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May 2012

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:

    In accord with Church policy, on May 18, 2012 as I turn 75, I am sending my resignation as the Diocesan Bishop of the Diocese of San Angelo to our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.  What will happen after that?  How soon will it happen?  These are questions that will be answered eventually by our Holy Father.  I do know this, that some time in the future – soon or maybe a little later — a new bishop will be named for the Diocese of San Angelo.  

    As I await our Holy Father’s reply, I will continue to serve you to the best of my ability as your Bishop, and pray daily for all of you.  As the future is somewhat cloudy, I will be writing less for the West Texas Angelus, and reviewing which pastoral commitments for our communities I can accept as we await word from the Holy Spirit through Pope Benedict.

    Already, I encourage all the people of our diocese to pray for the bishop who will come after me, and once the new bishop has been appointed, give him your abundant prayers and full, entire support.  This is a time to look to the future, and to ask Jesus our Good Shepherd to guide us as we march into the future with a new shepherd.  

    Please continue to pray for our diocese each day and to pray for me, your servant.  What the future holds for me is still uncertain.  I trust the good Lord will guide me as the good Lord has guided me throughout my priestly and Episcopal service.  I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know whose hands hold the future and that is enough for me.

    So, don’t look back to the past, look forward.  If we reflect on the past, let us do so with a spirit of gratitude and appreciation for God’s many graces and blessings that we have received through the years of being a diocese.  And, as we look to the future, let’s look ahead with much confidence, hope, and trust knowing that our God who has been good and gracious in the past will bestow loving care upon us as we strive to be God’s children and disciples of His Son, Jesus Christ, following the example of Mary. Once a more definite date has been given about the future, I will let you know so there will be time to offer a Mass of gratitude.  Thank you for your support and prayers over the past 27 years.  God’s peace.

                            Your servant in Christ and Mary,
                            Bishop Mike
                            Most Rev. Michael D. Pfeifer, OMI
                            Bishop of San Angelo    
                            

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Bishop Michael D Pfeifer says President Obama’s support for gay
marriage violates religious and natural understanding of marriage
 
Bishop Pfeifer’s statement:
"President Obama’s unequivocal support for the redefinition of marriage is very disturbing and saddening. The President’s position on same-sex marriages goes against the basic biblical teaching that a true marriage is a sacred union of one man and one woman, and the constant Judeo-Christian understanding of the natural and religious meaning of the union of marriage.  The president’s decision undermines the institution of marriage, which is the very cornerstone of our society. As the meaning of marriage is established by a Divine authority, no human being is granted the authority to change the long-held unique and inestimable value of marriage as being between one man and one woman.
“Several months ago, President Obama made the decision to abandon support for the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] which caused great sadness among people who believe that a true marriage is designed by God and understood for millennia and across cultures as a union of one man and one woman.
“Unfortunately President Obama’s latest decision is not surprising because of actions already taken by his Administration that erode the unique meaning of marriage.
“The Catholic Bishops stand firmly ready to affirm every positive measure taken by our government to strengthen marriage and family. Within the Church, marriage and family are a primary ministry, and we will take every action to teach and preach about the sacredness of marriage as designed by God. “
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By Jimmy Patterson
Editor / West Texas Angelus

