Dear Friends,

Serving as your pastor these last two years have been a gift from the Lord at this late stage in my priestly ministry. As many of you know, OLMC was my home parish for 3 years before entering the seminary. Fr. (Msgr.) McCready, the pastor, was a wise and kind mentor, helping me to grasp a good understanding of the practicalities of the priesthood. He gave me a room in the rectory during vacations and even saw to it that I had a few extra dollars in my pocket.

There were, however a few tense moments when I thought my vocation might be in danger. Like the time I borrowed Fr. McCready’s prized graphite-shaft golf driver without asking permission, only to see the clubhead fly off the shaft on the driving range. That easily could have been the end of my seminary days, but eventually cooler heads prevailed (that I got the club repaired quickly certainly didn’t hurt matters).

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Friends,

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers and grandmothers of our parish community. Like many, on this day I reflect on my own mother and the impact she had on me. I always knew I was loved very much by her. She taught me many things: how to speak (albeit Spanish, not English); about God’s love for me and everyone; how to pray; to love my brother and sister; to obey the teachers at school and to apply myself; to be kind to others; to ask forgiveness for wrongdoings; and the joy of warm, homemade food awaiting our return from school. As we grow older and more independent, the importance of our mother’s love begins to wane. That is one reason why this day in which we honor our mothers is so important. The unconditional love of God is reflected in both of our parents, but our mothers who make it concrete and transformational.

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Dear Friends,

Dennis Prager, a conservative author and talk-radio host has drawn a lot of attention to himself recently because of his controversial and very problematic views on pornography. At a recent round-table discussion hosted by Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist and author, Prager said “men want variety, so pornography is not so awful so long as it is used as a substitute for adultery.”

Prager, who is in many ways an insightful and moral man, has badly understood the way that the use of pornography harms the user and those around him. If the user is married, single a priest or a nun, he or she is doing violence to the gift of noble sexual desire God has implanted in our hearts. While God’s plan for married love is that spouses would give themselves away completely to each other in selfless love in service to the other. Porn, on the other hand works in the opposite direction, reducing other people to objects of sexual gratification. No, pornography is not a harmless diversion—it is the toxic venom that is destroying the souls of millions of young men and women and causing deep wounds in countless marriages.

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