My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As we near the end of our first full year as a Family of Parishes, we have much to be thankful for. Last Sunday we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the first Mass at St. John Vianney. The day began with a procession from the site of our first Mass, Sandoz Elementary School. I am grateful to Archbishop Lucas for joining us to commemorate this wonderful occasion with Mass and a Parish wide celebration. Last August, we celebrated 60 years at Mary Our Queen on the Feast Day of the Queenship of Mary, with a wonderful picnic as a parish community.
The Journey of Faith through the Archdiocese of Omaha was started a few years ago as a response to changes that our Archdiocese has been experiencing. We needed to respond to the current reality of fewer available priests, dropping numbers of active parishioners, major statewide population shifts, and growing multi-cultural communities. One of the decisions the Archdiocese made as a result of this process was for St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen to form a Family of Parishes. It is the hope that these changes will allow our mission as Catholics to proclaim the gospel to be fulfilled through these changes. Next weekend, we will present to you the results of the survey that was presented a few weeks ago and how we are going to address the needs of our Family of Parishes.
With the retirements of Fr Reiser and Fr Bauwens, we have to address our Mass times in our Family of Parishes as we will be reduced from three priests to two. I asked representatives of both our Parish Councils to help address the challenges and to present a solution. The decisions were based on the requirements that our Archbishop made in forming our Family of Parishes – that the priests in the Archdiocese celebrate no more than two Masses on weekdays and four Masses per weekend. Currently, we have 8 weekend Masses and 15 weekday Masses combined. We also had to factor in weddings, baptisms, funerals, and confessions we have in our Family of Parishes. In addition, we also offer one Mass a month at two Nursing Homes. After prayerful discernment and consultation, these are the recommended changes for our Family of Parishes – to move morning mass at St John Vianney to 9:15am. This will allow one priest to celebrate Mass at both St. John Vianney and Mary Our Queen when needed. The 8:15am Mass on Saturday at Mary Our Queen will become a Communion Service. While we will be reinstating the 6:20am Mass on Monday at Mary Our Queen, the 6:20am Mass on Friday will become a Communion Service. The Saturday evening Mass at St. John Vianney will be moved to 5:00pm, to allow for an earlier start time for receptions held at our Social Hall. Sunday Masses remain unchanged for the moment, as we thankfully still have two priests serving our joint parish family.
The Eucharist is always the foundation of our spiritual life which is why we do our best to keep as many of the Mass times available. I would like to invite you to be open to the graces of the Holy Spirit and allow ourselves to be led in this transition process.
God’s Blessings,
Fr. Marc Lim
