Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 18, 2024 Column Father De Celles News
Parish Picnic. Our annual Parish Picnic is next Sunday, August 25, from 2-5pm here on the Parish grounds, behind the church. There’s lots of food, games, rides (the ponies are back!), music and fellowship for kids and adults alike—a great way to meet and get to know your fellow parishioners. For new parishioners (and visitors) this is a great opportunity to meet people and learn more about the parish; for the rest of us, this is one of the best chances we will have all year to welcome others into in the life and fellowship of our parish—don’t pass it up!
Back to School. Most of our college and grade/high school children are heading back to school this week. I hope you have all had a wonderful summer, and are rested and refreshed and ready to take on the new challenges of the coming academic year, and have a blessed year.
For those of you returning to the Fairfax County Public Schools, be on guard against the growing anti-Christian bigotry growing in the schools. Remember, Catholics don’t hate or degrade others or themselves. We don’t dwell on the offenses of the past, but believe in conversion, forgiveness and the dignity of every human being. Beware those who try to degrade your or other’s bodies, either by encouraging sexual promiscuity or sexual/identity confusion.
Parents, you cannot simply let the government/public schools take charge of the education of your children. YOU are the primary educators of your children, so monitor and discuss with your children what they are being taught in school. And opt your children out of anything that attempts to teach them secular morals, especially sexual and family morals, i.e., especially relevant sections of “Family Life Education.” And remember to be on guard against the Marxist-secularist-atheist ideologies that will be permeating almost every class, from social sciences to math.
But also keep an eye out for the many good and dedicated teachers and administrators in public schools (many of our parishioners). Seek them out and support them.
Religious Education. With school starting up again remember to enroll your kids in Religious Education, CCD. Virginia Osella and Mary Hansen have been hard at work for weeks preparing for the new CCD school year which begins on Sunday, September ??.
Remember, parents are morally obliged to not only teach their children to love Jesus but also to teach them what Jesus and His Church teach, to teach them about Scripture and the Catechism. It’s very difficult for most parents to do this on their own in any systematic and comprehensive way especially if they choose to send their kids to public schools, which not only do not teach them the faith but most often present an environment and culture that is in many ways antithetical to Christianity.
Which is why most of these parents must send their children to CCD/Religious education. And this obligation doesn’t end after 8
th grade: we have a great high school CCD program.
Ask yourself: am I doing everything I can to get my kids to heaven, and keep them out of hell? If you don’t educate them in the faith then the answer is almost certainly “no,” which means you are risking not only the salvation of your children’s souls, but your own soul as well.
So: SIGN YOUR KIDS UP FOR CCD NOW!!! Please. You can call or email the office, or you can register online on our website.
A Note to Parishioners Going Off to College. I know how great it is to go away and spread your wings in college. It is a good, necessary and natural experience to leave the nest and become an adult. Enjoy yourself, but remember it wasn’t so long ago that people your age were expected to get a job and support themselves or their family, including their parents. Today your parents are allowing you this “time off” not to have fun, but to grow and learn. So make good use of this time to grow and to learn the skills, knowledge and wisdom you will need to function as responsible adults. Remember not to waste your time on foolish things, including ideologies or philosophies that lead you away from living as an adult Christian in a fallen world. Don’t let anything lead you away from Christ and His Catholic Church. Whatever that “anything” is—greed, lust, alcohol, drugs, self-righteousness, pride, selfishness, friends, teachers, whatever. Keep your eyes fixed on Christ. When you are lonely, know that He is with you and loves you. When you are overwhelmed know that He fell under the weight of the Cross 3 times, and he will lift you up and help you carry your burden. When you are tempted, turn to Him in prayer. When you hear lies and half-truths remember, He is the Truth. Go to Mass, every Sunday. Go to confession at least once a month. Obey the Commandments at all times. And pray every day, throughout the day. (And let me know if I can do anything to help you out: fdc@straymonds.org).
In the News. Did you see this report from Leor Sapir at “City Journal”?
The main justification for “gender-affirming care” for minors in the United States has been that “all major U.S. medical associations” support it. Critics of this supposed consensus have argued that it is not grounded in high-quality research or decades of honest and robust deliberation among clinicians with different viewpoints and experiences. Instead, it is the result of a small number of ideologically driven doctor-association members in LGBT-focused committees, who exploit their colleagues’ trust…
As the U.K.’s Cass Review pointed out, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the U.S. Endocrine Society were especially important in forging this consensus, and they did so by citing each other’s statements, rather than conducting a scientific appraisal of the evidence. ….
….But the U.S. consensus now appears to have its first big fracture. In July, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, a major medical association
representing 11,000 members and over 90 percent of the field in the U.S. and Canada, told me that it “has not endorsed any organization’s practice recommendations for the treatment of adolescents with gender dysphoria.” ASPS acknowledged that there is “considerable uncertainty as to the long-term efficacy for the use of chest and genital surgical interventions” and that “the existing evidence base is viewed as low quality/low certainty.” …[L]ow quality “means there’s uncertainty about whether the long-term benefits outweigh the harms.”
As evidence for those harms—which include infertility, sexual dysfunction, and the agony of regret—continues to mount and ethical concerns get harder to ignore, European countries are increasingly prioritizing psychotherapy and reclassifying endocrine and surgical approaches as experimental.
…ASPS says that it “is reviewing and prioritizing several initiatives that best support evidence-based gender surgical care to provide guidance to plastic surgeons.”
…The U.S. is one of the few Western countries where minors can receive gender surgeries…Teens under 18 cannot undergo double mastectomy in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Luxemburg, Sweden, the U.K., and three Canadian provinces. Countries that allow these procedures typically do so only in “rare cases,” after age 16, and with parental consent….