Newsletter of 11/13/05

Somos el Cuerpo de Cristo
Thoughts from Some Fellow Parishioners of Holy Spirit—November 13, 2005

Juxtapositions
1. There are three grades of monsignor: protonotary apostolic supernumerary, prelate of honor to his holiness, and chaplain to his holiness. Monsignors can be elevated from one rank to another.

A protonotary apostolic wears a fuchsia cape, or ferraiolo, as his insignia.

A prelate of honor, the second grade of monsignor, wears the bishop’s choir cassock—the cassock worn during liturgies. The fuchsia cassock has red buttons, red piping and red cuffs and is worn with a fuchsia sash. The prelate of honor also can wear the bishop’s black house cassock, which has red buttons and red piping, and the fuchsia sash.

Chaplain to his holiness is the third grade of monsignor. The chaplain wears a black cassock with fuchsia piping and fuchsia buttons and the fuchsia sash. From the Catholic Accent, newspaper of the Diocese of Greensburg, IN

2. “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. … All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi’.

As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called ‘Master;’ you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant.” From the Gospel reading for October 30th

3. “Numerous monsignors were recognized in this week’s honors [awarded by Pope Benedict XVI]. [Among them] … The Rev. Monsignor Louis Brum, … From the McAllen Monitor, November 1st.

4. “Fuchsia is to die for!” From the fashion commentator for the Eternally Weird Television Network (EWTN)

“Discuss among yourselves—I'm too verklempt.” Linda Richmond

$$$$$ Update
According to the Sunday Bulletins, in the past four weeks parishioners have donated $4,437.56 less than the $58,000 the parish budget called for during that period. If the spending patterns of the last fiscal year have continued (13.4% over budget), then during this four week period an additional shortfall of $7,769.04 was created.

This gives a total of $12,206.60 of red ink (versus budget) for the four week period ending November 6th. Stretching that pattern for an entire year, the Parish would fall short by $158,685.80.

All Saints and All Souls
In this November, the month of all the saints and all the faithful departed, consider the following:

Raped and murdered by Salvadoran government death squads on December 2, 1980: Sisters Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, and lay church worker Jean Donovan.

Murdered by the Salvadoran army on November 16, 1989: Jesuit priests Segundo Montes, Arnando Lopez, Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, Juan Ramon Moreno, Ignacio Ellacuria, Ignacio Martin-Baro, and Julia Elba Ramos, a cook, and Cecilia Ramos, her 15 year old daughter.

The Salvadoran army and its death squads were under the command of officers trained by the United States at its notorious School of the Americas (SOA). In the long, bitter civil war in El Salvador, agents of the United States government, along with their SOA trained partners, led operations of terror and torture in the country.

The interrogation tactics used at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib within the last five years are referred to in official United States documents as the “Salvadoran Option.”

Is it any wonder that over ten thousand people gather each November outside the gates of Fort Benning, GA (site of the SOA) to protest the United States’ role in Central America and call for the closing of the SOA?

As in the past, several parishioners will be participating in the gathering at Fort Benning (November 19th)—pray for them and bless them and pray that our government will eventually see that the closing of the SOA is not only the moral thing to do, but is in the best interests of the nation.

Saints are our heroes and heroines—not because they intercede for us, but because their powerful witness to the Gospel inspires us as we face our own difficult set of choices in our following of Christ. These ten people (along with countless others) murdered in El Salvador are, in that sense, saints.

Time, Children, and Things Lectoral
Does anybody really know what time it is? Chicago

The parish’s employee time clock has been inoperative for over a month. The Reverend Monsignor has long been aware of this problem and has refused to approve getting the clock fixed or getting a new one. A small thing, of course, but part of a pattern of disrespect for the seriousness of the work that parish employees do—little scraps of paper tossed on a desk are a good enough record of their work—it’s all so trivial, really, why bother with professionalism?

Let the children come to me; do not try to stop them. Mark 10:14
The Reverend Monsignor has discontinued the Children’s Liturgy of the Word. This ministry, in which young children gather during Mass to hear a version of the Sunday’s scripture appropriate to their age, has been appreciated by many parents over a long period of time.

