IT IS THE LORD!
The Church is living momentous days with the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday and his funeral and burial this past Saturday. This is followed by the traditional period of mourning that leads to this coming Wednesday’s opening of the Conclave of Cardinals whose task will be to elect the next Pope to shepherd the Church. During the vacancy in the chair of St. Peter (the sede vacante) we see that in the absence of Christ’s Vicar on earth, we must look more insistently to Christ Himself! Our role is to intercede and to trust in the Lord’s care for His Church.
This past weekend we celebrated many First Communions and a set of Baptisms and Confirmations as we celebrated the Feast of Divine Mercy. These were beautiful occasions to recognize the Lord! I want to express my appreciation for two individuals: Mary Therese Druffner, who is winding down her time on our Lifelong Discipleship Associate focused on youth and sacramental formation, and Alicia LaCroix, who has been our volunteer Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Coordinator for the past several years. Serving alongside other catechists and volunteers, these two along have been so dedicated to supporting the growth of our young ones in faith.
Each spring many priests throughout our Archdiocese are given new assignments by Archbishop Hebda. It has been a tremendous blessing having Fr. Justus Musinguzi serving on our team of priests here in NE Minneapolis these past three years. Beginning July 1st, Fr. Justus has been assigned to the parishes of Annunciation in Hazelwood and St. Dominic in Northfield, where he will serve alongside Fr. Louie Floeder. We express our heartfelt gratitude for Fr. Justus’ presence in our parish. I know he will come back from time to time to visit us!
I am thrilled to share that Fr. John Rumpza, who has been serving at St. Odilia in Shoreview these past two years, has been assigned as Parochial Vicar here at Holy Cross beginning on July 1st. He is a wonderful priest and will be a tremendous addition to our parish. There will be opportunities to meet him as well as to send Fr. Justus off. The Lord always provides!
Additionally, I welcome two new members to our parish staff with John Gendreau as our new Business Administrator and Hanna McLevish as our new Administrative Assistant to Clergy and Pastoral Care Associate. We will be introducing them soon. They have big shoes to fill following Matt Springer and Diane Soderberg, in those respective roles. Matt wrapped up three and a half years of service to our parish this past week while Diane will continue for the next month until her retirement in early June. We are grateful for their dedicated service and wish them well.
Finally, please plan to come by St. Clement as we host ART-A-WHIRL the weekend of May 16-18 as a celebration of the arts and an expression of our parish’s commitment to embodying the ‘Way of Beauty’ as a path to God. It is sure to be a wonderful weekend in support of many artists displaying and selling their work. Food, music, church tours, activities and more will be on offer. In the Risen Lord,
~Fr. Howe, Pastor