   ABILENE — Thaddee Uwimana had a good childhood. He was raised in a Christian family with three brothers, two sisters and a mom and dad active in the Catholic Church in his native Rwanda. His knowledge of the United States came in part from watching John Wayne movies (he has a portrait of The Duke hanging in his living room) and watching the Chicago Bulls play in the NBA Championships in the 1990s.
   Thaddee, pronounced Teddy, enrolled in a small seminary before opting instead for medical school in Rwanda. After med school he became a doctor in Rwanda and even owned five houses. He was one of the fortunate ones.
   But when the factions in Rwanda, the Hutus and Tutsis, began warring, Thaddee and his wife and child were forced from their home and lived for five years in refugee camps. They called small spaces under bushes and below trees their new home. They would become refugees in their own country for five years, before fleeing to Kenya and finally to the Ivory Coast where the violence caught up with them again. Thaddee and his family would apply for residency in the United States and finally in 2002 he and wife, Pascasie and their two children moved to Abilene.
   It wasn’t until he left Rwanda, though, that the worst part of the journey for the Uwimana family began to unfold. Two of his brothers and one sister were murdered in Rwanda. And then came the cruelest hurt of all.
   “My father and mother moved into one of my houses in Rwanda,” Thaddee said. “One day, a rebel came into the house and demanded my father leave, that the house now belonged to him. My father said, ‘No, this is my son’s house.’ They shot him. He was 92.”
   Sylvain Uwimana was a Christian, a religious education teacher at his church and a farmer. A good, spirit filled man, Thaddee calls him. So inspirational was Sylvain that Thaddee and Pascasie named their children Sylvie, Sylva and Sylvanius. The younger two children were born in America. Sylvanius was born with Down Syndrome. He had open heart surgery as an infant and has continuing heart concerns.
   Life has been a challenge for Uwimana. But it is only his later years in Africa that he terms an “extreme ordeal.”
    The challenges he and his family have faced here -- including his professional adjustment -- have been manageable compared with watching your homeland turned into a violent killing field and being forced to flee from camp to camp and ultimately country to country.
   Thaddee thought he had found a peaceful home in the Ivory Coast until waking up one morning to the sound of gunfire.
  The French military rescued the Uwimanas and ultimately they landed in Abilene, where Thaddee said he expected to find cowboys and horses. His vision of Texas was just what Hollywood told him it would be — even from half way around the world.
   Thaddee didn’t find those staged trappings, and life in Abilene has been anything but war-torn. He and his family have a new home, and a new family, at Abilene’s Holy Family, has provided the support and friendship the Uwimanas didn’t have in Africa.
   Still, Thaddee says, “I miss my country. It is my native country. I hope to live long enough to see it return to a peaceful country where I can return to visit.”
   One of the more difficult changes Thaddee was faced with upon arrival in America was being unable to practice medicine as he could in Rwanda and elsewhere in Africa, where he also served as a worker with the International Red Cross. In Abilene, he is the assistant director of nursing at the Windcrest Alzheimer’s Care Center.
    Thaddee made $2 a day as a practicing physician in Rwanda but still, being unable to work as a doctor here feels as though his career has been taken from him, he said. When he applies for jobs in his chosen profession, Thaddee said, he never mentions that he has a medical degree from Rwanda, but his coworkers and bosses soon come to know and realize how intelligent he is and how good of a doctor he would be if allowed to practice.
     Thaddee has worked at Windcrest for six months. Pascasie, works as a caregiver at Abilene State School, Thaddee’s previous employer. Born on Easter, Pascasie also came from a Christian home, like her husband. They met in college. Together with their children, they don’t have the words necessary to thank the people who have taken them in at Holy Family, and elsewhere in Abilene.
  “The church and the schools have been very supportive,” Thaddee said. “Deacon Rhodes is our youngest son’s godfather. He was born right after we came here.”
   Thaddee still has nightmares about things he would want no other person to ever see: babies breastfeeding from mothers that have been murdered and unending streams of the victims of violence flooding into the Red Cross hospitals where he worked, for instance.
    “I saw many things. Sometimes I still see those images and cannot forget,” he said. “The cholera was horrible. People using Lake Kivu as a bathroom, and also as a source for drinking water. There are no rules there. It’s like a jungle.”
   From 1990 when Thaddee was first forced from his home, he and his family ran from the violence, until 2002. Through it all, there was one thing that kept him going.
   “If I didn’t have my faith, I would be gone,” he said. “From when I lived in my big house until I was living in the bush, sometimes we didn’t know if we would survive. It is one day at a time. I had many things in life and I lived many different kinds of lives. It is my faith that saved me.”
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     ABILENE – Lorenzo Hatch says he can’t wait to begin serving the people of God in the Diocese of San Angelo. Friday, the first step of that lifelong prayer comes to fruition when Hatch is ordained a Deacon of the Roman Catholic Church in a 6:30 p.m. Mass, Friday, May 4, at Sacred Heart Church, 837 Jeanette Rd., in Abilene.

   Hatch, a graduate of Dumas High School and native West Texan, is one of four diocesan seminarians attending Assumption Seminary in San Antonio who are nearing the diaconate.

   Deacon Francis Onyekozuru was ordained April 21 in Odessa; two more seminarians, Sam Matthiesen and Innocent Eziefule will also be ordained deacons in May (Schedule below).

   “I have grown in so many ways: spiritually, pastorally, humanly, and academically during these past seven years,” Hatch told the West Texas Angelus, the Catholic newspaper of the diocese. “Many good people have played a big part in this process and for that, I am most grateful. I am also grateful to all those who have nurtured all the seminarians by your support, both financially and especially by your prayers! I look so forward to serving the people of God as a deacon and in God’s grace, as a Priest next year.”

   Bp. Pfeifer expressed happiness over the number of young men entering the diaconate in the diocese.

   “It gives me great joy as bishop to celebrate in the next few weeks the diaconal ordination of four of our seminarians for the diocese because this means that soon we will have four new priests to serve God’s people,” said Bishop Pfeifer. “I am very proud of the four who will be ordained as deacons. They have prepared well for this great day, and already from their intern programs and studies, I can see that they want to be true servants of the Lord for God’s people.  This is a day to rejoice and thank God for these good men.”

   Other diaconal ordinations and celebration Masses in the Diocese of San Angelo in May are as follows:

   May 14 — OLFEN, St. Boniface — Diaconal Ordination of Sam Matthiesen, 6:30 p.m.

   May 17 — ABILENE, Holy Family — Diaconal Ordination of Innocent Eziefule, 6:30 pm.

   May 25 — SAN ANGELO, Sacred Heart Cathedral – Priestly Ordination of Brother Martin Mary Hubbs, O.Carm., 11 a.m.

   May 26 -- MIDLAND, St. Stephens, 50th Priestly Anniversary of Msgr. James Bridges, 5 p.m.

   May 27 -- ROWENA, St. Joseph, 50th Priestly Anniversary Mass for Msgr. Bernard Gully, 9:30 a.m.

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By Jimmy Patterson
Editor

    SAN ANGELO — Vicki Thorn described a hypothetical conversation that recently occurred at her house to a group of almost 200 attending the Gospel of Life Conference in San Angelo, March 24.
   “My husband walked in and our daughter, who had been talking to me about a friend who was pregnant, looked at her father and said, ‘Dad, if I was pregnant, what would you do?” Thorn recalled.
    Without missing a beat, Thorn said her husband told their daughter, “Well, first thing, we’d call Sister Martha to see about you staying in school, and then we’d go to the doctor to make sure everything is OK.”
   It is that kind of parental reaction, Thorn said, that we need to see more of if we ever hope to begin making a dent in reversing abortion numbers.
  “We need to tell our children that there are worse things that can happen to you than getting pregnant,” Thorn said.
   Thorn, founder of the Project Rachel Post-Abortion Support Ministry keynoted the Gospel of Life Conference, co-sponsored by the Knights of Columbus National Headquarters. Thorn noted that one in three women have had at least one abortion by age 45.
   “We all know someone who has had an abortion,” she said. “There is a reason the Pro-life movement is incredible and impassioned and it’s not because it’s a philosophical debate. If it were we’d all be polite. It’s a heart issue and because it is, everyone feels compassion and we have to recognize that. We have to understand the opposition, many of whom are walking wounded, women who have had their own abortion.”
   Thorn said women carry cells in them from every child they ever conceive for at least 40 years.
   “These cells are everywhere in their body and are active. It is physically impossible for her to forget the children that have been in her womb.
   “No child is a mistake and we need to tell that. We don’t need to tell them if they come home pregnant they’re outta here. They need to know if they become pregnant we’ll stand with you.”
   The conference was co-presented by San Angelo Bishop Michael D. Pfeifer, who also spoke briefly on the devastating effects of abortion, as well as on his recently completed ad limina visit with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.
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Bishop’s Calendar

