Today is Respect Life Sunday and October is Respect Life Month. When most of us think about respect life or pro-life, often we limit our thoughts to abortion and the legality of abortion in the United States. True, abortion is a great moral evil, not only here in our country, but in many parts of the world. All of us do need to show our support for anti-abortion legislation, keeping this issue in the open, and work and pray to end this evil in our world.

     But being pro-life is much more. To call oneself a believer or supporter of life, one is committing himself to support the dignity of all life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. Issues of euthanasia, assisted suicide, and capital punishment are important pro-life issues in our society, as are issues of crime, poverty, and starvation.

     It is too easy for us to just ignore these issues as most of us live a comfortable healthy life. Yet, our call as Christians and as Catholics is to form our conscience to see the dignity of all human life and to take whatever actions we can to support efforts to address our social ills and to see the dignity of each person in our world as a creation of a loving God. We can do this first by prayer, then by supporting legislation that protects all people, and then by being involved in our own communities working to improve the quality of life of everyone, especially the most vulnerable people among us. When we are able to do these things, then we can truly call ourselves pro-life.

   
                                                               God Bless! Fr. Joe Bacevice

WELCOME
 

This weekend, we welcome Father Lukas Laniauskas, SJ, to our Parish to offer a Mass of Thanksgiving at 10:00am. It is a great honor for our parish to have him, who is a life-long member, return as a priest to celebrate Mass. We congratulate Fr. Lukas on his ordination and we pledge our prayers and support for him in his ministry as a priest and as a Jesuit, wherever he is called to serve.

     His being at our parish this weekend also serves as a reminder of our need to pray for an increase of vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religious, and to continue to support vocations. Our parish is truly blessed to have our son Fr. Lukas serve the Church as a Jesuit priest and we are blessed to have Christian Raddell studying to serve as a diocesan priest. Chris is in his third year of studies at Borromeo Seminary and we pray will be ordained in six years.

 

PASTORAL COUNCIL

 

We are looking for a few good people to run for a seat on our Pastoral Council. Application forms are available in the Book Room. Applications will be accepted until November 1^st. Any member of the parish, age 16 and older, with a few exceptions, is eligible to run for a seat on the Pastoral Council. This year, Leonard Kedys, Deacon Louis Pecek, and Debra Zeledonis are completing two terms are not eligible to run for a seat. We invite you to seriously consider serving on this important council in our Parish.

BLESSING OF ANIMALS
 

Next Sunday, October 4^th, is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. In honor of St. Francis, Deacon Louis Pecek will bless animals in the Neff Road parking lot from 1-2 pm.

CLAMBAKE FUND-RAISER NOTES

    Have you purchased your Fall Raffle tickets?

Raffle tickets were mailed to all parishioners. Additional tickets are available at the rectory during the week or in the Book Room by the main entrance of the Church. Kindly make your returns in a timely manner.

 Dinner tickets are now available

Tickets for the Clambake and Steak Roast dinners, are available after the weekend Masses at the back of the Church and in the lower hall, and during the week at the rectory. Clambake and Steak Roast dinner tickets are $32 each and extra clams are $10/dozen. The last day to purchase tickets is Sunday, October 18^th. NO tickets will be available at the door.

 Helpers are needed

For our clambake to be a success, we need volunteers to help with just about every aspect of the event. We have sign up sheets in the main vestibule of the Church. If you can help us by baking a dessert, decorating or setting up the hall, helping with cleanup, or in any other way, please sign up.

 Show your support for our parish in the program book

We invite you to have your greetings printed in the book or purchase advertising in the book. Advertising forms are available on the bulletin tables at the entrances to the Church.

This year our clambake falls on the weekend of our 6^th Anniversary as St. Casimir Parish. We want everyone to be a part of this celebration and look forward to seeing you on October 24^th !