Father Joe archives

Coronavirus and Catholic Exceptionalism

As fears about the new coronavirus continue to wreak havoc on our daily life, we may resent the limitations placed upon our religious practices. For people of faith this is understandable, as religious practice is a sacred, irreplaceable part of life. Restrictions may feel like an excessive imposition on all that provides us a sense of sacredness and spiritual consolation. This feeling is not unusual and is experienced by many people to one degree or another. But there is a shadow side to this, that may lead from resentment to active defiance, and that is the belief in some quarters that religious practice is an extraordinary exercise of conscience, and so is not bound by limiting social norms. But this is not true. We need....read more by clicking here. 

Pastoral Care Update from Father Joe -

March 23, 4:30 p.m.

I would like to update you regarding ongoing pastoral care ministries at St. Timothy. We are concerned to both support the sacramental/pastoral needs of our parishioners and support the federal and state healthcare directives as best we can, and to that end, we foresee some significant impacts on our pastoral ministry for the next several weeks at least. At the moment, here is what we are doing to provide this ministry within the limitations we now have:
 
1. All regular, non-emergency communion calls and pastoral visits to homes, nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities, and hospitals, are suspended. This includes our BeFriender ministries visits. We will resume these ministries when the health department officials and the facilities in question allow such activities to be resumed.
 
2. Fr. Joe is available for sacramental anointing and (if possible) communion for those parishioners who have entered what medical professionals describe as an actively dying stage, or, those who are in danger of entering into such stage. Please contact the parish office to make arrangements. If a sudden death occurs at home or in a medical care facility, please contact Fr Joe at the parish office. If your call is placed after hours, the parish office switchboard will direct you to our answering service. Please be aware that most nursing home facilities, rehabilitation facilities, and hospitals, have imposed restrictions on visitors. Some may require that only their onsite chaplaincy staff respond to such needs. Other facilities permit visiting clergy with restrictions toward the number of family allowed to be present. In the case of COVID-19 infections, any pastoral care interactions will be directed by the infectious disease policies of the hospital in question. In all cases, St. Timothy will abide by the particular policies in place at each facility.
     a. At this time, our priority of care remains with our current parishioners.
b. We will consider the following situations on a case-by-case basis: Former parishioners requesting end of life ministry. Parishioners calling on behalf of a family member who is not affiliated with St Tim’s or another church, or has not been active in church for some time.
 
3. Funerals:

1. Most funeral services should be delayed until such time that we can safely gather larger groups of families and friends in the church. Presently, we can do a funeral service, but one that is limited to no more than 10 people, including parish and funeral home staff. That leaves no more than a few spots for family members. This seems unlikely to meet the needs of most families.
2. We have indefinitely suspended funeral visitations prior to Mass, and funeral lunches.
3. Graveside services are available, provided they are done within the  healthcare directives issued by state and federal health authorities, and additionally, will be subject to any additional limitations set forth by cemetery policy.

              d. Our recommendation is that families consider an immediate burial with casket or cremation urn, within the above limitations, which would be presided over by Fr. Joe or a member of our funeral ministry team. We would then plan with you a date for a memorial Mass, when your family and friends could attend without restriction. The memorial Mass could then include the visitation before Mass and a luncheon, provided such groupings will be allowed by that time. The memorial Mass would not be a typical funeral Mass, as the remains of the deceased would not be present. However, in every other aspect the Mass serves as a funeral Mass.
 
If further changes are needed we will provide further updates. All of us hope these changes will be needed only for a very short time. If you have questions about these policies, please contact me or our pastoral care minister, Maggie Philbrooke, at the parish office. In the meantime, we continue to pray for one another and for all those most affected by this disease. May those who are ill find healing and quick recovery, and may those who are assisting the ill recover at our hospitals be kept safe. God bless you all,
 
Fr. Joe

 

March 18, 12:30 p.m. - thoughts from Fr. Joe

Dear Friends: 
One frequent question among many others right now is “How do we stay together in some way?” It is in our nature to seek out society, a common-unity in which we can share and enjoy one another’s presence. The social spaces in which we normally do that are going away for the time being, replaced with what exactly? Especially in our religious and spiritual lives, in which so much is structured on communal prayer and accompaniment, we are all feeling bereft, uncertain, and fearful of a future that at the moment seems foreboding and overwhelming.
 
And yet, there is maybe another way we can enter into the challenging days that lie ahead. It may be that our future experience of common-unity is being dramatically, and perhaps irreversibly, altered. One thing I have been pondering is that perhaps we will learn in a much more meaningful way how inextricably connected we all are across the globe. Until the last two months, I had never given a thought to the people of Wuhan, China. But I realize now that I am deeply connected with the lives of those people who occupy that space on a daily basis, and we are now sharing something that I would rather not share, but have no choice in the matter. But if I were to think about this a bit more, I could say that I have shared much with those same people, even before SARS-CORONAVIRUS became a thing. Our interconnected travels, economies, commerce, tourism, have brought us together in less personal, but no less real ways. Further, I suspect the people of Wuhan long for good lives, lived to the full with family, friends, love and companionship, comfort, security, good health, happiness, and all the good things we all hope for. And so I can describe the experience of longing and desire in the same way they do. And even more, how much do I share a deep seated spiritual longing for fulfillment in the presence of God, that my life has a purpose and meaning that I can barely decipher yet hope and trust is an inexhaustible source of direction and strength as I navigate the murky waters of my own life’s journey. I wonder how the people of Wuhan have prayed and hoped for the same, and I wonder if that depth of heart creates an abiding spiritual connection that I too often ignore, as if this deep longing is unique to me, or the people I live with. Perhaps these deepest longings of the human heart are an as yet untapped potential for transformation and conversion of our shared humanity. And perhaps I need to better honor these possibilities, not just acknowledging them in a time of crisis, and to realize that within my own desire and experience lurks the basis for something truly life-giving that exists within all of us, a presence and power that is always present to us, in any time, any place, with anyone, waiting to be brought to life by my choice and my actions. And perhaps God looks upon me with great sadness in the very heart of God as I go about the busyness of my days, blithely ignorant of this reality within to create and nurture immense goodness in and with others by drawing upon this universally shared, but yet deeply personal, vast power of interconnectedness we share in so many different ways. Perhaps I can better live the reality of this common-unity by accepting we are all in this together, and not just in the sense of hunkering down to better defend ourselves from this virus, but even more so in the broader sense of the world we share of flesh and spirit.
 
This may be a long way of encouraging everyone to see in the other an opportunity. For now, we are being asked to sacrifice some of the conveniences of our daily lives so that as many of us as have the best chance possible to avoid infection, or at least avoid a serious disease process. We owe each other that, in the manner of the love of neighbor directives that populate religious traditions throughout the world. This is the heart of the directives coming at us each day, further limiting our space of movement generally. And this is the rationale behind suspending public liturgical actions for the time being. Frankly, I find it irresponsible that some religious bodies are making different decisions in defiance of the best practices recommendations from our public health leaders. I am reminded of the prophet Isaiah’s thunderous denunciations of religious leaders of his day, who intent upon making the correct liturgical offerings, ignored the needs of the widows and orphans in their midst: “Thus says the Lord, What are your endless offerings to me? New moons, Sabbaths, assemblies, I cannot endure solemnity combined with guilt. Your New Moons and your meetings I utterly detest, to me they are a burden I am tired of bearing. Learn to do good, search for justice, discipline the violent, be just to the orphan, plead for the widow.” Is 1: 11-17.
 
Strong words, yet perennially important. The widows and orphans of our day are, simply enough, one another, and most especially those most at risk of severe or fatal infection. What are we willing to sacrifice to support these, our neighbors, in this moment? Can we find a shared, common-unity, within ourselves, that helps us recognize and act with great love based upon that reality? The great priest and paleontologist, Fr. Pierre Teilhard de  Chardin, got at the gist of this best, when he said: Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire. If nothing else, may the coming months be a time of discovery for all of us.
 
God bless you all, and keep you safe. Please check in with one another, support those in your neighborhoods who may need additional assistance, and pray that God will bless us with strength and faith to endure. Keep checking our website for daily updates as our staff prepares ways we can support each other virtually. And know of my prayers and support for all of you.
 
Fr Joe