Welcome

08-23-2020From Fr. TeodoroFr. George Teodoro, SJ

Dear friends,

It has been a baptism by fire these first two weeks in Phoenix – I don’t think there has been a single day below 110o since I’ve been here! But truly, I have received such a warm welcome here at SFX, and I am truly grateful to God to have been missioned here as your new associate pastor.

A little bit about myself: My mother, Dee, grew up in rural Washington state in an Irish Catholic family, while my father, Reynaldo, grew up in Quezon City in the Philippines. They met and married in New York, where both my older brothers were born. My dad got a job with the Boeing Co., and so the family moved out to Seattle, where I was born and raised.

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Letter of Gratitude

08-16-2020From Fr. FambriniFather Robert Fambrini, S.J.

Dear fellow parishioners of St. Francis Xavier:

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated the first anniversary of my arrival here at our parish. It has been a year of adjustment, change and challenge. As you know by now, St. Francis Xavier is different from any of the other four parishes of which I was pastor.

I am grateful for many things, first among them your warm welcome (and not simply because I arrived in July!) and cooperation. This is the longest time I have lived out of state in my time as a priest and in the process I have come to like the desert, the slower pace and the fact that, even before Covid, I hardly use my car. Nice to live so close to work! (PS: I am not missing San Jose.)

I am grateful for my Jesuit community. I could not imagine a nicer group of people to be marooned with during a pandemic!

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John Lewis

08-09-2020From Fr. FambriniFather Robert Fambrini, S.J.

A week ago Thursday I tuned into the funeral service for John Lewis, the civil rights crusader and member of Congress. As with all Black Christian services, it was truly a celebration of Congressman Lewis’s life with uplifting music and stirring eulogies.

John Lewis put his life on the line for what he believed. The predominant question which guided his adult life was simply this: why can’t all people living in this country experience equal treatment? As we know, the history of racial inequality in this country is long and painful. It seems to stem from the notion that there is just so much to go around: just so much money for proper housing, proper education, proper healthcare---to name a few. It’s a mentality which implies that there might not be enough for both you and me. Resources are limited, we are told. Yet, in our heart of hearts, we know that that is not true. Our land is a land of abundance.

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