For matters of health, Racquel Jones, St. Malachi’s Back Door Ministry Coordinator, is taking personal medical leave. Please keep her in your prayers. Please contact Jeanette at the rectory regarding any Back Door Ministry needs.
Pastor Column, 10/02/22
2 OCT 2022
Dear Parishioners and Friends,
As we observe Respect Life Month 2022, we do so with an answer to a decades-old prayer when the Supreme Court bravely revisited the Roe v. Wade ruling which allowed for abortion on demand, based upon the indefensible view that the government is forbidden to protect the unborn child from the violence of abortion. The Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization rightly returned the issue of abortion to be decided by the people’s elected representatives. What is described as a major paradigm shift in American law, a segment of our human family are again welcome to enjoy natural protections which belong to everyone.
But our work to promote a culture of life does not end with this important ruling. This is the time for recommitment to building a culture of life and civilization of authentic love. Justice is essential to this recommitment. However, as stated by the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, to build a world in which all are welcome requires not only justice, but compassion, healing, and above all, unconditional love.
To this end, we’re called to a Radical Solidarity where we live in a world that embraces the reality of belonging to one another. This is essential as we move away from a Roe world where the solution is to use lethal force against one human (the baby) while abandoning another (the mother). Radical Solidarity, therefore, embraces a culture of life that insists that a pregnant woman and her baby are fellow members of our larger human community. It is a call to friendship and compassion rooted in the truth that we are made to love our neighbor as ourselves (Saint Pope John Paul II).
As we observe Respect Life Month, therefore, let us consider the following words of Pope Francis in his 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’:
In the face of the so-called culture of death, the family is the heart of the culture of life. In the family we first learn how to show love and respect for life; we are taught the proper use of things, order and cleanliness, respect for the local ecosystem and care for all creatures.
Perhaps when we embrace an authentic culture of life for the most defenseless among us and participate in a community of radical solidarity with one another, all of creation – including our planet – may then be restored to God’s original design.
In Christ Our Life,
Fr. Gurnick
Calling All Parishioners: Your Input is Needed, 09/24-25/22
We have organized the data collected so far! We want your valuable input and feedback as we proceed in creating our future. Strategic Planning Listening sessions will occur again on Sat.9/24/22 and Sun.9/25/22 after Masses in the Hall. Please come and join in the conversation- everyone is an important part of this on-going conversation!
Saturday Morning Breakfast Opens its Doors for Inside Seating
Beginning this weekend, guests are invited inside the Parish Hall for a sit-down breakfast. Thanks to Brother Phil and his efforts, volunteer groups will cook, serve and cleanup each Saturday so that our guests at Saturday Morning Breakfast can relax at a table and enjoy a hot breakfast with their friends and neighbors. Several volunteer groups will rotate throughout the month and take on this important task of serving the homeless and our less fortunate neighbors.
St Malachi Parish Pastoral Council, Minutes from the August 9, 2022 meeting
Minutes from the August 9, 2022 meeting
In Attendance: Fr. Michael Gurnick; Judy Slivka; Judy Stowe; Tony Cresci; Cathy Graham; Jackie Krejcik; Melissa Smith-Morales; Steph Riccobene; Claudia Cabrera; Margaret Armstead; Janet Benoit; Jan Durkalski; Jeff Walters
Guests: Lou Keim; Jeanette Shemo; Charlene McElwee; Stephanie Pritts
Opening Prayer: Janet Benoit
Strategic Planning Update: The first meeting of the newly-formed Strategic Planning Work Group (SPWG) will take place on August 13, 2022 from 9a-4:30p in the Library/Meeting Space
Approval of the Minutes: The minutes from 6/21/22 were amended & approved
Ministry Leadership Meeting (10/29/22): Call for volunteers
Administrator’s Report from Fr. Gurnick:
- Fr. Gary Yanus, General Vicar, will be the liaison to provide updates on the progress of our strategic planning to Bishop Malesic
- Numerous slates on the church roof need replacement—more extensive than expected, but supported by diocese
Discernment for Council (2022-2023) Leadership Positions: Lou Keim: Chairperson: Judy Slivka
Vice-Chairperson: Tony Cresci; Secretary: Judy Stowe
Announcements: Next Meeting: September 6, 2022 at 6:30p in the Meeting Space
Closing Prayer: Judy Slivka
Respectfully submitted,
Judy Stowe, Secretary
Your Attention Please — Volunteers Needed!
