Bulletin column from February 20, 2022

Dear Friends at Saint Frances Cabrini Parish and Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parish: Praised be Jesus Christ! Here are a few important updates as we make our way toward the end of February:

My Dad’s Death
I want to take this opportunity to once again express my heartfelt “thanks” to my extended family of the parish communities and the wider church for the amazing outpouring of support at the news of my dad’s unexpected death. My family and I have received so many notes and messages of condolences that we are just not going to be able to answer each of them with a personal response. Please accept this as a general thanks to everyone who has reached out to us and held us up in prayer these past few weeks.

The sudden and sad circumstances surrounding what happened with my dad raises anew for my own family and for everyone who has heard about it the classic questions of “why?” and what it all means. This is of course an enormous subject and an age-old one, and the answers are long and complex, and for me they now have become more personal than they ever were before. Suffice to say in this short writing that one point that has been underscored to me in this whole experience is that God allows death for his own mysterious reasons that are necessary not only for the deceased but also for their survivors. Just as our experience of suffering in other people is allowed so that we can be moved to compassion for them, a similar dynamic is at work with mortality. God allows the living to be impacted by death so that the living can be formed and perfected by it in ways that only God can weave together in the designs of providence. Death is allowed to unleash love, compassion, communion, and generosity in the hearts of those who remain, as people come together in support. It also brings to the surface buried sentiments in individual hearts, families, and communities that must come to light for true healing and wholeness. For all these reasons, and many more, we as Christians can certainly experience sadness and loss over deaths, but we should not be afraid of it, nor allow it to diminish our faith in a provident and loving Father who wastes no occasion to bring us to himself. Death has a vital place in life, and a Christian, even while mourning, sees it as the occasion of grace that it is. It does not make it easy, but the insights of faith do bring valuable perspective.

I will also say that my whole experience reinforces the critical importance of the Church’s rituals and customs surrounding death that increasingly these days are not being carried out due to reasons of schedules, economics, and mistaken desires to “not burden” survivors, etc. We need visitations, Masses in church, burial rites at cemeteries, and caskets placed in the grave all for the sake of proper perspective and closure. The more we get away from these time honored practices as Christians, the further we drift into unhealthy or inaccurate views of life and death. Just like with everything else these days, more and more Christians are going to be counter cultural in the way that we handle death precisely because of our understanding of it all in the light of revelation.

Other Transitions to Note:
Our shared Business Manager, Bill Neureuther, is ending his time in the offices this week after nearly two years of very generous and helpful service to our communities in that role. Prior to that he was also of great assistance as the school development coordinator. Please pray for the fruitful next steps in his life and in thanksgiving that God provided us with his talents when we most needed them. His successor,
Chris Chlebek, begins on the 21st and we are blessed to have him in this role. Chris will share more about himself in the coming days and weeks. Please pray for him and welcome him!

Lastly, we all learned this past weekend of Father Carlos’ departure from his assignment this coming June, one year earlier than had been planned. We will have more time and opportunities between now and then to wish him well and thank him for the gift that he has been here in West Bend. Changing parishes is always a challenging and formative experience for priests and I know that we will all keep him and his process of moving in our prayers.

As of this date we do not know who we will be receiving as a new Associate Pastor; I have simply been told that we will be getting one. Likely we will know more about Father Carlos’ new assignment and our next Associate sometime in mid to late April if the usual processes hold true. Meanwhile, all of this is how God keeps us all on our knees in prayer. In life and in death, and through every change and transition, we are grateful that God’s love for us is the one changeless constant that gets us all through.