Author: Nathalie Godet

 

Dear Friends,

Our parishioners doing the “Fall Into Faith” Bible sharing sessions are having a greater understanding of the Word of God while experiencing true fellowship with one another. Some of them asked me a question about the Synod on Synodality. Many of us may or may not be aware that the Synodal process has been going on for the past three years and that it concluded last month – on October 26 in Rome.

Pope Francis is very passionate about restoring the church as the people of God. He wants the church to be a communion and not a corporation. So he initiated one of the most consultative processes in Church history, when he called for the Synodal journey in 2021, asking all the Catholics around the world to send their input to him through their respective dioceses, to be discussed in the assembly of delegates in Rome. Instead of the usual gathering of bishops, he included lay people in the synod for the first time with voting rights. Some critics of the synod (including priests, bishops and cardinals) did not agree with the pope’s vision as they accused him of democratizing or protestantising the Catholic Church which they claim must always be hierarchical. But Pope Francis aimed to balance traditional Church teaching with contemporary pastoral needs while promoting greater inclusivity and transparency in Church governance.

The 52 page Final Document, approved by 355 synod members in attendance, outlines substantial proposals for Church renewal, organized into five main sections and calls for five forms of conversion: spiritual, relational, procedural, institutional, and missionary. The document contains the following main proposals (condensed by Pierre-Alain Giffard):

Study Areas for Groups: The Synod encourages specialized groups to delve deeper into ten critical areas, such as the relationship between Eastern and Latin Churches, supporting the poor, and adapting mission efforts to the digital world, to better align Church life with modern challenges and synodal ideals.

Transparency and Accountability: The proposal emphasizes that transparency in Church governance, especially through public reports and audits, can help build trust and ensure the Church is responsibly managing resources, while also upholding values of inclusion and equality, such as balanced gender representation in decision-making bodies.

Empowering Episcopal Conferences: By strengthening the role of Episcopal Conferences, the Church can allow for more locally responsive doctrinal and pastoral care that respects cultural diversity, while still preserving the unity and integrity of the Catholic faith worldwide.

Inclusivity for People with Disabilities: This proposal suggests an Ecclesial Observatory on Disability, aiming to foster active involvement of individuals with disabilities, ensuring their unique contributions enrich Church life and outreach.

Strengthening Family and Marital Support: Recognizing families as vital contributors to the Church’s mission, this proposal advocates for networks that support families in pastoral roles, allowing them to actively participate in evangelization and service within their communities.

Promotion of Synodal Decision-Making: Encouraging synodal processes at all levels aims to make decision-making more inclusive and reflective of the broader Church community, fostering shared discernment and updating canon law to clearly define consultative and decision-making roles.

If these wonderful proposals are implemented, the Church will move from being a corporation to a communion of the people of God.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

 

Dear Friends,

This is Veterans Day weekend – an occasion to remind ourselves of the importance to honor all those who have risked life, limb and mind for our country. We bring all of these heroes and heroines in prayer to God at all the Masses this weekend. We also thank and pray for all the law enforcement officials who live and work tirelessly to keep us safe.

At our 10 am Mass today we honor St. Martin De Porres who is the patron of our Parish St. Martin De Porres Society. Martin was born in Lima, Peru. At fifteen he began his long relationship with the Dominican Order and later took his vows as a brother. His painful childhood taught him compassion and generosity. As a Dominican he doctored Lima’s sick. While surgery was primitive in his day, he had a vast knowledge of herbal medicines. In addition to his free services as a doctor, he distributed thousands of dollars worth of food and clothing to the poor each week. He founded an orphanage for abandoned children and staffed it with the best teachers, nurses and guardians he could hire. On the hills near Lima, he planted fruit orchards for the poor. He is also remembered for his love of animals. Pope John XXIII remarked at Martin’s canonization on May 6, 1962, that Martin excused the faults of others and forgave the bitterest injuries. He tried with all his might to redeem the guilty; lovingly comforting the sick and providing food, clothing and medicine for the poor.

This week there are a number of interesting saints In the liturgical calendar:
St. Martin of Tours (Monday), St. Josaphat (Tuesday), St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (Wednesday), St. Albert the Great (Friday), and St. Margaret of Scotland & St. Gertrude (Saturday). Among these, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini – the first US citizen to be canonized – is of special importance to us. Many of us may have visited the Cabrini Shrine in Manhattan and seen her partially incorrupt body under glass.

Earlier this year, the movie ‘Cabrini’ was in theaters nationwide. For those of us who watched, it was a beautiful experience to know more about her life and legacy. Born in 1850, Cabrini nearly drowned as a child, her lungs were damaged, and she was rejected by several religious orders on the basis of ill health. Ultimately, she founded her own Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and added Xavier to her name, after the Jesuit saint Francis Xavier. Since her early childhood in Italy, Frances had wanted to be a missionary in China but, at the urging of Pope Leo XIII, Frances went west instead of east. She traveled with six sisters to New York City to work with the thousands of Italian immigrants living there.

She found disappointment and difficulties with every step. When she arrived in New York, the house intended to be her first orphanage in the United States was not available. The archbishop advised her to return to Italy. But Frances, truly a valiant woman, departed from the archbishop’s residence all the more determined to establish that orphanage. And she did. In 35 years, Frances Xavier Cabrini founded 67 institutions dedicated to caring for the poor, the abandoned, the uneducated and the sick. She was canonized in 1946 by Pope Pius XII.

