Can’t be at the assembly? Yes, you can!!

Hello, Members and Friends. We are six weeks away from the assembly, and I know some of our Friends and members cannot attend for various reasons. But you can still have a role. You can fully or partially fund someone who wants to attend but can’t afford all of the registration, lodging, and/or travel costs. We also need help with the media we’ll be using to record the keynote addresses and make them available to you after the assembly. Your participation by deferring some costs will be virtual but remember: Virtual can be virtuous!! Thanks for your consideration,

Steve Newton, CSC, Executive Director

Contributions can be sent to: AUSCP, PO Box 676, Tiffin, OH 44883

OR, Give online at: Donate Now

UNTOLD STORIES THAT NEED TO BE TOLD, part one

“Untold Stories That Need to be Told” is our new venture in the Mutual Support Working Group’s concern for justice in the church. The goal of this project is to compile evidentiary documentation to help the church-at-large connect the dots and bring about improvement in canonical and pastoral protocols for bishops and priests. In the future, submitted stories will appear in the Sunday e-newsletter and archived in an online folder accessible to all.

Part I of this article offered an explanation of what this project is about and why we are doing. You can read part one HERE.

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This week’s article focuses on the importance of priests’ stories and how you can help and can be found HERE.

AUSCP member Fr. Michael P. Ahlstrom, (age 82), Archdiocese of Chicago, died Friday, May 3, 2024. Fr. Mike served the Archdiocese of Chicago in a variety of ways, including: pastor of several parishes, associate director of the Office for Divine Worship; instructor and chairman of the board of the Liturgical Institute in Mundelein; instructor in medical ethics at the Little Company of Mary School of Nursing; priest presenter for Engaged Encounter and Marriage Encounter; pastor in residence and liturgy instructor at Mundelein Seminary; board member of Chicago Studies; member of the Annual Catholic Appeal board; and member of Catholic Charities’ Parish Outreach Committee.

In 2004, Fr. Mike began serving as vicar for deacons. He served in that role until 2013 and continued serving as vicar emeritus. Deacon James Norman, current vicar for deacons, said: “It was clear that he valued and loved the diaconate community: deacons, their wives and families. He was always there when needed to celebrate a Mass, lead a prayer, coach and mentor. He left us a legacy of love and support.”

May Fr. Mike rest in God’s eternal love!

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Upcoming Webinars

There are two new webinars scheduled for May.

MAY 15, 4PM: Vatican II Decree on Christian Education — Gravissimum Educationis

Hosted by Fr. Bob Bonnot and presented by Dr. Joe Torma

This decree presents convictions of the Vatican II Council, listing 12 specific topics dealing with certain fundamental principles of Christian education. The topics include: The Meaning of the Universal Right to an Education, Christian Education, Parents as the primary and principal Educators, Various Aids, the Importance of Schools, the Duties and Rights of Parents, Moral and Religious Education, Catholic and Different Types of Schools, Catholic Colleges and Universities, Faculties of Sacred Sciences, and Coordination in Scholastic Matters. It is a short, but informative document. “These principles will have to be developed at greater length by a special post-conciliar commission and applied by episcopal conferences to varying local situations.” It was approved by Vatican II on October 28, 1965.

Are we doing better or worse since Vatican II? What do we need to strengthen going forward?

Register HERE.

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MAY 22, 4PM: Vatican II Declaration on Religious Freedom — Dignitatis Humanae

Hosted by Fr. Bob Bonnot and presented by Dr. Joe Torma

This Declaration deals with the right of the person and of communities to social and civil freedom in matters religious. “A sense of the dignity of the human person has been impressing itself more and more deeply on the consciousness of contemporary man/people, and the demand is increasingly made that men/people should act on their own judgment, enjoying and making use of a responsible freedom, not driven by coercion, but motivated by a sense of duty.” This document has no titled segments but 15 numbered segments. It concludes: “it is necessary that religious freedom be everywhere provided with an effective constitutional guarantee and that respect be shown for the high duty and right of man freely to lead his religious life in society.”

The conclusion calls us to keep this declaration steadily in our lives. It was approved by the Vatican II Council on December 7, 1965. Have we grown in our religious freedom since 1965?

Register HERE.

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