Question of Faith
A weekly question of faith answered by Cleveland Catholics. Fr. Damian Ference, Vicar of Evangelization and Deacon Mike Hayes Director of Young Adult Ministry in the Diocese of Cleveland co-host with frequent guests from the Diocesan Office who join in the conversation. Sponsored by Briefcase Marketing--check them out at https://www.Briefcase.marketing
Question of Faith
What is a Pastoral Letter? With Bishop Edward Malesic
Sponsored by: Briefcase Marketing
Join us for an enlightening conversation where Bishop Ed Malesic of the Diocese of Cleveland unpacks the profound purpose and influence of pastoral letters in the church and speaks about his first Pastoral Letter to the Diocese of Cleveland: A Flourishing Apostolic Church.
Have you ever wondered how pastoral letters are crafted to address the community’s needs and inspire a deeper connection with God? Bishop Malesic shares his journey in writing these impactful messages, including this current letter, aimed at fostering worship, evangelism, and service, as well as past efforts where he addressed the opioid crisis in Greensburgh, PA.
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Theology of the Body CLE
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Bishop Malesic highlights key themes from two recent parish visits for this week's Church Search:
Our Lady of Victory in Tallmadge
Holy Spirit in Garfield Heights
Readings for the fourth Sunday of Advent can be found here. They explore concepts of strength, shepherding, and joy.
Engage with Bishop Malesic's apostolic letter, "A Flourishing Apostolic Church."
On today's Question of Faith. What is a pastoral letter? Hey everybody, this is Question of Faith. I am Deacon Mike Hayes. I'm the Director of Young Adult Ministry here in the Diocese of Cleveland.
Fr. Damian Ference:And I'm Father Damian Ference, the Vicar for Evangelization.
Bishop Edward Malesic:Bishop Ed Malesic, Bishop of the Diocese of Cleveland.
Fr. Damian Ference:Welcome back to the show, Bishop Malesic.
Deacon Mike Hayes:Always good to have you, so let's get right into it. Sure, what's a pastoral letter?
Bishop Edward Malesic:It's a letter. Paul wrote pastoral letters. Sure, paul wrote pastoral letters to different communities, just sharing his heart, sharing something of his insight. Pastoral letters are written for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they have major announcements, sometimes they're simply trying to encourage the faithful. I would say the pastoral letter that I am writing, I've written of flourishing apostolic church, is in the key of trying to encourage people to work out of their Christianity, to deepen their relationship and friendship with God certainly their friendship with Jesus, to be able to know their story, how God has impacted them, to be able to know their story, how God has impacted them, and to be able to share that story.
Bishop Edward Malesic:I talk a lot about what a flourishing parish is and the three key elements I see in that. I know we're going to get to that, probably a little bit more, but a flourishing parish has intense worship. I mean worship from the heart. It doesn't have to be loud worship, but it has to be worship from the heart. Intense worship, I mean worship from the heart. It doesn't have to be loud worship, but it has to be worship from the heart. A flourishing parish would be a parish that really evangelizes the evangelists, who teaches people the Word of God so that they might come to understand it, so that they might be able to bring that Word of God out into the community. And then a flourishing parish. The third thing would be service Service to the poor. We're known as a church that serves those most in need and we need to continue to work on that. So it's a parish heart to heart, from my heart to the heart of the people.
Fr. Damian Ference:Now Bishop. You say at the front end of this that you've been here four years and this is your first pastoral letter here as Bishop in the Diocese of Cleveland. But you did write one before in Greensburg.
Bishop Edward Malesic:I wrote a pastoral letter and that was kind of an announcement but it was dealing with a specific problem that we all have. But it was particularly difficult when I went to Greensburg and it was becoming difficult everywhere in the country at the time, which was the opioid crisis and people who are suffering from substance abuse disorder or, you know, addiction to opioids and other things.
Bishop Edward Malesic:So I put together a task force. I said what can the church do that other people don't do? We said that the church does things that other people don't do. We pray, we do a great job of educating and we bring people together. And so that apostolic, that pastoral letter, was introducing what the church can do. We can pray, we can come to educate ourselves about what causes substance abuse disorders and then to gather together to support one another. It was a good thing at that time for that diocese.
Deacon Mike Hayes:So how do you decide what to write about? Yeah, how do you decide what?
Bishop Edward Malesic:to write about. Yeah, how do you decide what to write about? Well, certainly, I do believe the Holy Spirit inspires pastors to know where the people are, to listen to people. We're trying to be a synodal church. I do a lot of listening to a lot of. It's not always formal listening, but I'm out among a lot of parishes. I go after Masses to the receptions. I listen to a lot of people. Yes, you do. I hear their needs and I do a lot of observation.
Bishop Edward Malesic:So the Spirit, I believe, is speaking to me and simply saying here, is what we, at this point, as a church, need to do to continue to strengthen ourselves. I think the Diocese of Cleveland is very strong, I think it's very vibrant and I'm proud to be a member of the Diocese of Cleveland. To keep it strong, we need to first have that friendship with God, friendship with Jesus, because if we don't have that friendship, how do we talk about him, how do we go out and evangelize? How are we missionary disciples Really? If we don't know him in our heart, have that personal experience with him, what do we have to offer? So we're Christians. We have friends that we go out with in everyday life. Our great friend is Jesus. He wants to be our friend. We need to spend time with him.
Bishop Edward Malesic:I talk about spending at least 15 minutes a day in prayer, just shutting out the noise, listening to Jesus, telling Jesus your concerns for the day, but then listening for his response. That's an important thing. To continue to visit the sacraments and perhaps to increase. You know, go to Mass every Sunday. Obviously, we do that, we should do that. We owe that to God, who's been so good to us. But we can do more than that too. We can go to a daily Mass. I mean when I was a teenager and I started going to some daily masses.
Bishop Edward Malesic:That was a whole conversion story that I'm talking about in my letter too. But I started going to mass a little bit more I could. It just was so refreshing, so strengthening, and then also the sacrament of reconciliation. You know we always have to say I'm sorry, I'm a sinner, I'm not perfect and I would need the Lord to help me become a saint.
Fr. Damian Ference:Bishop, I noticed that the model of this letter follows a lot of what the Eucharistic Congress has been showing us and asking us to do, and that is that it's the conversion of self and the deepening of relationship with the Lord before one heads out on mission. So it's kind of like when you get on the airplane, put on your mask first and then you can help other people put on their mask. And there's a section here I just want to just highlight. I think it's really beautiful.
Fr. Damian Ference:You say sometimes we forget that the same Jesus who healed, performed miracles and offered his grace and friendship in the gospels is still doing all these things today in his church, even and especially here in the Diocese of Cleveland. We need to ask ourselves and then you go through a litany am I hungry for something better in life? Do I long for God more than life itself? Am I thirsting for what Jesus can give to me? And then when you mention the challenge of 15 minutes a day, that's the space where you answer these questions. But that is kind of a bold thing if you've been kind of caught up in the busyness of life and just work a day life to actually slow down and reflect on that relationship.
Bishop Edward Malesic:Yeah, absolutely. I often say to, especially to young people who don't know this.
Bishop Edward Malesic:But when I was growing up, I don't think when you were growing up, but stores weren't open on Sunday. You know there were no football games on Sunday. There's no. What you did on Sunday was you went to church as a family. You came home, you ate dinner as a family, I visited my grandparents and then we took a nap in the afternoon and we went for a drive if you had gas in the car, because not all gas stations were open on a Sunday.
Bishop Edward Malesic:So where do we find that space to be to relax? I mean, the Lord gave us a Sabbath for a reason, and we've kind of lost the Sabbath, the sense that we need to rest and recoup. We used to have that built into our society. It's not built in anymore, so we have to find it ourselves, and I think that's why we need to take at least that 15 minutes, if not more, to just kind of chill out, turn off the phones, turn off the televisions and just rest. It's important to rest, so it is a challenge.
Bishop Edward Malesic:The other thing too, with that you, as you mentioned, jesus is here, jesus is with us, jesus is is we believe in the resurrection of jesus from the dead. This is so central to us that a dead man has come back to life and he has come back to us and he is with us in the spirit. The holy spirit always reminds us of, of jesus being present to us and and we need to constantly remind ourselves in that 15 minutes of prayer and throughout the day, that Jesus is standing with us, he's standing by us.
Fr. Damian Ference:And you call people to identify well, to be part of a small faith group community within this letter and then, within that group community, be able to identify their own story. So why do you see that as important people being able to tell their own story of faith? Because you tell your own story of faith.
Bishop Edward Malesic:I tell my own story, I talk about the difficulties I had first semester of college and then how someone gave me a Bible, the New Testament. I read the Gospels and that's when Jesus was speaking to me. I mean, I felt his presence and he was not a character in a novel but a real person speaking to me. I felt his presence and he was not a character in a novel, but a real person speaking to me the living word, and saying I love you, I forgive you, I'm calling you by name so I can tell that story.
Bishop Edward Malesic:I tell that story a lot to young people because they have to know that I was not always the perfect Christian. I'm still not the perfect Christian I am not but I certainly grew closer to my faith because I had a personal encounter with Jesus and that has made all the difference in my life. Trust me, I would not be in Cleveland if I did not have that personal relationship that started in college and when I said, what do you want me to do, lord, I know you're here, you're asking me for something. I was a bio major and then for me it was a call to priesthood.
Bishop Edward Malesic:For other people it might be a call to a good Catholic marriage or to a good Catholic single life, or to be a member of a religious institution, a consecrated life. But God, once he encounters us, is going to ask us to do something for him, because we each have a unique call. We've each been put here for a purpose. We're each a piece of the puzzle. Without us, that puzzle is not complete in God's picture of the universe and your title like a flourishing apostolic church.
Fr. Damian Ference:that's what it looks like when people are being their best self and being in communion with God, that the church is growing and shining brightly. And it's apostolic because we're being sent out on mission. We're going.
Bishop Edward Malesic:We come and we go we come. Someone said the two most important words of Jesus were come, come and see and go, go and announce, go and baptize, go and teach all nations.
Fr. Damian Ference:And you released this letter on Sunday morning.
Bishop Edward Malesic:It's online now and soon printed copies will be delivered to homes in a couple weeks, I think, along with the In January it'll come with the magazine, with the magazine, yeah yeah, and then I hope people read it prayerfully, if possible in a sacred space, you know, if possible in front of the Blessed Sacrament. But if not possible, that's not possible for a lot of people, but just turn everything off.
Bishop Edward Malesic:read it prayerfully, discuss it with your family discuss it with neighbors in your neighborhood who you know are Catholic and go to your parish and hey, let's get together, have a cup of coffee, some cake I'll host it and let's talk about section one of the letter. Let's talk about friendship with God, let's talk about how to be a missionary disciple, let's talk about worship, let's talk about evangelization, let's talk about service. I mean, that could be a couple nights. Let's meet every month for just an hour.
Bishop Edward Malesic:I'll have coffee and cake come over at 7, and we'll talk about some things how to make our parish better, how to make myself better.
Fr. Damian Ference:I mean how to make our parish better, how to make myself better. I mean, how do you make a parish better unless you make yourself better?
Bishop Edward Malesic:it's like a little book club, getting people together, gathering and and reflecting. You know, that was my experience. Here goes, there goes my coffee, but that was my. That's why you have these things here.
Deacon Mike Hayes:That was my experience and in the seminary.
Bishop Edward Malesic:I was um one of the seminarians who helped out with a in columbus with a saint peter's study group, and they were Catholics who got together once a month and they shared their faith and it was wonderful and that's when I began to learn that these small groups really work. They strengthen faith.
Deacon Mike Hayes:What do you hope is the long-term effect of this of
Bishop Edward Malesic:he long-term effect is that everyone has a deeper relationship with Jesus, and the deeper we have a relationship with Jesus, the closer we draw to God. The closer we draw to God, the closer we draw to each other, and ultimately, isn't that the vision of heaven itself? So we're trying to bring a bit of heaven here on earth. Amen.
Fr. Damian Ference:Okay. Well, if you haven't read it yet, start and find some friends to read it with. It's a lot of fun to read things with people and I can say the tone of the letter is very pastoral. It's not a programmatic piece, it's not pragmatic, it's the shepherd talking to the heart of his flock.
Bishop Edward Malesic:Programs don't work unless hearts are changed. Yeah, yeah.
Deacon Mike Hayes:Good reflection questions, things for you to engage with. All that kind of stuff is good. Thanks for the letter number one, thank you.
Bishop Edward Malesic:Thanks for having me.
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Bishop Edward Malesic:I'm not sure.
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Bishop Edward Malesic:This is our first official sponsor Bishop for our podcast. Wonderful Communication, to me, is key If we have a message and we don't communicate it well so that people know what we're doing, then it sets us back.
Deacon Mike Hayes:If a website falls in the middle of the woods, it does not make a sound. Exactly, bishop, you get around the diocese.
Bishop Edward Malesic:You were out in Talmadge recently, correct, I was out in Talmadge.
Bishop Edward Malesic:Yes, at Our Lady of Victory, 80th year anniversary of the parish, great, great people had a wonderful celebration of the Eucharist there with Father Mike Matus, who is retiring soon, and we thanked him for his service to the church. He's a great pastor, people love him and, yeah, it was a nice experience. I was at Holy Spirit in Garfield Heights to install the new pastor there, father Dave Domanski, and that's one of our black Catholic parishes and of course, their liturgy is always inspiring to me Absolutely. I enjoy the enthusiasm Authentic worship, intense worship. They're doing what I asked for in the letter already. That's my classmate's parish, adelinsky. Oh really, yeah, the deacon there did a great job.
Fr. Damian Ference:I think Father Domanski may be the tallest priest in the diocese at 6'9".
Bishop Edward Malesic:He stands out.
Fr. Damian Ference:He stands out For playing basketball.
Deacon Mike Hayes:I'm picking him ahead of both of you just saying he's great, all right.
Deacon Mike Hayes:So, father Dave Domanski, we're going to look at our fourth Sunday of Advent for the readings, and the thing that stood out for me is the first reading Micah. He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the Lord, in the majestic name of the Lord, his God, and they shall remain for now, his greatness, which shall reach to the ends of the earth. He shall be peace. That was just a great image of a shepherd we have here with us today.
Fr. Damian Ference:That's great and I chose the visitation for the gospel. I like that. Mary this is after she received her own news set out traveled to the hill country in haste, so she didn't mess around. She knew what she had to do and she did it, and I think that's a great model for us too.
Deacon Mike Hayes:I like that Elizabeth also proclaims things with joy.
Fr. Damian Ference:Babies leaping, Yep all those kinds of things.
Deacon Mike Hayes:Great. So, Bishop Malesic, we'll be looking forward to reading your apostolic letter. We've already read it, of course, but I mean yeah, so you've previewed it already, but thanks.
Fr. Damian Ference:Thanks for getting the word out.
Bishop Edward Malesic:Thanks for getting the good word out and for this podcast and engaging people in the church and the work of the church. The work of the church is to bring people closer to Jesus, ourselves included. So the work of the church is to bring people closer to Jesus, ourselves included.
Fr. Damian Ference:So thanks for doing that.
Deacon Mike Hayes:Amen. A flourishing apostolic church. That's the pastoral letter we want you to read by Bishop Edward Malesic. He is the Bishop of Cleveland. I'm Deacon Mike Hayes.
Fr. Damian Ference:I'm Father Damian Ference
Deacon Mike Hayes:This has been Question of Faith. We'll see you all again next time. Outro Music.