The Reverend Monsignor claims that he has a “better program” which he will initiate at some undisclosed time in the future. If such a program really exists, let’s see it. But why, in the meantime, discontinue a popular and successful ministry?

The Reverend Monsignor has been hostile to this ministry since his first days in the parish, and it seems as if yet another program of the formally vibrant parish has been cast aside, simply for the reason that it was a program of the formally vibrant parish.

Living in a state of constant vigilance is exhausting. Anonymous
“We would like to extend this invitation to participate in this ministry [lector] to anyone in good standing with the Catholic Faith.” From the Sunday Bulletin, November 13th.

No wonder the Reverend Monsignor is so exhausted that he can’t celebrate all the Sunday Masses each week—he spends his energy screening participation in Parish ministries, seeking out those “not in good standing.”

Applying such a designation to parishioners is not within the Reverend Monsignor’s job description and borders on the slanderous. The Eucharistic celebration is the ultimate sign of the Body of Christ, the Church, Us—it should not be used to divide Us.

News Commentary
The Reverend Monsignor will be deposed this Wednesday (11/16). I say it’s about time, maybe Holy Spirit can start to function as a Vatican II parish again, once he’s gone.
[Psst! It’s a deposition—testimony in a lawsuit—not a removal.]
Oh, that's very different..., never mind! Emily Litella

Prepared by RGV Parishioners for Progress and edited by Jerry Brazier. Copy this, and pass it on to fellow parishioners, either by e-mail or paper. If you want an opportunity for prayerful discussion of these and other issues about the parish or have any other comments, please contact us at gbrazier@rgv.rr.com.

Note: If you would like to contribute a posting or a comment to this site, please send it to: kanickers@aol.com, with "Holy Spirit" in your title line. You may also e-mail this article to a friend simply by clicking on the little envelope below.

Recent Letters To The Editor

Just In Case You Missed 'em!

Billboards First Step to Doing the Right Thing.

To the editor:
I am so pleased to see the billboards stating, "Protect God’s Children, Report Sexual Abuse by Clergy." It is about time someone has the courage to raise this issue in our area. I hope those who have been abused by priests in this area will report that abuse to the police — not to Bishop Peña. Reporting it to a bishop only seems to allow for a cover-up.

If a teacher, maintenance person, minister, or counselor is accused of abusing a child, the police are involved and we read about it in the paper and see it on the news. But priests seem to escape the police, the publicity and the punishment, even though child abuse is a crime.

According to news reports, pedophile priests are just moved to a different parish or diocese, where they continue their practice of abuse. Pedophilia is seldom cured.

It seems that particularly in this culture there is a strong reticence to believe anything negative about a priest, let alone report one to the police. We tend to think, "Father is always right and would never hurt my child." So many children are doubly hurt because they are not believed by their parents when they tell of their abuse. Certainly, we have come to trust these men, but when that trust is betrayed, we must take action. We must, as the signs say, protect our children. To let these incidents go unreported puts other children in jeopardy.

I hope Bishop Peña will do the right thing and make public the names of any priest pedophiles here, so as to validate the experience of all victims and to allow us to continue to protect our children. Those priests have been allowed to continue living among us without a police record, and thus, without us knowing who or where they are.
Noemi Martinez, Edinburg


Bishop at the Center of Church’s Problems.

To the editor:
Sadly, Veronica Ramos (Nov. 2) is correct about the Catholic Church today. Worse, it doesn’t seem to bother the bishop, who busies himself petitioning Rome for "monsignori," an honorary title (literally, "my lord").

The priest destroying my parish (Holy Spirit in McAllen) is one. Of course, not all monsignors are bad or appointed for unquestioned loyalty. One of the new ones is very good. But ironically, he refused this honorary title.

When not appointing vanity titles, what is the church doing for the people? It used to stand shoulder to shoulder with Cesar Chavez and his United Farm Workers (UFW), but now persecutes UFW members who are church employees. Where was the church when La Union del Pueblo Entero, another Chavez group, initiated its fast Friday in opposition to the Minutemen?

