Author: Father Albert

Pastor Column: Leo XIII and Socialism

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From the bulletin of October 4, 2020      Our next pope is Pope Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 to 1903. He wrote the most encyclicals of any pope and was also responsible for laying the foundation of what people call Catholic Social Teaching. This refers to the collection of Church teachings on justice, government, business, and other day to day social realities. From the very start, Leo XIII made social ills a particular focus of his pontificate.      His first encyclical is titled Inscrutabili Dei Consilio: On the Evils of Society and focuses on the fact that human society...Read More

Homily for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Should I Obey?

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26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A (focus on 2nd reading)                             September 27, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/JWp2ZRl6PTQ “Obedience is not a virtue.” I saw that tagline on an aerial picture of a World War II concentration camp. In that context, it’s pretty hard not to agree. The Nazi soldiers’ obedience to Hitler, the many doctors and citizens obedient to anti-Jewish and eugenic laws, even the priests and pastors obedient to leaders who told them not to preach about it. Surely that proves obedience is not a virtue, right? But...Read More

Pastor Column: Pius IX and Conscience

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From the bulletin of September 20, 2020      Blessed Pius IX, in his long pontificate (1846-1878), wrote on a wide variety of subjects and was a significant figure in the Church’s response to the development of the modern world. This also means he is a controversial figure. Though he is beatified, there have been and still are people in the Church who are ashamed of his leadership and who try to minimize or reject his teachings. As is often the case in such controversies, the problem is more often than not a matter of misunderstanding and miscommunication. One such example...Read More

Homily for the 25th Week of Ordinary Time: The Wage of Envy

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25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  September 20, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/_RYOIHmDjfg The sugarcane harvest is starting, so for the next four months or so will see many, many people working 12-hour days and more. How would they feel if people showed up in the last hour of the day and got paid the same amount? But that is exactly what happens in the parable. Now, this is not exactly business advice. Jesus is not teaching that business owners should always pay a full day’s wage...Read More

Homily for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Worth It?

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24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  September 13, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/hHtJFTsW-iU How did this guy even get into that much debt? Jesus tells us the man owed his king a “huge amount.” That’s a loose translation, it’s actually 10,000 talents. A talent is worth about 6,000 denarii. A single denarius is the amount of money a laborer earns in a single day. That means this huge amount is what someone would earn by working for 60 million days. If you do some division and throw...Read More

Pastor Column: The Masons

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From the bulletin of September 13, 2020      Since it came up in the last column, I think it might be worthwhile to summarize the Church’s stance on the organization known as the Freemasons or sometimes just as “Masons.” I’ll tell you up front that Catholics are not allowed to be members of the Masons and that becoming a member jeopardizes a person’s standing in the Church. That may surprise a few people and upset a few others because most have only positive experiences with the members they have met. Well, there are a few reasons for this position. I’ll...Read More

Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: Love is Love

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23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                  September 6, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/ITpHMmgwkmQ “Love is love.” “Love trumps hate.” “Love wins” It’s a popular tactic to include “love” in slogans for political and social movements. St. Paul does something similar. “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.” Jesus himself sums up the entire Jewish law with a similar phrase: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which St. Paul repeats here. But there are two very important questions. What. Is. Love? Why should I love? That’s where...Read More

Pastor Column: Qui Pluribus

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From the bulletin of September 6, 2020      Now for the documents themselves. We’ll start with some of the documents of Blessed Pope Pius IX. You may remember that he was the Pope who first used his power of teaching ex cathedra to solemnly define the Immaculate Conception of Mary as a dogma. Well, he is also the first pope to really expand the practice of writing encyclicals to the whole Church, ultimately writing 38 of them over the course of his time as Pope.      Pius IX’s primary concern was to teach the truth of the faith. Most of...Read More

Homily for the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time: God Forbid

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22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, A                                                                 August 30, 2020Fr. Albert                                                                                St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette Video of 8am Mass: https://youtu.be/30pRHRn2QXY “God forbid, Lord! Don’t let it happen. Don’t let them suffer, don’t let us suffer.” A reasonable request, but what do we do when he doesn’t forbid it? Do we try to forbid what God himself allows? What God himself wills? Then we may well hear that surprising rebuke Jesus offers to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” Peter, the close friend of Jesus, first among the Apostles, and the first to confess Jesus as...Read More

Pastor’s Column: Different Kinds of Documents

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From the bulletin of August 30, 2020      As we journey through some of the more recent Papal teachings, it is also important to understand the different kinds of documents a pope can write. Last week’s survey of the Marian doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption were drawn from the kind of document called an “Apostolic Constitution.” This is considered the highest level of document which can be used for infallible teachings and for other very important decisions about things in the universal Church. Even when the teaching is not specifically formulated as an infallible dogma, they are...Read More