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When a new pope is elected, the Dean of the College of Cardinals steps out onto the balcony of Saint Peter Square in Rome and solemnly announces to the world, "Habemus papam!" "We have a pope!" And then after pausing for dramatic effect, he announces the name of the cardinal who has been chosen pope.

Last weekend that scene played out in a small way in Richmond. During the week Bishop Christopher sent the official letter of appointment of Fr. Kevin Morris as pastor of the three parishes of the Richmond Catholic Community effective at twelve noon on Tuesday, July 3. And so we can say not only solemnly, but also joyfully, "Habemus pastorem!" We have a pastor!

And what a pastor we have! Fr. Kevin is remembered and loved by many in Richmond. After his ordination in 1997, Fr. Kevin was assigned to the Richmond Catholic Community as associate pastor. For two years he shared his wit and wisdom with us. After leaving Richmond in 1999, he was assigned to Saint Susanna in Plainfield, Indiana, where he has faithfully served for the past 13 years. During that time Saint Susanna has seen tremendous growth. When an additional Sunday Mass could no longer accommodate the people joining the parish, the church was expanded to hold the growing number of people. Perhaps even more importantly, Father Kevin has inspired increased involvement of parishioners in the life of the parish. The parish has seen an explosion of parishioners moving from 'Sunday Mass Catholics' to active parishioners during the time he has been there. As he was a beloved associate pastor to us, he has been a beloved pastor to the people of St. Susanna.

Fr. Kevin will bring his gifts to Richmond and I know that he will find a very warm welcome in the Richmond Catholic Community.

On Tuesday, July 3, I will become the pastor of Saint Mark the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis. The parish is made up of a little over 1,000 parish households and hosts an elementary school with 250 students currently enrolled.

Father Kevin will begin 'transitioning' to Richmond in the coming weeks as I will begin the transition to Indianapolis.

Changing pastors is a good reminder that our faith is in God and His Church. Pastors come and go but God and the Church remain.

You will always have a place in my heart and prayers and I ask you to pray for the good people of St Mark and their new pastor!

Another page of the calendar turns and we enter the month of May - already! The month began with the Feast of St. Joseph this past Tuesday. St. Joseph is one of the unsung heroes of the Church. He faithfully and humbly stands in the shadow of Mary and Jesus and rejoices that the spotlight is on them. But we should never forget Joseph's faith that mirrors that of Mary. He, too, bowed to God's will for his life with all that that meant so that God's Son would have a foster father and live in a family with its joys and sorrows.

Some time ago Charlie Walterman shared with me two prayers to St. Joseph that I had never heard before. They are from a booklet published by the Basilica of the Immaculate conception in Washington, D.C. I put them in my breviary so that I would remember to give good St. Joseph his due. Let us remember this good man whom the scriptures call a 'just' man and let us ask him to intercede for our families and for the universal Church of which he is the patron saint.

Remember, O most chaste spouse of the Virgin Mary that never was it known that anyone who implored your help or sought your intercession was left unassisted.

Full of confidence in your power, I hasten to you and beg your protection. Listen, O foster father of the Redeemer, to my humble prayer and in your goodness hear and answer me. Amen.

Hail, Joseph, filled with divine grace, in whose arms the Savior was carried and under whose eyes He grew up: blessed art thou among men and blessed is Jesus, the Son of thy dear spouse.

Holy Joseph, chosen to be a father to the Son of God, pray for us in the midst of our cares of family, health and work and deign to assist us at the hour of death. Amen.

I know that St. Joseph doesn't ask for attention, but that may be all the more reason to make sure that he is on our list of favorite saints!

First Communions, Confirmations, weddings, graduations, the diaconate ordinations of Jim Miller and Frank Roberts and the firsts vows of Sister Maria Kolbe Elstro will all be celebrated in the coming weeks. These celebrations are celebrations of faith and life to which we look forward with great joy.

We will also mark a pastoral transition this year. On Wednesday, July 4, my term as pastor of the Richmond Catholic community will end and a new pastor will begin his work in Richmond. The Archdiocese will announce the name of our new pastor next weekend. Stay tuned!