The next phase of our work will involve the Steering Committee (SC) and the Strategic Planning Work Group (SPWG) doing interviews with various people and organizations that have or have had connections with St. Malachi’s over the years. Along with the surveys and information parishioners are giving us in various ways, we want to understand our broader relationships in the Cleveland community and learn from them. The SC and SPWG will spend most of September compiling and digesting all of this material. We will then present the Main Options to be explored to Parish Council in early October. These are very “key” steps in this process and we want to give these steps the time needed to produce a quality outcome. The Options will be shared with the Parish in Mid October – Stay Tuned!
While the SC and SPWG are doing the above work, we are also asking that PARISHIONERS STEP FORWARD to join an Option Team. Each Option Team will take a “deep dive “ into a particular option to discern its pros and cons beginning in mid-October. The Training Session to be on an Option Team is Saturday, October 15, 9AM-3:30PM. PLEASE contact a member of the Steering Committee below to volunteer for an Option Team. We need everyone’s help to create our BEST FUTURE! Thank you all! The Steering Committee (Jim Connell, Cathy Graham, Joe Nagel, Therese Mullen and Pat Masterson, Tim Needles).
Hospitality Needs Coffee Hour Hosts
Hospitality is hoping to resume Coffee Hours for the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month after Mass ( just fellowship). We are looking for individuals to purchase/make bakery and coordinate coffee (with the support of the Hospitality Team). If we have five volunteers, folks would only need to serve once per quarter. Contact Jeff Barbalics at 216-396-5461 or jbarbalics@csinc.com if you are able to help.
RCIA: Journey Into the Heart of Jesus and His Church
The RCIA provides a way for adults and children over age seven, who experience God’s call to the Waters of Baptism and/or the Bread of Life at the altar, to enter fully into the Catholic Church. This includes the unbaptized (called catechumens), those already baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (called candidates for full communion in the Church), and baptized Catholics who are not completely formed and desire full initiation through the sacraments of Eucharist and/or Confirmation. The RCIA instructs us in the mutual value of fully initiated Catholics journeying with those preparing for full initiation. The Catholic way embraces a daily call to conversion of heart, seeing the world not through our own eyes but through the eyes of Jesus. For St Malachi and St Patrick, this formation occurs on Tuesday evenings in the Faith Formation Center at St. Patrick’s on Bridge Ave. Let us pray for all involved with RCIA. Contact Stephanie Pritts at stephanie.p@stmalachi.org.
Fr. Gurnick’s Email Hacked, August 2022
Recently another round of fake emails is asking folks for financial assistance on behalf of Fr Gurnick. Please ignore and do not open them. Fr. Gurnick has only one email address he uses and it is published on the parish bulletin. Furthermore, parishioners would ordinarily not be reached via email for any such solicitation. Again, please ignore these emails.
Making the Church Feel Like Home: Radical Hospitality is Humble
In June, we began a journey with national expert Jane Angha toward imbedding “radical hospitality” into the fabric of parish life. Making the Church Feel Like Home is a call to humility. Home is a place where we take care of each other in deferential service. St Paul tells us in Philippians 2:3, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” This is what Jesus did all His life and finally on the cross, for us. Because working in the Lord’s vineyard is an unimaginable privilege, let’s see how we greet and treat and care for others if we truly believe each one was given to us by Jesus himself to be cared for as He cares for them. Also, heartfelt gratitude is extended for all the efforts great and small that have been born of the reflection and action of many parishioners thus far!
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