ARCHANGEL GABRIEL PARISH THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT DECEMBER 6, 2020 M a s s a n d C o n f e s s i o n T i m e s SAINT MALACHY HOLY TRINITY SAINT MARY, HELP OF CHURCH CHURCH CHRISTIANS CHURCH 343 Forest Grove Rd 5718 Steubenville Pike 1011 Church Ave Coraopolis, PA 15108 Robinson Township, PA 15136 McKees Rocks, PA 15136 HOLY MASS HOLY MASS HOLY MASS Saturday — 4 PM Saturday — 5 PM Saturday — 6 PM Sunday — 8 AM Sunday — 10 AM, 12:30 PM, 7 PM Sunday — 11 AM Thurs to Sat — 8:30 AM Mon to Fri — 6:30 PM Mon to Wed — 9:30 AM RECONCILIATION RECONCILIATION RECONCILIATION SATURDAY, 11 AM - 12 PM MON - FRI, 5:30 PM - 6:15 PM SUNDAY, 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Administrative Office: 412-787-2140 Website: www.archangelgabrielparish.org Email: [email protected] Sacramental emergencies: 412-787-2140 x2 COVID MASS PROTOCOLS All Masses are celebrated inside the church buildings with the exception of a special 10 AM parking lot Mass which is celebrated in the front windows at Saint Malachy Church. The faithful will be able to listen from their car by tuning their radio at 87.9 FM. Everyone is asked to please register for an indoor weekend Mass by using the link provided in the bulletin, by following the links on archangelgabrielparish.org, or by calling the parish office at 412-787- 2140. The 10 AM Mass at Holy Trinity will continue to be live streamed and can be accessed by visiting archangelgabrielparish.org. You can find what we are doing as a parish in response to COVID-19 at www.archangelgabrielparish. org/covid19 in order to make the best decisions about participation for you and your household. Bishop Zubik has granted everyone a dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass. To register for indoor Mass on Dec. 12th/13th go to tinyurl.com/AGPMass12-13 FOUR WAYS TO REGISTER FOR WEEKEND INDOOR MASSES 1. Sign up for Flocknote and a registration link will be emailed to you every week. 2. Visit archangelgabrielparish.org and click the “Register for Mass” slide on the homepage. 3. Find the next weekend’s registration link in the bulletin each week. 4. Call the parish office at 412-787-2140. The receptionist will take your name and contact info to register you for a particular Mass. You can listen to the special 10 AM parking lot Mass at Saint Malachy Church from your car by tuning in to 87.9 FM on the radio. The Christmas Mass schedule will look a bit different this year. It’s especially important to know that if you want to attend a Christmas Eve Mass at Archangel Gabriel Parish, you’ll need a physical ticket (which will be mailed to you), available for free at archangelgabrielparish.org/MassTickets or by calling the parish office at 412-787-2140 by December 18—first requested, first granted. Online registration only is required for Christmas Day Masses. Register at archangelgabrielparish.flocknote.com/signup/30441 Holy Trinity Church Saint Malachy Church Saint Mary Church 2:00 PM 2:00 PM 2:00 PM CHRISTMAS EVE: 5:00 PM 5:00 PM 5:00 PM 9:30 PM 9:30 PM 10:00 AM 8:30 AM 12:00 AM (Midnight) CHRISTMAS DAY: 12:30 PM 10:00 AM 11:00 AM FIND THE WORSHIP AID FOR MASS AT ARCHANGEL GABRIEL SUNDAY MASS ON THE NEXT PAGES ABORTION, VACCINES, AND COOPERATION WITH EVIL Fr. David Poecking (Pastor) What if you help across the street a little old lady—who last week robbed a bank, and is evading the police? What if you buy an apple from your local convenience store, whose owner’s spouse donates to one side of a civil war overseas? What if you do the laundry for a lawyer, and then discover the lawyer advocates for euthanasia of the elderly? Are you sharing in these sins? No. The guilt of sin is not endlessly transitive, or else God simply by coming to our aid is thereby responsible for all the sins we commit. After 2,000 years of reflecting on the sacred Scriptures, the witness THEFROM PASTOR of the saints, and moral philosophy, the Church makes important distinctions concerning our cooperation with others and the evil they might commit: 1. Formal v. Material Cooperation: The most important distinction is between formal and material cooperation. Formal cooperation is when you want the sin to be committed, in which case you are guilty even if you do nothing to help the sin. Material cooperation is when you help the sin to be committed, but don’t want to do so.A common example is voting for pro-choice politicians. It’s a sin to vote for such politicians because they are pro-choice: You share the guilt withdrawing the law’s protection from a class of human beings. But it’s not necessarily a sin to vote for pro-choice politicians for other reasons, while regretting that they are pro-choice. 2. Immediate v. Mediate Material Cooperation: Wit h i n mater ia l cooperat ion, t he C hu rc h d i st i ng u i shes immediate from mediate. Immediate is when you directly help to commit a sin. In this case you still sin, even if you regret the sin, because you are nevertheless choosing to take action causing sin. Mediate cooperation is when you help, but less directly. One example of immediate material cooperation might be an abortion clinic aid who hands an abortionist the instruments. The aid sins even if he regrets the abortion, because he’s choosing to help. But the bus driver who drives the aid to work doesn’t necessarily sin. 3. Proximate v. Remote Mediate Material Cooperation: Within mediate material cooperation, some is proximate (“close”) and some remote (“far”). Proximate mediate material cooperation is sinful, even though indirect, because the cooperator still actively chooses to promote the sin. But remote mediate material cooperation is not necessarily sinful, depending upon whether the good of the cooperation outweighs the evil done by cooperating. Otherwise, we’re all perpetually guilty of every sin because we share this world. So, for example, the landlord who leases his building to an abortion clinic is guilty of proximate mediate material cooperation. But the man is guiltless who buys food for his children with money his wife earned working as the physician for the landlord who leases the building to the abortion clinic, because the imperative of feeding the children outweighs his very remote connection with the abortion clinic. This subject has become urgent again in the matter of vaccines for the pandemic virus, SARS-COV-2. Some (but apparently not all) of the vaccines were developed using biological material taken from aborted babies. Is it a sin to receive such a vaccine? No. So long as they do not approve of abortion, almost all Catholics are so very far from the sin of abortion that their cooperation in receiving vaccines is remote, mediate material cooperation. If your physician recommends you take such a vaccine, do so with a clean conscience: The good of the vaccine greatly outweighs your very remote participation in an industry which sometimes cooperates with abortion. Moreover, because vaccines greatly contribute to the common good by protecting even the people near those who have been vaccinated, receiving the recommended vaccine is usually a demand of simple charity toward your neighbor. If by chance you are a high-level biomedical research executive whose decisions have helped promote abortion, then you have sinned. Likewise anyone who has formally cooperated with any of the aforementioned sins by approving of them. But do not despair! Forgiveness is available. Confess your sins, receive absolution, do your penance, and then go and sin no more. • I will be participating in a virtual panel Thursday, December 10, at 4:00 p.m., discussing resilience, miracles, and the Hanukkah story. To watch live or view later, RSVP at classroomswithoutborders. org/interfaith-discussion-resilience-and-miracles/ • Stay tuned for an update on the Pizza Kitchen next week ENTRANCE ANTIPHON People of Zion, behold, the Lord is coming to save all nations; and the Lord shall cause you to hear to hear his majestic voice for the joy of your heart. PROCESSIONAL HYMN — On Jordan’s Bank FIRST READING — ISAIAH 40: 1-5, 9-11 Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins. A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. Go up on to a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.