MORE THAN A BUILDING PROJECT: IT’S TRUE UNITY, FRIENDSHIP AND PEACE IN OUR BROKEN WORLD

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Recently, Archbishop Aquila and Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodriguez called mass shootings a “cancer” on society, saying they “reflect how little our culture values and upholds the dignity of human life. There is something deeply wrong with a society where senseless acts of violence continue to repeat themselves over and over, with increased randomness and less constraint.” (Denver Catholic November 2, 2017). Their statement was released after a gunman entered Walmart in Thornton and opened fire, killing three people. Less than a week later, another gunman entered a church in Sutherland, Texas, killing 26 people. 

As our bishops point out, mass shootings like these indicate something “deeply wrong” with our society. We live in a society that is depressed and dysfunctional, a society growing in hatred, division, anger and distance amond brothers and sisters. What is the problem? We see it in our own families: people leaving the faith, lack of participation in prayer and faith activities, our children not going to Church anymore, a total abandonment of spiritual life in our society.

It is precisely this reality we find ourselves in that make our need for a new parish center even
more urgent. This is much more than a building project. It is about having a place that fights
loneliness and brings about hospitality, generosity, charity, and love. Our new parish center
will nurture and form our next generations of Catholics in the Christian virtues which founded and
sustained our society for so many centuries. What a better place to invest your money than a place to fight loneliness, a place that is about good values, about serving and loving the other. No one else is sponsoring these values. Is there something better in the desert in which we find ourselves in? A better solution to our family problems? 

What we are doing is not just for one or two years but for many, many years to come. We are building a place of hope, not just for us, but for future generations - for our children and grandchildren growing up in an increasingly polarized society; and for the thousands in our community suffering without any place where they can feel welcome and loved. 

Our mission is to bring Christ’s love to all, and we are doing so through different ways. Friends of St. Andrew has been serving the community for more than 30 years, St. Vincent de Paul Society has been in our parish for decades helping our brothers and sisters in need. Last year, our St. Michael’s Open Heart Ministry prepared a free Thanksgiving dinner for more than 200 people, and they are doing it again this year. This past week, we consecrated 20 Eucharistic Apostles of Divine Mercy, who will be dedicated to performing works of mercy. We need to continue doing these works of mercy, and we can’t do it if our buildings are falling apart.

The time to fill out your pledge cards will come in a few weeks. Right now is the time to pray,
asking the Lord to open our hearts not to be selfish and to think of the needs of others so that
we may give in a sacrificial way.

In Christ,
Father Felix P. Medina-Algaba