Dear Parishioners, I am looking forward
to the events of this next week. Each time that a diocese welcomes a new bishop, it is a special occasion. Even though I have now been to several of these during the last 30 years, they are special occasions filled with many customs and traditions. Once the Holy Father names a new bishop for a diocese, the preparations begin. For example, there will always be three bishops that need to be present to ordain a priest to the Order of Bishop. The Nuncio, or the representative of the Holy Father in the United States, is often present as well. Bishops from the geographic region are in attendance at the Ordination as well as the priests of the diocese. Then there are family members of the new Bishop as well as representatives from local government and community leaders. It will be a full Cathedral. With all these guests for the Bishop’s ordination, it will be a ticketed event and the number of parishioners from all parishes in the Diocese will be very limited. Several parishioners from St. Catherine will be representing us. On Tuesday, July 25, we are offering an opportunity for anyone to watch the livestream of the ordination here at St. Catherine. It begins at 2:00 pm and will be held in the Church. My guess is that it will be at least 2 to 2 ½ hours for this. As we welcome Bishop Lohse, please keep him in your prayers as he begins his time of service to us. Hopefully we will be able to welcome him to St. Catherine for a visit in the next few months. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank our staff and volunteers for all the hard work and time it took to put together another successful Vacation Bible School. It was an exciting week and a special thank you to all our sponsors who helped to offset the cost. Thanks for reading!
Fr. Mark