Pastor’s Letter: July 9, 2023

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July with your families.  St  John Vianney and Mary Our Queen formally became a Family  of Parishes on July 1st.  The Parish Staff of both our Parishes will be meeting to formally discuss the roles and  responsibilities of each staff tomorrow.  Both of our Parish Staff have been meeting up on several occasions prior to July 1st with our last meeting to go through both our Parish Calendars.  As I transition as Pastor of both St John Vianney in addition to my current role as Pastor of Mary Our Queen, I would like to personally thank Fr Richard Reiser for working with me through our Archdiocese Pastoral Planning that made St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen becoming a Family of Parishes possible.

In last weekend’s Bulletin, we outlined the process involved in the Archdiocese Pastoral Planning and what we have done to prepare our Parishes to become a  Family of Parishes.  We also took the time to present all our Parish Groups so that you will have the opportunity to get to know all the Groups in each of our Parishes as well s what is going on at Mary Our Queen School and both our Parishes Religious Education Programs.

I was away the last few weeks.  The first part of my trip was to attend Serra International Convention in Chaing Mai, Thailand.  The theme for the Convention is “Come and See.” The role of Serra is to promote and support vocations to the ministerial priesthood and consecrated life in the Catholic Church.  Since its founding in 1935 in Seattle, over 1100 Serra Clubs have been charted in 46 countries around the world.  We are fortunate to have two Serra Clubs here in Omaha.  One of the Key note speakers, Cardinal Luis Tagle, spoke upon the vocational crisis that many countries are experiencing. One thing he noted is that the domestic church – our families – is the beginning that inspires vocations.  The parents are the first and most important educators of the faith in the life of the Church.  He said that we would have a vocational crisis only when the domestic Church ceases to live out the faith.  The reason for our Parishes to form a Family of Parishes is due to a lack of vocations.  How do we as a Church assist our families to help them live out their faith so that we can be a community where faith is shared and grown?

We have two significant anniversaries coming up this year and next year.  June 13 marked Mary Our Queen’s 60th anniversary.  We are planning to do a Parish wide celebration on August 26 which will coincide with our Patroness Feast Day – the Queenship of Mary.  Please keep that date free.

Next year, St John Vianney will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary. In the spring of 1974, Fr. Paul Schwaab, past national chaplain of the American Legion, was appointed by Archbishop Daniel Sheehan to serve as the first pastor of a new parish to be established in Millard: St. John Vianney.  The first Mass was celebrated by Fr. Schwaab in the gym of Mari Sandoz Elementary School on June  7, 1974.

Through humble beginnings, Mgsr Kenny and Fr Schwaab together with the  founding members of Mary our Queen and St John Vianney made it possible for our Parishes to become the Parishes we are now.

Some project updates at Mary Our Queen:

* The canopy poles for our outdoor classrooms and the preschool playgrounds.  The next step is to install the canopies when they arrive.  We had the inserts for our new street signs and directional signage installed.  We will install the street poles when they arrive.

* The hot water piping in the upper level of our schools are going well as well as the installation of the new H/VAC of the Gym.  We are also in the midst of refreshing 4 restrooms in the school as well as renovating 2 classrooms with new ceiling tiles, lights and flooring.

God’s Blessings,

Fr Marc Lim