Thoughts and opinions from a Priest in the PNCC
Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” – Matthew 1:20-21
From the Los Angeles Times via the Press Democrat: Man repays jobless benefits, 46 years later
LOS ANGELES — California’s budget crisis has eased a bit, thanks to a South Carolina man grateful to the state for helping him 46 years ago.
Dennis R. Ferguson wrote a check for $10,000 to the state treasury Nov. 23 as “repayment for what California did for me” when he was laid off from his aerospace engineering job in 1964.
Ferguson, a 74-year-old retired computer programmer who lives in the Atlantic coastal community of Fripp Island, S.C., said the four months’ worth of unemployment benefits he collected after losing his job with Douglas Aircraft allowed him to re-train for a new career in computers.
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said Ferguson’s money will be spent on schools, as required by state law.
That’s appropriate, Lockyer said, “because there’s a lesson to be learned here about what it means to have a sense of shared sacrifice and commitment to the common good.”
Ferguson was 26 and living in a rundown, $25-a-week West Los Angeles motel when he collected state aid. Officials of the state Employment Development Department estimate that his total benefits during the four months totaled about $1,100.
Ferguson said he wanted to show his appreciation for the assistance by adding “interest” to his repayment. He said he picked $10,000 because it is a “nice round number.”
“Anyone who is helped out when they are down ought to give something back, especially now that California has budget problems,” he told state officials.
The jobless benefits helped him go back to school, Ferguson said. He enrolled in computer programming at the now-defunct International Tabulating Institute in Los Angeles.
According to Ferguson, the school had one IBM 1440 series computer with 4K of memory that was shared by 10 students. That room-size data processor sold for $90,000 at the time.
But Ferguson learned programming on it, creating 21 programs during the three-month class. He earned an A grade and a certificate of completion.
After that, Ferguson went to work as a computer operator for Belmont Savings and Loan in Seal Beach. A year later, he landed a better-paying job as a programmer at Honeywell in Los Angeles.
Later, Ferguson worked in the Atlanta area before settling in South Carolina.
In the note to Sacramento officials that accompanied his check, Ferguson thanked the state for letting him collect unemployment while studying at the storefront computer institute.
“This allowed me to have a great career, and I’ve been ever thankful,” he wrote.
Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for the state treasurer’s office, said Thursday that Ferguson’s check cleared and has been deposited in the public schools fund.
In a statement, Lockyer expressed his appreciation of Ferguson’s gift.
“I hope that as we work together to meet our budget challenges, we keep in mind his act of generosity and the spirit it embodies,” he said.
Reading this story, I was impressed by the real difference a helping hand can make, and the beauty of Mr. Ferguson’s attitude of thankfulness. He provides an excellent example of gentlemanly/gentle-womanly conduct. May he be blessed for his thankfulness.
Today we celebrated the Solemnity of the Holy Name of Jesus (the proper Solemnity of the day according to the Ordo of the Polish National Catholic Church), and the Patronal Feastday of my home parish, Holy Name of Jesus in Schenectady, New York. I wish all my co-workers and fellow faithful many blessings on this special day.
In the words of the old Polish greeting:
Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus! Na wieki wieków, amen!
Praised by the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ! Forever and ever, amen!
From the Times-Tribune: Central Diocese of Polish National Catholic Church to welcome new bishop in February
The Central Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church and its mother cathedral, St. Stanislaus in South Scranton, will welcome a new bishop and pastor on Feb. 1.
Bishop John Mack has served for the past four years as the auxiliary bishop of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese and has been a pastor in Western Pennsylvania for two decades.
The current bishop of the Central Diocese, the Most Rev. Anthony Mikovsky, was elected Prime Bishop of the church in October, leaving a vacancy at the head of the diocese that stretches from Maryland to New York. Bishop Mack was assigned to take his place at the end of the denomination-wide synod in October.
He will take charge of what he notes is the largest parish and the largest diocese in the denomination.
“It’s quite daunting,” he said.
Bishop Mack was born and raised in the Polish National Catholic Church in the greater Detroit area and attended Savonarola Theological Seminary in Scranton.
Although he has never served as a pastor in the Central Diocese, Bishop Mack said the relatively small size of the Polish National Catholic Church and the frequency with which people throughout the denomination meet at events means he knows at least a few families here.
“Our church, in its smallness, it has a family feel to it because you get to meet people from all around the denomination when you go to various national events,” he said. “You keep these friends through all the years.”
Because Scranton was the site of the denomination’s break from the Roman Catholic Church and its founding as a new church, parishioners here tend to have an acute sense of the denomination’s first principles, including its democratic structure, he said.
“Many of those parishioners, their grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, were some of the founding members of the first parish,” he said, “so there’s a heightened awareness there of the overall purpose of our denomination, why it began.”
As he prepares for his new role and its spiritual challenges, Bishop Mack has also had to adapt to the earthly logistics of a 300-mile move after decades in the same region.
Priests in the Polish National Catholic Church can marry and Bishop Mack and his wife have three children, aged 17, 20 and 23. In his other fatherly role, Bishop Mack was faced with how to let his 17-year-old son stay in the Pittsburgh area with his 23-year-old sister while he finishes high school.
“That’s one of the things that was the most difficult, and I’m still feeling that a bit in the pit of my stomach,” he said.
Having to make such hard family choices can help the denomination’s priests connect to parishioners who face similar struggles.
“You have a great deal of empathy for them when you’ve been through some of the sleepless nights, and little ones, middle-aged ones and teenagers,” he said. “You have, what do they call that, battle experience?”