Fr. Aidan Writes:
After the picnic, the campaign and the Corpus Christi Procession, you might be thinking “ahh Ordinary Time”. Well, yes, Ordinary Time takes over this weekend. However, July is going to be anything but ordinary I’m afraid. In the middle of July, from the 10th to the 23rd, five of the Josephite priests will be away attending the Josephite General Chapter in Belgium. This is a meeting that happens every five years. It should have happened last year, but because of CoVid19 it was held over to this summer. Three of the four parish pastoral team will be attending: myself as Vicar General, Fr Armand as an elected dele- gate and Fr Alfred has been asked by Fr General to be one of the secretaries for the chapter. Fr Ludo will be attending as Regional Superior and Fr Gerardo as the second elected delegate. I will be leaving this Monday to go ahead to help with preparation and also to bury my aunt. I will have a week’s holiday afterwards, returning to the parish in the first week of August. Frs Alfred and Armand will be going out with Fr Gerardo on the 8th July, Fr Ludo a little before that. Frs Alfred and Ludo will spend all July in Belgium seeing family, which they have not been able to do for three years. Armand and Gerardo will come back to the parish for the last week of July onwards. Armand then flies to Cameroon on 10th Aug for his two month break. He has not been home since he has been here. Alfred returns the second week of August. Got that….complicated no? Now you can understand how difficult it has been to schedule Masses for this coming month!
Fr John and Fr Ed will be at the parish during the week. At the weekends, Fr Tran, VAFB chaplain, will help out and other priests will help here and there. Please do not ask for lots of extras during this month as the staff- ing is stretched. There will also be less priests available for confessions so please try not to sin too much!!
I do ask your prayers for the Josephite Chapter. It is a very important meeting that elects the new leadership team and sets our course for the next few years.
God bless and see you in August!
Fr. AP
May God bless you, your families, and the week ahead,
Fr Aidan Peter