SB 5280
Everyone should have received my e-mail on Tuesday about SB 5280, a bill going through the Washington State Legislature that would make clergy mandatory reporters of child sexual abuse. I, and the Washington State Bishops, are supportive of this bill in principle, but the House version removed protections for the Confessional which we obviously have to oppose in the strongest terms. Thank you for everyone who took action based on my e-mail!
It seems, however, that I was mistaken in directing everyone to their local senators. I misread the WSCC e-mail. The vote we are waiting on right now is in the House. That said, the WSCC says this bill may end up in the Senate again, so all communication is valuable. I am very sorry for this error.
If you would like to stay informed or learn how you can make your voice heard, please visit https://www.wacatholics.org/be-an-advocate/action-center. You can also read my (rejected) editorials on the issue here.
Pre-Thanks
I am not in the habit of thanking volunteers after major liturgies, because I want to keep the focus exclusively on the worship we have just offered to Almighty God. However, particularly with something as complex as Lent and especially Holy Week, we can only pull these things off with a whole army of volunteers. So thank you to everyone who has assisted with Stations & Soup Suppers and church decorating up to this point. Thank you to all of our catechists who have worked so hard to prepare our 23 catechumens for their upcoming baptisms. And thank you to everyone (liturgical ministers, church decorators, altar servers, parish staff, Parish Life and Socials, unseen tidy-ers, and more!) who are planning to work so hard to make our Holy Week and Easter liturgies a success. We literally could not do this without you.
Next Week’s Bulletin
We try to orient our Christmas and Easter bulletins towards visitors, so there will not be “ordinary” information in the bulletin next week. That said, if you have strong ideas about what you think would be helpful to see in the bulletin as a visitor to our church, please let me know. You can see what we did for Christmas here.
Fr. Moore 