from the desk of Fr. Paul…

Sunday, January 2, 2011

from the desk of Fr. Paul…

Well over a year ago, we formed a Building and Maintenance Committee. There were twenty four people at the meeting and it was very encouraging. While many of you have always been available to see that areas of the Parish are well maintained and regular maintenance is being done, we have not had a meeting of this committee as such. I believe that we must start meeting because some major decisions have to be made soon. The building is nearing the 20 year mark and many items are showing their age. For example, one of the air conditioners in the Conference Room is broken. The company that maintains our air conditioners said it could be fixed, but it will be expensive and we would be wasting our money because it is so old and inefficient. They will have to break into the wall. If we break into the wall, we might just as well replace it. The other air-con in that room is not working well either.

The Diocese hired the Trane Co., to do an assessment on energy use in all the Parishes in the Diocese. They assessed our building over a month ago. While I haven’t received their report yet, I am told that, for the size of our building and of the Parish, we are spending more money on energy than any other Parish on Oahu. It doesn’t surprise me as I cringe every time our power and water bills come in. They offer suggestions to us on how to be more energy efficient. Off the record, I asked the man who did the assessment what we could do about our water bills. Since the biggest culprit of our high bills is the toilets, he thought it would be wise to replace them all with more commercial type toilets.

Meanwhile, our New Building Committee is meeting to not only plan for the new building, but also on how to renovate this building. While I don’t want to interfere with future plans, there are certain things that must be tackled now. Hopefully our Building and Maintenance Committee can meet soon so that we can begin dealing with the present problems. I don’t want to make these decisions on my own.

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The Catholic Church traces its foundation to Jesus and the twelve Apostles. It sees the bishops of the Church as the successors of the apostles and the pope (the bishop of Rome), in particular, as the successor of Peter, the leader of the apostles.

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world's population. The Catholic Church is a communion of the Western Rite (Latin Rite) and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches (called particular churches), comprising 2,795 dioceses in 2008.

The Church's highest earthly authority in matters of faith, morality and Church governance is the Pope,currently Pope Benedict XVI, who holds supreme authority in the Church in concert with the College of Bishops, of which he is the head. The Catholic community is made up of an ordained ministry and the laity; members of either group may belong to organized religious communities.

The Church defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity. It operates social programs and institutions throughout the world, including schools, universities, hospitals, missions and shelters, as well as organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, Caritas Internationalis and Catholic Charities that help the poor, families, the elderly and the sick.

Through apostolic succession, the Church believes itself to be the continuation of the Christian community founded by Jesus in his consecration of Saint Peter, a view shared by some historians. It has defined its doctrines through various ecumenical councils, following the example set by the first Apostles in the Council of Jerusalem. On the basis of promises made by Jesus to his apostles, described in the Gospels, the Church believes that it is guided by the Holy Spirit and so protected from falling into doctrinal error.

Catholic beliefs are based on the Bible and on Traditions handed down from the time of the Apostles, which are interpreted by a teaching authority. Those beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed and formally detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.Formal Catholic worship, termed the liturgy, is regulated by Church authority. The Eucharist, one of seven Church sacraments and the key part of every Catholic Mass or Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy, is the center of Catholic worship.

With a history spanning almost two thousand years, the Church is one of the world's oldest institutions and has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilization since at least the 4th century. In the 11th century, a major split (the Great Schism) occurred between Eastern and Western Christianity, largely as a result of disagreements over papal primacy. The Eastern Orthodox churches became a separate entity from the Catholic Church in the resulting schism. Eastern Churches who remained in or later re-established communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, form the Eastern Catholic churches. In the 16th century, partly in response to the Protestant schism, the Church engaged in a substantial process of reform and renewal, known as the Counter-Reformation.

Although the Church maintains that it is the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church" founded by Jesus Christ where one can find the fullness of the means of salvation, it also acknowledges that the Holy Spirit can make use of other Christian communities to bring people to salvation. It believes that it is called by the Holy Spirit to work for unity among all Christians, a movement known as ecumenism.Modern challenges facing the Church include the rise of secularism and opposition to its stances on abortion, euthanasia, and contraception.

Welcome to Resurrection of the Lord - E Komo Mai

Sunday, January 2, 2011