November is traditionally the month of the year where we pray for the dead. Why would we do that? Aren’t all the dead in either heaven or hell? The souls in heaven and hell don’t need our prayers, so why are we praying for the dead? Answer: because a huge number of the deceased are in purgatory, heaven’s washroom. Consider the following account of such an incident.

A big thank you to those of you who answered the Measures of Engagement survey’s 25 questions.  Both Holy Redeemer and St. Thomas parishes did this the same weekend of September 17.  The survey was administered by the Gallup Corporation which has been studying successful organizations for several decades.

The intention of the survey, as the names implies, was to measure your engagement with the parish and in your own faith practice. At the time I started to pursue this last summer, I assumed I would remain as the pastor of the new parish family here, and I wanted to get a feel for St. Thomas Parish.  So I asked Fr. Raja at St. Thomas if he was agreeable about taking the survey and he was.  [By the way, Fr. Raja is about the easiest priest to get along with you’ll ever find.]

Two Saturday’s ago I gave a talk to representatives of various Serra Clubs from around the Northwest.  The talk got me thinking again about vocations to the religious life, then I discovered that this week is National Vocation Awareness Week, and then I discovered that I haven’t written a pastor’s column on vocations in over a year, so I figure I better strike while the iron is still hot. 

I want far more people to enter religious life as a priest, monk, nun, or sister than is currently the case.  Why?  Because religious life is so blessed.  I am not concerned about numbers nor should you be.  If you and I want more priests so we can keep our parishes open, and because priests and consecrated religious do so much good for us and others, then we’re being motivated by our own self-interests, not the well-being of the priest or consecrated religious.  Rather, we want people to consecrate themselves to Christ and His Church for God’s happiness and theirs, not ours.  

Last Tuesday evening we held our annual one-night mission on the holy angels hosted by a priest of Opus Sanctorum Angelorum (work of the holy angels). People who attended the mission had the opportunity to attend Mass, hear a talk on the angels, witness three people consecrate themselves to their guardian angels, begin a program to consecrate themselves to their guardian angel next year, or if they have done that already, begin a multi-year program to consecrate themselves to all the angels. What a blessing the ministry of Opus Sanctorum Angelorum has been to us. The mission coming so close to All Saints and All Souls days this year, drives home the reality of the Communion of the Saints and our relationship with them.

In reference to helping his parishioners grow in holiness, a good priest friend of mine says, “I can’t make anyone do anything, all I can do is offer.” He’s correct in saying that a priest can’t make anyone do anything: unlike the government that can make us pay taxes, serve in the military in wartime, force us to send our children to anti-Christian government schools because they won’t let our tax dollars follow our kids to Catholic schools, etc. With that said, my priest friend’s statement would be more accurate if it was: “while I can’t make anyone do anything, God has entrusted me with the responsibility to try—through example, instruction, inspiration, and warning—to help people grow in holiness.” If you know me at all, then you know this is something I take to heart.

Instead of dressing up your kids for Halloween as a fake superhero, popular cultural figure, or monster, how about dressing them up as a saint or angel? Instead of having your children trick or treat through demonically themed lawns and front doors, how about bringing them to the parish center for Christ- themed fun? This Halloween let’s protect our children and reclaim this festivity from its current godless and even satanic manifestation and return it to its Catholic origins.

On Sunday, October 30th, Holy Redeemer Parish is hosting an “All Hallows Celebration”. Come dressed as your favorite saint. The Knights of Columbus will grill up some hamburgers and hotdogs for a 1pm BBQ and at 1:30pm we’ll Trunk or Treat, play saint-inspired games and eat delicious saintly snacks!

October is the month of the Rosary, and so today I submit another pastor’s column on this incredible devotion. I ran this column last year and plan to do so annually, as the mysteries in it release phenomenal graces for those who put them into practice.

While the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary have been around for centuries, it wasn’t until 2002 that Pope Saint John Paul II (St. JPII) introduced the Luminous Mysteries. He got his inspiration from a priest he canonized only the year before, Saint George Preca (1880-1962). St. George was a Maltese priest who founded a society of catechists which endures to this day, yet his greatest contribution to the Church was a set of private mysteries that he would pray the Rosary with. He called these the Mysteries of Light, hence St. JPII’s “Luminous Mysteries.” You can see here how they inspired St. JPII and how closely they paralleled his own Luminous Mysteries

God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and I love the Rosary and want you to pray it daily. When the Blessed Virgin Mary visited St. Bernadette at Lourdes she always prayed the Rosary with her (14 visits). When the Blessed Virgin Mary visited the children at Fatima, she told them to pray the Rosary daily. Simply put, heaven wants us to pray the Rosary daily. If all the Catholics in the world prayed the Rosary daily, Satan’s power would be broken and the world would be converted to Jesus Christ. The Rosary is a gift from God, a superpower.

We live in an age unlike any other in the 2000-year history of Christianity, a spiritual “Dark Age” that has seen . . .

On July 1, 2024, the following parishes will henceforth share the same pastor: Holy Redeemer, Vancouver; St. Thomas, Camas; Star of the Sea, Stevenson. Then at some point between 2024 and 2027, they will merge into one parish, name change and all.

Throughout the western world the Church has unfortunately been in decline for decades. To deal with this, many dioceses have had to restructure and the Church in Western Washington is no exception.

