Today is the Third Sunday of Lent. It seems to be going by very quickly. On Friday and Saturday of this week we have our Parish Mission. This is an event we have planning for several months now. The theme for our mission this year is “Living as a Catholic in Challenging Times.”
Our parish is beginning a new relationship with a local advocacy group in Montgomery County. Action in Montgomery – AIM – was founded in 1998 by our own Father Ralph in cooperation with clergy from other faiths. From its inception AIM has been a non-partisan, multi-faith, multi-racial organization dedicated to working together to get funding from Montgomery County and the State that benefit all – not just the affluent - in the community. In becoming a partner with AIM St. Francis joins other Catholic parishes – St. Martin’s, St. Rose of Lima, Our Lady of Mercy, St. Andrew’s, St. Camillus – as well as a plethora of other religious congregations in Montgomery County.
A few weeks ago now on President’s Day (February 15) several hundred Catholics from throughout the state of Maryland gathered to meet with our state legislators to put forward the Church’s position on several key legislative issues being considered by the Maryland General Assembly. Let me present here what the Maryland Catholic Conference (MCC) staffers consider the most pressing issues during the current session. I am relying on the summary of the issues written by Richard Szczepanowski in the February 23 issue of the Catholic Standard: