May 17, 2008 Update

From Fr. Don's Blackberry

HISTORY IN THE MAKING - A New Era for a "new ethos" in entertainment is on the horizon!

I am fresh off the plane in LA from Chicago (though walking like I'm 84 due to a sore back - no offense to those who are 84).  I am now on the tail end of a meeting with (music please) THE CHICAGO BOSS (Francis Cardinal George, my beloved bishop).  It was a wonderful and potentially historic meeting.  I have been given an extension to my mission time here in LA to pursue a project of which none to date, and to this extent, has been done within the Catholic Church!

I have been granted permission to take the lead in formulating a practical and committed pastoral plan for the Church that will treat "Hollywood" as a mission field.  Yes, you read right.  Pope John Paul II had this to say in his encyclical, Redemptoris Missio, "“The first Areopagus of the modern age is the world of communications.”  The Areopagus, which represented the cultural center of the Greek world in Athens, was the place Paul gave witness to gospel [Acts 17:22 - 34].  What city today, more represents the cultural center of this Areopagus than Los Angeles, California, the entertainment capital of the world?

The pastoral plan will be the first of its kind and much needed.  Entertainment professionals have seen the Church as the great "judger" and "condemner" for all too long and now the time has come for the Church to care for, guide, and support that great gift that God has given to humanity called, "Hollywood!"  Much of the toxic environment we have experienced in entertainment is due to the great relational gap between the Church and Hollywood, of which the Church, because of her absence, can't avoid some share in the blame here.

The plan will be presented to the United States Conference for Catholic Bishops for their approval and blessing, and then, it can be said that history is in the making - these are exciting times!    Your prayers for this new endeavor.

More details to follow in the near future.

God Bless the City of Angels!!!

--Fr. Don