Father Jim Perkl, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Setonin Hastings, wrote in the parish’s Oct. 30 Sunday bulletin that about two weeks earlier some parishioners had found “the Body of Christ, partially consumed, stuck between the pages of
a hymnal.” After another incident, the pastor asked the National Evangelization Team assigned to the parish to search all the hymnals.
“We discovered about 30 hymnals containing the Body of Christ,” he wrote. “Jesus Christ gives His life — not to be placed within a book — but within our soul. In light of this desecration of the Holy Eucharist, our parish has suffered with Christ.”
The Catholic Church teaches that when the bread and wine are consecrated during the Mass, Christ “is present in a true, real, and substantial manner: his Body and his Blood, with his soul and his divinity” (Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1413). That core belief needs to be taught to children through the example of their parents, who Father Perkl urged to make a commitment to never be absent from the celebration of Sunday Mass.
In addition, the pastor said that special instructions have been given to extraordinary ministers of holy Communion, ushers and sacristans to address this issue.
New team director
Mark Dittman began serving as director of the archdiocesan Parish Services Team on Oct. 31. He replaces Jim Lundholm Eades, who left in July after working in the archdiocese for 17 years, to serve as with the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, based in Washington, D.C. For the past seven years, Dittman served as parish business administrator at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings.
Africa aid, tornado relief
The Development and Stewardship Office of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis reported the results of two recent special collections:
- Tornado Relief Efforts collected $219,593, which was distributed equally between the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities in the Twin Cities for north Minneapolis.
- Aid to East Africa Relief collected $305,869, which was sent to Catholic Relief Services for distribution.
New retreat preacher
Oblate Father Ron LaFramboise recently joined the preaching staff at Christ the King Retreat Center in Buffalo. Father LaFramboise, who was ordained in 1967, has served in Japan and Rome and most recently in Buffalo, N.Y.