St. Benedict the Moor Parish

Thank you and congratulations to everyone who participated in our listening session with Bishop Mark Eckman on November 3. It was a meaningful opportunity to reflect together on the works of mercy, to recognize the good already being accomplished through our parish community, and to consider where Christ may be calling us to extend our ministry.
 
I was especially encouraged by the many ways our parishioners are already putting their faith into action. Through ministries and partnerships such as our Food Pantry, the Jubilee Kitchen, St. Vincent de Paul, Healthy Beginnings, AJAPO, and St. Benedict the Moor School, we are helping to address the spiritual, material, educational, and social needs of our neighbors. Just as importantly, many parishioners practice the works of mercy quietly, through personal acts of generosity, accompaniment, encouragement, and service that seldom receive public recognition.
 
The listening session reminded us that our parish is not beginning its ministry of mercy from nothing. We are building upon a living tradition of service.
But the conversation also challenged us to look beyond those we already serve. Who remains invisible to us? Who is living in isolation, struggling with homelessness, recovering from addiction, returning from incarceration, or facing the burdens of poverty and displacement? What about young adults searching for community, immigrants seeking belonging, families under tremendous pressure, or elderly neighbors disconnected from parish life?
 
These questions connect directly with the three-part bulletin series, The Church in the City, which ran in our parish bulletin from August 30 - September 13.
The central argument of that series is simple: The city is not merely the setting in which the Church carries out its mission. The city itself is our mission territory. We must learn to recognize its people, neighborhoods, possibilities, and wounds.
 
Yet the challenges of urban ministry are far greater than anything one parish, however dedicated, can address alone.
 
That is why collaboration among the parishes of our Central Deanery matters. Our ten parishes possess different resources, histories, experiences, and gifts. Rather than expecting each parish to do everything, we should identify our distinctive strengths and coordinate our ministries to meet needs that cross parish boundaries.
 
For St. Benedict the Moor, this includes our vocation to evangelization through inculturation and Black Catholic spirituality, while participating fully in the Church's wider mission throughout Pittsburgh.
 
Our task now is to move from listening to discernment and from discernment to action. We should identify where our ministries are effective, where important needs remain unmet, and where partnerships could make our efforts more fruitful.
 
Above all, I hope we will remember that the works of mercy are not simply programs we administer. They are encounters with persons, each possessing dignity, gifts, hopes, and a story worth hearing.
 
Thank you to Bishop Eckman, our ministry leaders, those who seek to fulfill their baptismal vows through service, and everyone who contributed to this important conversation. May it become another step toward the parish God is calling us to become.
 

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One of the sharper observations in recent conversations about our digital age describes a "rubber band effect": something alarming happens, our attention stretches taut toward it, and then — inevitably — we snap back to ordinary routine, the alarm forgotten, nothing much changed. It is a good description of a very old spiritual problem. 
Christ described the same pattern without needing modern language for it. Speaking of the days before the flood, he said people "were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away" (Mt 24:38-39). Notice: not malice, not even open disbelief. Just the ordinary gravity of daily life, quietly pulling attention back down before a warning could be turned into action.
 
The Christian tradition does not answer this with anxious vigilance — a constant state of alarm exhausts a soul as surely as constant distraction numbs one, and neither leaves room for grace to work. What the tradition offers instead is a settled, attentive watchfulness — what the desert fathers called nepsis, sober-mindedness, and what our own Marian spirituality calls receptivity: a way of remaining genuinely present to what is real without grasping for control over it.
 
This is not passivity. It is the opposite of the rubber band, because it does not depend on the shock of crisis to sustain it. It is formed slowly, the way roots are formed underground, unseen, long before there is any shoot to show for it. A heart formed this way does not need to be startled back into paying attention, because it never fully let go.
 
For reflection: What is one small, sustainable practice — a daily prayer, a weekly examen, an honest conversation — that could help you stay watchful without becoming anxious? Ask God this week for roots, not just alertness.

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As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to be peacemakers in a world too often torn by violence. From the earliest centuries of the Church, some Christians have discerned a vocation to conscientious objection—refusing to participate in war or violence because of the Gospel's command to love our enemies.
 
In recent years, the Ben Salmon, No Just War Registry for Conscientious Objectors has been established to help Catholics bear public witness to the Gospel of peace. Named for a Catholic who refused to fight in World War I and wrote a powerful critique of just war theory, the registry allows individuals—especially young people—to formally declare their commitment to Christian nonviolence. This can serve both as a spiritual testimony and, if ever needed, a legal aid in the event of a future military draft.
 
As pastor, I affirm the right of Catholics to conscientious objection, which is supported by both the Catechism of the Catholic Church and statements from the U.S. Bishops. While the Church has long taught the criteria for a just war, it also respects the right of the individual conscience formed in prayer and fidelity to Christ.
 
If you—or someone you love—wishes to learn more about conscientious objection or would like to register their beliefs in accordance with the Gospel call to peace, please contact the parish office. We will be glad to assist in this process, offer spiritual support, and help you discern your path with integrity and courage.
 
Let us continue to pray for peace, and for the grace to be instruments of God's mercy in our troubled world.
 
Fr. Matthew