A Message from the Pastor - October 11, 2024

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
- Luke 10:27

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

​For more than two years, our parish has been on a journey to unite St. Mary and St. Nicholas Churches. Ours is a journey that comes with joy and hope, as well as pain and difficulty. We are called to achieve this unification by respecting each other’s traditions and legacies, by respecting and loving each other as true brothers and sisters. On this journey, we are pursuing unity and not uniformity. This time of transition comes with great ideas and big expectations. It also comes with real challenges as we strive to accept each other as we are and journey as one people of God to fulfill the dream of our pastoral plan: to make the Kingdom of God present in our world by loving God, serving humanity, and caring for creation. How can we do this without loving God and our neighbors as ourselves? How can we love each other without accepting, welcoming, and embracing each other as we are? How can we achieve parish unity without accepting the diversity that makes us a unique, enviable, and life-giving parish?

Last Sunday, the Respect Life Ministry shared an article with the parish commemorating October as Respect Life Month. I acknowledge and hear the many voices of people coming to me with hurt, anger, fear, and uneasiness caused by this article, and I am deeply sorry. I love all our parishioners and the unique diversity of our faith community. It pains me to know that people were hurt by the Respect Life Ministry article, especially our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters.
The Church, including our church here at St. John XXIII, is the “sacrament of God’s infinite love,” as Pope Francis proclaimed in Fiducia Supplicans (IV, para. 43). This Church is you and me. We are people of all races, ethnicities, ages, and languages. We welcome all, include all, and receive all, just as God receives us as His own.

Our parish is gifted with so much talent: men and women, young people and older people, LGBTQ+ people and straight people—people who are actively involved in and passionate about our faith community and who give up so much of their time and energy for the life of the parish. At St. John XXIII, we are welcoming, inclusive, and loving, following Jesus's command to love our neighbors as ourselves. To my LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters: I assure you, this is your home. This is your parish, for St. John XXIII Parish stands as a living kingdom of God on earth, where everybody is welcomed, appreciated, valued, respected, loved, and saved. Everybody is valuable. Everybody has a preferential place in our parish.

As a sacrament of God’s infinite love, Pope Francis reminds us that “a small step, in the midst of great human limitations, can be more pleasing to God than a life which appears outwardly in order but moves through the day without confronting great difficulties… What shines forth is the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ, who died and rose from the dead” (Fiducia Supplicans, IV, para. 43).

I firmly believe that the parish needs a strong Respect Life Ministry, and I am grateful for the parishioners who have stepped forward to lead this important effort. I have encouraged them to continue to raise awareness about life issues.

At the same time, I believe that the parish needs to approach topics like human sexuality with sensitivity and compassion, drawing on the views and experiences of a wide set of parishioners. As such, appropriate steps have been taken.

Our patron saint, St. John XXIII, declared, “Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams.” Let us move forward with this expectation.

​I wish you a happy feast day.
 
Rev. Jean-Philippe Lokpo