Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord:

 

With many of our communities having just completed their local elections, we commit ourselves anew to fulfilling St. Paul's injunction "that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered…for all in authority, [so] that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity" (1 Tm. 1:1-2). The well-being of each community is of great concern for all Catholics throughout our Archdiocese. That is why we all join in praying for those who were elected leaders in every jurisdiction throughout the six counties of our local Church. Especially, we renew our commitment as one people in Christ by recalling a familiar phrase, that "the Church in the Archdiocese of Detroit is one living communion abiding on both sides of Eight Mile."

 

To share Christ in and through the Church is always to enkindle hope.  Our bond with Christ in our prayer to him is a sure motive for hope. Christ is here; Christ is with us, and he will never go away; Christ will sustain us and light our way ahead.   And hope is certainly one of the greatest contributions – an inestimably precious contribution – we Christians can make to our cities and neighborhoods.

 

Yours in Christ,

 

†The Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron
Archbishop of Detroit