So much has been happening this week at your Cathedral Church! Last Sunday Bishop McManus welcomed a Cathedral filled with Worcester’s African communities. Joining our own African community were parishioners from Saint Peter’s, Saint Andrew’s and Saint Joan of Arc. It was a joyous celebration and reminded me of how blessed we are to have so many African-Americans as a vital part of our Cathedral Parish.
I have been privileged to meet and work with many venerable African Bishops, Priests and lay people through the years, but among the closest to my heart is Archbishop Peter Sarpong, the emeritus Archbishop of Kumasi in Ghana. I still recall the wise and beautiful words he spoke at the ordination of his successor:
You are going to be a Bishop in order to do one thing: to love your neighbor more intensely. Loving your neighbor, in turn, consists in praying for your neighbor and in suffering for him or her. Christ himself is your exemplar in this. He had the time, the patience, and the courage to pray for his tormentors even when he was on the Cross: “Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.”(Luke 23:34). Time and time again, Jesus would exhort his disciples to take up their Cross and follow him. Discipleship is inseparable from praying for your neighbor and suffering for him.
Please keep Archbishop Sarpong and all our holy and blessed African brothers and sisters in your prayers. They have much to teach us!
As you have read in this week’s Catholic Free Press, our beloved Monsignor Johnson will take up his responsibilities as Pastor of Holy Family and Saint Stephen’s Parishes this weekend. You also, no doubt, read that our beloved associate, Father Matos, has been assigned as the new Pastor of Saint Francis of Assisi Parish in Fitchburg. I encourage you to join me for the Father’s Day Celebration, at which time we will bid farewell to both of these good and faithful servants of our Cathedral Church! (Tickets are available from the parish office!)
Finally, as some of you may have heard, we have been working hard to catch up on all our bills after a cold winter with lots of heating related expenses. If you can spare an “extra gift” to your Cathedral Church it would help us to pay some of the outstanding bills for Clergy health insurance, the Xaverian sisters, maintenance of the elevator, and water bills.
In any case, I know that I can count on my daily prayers before the Lord, who has called us to be part of this wonderful work we accomplish in this holy place with the help of Saint Paul.
