June 26th, 2022

Thirteenth Sunday in ordinary time

by Fr. Boniface Endorf, O.P.

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Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,

I’m back at St. Joseph’s! We finally finished our Provincial Chapter at Providence College and now I’ve returned home. I’m glad to be back and eager to see everyone.

On the Sacred Heart of Jesus this past Friday we reached a momentous day in America: the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. No longer is abortion protected as a constitutional right. For almost 50 years Catholics have been praying and fasting for this moment. Every year the largest annual march in DC is the March for Life, and now that long and hard work has been rewarded. The abortion issue now reverts to a state issue and each state will decide democratically how to regulate abortion. Thus, the work continues, but this is a signal day.

I was struck especially by God’s providence in this case. Roe was overturned on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus when we celebrate Jesus’s love for all, even the unborn. The date, June 24th, is normally the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist, so going forward the ending of Roe will be celebrated on that feast day, which is fitting because it celebrates the birth of the last and greatest of the prophets who prepared the way of the Lord. We see in a special way today the fulfillment of the petition in the Our Father: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Have a blessed week,

Fr. Boniface