Pastor's Column for November 28, 2021

I write this column while still on my vacation and I have to admit it is frustrating having all of these deadlines for future columns due to the bulletin publisher’s need to work around holidays such as Thanksgiving. So I write this on November 17th, a full week before Thanksgiving. By the time you read this, Thanksgiving will be over & we will be celebrating the first Sunday (weekend) of Advent. Due to my own sometimes hectic schedule, I prefer to take each day as it comes instead of getting too involved in the future. But perhaps therein lies the message of Advent, at least for the beginning of this season before Christmas. Advent is about preparing for the future, for the time when Christ will come again at the very end of time. And that can be difficult for us to deal with if we like to stay focused on the present. But this joyful (and challenging) season does not tell us to look only into the future without also being present to today. Because what we do today depends on how our future will work out. That can sound a bit confusing, but I believe it’s the message of the gospel we hear today. Jesus speaks about a future time so that he might help us not to be surprised & trapped by that future. He tells us to be aware and to beware (interesting how those words can be separate and yet joined together). We must beware by being aware, we must take heed of the future by being conscious in the present. How do we take heed? By being “vigilant at all times & praying.” This is sounding more like a sermon than an informational column so I’ll stop here before I get too far ahead of myself. But hopefully it will help both you and me alike to better grasp the meaning of Jesus’ words today and of the season of Advent itself. 

Did you read the article or see the news about parishioner Armand Venditti? It spoke of him as being a World War II Veteran who turned 101 years old on November 12th! I was hoping to see Armand in church & to recognize his 101st birthday (as I was able to do for his 100th birthday last year) but he is only able to come to church when his health—and the weather—permits. In the article about him (which can be read here: https://fox8.com/news/local-senior-community-celebrates-service-members-including-100-year-old-wwii-vet/), Armand says that there is no secret to living a long life. “Rather, he said there’s values and principles to live by like eliminating stress, staying healthy, being respectful of others and caring for family. To love each other and, of course, the good Lord, I think plays a good part in your life. You’ve got to have that, your faith, your faith will carry you through an awful lot.” Well said, Armand! I am not surprised he mentioned his faith and the “good Lord” as Armand has been a faith-filled parishioner of St. Leo’s for a very long time. He, along with his wife Mary Lou who died a few years ago, were very active members of our parish, and just wonderful people to know. The article mentions how he is now living at Vitalia, a senior living community in Seven Hills. My dad is also living at Vitalia, but the one that is in Strongsville. So let us us wish Armand a happy birthday, thank him for his service to our country, and wish him many more days and years of health and happiness which comes from faith. 

Pastor's Column for November 21, 2021

This column needed to be submitted in advance due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday this week so it’s a challenge to report news that is current. In my column last week, I gave an update on our (gratefully healthy) financial situation so I thought I’d share some information with you that we received recently from the Diocese concerning the assessments that we pay to the Diocese. We are taxed a certain percentage of our weekly contributions which not only allows us to receive substantial assistance from the Diocese in our parish work, but also allows us to participate in the mission of the Universal Church in proclaiming the Gospel. So let me quote for you some important information which may help you understand how this assessment works.
“The Diocese of Cleveland provides pastoral and temporal services for people, parishes and institutions in the Diocese, and represents the Faithful in the Diocese in the worldwide church. Funding to help support the work of the Diocese is primarily provided through an assessment that is paid by each parish. The Code of Canon Law, Canon 1263, provides that “after the Diocesan Bishop has heard the Finance Council and the Presbyteral Council, he has the right to impose a moderate tax for the needs of the Diocese.” This Canon further states that the tax is to be proportionate to income. The current assessment rate in the Diocese of Cleveland is 16.5% of offertory, reduced to 11.5% for parishes with schools.
The Diocese supports the work of the Bishops in the United States through the work of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Catholic Conference of Ohio Bishops represents the Catholic Church on public matters throughout the state, such as ensuring the receipt of government funding for education including textbooks and vouchers for students enrolled in our Catholic schools. Lastly, each Diocese throughout the world is asked to support the work of the Holy Father in his ministry. Funds are requested by the Holy Father to demonstrate our fraternal support for the work he undertakes to meet the needs of the Church on a global basis. Funding provided by the Diocese of Cleveland to these various state, national, and global ministries approaches $500,000 annually.
On a local level, the Diocese serves people, parishes and institutions in temporal and pastoral matters largely by administering and funding the Bishop’s ministries that are best accomplished at the Diocesan level, ministries that the parishes cannot do on their own, and ministries that complement all the work that is done at the parishes and other institutions.
In all cases, the resources provided by the parish assessments are carefully used to further the mission of the Church. These resources are under the discipline of an annual budget process, an annual independent audit, and the advice and oversight of the Bishop’s Finance Council. Further, the Diocese publishes an annual accounting of its utilization of these resources in its annual Report to the Community.
Although a specific parish or institution may not use all of the services that the Diocesan Offices provide, the services of all these Offices are used frequently in most parishes in the Diocese.”
Hopefully this information helps you to understand why our assessments are necessary and helps you to realize how much assistance we receive from the Diocese. Your donations help both the parish, the Diocese and the Universal Church to accomplish its mission of doing the work of Christ.
Please join us for Mass this Thanksgiving at 9am and enjoy the long holiday weekend, another gift to be thankful for at this time of the year.