APRIL
   14 — SAN ANGELO, Holy Angels – 3:00 p.m. Mass for Criminal Justice Retreat
   14 — SAN ANGELO, Holy Angels - Confirmation at 5:30 p.m.
   15 — OZONA, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Confirmation, 11 am.
   20 — ODESSA, Holy Redeemer –Confirmation  at 6:30 pm.
   21 — ODESSA, St. Elizabeth – Diaconal Ordination of Francis Onyekozuru
   22 — WALL, St. Ambrose – Confirmation at 9:00 a m.
   22-24 — AUSTIN, Meeting of Texas Bishops and Banquet of Diocesan Council of Catholic Women
   26 — ROWENA, St. Joseph – Confirmation at 6:30 p.m.
   27 — SAN ANGELO, CCD Awards Banquet at 6:30 p.m.
   28 — MIDLAND, St. Ann – Confirmation at 5:00 pm.
   29 — BROWNWOOD, St. Ann Confirmation, 11:00 a.m.

MAY
   1-2 -- HOUSTON, Episcopal Ordination of Bishop George Sheltz
   3 -- BALLINGER, St. Mary – Confirmation at 6:30 p.m.
   4 -- ABILENE, Sacred Heart – Diaconal Ordination of Lorenzo Hatch at 6:30 p.m.
   5 -- SAN ANGELO, Sacred Heart – Confirmation at 5:00 p.m.
   6 -- SONORA, St. Ann – Confirmation at 10:30 a.m.
   7-8 -- HOUSTON, Kenedy Board Meeting
   9 -- MIDLAND, San Miguel Arcangel – Confirmation at 6:30  pm
   10 -- ABILENE, Holy Family – Confirmation at 6:30 p.m.
   11 -- ODESSA, St. Elizabeth – Confirmation at 6:30 p.m.
   12-13 -- SAN ANTONIO, Premiere of Fr. Ted Pfeifer’s
documentary
   14 -- OLFEN, St. Boniface -Diaconal Ordination Sam Matthiesen at 6:30 p.m.
   15 -- ABILENE, St. Vincent – Confirmation at 6:30 p.m.
   16 -- BIG LAKE, St. Margaret – Confirmation at 6:30 p.m.
   17 -- ABILENE, Holy Family - Diaconal Ordination of Innocent Eziefule at 6:30 pm.
   19 -- ODESSA, St. Joseph – Confirmation at 7:00 p.m.
   20 -- ANDREWS, O.L. of Lourdes –Confirmation at 10:30 a.m.
   21 -- SAN ANGELO, Diocesan Pastoral Center – Staff Mass at 8:30 a.m. and Staff meeting at 11:00 a.m.
   22 -- STANTON, St. Joseph – Confirmation at 6:30 p.m.
   23 -- MERTZON, St. Peter – Confirmation at 6:30 p.m.
   24 -- COLEMAN, Sacred Heart – Confirmation at 6:30 p.m.
   25 -- SAN ANGELO, Sacred Heart Cathedral – Priestly Ordination of Brother Martin Mary Hubbs, O.Carm. at 11:00 a.m.
   26 -- MIDLAND, O.L. Guadalupe –Confirmation at 5:00 p.m.
   27 -- ROWENA, St.Joseph – Mass for 50th Priestly Anniversary of Monsignor Bernard Gully at 9:30 a.m.
   28 -- SAN ANGELO, Sacred Heart Cathedral – Memorial Day Mass at 9:00 a.m.
   29 -- June 1, SAN ANGELO, Christ the King Retreat Center – Priests Retreat


Christ the King
Retreat Center
MAY
   1 -- Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
   4-6 -- Encounter the Cross Retreat
   7 -- Heart of Mercy Prayer Group
   8 -- Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
   11-12 -- First Methodist Church of Midland
  14 -- DRE, CRE Reflection Day
  14 -- Heart of Mercy Prayer Group
  15-18 -- DOSA Good Leaders, Good Shepherds
  18-20 -- Engaged Encounter Weekend
   20 -- Natural Family Planning Class
   21 -- Heart of Mercy Prayer Grp
   22 -- Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
   28 -- Memorial Day Holiday – CKRC Office Closed
   28 -- Heart of Mercy Prayer Grp
   29-31 -- DOSA Priests Retreat