You may believe the Minutemen to be patriots, but the only Minuteman I know is a violent racist. I hate to judge the whole movement by this one individual, but until other volunteers emerge from the shadows, I’ll have to go with my gut feeling that it is a racist group. Besides, it is as ineffective to stop illegal immigration by sealing the border as it is fighting drugs by attacking only the supply side. As long as the demand for below market-value labor exists, there is no stopping it. This is yet another issue that could use some moral guidance from the Church, except that it is too busy handing out vanity titles.

Furthermore, when will this diocese come clean on sexual abuse? Have you seen the billboards around the Valley lately?
Guy Hallman, McAllen



Baptism Should Not be Denied for Anyone

To the editor:
In response to the letter from Ana L. Hallman from McAllen, I agree that the Catholic Church has changed so much, and unfortunately, it has not been for the better. I am a Catholic, believe and love the Lord with all my being, but I am upset at all the rules and regulations the Church has started imposing.

My grandson is still not baptized because you have to go to meetings, the godparents have to be married by the Church, you have to be married by the Church, and so on and so on.

How many meetings did John the Baptist have to go to? Besides it being Jesus who baptized him, when did Jesus request that his parents or any one else be married by the Church to get baptized? He baptized many people and never questioned their social status or their standing in any religion, he just baptized them. While I agree that being married in the eyes of the Lord is a good thing, I disagree that a child has to be sacrificed from being baptized because someone else is not married by the Church.

It’s not just that, it’s too many things that have just turned me off. I still consider myself a Christian and God will always be in my heart. I just wish it would be easier to believe in a religion that will do for you as an individual, as opposed to preventing the first sacrament because some one else is married by law only.

I think baptism is very important and should not be denied to anyone.
Maria Martinez, Mercedes



Priest Not Performing Duties at Holy Spirit.

To the editor:
Regarding the letters from Jerry Tennyson and Norma Morales in The Monitor on 10-16:

You both are right in heaping praise on a good and caring priest who leads his parish on a spiritual journey in which everyone is welcome.

Such is not the case at Holy Spirit. I do not believe our priest is "performing his pastoral duties." He is not a "dedicated priest." These are not mere statements, they are based on facts and can be verified by countless parishioners who can never reach him by phone (he hardly ever answers or returns calls), much less meet with him in person. He seldom is at church, he is hard to reach, and that is a fact.

He even delegates his pastoral duty of officiating Mass, as the Church has had to pay countless priests to say Mass because he is never around. There is documentation corroborating this, plus the Holy Spirit community attending Mass is also witness to this.

Ask around, open your eyes and see the truth. Because we are good Catholics, we seek the light of truth and we are tired of the hide-and-seek games. We should not have to chase him down to talk to him. It is obvious something is taking him away from his duties. If he is busy, what is he doing? Where is the accountability? Where is "our shepherd" when we need him?

Let’s wipe the glassy look of "Catholic euphoria and fanaticism" from our eyes and break the chains of "earthly indoctrination," because a "good Catholic" has faith and is mandated to seek the real truth of God.
Leticia Borders, McAllen


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An Evening about El Salvador

Archbishop Oscar Romero

PRESS RELEASE

"An Evening about El Salvador" will be held on November 11, 2005, at St. John the Baptist Parish Hall, 216 W. First St. in San Juan.

Several occurrences in El Salvador in 1980 will be remembered in a 'mini-movie’ festival. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the deaths of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero and the four American church women, Sisters Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clark, and lay missionary, Jean Donovan. The movie "Romero" will be shown and films about the Churchwomen, and the six Jesuits who were assassinated in 1989.

While the political situation has improved, El Salvador, which is just slightly larger than the Rio Grande Valley, has a population of more than 6 million people. Like many of the countries in Central America, El Salvador has experienced earthquakes, hurricanes, and torrential rains which produce mudslides which are capable of destroying whole villages.

The event is sponsored by the Council of United Neighbors (CUNI) a non-profit organization based in McAllen. CUNI has a project in San Salvador which assists Hospital Divina Providencia to provide palliative care for its cancer patients. If you would like to learn more about this small country and its struggle for peace, we invite you to this film event. CUNI accepts donations to assist in its projects. For more information, call Sister Marian Strohmeyer at 686-6047 or Leona Diener at 664-0112.



