The early Christian communities consisted of two groups. First were the Jews who recognized Jesus as the fulfillment of their history and purpose. Second were converts from the non-Jewish world, commonly referred to as “Gentiles”. The big debate quickly became, who was Jesus the Jew to the Gentiles. Was the salvific act of Christ intended for both Jew and Gentile alike? Was Jesus the “Universal” savior? The answer was quickly recognized as “Yes”. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that ALL who believe in him might not perish but have eternal life”Jn 3:16

By 100AD, the church alluded to itself with a reference to this debate. It called itself “Catholic”, which means “Universal”. Ever since then, the Christian church has commonly called itself “Catholic”. 1500 years later, many Catholic Christians broke away from the historic church in “Protest” to both perceived and real corruptions among members of the clergy and laity. They called themselves “Protestants”.

Now, some 500 years later, however, it is common to hear the term “Christian” in exclusive reference to Protestants and “Catholic” to Catholics. Even Catholics do this! The implication is that Catholics are not Christian. As Catholics are the original followers of Christ and remain so, it is, at a minimum, a highly erroneous historical statement.

Even though we as individual practitioners of the Catholic faith, often do not live up to the ideal that Christ himself calls us to, that is to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” Mt 5:48, we remain members of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church founded by Christ himself Mt 16:18. This claim is both a scriptural and a historical truth.

Thus: Catholics ARE Christian.

The real challenge is the same challenge that was presented to the first Christians: Do we live up to the name?

Lord, By Your Grace
May We All LIVE Our Holy Calling.

We began Respect Life Month with a consideration of Marriage.  This week I’d like to return to the subject.

I have the pleasure of receiving happy couples who are all “twitterpated”* in LOVE and want to get married in the Church.  Their motivations for a Church wedding can vary greatly.  Whatever the reason, it is a great joy to invite God’s Grace into their union.  By the time they come to my office, they’ve made many decisions that have had both positive and negative effects on the short and long term possibilities for their relationship.  Here I present some ideas which I hope will be considered as the young and young at heart venture into the wild and risky world of romance.

We’ll start with the one thing that a happy couple can do to pretty much ruin their chances for a long term happy marriage… cohabitate, that is, to live together.  If they do so, their chances for a divorce increase to at least 75% (some surveys have it at over 80%!).  If they are individually sexually active before their marriage, the divorce rate is triple the rate over that of a virgin couple on their wedding day.

Here are some things the happy couple can to improve their chances for a long term happy marriage.

Note that the general divorce rate in America is still approximately  50%.
Go to any Christian Church once a week, it drops to: 41%
Go to a non-denominational Protestant Church once a week, it drops to: 34%
Go to a Mainline Protestant Church once a week, it drops to: 25%
Go to a Catholic Church once a week, it drops even further to: 21%

Go to a Catholic Church once a week & actively discern God’s will for the family (NFP etc) <3%

Statistically speaking, divorce is eliminated!

If you are or once were one of those “twitterpated” couples who has made some of the mistakes I’ve mentioned… there is Hope.  Start now…  practice your faith, receive the sacraments regularly, especially Confession and Eucharist.  In doing so, you invite God, the source of all twitterpatedness**, into your marriage.

God’s Blessings

Fr. John Paul

*my spell checker recognized this word so it is officially a real word, besides, the wise Owl in Bambi said it.
**ok this one isn’t a real word, but you get the idea.

Recently, I spontaneously shared some personal information with the various liturgical ministers who were gathered for one of the liturgy training sessions.  It was the first time I’d done such a thing.  This “first time” exposé was prompted by recent multiple inquiries made by individual school children.  I find their innocent curiosity refreshing and do not shy away from responding.  Since it is obvious to the children that there is something different about me, I’d like to share with you why this is so.

I was born in the spring of 1964 with a rare (about one in a million) genetic skin disorder called Lamellar Ichthyosis.  In simple terms, I am unable to perspire and have abnormal skin cell bonding which makes the skin inelastic, dry and easily torn.   This is why I appear to many to be older than I am and why my eyes are often irritated and watery.  At my birth I was not expected to survive and was immediately baptized.  Apparently, reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated J.   Three full months later I finally went home to three other siblings and one more who would join us a year later.   Obviously, it’s not a contagious condition; however it is an extremely irritating one with nearly 24 hour itching.   Much of my childhood was spent going from one doctor and medical conference to another with very little real relief.  There has been some research over the years and there appear to be some real possibilities on the distant horizon.  Although in my youth I relentlessly begged God for a particular miracle, but never received it.  As the years have gone by however, I’ve realized there have been many miracles in my life which were far more valuable.  This cross has been a gift and I would not change it even if I could.   I welcome any questions you might have.  More information can be found at www.firstskinfoundation.org.

On a Related Note:  The fight for the lives of millions of innocent children is personal to me for many reasons.  Just one is that most children with birth defects are being aborted.  Currently it is estimated that 90% of Downs Syndrome children in the U.S. are aborted (the number is almost 100% in Europe!).  Thousands of perfectly healthy children are also being aborted do to fetal misdiagnosis.  If my situation were just a little different, I’d easily be among those statistics.  ALL children are a gift from God and we have absolutely no right to decide who should live and who should die.  We have no right to decide who would have a good quality of life and who wouldn’t.

Let us pray for all mom’s, especially those who are given the option of aborting “problem pregnancies”.  May we all live the gospel of life.

With these words Jesus reminded the Jewish people that he came, not only for them, but for all peoples, Jews and Gentiles alike.  Beginning with Peter and the apostles, Jesus has appointed and anointed individual men to act in His Person; shepherding His people in obedience to The Good Shepherd.  All ages and places have been served by, and connected to, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church through the ministry of these men.

I received the news of the reassignment of our local shepherd with great sadness and disappointment.  Archbishop Charles Chaput is the only Bishop my priesthood has ever known.  I believe Archbishop Chaput to be a good man of integrity, conviction, courage and kindness.  My guess is that most members of Holy Trinity and Our Lady of Visitation parishes were at least equally saddened by the news.

We belong to a community which is so much bigger than our own.  With the struggles of managing our own personal daily lives and parish life, it’s easy to forget our brothers and sisters in the faith around the country and around the world.  The people of Philadelphia will surely benefit from the leadership of the Archbishop as they seek to reconcile problems of the past and move on to a hopeful future.

All of the four Eucharistic Prayers call us to pray for our local bishop.  We will soon be praying for a new shepherd.  However, let us never cease to pray for those who have served us in the past. Let us escort His Excellency Charles J. Chaput OFM Cap. to Philadelphia with the power of our prayers and the knowledge of our and Christ’s love.

Vaya Con Dios Archbishop Charles, we will greatly miss you.

Fr. John Paul Leyba
Fr. Rick Nakvasil
Dcn. Ryan O’Neill
Holy Trinity Parish
Our Lady of Visitation Parish