New Parish Administrator
This weekend, I will be introducing our new Parish Administrator (Karen Zuther recently retired) at all of the Masses. Michael Rombaoa was born and raised in the Philippines, but has spent most of his adult life in Southern California. He is moving up to Bellingham with his wife and three children (early college, mid-high school, and early middle school) to be closer to his sister and mother who live up in British Columbia. The rest of his family will join him here after the California school year ends. He comes to us from an administrator job at another, slightly smaller Catholic parish and is excited (really, I am not just saying this; he really is excited) about learning all of the new procedures and skills that it takes to administer a parish like ours. Michael has a particular devotion to the Divine Mercy and led a Divine Mercy singing group at his previous parish. Please help Michael to feel welcome at his new home!
Latest Reads
Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy by Christian Cochini, S.J.
This book was incredible, and I could not put it down. Functionally, this book is Fr. Cochini’s doctoral thesis, in which he compiled and commented on all of the Church legislation (think synods of bishops and letters from Popes) that ever discussed the marital status of priests, from apostolic times until A.D. 691. One might think this could be pretty dry, and for some people it might be, but reading these documents gave me a fascinating insight into the operations, values, and evolution of the early Church, in addition to absolutely convincing me that priestly celibacy* is of apostolic origin and that the Latin Church has extremely firm ground to stand on in requiring this of her priests. (*In this case, the apostolic practice is requiring priests to abstain from all sexual relations after ordination, even with their legal and proper wives. Over time, the Church found it easiest simply to recruit men who were never married, but in these early centuries with married and unmarried priests, all were required to abstain, lest they be removed from the priesthood).
Deny Holy Communion? by Raymond Leo Cdl. Burke
This book was sent in the mail to, I assume, all priests in the United States. It is just a reprint of an essay Cdl. Burke wrote for an Italian canon law journal, so it seemed right up my alley. Unfortunately, I did not find his arguments particularly comprehensive or satisfying, but that may also be because I am already familiar with the source material, and there was not much new in there for me. For others, it may be a helpful introduction to one side of this contemporary debate.
I am currently reading Disarming Beauty by Fr. Julián Carrón, the current head of the Communion and Liberation movement. Archbishop Etienne, who found it personally helpful, sent this book to all the Seattle priests as our Christmas gift this year.
Fr. Moore 