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Congratulations Mr. Rodriguez

Congratulations to

Mr. Armando Rodriguez

PRESS RELEASE

Members of the United Farm Workers, AFL CIO, announced the distribution of the first pension check to an employee of the McAllen, Texas, Holy Spirit Parish under union contract since July 2002.

Armando Rodriguez, employed at Holy Spirit parish since 1987, joined the union in July 1, 2002. He will receive a Juan de la Cruz pension check for the rest of his life, and further if his wife survives him, she will receive a portion of his pension until the end of her life.

Fr. Jerry Frank, pastor in 2002 at Holy Spirit, signed a union contract that contributed an amount for each full time employee based on seniority. Union contracts with this provision also exist at San Felipe in Brownsville, St. Joseph the Worker in San Carlos. Two churches (St Joseph the Worker in McAllen and Sacred Heart in Hidalgo) which had also signed contracts with the UFW in 2002, have sued the Juan de la Cruz Pension Plan in an attempt to remove their employees from this benefit. The lawsuit is presently before Federal Judge Randy Crane.

The Juan de la Cruz pension plan is the first pension plan for farm workers in the history of the United States. It was established in the early 1970’s by Cesar Chavez. At present there are more than 10,000 participants and is worth more than $90 million.

A worker qualifies for the pension plan after working under a UFW contract 500 hours in a calendar year for at least five years. The average retirement age a participant can retire is 55. Surviving spouses’ benefits are provided.

The amount of monthly pension benefits is determined primarily by the number of years of vesting credits, the number of hours worked in each year and the amount contributed per hour by the employer. The amount of employer contribution is negotiated as part of the contract with the UFW.

Since 1989, the pension plan has provided cost of living increases and other bonuses.

The pension plan was named for Juan de la Cruz, a 60 year old farm worker striker shot to death on a Kern County, California vineyard picketline in 1973.

Also there are times when farm workers do not realize they have qualified for pension plan benefits. Recently, a retired 87 year old Filipino-American farm worker received a $73,357 back pay pension check.

For more information contact: Rebecca Flores, cell 210 842 9502, e mail: rebeccaoflores@gmail.com Or, the Juan de la Cruz Pension Plan, PO Box 36, Keene, CA 93531. Phone: 1 800 321 6607.



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Newsletter of 10/30/05

Somos el Cuerpo de Cristo
Thoughts from Some Fellow Parishioners of Holy Spirit.
October 30, 2005

Center of Our Lives, Part One
Sister Rita Burley, superior general of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a former president of the International Union of Superiors General, the main umbrella group for women religious, was an official “Synod Auditor” at the recently concluded Bishop’s Synod on the Eucharist held at the Vatican.

Here are a few of the comments she made to the assembled bishops: Eucharist and work for justice are inseparable and Communion with Christ in the Eucharist implies accepting the moral responsibility to work with him, in collaboration with others, to transform unjust structures and mentalities into strategies and plans which further the true nature of God’s love for our human family.

These ideas are part of the heart of a theology of the Eucharist that makes the oft-heard phrase (at Holy Spirit, anyway) that “the Eucharist is the center of our lives” a statement with some real meaning, rather than a platitude.

It is clear that the Pastor rejects such a theology of the Eucharist, since he stands so strongly against any efforts to “work with [Christ], in collaboration with others, to transform unjust structures.” What does the Pastor mean when he says “the Eucharist is the center of our lives"?

We know what Sister Rita Burley thinks, we know what the sacramental theologians who guided the Vatican Council thought, we know what Archbishop Romero thought when he said that our lives are our Eucharist, but what does our Pastor think?

Life
The week of October 17th saw two different events at two different Catholic parishes in the area, both related to Church’s teachings on the sanctity of life, but as different from each other as night is from day.

At one of the events (held at Holy Spirit), the Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D., of The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, spoke to a large crowd of medical professionals and others about end-of-life issues. It was a big deal: the Bishop concelebrated a Mass, there was a dinner, and Father Pacholczyk gave his view of the Church’s teaching in an hour-long presentation. His views are actually at odds, on some points, with the directives of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to medical professionals, by the way.

