Apr 23, 2020

Greetings,

I expect that sometime between when this is being written (Monday morning) and this weekend we should hear something about the future of Masses in Ohio. As things stand right now, public celebrations of the Mass are on hold until May 3rd. So, what that means for Masses on May 4th we are waiting to see.

Between now and then, there are a number of things that I was looking forward to going on at the parish. Dr. Scott Hahn was to be speaking here, St. Sebastian Parish was to be honored by the Julie Billiart Schools for your help in getting their school open, our choir was going to have a “Spring Fling” concert, the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Orchestra were to be performing here the following weekend, the school musical was supposed to start its run and we were supposed to do some celebrity bar tending for the Christ Child Society. Instead we are learning about live-streaming, trying to be creative in finding ways to help people keep the flame of faith alive, figuring out how to do distance learning while trying to keep people connected.

This is a great time not to be a bishop. It is pretty easy to sit in my office and think, “What they should have done was . . .”  It is quite another thing to be responsible for so many souls and to know what weight to give to the information that is given to you. God bless those on whose shoulders the burden of this situation rests.

Just like you, I suppose, Fr. Anthony, Deacon Terry and I hold our collective breaths over such upcoming events as First Communion and weddings, a backlog of baptisms and memorial Masses and other such things. We await hearing when ordinations to the diaconate and priesthood will be rescheduled, if Ian Kelly will be able to go on to his summer job or if he will be remaining here and if we can start hearing open, regular confessions in confined spaces. And what about graduation?

Keith Johnson is working on a youth retreat since our annual summer Steubenville retreat has been cancelled. We are still hearing confessions. We give times when we are available to Cathy Sivec and Jennifer Jones in the office and they schedule them for us. We meet on the wooden benches between the church and rectory (rain or shine!)

Our facilities manager Mike Zimmerman and his crew are using this time to work on things that, while needing attention, were probably never going to get done in light of the heaving workload they regularly face. Slop rooms and storage facilities are being cleaned, painted and straightened up. Things that haven’t worked in years that we have learned to do without are being fixed or replaced. (Amazing how nice it is in the laundry room when all of the lights work!)

I was wondering how this will be remembered some day when, maybe ten years from now, we have to start teaching about the pandemic in our school because there will be children who have no idea what we are talking about and how priests today will be able to tell the priests of tomorrow, “You think YOU have challenges? Why, sonny, let me tell you about what we went through in the pandemic of 2020!”

Hopefully we have learned much, grown in certain areas of faith and gained skills and started good ministries that will serve us well into the future. Thank you to everybody who has kept your parish in your prayers, supported it financially, have volunteered when help was needed and gave us feedback to know that your life was still being positively impacted by your parish.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Speaking of our history “someday,” here are some notable events that we are marking this year:

90 years ago this year:  The Holy Name Society of St. Sebastian began.

80 years ago: Parish debt is paid off and the brick parking lot and playground started.

70 years ago: Construction on the convent begins.

60 years ago: The “new” church opens.

10 years ago:  The Extraordinary Form of the Mass begins at St. Sebastian.

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck