FM's Message | Sunday, March 5th, 2023

This week we begin the archdiocesan Catholic Appeal. The theme is Faith in Action, It starts with you. We are being asked as always to support the pastoral center and the programs that assist parishes across the diocese. In years past, the themes have underscored the importance of different programs and services that have been helped by the appeal. One way of thinking about is as an infrastructure support. We regularly check the parts of the building that are not seen, or talked about, i.e., the sub-basement, boiler room, the upper church and tower etc. We also keep an eye on the electric panels, and the oil tanks and radiators. Their good condition helps us to gather even though we don’t think about them a lot. These are important for the well-being of the church and allow us to have all the masses and programs we do. The pastoral center of the Archdiocese functions in roughly he same way. The offices and programs that are diocesan wide, support the work of the priests and staffs and help us to stay connected, informed about issues that affect all of us and to assist us with challenges that we sometimes face, like major building maintenance, Human resources, and pastoral training programs.

This year we have the honor of welcoming His Eminence, Seán Cardinal O’Malley. He will be here celebrating the 11:30 AM mass and will ask for our help. It is his tradition to come to parishes around the Archdiocese to kickoff the appeal. Part of his decision to come to us is linked to our previous successes in the appeals. Thanks to the generosity of people from across the community, we have had met our assigned goal for the last five years. Even during the pandemic, we were fortunate that so many people continued to support the appeal through our parish. Welcome Cardinal Seán

On Saturday, we had a wonderful bi-lingual retreat that was sponsored by the parish and featured a number of speakers on the theme of Jesus, the Way to Evangelization. I am so grateful to the team for their planning and execution of this event.
We congratulate Andrew and Katie Wantz on their marriage this weekend. They were married at IC yesterday.
We also welcome Lorenzo Lenone to our faith and parish. He was baptized last weekend and was accompanied by his family.
We also hosted the Essex County Church Organization last week. (ECCO) They came to talk about how we can support the movement to build more affordable housing here in Salem.
Finally, This week we put the names of all those receiving sacraments this spring on the windows of the chapel .. I hope you will make part of your Lenten prayer to ask God to pray for those who are preparing for Easter Sacraments and those who are assisting them.
Peace.
Father Murray

 Building news: The past week with at deep freeze did not affect the church or the other buildings. The risk management department always advises us that it is worth it it turn up the heat for a few days rather than risk frozen pipes. That issue is the costliest issue in the insurance department across the Archdiocese. We are fortunate that our buildings have good boilers. This week we hope to have a company look at the steam traps to make sure the heating stays efficient. We had a blockage in the sewer line in the rectory that the company reported