SCCR Parish Blog

Please join with the parishioners in praying a novena to the Holy Spirit for Pentecost.  (A novena is a nine-day consecutive prayer for an important intention).  Suggested start date is Saturday, May 28th, so can end on Pentecost, Sunday, June 5th. 

  The following is a letter to the faithful from Archbishop Schnurr regarding the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Yesterday’s horrific news of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas shakes us to our core and reminds us once again of the fragility of human life. This senseless, heartbreaking tragedy reinforces the desperate need for conversion to a culture of life in our country, one that respects the inherent dignity and sacredness of every human being from conception to natural death. I join my fellow U.S. Catholic bishops in sharing the following statement: “There have been too many school shootings, too much killing of the innocent. Our  Catholic faith calls us to pray for those who have died and to bind the wounds of others, and we join our prayers along with the community in Uvalde and Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller. As we do so...

  The U.S. Bishops are encouraging Catholics to pray a novena to protect life, especially life in the womb.  The suggested dates for that are from today (Sunday, May 22nd) through May 31st, the Feast of the visitation.  That's especially fitting because this mystery recalls the encounter between the Blessed Virgin Mary, carrying the Christ child in her womb (fully man though fully God, so a real human baby) to her cousin Elizabeth, who carried the great forerunner of Christ, St. John the Baptist, in her womb.  St. Luke learned this scene from the Blessed Mother herself, and notes that St. John was already able to respond to the Holy Spirit of Christ from within the womb, as he leapt for joy. When we contemplate that mystery, it makes it even harder to understand how so many would want to extinguish the precious life God gives us in the womb.  Here's the link to sign up for the novena by email , or, if you prefer you can print out the full text .

  UPDATED: May 21st With great joy, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati ordained seven men to the priesthood today  at the Cathedral Basilica downtown.  .   Their biographical sketches are available from the Catholic Telegraph .  If you are curious what an ordination ceremony looks like, you can view it here on YouTube.  Their first assignments are also posted. Last month we also ordained  seven seminarians to the diaconate , including the South Clermont region's own Deacon Patrick Blenman.  Every seminarian is ordained a deacon about a year before he is ordained to the priesthood and at that time promises to lay down his life in celibacy to love the Church in a completely dedicated and undivided way, as well as promising to pray the Church's breviary prayer cycle every day of his life on behalf of the Church and her needs.  At the same time, 14 men were ordained to the permanent diaconate as well, to serve as deacons in the parishes to assi...

 UPDATED: 12 May 2022 As many of you know, the Supreme Court has on its docket this summer an important case (Dobbs vs. Jackson) which could narrow or even entirely reverse the gravely unjust Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 which, together with a companion case, effectively requires abortion to be legally protected for virtually any reason at any stage in pregnancy in every state in the Union.  (While there are some limits, the Court doctrine of "undue burden" has been interpreted so broadly that it makes most regulation impossible in any state).   Our U.S. Bishops have been asking all Americans to pray for the end of legal structures protecting a so-called "constitutional right" to kill a child in the womb.  In an unprecedented confidentiality breach, a preliminary draft of the opinion on that case has been leaked, which the Chief Justice confirmed as authentic.   This draft opinion essentially invalidates Roe v. Wade, indicating that it has no proper co...