Scams and Sundays

A couple of items for the good of all. Or three. OK, eight. Eight? Eight.

1. Sad to say, parishes in the archdiocese are still being plagued with text and email scams. Several Loyola parishioners have been targeted. Here’s how it’s been going: The scam starts with an email or a text, supposedly from me (Fr. Dirk). If it’s an email, the return address may have my name in it so as to make you think it’s really from me. They’ve been using a FAKE g-mail account. The first message may well ask you for a favor or tell you that I need your help with something. If you respond, the sender will ask you to purchase gift cards for an ill or hospitalized parishioner or relative (“niece” has been popular) and then send pictures of the cards to the sender with the activation numbers revealed. The sender may promise to reimburse you. AGAIN: IT’S A SCAM. It’s not a text or email I’d ever send, and it’s NOT A REQUEST I’D EVER MAKE. I’m never going to ask you to purchase a gift card. Neither would anyone else from the parish office send such a message or make such a request. IT’S. A. SCAM.
2. My email address here at the parish: frdirk@loyoladenver.org. If you ever receive something from me (by text, email, or otherwise) that you’re not sure about, call the parish office at 303-322-8042 or send me an email at the above address.
3. TO THE PERSON OR PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS: For your own good, stop what you’re doing. Consider turning yourself in. Perhaps this seems like a game to you. It’s not a game, and in fact you have been stealing from real people with generous and trusting hearts. That you’ve gotten away with it so far means nothing. Be assured that you will be held to account. For your own good, think about your life. Is this really the person you want to be?
4. And now for something completely different: We’ll end this Sunday’s (June 23) 10:00 Mass with a brief Corpus Christi procession (followed by Benediction). No, we’re not walking all 1,071 miles to Corpus Christi, Texas. For heaven’s sake! As this Sunday is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (traditionally called Corpus Christi Sunday), we’ll walk around the block with our monstrance (complete with consecrated host), with incense and with our beautiful (handmade by a parishioner) eucharistic canopy. Why the BIG DEAL?
5. IT’S A BIG DEAL because we Catholics have been walking in Corpus Christi processions for at least 700 years. With occasional bathroom breaks.
6. AND your brothers and sisters in Christ the world over will be marching in their own Corpus Christi processions. And each year in Rome the Holy Father leads a Corpus Christi procession from the Basilica of St. John Lateran to the Basilica of St. Mary Major. BTW, that’s just over a mile.
7. BTW, basilica is a title given by Rome to an especially important church. Our closest basilica is right downtown: the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.
8. FINALLY, as Catholic Christians we are called to take Christ outside the walls of the Church and into the world, which is exactly where God’s message of love and mercy belongs. So please join us!