From Father George's Desk 7/12/26

As you read this column, I am in the final days of my road trip across the Upper Great Lakes and Northern Plains and back.  While I have been enjoying my time away, I look   forward to getting back to Latrobe this week.  My thanks to the priests who have been covering Masses in my absence.  See you later this week!

I have received several inquiries from parishioners at both parishes responding to my call to join Parish Pastoral Council.  After I get back home and get settled, I will be reaching out to those individuals who have already expressed interest.  To reiterate, Bishop Kulick as directed that each parish in the diocese is to have a pastoral council, the mission of which is “...to serve as the forum in which pastors and the lay faithful gather on a regular basis to discern those pastoral and spiritual issues affecting peoples’ understanding and ability to live out their baptismal call in their daily lives, and to recommend effective   responses to these issues.” 

The Pastoral Council should consist of a minimum of six lay members but ideally 8-12.  Membership should be sensitive to the diverse makeup of the parish community including age, sex, socio-economic conditions, race, etc.  Members must be fully initiated Catholics, registered members of the parish, in full communion and in good standing with the Catholic Church and:

· Demonstrate a willingness to work for the mission of the Church and the Diocese.

· Be conversant with the lives and issues of people and groups living in the region served by the parish.

· Have a willingness to focus on the mission of the parish as a whole, and not a specific interest representation.

· Have the disposition to learn and ability to engage in prayer and spiritual methods utilized in the pastoral council

· Have a basic understanding of parish and diocesan structure.

St. John does have an active pastoral council of five members that typically meets on the second Tuesday of the month.  Holy Family does not have a functioning pastoral council.  So I would ask parishioners of both parishes to take to prayer our parishes’ needs for this important ministry.  Thanks to those parishioners who have already expressed interest.  If you feel you may be called to this ministry or if you would just like more information about what is involved, please contact me.

On Monday the Church honors St. Henry.  While there are many monarchs who are venerated as saints, Henry is one of only four whose feast is on the Church’s universal calendar (St. Louis, St. Stephen of Hungary, and St. Wenceslaus are the others).  Henry was born in 972 and spent part of his childhood living and being educated in the ancient German city of Hildesheim.  Upon the death of his father, the nobles of Bavaria elected Henry to succeed his father as Duke of Bavaria at the age of 23 and in 1002 was crowned King of Germany upon the unexpected death of his cousin, Emperor Otto III.  On St. Valentine’s Day 1014, Pope Benedict VIII crowned Henry as Holy Roman Emperor.  He worked to bring a stable peace to much of Europe and some reform of Church life.  Henry died in 1024 and was canonized in 1147; his wife, St. Cunigunde of Luxembourg was canonized in 1200.  One commentary on the lives of saints reflects: “All in all, this saint was a man of his times. From our standpoint, he may have been too quick to do battle and too ready to use power to accomplish reforms. But granted such limitations, he shows that holiness is possible in a busy secular life. It is in doing our job that we become saints.” [Saint of the Day, Sixth Revised Edition, St. Anthony Messenger Press, p. 185]