March 2, 2022 7 am
On Ash Wednesday, the portal for the Disciple Maker Index (DMI) will open (3/2/22 7am). The survey will ask you about demographics, but it will be anonymous. It will also ask about our par- ish, what is good about it, what needs work. In- cluded in the survey will be a section on our school for school families. I cannot stress enough how important this will be for our parish and our Archdiocese as we move forward in our strategic plan. Look to our bulletin for more details next week.
The Return of Servers
Beginning in Lent, we will be incorporating serv- ers into our liturgies again. A couple of them (Pete, MC and Jackson!) have been doing a great job. I will be training a new group of fifth graders and will be asking the sixth and seventh graders to help out. I will also be talking to our PSR stu- dents as well. It is something that we have missed since Covid and it will demand that par- ents be diligent in seeing that their child is pre- sent early for Mass. If you know of an individual who would like to serve, drop me a line and let me know.
From the pages of the New York Times
I found this article refreshing and thought- provoking as we move forward into the spring. Let me share some quotes.
The current stage of the pandemic presents its own set of hard choices and trade-offs. If you wade into the angry, polarized Covid debates on social media and cable television, you will find people who try to wish away these trade-offs.
They pretend that science offers an unambiguous answer, and it happens to be the answer they favor.
Proponents of an immediate return to normalcy claim, implausibly, that masks and social distanc- ing do nothing to reduce the spread of Covid and that anyone who says otherwise doesn’t care about schoolchildren. Proponents of rigorous Covid mitigation claim, just as implausibly, that isolation and masking have no real downsides and that anyone who says otherwise doesn’t care about the immunocompromised.
The truth is that Covid restrictions — mask man- dates, extended quarantines, restrictions on gath- erings, school closures during outbreaks — can both slow the virus’s spread and have harmful side effects. These restrictions can reduce serious Covid illness and death among the immunocom- promised, elderly and unvaccinated. They can al- so lead to mental-health problems, lost learning for children, child-care hardships for lower- income families, and isolation and frustration that have fueled suicides, drug overdoses and violent crime.
And then the author says this:
There is no one correct answer to our Covid dilemmas. People are going to disagree passionately, and that’s frequently how it should be.
Most policy options have both benefits and draw- backs. The same applies to other areas of public health: We could also reduce flu deaths with permanent mask mandates, but this fact doesn’t mean that mandates would be wise.
One of the few Covid truisms is that policies should change as reality changes. A world without vaccines calls for more restrictions than a world with vaccines. When cases are surging and hospi- tals are overwhelmed, as was the case last month, more restrictions make sense. If hospitalizations and deaths keep falling, continued steps toward normalcy will make sense.
Can I get an “Amen?” Communion Calls
Finally with things opening up a bit more, I would like to make another offer to bring communion to homebound individuals. I like the fact that many of you already bring the Eucharist to people who are homebound or who cannot come to Mass, but I would like to make sure that everyone is covered. In Lent, I will be going to both Sunrise and Orchard for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Communion, so let me know if there is anyone else out there that needs these opportunities.