Pastor's Column for November 14, 2021

Bette Novak was one of the first people I would see on Sunday morning as she would be sitting in the first pew in front of the pulpit, long before the 8am Mass. She was a always wearing a smile, even when facing difficulties in her life. She would stay at home with her husband Don of 57 years who has been suffering from Alzheimer’s for several years. She lost a son who died about 3 years ago. But she continued to place her faith in God and to give thanks for the blessing of her husband, 3 surviving children & several grandchildren. Betty died after a short illness & we celebrated her funeral Mass on Friday, November 5th. May she and all the faithful departed, rest in peace, especially as we remember all of those who died from our parish during this past year throughout the month of November.
Father Vesely turned 93 this past week on Monday, November 8th. Please remember him in prayer & ask the Lord to keep him in good health.
In this weekend’s bulletin, you’ll find the Annual Summary Financial Report for our parish from this past fiscal year (July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021). I gave a brief update on our parish finances a couple of weeks ago in this column, but I wanted to mention a few other highlights from this report. First, in terms of building renovations, we were able to complete the full remodeling of the boy’s & girls restrooms in the school building. We also remodeled the school office and have placed new floors in the main hallways of the school. We have installed new touch-less drinking fountains in the school and have replaced all the old doors with new ones. New awnings will be in place soon on all our buildings to clearly mark the building and its entrance location.
We have paid our first of three $22,000 installments to the Diocese as part of our commitment to help with the much-needed renovation of our seminary buildings in Wickliffe, and which allows us forgo a parish campaign whereby we ask you to contribute to this cause. In terms of income, we received $78,396 from our parish investments and received a one-time payment from the IRS in the amount of $64,557 as an employee tax credit due to remote work and school situations related to COVID. We received over $20,000 from our capital improvement envelopes (thank you!) and over $15,000 in donations from parishioners outside of our weekend collections. Our SVDP Ministry also received over $20,000 in donations this past year. Our Sweepstakes Raffle made a profit of $4,475 and we made a profit of $7,115 from our Fish Fry this year, despite the take-out only restriction due to COVID. Our Gift Card Program made a profit of $7,175. Because of these profits and due to a continued increase in school enrollment, our total bank balance for this past fiscal year was $1,732,785, an increase of $309,251 from our balance of $1.423,534 from the previous fiscal year. We also saw an increase in our offertory collection of 1.13%, due again to your continued commitment to the financial well-being of our parish. I am so deeply grateful for the hard work and generosity of all our parishioners who are helping us grow our savings and thus secure a financial future. Pray that I may be a good steward of our parish in every way.
I will be away this weekend before the Advent & Christmas seasons begin. Though it will again be more of a “staycation,” I look forward to getting caught up with family & friends now that my other errands have been taken care on from my last few days away. Thank you for welcoming the priests who will be praying with you this weekend. Please pray for us all.

Pastor's Column for November 7, 2021

Last week I visited and anointed a woman by the name of Rosalie Zupancic who was in Hospice Care in Euclid. She joined the faithful departed and was buried from our church this weekend (on Saturday, October 30th). She was a member of St. Leo the Great for a very long time and I’m glad I had the opportunity to speak with her before her passing as she was a woman of deep faith. She was devoted to St. Jude and to the prayer of the rosary. We include her in our prayers for all the faithful departed especially during this month of November and express our sympathy to her children and grandchildren.

On November 2nd, the feast of All Souls, we had a Holy Hour (actually it was about 45 minutes long but that’s close enough!) as we prayed for all the faithful departed, especially for those who were buried from our parish during this last year (November 1, 2020 through October 31, 2021). We had a wonderful showing of people who appreciated how well it was planned by Joan Berigan and then presided over by Deacon Pat. So my continued thanks to them for their creativity and service to the parish community. We will leave the names of the deceased from our parish displayed on the large screen during our Masses this weekend and again invite you to write in the name(s) of deceased loved ones you would like us to pray for during this month of November in the book by the baptismal font. May all of our faithful departed rest in the peace of the Risen Christ.

I just want to include here a little “shout out” to all of our parish and school staff. Especially with the parish school, we have many employees here at our parish, though I don’t like to think of them so much as employees as co-workers and co-ministers as it takes a village, the saying goes, to raise a child (or 300 of them) and to serve the adults of our parish, also God’s children, who make up our community. I am grateful to all of our school teachers, many of them new and young this year, who have joined us, not just in providing an excellent academic opportunity for our children but to do so in an atmosphere of faith, which is what makes the Catholic School so different from the public schools. I am also grateful to our maintenance staff who do an excellent job of maintaining all of our buildings…the rectory, the church, the parish center, & the school with the gym and cafeteria. Plus they do much maintenance on our parish grounds as well. They are understaffed right now as we are having a very hard time hiring workers like most of the country. So my thanks to them for doing more than their share of taking good care of our grounds & buildings. As you know from your encounters with our rectory staff, we have helpful and caring people who assist others in a hundred different ways. And again, my appreciation for our Principal, Denise Burns, who oversees both the elementary and preschool, and does so with great dedication and a sincere desire to do the very best for our children, their parents, and our staff. Top it all off with Deacon Pat & Joan Berigan, and I am filled with gratitude for such good leadership and service. I am very proud of all our staff members here at St. Leo’s and I hope you too can express your appreciation to them when given the opportunity. They are the ones who allow us to serve you to the best of our ability.