Pastor’s Corner — September 13th, 2020
PARISH COVID-19 PROTOCOLS
For those who are coming to Mass, thanks for your patience and compliance with our COVID protocols in place. These protocols enable us to have many people coming to Mass safely. While most of the Masses have been below our seating capacity, occasionally we are over capacity. Following a recent conversation with Bishop Boyea and my leadership team, I have decided to raise our max capacity to 35% of seating capacity, which depending on how you count our seats is around 315-330 people per Mass.
UPGRADE OF VIDEO SYSTEM FOR CHURCH LIVESTREAM
Because of a very generous donation from a parishioner, we are upgrading our video system in the Church for a better livestream experience. When this pandemic is over, we will continue to livestream/record one of our weekend Masses for shut-ins. We will also be able to record more of the events in the Church with our new system. Special thanks to Fr. Joe for the “I Am Third” work he has done to make livestream happen in the first place and driving this new project to completion.
PREACHING SERIES STARTING NEXT WEEK
As I noted last week, we begin our preaching series next weekend. The main theme of our four part series is our commitment to the foundations of the common good. These homilies are all written by Fr. Joe, Deacon Dave and myself together and they all flow one from another.
SOCIALISM: THE CHURCH IS NOT NEUTRAL…AT ALL
On social media recently, I read a strange post from a Catholic claiming to be a socialist. That’s not possible. Fr. Joe and I have preached on socialism several times since we’ve arrived but I still find people confused about claiming to be Christian socialists. Let me be clear: the Church is not neutral toward socialism. In fact, the Church has condemned socialism quite strongly.
Here are just a few quotes:
Pope Leo XIII (in 1878): “[Socialists] debase the natural union of man and woman, which is held sacred even among barbarous peoples; and its bond, by which the family is chiefly held together, they weaken, or even deliver up to lust. Lured, in fine, by the greed of present goods, which is “the root of all evils which some coveting have erred from the faith,” they assail the right of property sanctioned by natural law; and by a scheme of horrible wickedness, while they seem desirous of caring for the needs and satisfying the desires of all men, they strive to seize and hold in common whatever has been acquired either by title of lawful inheritance, or by labor of brain and hands, or by thrift in one’s mode of life. (Quod Apostolici Muneris, 2)
Pope Pius XI (in 1931): “We make this pronouncement: Whether considered as a doctrine, or an historical fact, or a movement, Socialism, if it remains truly Socialism, even after it has yielded to truth and justice on the points which we have mentioned, cannot be reconciled with the teachings of the Catholic Church because its concept of society itself is utterly foreign to Christian truth…If Socialism, like all errors, contains some truth (which, moreover, the Supreme Pontiffs have never denied), it is based nevertheless on a theory of human society peculiar to itself and irreconcilable with true Christianity. Religious socialism, Christian socialism, are contradictory terms; no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist.” (Quadregsimo Anno, 117, 120)
Pope Pius XII in 1952: [The Church insists on] “the protection of the individual and the family against a current threatening to bring about a total socialization which in the end would make the specter of the ‘Leviathan’ become a shocking reality. The Church will fight this battle to the end, for it is a question of supreme values: the dignity of man and the salvation of souls.” (Radio message to the Katholikentag of Vienna, September 14, 1952)
Pope St. John XXIII in 1961: “No Catholic could subscribe even to moderate Socialism. The reason is that Socialism is founded on a doctrine of human society which is bounded by time and takes no account of any objective other than that of material well-being. Since, therefore, it proposes a form of social organization which aims solely at production, it places too severe a restraint on human liberty, at the same time flouting the true notion of social authority.” (Mater et Magistra, 34)
Pope St Paul VI in 1971: “Too often Christians attracted by socialism tend to idealize it in terms which, apart from anything else, are very general: a will for justice, solidarity and equality. They refuse to recognize the limitations of the historical socialist movements, which remain conditioned by the ideologies from which they originated.” (Octogesima Adveniens, 31)
Pope St. John Paul II in 1991: “The fundamental error of socialism is anthropological in nature. Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that the good of the individual is completely subordinated to the functioning of the socio-economic mechanism. Socialism likewise maintains that the good of the individual can be realized without reference to his free choice, to the unique and exclusive responsibility which he exercises in the face of good or evil.” (Centesimus Annus, 13)
For all of these reasons (and more) socialism is evil and cannot be made good, even if people vote for it. As Catholics we see there is a big difference between advocating for a certain kinds of social welfare programs and advocating for socialism. For more information on why the Church says socialism is evil and why it also critiques some forms of capitalism, please read the excellent new book called, Can a Catholic Be A Socialist? The Answer is No-Here’s Why by Trent Horn and Catherine Pakaluk (Catholic Answers, 2020)
Your servant in the Lord,
Fr. Mathias