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News & Herald Western North Carolina
Serving Catholics in
Volume 3 Number 40 * July
in the Diocese of Charlotte
1994
8,
A Time For Healing
Love, Forgiveness Evident At
Mass For Persons With AIDS By JOANN
KEANE
Church' s concern for the individual and the love and forgiveness of Jesus," said
Associate Editor
CHARLOTTE — One
hundred or
Jesuit Father
viser for four RAIN teams from St. Peter
ward the altar of St. Patrick Cathedral on June 26 for the laying on of hands a sign of spiritual healing for people at this Mass with HIV or AIDS, their families, friends and caregivers. For the diocese, it was a first. Twentythree priests concelebrated the Healing Mass as Bishop William G. Curlin offered people who suffer or deal with the deadly disease the assurance of Christ's
Church, Charlotte. Speaking from his
love.
AIDS suck
"We're not here because it's the thing to do," Bishop Curlin said in his homily. "We' re not here for some political reason. We're not here for anything
Men, women, children and babies, all fall prey to a grim demise. Most distress-
—
Healing Mass for people
who
from HIV/ AIDS and
at the
[heir caregivers with (1-r)
Frank Lubbers, board member of the Regional
Network (RAIN);
Gene McCreesh, pastoral adviser to four RAIN teams at St. Mercy Sister Therese Galligan and Agnes Barry of St. Patrick
suffer
AIDS
Interfaith
Jesuit Father
Peter Church, Charlotte;
Photo by
hathedral.
JOANN KEANE
Of Mercy Celebrate 150 hfears Of Service In United States Sisters
"Churches tend not to see," he
pint of these founding
—
"The
women has been
landed down from generation to generaion,
from continent to continent," Sister Carney said in welcoming about
jiheila
Mercy
500
sisters to the order's
150th
inni versary festival June 22-25 at Carlow
College in Pittsburgh.
She spoke on a stage lined with banners memorializing the lames of those early Mercy pioneers colorful silk
vho
left their
homes
in Ireland to carry
'Mercy" to missions in many countries. "At the heart of all we do are the itories of these founding women who
women
crossed oceans and prairies,"
vho "were called to the same hope to which we're called," she said. The four-day festival marked 150 years of the Sisters of Mercy's work in he United States. It included addresses, :oncerts, an art exhibit and community building among the Sisters of Mercy of he Americas, an institute formed in 1 99
Mercy congregations in States. The gathering also
and needy. • Of sisters who broke with the structured European culture of cloistered and
dren, the poor, sick
contemplative religious orders, devising
an unenclosed and apostolic focus as they adapted to the needs of their new homes.
The stories all reflect the history of Mercy Sisters, founded in Dublin by Catherine McAuley in 1 83 1 Led by Mother Frances Xavier Warde, seven sisters came to the fledg-
the
ling
Diocese of Pittsburgh on Dec. 21,
1843. Sister Frances soon began an ambitious program of expansion, establish-
The
Sisters of Mercy first served in
North Carolina in 1862 when a group from Charleston, S.C., went to Wilmington during a yellow fever epidemic. They returned on a permanent basis in 1869. In 1892 they moved to
Belmont where they established the motherhouse of the Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina, one of the congregations
fo-
:used on preparing for ministries for the
which united in 1991. Other stories were
future.
Sisters who left Ireland to found commu-
unite 17
United
The stories participants heard of their
common
nities in
New York in
1
told of
Mercy
846, Little Rock,
were often touching and enlightening. • Of a wealthy young woman raised n anti-Catholic surroundings who be?an a religious community to aid needy
San Francisco in 1854, Cincinnati in 1858 and Connecticut in 1872. Other Mercy communities were begun in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1856, Jamaica in 1890 and Guyana in
women and children in
1894.
ancestry, "our foremothers,"
1
9th-century Ire-
•Of adventurous young sisters boarding ships in the following decades to iierve in the "wilds" of the •
Ark., in 1851,
At the
land.
Of thousands
of
women
.hemselves to aid those
mmigrant
girls,
New
in
World.
giving of
need, young
orphans, school chil-
to be,
Washington run by Mother Teresa' s Sisters of Charity. "At the Gift of Peace, no one died without being loved, without dying
in peace,"
he
said.
The bishop has seen the life out of
the grip of victims.
its
ing to the bishop are the people who have
been shunned by society, abandoned and left to die alone. That, however, doesn't have to happen. By reaching out in love, people convey the Jesus within to the Jesus in others, he said. ing.
"All we know is someone is sufferAnd where there is suffering, there is
Bishop Curlin said. "Sometimes we forget the pain of
Christ,"
AIDS
it.
is
not just the person in the bed,"
—
offerThose who sit bedside are hurting, too. ing love and support At all hours of the day and night, sup-
he
said.
said.
—
who says this is the way it' s going
portive individuals give their lives to the
think that gives a tremendous
comfort and care of their dying loved
I
amount of support to people like Father Gene McCreesh and Mercy Sister Mary Wright
who have been
ones.
"The Mass made a statement that we Church are committed to this in the diocese," said Msgr. Richard Allen, of St. Ann Church in Charlotte. The chalas a
lone rangers,
some of the few people doing anything at all."
is to incorporate AIDS awareness and service in a more meaningful way. "It' s incumbent upon us to say, 'What do we do now to get things going?'" (See related stories on Pages 2, 13)
A
partner of someone with AIDS was the most powerful service he had ever attended. He embraced and said
Gift of Peace, a
lenge
it
thanked Bishop Curlin afterward. "The Mass revealed the true
rtom
the desk of
TBishop William
Qurlin
ing communities in eight states.
the
|:o
...
at
residential home for people with AIDS in
"To see someone appointed by the pope (Bishop Curlin) coming into Charlotte
PITTSBURGH (CNS)
days as chaplain
this:
the disease, they refuse to deal with
Bishop
heart,
Curlin told poignant stories about his
That we believe there is a God of mercy and love and healing power." Fred (a pseudonym for a man with AIDS) said he was moved to tears during the service. "I have been struggling for so long to get churches involved," he said after Mass. Most people are so afraid of
except
Bishop William G. Curlin
McCreesh, pastoral ad-
so people filed in solemn procession to-
festival's conclusion,
Maria
Rosario Gaite, a young Mercy candidate from the Philippines, said "our shared experiences of 'Mercy' have energized
me. The same spirit continues to grow and touch people today." See Mercy, Page 2
Bishop Grants Permission For Female Altar Servers The Holy Father's decision to allow women and girls to become altar servers has received an enthusiastic welcome from the bishops of the United States. They had requested the introduction of the above for several years.
Effective today permission for servers parish
is
women and
granted in every parish
must
first
in the
girl altar
Diocese of Charlote. However, each
introduce the above permission with the necessary education
required by the Holy See. This
when introducing and
in
keeping with
matters,
I
met
last
is to prevent any misunderstanding that can occur changes without proper education. For this purpose promise to consult with the priests of the diocese in such
liturgical
my
week with
the Presbyteral Council.
pastoral guidelines will be mailed to
While many
will joyfully
to accept the
Holy
servers.
I
welcome
all
the
priests
When
completed, their
and deacons.
above permission, some may be reluctant women and girls to become altar
Father's decision to allow
trust that their respect for the
Holy Father and
faith in his pastoral
leadership of the Church will enable them to accept his above decision. Faith
always takes us beyond human limitations.