Sep 15, 2020

Greetings,

Our church bells at St. Sebastian rang 2:30pm on Monday, the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, when the Most Rev. Edward Malesic, after receiving the parchment given to him from Pope Francis through the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Christophe Pierre and having shown it to all present, took his seat in the cathedra in St John Cathedral becoming the 12th bishop of the Diocese of Cleveland. It was just three years ago that, in the same ceremony (but with more people since there were no COVID regulations) Bishop Nelson Perez became our 11th bishop, leaving us after a short time to become the next bishop of Philadelphia. The nuncio said to him that he should expect to be here longer than Bishop Perez. A great message for us to hear.

Our 170 year old diocese has been under the temporary care of Fr. Donald Oleksiak, elected to his position by the presbyterate of our diocese. He faced monumental difficulties during his duties which included leading us through COVID without benefit of being the bishop. In his homily, Bishop Malesic said that he served the diocese faithfully and well and that he had the biggest smile in the cathedral now that his duties have come to an end.

The new bishop said that he also intends to visit all the parishes of the diocese but that COVID will make it take time. In the meantime, please keep him in your prayers.

IN OTHER NEWS:

ST. PADRE PIO:  Welcome Rev. G. David Bline who will be the celebrant of the 9:00am Mass this Sunday. At this Mass, a relic of St. Padre Pio will be presented to the parish for permanent display in the new prayer chapel (former baptistry.) The relic that we have is a small piece of one of the gloves that he wore that covered his stigmata and is therefore stained. Parishioners will be able to see and venerate the relic at the end of Mass if you so choose.

There is nothing magical about a relic. It is a connection to a saint that should inspire our thoughts to live like saints ourselves, to understand our connection with those who have gone before us but remain connected in the Body of Christ, and bring us closer to God. Here is a link to understanding more about relics: https://www.catholic.com/tract/relics.

Veneration is shown outwardly by respectfully bowing or making the sign of the cross before a saint's relic. There will also be prayer cards available. When such a thing is touched to a first class relic, they become third class relics, again, a special object set aside to aid us in our spiritual journey.

EUCHARISTIC DEVOTIONS:  Thank you to everybody who helped with our 40 Hours of Devotion. It was fantastic to see so many of you giving of your time to Our Lord, the center of our community. May we be blessed as a parish as we move forward in this challenging year.

A MESSAGE FROM THE LEGION OF MARY:  The Legion of Mary thanks everyone who attended the Birthday Party thrown in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Sunday, September 6th. We also thank everyone who entered their rosaries prayed online. Our final count was 6,053 rosaries! That equates to 320,809 Hail Mary's and 36,318 Our Fathers! We were honored to present such a glorious gift to Our Mother, on behalf of all her faithful children.

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck