Recent Articles By Fr. Lehtoranta, including a new article on Conditional Baptism
Bishop’s Note
I am writing this note on a beautiful Friday morning. Fr. McKenna departed last night for St. Hugh’s in Milwaukee in order to avoid the terrible daytime traffic and to make sure that he was there in plenty of time to pray the Fatima Rosary with the people there. Here at St. Gertrude’s we are getting ready for our own candlelight procession and I hope we have the best attendance ever. We need more people praying and making reparation, not taking sides in a war that should not involve us. War is a punishment from God. It is a punishment for sin. The way to avoid war is, therefore, to do penance for sin. So turn off Fox News, stop listening to the media that has been lying to us since 2020 and before, and hit your knees. We are a fickle people which falls into the same old trap time and time again. When will we ever learn? Prayer, not politics, solves all problems.
Speaking of prayer, our St. Monica Club for mothers with fallen away children doubled in size and we even have a couple of people from other parts of the country. Someone asked me if it is a good thing that it doubled in size since it means that souls have fallen away. I see it from a different angle. These children have been fallen away for some time now, and now the mothers are coming togetherto pray not only for their own but for one another’s prodigal sons and daughters. The prayers for each of the children are doubled and tripled and more. What a consolation that must be for the mothers, and what graces are won for their children.
My trip last weekend was very successful, I think. Confirmations were done at Sacred Heart in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Our Lady of the Rosary in Monroe, Connecticut (Bishop McKenna’s old chapel), and at St. Mary the Virgin in New Jersey. Fifty or so souls received this sacrament. It was nice to see Fr. Richards and Fr. Rodriguez, both of the Company of Jesus and Mary. I learned that there are two Dominican Sisters who still go to Mass at the Monroe chapel. They used to be under Bishop McKenna but stayed behind when most of the nuns moved to Highland, Michigan several years ago.
Bishop da Silva, Bishop Nkamuke and I had a nice chat the other day. They both keep themselves so busy. The electric was out at the seminary in Nigeria so Bishop Nkamuke was sitting in his car to keep his phone charged! Bishop da Silva is still in Mexico where he is organizing the priests there. His Excellency presently has an apostolate in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Canada, and now has been asked to come to Spain and Portugal. Bishop Nkamuke has a large apostolate in Nigeria and other countries in Africa. I have visited France, Mexico, and Argentina for Confirmations and Ordinations. As you can see, the apostolate of St. Gertrude’s is far-reaching and keeps us busy. Now we need to get ourselves a bit better organized so that we aren’t overlapping each other as we have been. Bishop Dolan labored for years for the international missions and now we bishops are gathering the fruits from his prayerful work. Thank you, God, for such a harvest!
Still, we cannot rest satisfied with this, but must always do our part to extend the Kingdom of Christ throughout the whole world. The forces of Anti-Christ are hard at work these days. We must be just as active…more even. Since our fighting is against principalities and powers most of our work must be done in church kneeling before Our Lord. Can we count on you to help us in this work?
– Bishop McGuire