The Benefit of the Doubt

“Jesus reveals fully on the cross, mercy is also always costly to the giver of mercy. God creates a world out of nothing and gives it, in man, a freedom to receive the gift offered…or not.” (Tom Neal) In receiving mercy do we give mercy in return to those that wrong us? Do we give the benefit of the doubt to those around us? To our siblings, children, parents, spouses, friends, co-workers, and neighbors? It can be so easy to see what others do as a personal attack on us. Yet, most often people act based on other motivations not related to causing us personal harm. If we came to understand that reality, we can begin to treat others with compassion and pity. I have found that when I am able to do this, my level of peace increases, and I can take things much less personally.

In relation to this the reason why we canceled Totus Tuus is threefold. First, we have very limited staff availability in the summer because much of the religious education staff does not get time off during the school year (and we have an RE employee that is expecting the birth of a child over the summer...Yay!), one of the few weeks that worked for employees was the same as the Shelby County Fair which a lot of parents said would not work for their children. Second, with Fr. Aaron and I departing at the end of June things related to the transition of priests from our Family and coming into our Family creates a lot of work and confusion during the month before and after July 1, 2024. With an already overworked staff Totus Tuus would be difficult to pull off this year. There is no guarantee that we will have four priests come July. I am hopeful that we will, but the assigning of priests does take into account how interested priests are in taking a given assignment. So, if we are a priest or two short of four come July, there will be a lot more work to do, to make allowance for this outcome. Further, contributing to the issue of workload and staff availability for things like Totus Tuus. Third, last year for two of our summer programs we struggled to find volunteers to help with summer programing. Fr. Aaron and I even had to step in to take responsibility for large portions of the programming at one of our parishes (we will not be available this coming summer because of taking new assignments). If we do not have volunteers, staff, or the priests available to help with summer programming there is little reason to try and make something work that has little investment at the parish level.

Another area of confusion is related to the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) at Sacred Heart. We have not canceled CGS, we only made two decisions based on the current limiting factors. Here is the reality: CGS will not be taking place on Wednesday nights or Sunday during Mass. This makes perfect sense. In my understanding, CGS is supposed to prepare the children for Mass, not remove them from Mass. The best place for them to put into action what they learn about Mass is at Mass. Seeing their parents pray at Mass is among the best formation a child can receive. This is what the Church universal and the Archdiocese both observe, an observation I am in agreement with. Also, in terms of Wednesday nights, there is only so much space that a parish has. Everything can't happen at once. CGS can occur at other times throughout the week, except Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. Similarly, other parishes don’t offer CGS on Wednesday nights because they don't have the space, catechists, or the resources. We find ourselves in a similar situation. The other item is that we aren't going to send out registrations until we are sure that we have someone to input the registrations and coordinate the program. This is a prudent decision. Wouldn't it be shameful if we invited everyone to register, but didn't have someone to coordinate the program or complete the registration? What if they invited people to register but didn't have the program? It would be misleading. We are still advertising for the position. Hopefully, someone great is hired so that Sacred Heart can have CGS next year. Pastors across the area struggle to find someone to fill different positions. This struggle is not unique to our situation.

Again, why did we cancel the parish mission after the announcement? Because much of the staff was grieving that Fr. Aaron and I would be leaving at the end of June. Some of them believed that to continue with the mission would have been a lot for parishioners to process in the coming week. We had to make the announcement that week due to the open listings being sent to the priests from the archdiocese the following week. Meaning it would then be public knowledge and that we had to announce before the open listing was made public.

I would encourage you all to give the benefit of the doubt even to your parish and priests. Often criticism is offered without an offering of helping hand. “Tying up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” (Matthew 23:4) Spreading negativity serves only to have others perceived in unfair and cruel ways. Often such criticism becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy producing the very thing the criticism says it does not want to happen.

You may have also noted the amazing looking new cover for our bulletin. It signifies our unity as a Family of Parishes. May this help to draw our attention to our patron St. Joseph, Pillar of Families.

Thank you to all the parents out there. Your witness to faith in Christ is a more powerful witness to your children. So, keep trying, though your faith may be imperfect, you can still show your children how important the Lord is to you. In doing so, you start to form them to become disciples.

Peace in Christ,
Fr. Jarred Kohn