June2004 letters

June 2004

June 25, 2004

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the last month, so many people have asked me, “Father, is there anything I can do to help you?” Generally I tell folks that the support of their presence and prayer is the greatest help they can offer me. But now I realize there’s another way for people to help me. Please, read on...

As I hear people speak about the future and the establishment of a new Catholic parish in Concord, I hear many unhappy comments: I hear comments from unhappy people and I hear comments that make me unhappy. I am deeply saddened when I hear people say that they’ll never join the new parish; that they’ll never go to Mass in Concord center; that they’ll go anywhere except the new parish. I understand the anger - I share it. But you know what? I would JUMP at the chance to go with you to the new parish. I would JUMP at the chance to be with you in the new parish. I would JUMP at the opportunity to begin to build the Catholic community in Concord in a new way. That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t miss our parish and its church building - indeed I will miss OLHC no matter where my future brings me. But given the circumstances in which we find ourselves, the opportunity to continue to worship and work with the people of OLHC, and the people of St. Bernard Parish, is a gift worth praying for.

“Father, is there anything I can do to help you?” Yes, there is. Please, have the faith and patience to trust, at least for a while, that what we have built together at OLHC can and will survive and flourish in a new Catholic parish in Concord.
•Please don’t leave me to wonder if I’ve helped build a “designer” parish community of people unable to see beyond what we have shared together in this particular community and place.
•Please don’t leave me to think that my 10 years of work here has failed to equip you and help you find the strength to face difficulties - even challenges as great as the one before us.
•Please don’t leave me to think that my efforts to encourage our understanding ourselves to be the church have failed to be effective.

In a book I wrote years ago on liturgical matters I noted that when a community begins to worship the worship it offers, it is in the business of idolatry. If worship draws us to ourselves, it has failed utterly. True worship is that which leads us beyond ourselves, beyond our own needs and wants, beyond our own comfort, beyond our own belongings TO the presence of God and God’s command for us to serve our neighbor, especially the poor.

“Father, is there anything I can do to help you?” Yes! Please, give yourself to the new parish, regardless of how difficult that is, and bring to it whatever your experience at OLHC has brought to you. The work ahead of us will not be easy - it will be difficult. And there are nay-sayers on both sides of Route 2 saying that this cannot work and will never work. If that’s our attitude, then the venture may very well fail - under anyone’s leadership. If we do the work with open hearts and minds then it might very well succeed. Perhaps the question we need to ask is as basic as that: do we want the new parish to succeed or fail? The answer will be up to each of us.

This past Wednesday night there was a joint meeting of the two Parish Pastoral Councils of OLHC and STB. The meeting was excellent. Both councils came together in a spirit of openness and collaboration with a common hope for the success of the work which is ours. A joint Transition Team will soon be in place and we will offer regular reports of our progress and invitations for you to join us in this work.

While Fr. Pat Sullivan, SJ is out sick, our weekday Mass schedule may change. This Monday, June 28, Mass will not be celebrated. You may call 978-369-1800, 24 hours a day, for an updated Mass schedule.

Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming

June 18, 2004

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

On Wednesday I received a letter from Bishop Lennon on behalf of Archbishop O’Malley. Bishop Lennon wrote: "I wish to assure you that Archbishop Sean has seen your letter and appreciates the information you provided and the expression of your desire to keep OLHC Parish open. I need to inform you, however, that Archbishop Sean intends to follow through with his intention to close OLHC Parish."

This is very sad news, but not unexpected.

Bishop Lennon also wrote that once a formal decree of closure is issued a parish has 10 days to appeal it, noting that such an appeal would need to be based on an argument that the archbishop failed to follow due canonical process in making the reconfiguration decisions. (Remember that the Parish Pastoral Council and I decided that we would choose the option of writing and asking that the decree not be issued rather than waiting until after its issuance and making an appeal then.) I earnestly hope that we will not appeal the decree once it is received. We have less to go on for such an appeal than we did in writing the letter asking the archbishop not to issue the decree. As I have written elsewhere, a bishop has the right to suppress/alter/merge a parish and canon law only requires him to consult with the Presbyteral Council - which Archbishop O’Malley has done three times. In fact, the archbishop went over the top in terms of consultation (beginning at the cluster level and including the work of the mostly lay Central Committee). One may find fault with the format, content and results of the consultative process, but its canonical correctness has been carefully provided for by the archdiocese. Appealing to the Vatican when the decree comes would neither stall the closing of the parish nor buy us any more time: its most significant impact would be prolonging the sadness.

