Welcome to the St. Mary Parish website, which is continually under construction with new parish updates and exciting news. We welcome you to our parish!

If you are new in the area, we invite you to worship with us and participate in our parish activities.

We extend a special invitation to those who may have been away from the church for a while to rejoin us.

Through this website, we hope to provide opportunities to grow in faith through some of the links that are offered and to keep you up to date with parish activities. 

Good wishes to all.

Rev. Seán Bonner
Pastor

Queridos amigos,

Bienvenido al sitio web de La Parroquia de St. Mary, que se encuentra actualmente en construcción. ¡Le damos la bienvenida a nuestra parroquia!

Si es nuevo en el área, lo invitamos a orar con nosotros y participar en nuestras actividades parroquiales.

Extendemos una invitación especial a aquellos que pueden haber estado lejos de la iglesia por un tiempo para reunirse con nosotros.

A través de este sitio web, esperamos brindar oportunidades para crecer en la fe a través de algunos de los enlaces que se ofrecen y para mantenerlo al día con las actividades de la parroquia.

Los buenos deseos para todos,

Rev. Seán Bonner
Pastor

ministerio hispano - vea la pestaña de
vida parroquial arriba

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Parish Services:

• ONLINE GIVING - sign up today
• Historic Cemetery (section under construction)
• St. Mary Outreach Center

Thinking About Becoming A Catholic?

In parishes throughout the country, men and women who are seeking to journey in faith, gather together for what has come to be known as the R.C.I.A. (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults). If you or someone you know are interested in the R.C.I.A. program, Click here for more information.

Vocation Awareness

Many priests and religious will tell you that before entering religious life, they felt unworthy of such a calling. Yet, St. Paul tells us that he boasts of his weaknesses because he knows that God’s grace is enough (2 Cor 12:7-10). Saint or sinner, you may be called to the priesthood. Click here for more information.

Notes from 
Fr. Sean
May 31, 2020

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Interim MASS SCHEDULE
in Church
Please maintain social distancing in and around the church at all times.
Face covering/mask must  be worn in and around the church.​​​​​​ Thank you.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday
9:00 AM (English)

Saturday:  4:00 PM (English)

Sunday:  8:30 AM (English)

11:30 AM (English)
also via livestream:
zoom.us/j/941197167

2:00 PM (Misa en español)
also via livestream:
zoom.us/j/721881196

5:00 PM (English)

Sacrament of Reconcilation
in Church

Monday & Wednesday
3:30 PM to 4:00 PM
Friday
following 9:00 AM Mass
Saturday
3:00 PM to 3:30 PM

or call for an appointment
(734) 721-8745
Mon - Fri  8:30 AM - 4:00 PM

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HOLY ROSARY

Pray the Rosary, daily. 

PRAY THE ROSARY WITH US!
How to pray the Rosary

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BECOME A PRIEST

Permanent Diaconate

Religious Life

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Catholic News

Religious freedom foes seek to leverage coronavirus controversies

Published: June 1, 2020

Denver Newsroom, Jun 1, 2020 / 06:00 pm (CNA).-  

The Center for American Progress, a longtime critic of religious freedom protections, has claimed churches seeking equal treatment under coronavirus public health rules have been “distorting religious freedom into a license to spread the coronavirus.” But religious liberty experts disagree.

Churches “argue that religious freedom should essentially overrule all other rights,” Center for American Progress staff said in a May 6 commentary. “Using religious freedom as an excuse for continuing to hold in-person gatherings is one of the most alarming examples yet in their attempt to redefine the principle.”

But Teresa Stanton Collett, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas, disagreed with that claim.

Religious liberty “exemptions simply honor the promise of religious liberty contained in our state and federal constitutions,” Collet told CNA May 29.

“They also represent a more robust understanding of human needs – needs that extend beyond mere physical existence. They are similar to, but different from the exemptions for journalists and reporters. Both exemptions are grounded in constitutional protections recognizing our need for human connection and communication.”

The Center for American Progress has claimed that officials in at least 20 U.S. states “discriminated in their implementation of public health orders by including religious exemptions.”

“Giving religious communities a free pass to remain open, thereby spreading the virus, has never been based on evidence-based public health guidance,” said center staff. “Those exemptions were made to acquiesce to certain conservative religious leaders, politicians, and legal advocacy groups who advance a narrative that conservative Christians are being persecuted in this country.”

While the center tried to depict these policies as conservative, it listed several Democrat-controlled states with religious exemptions.

Those states include New York, whose March 20 order did not order houses of worship to close but “strongly recommended no congregate services be held and social distance maintained.” Massachusetts’ March 22 order recognized workers at places of worship as essential and exempted these places from closure, but still limited gatherings to no more than 10 people. Colorado’s April 1 order allowed houses of worship to open, provided they “practice social distancing or use electronic platforms.”

A minority of those who contract the coronavirus will suffer severe symptoms and require hospitalization, and severe cases can be deadly. Over 102,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus, out of some 1.75 million confirmed cases, according to Friday figures from Johns Hopkins University’s Covid-19 Dashboard.

The Center for American Progress’ May 6 commentary, “The Plan for Reopening Houses of Worship After the Coronavirus Crisis,” built on previous critiques. Its March 27 commentary, written early in the epidemic, bore the threatening title “Religious Exemptions During the Coronavirus Pandemic Will Only Worsen the Crisis.”

Richard W. Garnett, law professor at Notre Dame Law School, told CNA that these Center for American Progress commentaries “repeat their standard, but incorrect, claim that religious freedom advocates are ‘misusing’ religious freedom principles and laws in order to burden or harm others, are claiming an ‘absolute’ right to override general laws, and are trying to assert, in the name of religious freedom, a ‘license to discriminate’.”

“This is hyperbole,” Garnett continued. “In fact, religious freedom advocates and litigators contend that because religious freedom is foundational and fundamental -- as both international human rights law and the American tradition recognize -- it is appropriate for governments to take care not to burden religious practice unless it is necessary to advance a compelling public interest.

“Not all religious exemptions can be granted and religiously motivated conduct is not immune from reasonable regulation. But, in our tradition, if we can accommodate religious practices, then we should.”

The Center for American Progress also criticized the religious liberty legal groups Becket, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Liberty Counsel, saying they “have been twisting religious freedom into a license to attack vulnerable populations for years before the pandemic.”

The legal groups were among those supporting more than a dozen state and federal lawsuits seeking to reduce or lift limits on in-person religious worship.

According to Collett, however, equality is one principle at the center of lawsuits from churches and religious communities challenging epidemic restrictions. The government “cannot restrict religious communities and activities more than similar non-religious groups and actions,” she said.

In the case of Greenville, Mississippi, the city allowed drive-in restaurants to operate under coronavirus restrictions but tried to fine attendees at a drive-in church service $500 per person.

“After legal action was initiated, the mayor reversed his positions. As U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr said in his statement supporting the churches, ’religious institutions must not be singled out for special burdens’,” Collett said.

It is “irrational and unconstitutional,” she added, to allow retail stores to open with social distancing requirements while prohibiting religious gatherings of more than 10 people in spaces built to accommodate 200 or more.

A more contested principle in these debates, said Collett, is the claim that religious beliefs, communities and activities are “uniquely valuable” and any restriction must have “greater justification,” like other First Amendment rights of speech and assembly.

“This is the principle that some governors and mayors relied on when they declared religious activities to be among the state’s essential services,” she said. “Under this principle, the government can temporarily shut down movie theaters and concert venues, while permitting worship services and public masses to continue.”

Garnett echoed these comments. Despite some outlier cases, religious communities “have agreed that reasonable, temporary limits on in-person gatherings are justified by public-health concerns.”

“Mainstream religious-freedom advocates and religious leaders agree that generally applicable, non-discriminatory restrictions on in-person gatherings may be applied to religious services.,” he said.

“They also insist, appropriately, that if our knowledge and the evidence are such that officials determine that some gatherings or group activities are permissible, it is wrong to discriminate against religious gatherings that are similar to those that are permissible,” Garnett continued. “There are lines to be drawn, of course, and comparisons can be difficult, but it would seem that if a casino or a theater can open safely then so can a religious gathering.”

Some of the legal arguments cited by the Center for American Progress themselves seemed to justify this approach.

