May 23, 2014

May 23, 2014

catholicnewsherald.com charlottediocese.org S E RV I N G C H R I ST A N D C O N N EC T I N G C AT H O L I C S I N W E ST E R N N O R T H C A R O L I N A

Charlotte Catholic High School principal Jerry Healy resigns, 20

Saint Benedict Press partners with Catholic Scripture Study International, 25

Honoring Mary St. Francis Springs Prayer Center opens labyrinth, Mary’s Garden

INDEX

Contact us.......................... 4 Español.................................18 Events calendar................. 4 Our Faith............................. 2 Our Parishes................. 3-16 Schools........................ 20-23 Scripture readings............ 2 TV & Movies.......................24 U.S. news..................... 26-27 Viewpoints...................30-31 World news................. 28-29

ALSO INSIDE: May crownings and other Marian celebrations,

3, 8-9

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‘God showed up a lot in my week at Jamaica’ Charlotte Catholic student missionaries reflect on working with the poor in Jamaica,

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‘HERE I AM. SEND ME.’ 16 men poised to become permanent deacons May 31, and transitional diaconate ordination set for June 7,

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Our faith 2

catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk

Pope Francis

Destroying creation is destroying a gift of God, pope says at audience

P

olluting or destroying the environment is like telling God one does not like what he created and proclaimed to be good, Pope Francis said.

The Bible says that after every stage of creation, God was pleased with what he had made, the pope said May 21 at his weekly general audience. “To destroy creation is to say to God, ‘I don’t like it.’”

On the other hand, he said, safeguarding creation is safeguarding a gift of God. “This must be our attitude toward creation: safeguarding it. If not, if we destroy creation, creation will destroy us. Don’t forget that!”

Continuing a series of audience talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis said the gift of knowledge helps people see creation with God’s eyes, recognizing its beauty and seeing it as a sign of God’s love for men and women, who are the crown of his creation.

“Creation is not a property that we can dominate at our pleasure nor does it belong to only a few,” he said. “Creation is a gift, a marvelous gift God has given us to care for and use for the benefit of all with great respect and gratitude.”

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit -wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord -- are not simply human virtues or talents, the pope said. And knowledge is not just the human capacity “to understand the reality that surrounds us and discover the laws that regulate nature and the universe.”

Rather, he said, the gift of knowledge helps people understand, “through creation, the greatness of the love of God and his profound relationship with every creature.”

The gift of knowledge helps people recognize that all things that are beautiful -- both things found in nature and things that are the result of human ingenuity -- speak of God, he said. “The Spirit leads us to praise the Lord from the depths of our heart and to recognize, in all that we have and all that we are, a invaluable gift of God and a sign of his infinite love for us.”

At the end of the audience, Pope Francis led the recitation of the Hail Mary as a prayer for the victims of flooding in BosniaHerzegovina and in Serbia. He asked the international community to assist the two Balkan nations, where more than three dozen people died and tens of thousands were left homeless in late May. Pope Francis also told the estimated 50,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square that May 24 is the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, a Marian feast particularly dear to Catholics in mainland China. He asked people to pray that “Catholics in China may continue to believe, to hope and to love and, in every circumstance, to be a leaven of harmonious coexistence among their fellow citizens.”

Editing our own genes?

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Photo provided by The Passonists

The Ugandan martyrs are pictured in this photograph taken in Tanganyika at Bukumbi Mission (Mwanza) in September or October 1885. St. Charles Lwanga is number 13, and he was only 21 years old when he died.

St. Charles Lwanga and companions: Martyrs for the faith Feast day: Tuesday, June 3 St. Charles and many other martyrs for the faith died between Nov. 15, 1885, and Jan. 27, 1887, in Namugongo, Uganda. St. Charles and his companions were beatified in 1920 and canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1964.

In 1879 Catholicism began spreading in Uganda when The Society of Missionaries of Africa (the “White Fathers”), a congregation of priests founded by Cardinal Lavigerie were peacefully received by King Mutesa of Uganda.

The priests soon began preparing catechumens for baptism and before long a number of the young pages in the king’s court had become Catholics.

However, on the death of Mutesa, his son Mwanga, a corrupt man who ritually engaged in pedophilic practices with the younger pages, took the throne.

When King Mwanga had a visiting Anglican bishop murdered, his chief page, Joseph Mukasa, a Catholic who went to great length to protect

More online At www.catholicnewsherald. com: In the “Our Faith” section, read the stories of other saints whose feast days are coming up in the next few weeks, including: St. Bede, holy scholar, May 25; St. Justin Martyr, patron of philosophers, June 1; and Sts. Marcellinus and Peter, Roman martyrs, June 2.

the younger boys from the king’s lust, denounced the king’s actions and was beheaded on Nov. 15, 1885.

The 25-year-old Charles Lwanga became the chief page, and just as forcibly protected them from the king’s advances.

On the night of the martyrdom of MARTYRS, SEE page 12

number of serious diseases are known to occur because of defects or mutations in our DNA. Curing such diseases could in principle be carried out by rewriting the DNA to fix the mutated base pairs. Yet until recently scientists have remained largely stymied in their attempts to directly modify genes in a living animal.

Findings described in the March 30, 2014, issue of “Nature Biotechnology,” however, reveal that a novel gene-editing technique, known as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), can be used successfully in mice to reverse disease symptoms for a liver defect known as type I tyrosinemia.

CRISPR, which enables researchers to snip out the mutated piece of DNA and replace it with the correct sequence, holds the potential for treating other genetic disorders as well.

Correcting mutations in the DNA to remedy a serious medical defect would certainly be desirable and permissible.

In 2008, in a document called “Dignitas Personae,” the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith agreed that trying to restore “the normal genetic configuration of the patient or to counter damage caused by genetic anomalies” would be morally acceptable as long as the person being treated will not “be exposed to risks to his health or physical integrity which are excessive...”

Our ability to rewrite the human genome at will through precise DNA editing techniques, however, does raise substantial concerns about misusing the technology.

This kind of human re-engineering would cross an important line: instead of helping human beings who are struggling against serious diseases, scientists would now begin manipulating human beings for ulterior motives. As “Dignitas Personae” puts it, “such manipulation would promote a eugenic mentality and would lead to indirect social stigma with regard to people who lack certain qualities, while privileging (others).” The document also notes how attempting to GENES, SEE page 16

Your daily Scripture readings MAY 25-31

Sunday: Acts 8:5-8, 14-17, 1 Peter 3:15-18, John 14:15-21; Monday (St. Philip Neri): Acts 16:11-15, John 15:26, 16:4; Tuesday (St. Augustine of Canterbury): Acts 16:22-34, John 16:5-11; Wednesday: Acts 17:15-22, 18:1, John 16:12-15; Thursday (The Ascension of the Lord): Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:17-23, Matthew 28:16-20; Friday: Acts 18:9-18, John 16:20-23; Saturday (The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary): Zephaniah 3:14-18, Isaiah 12:2-6, Luke 1:39-56.

JUNE 1- 7

Sunday: Acts 1:12-14, 1 Peter 4:13-16, John 17:1-11; Monday (Sts. Marcellinus and Peter): Acts 19:1-8, John 16:29-33; Tuesday (St. Charles Lwanga and Companions): Acts 20:17-27, John 17:1-11; Wednesday: Acts 20:2838, John 17:11-19; Thursday (St. Boniface): Acts 22:30, 23:6-11, John 17:20-26; Friday (St. Norbert): Acts 25:13-21, John 21:15-19; Saturday: Acts 28:16-20, 30-31, John 21:2025

