Pastor’s Letter: August 23, 2026

Pastor’s Letter: August 23, 2026

21 Aug 2026 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Blessings to everyone this weekend! I’ve had a few folks ask here and there about our landscaping around the church—it is a noticeable project! The Diocese has asked parishes to plant trees as part of the celebration of our 150^th anniversary—a couple places we identified for new trees were on the south side of the church, where the previous trees had grown into the windows. As we have been planning and looking over the beds surrounding the church, we discovered several drainage issues that needed attention, including a couple that were going to require some digging. That combination made it a good time to update the landscaping scheme as a whole—the new plantings will continue the design scheme we have around the parish center. Hopefully it will be a nice addition for us to enjoy over time…as always in a parish our size, there are many good works in progress!

As I mentioned last column, this week I thought I would dive into the sensitive topic of annulments, one that certainly is larger in scope than what I usually cover here in the bulletin. I wanted to include it with our Marriage series, both to recognize its importance but also to serve as an invitation for conversation for anyone interested. I will plan to write a bit more generally here, but I encourage anyone to reach out who would like to talk more about a particular situation.

To begin, as a foundation point, the Catholic Church presumes the validity of all marriages that are entered into according to each culture or religious tradition. For example, if a Methodist and a Lutheran marry together according to the norms of their community, our starting assumption is that they have a valid marriage together. This would be the same for any religion, according to their normal practices. As mentioned in previous columns, Catholics do have certain requirements for a valid marriage that are unique to those baptized Catholic. Honoring other traditions, the Catholic Church strives to serve as a protector of the sanctity of marriage, including honoring the commitment of spouses to each other “until death do us part.” As we have been reviewing these past weeks, we firmly believe in the gift and Sacrament of Marriage, in the good of permanence, fidelity, good of the spouses, and the good of children.

Being practical for a moment, we know that in some situations, for many varied reasons, the spouses are not able to live those goods of marriage together. The result can sometimes be a temporary or more permanent separation, in our modern day that often involves some type of civil proceedings. No doubt, these situations are very difficult and sorrowful.  Perhaps this is a good moment to stop and pray for anyone who is in such a situation—for the Lord’s blessing of compassion and love, perseverance as needed, healing, and clarity for the pathway forward.

If, at some point, one or both of the spouses wish to marry another person, the Church would say an investigation is needed to determine if the previous marriage bond was valid (recall the starting presumption is that all marriages are valid). This investigation is part of what is commonly referred to as an “annulment.” Generally speaking, an annulment investigation would look back through the couples’ lives, examining to see if there were any obstacles to either freedom or capacity to live the goods of marriage. Sometimes the investigation would look at a person’s upbringing, including what his/her family believed about marriage. Often, the investigation would look through the lived dating history and years of marriage. For many people, it is a true spiritual challenge to go back through what can be painful memories. At the same time, it truly can be a healing journey, helping to see with greater clarity what part of freedom or capacity was missing. It is a great hope that clarity would help with healing and preparation for any future marriage commitments.

Some people I have journeyed with through this process have shared the healing fruits with me, including the peace of mind that can come from hearing the Church say we have an understanding of what your situation was…we see that this particular component of a valid marriage wasn’t present, so now we would like to help you be free to live that commitment. These people have shared with me how special the Sacrament of Marriage is to them, and what a great joy it is to be able to live the fruits of the Sacrament within the life of the Church. As I mentioned earlier, this column has been purposefully general. There is more in-depth information available from the Diocese of Peoria Tribunal office, including a section on common misunderstandings/misconceptions about annulments,  (https://www.cdop.org/marriage-tribunal). Please do feel free to contact me to talk more in depth about any particular situation. Know of my prayers and blessing for you all this day!

In Christ,
Father Luke