Synod

Dear sisters & brothers in Christ,

I pray that you are blessed. I am also praying that the snow and ice they are predicting passes the Midwest by, or should I say, “passed” since you will be reading this on the weekend. My plans are to be gone the weekend of February 19-20th for my nephew’s wedding in Southern Missouri. Please pray for safe travel and for them as they begin this new journey into holy matrimony.

You have probably heard at least something about the Synod that Pope Francis has convened for all members of the Roman Catholic Church. We are in the process of organizing our team. Our first listening session will be on March 6th. We will have more information coming soon. Our hope is that every parishioner participate. While The Church is not a democracy, it is important that every member be heard, and synods are how The Church does that. While most of them are limited to bishops, this one is calling for everyone, from the pope to our children, to participate. My hope is to have at least one main session (if we get enough participation, we will have more), as well as, one for young adults and one for teens.

While the insights and concerns you share will be anonymously shared with the diocese and then eventually with Rome, I am hoping that we can use these listening sessions to also build up our own parish and better address the needs of our parishioners. I realize that the timing is not optimal, but we will do our best to provide a safe environment for all. Bob Siegel, our Parish Council president, has graciously agreed to be our head facilitator. I want to ask the rest of the council to help him as Group Leaders. But we will probably need more. If you have experience facilitating small group discussions or taking minutes, and would like to volunteer, please call the office and leave your name, number, and what you would like to volunteer to do.

I also want to ask you to save your appetite for Monday, February 28. We will be having another fundraiser with Licari’s. As you may know, Licari’s is owned and operated by parishioners. We have partnered with them before and the last time we did this they donated over $1000 to our parish. While we will have all the details in future bulletins, the main thing to do is to place an order for carry-out or dine in and be sure to tell them that you are a St. Alphonsus parishioner. Oh, and not only does it help the parish financially, but they have GREAT food! God bless, and I will see you in a few days.

In the Redeemer, Fr. Rick