JUNE 8-14

Sunday: Acts 2:1-11, 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13, John 20:19-23; Monday (St. Ephrem): 1 Kings 17:1-6, Matthew 5:1-12; Tuesday: 1 Kings 17:7-16, Matthew 5:13-16; Wednesday (St. Barnabas): Acts 11:21-26, 13:1-3, Matthew 5:17-19; Thursday: 1 Kings 18:41-46, Matthew 5:20-26; Friday (St. Anthony of Padua): 1 Kings 19:9, 11-16, Matthew 5:27-32; Saturday: 1 Kings 19:19-21, Matthew 5:33-37

Our parishes

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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The new labyrinth at St. Francis Springs Prayer Center, built of stone and pavers in the medieval style made famous at Chartres Cathedral in France, is about 42 feet in diameter – making it among the largest labyrinths in North Carolina.

Photos by Patricia L. Guilfoyle | Catholic News Herald

St. Francis Springs Prayer Center opens labyrinth, Mary’s Garden STONEVILLE — A Marian Garden and Labyrinth was blessed in tribute to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to all women, at the St. Francis Springs Prayer Center May 10.

Mary serves as an example to every Christian because of her “fiat” – because she heard the word of God and she was willing to say yes to God’s plan for her, and because she was the first and most perfect disciple of Jesus Christ. The labyrinth and garden are meant to help visitors to the retreat center meditate on Mary’s example of fidelity and cooperation with God’s plan, and thus to find inspiration in responding to their own baptismal call to follow Jesus, said Franciscan Father Louie Canino, director of the prayer center.

Mary’s Garden, located in a wooded area adjacent to the new outdoor chapel of the St. Francis Springs Prayer Center, was built through the generosity of Cliff and Eunice Barr and their family.

The labyrinth, built of stone and pavers in the medieval style made famous at Chartres Cathedral in France, is about 42 feet in diameter – making it among the largest labyrinths in North Carolina. Its 815-foot paved path has 34 turns, and it is purposely narrow so that walkers upon it are forced to slow down and focus on what they are doing, Father Canino noted.

“The many turns remind us of the turning points

of our lives, both good and bad, and our need to continue our spiritual pilgrimage with steadfast fidelity,” said Ann Bauer, assistant director of the prayer center, during the blessing ceremony.

Inlaid in the wall encircling the labyrinth are 12 small rocks from the property, symbolizing the Twelve Tribes of Israel as well as the 12 Apostles.

In the center of the labyrinth is a stone “trinity bench,” held up by three boulders also from the prayer center’s property. It is meant to symbolize the Holy Trinity, the source and focus of all spiritual life and which is reflected in all of God’s creation.

Rosali Rivera, who oversaw construction of the labyrinth, received heartfelt thanks from Father Canino and warm applause from everyone gathered for the blessing ceremony May 10. Also helping in the labyrinth project were Joe Bauer, William Alexander Benitez, Ray Butrang, Dan Camia, Santos Orando Fuentes, Jeff Juliano, Dan Lonnquist, Frank Massey, Feliberto Ortiz, Luish Rylang, Buish Y and Tuish Y. At the conclusion of the blessing ceremony, Father Canino led everyone in prayer: “Mary, Mother of Peace, we entrust our lives to you and to your Son. May we, too, be pregnant with hope, trusting that the reign of your Son will one day dawn and spill its radiance even in the darkest corners of our world. Teach us to live in unity.

Shelter us from despair. Inspire us to act justly, to revere all God has made. Root us ever more firmly in the peace of Jesus. Amen.”

— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor

Above left is pictured Mary’s Garden, and above is the new labyrinth. Both are set in the wooded area near the prayer center’s new outdoor chapel.

Rosali Rivera oversaw construction of the labyrinth.

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catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 OUR PARISHES

Diocesan calendar of events BELMONT QUEEN OF THE APOSTLES church, 503 North Main St.

