Posted on February 7, 2021 View all news
As you may remember, we were planning a pilgrimage to the Holy Land this past January. Covid, unfortunately, had other plans for us. As of the moment, the pilgrimage has been rescheduled for November 3 through November 12, 2021. I am not going to accept any reservations or deposits until we are clear on what the situation will be this Fall. If you are interested, please drop me a note to add you to my list to keep updated. We will need to have everything finalized in the late summer. Please save up your money in the meantime. If there are still excessive restrictions, the trip will either be delayed again or canceled. If you would like a brochure, please also send me an email.
I visited the Holy Land in 2010 with my seminary class. Seeing the Holy Land in person, and reading the various parts of Sacred Scripture in the places where they occurred, was spiritually uplifting and insightful. If you are even just thinking about going to the Holy Land someday, I would encourage it. I have found the Holy Land to be better than trips I have taken in Europe.
It was also recently brought to my attention that hospitals are refusing to allow priests in for Last Rites, even if the patient is actively dying. Even hospitals with their own priest chaplains won’t allow the priest into rooms of Covid patients. This is not the case at all area hospitals. I mention this so that you can be judicious as to which hospital you choose to ensure that the Sacraments remain available to you. I won’t speak for all, but I know that Christ Hospital does not prevent the priest from having access to any patient who requests Last Rites. The nurses and doctors at Christ have all been very helpful when I have gone to ensure the patient has what they requested and that I am following the hospital’s safety protocols. Please note that even if the priest is not given access to the room, it is still possible to offer absolution and the Apostolic Pardon from outside of the room. There must still be proximity between the priest and the patient. However, you can not anoint from a distance. This is just something to be aware of in these strange times.
Please hold on your calendar from March 7 until March 9 for a parish mission. Fr. Joseph Tuscan will be visiting with us from March 1 until March 5 to preach a retreat to Bro. Brent and Bro. Henry for their ordination. He offered to stay on a few extra days to preach a mission to us during Lent. More details will be forthcoming soon but hold those dates.
Lastly, after consulting with the Italian Dinner chairman and several volunteers, we decided to hold off again this spring. We are actively planning and hoping to resume the dinner this Fall. Please keep that in your prayers! Have a blessed week ahead!
