Dear Brothers and Sisters of St. Andrew the Apostle,

For all parish news and events, please see our bulletin or visit our parish website. Here is a selection of upcoming events:

• This Sunday, October 12, the Knights of Columbus will host their monthly Pancake Breakfast after the 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM, and 10:30 AM Masses. Also, for the first time, they will have an Ice Cream Social following the 12:30 PM Mass! More information here. We thank the Knights of Columbus for providing these opportunities for our parish to gather together after Mass and get to know each other over tasty treats!
• The Knights of Columbus will be recruiting men of the parish to join Council #10947. For all men seeking a way to practice their faith in a community of Catholic men dedicated to service and community, I encourage them to join the Knights.
• Monday, October 13, is a federal holiday, so the parish and school offices will be closed. Masses are at 9:00 AM and 12 noon. The church will be open for prayer from 8:00 AM until 9:00 PM. There will be no 6:30 AM Mass or Eucharistic Exposition.
• Our next Sunday Speaker series will be on Sunday, October 19, at 2:00 PM. Steve Hemler and Theresa O'Brien will present on the Nicene Creed, whose 1700th anniversary we celebrate this year! More information here.
• Following the talk on October 19 will be a parish Eucharistic Holy Hour in the church at 3:30 PM. Please join us as we pray for the intentions of our Church, our nation, our Commonwealth, and our parish!

Thank you to all who supported the bake sale for the Family and Respect Life ministry and Religious Education. From what I understand, every item was sold by the time it was over, so nothing was wasted and all went to a good cause!

... Thank you as well to those who joined us in praying the Rosary and offering witness on Sudley Road in Manassas at the annual Life Chain event. We joined with St. Veronica, so it was nice to see my former pastor, Msgr. Kleinmann. As this is Respect Life month, let us continue to pray for and witness to an end to abortion and all offenses against human life. Once more, I direct you to the Virginia Catholic Conference Election Hub to inform you about the candidates in the upcoming election and their stances on pro-life issues. Bishop Burbidge has asked us as Virginia Catholics to fast and pray on Fridays in October for the outcome of this election and the direction of our Commonwealth.

... On Thursday, Pope Leo XVI published his first Apostolic Exhortation, "Delexit Te" ("I Have Loved You"), which is about the necessity to love the poor. Here is a summary. Archbishop Broglio, President of the USCCB, released this statement about the document. Bishop Burbidge also released a brief statement.

I encourage you to read the final section, "Almsgiving Today," which begins with No. 115, where Pope Leo speaks of the often forgotten, or even rejected, practice of almsgiving. As we remember from the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, which we heard two Sundays ago, providing for the poor from the gifts we receive will be a vital part of how we are judged in this life. Ignoring the poor is ignoring the dignity of the person in need, the dignity that comes from being created in the image of God. To seek to encounter the person asking for something, even if we only provide an ear to listen, recognizes their dignity even in their struggling state.

... On the theme of donating, in November, I will lead our annual offertory commitment campaign at St. Andrew's. Beforehand, allow me to write a bit about supporting the parish in general. For those who are not parishioners of St. Andrew's (Hi, Mom and Dad!), you can reflect on your commitment to your own parishes!

Today, I'll just clarify the two kinds of donations required of us at Christian, and then offer a snapshot of our parish.

First, there is a distinction between almsgiving and supporting the Church. The first is donating to the poor to help with their material needs, and it has been a vital part of living our faith from the start. Even Jesus and his Apostles carried a money bag to give alms to the poor. Almsgiving is different than financially supporting the Church, which is also a vital part of our life of faith. As a parish, we collect money for school tuition, religious education classes, and other ministries where costs exceed what we can offer through our budget, but overall, the vast majority of what we spend to pay the bills, pay our staff (including our priests), provide a place of prayer and sacraments, and to maintain and improve our parish facililties comes from donations through offertory collections.

At St. Andrew's, we do not get money from the government. We do not get money from the Diocese. We rely on the people to whom we minister to meet our financial obligations and support our ministries. I know how blessed I am to be in the Diocese of Arlington, where the Catholic faith is encouraged by the Diocese and her priests, and many people are still joining the Church. In many dioceses throughout the United States, parishes are being closed, not opened, and instead of having three priests at one parish like we do, a single priest will have to serve three parishes because of the shortage of priests. I thank God for Bishop Burbidge and his successors. They have consistently built up the faithful in this Diocese to the benefit of us all.

That being said, on a local level, our number of parishioners has significantly decreased over the years. Since 2010, the number of registered parishioners at St. Andrew's has fallen from over 10,000 to under 5,000. Part of that is because it is more expensive for young families to live here than it was a few generations ago. Part of it is that fewer people are going to church in general. Part is that families are having fewer children. For these reasons and more, there are fewer people at St. Andrew's to support the parish than there were in the past.

Even while losing half of our registered parishioners, the financial responsibility of our former pastors has allowed us to take on major projects like repaving our parking lot, replacing our roof, and replacing our HVAC system (coming soon!) without starting a separate capital campaign. I can also tell you that as a pastor, it is truly a blessing to be freed from the financial burden of a mortgage bill each month.

So while our numbers are decreasing, we are not suffering financially at this time, in large part because we have a consistent group of families who continue to be very generous, so that even with the decrease in parishioners, our offertory collection has remained somewhat consistent since the drop that came with the COVID closing. So thank you to all who donate regularly and support the mission of the parish. We could not do what we do without you.

I will continue this discussion in the coming newsletter, and maybe one after that. My focus will not only be on the financial necessity of donating to the parish to pay our bills, but the spiritual necessity as well. Our priorities in life are reflected on how we spend our resources. There is a axiom that says that we can tell what is important to a person by looking at their checkbook (that is, when people wrote more checks). So as the steward of the resources of St. Andrew's, as well as her spiritual leader, I have a unique perspective on these issues and a responsibility to speak to them. So pray for me as I make what is too often an unwelcome request, and I will pray that you may be open to listen with generous hearts, as I trust that you will.

Be assured of my prayers for you and your intentions. Please pray for me as well!

In Christ,

Fr. Wagner