Father Joseph Crosthwait became our new pastor (1979 – 1996)
Remembering 9/11
Dear Friends in Christ:
Today we remember the nearly 3000 victims of the terrorist attacks on our nation by Al-Qaeda on 9/11/01. We honor the memory of those who perished as a result of the hate-filled terrorists’ despicable acts. We recall with gratitude the heroism and selflessness of the first responders who lost their lives. We remember and honor our military men and women who have died and those who have been wounded in the War on Terror. We continue to pray for the safety and protection of all of our military personnel who are serving to protect our nation and in defense of freedom. We also pray that we may be protected from further acts of terror, and we pray for our leaders that they may be given wisdom and strength in their responsibilities of governing. In a most special way, we pray for our fellow Christians around the world but especially in the Middle East, who are suffering persecution at the hands of Islamic radicals.
In recent weeks, there have been reports of new horrible acts of terror by ISIS. While all terrorist acts by their very nature are horrible, these recent acts stand out in their vileness and inhumanity. In Turkey and in Iraq, children are now being used as suicide bombers. ISIS has a history of using children in their war on humanity. These barbarians have used young children as weapons and as human shields. As horrific as these crimes are, there is now something even more sinister and hideous that has been witnessed and even recorded on camera. In Iraq, two young boys were used as suicide bombers by their own father! A father strapped explosives around the young bodies of his own sons and sent them to kill themselves and to murder as many people as they could in the name and for the cause of Islam. This is unimaginable. How any Muslim who is a rational human being could remain silent at this act of pure evil is beyond all comprehension.
Yet before we, Christians, stand too tall in our disdain and disgust, we should take an honest look at our own societies and values. We should examine how we as a society also allow our children to be murdered. It may not be in the ideological cause of religion, but we too have parents murdering their own children and in far greater numbers. And like the Islamic world, the majority of Christians remain silent. Our children are also dying for ideological purposes, not for the cause of true religion but of false religion. The ideologies of pleasure, selfishness, convenience, fear, hatred, falsehood, financial prosperity, career, despair and greed are among the ideologies for which we allow our children to die. As evil as ISIS is, abortion is no less so. Far more innocent human beings have been murdered in the United States due to legalized abortion than ISIS could ever imagine killing. Since abortion was legalized in the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973, more than 53 million innocent babies have been “legally” killed. This is nearly ten times the number of Jews killed by Hitler and the Nazis in the Holocaust. Today, 21% (1 in 5) of all pregnancies in the United States ends in an abortion. And in every abortion there are always at least two victims, the unborn child and the mother. The scars and wounds of abortion do not end with the pregnancy.
In Pace Christi,
Fr. Troy Gately
Celebrating Together
Father Tinney and Father Joe Celebrated Mass together.
A look inside…
Some who have been here long enough may remember our church first looked like this…
A New church in West Houston
The Texas Catholic Herald featured our church, the biggest church in the West side of town. A whopping 625 seats for our new church!
Do you remember when…
St. John Vianney looked like this?
A Night to Remember
In the words of our Pastor, Fr. Troy Gately: “Well, our Fiftieth Anniversary celebration is now underway! We inaugurated the 50th with a gala at the Omni Hotel complete with special guests, former associates, entertainment and dancing including an appearance by the Vianney Virtuosi! Visit our photo gallery to view the highlights of the evening. By all accounts, a good time was had by all! Then after the morning masses on Sunday we had a parish picnic feeding more 1500 hungry parishioners with delicious hot dogs and hamburgers cooked by our Knights of Columbus and served up by our Young Adult Ministry. Kudos to Carolyn Greene and the Golden Anniversary Committee and to Richard Fairly and Parish Life. There will be plenty of more activities in the months to come.”
View Photo Gallery
50th Anniversary from SJV on Vimeo.
Our first Pastor
Father Tinney was our pastor from 1966 – 1979. He loved the Houston Oilers and had a St. Bernard named Bernie.
In the Hands of our Patron Saint
Welcome to the weekly SJV 50th Anniversary Memory. Do you remember when…
…Glenn Bahm painted this original portrait of St. John Vianney holding a replica of our original church? All four pastors have had their initials painted on this canvas.
Quarterly Review – Summer 2016 Issue
Welcome to our fourth edition of Salt and Light, the Quarterly Review of St. John Vianney’s Social Service Ministries. In this issue of Salt & Light, we are turning our attention to one of the basic principles of our Church’s social doctrine: The Option for the Poor and Vulnerable. To understand this teaching, we must first ask ourselves “who are the poor and vulnerable?” In Jesus’ time, the poor and most vulnerable were often referred to in Scripture as widows, orphans, the disabled such as the blind, the sick such as lepers, and strangers. This can be said to be true today as well. However, we can probably add many more categories of poor and vulnerable people to this list. Most notably, in our society today, our most vulnerable members are often our unborn children who are at risk of losing their lives due to the legalization and proliferation of abortion. Strangers in our land–refugees and immigrants, particularly child immigrants–are also an extremely vulnerable population in our world today. Children who are faced with violence and threats of death and abuse within their own countries of origin are putting themselves in another type of danger by undertaking perilous journeys across land, sea, and national borders, often unaccompanied by adults to protect them, to escape their present living conditions. We could also add to this list: the sick, the dying, mentally ill individuals, and very often, our elderly who are forgotten and neglected. We should also never forget those who may appear to be wealthy or powerful, but who are poor in spirit. As human beings, we are all poor in one respect or another.