Fr. Murray and I will recommend Monday, October 25, 2004, as the closing date of Our Lady Help of Christians Parish and St. Bernard Parish and the establishment of the new Catholic Parish in Concord, yet to be named. Given the summer schedules of so many in Concord, it will be better to wait until after Labor Day before holding events to mark the closing of our parish. I have already consulted with the Parish Pastoral Council on this matter and it seems wiser for the change to occur before Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Once again, I know these words are as difficult to read as they are to write. We are all in different places and for some of us, acceptance of this change in our parish life is still far off. While I wish that the Archbishop had given us a different answer, I am grateful to have his response in hand. There is much work to be done and the reality his letter brings to our situation can help us move forward. Here are some of things I hear around town...

I’LL JUST NEVER... The anger people have about the closing of the Concord parishes is not unjustified. Still, I am concerned about the expression that such anger sometimes takes. I have heard a number of folks say, “I’ll never join the new parish! I won’t step foot in St. Bernard’s church for Mass!” While I understand the pain from which such words originate, I worry about their implication. Suppose you were to hear me say, “What? Become the pastor of the new parish? Not on your life! I’d never work in the new parish - I’d never celebrate Mass at St. Bernard’s!” I trust that you would think such comments from me to be not only angry but also premature and prejudiced, perhaps rash.

Now is the time for all of us to ask God’s Spirit for the grace and the graciousness we need to unite with our Catholic brothers and sisters in Concord center and to pledge to work together for the good of the church and its mission in our community - and beyond. The hearts of all the people of Concord (of every faith) have been with us in these past few weeks. As well, the eyes of all the people of Concord will be upon us, observing how we handle ourselves in difficult times. May there come a day soon when the town will look upon the people of our new parish and marvel at how we Catholics worked together and worked through our difficulties - all because we believed that there was a greater good to be achieved. Our collaboration in Concord’s Catholic community will be an opportunity for us to show by our lives what we believe the church to be.

BUT WHAT ABOUT RELIGIOUS EDUCATION??? The first months of life in the new parish are bound to be confusing and challenging. Picture moving into a new home just as the school year begins! Here are a few things I believe I can predict with confidence:

1) All the people from Our Lady’s and all the people of St. Bernard’s will need to register in the new parish: you will be charter members. And all the people who register will be accommodated in the parish religious education program.

2) For over a year our two parishes have been planning on beginning a new collaborative effort in religious education called Generations of Faith. GOF will be the program in the new parish as well and GOF (of its nature and due to our joint efforts) will be a helpful tool in bringing our two communities together in one parish.

3) Special programs for First Penance/First Communion and for Confirmation will, of course, begin in the fall of 2004 on account of the special components of religious education in these “sacramental years.” Students will be prepared to receive these sacraments in the spring of 2005.

4) Not everything in the early days of the new parish will run smoothly or begin on time. The “start” of GOF may be a little later in the year than we would have usually planned. But the late start will be due to other efforts we will need to make to help the members of the new parish find their bearings. This interim work will need to happen in group settings for the whole parish (just like the GOF model!) and this work will be eminently catechetical in nature, which is to say we will be learning about what it means for us to be the church, to be a parish.

5) No one will be turned away. There is no need to register in other parishes. One of the priorities of the new parish will be the faith formation of all its people, from toddlers on up.

OK - MAYBE I’LL GIVE THE NEW PARISH A TRY... You’d think I’d be happy to hear that wouldn’t you - and I am, with one little caveat. “Trying out” the new parish won’t be like “trying out” a new restaurant. At a new restaurant, the maitre d’, the wait staff and the chefs are all there to serve you, to give you something to try. In a parish, WE are the ones expected to greet, meet and seat those who join us; WE are the ones who serve the others; WE are the ones who prepare the table and the meal and whatever else is needed to nourish those who come to the table, and those who can’t. There will be only one way to “try” the new parish, and that is to BE the new parish.

This coming week the Parish Pastoral Councils of the two Catholic Concord parishes will have a joint meeting. I hope that by the end of the week the Transition Team will be in place. I also hope to assemble an “Events Team” to coordinate the ways in which we will mark the closing of our parish. It is also my hope that we will soon have in place a plan for inviting parishioners to suggest potential names for the new parish.