Ethics Workshops
   None currently scheduled


NECROLOGY
JUNE
   7 -- Rev. Ray Carr, O.P. (2005)
   8 -- Rev. Felix Cubelo (2007)
  13 -- Rev. David Espitia (2003)
   18 -- Rev. John Lucassen (1993)
   20 -- Deacon William Smith (2003)
   22 -- Rev. Msgr. Alvin Wilde (1996)
   28 -- Bishop Stephen A. Leven (1983)

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Web site changes
   Parish information on the diocesan web site can only be accurate with your help. When you see changes that need to be made as they pertain to your parish on the diocesan web site (http://www.sanangelodiocese.org), please send those changes to JimmyLeePatterson@gmail.com.

Priest changes
The following clergy changes are effective April 13, 2012:
4 Fr. Serafin Avenido will become the pastor at St. Joseph and St. Agnes in Ft. Stockton and St. James in Sanderson.
4Fr. Joe Uecker will become temporary administrator of St. Joseph and St. Anthony in Odessa along with Mission San Martin de Porras.

Catholic Charities
Banquet of Hope
   ODESSA -- Catholic Charities of Odessa, announces its annual "Banquet of Hope," from 6:30-8:30 p.m, Thursday, April 26, at the Odessa Country Club. Retired Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, former Bishop of San Angelo, will be the keynote speaker.  He will discuss Catholic efforts and challenges to overcoming poverty in America.  In addition to the Archbishop's address, the first annual presentation of the Sister Mary Thomas McNeela Award will be presented to Msgr. James Bridges, a former Odessa pastor. Fr. Bridges was one of the principal organizers of the organization in 1987. Catholic Charities is one of the principal private Ector Country charitable organizations.  It serves needy individuals and families regardless of religious affiliation.  It is funded by the Catholic people of Odessa, along with several other local Christian congregations. It is a United Way agency, and also receives grants from a number of charitable foundations as well as the US government. Through its Cory Learning Center, if offers GEDs for people needing a high school diploma.  Its food pantry serves forty to sixty families daily.  It offers tax and immigration services, and helps with rent, utilities and medical bills when funds are available. The organization also operates the Family Thrift Store at its location across from Odessa College.  Banquet tables of eight are available for $500, and individual tickets can be purchased for $75 per person. For more information, contact Fr. Mark Woodruff at 432.367.4657.   

Pro-Life Rosary in Midland
   MIDLAND —  Bishop Michael D. Pfeifer will preside over a pro-life Rosary in front of the Midland Planned Parenthood at 9:30 a.m., Friday, June 8, 2012, a day when abortions are done at Planned Parenthood. The date also closely coincides with the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, which is Sunday, June 10.
   “The beautiful Feast of Corpus Christi, which has a long tradition in our Church, reminds us of the greatest gift Christ has left His Church, which is His own Body and Blood, and that by receiving His Body and Blood, we enrich our membership in the precious Body of Christ, linking us to all who are members of the Body of Christ, even to the precious little ones in the wombs of their mothers who are part of the sacred Body of Christ.'

Deacon to speak in Midland
    Greg Hall, a deacon in the Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, and an engineering technology graduate of Texas A&M, is this year’s featured presenter at the, “An Evening With ...” fundraiser series, July 20, 2012, at the Midland County Horseshoe. The event will benefit the Midland non-profit, Centers for Children and Families.
   Hall’s drilling technique was instrumental in the October 2010 rescue of 33 Chilean miners who had been trapped underground for more than two months.
   Hall received a diploma in pastoral studies from St. Mary’s Seminary in December 2010 and was ordained a permanent deacon in February 2011.
   Watch for additional details in upcoming issues of the Angelus.

     
Scheduled Executions
    The Angelus publishes the execution dates of Texas offenders on death row each month so that the faithful in the Diocese of San Angelo can pray for them. The following offenders face upcoming execution dates. Please pray for them as well as the victims, families and all who are affected by violence:
Offender/Scheduled Execution Day
Beunka Adams / April 26
Anthony Bartee / May 2
Steven Staley / May 16
Bobby Hines / June 6
Marcus Druery / August 1
Ramon Hernandez / November 14
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Bishop Michael Pfeifer, of the Diocese of San Angelo, leads a Good Friday procession, from St. Margarets Church to Christ the King Retreat Center. Fr. Joseph Choutapalli, pastor of St. Margarets, is seen at right.
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By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service 


VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- During a Mass in which priests renew their promises of fidelity to Christ, Pope Benedict XVI firmly criticized dissent from church teachings and disobedience of God's will as illegitimate pathways toward reform and renewal.

Surrounded by more than 1,600 priests, bishops and cardinals, the pope cautioned against calls for women's ordination, saying such campaigns seemed more "a desperate push" to fulfill one's own preferences rather than a sincere attempt to conform one's life more closely to Christ.

During the April 5 chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, which focuses on Holy Thursday as the day Jesus shared his priesthood with the apostles, the pope said he wanted to use the occasion to ask all priests, including himself, to meditate upon what their consecration really means.

"Are you resolved to be more united with the Lord Jesus and more closely conformed to him," which entails a renunciation of oneself and "of the much-vaunted self-fulfillment," the pope asked.

Being Christ-like means not to be served but to serve, not taking but giving, he said.

If that is the nature of the priesthood, then what should be the response of priests when faced with "the often dramatic situation of the church today," the pope asked.

Without specifying the country, Pope Benedict said a group of priests from a European nation have issued a call for disobedience of church teaching, specifically regarding the question of women's ordination.

Last year the president of the Austrian bishops' conference, Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, condemned a "Call to Disobedience," signed by 250 of Austria's 4,200 Catholic priests. The document urged Catholics to begin a campaign in support of women priests and "priestless eucharistic liturgies," as well as for Communion to be given to non-Catholics and remarried divorcees.

Also, 311 theologians from Austria, Germany and Switzerland signed a memorandum last year demanding the ordination of women and married men, as well as an "open dialogue" on the church's "structures of power and communication."

Pope Benedict asked, "Is disobedience a path of renewal for the church?" adding that Blessed John Paul II taught "irrevocably that the church has received no authority from the Lord" to ordain women.

Pope Benedict said perhaps such campaigns are motivated by concern for the church and believe that "the slow pace of institutions has to be overcome by drastic measures, in order to open up new paths and bring the church up-to-date."

"But is disobedience really a way to do this?" the pope asked.

True renewal must be based on lives that are radically conformed to Christ and God's will, he said.

Christ did seek to correct errors in human traditions, the pope said, but only those customs that stifled God's word and will, seeking to eliminate "human caprice" so as to reveal God's authentic desire for his people.

Being humble, subservient, and obedient to God and following church teaching are not excuses "to defend inertia, the fossilization of traditions," the pope said.

The era following the Second Vatican Council showed what a process of "true renewal" looks like, and it can be seen in many of the new movements and ways of life that are "filled with the joy of faith, the radicalism of obedience, the dynamic of hope and the power of love," he said.

Presiding over the first of two Holy Thursday liturgies, Pope Benedict blessed the oils that will be used in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, ordination and the anointing of the sick.

Deacons carried the oils in large silver urns to the main altar while catechumens, youths preparing for confirmation, the sick and deacons about to be ordained in the Diocese of Rome wheeled small tables carrying large, artistic urns, which also contained sacramental oils.

In his homily, the pope called on all priests to continue to look to Christ and the saints for guidance in how best to serve and renew the church and minister to humanity.

"God is not concerned so much with great numbers and with outward successes, but achieves his victories under the humble sign of the mustard seed," the pope said.

He urged bishops and priests to remember their role as teachers and to use the upcoming Year of Faith to combat "the growing religious illiteracy found in the midst of our sophisticated society."