This daring woman’s determination to follow God’s will in her life with such dedication and compassion for the sick and poor is truly remarkable and inspirational.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

 

Dear Friends,

In a few days, we enter some very important events in the church’s calendar.

All Saints Day is this Friday (November 1), a Holy Day of Obligation. We have three Masses that day: 8 am, 12:10 pm and 7:30 pm, so that we can attend any Mass at our convenience. The Bible reminds us that the number of those saved are “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” (Revelation 7:9). This includes the canonized saints whose number keeps on increasing. Pope Francis canonized 14 new saints just last Sunday (October 20). They are:

• Manuel Ruiz López and Seven Companions of the Order of Friars Minor, and Francis Mooti and Raphael Massabki, lay faithful, martyrs.
• Joseph Allamano, priest, Founder of the Institutes of Men Missionaries of the Consolata and Women Missionaries of the Consolata.
• Marie-Léonie Paradis (born Virginia Alodie), Foundress of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family.
• Elena Guerra, Foundress of the Congregation of the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, known as the “Sisters of Saint Zita.”
• Carlo Acutis, the modern teen web designer who had special devotion to the Eucharist.

Among the newly canonized saints is St. Giuseppe Allamano (1851–1926), an Italian diocesan priest who founded the Consolata Missionary Priests and Sisters. Allamano, though he spent his entire life in Italy, left a global legacy by training missionaries who carried the Gospel to remote corners of Africa, Asia, and South America. We, here at St. Matthias, have a special connection to the Consolata Missionaries as the Consolata priests have been a great help to us for many years and still continue to be whenever they are available to minister to us. In the name of us all, I congratulate them for this great honor of their founder’s canonization.

All Souls Day is on Saturday (November 2). Though not a Holy Day of Obligation, we will have a Holy Mass at 8 am. A separate Mass to commemorate all those who passed away this year will be held on Sunday evening (November 3) at 5:30 pm.

We know that November is dedicated to the departed souls. At all the Masses this weekend, we are remembering in prayer all our dearly departed ones.  Explaining the true concept of Purgatory as an “existential state” and not a place, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote that it is “the fringe of heaven, a state where heaven’s eternal light has a refining effect on the “holy souls” (not ‘poor souls’), who are held in the arms of Divine Mercy.” 

The doctrine of “Communion of saints” that we profess every Sunday is a happy reminder to us of all those who are gone to God. Pope Francis calls it a “spiritual connection that exists between those who continue their pilgrimage on earth and those who have passed the threshold of death into eternity.” So let us happily depend on their intercessions for us even as we remember them with gratitude in our prayers especially during the Holy Eucharist. This is one reason why we give a ‘Mass Card’ to those who are grieving the loss of a family member or arrange for Masses to be offered on the anniversary of our dear departed ones.

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal

 

 

Dear Friends,

After reading about the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock in my column last Sunday, a couple of you told me that you were curious to read about the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham which was something unheard of. Yes, that was true for almost all of us in the pilgrimage. We never heard of this shrine that is very famous in the UK. It was established around 1061 when Richeldis de Faverches, a holy woman, prayed that she might undertake some special work in honor of Our Lady. Richeldis was not a visionary like the children in Lourdes and Fatima. She was a woman of faith, she pondered, meditated, and prayed. In answer to her prayer, the Virgin Mary led her in spirit to Nazareth, showed her the House of the Annunciation where the Angel greeted Mary, and asked her to build a replica in Walsingham as a perpetual memorial of the Annunciation. This Holy House was built and a religious community took charge of the foundation.

Walsingham became a shrine, a place of pilgrimage and miracles. Many kings made pilgrimages there. This included Henry VIII, but after his break with the Church he turned against anything Catholic. In 1538, the Reformation caused the shrine property to be handed over to the King’s Commissioners and the famous statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was taken away to London to be burnt and the shrine was destroyed. Walsingham ceased to be a public place of pilgrimage. Devotion was necessarily kept in secret until after Catholic Emancipation (1829) when public expressions of the Catholic Faith were allowed once more. In 1897, by rescript of Pope Leo XIII, the sanctuary of Our Lady of Walsingham was restored, with the building of a Holy House as the Lady Chapel of the Catholic Church of the Annunciation, at King’s Lynn.

We were able to visit and pray in the “Slipper Chapel” where the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham is enthroned. (It is called “Slipper Chapel” because pilgrims would remove their shoes and travel the final mile – called the “Holy Mile” – to Walsingham with penitentially unshod feet.) The statue is of course a modern one but has been modelled as closely as possible on the medieval statue. Our Lady is depicted in traditional style seated on a simple chair of state with the Child Jesus on her knee. She wears a Saxon crown in token of her ancient queen-ship and carries the lily of purity.

The devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham received a further mark of papal approval during the visit to Britain of Pope Saint John Paul II in 1982. As Our Lady guided Richeldis to make a Nazareth in England, every chapel and shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham is a particular, local Nazareth, an encounter with the joy of the Incarnation in that special place. This shrine has inspired the formation of one of the new forms of consecrated life, recognized by the Church. They call themselves “The Community of Our Lady of Walsingham.” It is an Ecclesial Family of men and women who consecrate their life to Jesus through Mary. They work for the coming of God’s Kingdom by enabling people to live in the joy and freedom of Mary’s Fiat. As a Marian community they are praying and working for the re-evangelization of England and the western world, taking that popular verse from Matthew 6:10 as their guide: ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Your brother in Christ,

Fr. Abraham Orapankal