Read More
To enlighten us further about our Church’s teaching on “The Option for the Poor and Vulnerable,” we asked Fr. Nathaniel Haslam to record his thoughts on this topic in video format. Fr. Nathaniel points out that Jesus is the starting point for the Church’s teaching on the Poor and Vulnerable. Jesus lived his life on earth as a poor man. He embraced a life of poverty to identify himself with the poor and vulnerable. I urge you to view Fr. Nathaniel’s inspiring video (embedded below) addressing this topic. Fr. Nathaniel invites us each to “step out of our comfort zone and go out to meet Jesus.”
Because Catholic Social Teaching about the poor and vulnerable is unfortunately often confused or mistakenly equated with socialism, in this issue of Salt & Light, we have included two articles to clarify this misunderstanding. Fr. Robert Sirico writes about “Not Whether to Help the Poor, But How.” In this article, Fr. Sirico examines the difference between life and justice issues within Catholic moral theology. Fr. Sirico argues that both issues are important, but they require different kinds of moral analysis. For example, abortion and laws that permit abortion are always evil because this involves “the intentional destruction of an innocent human life.” Conversely, it is not necessarily sinful to oppose governmental welfare programs for the poor or resist social programs intended to benefit the poor, but which it may be argued can do more harm than good. Such action would not involve the direct and intentional taking of a human life. However, serving the poor and vulnerable cannot be dismissed as inconsequential to the life of a Catholic. Every Catholic is required to meet his/her obligation to the poor. Fr. Sirico concludes, “A Catholic may not disregard the Church’s teaching to assist the poor and vulnerable; to do so would be to neglect the words and example of Christ Himself. It would be, in effect, to deny the Faith.” As the title of the article implies, there is no question about whether or not we as Catholics are required to serve the poor. It is inherent in Jesus’ teachings that this is required of all of us. The question is, instead, “how does each one of us follow Jesus’ teaching to serve the poor?”
To further illustrate the difference between Catholic Social Teaching and socialism (as well as other political ideologies), we’ve also included a review of Anthony Esolen’s book, “Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching.” Esolen’s book serves as an excellent introduction to Catholic Social Teaching as well as an interesting discussion of how its core principles relate to modern interpretations of liberalism or conservatism in the U.S. today, and ultimately defy categorization. The core principles of Catholic Social Teaching are not primarily concerned with such things as governments, economics, politics, and legislation. Instead, the social doctrine of our Church promotes a respect for human life, human nature, natural human relationships, and an understanding of human good that should inform all our individual actions as well as our politics.
In anticipation of our nation’s Independence Day and to conclude the Fortnight for Freedom, we have included sections in this Salt & Light issue on Faithful Citizenship and Strengthening Catholic Identity. We are pleased to share more reflections from our parishioners in this issue. Parishioner Pat Guzman reflects upon Religious Liberty while parishioner Maria Sotolongo reflects upon Catholic identity and the family. If you like to write and are interested in sharing reflections or reviews related to our Church’s social doctrine or the Works of Mercy, please contact Vivian. We love our parishioner contributors!
We invite you to join us in our Quarterly Reviews as we continue to explore contemporary issues that are relevant to the Catholic Church’s social doctrine and the Corporal Works of Mercy, and to review our Church’s rich history in both words and actions in the arena of social justice. We hope that the various contributions that we share here will be informative, relevant, and useful to each of you as you live out your Catholic faith day by day. Stay tuned for much more to come!
As we approach the end of the Fortnight for Freedom and our July 4th celebrations, please don’t forget to pray for our nation, our leaders, and our religious liberty. Happy 4th of July!
Peace and Blessings,
Deborah
“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lamp-stand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” ~ Matthew 5: 13-16
In this issue of Salt and Light Quarterly Review:
- The Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
The Preferential Option for the Poor by Father Nathaniel Haslam
Not Whether to Help the Poor, But How
Catholic Social Teaching isn’t Socialism - Faithful Citizenship: Standing Up for ‘The Most Cherished of American Freedoms’
A Reflection on Religious Liberty by Pat Guzman
Book Pick for the Fourth and Fortnight - Strengthening Catholic Identity Through the Family
Why Fathers Matter
I am My Father’s Daughter by Maria Sotolongo - Living Faith, Changing Lives, Making a Difference: One Person at a Time
Quarterly Report from the Social Services Ministry
Living Faith, Changing Lives, Making a Difference:
One Person at a Time
Quarterly Report from Social Service Ministries
The mission of the Social Service Ministries at St. John Vianney Catholic Church is to act on Catholic Social Teaching and our commitment to the Corporal Works of Mercy by providing a compassionate response to those parishioners and families in our community in need of assistance.
