Improving Your Faith Journey
RCIA (The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults)
After a rather warm and wet summer, I hope you’re ready for fall. This is a time when our children get serious about their education once again after a summer of fun and relaxation. This is also the time when I invite the adults of the parish to consider getting serious about their ongoing education and formation in the faith. There are three excellent programs that can help you get more serious about your faith journey. One of them is called The Rite […]
Why Remain Catholic – Video from Bishop Robert Barron
As we all continue to struggle with the clergy sex abuse scandal and all of its fallout, I encourage you to watch this video from Bishop Robert Barron. He expresses much better than I can both my anger and my conviction that we need to fight for what we believe in – the true Catholic faith. Let’s continue to pray for and – as Bishop Barron recommends – fight for the Church and all of the victims of this tragic moment in our Church’s life.
Black and Indian Mission Collection
Over the past several months, the local media has drawn a great deal of attention to the inequality in the quality of education offered in predominantly Black neighborhoods in Philadelphia. We are blessed to be involved in supporting a school in our sister parish – St. Martin de Porres – that helps over 500 children in one of the most challenging areas of the city to receive a high quality education. This inequality in educational opportunity has a long history throughout our […]
Monsignor Brouwers’ Homily – September 2, 2018
The commentator of a program I watched on television recently started with a very interesting observation. The program he was introducing recounted the 40,000 years of humanity and how religion has always provided us with a way of believing and belonging. But, he started the program by noting that some people today are trying to do something that no known society has ever successfully done. They are trying to live without religion.
Can we live without religion? “Of course, we can,” many people assert today. In fact, the fastest growing group […]
Some Reflections on the Recent Grand Jury Report
As we continue to reel from the repercussions of the Grand Jury Report on the sexual abuse by priests and the cover-up by bishops in six dioceses throughout the state of Pennsylvania, I would like to offer some heartfelt reflections. As I mentioned in my homily last Sunday, when I think of my fellow clergy who have done such terrible things, I think of what our Lord once said: “It would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the […]
Erin Lively Memorial Bench
Many of you remember Erin Lively, who passed away recently after battling cancer with exemplary grace and faith. Many of you joined in praying the rosary on her behalf on Wednesday evenings in our grotto over the past several months. And, many of you contributed to provide a memorial bench in the grotto in her honor. The bench has been placed in the grotto and, like Erin, it is very inspirational. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the contributors and […]