A Word from Your Pastor September 12

A Word from Your Pastor

Dear Parishioners:

Our experience of the Blue Mass this year once again showed St. Timothy Parish’s gift of hospitality and our recognition of those who serve the wider community. Congratulations to the Knights of Columbus Council #14345 for their leadership in this effort! Let this be a call to all the men of the parish to consider adding participation in the Knights to their involvement in the Church. Since their founding in 1882, the Knights of Columbus have been concerned with the welfare of the family and they have served the Church throughout the world, promoting charity, unity fraternity, and patriotism. Those are principles to live by!

On Saturday, I spent the morning with another group of extraordinary men: candidates for the diaconate for the Diocese of Columbus and the Diocese of Steubenville. My privilege is to work with them in their study of the Scripture, in particular, the first part of the Bible: the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) and the Earlier Prophets (Joshua, Judges, I-II Samuel and I-II Kings). These are among the first writings of the Old Testament to be acknowledged as Sacred Scripture. If you have not read through them for yourself, I invite you to do so over the next several months. Since I am teaching on this material two Saturdays a month through November, they will be fresh on my mind in case you have any questions while you are reading. I have taught this material to the last several Deacon classes for the Diocese of Columbus and to two years of students at the Pontifical College Josephinum. It is truly a fascinating experience to enter into the world of the Bible. I always find our Deacon Candidates to be enthusiastic students of the Scriptures. They are looking forward to preaching the Word of God, and so are zealous in their study.

A Pastoral Note that is timely: October is observed as Respect Life Month and we are in need of members of our parish community to work on promoting an understanding of the Church’s commitment in this regard. Many organizations ask for a parish liaison and at present we do not have someone taking on this role. Let me know if you are willing. We will be including information in the bulletin that can help, but the personal touch is always important.

When you are involved in any organization that promotes research and study for eradication of illnesses that attack human beings, please be sure that you become informed about the nature of the research. Unwittingly, some research that is done attacks the very human nature it is striving to heal. For example, it is never right to make use of embryonic stem cells for any kind of research. This is to be distinguished from use of adult stem cells. The type of research that uses embryonic stem cells directly kills human beings in the earliest stage of development and manipulates human life as if it is a product of human creativity alone. Adult stem cell research, on the other hand, fully respects human nature and, as a matter of fact, shows promising results. Please keep yourself informed, and when you promote fundraising for research, make it is clear to those you are helping that you are opposed to research involving embryonic or fetal stem cells. If you do not stand up for life at its beginning, your efforts to care for life at other stages is less likely to be successful in the long run.