Just a couple of notes about Masses this weekend:

Mission Appeal.  This weekend is our annual Mission Appeal.  Normally we have a speaker who comes in to preach about their firsthand experience in the mission territory to which our appeal is directed that year.  This year, our guest was supposed to have been Fr. Tad Balinda, who currently serves in our diocese at St. Patrick’s Parish in Angola, Indiana.  This year our appeal is going to the Diocese of Kasese in the East African nation of Uganda, where Fr. Tad is originally from.  More information about the diocese can be found at www.kasesediocese.org, and the appeal this year will go towards the construction of their new cathedral.  Because of COVID restrictions, Fr. Tad won’t be able to join us in person, so we will instead give you a message he has prepared for us.

Typically, we have special envelopes in the pews for the Mission Appeal (since this isn’t included in your regular envelope set) so that you can offer your donation during Mass.  This year, however, since we’re not leaving any materials in the pews or taking up collections in the same way, we’ll do things a little differently.  We’ll have a second collection box near the back of the church that will be clearly marked for Mission Appeal donations.  We’ll leave that box out for a few more weeks in order to give you plenty of time to contribute.  If you’re mailing in your contribution or dropping it off at the rectory, either place it in a separate envelope clearly marked “MISSION APPEAL” or write it in the memo line of your check so that your donation is sent to the proper place.  Thanks so much […]

This week, we’ll celebrate our 8th Grade Graduation Mass.  We’re always excited to recognize our 8th graders as they complete their time at Christ the King School and move on to high school, but this year we’re even more excited to honor them.  After all, this ceremony has been a long time coming!  Just like other graduates across the world, they missed out on a lot when we moved to distance learning in March:  field trips, extracurriculars, the Service Immersion, and graduation, just to name a few.  I know that had to be a huge disappointment for them, but I’m proud of the way that they finished up a difficult year.  I’m also excited that so many of them will be back for our Graduation Mass.  It will be great to see them, and I’m sure they will be glad to celebrate with each other one last time before moving off to high school next month.

Speaking of going back to school next month, we have been hard at work on our plan to welcome students back to our school at the end of August. The start date of the new school year had already been pushed back due to construction, so we’ll begin the school year on Wednesday August 26th.  A very dedicated task force consisting of administrators, faculty and parents has worked throughout the summer to look at every aspect of our school day.  We’ve consulted broadly with experts in medicine, public health and education throughout this process.  No plan is perfect, and the situation around us is obviously fluid, but we have done everything in our power to make our school as safe as it can possibly be.  Our students and staff deserve no less.

We’ve […]

Our new seminarian, soon-to-be-deacon, Geoff Mooney has arrived at Christ the King!  We are very pleased to welcome as he prepares to be ordained a deacon (in September, at the same as Deacon Gil’s ordination to the priesthood) and ordained a priest in April.  (At this point we don’t have firm details about Fr. Mike Palmer’s transition to his new assignment, but I’ll keep you posted as we find out.)  Here are a few words of introduction from Geoff.

Dear Christ the King family,

It was Christmas Break of my fourth year teaching high school and the final week of 2012.  Just hours after returning from Midnight Mass with my family, I boarded an airplane bound for Rome to meet up with a group of Notre Dame graduates from the ACE program.  On our pilgrimage to the Eternal City, we toured the Coliseum and the Vatican museums, celebrated vespers inside St. Peter’s Basilica, took a train ride to Assisi, and watched fireworks from the rooftop of the Holy Cross Generalate on New Year’s Eve.  We took in all the sights and sounds (and tastes) of Rome, and for this I still have great memories, but perhaps the greatest personal impact of the pilgrimage came from an opportunity to spend a week in prayer and fellowship with young adults discerning God’s call for their lives in a place where so many Christians over the centuries—saints and sinners alike—had done the very same thing.

Though the first stirrings of a vocation to religious life for me came much earlier, this trip provided me the gentle push I needed to reach out to others and share how I thought God was calling me.  Growing up in southern Indiana, I attended Catholic […]

On the second Sunday after Pentecost, we always celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ.  This year this feast takes on a new poignancy since many of our brothers and sisters haven’t been able to join us in receiving the Eucharist.  Many are being cautious about returning to any kind of public gathering.  Others are heeding the State’s advice that people over 65 and others in high-risk groups should limit their exposure.  Either way, many people have expressed to me just how painful it has been to be separated from the Eucharist.

After listening to a lot of folks and having much discussion as a Pastoral Team, this Sunday we are going to begin making the Eucharist available to these folks outside of Mass on Sundays.  We invite anyone who is unable to join us in person for Mass, but who has watched Mass on TV instead, to come to the church between 1:30pm and 2:00pm, where they will have the opportunity to receive the Blessed Sacrament.

We’ve waited until this weekend to make this available for a few reasons.  Of course, it is providential that this is happening on Corpus Christi, and it also coincides with the beginning of Stage 4 of the Governor’s Back on Track Indiana, plan; while this still advises that seniors and others in high-risk groups exercise caution, it eases some of the restrictions and guidelines that had previously been in place.  (I encourage you to familiarize yourselves with these recommendations at https://www.backontrack.in.gov/2348.htm.)

We’ve also consulted different medical and public health officials before making this decision, and based on these discussions, we know that caution is still necessary.  Those who take advantage of this opportunity will still be asked […]

This weekend is Pentecost Sunday, which marks the end of the Easter season.  But it also marks the first weekend we’ve offered our normal Saturday morning confessions since the COVID-19-related shutdowns began in mid-March.  I’m so happy to be offering the sacrament once again, especially since I know how many people wanted to make a confession during Lent but weren’t able to do so.

Just like Masses, confessions will look a little different than you’re used to.  Here’s some of what you can expect:

¨ We’ll still hold confessions from 9am to 10am Saturday morning, but we won’t be in the confessionals.  We’ll be using the Cry Room, as well as the Holy Cross Chapel, if both priests are hearing confessions.  There will be signs in the church that indicate which rooms are being used.

¨ Chairs will be spaced a safe social distance from one another, and both the priest and the penitent will wear masks.

¨ People waiting to go to confession will remain in the church.  Since the pews are already roped off to keep people at a safe social distance, people may wait in the pews (one person per pew).  They may also choose to stand on the markers on the floor, which are also spaced appropriately.

This may be a slightly different experience of confession than we’re accustomed to, but obviously this is a season where most parts of our lives look different than they used to, and we’re called to adapt.  But even though the room and the waiting line may look different, the most important parts of the sacrament are unchanged:  the confessional is still the place where sinners like us can completely unburden ourselves of the worst sins that are weighing us down, the place […]