Pastor’s Corner — August 4th, 2024

Jul 31

Two St. Pat’s Church League Softball Championships!

Most of you probably know that there is a Livingston County Church Men’s Softball League. At St. Pat’s, we have two teams that play in two different divisions, St. Pat’s Green (bronze division) and St. Pat’s White (silver division). On Tuesday night, both of our Church teams won our respective championship games! St. Pat’s Green defeated Fowlerville First Presbyterian and St. Pat’s White defeated Cornerstone Presbyterian in Brighton. White won the Silver Division for the 4th time in 8 years, and this is Green’s first Championship since at least 2017.

I’ve been playing on the St. Pat’s White team since I’ve come to the parish, only playing a game or two per season. Last night I played in the big game and we won in the bottom of the tenth inning with a walk-off homerun! It was truly an amazing finish and something I’ll never forget…because someone you know hit it!

Special thanks to Coach Louis McKaig of St. Pat’s White and Coach Chris Sucher of St. Pat’s Green and for all of the players who played hard all season to win these two championships.

Five-Week Preaching Series on the Eucharist

The Bishops of the United States have asked all priests to preach a five-part series on the Eucharist following the National Eucharistic Congress. The readings really are appropriate for such a series. Last week we began this series with my homily on the National Eucharistic Congress. This weekend Fr. Joshua continues our series.

Away on Vacation Next Week

I’ll be away on vacation Monday August 5-9th with most of my priest fraternity. We will be up north at a parishioner’s lake house of one of the priests. Like last year, Fr. Joe Campbell will probably take us sailing again on his boat. Maybe I’ll share pictures, if we don’t end up sinking! :)

The Rectory Ramble is back….

For those who remember these, they are back…well at least we recorded another one last Sunday. We’ll announce it when it’s released on our YouTube page.

EWTN Link of my Eucharistic Congress Session

Some people have asked for a video link to my session at the National Eucharistic Congress. Originally, EWTN broadcasted my session live on Friday July 19th, but shortly after it was posted on YouTube there was a copyright claim against some material of the morning session (possibly a video that was shown?) and it was automatically taken down and will remain down until the claim is resolved. So if someone wants to watch Dr. Healy’s talk and my prayer session, it’s still available on the EWTN website here. This is only a link to the main stage talk at Lucas Oil Stadium as I don’t have a link for the breakout talk.

New Study: Americans Don’t Want Children

This is directly from Catholic World News on July 26:

Editor’s Note: With the US fertility rate at an all-time low, a new Pew Research study finds that nearly half of adult Americans do not expect to have children—in most cases because they don’t want children.

In the Pew survey, 47% of the respondents aged 18-49 said that they did not anticipate having children. Among them, 57% said they did not want children. Among respondents over the age of 50, 31% of those who did not have children said the main reason was that they did not want children.

Those who did not want children explained that they thought a childless life would make it simpler to acquire the possessions they wanted, enjoy free time and outside interests, and be successful in their careers. These responses were more common among respondents with college degrees and/or postgraduate education.

Among the older (50+) adults who did not have children, two-thirds said that having children was not important in having a fulfilling life.

These stats are shocking, but honestly not at all surprising given prevailing cultural attitudes. Of the 57% (of the 47% of 18-49 year olds who do not want children) I think it’s important to ponder some provocative questions:

1. What is the statistical relationship between those who don’t want children and those who don’t want to get married or don’t believe they can even have a stable relationship (marriage) in which children can be raised and loved?

2. If having children is one of the most natural drives of human nature, what might have happened in people’s lives that would cause them to deny their fundamental human nature so gravely here? What was invented in 1960 that enables people to not have kids but still have sex?

3. What might people who never want children be tempted to do if a child is conceived? Is it more probable that the child would be aborted in such circumstances?

4. What’s the statistical relationship of the happiness of those who don’t want children and the happiness of those who want children?

5. Does anyone actually know someone who never wanted children but who has all the stuff in the world and is actually deeply satisfied?

6. How do we reach people about the joys of married life and children, if their focus is primarily worldly success in terms of possessions, free time, outside interests, and careers?

The point of these questions is not to judge categories of people or any individual person we might know who never wants children. After all, we don’t know what’s going on in people’s hearts. Some of them, in fact, may have been traumatized as children in one way or another. But I ask these questions so we can recognize once more that the renewal of marriage and family life starts with us in the Church who understand and accept the call to total, faithful, free and fruitful married love.

Parish Council Nomination Form

I gave some additional information about the role of Parish Council and our need for 3 new nominations in a previous bulletin article. If you’re personally interested in serving on parish council, please fill out and submit the Parish Council Nomination Form found here. These nomination forms, which will also be available in the front office, need to be submitted to me by email or dropped off at office by August 9, 2024. After this deadline, I will, with the help of my leadership team, prayerfully select from the nominations those to serve these terms.

Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias

Annie O’Neill