On June 10th, I celebrated a Funeral Mass for Carol Philips, a parishioner of the parish who died this past November. Her husband of almost 50 years died about 10 years ago. Carol opened her home to a relative who lived there with her for several years. Please keep Carol and all of our faithful departed in your prayers. 

     This past Tuesday we celebrated the Mass of Christian Burial for Joan Dregne, a woman who was very community-minded, and a long time resident in Old Brooklyn. She was a person of faith who had a devotion to St. Christopher and to the Blessed Mother, as she prayed the rosary often. She sent her son Eric to our parish school and worked as a secretary. She enjoyed traveling with her friends and was active in our parish community, especially as a Eucharistic Minister. May she rest now in the peace of Christ.

     Just a reminder that we will be celebrating a Memorial Mass at 10am this Saturday, June 25th, for longtime Parishioner Rose Pelley, who has lived in Pennsylvania during these past few years with her daughter. If you knew Rose, please join us as we pray for her and celebrate her long life of faith. A Franciscan priest who is a friend of the family will be presiding and I will be concelebrating.

     I also wanted to let you know that Johanna Kinder, another longtime parishioner of St. Leo’s, died last week and her funeral Mass was celebrated on June 17th at the Chapel at Jenning’s Center on Granger Road, where she had lived these past few years. Johanna was married to her husband Tom for 60 years & he passed away a few years ago. May she and her husband rest in peace.

     Though I have not cancelled the use of our live-streaming technology yet for weekend Masses, I did cancel the option to use close-captioning which allows you to read the text that displays on the screen as it transcribes what is being spoken. I did so because it was expensive ($1200 a year) but mostly because it was very inaccurate since it is computer generated (it would have to be in order to transcribe the spoken audio instantaneously). If many people really relied on this and found it helpful, I would consider adding it back, but as several people pointed out, it does not recognize unusual biblical names or ecclesiastical (“church”) words, and would often even display foul language (as if we would ever use such language in a liturgical setting!). It even called Bishop Malesic a very bad name once when Deacon Pat mentioned his name at the pulpit! So again, if you find this feature a necessity, let me know & we’ll consider whether it’s worth re-subscribing to it.

     This past Sunday I was asked to visit a parishioner at Metro Hospital who had a stroke and was on life-support. I was happy to be there to give him the last rites, however the priest who was on call at the hospital also arrived at the same time, and I felt bad that his Sunday afternoon was unnecessarily interrupted. So I’ll use this occasion to remind you that if a loved one is in need of the Anointing of the Sick or the last rites (and there is a difference between the two which I’ll explain in next week’s bulletin), please ask the nurse in charge to contact the hospital or nursing home chaplain first. Most have a Catholic Chaplain who is hired or assigned to this ministry which is meant to have someone available in short notice as the parish priest may not be available. Please only contact the parish if the attempt to get the chaplain was unsuccessful. Only one person should be in charge of this responsibility to avoid having more than one priest show up unnecessarily. If someone is at home and would like to be anointed or receive the last rites, then please call me at the rectory office. 

     We wish all the men of our parish a Happy Father’s Day as we pray for them at each of our liturgies. I will be visiting my Dad & Stepmother this Sunday & sharing with them the experience of our pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Let us remember our father’s with gratitude, whether they are living or deceased.