April 2020 Take Advantage of ‘Remote’ Devotions During Pandemic Isolation By Christine Corbett Conklin This is a time for ingenuity for the field. You can also search a specific site The United States Conference of Catholics throughout the world. With such as EWTN (Eternal Word Television Catholic Bishops website (usccb.org) offers so many church doors closed due to the Network). As you’ll see, this Diocese of daily Scripture readings, special prayers coronavirus, we need to work a “to give you hope and strengthen little harder to find remote Masses your spirit” and an extensive list of and other devotions which can help additional free resources. The Vatican to nurture our Faith during this website (vatican.va) includes the Tdifficult time. text of homilies by Pope Francis, an The good news is that there are interesting summary of Popes through many offerings online, on radio and the centuries and (with an Adobe TV, and already in your home which Flash Player) even virtual tours of the can help to give more meaning to basilicas and papal chapels of Rome. each day. The EWTN website (ewtn.com) also On Sundays, Bishop Joseph offers live Eucharistic Devotion. Say Tyson or a priest of the Diocese will the Rosary, perhaps visiting rosary. celebrate a noon Mass in English, online or youtube.com to listen to the which will air live on CW9, available recitation of this special devotion. to the Yakima Valley and Tri-Cities. And don’t forget the resources The Bishop or a priest of the Diocese which are likely available in your also will celebrate Mass in Spanish at 9 a.m. Yakima website offers numerous remote home. Have you always wished that you on Sundays on Hispanavisión, channel 32 Mass choices, based in area parishes. had done more Bible reading? Now is the or 36 over the air in Yakima, and also on Also, the Diocese, with the help of a time to begin reading a chapter or two each cable and satellite. generous grant from the Peter Flanigan day, perhaps beginning with the Gospel Over the past weeks, I have also found Family Foundation, has made the online of St. John or even the book of Psalms or Masses broadcast online from Canada, the Catholic resources found at www.Formed. Proverbs. Or pick up a Catholic book and Vatican, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles org available for free to every parishioner enrich your Faith. with Bishop Robert Barron, and various in our 39 parishes and missions for at Pray daily for those who are ill, parishes in our own Diocese of Yakima. least the next two years. Simply visit the those who have died, and all of the first Beautiful Good Friday devotions were website, click on the link to sign up as a responders who are risking their own broadcast online from a church in Ireland. parishioner, then do a simple zip code health to care for those in need. On your device, there are options search to find your parish and follow Stay tune to the diocesan website in both English and Spanish. There is the instructions. After confirming your or Facebook page for new and timely even a Traditional Latin Mass which is membership through an email, a world of suggestions of devotions. There may never broadcast. Just search: today’s Catholic Catholic movies, radio shows, and teaching be a time like this again in our lives, with Mass or Catholic Mass live, adding any materials can be accessed. so much free time for many of us to fill. If other details such as language preference, There also are many prayers and other we use it wisely, we can find lasting good rite, geographic area, etc., to narrow down devotions available to us all. amidst the tragedy. The Difference Cardinal George Makes By Michael R. Heinlein The fifth anniversary of the death of -Car another side to our ideologically fueled battles of suffering — both of which are clearly in the dinal Francis E. George, OMI, April 17, falls over various doctrines and disciplines. disruption polio brought into his life. in the midst of a global pandemic. The effects I think now what I have often thought in When 13-year-old Francis George con- of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 have the years since his death: What would Cardi- tracted polio, his longtime dream of becom- been experienced both at home and abroad. nal George say? Or, to play off the title of one ing a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago In its wake, we are faced with new difficulties of his most memorable works, What is the was over. Told he couldn’t be ordained there as well as new versions of pain and suffering, difference Cardinal George makes? Without because of his disability, he was devastated. and we wait to see what effects these weeks of putting words in his mouth, I think we can But it didn’t take long for him to find a work- Tsocial distancing, disease and death will have take some educated guesses, based on his life around and, literally saying, “to heck with you not only on us personally but on ecclesial life and legacy. guys,” he went to study at a seminary operated in America. With the suspension of public Be perseverant by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The con- Masses and the limitations placed on the Cardinal George’s life can teach us a great gregation welcomed him with open arms. celebration of sacraments, new forms of dis- deal, especially about the importance of trust- He quickly rose to a series of leadership cord have arisen in the Church, revealing yet ing in divine providence and the acceptance positions in the Oblates, which included Continued on page 4 A Message from Bishop Tyson… Dear Friends: Yes, we also have a natural law obligation Welcome to this second “on-line” edition of and right to protect our borders. But that does the Central Washington Catholic. As you know, not negate or override the natural law obliga- due to the coronavirus contagion we are not tion many of our fellow Catholics exercise when able to gather in our churches, which means they cross here from Mexico in order to support that the usual distribution through the Sunday their families and – sometimes – flee from their parish bulletin is not available. country’s violent drug trade – a trade fueled by I am grateful to Our Sunday Visitor and living beside the world’s largest drug market: D the United States of America. Michael Heinlein for allowing us to re-run his story on the fifth anniversary of the death of Civil law today can often become a theater Francis Cardinal George of Chicago. Many of of competing “rights” and “obligations.” It seems you may still recall him as Bishop George when to me that Cardinal George’s maxim that most he was here in Yakima. theological problems are philosophical in their One of my most fond memories of him was nature holds true today. when I was named Bishop of Yakima. I had just Perhaps the best way to bring forward the finished a fine meal of Vietnamese food with legacy of Cardinal George would be for all of us one of the parishioner families I had come to to better anchor in a convincing way our legiti- know while pastor in Seattle’s south end. My cell mate and diverse political strategies and social phone rang so I pulled my car over. It was Car- opinions in the moral natural law. Perhaps, like dinal George calling to congratulate me. He had Cardinal George, we not only need to bone up story after story about Yakima. He talked for on our catechesis and theology, but our philoso- phy as well. five, then ten, then twenty minutes. I thought to Bishop Joseph Tyson myself that this was a long time for a cardinal to I will close with this final observation. St. be talking to an auxiliary bishop. I thanked him “The answer is simply Catholicism, in all its Augustine pointed out that good flourishes in for his call. He replied, “Well, I have a few more fullness and depth, a faith able to distinguish it- its proximity to evil. The breathtaking acts of stories if you’ve still got time.” The conversation self from any cultures and yet able to transform charity in the face of the coronavirus pan- lasted for about an hour! them all, a faith joyful in all the gifts Christ demic would be a case in point. Similarly, the A second memorable and more poignant wants to give us and open to the whole world he long hours of dedication not only from health conversation took place while he was gravely died to save.” professionals in hospitals and clinics, but health ill. The last of the brothers was leaving La Salle In a follow-up piece in the June 17, 2004 department personnel working in each of our High School in Yakima. While the school would edition of Commonweal magazine, Cardinal counties following up on coronavirus contact continue to flourish under the sponsorship of George regretted his adjective “parasitical” notifications, has been nothing short of extraor- the La Salle Christian Brothers, the witness of just as he objected to the polarizing backlash dinary. their consecrated life in Yakima was ending. I his comments provoked. After explaining the Likewise, who can discount the growth of called Cardinal George to let him know I was distorting limitations of the political labels prayer and the dependence we place on God in celebrating a special Mass at La Salle later that “liberal” and “conservative,” Cardinal George our witness to the life of the unborn? And who day in the gym named after him.