June 29: Striving for Heaven

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This week I am taking a step back, evaluating our progress over the past few weeks, and looking towards the future. As we move into Ordinary Time in the liturgy, it is good to reflect on how we live the Gospel in our everyday lives: are we striving for the Kingdom of Heaven? Do we aim for excellence, always seeking to bring out the best in ourselves and aiming for excellence?

As part of the process of moving from parish maintenance to Gospel mission, I want to keep you updated on some changes that are occurring and will need to continue. As a reminder, part of the need for change has to do with demographics. We are facing a cliff in terms of Mass attendance, and finances. Most of the people who attend Mass at our parishes and support the church are elderly, and in a few years, if nothing changes, our pews and our bank accounts will be empty (and as a matter of fact, this is already happening to some degree). As I have written in the past, this doesn’t have to be the case. We can change our strategy and see growth. As part of the change in strategy, the staff organization will change. Rather than individual staff people wearing many hats and splitting their attention in many different ways, we are organizing the staff so that each person has a particular role and can devote their attention to their particular mission. This strategy requires increased consolidation so staff can work together, resources can be combined, and inefficient duplication can be reduced. As such, we will be moving offices together and updating the technological side of our communications with better websites, social media, phone lines, etc. For a long time, many of the communication and infrastructure systems in our parishes were not given proper attention; therefore, I am working to bring these systems into the 21st Century. The staff reorganization and office consolidation will be a huge step forward in making us more mission-oriented and missionary.

We have to remember that we are responsible for serving and evangelizing the 50,000 souls in our communities that live within our parish boundaries. This will require a shift in our focus: from being inward oriented to being outward oriented. We shouldn’t be asking what our parishes can do for us; instead, we should be seeking out what we can do for our parishes and the communities that our parishes are called to serve. Currently, only a small fraction of us who attend Mass volunteer for the parish. Over the next year, please stay tuned for the formation of committees to work together as a family to serve our communities and churches.

In the United States, overall, Mass attendance is increasing. This year about 18% of Catholics attend Mass frequently. But in other parts of the world, the numbers are higher. For instance, in Nigeria, 97% of Catholics attend Mass every week. Many of them have to travel (by foot) an entire day in order to get to Mass. Also, in Nigeria, an average of 10 Christians are killed per day.

Let us draw inspiration and strength from the example of these contemporary martyrs. We don’t have to worry about being killed for our faith; we just have to worry about our music preferences, our time convenience, and air conditioning. Let us be grateful for our safety in this country, thankful for the sacrifices of the brave men and women who have died for our freedom and prosperity, and never take it for granted. In gratitude for the good gifts God has given us, let us rededicate ourselves to the service of our community by focusing on the mission of evangelization that God has entrusted to us.

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Henry