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Friday, December 4
We were able to support over 100 families, with this program, last year! You can be involved in one of three ways: -Volunteering on December 16th, 17th, 18th, or 19th, 2020 -Sponsor a local family and purchase gifts for them for Christmas -Purchase food items for our Christmas food boxes To get involved or for more information contact our Christian Service Ministry at 248 349-8553 or email Roxanne@hfnovi.comRead More -
Saturday, December 12, 6:30 PM
Celebrate with us, online, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12. Bishop Arturo Cedepa will be our celebrant. Click on the title above for the online MassRead More -
Thursday, December 24
To see our parish calendar that includes our Advent Events click on the Advent at Holy Family title aboveRead More -
Thursday, January 7, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
ALPHA IS A SERIES OF SESSIONS EXPLORING THE BASICS OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. Typically run over eleven weeks, each session looks at a different question that people can have about faith and is designed to create conversation. It’s just an open, informal and honest space to explore and discuss life’s big questions together. For more information click the Winter Alpha title aboveRead More
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Keeping Safe
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Click On For Holy Family Covid 19 Safety Guidelines
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Fr. Bob's Most Recent Pastoral Letter
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The Pastor's Heart October 18, 2020Dear brothers and sisters in ChristIt has been over four months since I last sent an edition of The Pastor's Heart to all of the parishioners for whom we have an email address (about 1700). Last Sunday I spoke at all of the English speaking masses on the November 3 presidential election. This is an important moment in American history and an important moment for Catholics to be heard voting for the things that we believe are the most important. The following is a transcription of my homily this weekend.October 18, 2020 – The Election“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”What belongs to Caesar? It is more than the taxes the gospel refers to. One of the important things that belongs to Caesar is immediately relevant to us all. Most of us have the privilege of being American citizens. That gives us certain rights, but it also gives us responsibilities to be faithful, responsible citizens. It gives us specifically the duty to form our conscience according to the teachings of God and God’s church and to vote for those men and women who can best protect, defend and advance the common good and allow the Kingdom of God to flourish.
It is never easy to bring the pure light of the gospel to the messiness of political realities. I do not remember a more burdening homily to prepare in my life. I have mentioned the last two weekends feeling drawn and quartered by many competing tensions and powers and finding refuge in Jesus as the calm eye in the middle of the hurricane winds swirling around us.
I quote. “Our nation is severely divided. The House and the Senate cannot agree on which way is up. News has become personality driven entertainment with divisive agendas. I hate the messiness and the rhetoric and the spin and the sound bites and the negatively – I am reminded of Abraham Lincoln quoting Jesus, "a nation divided against itself cannot stand.”
That is a direct quote from my homily at Holy Family on the election four years ago. Which itself was a quote from an election homily I gave four years before that. 2012. 2016. 2020! It is not new. But I think it is worse. Perhaps much worse.
Of course I am not going to tell you how to vote. I am prevented by the law and the teachings of the church from doing that. I don’t want to do that. I want to help. I am trying very hard to speak to you as your pastor, not giving you my personal opinions on things. I want to bring some of the transcendent light of the gospel to the shadowlands of current political reality.
Many people send me things. I hear confessions. I have had countless conversations. The stress and the disquiet that people experience is something I have never seen before.
And it is not just the election. It is the pandemic. The isolation. The economic hardship. Racial injustice. Immigration abuse. Division in the Church. Brother is divided against brother and sister against sister.
These are not just natural forces. I believe, and I know many people believe, that we are facing an unprecedented time of spiritual battle. Kingdoms are clashing. The armies of heaven are pressing in on the dominions of darkness, and the battle rages. And for us, there is no ‘opt out’ option. The battle is in our families and our neighborhoods. When it comes to the spiritual battle engulfing us, there is no neutral Switzerland; we are either in the resistance or we are among the collaborators. We experience a fierce battle, and I think the battle is actually more fierce than we presently think.
We need to learn how to think with a Christian mind. I can imagine Peter’s reaction when Jesus said to him: ‘Peter you are thinking like a human being.’ Jesus expected Peter, and expects those he has redeemed, to think in terms of eternal truths, good and evil, heaven and hell, God’s revealed plan for the human family, the lies and snares of the devil, and the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. This is a long term goal, but even now it is a source of hope and a way forward.
Michigan Catholic Conference “The Issues, the Candidates, and Your Vote 2020 - This is a newsletter that outlines what the MCC thinks are the main issues of this election. This publication is available on our website.
These issues and other important issues do not all bear equal weight. One issue is more significant than all the rest. That is the right to life. The Catholic Church authoritatively teaches that life begins at conception. The Catholic Church teaches that participating in, or contributing to, an abortion is a seriously disordered act. Voting for a candidate because of their support for abortion would be a seriously disordered act. At the same time the Catholic Church also teaches that voting for a candidate who supports abortion is not intrinsically evil if you vote for that candidate because they support what you believe to be even more significant issues than the sanctity of life. That is a high standard. There is no Catholic leader I know of who disagrees that continuing to add to the already 63 million abortion deaths, and continuing to extend the legal protection of abortion even up to the moment of birth, and sometimes after birth, is not the preeminent issue of this election. I applaud and defend a woman’s right to control her own body, but that right does not extend to taking the life of another.
Another very serious issue is religious freedom. What Catholics believe about marriage, gender, and sexual behavior is under siege. Thousands of years of clear and consistent Judeo-Christian moral teaching is increasingly threatened to become hate speech. These are issues concerning the most basic elements of understanding the human family. The love of a husband and wife is a reflection of the very life of God. And God made them male and female. Sexuality is a gift for which God has a clear purpose to support, prosper, and bless the human family, infinitely more than casual recreation and pleasure. I am not talking about being intolerant of those who disagree with us. We should treat every human person with dignity and respect. I want Holy Family to be welcoming to every person who is searching for God and desires to live a life of integrity. I am talking about the very real threat of it becoming unacceptable to teach what we believe, even if done with sensitivity and compassion.
Voting your conscience on matters of public policy is not imposing your faith on someone else. Many people who are opposed to Christian teaching are determined to shame us, to cower us, to mock us into believing that the only place for our beliefs are in our own churches and inside our own homes. They say that we can believe what we want but we have no right to force them to believe it too. Agreed. But that is certainly not the point. We are not saying they have to become Catholic. We are talking about the nature of civil society and the common good of all people of good will. We are citizens with just as much right to speak as anyone else. They tell us not to impose our morality, but they impose theirs. It is not a question of no morality but a question of whose morality. Abortion and marriage are not simply private matters. These things powerfully affect the common good. Abortion, for instance, directly concerns the baby. It concerns the mother, the father, and society as a whole by creating a culture that reverences or cheapens life.
There are, of course, other significant issues. The Pandemic. Immigration. The Environment. Health Care. The Poor.
We have to choose the party and the candidate that best supports what we believe is most important.
One last point on the issues. Respecting life is an intrinsic good and taking life is an intrinsic evil. Protecting God’s plan for marriage, the family, and for sexuality is intrinsically good and destroying them is intrinsically evil. Most of the other issues involve prudential judgments about which good people can disagree.
The candidates are represented by very different platforms but their personal character is also not immaterial. I struggle with the character of the current president. He is very divisive. He has done many good things: his support for the sanctity of life and his support for religious freedom is laudable. He often does not get balanced press coverage. Because of these good things I know that many people can be extraordinarily defensive and sensitive when he is criticized. But to say nothing would appear to me to ignore the elephant in the room. Character matters. Integrity matters. Truthfulness matters. Compassion matters. This wild card deeply troubles me. I pray for him, and our country, every day.
All of the articles, newsletters, pastoral letters, and videos on this election that I find most compelling do not consider the pros and the cons of both parties and candidates to be of equal weight. It is a prudential decision. We are not single issue voters. But the most compelling arguments consistently find the weight of life and intrinsic goods to tip the balance.
This election will not save us. The Republican Party will not save us. The Democratic Party will not save us. Only God can save us. We have to remember that.
I charge you as your pastor and as your fellow citizen that you have a serious responsibility to vote, and to vote with a properly formed Christian conscience. Let us be examples of those who speak humbly and charitably, respecting one another, finding common ground, and seeking peace.
Election Resources on our webpage. Go to the Holy Family Parish Life page (https://holyfamilynovi.org/home-1) and scroll down
· Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship - U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
· Michigan Catholic Conference Resources
· Dr. Ralph Martin and Dr. Mary Healy
· Homily Series from St. Patrick Church in Brighton MI : outlines the most serious issues
This is what I do when I have a very hard decision to make, when the stakes are high and the right thing is not self-evident. I imagine myself looking God in the face, and I say, I have done my best, I have searched for your wisdom, you may tell me that I am wrong, but I have done my best to do the right thing – if I can look God in the face and say that, then I can be at peace. And confident of his mercy.
Ephesians 6:12-13 - For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this present darkness and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God … that you may be able to stand your ground.”Prayer for AmericaHeavenly Father, we humbly pray for your guidance in this most critical time of our country’s need. We cry out for your Divine Mercy and implore your Kingdom to come among us.
Help us to become better stewards of your abundant blessings.
We ask that your Holy Spirit inspire us to vote wisely in the upcoming election.
Help your Church to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Change our hearts one by one. Unite us as one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(If you did not see my homily, or would like to share it with someone else, you can go to the Election Resources section on the Parish Life page of our website https://holyfamilynovi.org/home-1)
Come Holy Spirit
Fr. Bob -
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