At the other event (held at St. John the Baptist in San Juan), a handful of people heard the personal stories of some families whose relatives had been victims of capital crimes. The speakers are part of The Journey of Hope, an effort to bring reconciliation and forgiveness into the lives of those shattered by violent crime—not by retaliation, but by reaching out to those who killed their loved ones and by working for an end to the death penalty.

This presentation was a direct manifestation of the Church’s teaching on the death penalty, particularly as articulated by Pope John Paul II: “I renew the appeal … to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.” (January 27, 1999).

Under our current Bishop there has never been, in our Diocese, the kind of affirmation of the Church’s teaching on the death penalty that we saw put forth for the presentation on end-of-life issues, a presentation that did not accurately represent current Church teaching.

It is not surprising that our Pastor didn’t attend the Journey of Hope presentation, given that he had the monthly Prayer of the Faithful about the death penalty struck from the 12:30 Mass last week (that’s the one that prays for those executed, prays for those whom they killed and their families, and prays for the end of the death penalty). Too controversial, and divisive—oh, that awkward teaching of the Church, let’s just be quiet about it!

Center of Our Lives, Part Two
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

The recently concluded Bishop’s Synod on the Eucharist was much anticipated by many groups within the Church—some were looking for a crackdown on supposed “liturgical abuses” while others were looking for some change on priestly celibacy. From all reports, the synod eventually focused its discussion on the lack of access to the Eucharist, which has been created by the shortage of priests. At the end of the day, no changes of any substance were recommended—the Church will continue to restrict the priesthood to men who profess to be celibate, for example.

On the liturgical side, one of the few recommendations was a desire to move the Kiss of Peace away from the Communion Rite to some point prior to the Eucharistic Prayer—a bold move bound to effect profound change in the life of the Church. We can’t do anything about the priest shortage, but let’s get all this “expression of community” away from Communion time!

By the way, there was no change in the current ban on having flowers on the altar table.

Money, Honey Update
According to the Sunday Bulletin, in the past two weeks parishioners have donated $5,814.96 less than the $29,000 the parish budget called for during that period. If the spending patterns of the last fiscal year have continued (13.4% over budget—St. Vincent DePaul income and expenses excepted), then during this two-week period an additional shortfall of $3,884.52 was created.

This gives a total of $9,699.48 of red ink (versus budget) for the two-week period ending October 23rd. Stretching that pattern for an entire year, the Parish would fall short by $252,186.38.

Center of Our Lives, Part Three (Revised)
The original version of this part of the newsletter was based on inaccurate information—apologies all around. Here is a revision.

It seems the Pastor was not in the parish for Saturday’s 5:30 Eucharistic Celebration this weekend—a substitute priest was arranged for, but he didn’t show up. A communion service was held instead. Even though the Pastor cannot be blamed for someone else’s mistakes, as Harry Truman used to say, “the buck stops here.”

A priest’s fundamental responsibility and, indeed, the very purpose for which he has been ordained, is to celebrate the Eucharist with his parish community. Is there no one to hold this person accountable for these kinds of failures? The efforts that parishioners have made to meet with the Bishop to address issues within the parish have been rebuffed, so it appears that the Bishop himself believes that this is how a parish should be run. Again, who is accountable to whom?

Pope John Paul II spoke of the priesthood and the episcopacy as “servant-leadership.” In this concept it is the Church who is to be served, and as the Vatican Council has taught us, we are the Church. Who is being served at Holy Spirit right now by the administrative incompetence, the fiscal mismanagement, and the sloppy, vacuous, and now missing Eucharistic Celebrations?

Something is off-center.


Prepared by RGV Parishioners for Progress and edited by Jerry Brazier. Copy this, and pass it on to fellow parishioners, either by e-mail or paper. If you want an opportunity for prayerful discussion of these and other issues about the parish or have any other comments, please contact us at gbrazier@rgv.rr.com.


Note: If you would like to contribute a posting or a comment to this site, please send it to: kanickers@aol.com, with "Holy Spirit" in your title line. You may also e-mail this article to a friend simply by clicking on the little envelope below.