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Fr. Roger’s Departure August 4, 2025

The following is a personal word from Fr. Roger.

Following my ordination, my professors discouraged me from becoming a missionary. “Roger, you will be among “pagans’. You need to be enriched by the faith of a parish community here for the first three years of your ministry.”

They were so mistaken! The language and anthropology courses my classmate Albert and I took gave us a different mindset. We were not going to a land, a culture, a people that was overwhelmed by darkness! Every culture and each of us is given God’s goodness. When one responds to the goodness in one’s culture and from within, he/she becomes what some call, “an anonymous Christian”.

We two, arrived in Papua New Guinea knowing we were walking on holy ground. God’s power and grace were already present there to greet us! The Cultures were so well prepared for the Good News! Men and women celebrate their deceased family members. They are so alive to them. The story of Jesus and the Church, in its heavenly dimension, merely “Baptized” their own understanding of life and life beyond the grave.

I recall a teenager accompanying me on a walk thru the forest. She kept saying, “Ambele, Ambele”. She got louder and louder! I asked: “What is this Ambele, Ambele”? “Father, my Uncle Ambele died two weeks ago. He was joking all the time. Now he is having me trip over these tree roots again and again”.

The communities strengthened me in my faith with the importance and joy they had in celebrating praying together. Among the Imbongu and Huli, hundreds gather in the evenings a few times a week in grass huts with 10 to 15 present. They pray, sing, discuss, and hear Bible Stories.

Schools, at that time were something new. Few adults could read. Still, women carried, in their string bags, a copy of the Bible wrapped in plastic. I recall, with amusement, a mother pulling her son by his ear to such a gathering to have him read from her Bible.

Yes, I was their “shepherd”, BUT the Imbongu and Huli communities shepherded me! And this occurs everywhere! Parishes continue to form and shepherd their priests. We brothers, for years, called upon you here to shepherd our young deacons. You do this with your graced presence and deep faith.

There were the deacons Roshan from Sri Lanka, Rigo from Cameroon, Rafa from Mexico, and now Luke from South Korea. The Lord called these young men, from other lands. Their cultures and their parishes enriched each of them and they unselfishly accepted the calling to be reverse missionaries here in the United States.

You assisted the brotherhood in deciding if your deacons should be ordained priests. You did this with the deacons of yesterday and, in ten months’ time, you will present your thoughts on the ministry of Deacon Luke.

You graced and blessed me and have shepherded me over the past 18 years. I thank you and bless you for this. Thank you Jesus.

Fr. Roger

Father Roger’s Retirement

After 18 years of generous service at Saint John Church, Father Roger will retire. He will leave Philadelphia on August 4, the day after our parish picnic. At the picnic, you will have the opportunity to greet Father Roger and to say farewell. Father Roger has been an inspiration to me. He loves the people of Saint John’s and he has worked effectively for us. He continues to serve our parish and Thomas Jefferson Hospital up to his departure. He is a model priest.

Saint John’s Parish Picnic

Please mark your calendars for our summer picnic. It will be on Sunday, August 3, from 11:00 AM-2:30 PM in our parish center.

Mass Intentions

It has long been a pious custom in the Catholic Church to offer Masses for the living and the dead. Of course, the benefits of the Mass are infinite since it is a re-experiencing of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In every Mass, Jesus is truly present and we enter into His once and forever offering of Himself to the Father. Yet, Catholics still offer Mass for certain persons and individuals. The customary offering for Masses is $10 which is an offering toward the support of priestly ministry. At Saint John’s for many years, we have also accepted $5 offerings, “unannounced Masses”, which have been typically sent to dioceses in poor countries.

Effective August 1, we will no longer accept unannounced Masses. $5 offerings are not sufficient, even in poor countries. Besides, it costs Saint John Church $50 every time we wire Mass money to India or Africa. And sometimes we don’t have enough announced Masses to satisfy the 3 Masses that we offer each day at Saint John’s. Because we have many Masses during the week, we have the capacity to satisfy the pious desire of our people to offer Masses for intentions and individual persons.

We encourage people to offer Masses for their intentions, but beginning August 1, all Masses will be announced and we ask for at least a $10 donation.

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