No Going Back

Public Masses are set to resume in the Archdiocese of Detroit as is also happening in many other places across the country and also across the globe. Together with that the other day the clergy of Detroit had a Zoom Room teleconference with the Archbishop. In this session he unveiled some plans and proposals for the future shape of the Church of Detroit. I will not go into detail in this regard as the plan is for the Archbishop to unveil this proposal before the entire Archdiocese on Pentecost. I do not intend to steal his thunder!
However, let me just say that we will not be going back to the way things were before the pandemic hit.
And we shouldn't.
And having said that, let me set before you observations and ideas of my own for moving forward.
One item, in particular, stands out.
From these days we should have learned something, and if we learned well, then we should act on what we have learned.
One very strong lesson - modern technology can help us.
Use it!
We talk a lot about building communities, about reaching out beyond our doors, about sharing the Good News creatively.
Well . . .
Look at some of the things we have been doing in these past weeks.
Live streaming Masses - mostly Sundays but in some cases also daily. Before this entry into this strange and brave, new world, we already had Masses for shut-ins as well as a daily Mass that could usually be found on something like EWTN. So, in a sense this was already familiar territory. However, we breached some important new frontiers.
Parish communities were live streaming.
Parish members and staff were discovering that they really did not need expensive, sophisticated equipment. Most of the needed tools were already at hand.
And we could stream live and local to our own people, our own communities.
All of a sudden so many began to discover that, if they could not get to join the community for Mass for whatever reason, well, the community could join them in their very own living rooms. OK, maybe the streaming sites did not have much by way of communities due to the Stay Home, Stay Safe, but as we begin to reopen, familiar faces will once again populate those now empty buildings.
And if we continue the practice of regular, weekly streaming of parish Masses, our members who cannot physically join us, can still feel a part of us. No longer will they need to watch some strange faces from some unknown places, listening to unfamiliar voices.
Community can reach out beyond our walls and into the homes of our parish families.
Why should we stop this?
And that streaming thing - well, it goes for the Cathedral Masses as well.
How wonderful that our bishops, the true "fathers" our our faith families can be streamed into our homes. I know many folks who not only watched Mass from their home parishes but they also joined the Cathedral Mass.
Why loose that?
And when it comes to those bishops - here in Detroit every Wednesday evening one of the bishops would live stream praying the Rosary.
We talk about the importance of prayer and especially of family prayer. It is a constitutive element of the domestic Church. And here we have entire families of families, led by one of those chief shepherds, joined in prayer.
Why should that stop? Smaller praying communities can build and strengthen the larger faith community.
And I know that in a number of parishes, to manifest a sense of support and solidarity, pastors and members of pastoral staffs also provided regular messages of inspiration - again live-streamed and then available through social media like Facebook.
Another good idea - simple faith outreach.
And who can predict how extensive such methods of outreach might become?
Instead of returning to the way things were, we ought to hunger for and commit to the discoveries we have made, the tools we have found, the lessons we have learned.
And there is still more.
Just days ago well over 200, actually close to 300 priests were able to join the Archbishop for a Zoom Meeting.
No longer need distance or weather conditions be allowed to be barriers to getting together. Meetings can still have live participants but they can also broaden to include those who, for one reason or other, cannot actually be present.
We have learned to Zoom!
Let's keep on Zooming!
In recent days and months around here we have heard the cry and challenge to Unleash the Gospel.
Well, in these days of pandemic what if we accepted that God is giving us some valuable lessons and tools to enable and empower us so that we can effectively, in Twenty-First Century fashion, Unleash the Gospel.
If lessons have been set before us, we would be foolish not to learn.
If tools have been handed to us, it would be foolish not to use them.
No going back!
Church - time to look ahead!


(And, by the way, if you might want to print a copy of this to give to your own parish priests and parish pastoral leaders, go right ahead. It might give them some ideas for moving forward. Feel free to get the word out. My ideas are for you and for free!)

And Stay Home; Stay Safe!

We'll Remember Always . . .

