Summer is the time when many priest are reassigned to new parishes. There is always the sadness of having someone who has served the community well is leaving and the relief when a less competent pastor is being replaced. A good priest is such a blessing, and I think most priest want to do well by those they serve, but a insensitive, proud, toxic priest can cause so much spiritual damage.

I have seen wonderful priest and terrible ones. Bad priests can mean many things. Anything from financial mismanagement or just having a prickly or off-putting personality to the child sexual abuse cases we are all aware of. And in between the two extremes are those toxic men in priestly robes who through their vanity, lack of pastoral care or self absorption poison and wound the very people they are most called to serve. If you so much as dare to point out that they are causing harm they will make sure you pay the price.

A friend recently shared an article with me from The Catholic World Report “Fighting the Church may lead you right out of the Church”. I am in not position to opine on the examples of people who left the Church after finding themselves in conflict with it, but I can say that the deeper you believe in the truths of the Church the harder it is to square dealing with the Church leadership when they ignore the bad behavior of their brother priests. Most people who have lukewarm faith, who are not invested in parish life, who don’t have passion for the sacraments have nothing to hold them in the Church when things are going badly. They hop parishes, or leave all together without a syllable of protest because they aren’t invested. When someone complains, takes their concerns up the chain of command and is then brushed off, or worse told “Yes that was wrong that Fr. did that to you, but there isn’t really anything that we can do so suck it up buttercup” it is understandable that the harm is that much deeper. It is no wonder that passionate people who loved the gospel end up leaving when they find sheep being so poorly treated by the very people called to protect them.

Judas was not Christ’s mistake. I have long held that the betrayal of Christ by Judas was example for us in two ways – a warning against despair and reminder that even those who lived with Christ, ate with him were physically touched by him could be led astray. 1/12 of Christ’s first hand picked leadership failed to live up to their calling – We can not expect priests to be perfect. At the same time, if Judas has repented, had found his way to the foot of the cross, Christ would have forgiven him.

A good shepherd will leave the 99 and go an look for the one lost sheep. When I see how some priest not only are unwilling to reach out to people who have been hurt by the church, but are unwilling to reach out to people they have personally hurt, I fear for them. Austin Ruse end’s his article by saying “Here’s the thing. Dreher is out of the Church. Sciambra is out of the Church. Skojec is out of the faith altogether. I just think it would be better if they were still here with us” I agree. I hope and pray that someone int the leadership of the Church has reached out to say “come home”.

2020 is gone. The last couple of years have been incredibly challenging – and then there was Covid.
Hopefully 2021 will be a year of resets, mercy, joy, forgiveness, humility and above all love in the grace of God. May Mary’s gentle heart lead us in gentle ways.

We finished up our ballots and sent them off. I pray that our country will find peace and that people will remember that those who disagree with them are still our brothers and sisters in Christ and deserving of respect – even when they are dead wrong on many issues.

You haven’t been remote working and you haven’t been homeschooling since Covid-19 broke out. What you have been doing is trying to work from home in a crisis and trying to help your kids finish the school year (or start an new one) at home with no time to prepare. What we have been doing the past few months is as close to Remote work and homeschooling as getting washed up on a desert island after the boat had sunk is to going on an island vacation. There was no plan, no structure, no real support and no idea when you would be rescued or how that would happen.

You haven’t failed

Let’s start with the simple truth, no matter how bad last spring was for your kids you haven’t failed. But this situation has been so hard on so many kids. They are missing their friends, activities, milestones – life. And they are stuck at home trying to follow lesson plans and do zoom meetings in a vacuum. And it is so hard.

One of the boogie-men that homeschoolers are often confronted with is “What about socialization?” frequently asked in random grocery store check-out lanes from probably well-meaning strangers, accompanied by a smile that confirms they have played the ultimate “gotcha” card. But now this is actually a real question. Even veteran homeschoolers have had a hard time. We are used to play dates, field trips, enrichment classes and dances. Summer camp and team sports have been cancelled. Socialization is suddenly a real concern.

This might not be over yet. The first school to reopen this year had to worry about infect students after the very first day. This doesn’t bode well for us being able to go back to any semblance of normal anytime soon. Families who have shifted their plans to homeschool in the fall are actually in a better place at this point than families that are waiting for the schools to figure out what is happening. (this goes for businesses too)

5 things you can do to make this fall better

1. Shift your mindset to homeschool mindset – Remember that you, as the parent, are the one responsible for educating your children. The school is there as a resource to help you. No matter what the school does or doesn’t do you are the one who has the God given responsibility to turn out a competent adult. You know your children better than the school – don’t be afraid to push back.
   
2. Plan to get out of the house every week – go on walks or hikes, build a tree-house, take up bird watching, do a neighborhood clean-up .. but get out of the house.
   
3. Don’t let the school burn your kid out – Schools are notorious for time boxed learning that is actually massively inefficient. In a classroom so much time is spent transitioning 20 or more children from one lesson or activity to another. There are discussions, reading out loud, handing out papers, logging into apps or finding the correct website all set at the pace of the slowest.
   
   In some cases teachers have been replacing 8 hours a day of “school time” with 8 hours of busy work. The kids would never have been expected to do all this work if they were in a classroom. One of the most common surprises to new homeschoolers is how little time it actually takes to get through a good amount of school work. Make sure that your children aren’t getting overloaded by classroom teachers who have no experience in remote learning.
   
4. Make sure that your kids have friend time – even with social distancing you can find ways to get together with friends. Even the most introverted need social connection sometimes. Arrange a picnic, a bike ride, a couple of friends over.
   
5. Keep a schedule Have a time to get up, set times for school work, time for play. Create rituals – baked cookies on Wednesday, make Friday Divine Mercy day, and Sunday afternoon family game time. Don’t let one day just bleed into the next until time becomes one mind numbing mass.
   

With prayer and love our families will navigate moving forward.

If this is Friday dinner you are missing the point of fasting.

Yes, I have actually seen someone recommend Lobster bisque for Friday in Lent.   That just isn’t fasting.   I mean I suppose it is technically allowed, but still seems to go against the spirit of what you are supposed to be doing.