"We preach not private theories and opinions, but the faith of the church," he said. Accurate, authentic guides of what the church teaches can be found not only in sacred Scripture, but also the texts of Vatican II, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Pope John Paul II's writings, which "are still far from being explored," he said.

However, such teaching will only be credible when those preaching live lives that are visibly touched and shaped by Christ and his word, the pope said.

- - -

Editor's Note: The text of the pope's homily in English is posted online at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20120405_messa-crismale_en.html.


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"Be reconciled to God" 2 Cor.5:20

By Bishop Michael Pfeifer, OMI

   On Ash Wednesday, the Apostle Paul exhorted us to “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor.5:20). The whole season of Lent is a time of reconciliation, to humbly and sincerely look at our relationship of love with our loving God, and with one another.
   To forgive our sins and bring us God's mercy, Christ has given the Church the wonderful Sacrament of Reconciliation - Penance. I share with you some reflections on the Sacrament of Penance, Reconciliation for the forgiveness of sins to help us grow in God's love in the spiritual life.
    This Sacrament is one of the two Sacraments of healing that Christ has given to our beautiful Catholic Church. As there is much misunderstanding of this Sacrament, and as many Catholics today do not fully appreciate the meaning of this wonderful Sacrament of God's mercy, it is important that we go back to the basics to have a fuller appreciation of this Sacrament which is vitally important to live as good Catholics.
   To help us understand this beautiful Sacrament, I am featuring here some of the teachings that are given to us by the Catholic Catechism, which hopefully will lead to a better understanding of this Sacrament of God's forgiveness and pardon.
   1421 The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation, even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.
 
THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION
   1422 "Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion.

WHAT IS THIS SACRAMENT CALLED?
   1423 It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus' call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father from whom one has strayed by sin.
   It is called the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the Christian sinner's personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction.
  1424 It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In a profound sense it is also a "confession"- acknowledgment and praise - of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man.
   It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest's sacramental absolution God grants the penitent "pardon and peace."
   It is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles: "Be reconciled to God." He who lives by God's merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord's call: "Go; first be reconciled to your brother."

WHY A SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION
AFTER BAPTISM?
    1425 "You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." One must appreciate the magnitude of the gift God has given us in the sacraments of Christian initiation in order to grasp the degree to which sin is excluded for him who has "put on Christ." But the apostle John also says: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." And the Lord himself taught us to pray: "Forgive us our trespasses," linking our forgiveness of one another's offenses to the forgiveness of our sins that God will grant us.
   1426 Conversion to Christ, the new birth of Baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Body and Blood of Christ received as food have made us "holy and without blemish," just as the Church herself, the Bride of Christ, is "holy and without blemish." Nevertheless the new life received in Christian initiation has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin that tradition calls concupiscence, which remains in the baptized such that with the help of the grace of Christ they may prove themselves in the struggle of Christian life.
This is the struggle of conversion directed toward holiness and eternal life to which the Lord never ceases to call us.

THE CONVERSION OF
THE BAPTIZED
1427 Jesus calls to conversion. This call is an essential part of the proclamation of the kingdom: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." In the Church's preaching this call is addressed first to those who do not yet know Christ and his Gospel. Also, Baptism is the principal place for the first and fundamental conversion. It is by faith in the Gospel and by Baptism that one renounces evil and gains salvation, that is, the forgiveness of all sins and the gift of new life.
1428 Christ's call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians. This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church who, "clasping sinners to her bosom, [is] at once holy and always in need of purification, [and] follows constantly the path of penance and renewal. "This endeavor of conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a "contrite heart," drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first.

INTERIOR PENANCE
  1430 Jesus' call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, "sack-cloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.
   1431 Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart).   
   1432 The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart. Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him: "Restore us to thyself, 0 Lord, that we may be restored!" God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of God's love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. The human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced.
Let us fix our eyes on Christ's blood and understand how precious it is to his Father, for, poured out for our salvation, it has brought to the whole world the grace of repentance.

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