Pastor’s Corner — March 23rd, 2025
7 Reasons IVF is a Bad Idea, USCCB Explainer and Open Letter to JD Vance
Of course, couples who go to IVF (in-vitro fertilization) clinics are in a lot of pain and they want children. The pain of infertility can be unbearable to a couple. However, when I was talking with someone recently about IVF, I was very surprised that this person didn’t know why the Church rightly judges IVF to be gravely wrong.
I’ve published articles about this before, but I believe it’s important to understand how bad it really is. Here are three recent resources I’ve come across that I find helpful:
• An Ob/Gyn Gives 7 Reasons IVF is a Bad Idea by Dr Damon Cudihy, MD
Here are the reasons he lists:
1) Killing to create
2) Treating an entire class of humans as property ...
3) ... or as guinea pigs
4) Failing to find the real reasons for infertility
5) Dads demeaned too
6) Continuing a destructive trend
7) Playing God
• The US Bishops also put together an excellent resource you can give to people: Life Matters: Reproductive Technologies
• An Open Letter to JD Vance About IVF by Sister Rene Mirkes. This article is primarily about the powerful NaPro technology that actually treats the causes of infertility.
I hope you find these helpful.
St Patrick’s Has a Formed.org Subscription
It seems that some parishioners are not aware that we pay for a parish subscription to Formed.org. This means it’s free to all of you. Formed is subscription-based online platform offering a wide array of solid Catholic content, including videos, audio talks, eBooks, and movies, designed to support faith formation and personal growth for Catholics. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to check it out. Go to formed.org/signup and enter in our zip code “48116” to find our parish subscription. From there you can sign up with an email address to create your account.
Lenten Mission with Pete Burak (April 1, 2, 3)
As we’ve announced, we are hosting a special Parish Grouping Lenten Mission for April 1, 2, 3 in the Church at 7pm. All of the parishes in our grouping (Old St Pat’s, Holy Spirit, and St Mary Pinckney and our parish) are sponsoring and promoting this event. This will be recorded, but we strongly encourage in-person attendance.
This Lenten Mission is a “Rest Stop” on our Discipleship Pathway. Remember, along the path of discipleship, parishioners need to rest and refuel. “Rest stops” offer key formation opportunities that foster spiritual and intellectual maturity in the Christian life.
Think of this mission as a training in how to think about the salvation of those who no longer practice the faith and how to live more fully in what Jesus won for us, to attract them to come to Jesus. The mission will cover these questions:
• What does Jesus actually teach about the conditions of salvation?
• In a world full of confusion, how do disciples hear the still small voice of the Spirit and respond with courage and hope?
• What practical things can we do to draw closer to God, live more in the power of the Holy Spirit, and both embody and proclaim the good news of the Gospel?
• What does it look like to live as an intentional disciple in and through the Church?
I hope to see you there!
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias