Pastor’s Desk ~ January 26, 2025

Dear Fellow Parishioners,

    After several months of planning (and frankly, waiting months for service) the parish rectory now has a new telephone system. The former system was developing more and more problems, and at least one extension (mine) went dead months ago. That apparently was because some living creature got into the outdoor telephone utility box and chewed or otherwise disconnected the wires to my phone. It was an inconvenience to me and perhaps to some of you, since to reach me, it was necessary to leave phone message with Noelia or Cristina in the main office.

    But we’re not quite up to speed yet. Yesterday, all office staff had an in-person tutorial on how to use the new system. I am easily the least technologically sophisticated member of our staff. Even something as simple as “call waiting” – when a second party calls, when I’m already on the line with someone else – completely baffles me. That feature has been available in one form or another for decades, and I can remember only one time I actually made it work without hanging up on both parties simultaneously. By the time I master this new system, I will be as old as Jimmy Carter. (I could always get a third-grader from our elementary school to explain it all to me.) I almost long for the old days of Ma Bell, when the most complicated feature of our office phone was a neat little row of light up buttons, with the red HOLD button on the far left, with the other buttons were either unlit (line free), lit up (line engaged) or blinking (on hold). In those days, it wasn’t impossible to imagine the officious and sassy Miss Ernestine Tomlin of the old comedy skits, sitting at her switchboard and counting off, “One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingies…”, and answering with, “Is this the party to whom I am speaking?” Now, it’s fiber optics, phones with data screens too small to see and dozens of minuscule buttons too small to push.

    Which brings me to parish communications in general. Not so long ago, we had the telephone and the parish bulletin, period. Now, the means of communication have multiplied, so that we also have email, streaming video, texting, the parish website, the Riso-graph machine (a modern version of the mimeograph machine), and the photocopy machine. There is also the pulpit announcement (for Mass intentions and parish events) and at times, the speediest of all, the word-of-mouth “grapevine.” We use all of these, and it can be a challenge to keep up with it all.

    None of this is bad in and of itself – quite the contrary. We were able to stay much closer as a parish community all through COVID, thanks to our ability to provide Mass via the internet. There are other sacramental moments that cannot be experienced, except in person. At Vatican II, at least one bishop suggested that confessions might be heard over the telephone. After some discussion, it was decided that sacraments could only be administered directly through the direct and unmediated means of one’s bodily senses, in person. Though we are in an age that prizes convenience over nearly all else, that makes sense, because sacraments also have their communal dimension. And if sacramental actions can be transmitted electronically, what would stop a person from placing bread and wine in front of his computer and letting the remote priest consecrate it for reception at home? It’s not my intent to be irreverent, but to point out the need to think things through to their natural and supernatural conclusions.

    At last Sunday’s Mass, we heard this from the Letter to the Hebrews: “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) What matters, then, is not the means of communication, but the message and the Messenger.

Blessings, Fr. Bill Donahue