As The Stomach Turns----The 2022 Appeal Has Officially Begun

When we arrived for Mass we saw that the children's choir was going to be singing and the cantor was better dressed than usual. When the kids sing at anything other than the Family Mass, it's a sign that something is up. 

This time it was because of the bishop's Lenten appeal. The financial take was way down for the last two years, the solicitation has been more aggressive than I've seen in my entire life. I've been getting emails every week reminding me to contribute and we have speakers from different groups come to Mass to talk about the Appeal. Fr. also spoke about Catholic Charities' immigration resettlement services and mentioned the 800 Afghan families that my diocese has taken in. Fr. assured us that all 800 worked for the US military in some capacity. 

After the Appeal talk, Father gave us a rousing pro-Ukraine speech and told us about the 13 soldiers on Snake Island who were all massacred by Russian forces. The same 13 soldiers who reports now say, surrendered and are all alive. Fr. also made a joke about his fat doctor. So that was it, propaganda and fat jokes. By the time Fr. was done I had an upset stomach.