Graduation Day!
Only this year for  so many who are graduating, especially from college, university or grad school, that memory will not include a walk up those stairs and across that podium.
This is the reality of Graduation in the Era of Covid-19.
A number of colleges and universities are live streaming ceremonies. Graduates, families and friends can join in, watching from the safety of their own homes and vicariously giving a shout, round of applause as a name is called and a graduate distant from that ceremony swings her/his tassel to the side indicating, "I've made it!"
But while this option is available, a lot has been said and written about how this year's graduates are missing out on some critical moment and experience in life.
This year's graduates?
What might we even mean by that?
This year's graduates - from what?
In the year 2020 we have those who have gained advanced degrees - doctorates. They are definitely graduates.
We also have those who have attained their Masters Degree in one field or other. Graduates.
And there are those who have achieved a Bachelor Degree - also graduates.
And then there are high school graduates and grade school graduates and even sometimes middle school "graduates" and primary "graduates."
Oh, and let us not forget about Kindergarten grads and the real cute ones, Pre-school graduates.
We have a whole lot of graduates and graduations these days.
Let me take you back some years, back to my time and my experiences and my graduations.
First of all, back in that day (which would be my day) there were no pre-school graduations because there was no pre-school.
The whole educational process started for some of us with kindergarten. For many even this was not available or an option.
Anyhow, kindergarten meant that you got ready for the full brunt of grade school. It was a sort of warm up and it neither required nor provided anything like a graduation.
So, by the time I was six, I had already not been provided with two of today's graduations.
Yet, somehow, I survived.
The grade school that I attended had no divisions identified as primary and secondary or middle school. It was simply grade school, from grade one to eight.
Thus, there was also no reason to even think of any graduations anytime before grade eight.
And it was a parochial school, run totally and completely by nuns.
And we had a high school as well, right there in the very same building, just a different wing.
And the assumption was that we would simply complete those first eight grades and continue on, seamlessly, for four more years in the same place and process.
So there was also no need for an eighth grade graduation. We were just moving around the corner.
However, all around our neighborhoods there were friends of ours who went to different schools and having graduations. We were feeling somewhat deprived. Anyhow, some clever and rebellious among us (was I one of them? What do you think?) came up with a kind of substitute for our missing graduation.
We would wear class ribbons.
Those things probably got lost in time but back in the day, my day, various grade schools marked their graduates with class ribbons. They were simple things, two ribbon bands, two colors, class colors, worn over one's heart and marking the wearer as a graduate.
We at least had visible class ribbons much to the dismay of the good sisters.
Then came high school.
And I  reached graduate stage at the local seminary high school.
And there we were informed that there was no need for graduation because we, as seminarians, were just moving from one grade to the next, most of us in the very same building (again!)
But the rebellious among us rose up yet again.
No graduation - fine.
No ceremony - fine.
But after our last whatever on the final day of high school, we scheduled ourselves to go out all together to a fancy restaurant where we, as a class,  celebrated our achievement by ordering steak dinners.
That was a splurge of significance, five dollars each not counting tip. (Remember, this was back in the day.)
So I arrived in college still technically never having actually graduated anything.
But college, St. Mary's, Orchard Lake, did have graduation complete with caps and gowns, diplomas, ceremony, the stroll across the stage, honors convocation,
At long last I did graduate!
And went from there into major seminary, which, of course, is grad school.
I suppose we had a graduation after completion of that program.
Only instead of graduation, this was called ordination.
But my education process was not yet completed.
I found myself a few years later journeying to the campus of Notre Dame to work in grad school on a degree in liturgical theology.
After that educational  leg of my journey was complete, there was once again, after all these years, the opportunity for a full graduation, this time with a Masters' Degree.
Cap and gown, honors, diploma and all in that stadium flanked by Touchdown Jesus.
And this time I said, "No, thanks."
Just send me the diploma.
And I hopped in my car and headed back home.
I skipped that opportunity.
So, looking back over the years I have experienced a whole lot of missed graduations.
And know what?
I survived.
And you can too.
After all, true success is not about a piece of paper but what ones does over a lifetime with the hard work behind that piece of paper - what one does with life itself and the opportunities and challenges it offers.
Graduation is a moment.
Education is a lifetime.
Don't let that opportunity slip by.



Stay Home!
Stay Safe!