“As exemptions (for critical infrastructure) pile up, churches have a legitimate beef. When governments fail to apply burdens across the board, the argument that the government must restrict public gathering for worship in the name of the public’s health becomes less compelling,” the legal scholars Robin Fretwell Wilson, Brian A. Smith, and Tanner J. Bean said in a March essay quoted by the center’s staff. These scholars contended that this meant there needs to be “fewer exemptions, not more.”

CNA sought comment and clarification from the Center for American Progress.

Maggie Siddiqi, director of the think tank’s Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative and co-author of the two commentaries, responded:

“As our nation surpasses 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, we would urge states and localities to avoid allowing any large gatherings, including at houses of worship. Numerous outbreaks of the virus have been documented at houses of worship, even when congregants were attempting to practice social distancing. The right to religious freedom is not a license to spread the virus and put communities at risk. We applaud the leadership of the vast majority of houses of worship in our nation that are saving lives by continuing their services while keeping their building doors closed.”

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, another think tank co-author, was critical of the Trump administration’s religious freedom concerns about Centers for Disease Control guidelines.

In a May 14 commentary for CNN, Graves-Fitzsimmons said “the administration is once again trying to unfurl the banner of what it might describe as religious freedom, this time as cover for a premature push to reopen the economy.”

The Center for American Progress appears to envision continued limitations on religious worship.

“Even once stay-at-home orders are lifted, gatherings of more than 50 people will need to continue to be banned until herd immunity has been achieved through mass vaccination,” it said May 6. “These continued limitations will have a profound impact on religious communities and will require creative responses.”

However, a group of Catholic clergy and public health experts has put out guidelines on the sacraments and the restoration of public Masses through the Working Group on Infectious Disease Protocols for Sacramental and Pastoral Care, a project of the Thomistic Institute at the Pontifical Faculty of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.

One member of the group, infectious disease expert Timothy Flanigan, M.D., told CNA May 21 that the critical question is not necessarily whether it is safe to go to Mass, but whether a religious congregation or any other group gathering is following CDC protocols to decrease the risk of transmission. These protocols include safe distancing, good hand hygiene, staying home if sick, and wearing masks.

“Following that guidance is so important for all of us to do,” he said. “Whether it’s in a mall, whether it’s in a supermarket, whether it’s in an office building, whether it’s in a meeting.”

Flanigan is a professor of medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island.

Clusters of Covid-19 infections have taken place around the world at elder care facilities, hospitals, meat processing plants, religious venues, worker dormitories, prisons, schools, sports events, bars, shopping venues, and conferences.

Churches have drawn special concern in part because the novel coronavirus is uniquely difficult and deadly for the elderly who develop symptoms, and some congregations tend to be disproportionately elderly.

Flanigan did not comment on any particular outbreak related to religious venues, but he noted that many incidents of contagion took place prior to the adoption of preventative guidelines.

Collett noted the apparent changing situation of the United States months after the arrival of the coronavirus.

“As our experience and knowledge of the disease, as well as our circumstances change, it is only right that our judgments are changing. And it is not surprising that we still reach different conclusions,” she said.

“Most Americans accepted that a brief shutdown of most of civil society was both necessary and desirable given the unknown nature of the disease, and the frightening images and numbers of deaths in Italy, and then New York City,” she said. “However, as we gain more knowledge about the disease, and see the harm accumulating from continuing isolation and inactivity, more and more ’exemptions’ arise.”

As CNA has previously reported, the Center for American Progress is a participant in a multi-million dollar campaign to limit religious freedom protections, especially where these conflict with the claims of LGBT or pro-abortion rights advocates.

It was founded by John Podesta, a former chief-of-staff for President Bill Clinton and campaign manager for Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful 2016 presidential run. In 2016, Podesta drew attention after leaked emails implied he had backed several political Catholic groups for a so-called “Catholic Spring” revolt against the U.S. bishops.

 

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Trump says he will dispatch troops if riots continue

Published: June 1, 2020

Washington D.C., Jun 1, 2020 / 05:45 pm (CNA).- During a speech from the Rose Garden on June 1, President Donald Trump pledged to deploy the U.S. military if state governors do not move to activate their National Guards to stop violent protests.

The president then walked across a square that moments before had been filled with protestors forcibly removed by police units, and visited a historic Episcopalian church that had been on fire the night before.

“I am mobilizing all federal resources--civilian and military--to stop the rioting and looting. To end the destruction and arson, and to protect the rights of all law-abiding citizens,” said Trump during his speech.

The president said that it was his “first and highest duty as president” to protect the country and the American people, and added that all Americans were “rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd.”

Floyd, 46, died after a Minneapolis police officer held him on the ground during an arrest, his knee on Floyd's neck, even after the man said he could not breathe. The officer has been charged with murder. Throughout the country, protests and riots have been ongoing for the past week in response to Floyd’s death. Some of the protests have turned violent.

U.S. bishops have largely expressed support for peaceful protestors, and have condemned racism, police brutality, and the violent riots tha have gripped cities across the country.

“The killing of George Floyd was senseless and brutal, a sin that cries out to heaven for justice. How is it possible that in America, a black man’s life can be taken from him while calls for help are not answered, and his killing is recorded as it happens?” U.S. bishops conference president Archbishop Jose Gomez said in May 31 statement.

“We should all understand that the protests we are seeing in our cities reflect the justified frustration and anger of millions of our brothers and sisters who even today experience humiliation, indignity, and unequal opportunity only because of their race or the color of their skin. It should not be this way in America. Racism has been tolerated for far too long in our way of life,” Gomez added.

“It is true what Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, that riots are the language of the unheard. We should be doing a lot of listening right now. This time, we should not fail to hear what people are saying through their pain. We need to finally root out the racial injustice that still infects too many areas of American society.”

“But the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost. Let us keep our eyes on the prize of true and lasting change,” the archbishop added.

In his June 1 speech, Trump stated that “justice will be served” and that Floyd “will not have died in vain.”

The president referred to himself as “your president of law and order,” and “an ally of all peaceful protestors.”

“But in recent days, our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, criminals, rioters, Antifa, and others,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, Trump spoke to the governors of states, and he stated that he believed many of them had failed on a statewide level to protect their citizens. He said he ordered them to “dominate the streets” with the National Guard, and to have an “overwhelming” law enforcement presence to prevent further violence.

”We are ending the riots and lawlessness that has spread throughout our country. We will end it now,” said Trump.

Appearing to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, the president said that if governors refused to activate their National Guard units, he would “deploy the US military and quickly solve the problem for them.”

The last time the Insurrection Act was invoked was during the Los Angeles riots in 1992.

The president faced criticism, and a conflict with Twitter, last week for a May 29 tweet that again suggested the possibility of military action, and said "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Trump later said his tweet was not intended as a threat against protestors or rioters.

On Monday, Trump cited various acts of violence and vandalism that have occurred during the protests and riots, including the desecration of war memorials, beatings of people, the shooting death of a law enforcement officer in California, and the attempted arson of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. A fire was set in the basement of the church, which has been attended by every U.S. president.

Some protestors across the country have said that while violence and looting is unacceptable, some peaceful protests have turned violent only when police have fired tear gas or non-lethal projectiles at demonstrators. Trump's speech did not addess that charge.

“These are not acts of peaceful protests. These are acts of domestic terror,” Trump said.

“America needs creation not destruction; cooperation not contempt; security, not anarchy. Healing, not hatred. Justice, not chaos. This is our mission, and we will succeed 100%,” said Trump. “We will succeed. Our country always wins.”

Following the speech, the president walked from the Rose Garden to St. John’s Episcopal Church for a photo with members of his cabinet. The president did not enter the church, but returned to the White House after the photograph.

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Churches in 6 states damaged by violent protests

Published: June 1, 2020

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 1, 2020 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- Catholic churches and cathedrals in several cities were among the buildings damaged in the protests and riots that occurred nationwide over the past week.

Church buildings in California, Minnesota, New York, Kentucky, Texas, and Colorado were attacked. Many of the defaced or damaged churches were cathedrals. The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver sustained permanent damage. 

Vandals repeatedly struck the Denver cathedral on multiple nights of the protests and riots over the weekend. The church building and rectory were spray painted with the slogans “Pedofiles” [sic], “God is dead,” “There is no God,” along with other anti-police, anarchist, and anti-religion phrases and symbols. 