For your continuing presence, support and prayer I am very grateful!

Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming

LATEST UPDATE FROM FR. FLEMING ON THE CLOSING OF OLHC

We have received a response to our letter to Archbishop O’Malley in which we asked him not to issue the formal decree of closure of OLHC Parish. The response came from Bishop Richard Lennon, writing on behalf of the archbishop.

Bishop Lennon writes:
"I wish to assure you that Archbishop Sean has seen your letter and appreciates the information you provided and the expression of your desire to keep OLHC Parish open. I need to inform you, however, that Archbishop Sean intends to follow through with his intention to close OLHC Parish."

This is very sad news, but not unexpected.

Bishop Lennon also writes that once a formal decree of closure is issued a parish has 10 days to appeal it, noting that such an appeal would need to be based on an argument that the archbishop failed to follow canonical process in making the reconfiguration decision. I earnestly hope that we will not try to appeal the decree. We have less to go on in such an appeal than we did in writing the letter asking the archbishop not to issue the decree.

As I have written elsewhere, Canon Law only requires the bishop (who has the right to suppress/alter/merge a parish) to consult with the Presbyteral Council - which he has done three times. In fact, the archbishop went over the top in terms of consultation (beginning at the cluster level and including the work of the mostly lay Central Committee). One may find fault with the format, content and results of the consultative process, but its canonical correctness has been carefully provided for the by archdiocese.

Fr. Murray and I will recommend Monday, October 25, 2004, as the closing date of Our Lady Help of Christians Parish and St. Bernard Parish, and the establishment of the new Catholic Parish in Concord, yet to be named.

Copies of the letter from Bishop Lennon will be available this weekend at all the Masses.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,    June 11, 2004

I have been asked about writing individual letters to the archbishop. Indeed, members of the parish council encouraged this during the past week. I believe the most effective letter was the one we sent this week with hundreds of parishioners' signatures. Although I doubt that it will have the desired effect, I am at least confident that this letter made its way to the archbishop's desk while I can't promise the same for individual writers. I say this because we learned last week at a meeting for the staffs of all the closing parishes that letters sent by the pastors would be placed in a different category and would most definitely be seen by the archbishop. Over 700 letters were received at the chancery in the days just following the closure announcements. Thus, it was clear that our best hope for our concerns reaching the archbishop personally was a letter over my signature and the overwhelming endorsement of the parish community. Of course, writing a letter can be as helpful for the writer as for the recipient and I do not discourage you in any effort you want to make along those lines. I simply do not want to give anyone false hope about the impact of such letters.

     Some time back (before reconfiguration!) I had planned to take this past week as a vacation week. Alas, a combination of reconfiguration’s demands on my time, the unexpected scheduling of a meeting with Bishop Lennon, and my desire to be at the Lord’s table with you on this Corpus Christi weekend all contributed to shrinking my week off to two and a half days. But good days they were and I will seek other opportunities for respite as time goes on.

     The meeting with Bishop Lennon was with the pastors of communities experiencing a “double suppression” of existing parishes and the establishment of a new parish in their place. Such instances of reconfiguration don’t quite fit the norm. As I have already written (see my FAQ at www.olhc.org), double suppression occurred in communities where two parishes of relative equal size and level of parish activity were to be reconfigured. The archdiocesan mind on this was that rather than close one of the two and leave the other to absorb the closed parish, the closing of both parishes and the establishment of a new one would help guard against the notion that one parish “lost” while the other parish “won.” While this may sound good in theory, in practice we are still left with one parish which has lost its beloved church building and another which retains its house of worship.   The theory’s intention is laudable but its results may be less than satisfying.

     The day before the meeting with Bishop Lennon I spent a good deal of time drafting a letter requesting that our parish center be retained for the new parish in the disposition of parish properties in the Concord reconfiguration. In my letter I argued that our new center provides a facility that the St. Bernard property cannot offer and one which the ministerial and administrative demands of the new parish will sorely need. I wrote about the importance of providing a West Concord site for parish activity, especially in light of the historical and social fabric of the two communities which make up our town (West Concord and Concord Center and the respective parishes). Finally I noted the sacrificial generosity of so many who invested in our new parish center and the fact that we have only occupied it for 15 months.

     I was surprised and pleased at the meeting with Bishop Lennon when he told us that indeed the archdiocese is looking forward to receiving from parishes like ours a proposal for the disposition of parish buildings. While making it clear that the archbishop still expects only one house of worship to remain open, there was certainly a desire on Bishop Lennon’s part for us to make a detailed recommendation regarding property. I have a lot more confidence in the proposal I was working on this week having heard Bishop Lennon’s remarks on Friday morning. I’m also pleased that Fr. Murray thinks retaining our center is a good idea, too. Bishop Lennon also told us to make a proposal for the disposition of parish savings, especially with regard to setting aside funds sufficient for the establishment and operation of a new parish. As I have already told you, when a parish is suppressed, its assets and liabilities become the assets and liabilities of the archdiocese. When two parishes are suppressed, the assets and liabilities of both redound to the archdiocese - as is the case with our parish and St. Bernard Parish. It is important to note that Bishop Lennon did not lead us to believe that the archdiocese will accept a proposal in which the total financial assets of both parishes will simply be left intact.   But you can be sure that our proposal will seek retain in the new parish as much as possible of our two parish’s assets.

     We will need to make several other recommendations to the archdiocese. We will be asked to suggest three names for the new parish to be established.   Bishop Lennon noted that in the past, both Cardinal Law and Bishop O’Malley have always accepted the first name on the list of three suggestions. How we will go about making that list is something we need to work on. With regard to parish names and for the record: because churches and cemeteries are canonically consecrated properties, their names cannot be changed. Thus, the Catholic house of worship in Concord center will continue to be called St. Bernard Church and the Catholic cemetery on Route 62 will continue to be called St. Bernard Cemetery. The name of the new parish, however, will be something other than St. Bernard or Our Lady Help of Christians. Thus, when the new parish is established, the parish letterhead will read, "St. Somebody Parish” and the phone will be answered, "Hello, St. Somebody Parish” and when someone asks you which parish you belong to, you’ll respond "St. Somebody Parish.” (No, it doesn't need to be a saint’s name: it could be Holy Cross Parish, or Incarnation Parish - I’m just giving examples.)

     At this point, let me address two groups of people: the people in Concord center who may be infuriated that the name of St. Bernard Parish will change and the people in West Concord who may be incensed that the name of St. Bernard Church will not change. We have, for centuries, inaccurately identified the church. The original meaning of church was “the people of God, the assembly of believers.” In fact, in early times, the building where Christians met to worship was called the domus ecclesiae, that is, “the house OF the church.” Over the centuries we have confused the building with the people.   We are not a building, we are a people - although God knows the buildings in which we pray are very dear to our hearts - mine as well as yours. Both Catholic parishes in Concord are, as canonical entities, closing. However, no canon law can close the collective heart of the people of God. With the grace of God, the heart of a parish community can survive anything! The important questions for Catholics in Concord to consider do not revolve around the names of buildings and parishes. The important questions are these: when and where will we gather for eucharist? when and where will we hear the gospel preached? when and where will we celebrate the sacraments? when and how will we reach out in charity and justice to those in need? The people of both Catholic parishes in Concord will need to give and to take from each other: in Christian circles we call that communion and communion makes no room for bitterness or pettiness. The Catholic community in Concord and the Catholic church at large are under the spot light of public interest and opinion. In absolutely every instance, large and small, let us take the high road, the road of charity, the road of compassion, the road of love.

     Fr. Murray and I will be recommending a time frame for the closing of our parishes. (All parishes in the diocese which are to be closed will be closed no later than January 1, 2005.)   After consultation with our Parish Pastoral Council and parish staff, I recommend late October 2004. Our Concord parishes experience a significant summer exodus and we will need time together in both parishes for prayer and events to mark the closings and the beginning of the new parish. After Labor Day and before Thanksgiving and Christmas seems to be a time pastorally sensitive to what will be a difficult experience for all of us. This is not yet firm, and I will let you know as soon as any dates are in place.

     A transition team composed of representatives from both parishes will soon be convened. I learned at the meeting with Bishop Lennon that many important decisions will be made before a new pastor is appointed for the new parish. Indeed, the makeup of the new staff for the parish will be largely determined by the present pastors and transition team. This, of course, will be a difficult and sensitive task and I ask for your prayerful support as we approach it. The archdiocese has suggested what should be the makeup of the transition team, noting the importance of including regular parish members as well as those who are in paid or volunteer leadership positions.

This Sunday night we will have a meeting for Generations of Faith, a meeting which was scheduled before the announcement of parish closings. Staff, council/commission/committee members, and heads of ministries from both parishes have been invited. The original purpose of this meeting was to do some nitty-gritty calendar planning for the coming year. Generations of Faith is a new approach to religious education which our two Concord parishes have been collaborating on for over a year, with a view towards joint programming. With the recent announcements, it is clear how helpful Generations of Faith can be in helping us shape the new parish in Concord. Sunday night’s meeting, however, will probably be less practical than we had anticipated and will provide, rather, for the leadership of both communities to come together in a preliminary way to look ahead to the work which is ours.   I see this meeting as the very beginnings of our transition - please pray that God’s Spirit will be generously given to us on Sunday night.

   I recognize that the contents of this letter include a vocabulary and view of the future that many are not yet able to accept. I do not wish to appear insensitive to your sadness and disappointment. Believe me: much of this is as difficult for me to write as it is for you to read. As I have written and preached, our parish family is experiencing the death of something we dearly love and we are still in grief. But Christians, even in mourning, continue to proclaim that Jesus is Lord and there is life after death. No one can “close” the heart of who we are as a parish community. Let no one rob us of our hope nor steal the gifts God’s Spirit has showered so generously upon us.
Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming

June 4, 2004

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the preface to last week’s four pages of FAQ, I told you that this week I would respond to the question, “Why should we remain Catholic?” For some, this question will never occur, but for many it’s a question very much in their minds and hearts. Those who would never think to ask such a question are no less saddened by the closing of our parish than others, and those who do ask this question are no less faithful than those who do not. We all respond in different ways and the diversity of our responses deserves our reverence and respect.

My answer to “Why should we remain Catholic?” will be simple. If you’re looking for a deep, theological treatise, go to the library or enter “catholicism” at google or amazon.com. What we need, I believe, is a pastoral response to this question to serve as a “life preserver” as we make our way through these rough and troubled waters. That’s what I will try to provide here.

The closing of our parish is not the only reason some are asking “Why should we remain Catholic?” There is a history here. Many women and men continue to experience the Catholic community as a place where women are deprived of a full share in the church’s ministry and leadership. Many are appalled that in a growing number of places around the world Catholics are deprived of the Eucharist because the Church will not entertain discussion about even the possibility of ordaining married men. Most still find themselves reeling from the stories of sexual abuse of children by priests and the Church’s failure to deal with it in an honest and timely manner. The content and language of recent Church pronouncements on the lives of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters; the refusal of communion to particular elected officials and potentially to those who vote for them; and the treatment of PVS patients: these issues disturb many whose reading and living of the gospel and whose fidelity to Christian values lead them to different conclusions. From another vantage point there are those who disagree sharply with the Pope and the American bishops when the hierarchy criticizes the war in Iraq or champions the cause of illegal aliens and those on welfare. A lack of transparency in managing church affairs has led many doubt and question the sincerity and truthfulness of our church leaders. We live in a time when even deciding whose feet will be washed at the Holy Thursday liturgy is the stuff of front page news. Many who are asking, “Why should we remain Catholic?” have been asking that question for some time.

Obviously, I am not able to respond to, much less resolve, all these significant and complex issues. Rather, I want to direct our attention, for a moment, to what has sustained us as Catholic people at Our Lady Help of Christians Parish, even as we have asked some hard questions over the years. At the heart of our sustenance is the prayer we offer together in the liturgy, and especially in the eucharist. The way, the reverence, the warmth and the willingness with which we gather to offer the prayer of the Catholic church is a precious gift among us, a gift we offer to God and a gift God returns to us in the grace of word, sacrament and community. Our worship is thoroughly Roman Catholic and its beauty in word, rite, prayer, gesture, symbol and music incarnates the very presence of Christ in our midst, Christ who is the first priest of our parish church. Even acknowledging the barriers which keep half of us from particular liturgical ministries, I believe that this prayer of ours which stretches back over 2,000 years to a night when Jesus gathered in an upper room with his friends for Passover - this tradition of prayer is at the heart of why we should remain Catholic.

