From the Pastor January 17/18

Not Extraordinary Anymore

The news has been overwhelming lately. The arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro in an early morning raid, an ICE killing in Minneapolis, threats to invade Greenland. It’s excusable if we haven’t been attentive to events at the Vatican where, Pope Leo has unveiled his new style of Papal governance. 

On Monday, January 5, Pope Leo convened an extraordinary Consistory of the College of Cardinals. This meeting of all the world’s Cardinals was announced back in November. Vatican watchers consider it the real beginning of Leo’s pontificate. Since his election as successor to Pope Francis in May, Leo has been focused on finishing the agenda Pope Francis established. 2025 was a Holy Year, so Leo spent much time and effort fulfilling the Holy Year schedule and finishing Francis’ other projects. Leo’s first major teaching document the apostolic exhortation “Dilexi Te” I Have Loved You” was based on a document begun by Pope Francis. Now Leo will be able to begin his own agenda.

One of his top priorities has been setting up the mechanism for closer cooperation with the College of Cardinals. One of the concerns expressed by the Cardinals while they prepared to elect a new pope last spring was that they didn’t know each other well and therefore didn’t have the insights they felt they needed on possible candidates to elect a new pope. 

A legacy of Pope Francis was his concern for the peripheries of the Church. Francis created Cardinals who served communities throughout the world. Bishops from diverse places with even small Catholic populations became members of the College. While this diversity was good for the Church, many members of the College didn’t have the opportunity to get to know other members with whom they had little contact. When the Cardinals assembled to elect Pope Leo, they suggested more frequent meetings. Pope Leo’s responded with a plan to host an extraordinary consistory or meeting of the College of Cardinals each year.

What is the difference between an ordinary and an extraordinary consistory? According to Canon Law, which governs the Church, an ordinary consistory is one that assembles to elect a new pope, confirm the creation of new Cardinals, or the canonization of new saints. Only Cardinals living in Rome are required to attend these consistories. An extraordinary consistory is a meeting of all Cardinals and is meant to advise the pope on topics of urgency to the whole Church. In the past they have been rare. Pope John Paul II called only six in his twenty-eight years as pope. Pope Benedict none, and Pope Francis three. Pope Leo plans to call one every year.

In preparation for this month’s consistory to set priorities for the Church over the next two years. Leo had suggested four topics. First, reflection on Pope Francis’ letters Evangelic Gaudium which addressed plans for Christian evangelization, Praedicate Evangelic which was Francis’ plan to reorganize the Roman Curia, then synodality, and finally the liturgy. When the meeting began Leo suggested scaling things back to only two topics, Evangelic Gaudium, and its call to work to help make the Church more missionary and responsive to the needs of the ordinary faithful, and Praedicate Evangelic the organization of the Roman Curia to carry out more effectively its missionary emphasis. While synodality wasn’t addressed directly by the consistory, it was the impulse for the meeting. Leo announced a second, three to four day session of the Consistory for late June. It look as if these extraordinary meeting will become the new norm for Pope Leo’s efforts to consult with, not only Cardinals, but also the wider Church. 

Healing Mass for Separated and Divorced

The Divorced and Separated Ministry of the Diocese of Fall River is sponsoring a Mass of Healing at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, 327 Second Street, Fall River on Sunday, January 25, 2026 @ 10 :30 a.m. Very Rev. Jeffrey Cabral, JCL, Judicial Vicar for the diocese will be celebrant. The failure of a marriage can inflict feelings of abandon and hurt on many spouses. For more information, contact Deborah LeDoux, Family and Respect Life Director, at 508-658-2956. 

Baby Bottle Boomerang 

January is Sanctity of Life Month. Again, this year Holy Redeemer is conducting a Baby Bottle Boomerang as a fundraiser for Your Options Medical Centers. Your Options is an agency that offers pregnant women services such as free ultrasound tests and counseling to help women considering abortion to know all their options before deciding. Pro-Life people need to be ready to help women with problem pregnancies with prayer and financial resources. We need to meet our words with action.

Parishioners participating in the Boomerang should fill their bottle with the loose change they receive during the month and return it in early February. 

Capital Campaign Update

Holy Redeemer’s Capital Campaign, “Unless the Lord Builds It” continues to grow towards our goal. The theme for the campaign comes from Psalm 127:1. The full text is: 

“Unless the LORD builds a house, 

the work of the builders is wasted. 

Unless the LORD protects a city, 

guarding it with sentries will do no good.”

The passage points out that unless a project is placed in God’s hands it cannot hope for success. All our efforts are useless without God’s blessings on our project. We need to pray for God’s guidance and grace to make our campaign successful. 

God has been blessing our work. The goal we set for this campaign is $750,000. As of this week we are more than half way there. We have raised $533,123.58, with donations from 135 parish households. Those donations will fund two of our larger campaign projects, new siding for the church and new windows for the rectory. Our project manager, the same one who implemented our wonderful phase one church renovations, estimates the cost of siding for the church to be $350,000. Our hope is to begin that renovation first thing in the spring. 

A generous parishioner saw the Rectory window replacement on our list of projects and decided to fund it. This week we signed the contract for this project costing just under $50,000. The Rectory windows on the original section of the house date from 1909, while those on the addition to 1953, so that should help tighten up the drafts and save energy costs. We plan to start that project in the early spring. The additional projects are working on our parking lot here at Holy Redeemer, interior paint and new carpet at Our Lady of Grace Chapel, painting and replacement of carpet in the rectory.

If you have not yet donated to the Capital Campaign, please prayerfully consider making a sacrificial gift. If you have donated and now have circumstances where you can make an additional gift, please consider doing so. Together lets join the work of God making Holy Redeemer an attractive worship space for years to come.