From Fr. Tom,
This coming Tuesday, August 25th, is the official feast day of St. Louis IX, King of France. He is the namesake and patron of our archdiocese. On this particular day, Archbishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski will be installed as the 10th archbishop of our archdiocese. On this day, I hope all of us will say a prayer for our new archbishop as he assumes the role of spiritual leader. St. Louis himself was noted for his holiness, fairness, and wisdom as he performed his duties as king. May Archbishop Rozanski reign in the same manner. For the parishes in the archdiocese, we have permission to celebrate the Solemnity of St. Louis at masses this weekend. It’s been my experience having served as a priest almost totally in rural parishes outside of St. Louis city and county that sometimes parishioners and priests get a feeling of “parochialism” which means having our own little parish with not much of a connection to the larger church. The healthy pride of having a nice parish is very positive, but thinking we are “lone rangers” is not. As Archbishop Rozanski comes to serve us, let’s remember we are a great part of our Archdiocese of St. Louis!