centennial Campaign. For more than a year now, the Centennial Campaign Steering Committee has been meeting to consider the parish’s capital needs. We have identified three areas that need to be addressed:

As you worship at Holy Rosary today, please consider the history and the rare beauty of the church building. This structure has stood for nearly eighty years as a testament to the vision, planning, and sacrifices of those who worshipped here generations ago.  Let give us thanks for their great efforts!

Our most important objective within the campaign will be to fund the restoration of the church to preserve its beauty and functionality. Once we have sufficient funds in hand, we will look for an appropriate time to begin work.

I hope you will be here on March 3 or 4 when we will officially launch our campaign. There will be presentations, campaign materials, and refreshments. May God bless us, and may our Lady of the Rosary pray for us!

Fr. Ian

Inserted in today’s bulletin is a letter from Cardinal DiNardo on the January 20th U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate requiring religious institutions to offer and pay for health insurance for their employees that covers contraceptives, including drugs that may cause an early abortion, and sterilization. The mandate comes with a religious exemption clause, but it is so narrowly defined that most Catholic institutions, including hospitals, colleges, and social agencies, will be ineligible for it.

The Catholic Church has consistently held that contraception,  sterilization, and abortion are contrary to the moral law. To make Catholic institutions, then, provide such services in the form of health insurance to their employees violates the First Amendment, which guarantees citizens the freedom to practice their religion.

Cardinal DiNardo asks us to pray, to fast, and to contact our governmental leaders insisting that this mandate be rescinded. On our parish’s Links page, you can find a link to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) web site. Navigating to that page, you can then send emails to our U.S. senators and to your U.S. representative asking them to pass the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. You can also find on our parish’s Links page a link to the White House’s web site, where you can sign a petition insisting that the Obama Administration rescind this mandate. If electronic means are unavailable to you,  please consider contacting these entities by phone or mail.

One should stop to think: if this mandate is allowed to stand, it will erode the notion of religious liberty in our land. The next incursion will be easier to take, and the one after that even easier until one day you wake up and find out that the country in which we are living is no longer so free.

Fr. Ian