It is precisely this prayer which urges us towards and supports our efforts in reaching out to those on the margins of the world’s plenty. Those who feast at the Lord’s table as regularly as we do assume by doing so a responsibility for satisfying the many hungers of the marginalized. We do not reach out to the poor just because it’s a good thing to do. We reach out to the poor because it is the Lord’s command and flows from our share in the gift of the altar. Need I list here the generous response of our parish locally, regionally, nationally and internationally? You know the Giving Trees, the trips to Haiti, the homes we have built -and are building- in Haiti, the baby showers, the food for the hungry, our students work at St. John the Divine and the Boston Mission, our support of the St. Bonaventure Indian Mission, Spring House, Lazarus House... the list goes on and on... Our community’s outreach is reflected significantly in the annual parish budget. Of course one not need be Catholic to reach out to the poor, but outreach to the needy is a hallmark and regular feature of our Catholic faith and parish. Our service of Christ’s poor is also at the heart of why we should remain Catholic.

Our Catholic community at OLHC is one which welcomes many people from many places. So many have joined our parish because they have found here a community where their desire to be and remain Catholic is reverenced as much as their questions and reservations about Catholicism and its government, teachings and practice. And our parish IS a Catholic church: OLHC is not an alternative to Catholicism; it is not “catholic lite;” it is not a place where Catholics gather to somehow “escape” Catholicism. Rather, it is a place where Catholics gather because they have a deep desire to question, explore and nurture their faith in the tradition they love so dearly - even with all it’s historical and contemporary failures and weaknesses. Perhaps the best reason for us to remain Catholic is simply because Catholic is who we are and what we are and what we want to be. Tip O’Neil was fond of saying that “all politics is local.” Well, in a real sense, all Catholicism is local - as local as our own wonderful and imperfect parish community; as local as as our struggling archdiocese; as local as that vast reality known as “the American Catholic church” which is very much in need of the fidelity, vitality generosity and fruitfulness of Catholic people just like us, in parishes just like our own.

The people of our parish have always been generous in appreciating and thanking me for my ministry in this community. These past ten days, your generous response along these same lines has been a deep blessing and a sustaining grace! Let me tell you the secret of my ministry as a Catholic priest in your midst: I simply try to do my best to acknowledge all the gifts and talents God gave me and to surrender them for the service of the parish. I can only offer you what God has given me. All of us have gifts and talents from God and the life of the Church (local and universal) depends on those gifts for its survival and growth. The gifts we all have received are given by the Spirit of God whose only desire is for us to be the body of Christ in the world: a healing, nourishing, comforting, challenging presence of Christ for peoples near and far. Because of the sharing of the gifts of so many in our parish, we have had the opportunity to drink deeply of the richness and beauty of the Catholic faith. This will continue for us, and for others with whom we join, if we are willing to remain faithful to the heart of the faith we profess.

The best reason for us to remain Catholic is that we have experienced what the life of the Catholic parish can be and so we have a responsibility to nurture that reality and to share it with others.

A major portion of the work of the Catholic church at large is to restore trust and motive for credibility at a time when many no longer trust and when some are finding it difficult to believe. My part in the life and history of OLHC has only been for ten years - for many it has been a life time and stretches back for several generations. Still, the closing of this parish shakes my trust in realities that deeply affect my life as a priest. It is my experience of you and with you over the past decade that keeps me grounded in Catholic faith and life. I hope and pray - and I trust - that I can count on your faithfulness to what we have shared as we make these changes.

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As you probably already understand, the closing of the two Concord parishes will end my pastorate here at OLHC and Fr. Murray’s pastorate at St. Bernard. In addition, all the employees of the two parishes will lose their jobs. A new pastor will be appointed and a new staff will be hired. Yes, those currently in ministerial and support positions might well be on the staff of the new parish, but that remains to be seen. In light of that, I want to tell you how deeply grateful I am to our own parish staff for the admirable fashion in which they continue to work, day by day, under these most trying circumstances.

I had planned for some time to take this week off and since the reality of a summer vacation now seems unlikely, I am going to be away for the better part of this week. I will be back for Masses on Sunday, June 13.

Please share with others (in and outside the parish) my four pages of FAQ which are available at www.olhc.org.
Sincerely,
Fr. Fleming