Gates surrounding the cathedral were damaged, and tear gas that was fired to disperse the protests leaked into the rectory. The doors to the cathedral are believed to have been permanently damaged by the vandalism and will reportedly need to be replaced. 

Three bags of rocks were collected from the parking lot, but the cathedral’s most valuable windows were unharmed. Other windows on the cathedral’s campus were shattered.  

St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City was tagged with various graffiti, including profanities, “No justice, no peace,” “BLM” (Black Lives Matter) “NYPDK.” The name of George Floyd was also written on the stairs outside the cathedral.

Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25 sparked a week of ongoing protests in cities across the country, some of which descended into violence.

In New York City, surveillance video captured two women spray painting the cathedral on Saturday afternoon, during the protests in the city. Police are looking to identify both women and are offering a reward. 

On Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and chairman of the Commission of Religious Leaders (CORL), issued a joint statement condemning the death of Floyd as well as violence and looting. 

“We respect those who want to honor George Floyd’s memory with peaceful protest against the horror, evil, and sin that is racism,” the statement said. 

“We also support the members of Floyd’s family who said, in part, ‘We cannot endanger each other as we respond to the necessary urge to raise our voices in unison and in outrage. Looting and violence distract from the strength of our collective voice.’” 

In Dallas, the Saint Jude Chapel located in the city’s downtown area was severely damaged by rocks late Friday evening. 

“We did have some vandalism at St. Jude on late Friday night. They threw a couple of these rocks through the window,” said Fr. Jonathan Austin, chaplain of the chapel, during his homily at Sunday’s Mass. Austin held up one of the rocks that was thrown through the window. 

Austin said that when he watched a surveillance video of the vandalism, he doubted that the vandals knew that they were even attacking a church, and that he suspected they were “breaking things to break things.” 

“I looked in their eyes and I thought, ‘wow, they don’t even know.’ Just the smile that was there, that this was a good thing,” he said. 

Three windows at the front of the chapel were shattered, and the chapel was boarded up as a result.

“These panes of glass are nothing,” said Austin. “Glass breaks all the time, sadly. But last week, Mr. George Floyd’s life was taken. It was taken by a man who did not respect it.” 

Austin added that he believed the “vast, vast majority” of people throughout the country were “not rising up for something bad, but for something good.” He urged everyone to “stand for true peace,” and offered prayers for Floyd, his family, and others who lost their lives to “horrific acts, especially at the hands of authorities.” 

The Daughters of St. Paul bookstore in Chicago was similarly damaged by rocks, and would-be looters entered the store early on Sunday morning. Earlier in the day, the Blessed Sacrament was removed from the tabernacle in the bookstore’s chapel and the sisters sequestered themselves upstairs. 

None of the sisters were injured, and upon doing a review of inventory, found that nothing had been stolen. 

The rectory of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville suffered damage due to rocks thrown by protestors. Three windows were shattered late Friday evening, and the cathedral proceeded to preemptively board up all other windows to prevent further damage. 

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, who resides at the damaged rectory along with another priest, has spoken out in favor of peaceful protests and condemned “senseless violence” in the city. 

In Minneapolis, where the protests began, St. Mary’s Basilica--the first basilica in the United States--sustained minor damage during protests on May 29. A fire was lit underneath a pew, but it did not spread beyond that pew. 

“The Basilica of Saint Mary did withstand minor damage yesterday. No one was injured in the incident. At the time we pray for peace and healing in our city,” a spokesperson for the basilica said in a statement issued May 30. The basilica is the co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

In Los Angeles, the Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon-St. Peter Cathedral, the Maronite cathedral for the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, was vandalized with anti-police messages during the protests and riots. 

 

Tur Levnon / Heritage and Liturgy Department
Sad day for our cathedral in USA.
Vandalism against Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon-St. Peter Cathedral, the Official Seat of the Maronite Eparchy Our Lady of Lebanon in Los Angeles, California. pic.twitter.com/QirKfrk26r

— Tur Levnon (@turlevnon) June 1, 2020  

On Monday, the cathedral shared a video of people painting over the graffiti. 

“Peace to all !! Our Cathedral is shining again,” wrote the church on Facebook. 

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