In addition to providing our regular services, over the past three months we have turned our focus to assisting parishioners and those around Harris County whose properties and/or livelihood were affected by the devastating floods. Read More.
Respect Life Movie Night
We again thank you for making our Respect Life Movie Night such a big success! We had almost 100 attendees, and we can honestly say that we were all moved by Blessed Mother Teresa’s example of showing Christ’s love to those too often shunned by society. During this Jubilee Year and given the news of her upcoming canonization, let us all look to her example of mercy in action.
“This film was the winner of the 2014 Sedona International Film Festival’s Audience Award and follows Sister Teresa’s early consecrated life as a teacher in a school run by the Loreto Sisters – showing how, through the poor outside the windows of the convent, God called her and how she answered his call.
Mother’s deep faith expressed in loving service, eventually attracted the world’s attention, but even though she was sought after by the media and honored by world leaders, never for a moment did she use the spotlight for herself. Rather, she mingled the world’s spotlight with the light of Christ and then focused it on the human dignity of the poor and the humanity of the unborn child.
In 1993, during a visit to the United States, while attending the congressional prayer breakfast in Washington DC, Mother Teresa challenged our nation when she said: “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use violence to get what they want.” She wanted nothing from the world, except respect for all human life and the resources to serve the poor.
(…) In Houston, we are fortunate to have a small presence of four Sisters of Charity, who provide a homeless shelter to care for pregnant women and their babies. Our SJV Gabriel Project donates baby items, diapers, blankets, etc., for the mothers who are living there. Because the Sisters of Charity live so simply and humbly, they do not allow us to bring too many items to these women. Only the very basic necessities!
We invited the sisters to attend the movie this evening, but as Mother Ahnucella explained to us, they do not go out to any events unless it is to serve the poor or for a special occasion Mass. After watching the movie, we understand why these sisters are so committed to helping the poor and lovingly serve the less fortunate ones in their communities.
“Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve You, as You deserve; to give, and not count the cost; to fight, and not to heed the wounds; to toil, and not seek for rest; to labor, and not to ask for reward.”
In memory of the four Sisters of Charity murdered in Yemen on March 4, 2016, this is the prayer that these women prayed every morning, before leaving their home assisting dozens of elderly and sick people within their midst.”
An excerpt from the introduction by Diane Davis, Coordinator of Respect Life Ministry at SJV
Helping our Neighbors in need
Let’s Be Prepared:
Sign Up now for SJV’s Disaster Response Team
When disaster strikes, are you interested in lending a helping hand? We are looking for volunteers who are willing to be on-call to distribute food and supplies as needed in our parish. We also need volunteers to help us check on our elderly parishioners and those living alone in the event of a disaster.
Sign up now for our local Disaster Response Team! Contact Glorivel at 281.497.4434.
A Statement by Cardinal DiNardo
“I ask the faithful to please join me in prayer for those affected by the recent flooding in Houston and the surrounding areas. I am grateful for the rescue efforts being facilitated by not only emergency response teams, but also volunteers aiding their neighbors during these challenging circumstances. Some of the parishes in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston are reporting damage to their property; we will monitor those situations and remain in contact with them. May God’s mercy be bestowed on the families and individuals dealing with day-to-day uncertainty as the hazardous conditions persist.”
Local Flood Relief Efforts:
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are working together with SJV and parishes across the Archdiocese to offer emergency relief and recovery for our neighbors in need who have been impacted by the recent flooding.
Cash donations. To give online, please go to the Catholic Charities or The Society of St. Vincent de Paul websites.
Volunteer. The needs are great and the workers are few, so please consider to Sign Up Today!
Get Help. First call: 2-1-1 for a complete list of referrals to currently available resources. You may also contact: Catholic Charities Disaster Assistance Program, 713.526.4611, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, 832.538.0329, or SJV Social Services at 281.497.4434
How to Help the Earthquake Victims in Ecuador:
The 7.8-magnitude quake, which occurred on April 16th, has killed over 600 people. More than 25,000 people are currently living in shelters.
Take Action: Pray for the people of Ecuador. The survivors are taking the first, fragile steps toward recovery. Hundreds of first responders – from all across the region – are searching for survivors and helping restore basic services.
Catholic Relief Services has launched its emergency response. They are currently reaching out into the remote areas of Ecuador to assess the needs and respond accordingly. They are accepting donations.