As we prepare for this important transition, there are two things that I ask of you. At this month's parish council meeting we set in motion a plan to prepare our buildings and grounds to receive our new pastor. Next Saturday, May 5, we will have a parish-wide clean-up day in which we will especially work to clean the inside of our parish churches. Between now and July 4 we will have an ongoing program of painting, cleaning and sprucing up the churches, rectory, parish office and all of the parish grounds. We want these beautiful and venerable buildings to shout "Welcome" to our new pastor and to show him the love and care we have for our parishes.

Council members will take on particular areas. For example, one council member of St. Andrew will take on the 'curb appeal' of the South 6th Street entrance to the parish office and the 220 Club. The door to the office will be sanded and varnished. The street numbers will be updated, bushes will be trimmed and flowers planted to welcome people to the office. Another council member will coordinate the 'curb appeal' of the South 5th Street church and high school entrance. Another will take on Fr. Hillman Hall and the North A Street entrance to St. Mary and Seton Catholic School. We will work together to get the rectory in tip top shape washing windows and woodwork and painting rooms that need painting.

There will be a lot of work and anyone who would like to help with the on-going clean-up after May 5th is asked to call the parish office. If there is something that you have seen and always thought, "Someone ought to fix that or clean that," this is the opportunity to get it on our list.

Secondly, the pastoral transition comes right at the end of our fiscal year. All three parishes are behind in Sunday collections this year. One of the challenges our new pastor will face will be to motivate the 60% of registered parishioners who don't regularly support the parishes financially to do so. In the meantime, we continue to count of the 40% of parishioners who already do the lion's share of work. If we all do whatever 'extra' we can in the few remaining weeks of this fiscal year, we will close the gap and that will be a great sign of welcome to our new pastor!

The struggle to receive basic pastoral care and catechesis is faced by thousands of faithful living in home mission dioceses. The Catholic Home Missions Appeal helps ease that struggle through grants that support priestly and religious vocations, faith formation, and education for leaders to attend to the unique needs of their faith communities.

For example, last year the Appeal enabled the home mission diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi, to support 100% of the expenses of educating 12 seminarians. These future priests will be invaluable, as 11 priests are currently retired, and several more are eligible for retirement in the next few years. A unique aspect of seminarian education in Biloxi is training as a sign language practitioner. One-quarter of the hearing-impaired individuals in the Biloxi region are Catholic. With the help of the Catholic Home Missions Appeal, these and other programs ensure that parishioners here at home can worship well in vibrant communities.

A mission diocese must often contend with high rates of poverty and a lack of educated pastoral and lay leadership. With your support the Catholic Home Missions appeal can continue to provide essential pastoral outreach in home mission dioceses.

Please be generous in the Catholic Home Missions Appeal and help strengthen the Church at home. Your support will truly make a difference. Thank you. God Bless you.

Happy Easter! For the next seven weeks we will celebrate the Easter Season. Just as for Christmas, the Church gives us an entire season to reflect on and take in what we have celebrated this past week. Jesus is risen! What does it mean for our lives and for our world? The scriptures we hear at Mass will help us relive the experience of the early Church as it came to recognize the ways in which the Risen Lord is now present and at work among His people. The Easter Season will conclude with the celebration of Pentecost Sunday on May 27.

Thank you to everyone who helped make the liturgies of Holy Week so prayerful and beautiful. Our sacristans and all who helped them outdid themselves as they transformed our parish churches from the austerity of Lent to the glory of Easter! They spent many, many hours taking care of the myriad of details that go into the Holy Week liturgies. If you see a sacristan - hug 'em!

Deacon Joe James and our acolytes Jim Miller and Frank Roberts generously offered their services throughout the week as they ministered to us. We thank them and all who helped serve at the liturgies as servers, lectors and extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. Our parish musicians and cantors and choir helped all of us raise our voices in joyful praise. Thank you to those who led, directed and accompanied the music of Holy Week. It was beautiful as we moved from the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday to the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion on Good Friday to the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday and then to the Masses of Easter Sunday. Whether it was the organ being unleashed in Easter joy at St. Andrew at the 8:00 a.m. Mass or the choir singing Handel's Messiah at the 10:00 a.m. Mass at Holy Family on Easter Sunday or the folk Group leading us in praising God in both English and Spanish at the 12:00 p.m. Mass at St. Mary, we made a joyful sound to the Lord!

Special thanks to our Hispanic Community for preparing the beautiful Easter baskets that were distributed to delighted children after the 12:00pm bi-lingual Easter Sunday Mass at St. Mary! The baskets were beautiful and the generosity behind them was a special Easter gift to our community.

As I reflect on Easter 2012, the memory that will remain with me is the presence and participation of so many parishioners and non-parishioners at the liturgies and especially those of Easter Sunday. There is a hunger in our world for Good News and the Church is called to satisfy that hunger by preaching Christ. Easter Sunday as I arrived for Mass at Holy Family, people were descending upon the church from every direction! Parking two and three blocks away, a sea of people made its way to church.

It was an amazing witness to the world around us that often thinks of our age as the 'post-Christian age' of the presence of the Risen Christ among us. I also couldn't help but think how wonderful it would be if we gave the world that same witness each and every Sunday!

Happy Easter! In the early Church Easter was called the "Sunday of Sundays." It is the most important feast of our Christian Calendar. Jesus' birth at Christmas was in preparation for His death on Good Friday and His victory over sin and death which we celebrate on Easter.

Our celebration of Easter will continue throughout the Easter Season which lasts seven weeks. It will conclude with the Feast of Pentecost on May 27 in which we celebrate the birth of the Church and the beginning of the mission that Jesus has entrusted to His followers.

But in a very real sense Easter never ends. Every Sunday of the year is a 'little Easter' in which the events of Holy Week are made present to us. From the time of the Apostles the disciples would gather with the Jewish community on Saturday for the synagogue service and then in the homes of Christians on Sunday, the day of Jesus' resurrection, to break bread in memory of Jesus as He had commanded them to do at the Last Supper.

When the Christians, those who accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah, were no longer welcomed in the synagogue, they continued to gather on Sunday and incorporated the synagogue service of reading the scriptures with the breaking of the bread giving us what today we know as the Mass.

Easter is huge! Christianity rises or falls on the resurrection of Jesus. For over two thousand years the witness of the apostles has been passed on from generation to generation. The Jesus who was crucified on Good Friday was seen by His apostles. Through the power of the Holy Spirit the risen Lord is present among us, above all, in the breaking of the bread.

For this reason the Mass is central to our life as Catholic Christians. It is the privileged place where Jesus meets us and continues to give Himself completely to us in the sacrament of His Body and His Blood. It is the place where we as disciples come together to share our stories of His presence among us.

Our celebration of Easter doesn't end today, Easter Sunday, nor does it end on Pentecost Sunday. Our celebration of Easter continues each and every week of the year in our Sunday Mass. And our celebration of Easter will continue in an eternal Easter in heaven.

Someone recently reminded me that just a year ago a group of parishioners made the parish pilgrimage to Fatima and Lourdes. That reminder brought with it many memories of the trip, the churches, the shrines, the Masses, the food and the good company of fellow parishioners. Pilgrimages are wonderful opportunities to be renewed in faith.

I know that most people don't have the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to distant places like the Holy Land or the shrines of Europe or to walk in the footsteps of St. Paul in Greece and Turkey.

That was the situation centuries ago when distance and wars kept people from being able to travel to the Holy Land. St. Francis of Assisi is credited with bringing the Holy Land to the people through the stations of the cross. The number of stations varied from place to place, but the idea was to make a spiritual pilgrimage and walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Stations were sometimes spread throughout an area and would require at least a day to cover. At each station the pilgrim would pause and meditate on the event in Jesus' life being depicted. Eventually, the stations were brought into church and became a fixture in Catholic churches. The number of stations became fixed at the 14 stations with which we are now familiar.

The stations of the cross are a spiritual pilgrimage to the Holy Land in which we walk with Jesus the last steps of his earthly life. In Richmond we have a rich tradition of praying the stations during Lent, but the stations aren't just for Lent. Any time we need a little pilgrimage throughout the year, we can make this pilgrimage.

Holy Week, which begins next Sunday with Passion or Palm Sunday, is another type of pilgrimage. It is a trip through time and space to the events that changed human history. When I lived in Sudan where there is a Muslim majority, every Muslim dreamed of making a pilgrimage to the city of Mecca at least once in his or her lifetime. After making that pilgrimage the person would have a different status in the community. Life from that time on was marked as 'before' and 'after' the pilgrimage.

Many Catholics have never made the complete pilgrimage of Holy Week. Many of us participate in one or two of the celebrations of the week but never all of them. I would like to encourage everyone to make the complete pilgrimage of Holy Week at least once in a lifetime. It all begins next week. Palm Sun day, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil all make up this special week that we call 'holy'. There is no better way to end Lent than to participate fully, actively and consciously in the celebration of the holiest week of our Church Year.

Pilgrimages are wonderful spiritual experiences. Sometimes we travel thousands of miles to make a pilgrimage and sometimes pilgrimages come to us. The stations of the cross and Holy Week are two examples of pilgrimages that we can make without leaving home.

Growing up Catholic in the 1950's and 60's there was a film that captured my imagination. Friendly Persuasion was the story of the Bidwell family who were members of the Society of Friends, popularly known as Quakers. The movie was set in Indiana in 1862. The family's moral commitment to non-violence and war was tested by the nation's Civil War and the arrival of Southern troops threatening the family, their neighbors and friends. "To fight or not to fight" was the question that faced each member of the family.

Friendly Persuasion was my first introduction to Quakerism. I was fascinated as a young boy by the Quaker commitment to non-violence The film opened conversations in my home about respect for different religious beliefs. My dad told me that because of the Quaker's held belief in the immorality of war, the government granted them the special status of conscientious objectors during time of war. In this way the government protected Quakers and members of other peace churches such as the Mennonites and Brethern from being forced to violate their conscience. Civil service opportunities were offered to the Quakers in place of military service. These exemptions remain in effect today.

The film and the discussions that it raised in my family helped me grow in my love and respect for the United States of America. The respect for religious convictions and the refusal to force a person to violate his or her conscience represented for me all that was great about America. It made me proud to be an American.

My respect for Quakers has never waned. I personally came to accept St. Thomas Aquinas' 'Just War Theory' that as an absolute last resort, in certain and limited circumstances, war is, unfortunately, justifiable. When it is the only way to protect innocent life from an unjust aggressor, as was the case in World War II, the 'Just War Theory' says that war is morally permissible. While adopting a different analysis of the Gospel demands on Christians and war, I have never lost my respect for the Quakers who, in a world all to ready to go to war, are always a prophetic voice. The voice is a gift to our country and it is a voice that must be heard and respected.

Fast forward to 2012. The recently issued mandate from the Department of Health and Human Services now insists that Catholics and Catholic institutions violate our consciences and provide or pay for contraceptive services which include abortificant drugs and sterilizations. These practices violate our understanding of God's plan for human sexuality. While many have tried to frame the controversy in terms of contraceptives and a 'right' that every woman has to free contraceptives, the real issue is the question of religious liberty and respect for the conscience of those who find such practices morally objectionable.

The executive branch of our government has determined that this new-found 'right' to free contraceptive services for all American women is more important that religious liberty and the consciences of those who fine it morally wrong. What is to stop the executive branch from determining that abortion, already legalized, also belongs to the list of so-called 'health care' provisions that are the 'right ' of every American woman? The issue is not about contraception. It is about the respect for conscience that, until now, has been a constant in the American experience.

While many disagree with our Church's teaching on sexual ethics and even ridicule those teachings, our right to hold these beliefs should be - must be - respected if America is to remain America. Just as the majority of Americans do not accept the Quaker rejection of all war, the right of Quakers to hold that view must always be respected. Just as the Quakers are a prophetic voice in a world all too set on war, the Catholic Church's teaching on sexual ethics is a prophetic voice for a society that has become overly sexualized. Just turn on the television or open any magazine and we understand why our country needs this prophetic voice more than ever before. Life is more than sex and sex is more than a recreational activity.

And this is why we cannot obey the mandate issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. Many years ago I was deeply impressed by the religious conviction of a group of people who struggled to remain true to their conscience and a country that respected that right. It made me proud to be an American. I thank God for the Quaker commitment to conscience and the gift that the commitment is to our country. I pray that as Catholics we will have the same strength to remain true to conscience and to be the gift that we are now being called to be for our country.

In this week's bulletin you will find a letter from Cardinal Timothy Dolan who, in addition to serving as Archbishop of New York, is the current president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

People of many faiths and people of no faith have come together to speak against the mandate issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human services that all insurance programs must provide free contraceptive services, including abortifacent drugs and sterilization procedures. Cardinal Dolan explains in his letter why the accommodation that was later made to the mandate is insufficient to protect the religious liberty of citizens who find contraception, abortion and sterilization morally wrong.

For us as Catholics, the mandate gives us an opportunity to study what the Church teaches about contraception and why the Church teaches what it teaches. How many times have we heard politicians and supporters of the mandate say that Catholics use artificial contraception as much as the general population. A majority of Catholics also, unfortunately, support the death penalty. The fact that we sin and that we have sinful attitudes doesn't make sin right.

At the heart of Catholic teaching about human sexuality is that sexuality is an amazing gift from God. Like every gift that God gives us, the gift has a purpose willed by God. Fire is a wonderful gift as well when we use it to cook our food. When we use it to burn down a neighbor's house the gift has been misused and it causes great harm.

In the total giving and receiving of love that is expressed in the sexual union of a man and a woman in marriage, we see a mirror of God's own divine love and we receive a glimpse into the inner life of God. As bodily beings (as opposed to God who is pure spirit) the sexual union gives husband and wife a privileged way to express their love and their unity. It is within this committed love that God wants to bring new life into the world. The sexual union has two inseparable purposes in the divine plan: the unitive and the procreative. The two cannot be separated from each other. This is the fundamental problem with artificial means of contraception. Our human sexuality is an amazing gif from God. But with the gift comes great responsibility. The Church calls her sons and daughters to treasure the gift of human sexuality and to use the gift responsibly. Separating the unitive purpose from the procreative all too easily makes the sexual union a selfish rather than a completely selfless act and love all too easily becomes lust. The consequences of the contraceptive mentality are all around us today.

The Church is a good mother and a good mother teaches her children. The mandate has given the Church an opportunity to remind all of us of the responsibility that comes with the amazing gift of human sexuality.

The Catholic Church has certainly been in the news of late. President Obama's decision that every American woman has a right to free contraceptive services, including abortifacient drugs and sterilization procedures, resulted in the Department of Health and Human Services mandating that all employers must provide this coverage in the insurance programs offered to employees. In the original mandate only churches themselves would be exempted and not charitable institutions run by churches.

The mandate resulted in a flurry of controversy pitting this newly discovered right to contraceptive services against the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of the right to religious liberty. The mandate would force religious employers who are morally opposed to contraception and abortion to violate their conscience by providing this service in the health care packages they offer and for which they must pay.

The controversy resulted in the President changing the wording of the original mandate in such a way that the religious employer would not directly offer the contraceptive services in the health care package but would, all the same, pay for it through the insurance company that would have to offer it. The president's 'modification' is a shell game. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops continues to oppose the mandate as a violation of the religious liberty guaranteed by the First Amendment. The president' 'modification' does not change the fact that the government is mandating churches and religious groups to pay for practices that they find morally objectionable.

In this debate many people will attempt to position the Church as being opposed to women's health care. If the real issue were women's health, wouldn't the mandate address the number one killer of American women which is cardiovascular disease? If a woman needs access to treatment and drugs for high blood pressure the administration feels that she should be able to pay for these services. The fact that the administration has determined that contraceptives, abortifacient drugs and sterilizations are more important to women's health and well-being than any other health care offering suggests that the real agenda is not necessarily women's health care.

The opportunity that the Church is provided in this debate is to rediscover and teach anew its understanding and vision of the awesome gift of human sexuality. The sexual revolution of the 1960's promised that if we threw off all the shackles that religion placed on our use of the gift of human sexuality we would enter a new era of utopia. How's that working out for us?

In the debate that is raging we all hear how many Catholic women reject the Church's teaching on artificial contraception. Many Catholics also reject the Church's teaching on keeping Sunday holy and lying. I doubt that that fact is going to change what the Church teaches about the importance of Sunday Mass and what it teaches about being honest with our neighbor. What it does tell us is that the sharing of the Church's vision of human sexuality has to begin at home. More about that next week.

Last weekend bishops across the country spoke out against the Department of Health and Human Services mandate that all religious affiliated hospitals, universities and charitable institutions will be forced to include contraceptive services in the health care plans offered to their employees. These services include abortion-inducing drugs and sterilizations.

Bishop Christopher Coyne, our Apostolic Administrator, has asked pastors to refer parishioners to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' website for the Church's response. To this end we are making a letter of Archbishop Timothy Dolan available in this week's bulletin, Archbishop Dolan is the President of the Bishops' Conference. Please read Archbishop Dolan's letter carefully for much is at stake.

The mandate affects not only the Catholic Church but all religiously affiliated colleges, hospitals and charities. The mandate strikes at the heart of religious liberty in a pluralistic society. Peggy Noonan in a Washington Post opinion editorial framed it this way: "In other words, the Catholic Church was told this week that its institutions can't be Catholic anymore."

When President Obama spoke at the University of Notre Dame in 2009, he called for common ground and dialogue in dealing with the difficult moral issues of our day and called for a 'sensible conscience clause' that would keep people of good faith from being forced to violate deeply held moral principles. Father John Jenkins, Notre Dame President, responded to the recent mandate in a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. (HHS). Fr. Jenkins wrote: "This would compel Notre Dame to either pay for contraception and sterilization in violation of the Church's teaching or to discontinue our employee and student health care plans in violation of the Church's social teaching. It is an impossible position. May I suggest that this is not the kind of 'sensible approach' the president had in mind when he spoke here."

Sister Carol Keehan, President and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, supported the Affordable Health Care Act after being assured that there would be an acceptable 'conscience clause'. When the mandate was issued last month, Sister Keehan responded by saying, "The narrowness of the religious exemption in the birth control mandate has jolted us!"

The one concession the HHS has offered is that church-run institutions will be granted a one year extension to figure out how to implement the mandate. Beyond this, President Obama's Press Secretary, Jay Carney says there will be no further concessions.

The debate that the health care mandate has opened is an important one. We live in a time in which American society is being fundamentally transformed in many ways. This transformation offers challenges and opportunities to people of faith. We are challenged to respond with Christian charity to those who do not understand our deeply held religious views and we are called to take advantage of the opportunity we are presented to be 'salt for the earth' in the transformation that is taking place. More about this next week. In the meantime, let us pray for wisdom and guidance and there is no better place to do that than at Sunday Mass.

Plans are under way for the publication of our new pictorial directory! We will be partnering with Lifetouch for our new 2011 edition.

We ask that you please take the opportunity to be a part of this important connection tool & historical document for our parishes.

Portrait sessions will be offered on the following days:

Monday, June 6 through Saturday, June 11

Monday, June 13 through Saturday, June 18

Additional days will be added in June as needed.

(Weekdays 2:30-9:00 pm, Saturdays 10:00-4:30 pm)

www.richmondcatholiccommunity.com

Simply click on the link located at the top of the page.

Lifetouch encourages you to be creative with your portraits. You may bring props if you like (musical instrument, family bible, well behaved pet) and you will have an opportunity to have multi-generational portraits taken. If you plan to have generational portraits taken, please schedule your families at consecutive times. Friends and family of members are welcome to participate in the portrait program, they will not appear in the directory. Thank you in advance for being part of this important ministry to our parish!