Beginning last year, the Archdiocese of Seattle (the Church in Western Washington) began to process the greatest reorganization of parishes and missions in our history through a process the Archdiocese calls Partners in the Gospel.

In light of the Archdiocesan wide program, Partners in the Gospel, a program to reorganize and revitalize the Church in Western Washington, I want to get a better idea of what you think of Holy Redeemer Parish now and how we might improve upon it. How can we best accomplish what God has in mind for us? How can we best use the gifts and talents of the people who are a part of this parish? These are important questions that we’re always seeking to know and answer.

In light of the Archdiocesan wide program, Partners in the Gospel, a program to reorganize and revitalize the Church in Western Washington, I want to get a better idea of what you think of Holy Redeemer Parish now and how we might improve upon it. How can we best accomplish what God has in mind for us? How can we best use the gifts and talents of the people who are a part of this parish? These are important questions that we’re always seeking to know and answer.

If you only remember one thing from this pastor’s column, let it be this:

Catholics who marry are obligated to wed in the Catholic Church.  Failure to do so would constitute grave evil and the union would not be a valid marriage in God’s eyes. 

I never heard this fact growing up Catholic, so it was news to me when I discovered it in my early 30’s, and it may well be news to you too. 

So what happens to a Catholic who weds outside of the Catholic Church?  Although the union is recognized by civil society as marriage, it is not recognized by God as such: thus the couple are sleeping together outside of marriage. 

If you only remember one thing from this pastor’s column, let it be this:

Catholics who marry are obligated to wed in the Catholic Church.  Failure to do so would constitute grave evil and the union would not be a valid marriage in God’s eyes. 

I never heard this fact growing up Catholic, so it was news to me when I discovered it in my early 30’s, and it may well be news to you too. 

So what happens to a Catholic who weds outside of the Catholic Church?  Although the union is recognized by civil society as marriage, it is not recognized by God as such: thus the couple are sleeping together outside of marriage. 

About five years ago I met Brian Willis, a parishioner at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Portland. In 2007 Brian started a non-profit called Global Health Promise to help prostitutes and their children. His work was covered in the Catholic Sentinel, the former paper for the Archdiocese of Portland. Here’s the problem that Global Health Promise (GHP) is trying to alleviate.

Prostitutes are arguably the most desperate and threatened women in the world. Women who prostitute themselves are trapped in that hellish profession in mind, body, and spirit.

This is an update on Partners in the Gospel, my second installment on the subject and taken together with the Archbishop, the third time you’ve found a page length or more article in the bulletin on it. A reminder: the Archdiocese of Seattle, or the Church in Western Washington, is going to implement the greatest reorganization of parishes and missions in our history starting in the summer of 2024. This is a brief reminder of why and where the process is at this time.

There is no Jesus without the Catholic Church, and hence, there is no salvation without the Catholic Church. Let me explain. Jesus Christ, God, founded only one Church and that Church is the Catholic (Greek for ‘universal’) Church. Before the Catholic Church, God made a covenant with the chosen people, now called Jews. If you belong to a religion other than Judaism or Catholicism, then God is not your founder. Jesus is the Messiah of the Jews and Gentiles, with his revelation a new covenant of salvation was created through the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Everything we know about Jesus Christ, the Holy Trinity, the Communion of saints, heaven, purgatory, and hell comes from the Catholic Church. It was the Catholic Church that wrote the New Testament and decided what books and letters would go into the Bible.

Remember the first precept, that we are obligated to attend Mass on all the Holy Days of Obligation, and Sunday is always a Holy Day of Obligation. However, we are not obligated to receive the Holy Eucharist (Communion) at each of those Masses, for that-we need to be in a “state of grace” or free of mortal sin. Concerning the fourth precept, as evident by the percentage of people who receive the Holy Communion at Mass, most Catholics in the U.S. assume that they are supposed to receive Holy Communion if they attend Mass, this is not correct. Only those who are Catholic, have received their 1st Communion, and are not aware of unconfessed mortal sin are able to receive Holy Communion.

Forgiveness of sins is so important that God decided to sacramentalize it. Today the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls that sacrament by various names: Confession, Reconciliation, Penance, Forgiveness, and even Conversion. A supernatural thing happens when we go to confession: our sins are absolved (removed), no matter how bad or how often they have been committed, and we are restored and strengthened in our life of grace with God. There is no other way on earth to have our mortal sins absolved other than through sacramental confession. So why don’t more people take advantage of it: ignorance of the information being presented here, and pride.

This week we continue our series on the Precepts of the Catholic Church: “pre” meaning “before”, and “cept” meaning “life” – before there can be full life in God, these seven laws must be observed. Failure to live them out would constitute a mortal sin: when one has knowledge of them, and acts without undue coercion to disregard them. “The obligatory character of these positive laws decreed by pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the faithful the very necessary minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor”. Catechism #2041. This week we continue working our way through them by exploring the second precept.

We know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide; we know how to drive a car with all its myriad rules; we know about photosynthesis; we know what it takes to do our taxes annually; but when it comes to knowledge of our faith, we can be woefully uninformed. Almost four years ago I ran a multiple part series on the precepts of the Catholic faith. I run them again now because they are critically important to know and live, and most of you don’t have them memorized and should, finally we should be able to teach them to others.