Note from the Bishop
I want to thank each and every one of you for the prayers you said for a safe and successful visit to Mexico last week. Things could not have gone better, in my opinion. Thanks, too, to Fr. Lehtoranta and the young Padres for taking care of things while the McFathers were away.
Our trip started out in a small chapel in Colima, Mexico, about an hour from the Pacific Ocean. Colima is a nice town which is home to two beautiful volcanoes, one of which is still active. It is in an area full of natural beauty, very rustic desert with plenty of cacti. They grow their own coffee beans so the coffee is always fresh. Fr. Contreras was kind enough to take us to see the Cathedral of Colima. We arrived at a time when the Cathedral had lost their “bishop” and the people were awaiting a new one. When I arrived, many of the people were asking hopefully if I were the new bishop. Well, I guess I missed my opportunity to take one of our Cathedrals back! Seriously, though, the Cathedral is filled with its own sad but edifying history. Colima is a town where the Christeros were active. In fact, the Communists would line up the Christeros along the wall of the cathedral and shoot them. The bullet holes were visible until the Novus Ordo decided to cover them up so that no one could see them any longer. Just like the Communists, the Novus Ordo tries its best to erase history. Inside the Cathedral, however, are the relics of a Christero priest who did not take up arms with the other Christeros, but who was shot and killed after the Communists found him saying Mass when it was forbidden to do so.
As nice as it was to see those things, the highlight of the trip was the diaconal ordination of Rev. Mr. Nicolaus Benegas of Argentina. The ceremonies were performed very well thanks to Fr. McKenna, who ran the practices and was MC for the Mass (I guess that would make him a MC-Father, for real). Rev. Mr. Benegas will be ordained to the priesthood in the Fall if all goes according to plan. Some sixty Confirmations were done in Colima, as well. When all was finished in Colima we went to Guadalajara to do another thirty Confirmations.
Fr. Lehtoranta’s Sodality of Charity meets again this Saturday for another fun and edifying day. It is always nice to see the girls of the parish having a good time, but even better to see them doing their little acts of charity helping with some of the work around the church. I do feel sorry for those children who grow up without much contact with the daily life of the church. They do miss out on a lot. Parents, bring your children to something other than the minimum Sunday obligation. You will not regret it, but on the contrary it will be a blessing to you and your children.
In any case, I must sign off for now. See you in church!
– Bishop McGuire