Congratulations to Christifidelis Award recipients: Claude and Rosemarie Zaba!

 “Spoiled for choice” is a phrase the British use when they have so many equally good options from which to choose. That’s the case whenever we have to choose someone in our parish community to be honored with the Christifidelis Award from the Archdiocese. There are always so many generous, faithful, worthy candidates from whom to choose, we are always “spoiled for choice.”
 
It’s been nearly two decades (I think) since Cardinal George instituted this award to recognize parishioners who are “Faithful to Christ” in their Church communities. Every parish is asked to submit nominees who then travel in October to a church where the Archbishop and Episcopal Vicars present the awards. That church had always been Holy Name Cathedral; but with the current absence of parking due to the sale of the cathedral parking lot where a new high rise is being built, the ceremony this year was held at Queen of All Saints Basilica on the north side.
 
So, two weeks ago, I travelled there to applaud this year’s awardees: Claude and Rosemarie Zaba. As many of you know, Claude was our parish maintenance engineer for many years and Rose worked in the school. If both of them were still “employees” they wouldn’t have been eligible for this award. But for many years, Rose was a generous volunteer in the school—grading papers, quizzing children to help them with their studies, then serving as lunchtime supervisor and extended day aide. As 8:30 mass-goers know, Claude is a faithful and welcoming presence as an usher, and he has continued to provide expertise to me in a number of areas such as soliciting bids for smaller maintenance projects. But his most generous contributions to parish life stem from his membership in the Knights of Columbus who have done so much through the years to enrich our community. So, “spoiled for choice” as we were, Claude and Rosemarie were, in the end, an easy choice for this year’s Christifidelis award. You can see some photos from the October 13 awards ceremony elsewhere in this bulletin.
 
Writing about this each year always provides me with the opportunity to thank ALL those who serve our parish so faithfully in so many ways. It would be great if we could nominate dozens of generous parishioners each year; but even then, we would be “spoiled for choice.” And just a bit more than a month after our Stewardship appeal, this also gives me the opportunity to encourage more of you to offer your help in whatever way you can so that our entire parish community will continue to grow in faithfulness to Christ.
 
Fr. Bob