Bishop Peter J. Jugis Bishop Peter J. Jugis will participate in the following events over the coming weeks:

— El Grupo “Porque Ser Católico” se reúne todos los miércoles a las 8 p.m. en la casa de la Señora Carmen Mirón. Si estas interesado(a) en iniciar tu formación a cerca del catolicismo, te invitamos a participar. Para más información, llamar a la Señora Alba Cadavid 704-904-7988.

ladies aged 10 to 17 are invited to an informal open house held by the newly formed Squirettes of Mary Circlette. Come on out and find out more about the Squirettes and the fun activities available. For details, contact Gen Rollin at 704-548-0644 or gen526@aol.com.

— Treasures in the Trunk, Vendor and Craft Sale: 9 a.m.4 p.m. Saturday, June 21. For details, call Gen Rollin at 704-548-0644.

May 23 – 7:30 p.m.

Baccalaureate Mass for Bishop McGuinness High School St. Pius X Church, Greensboro

— Ministry of Mothers Sharing: 9-11 a.m. Tuesday, May 27. Meetings are for moms with children of all ages. Ministry is intended for fellowship and study for spiritual growth. For details, email Marianne at marianne@gcube.com

— “Divine Mercy Holy Hour”: Exposition and readings from the Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska: 7-8 p.m. every first Friday. For questions, call Paul Deer at 704-948-0628.

May 24 – 4 p.m.

Sacrament of Confirmation St. John Baptist de la Salle Church, North Wilkesboro

— Men Scripture Study: 7 p.m. Monday, June 2. Men of the parish age 45 and older are invited to reflect on God’s word, pray and fellowship. For details, call Roger Duncan at 412-289-9147.

— “Rosary for Life”: Join the Respect Life group to pray each Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., followed by Mass at 7 p.m. To participate, contact Gretchen Filz at gfilz10@ ses.edu or 704-919-0935.

May 28 – 5 p.m.

Baccalaureate Mass for Charlotte Catholic High School St. Matthew Church, Charlotte

— Adult Bible Study: 2-3 p.m. Tuesday, June 10 in the conference room. Light refreshments available.

May 31 – 11 a.m.

Diaconate Ordination for Permanent Deacons St. Mark Church, Huntersville June 2 – 7 p.m.

Sacrament of Confirmation Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Lexington

CHARLOTTE ST. ANN CHURCH, 3635 Park Road — Carolina Catholic Chorale to Sing Haydn Mass: 7 p.m. Thursday, May 29. The Chorale will sing Johann Michael Haydn’s “Missa Beatissimae Virginis Mariae” as sacred music for a Mass in the Extraordinary Form. For details, call 518-878-5660.

ST. GABRIEL CHURCH, 3016 Providence Road

June 4 – 7 p.m.

Sacrament of Confirmation St. Benedict Church and Good Shepherd Mission, King

— Young Widowed Support Group: 6 p.m. Meets second Tuesday of the month. Group is intended for widowed persons, around 55 years of age and younger. For details, call Sister Marie Frechette at 704-543-7677, ext. 1073

June 7 - 10 a.m.

Diaconate Ordination of Transitional Deacon st. Patrick Cathedral, Charlotte

— Polish Prayer Group: 7 p.m. Meets first Thursday of the month in the chapel. For details, call Evona Cholewa at 704-488-7490.

St. Matthew church, 8015 BALLANTYNE COMMONS PKWY. — Natural Family Planning Introduction and Full Course: 1- 5 p.m. Saturday, June 21. Topics include: Effectiveness of modern NFP, health risks of popular contraceptives and what the Church teaches about responsible parenting. Sponsored by Catholic Charities. RSVP to Batrice Adcock, MSN, RN, at 704370-3230.

— Called to be Mom Support Group: 10 a.m.-noon. Meets every other Thursday, Group supports the vocation of motherhood by strengthening faith through various scriptures readings. For details, call Kerry Long at 704-243-6319.

— Living the Faith Book Club: 7-8 p.m., second Thursday of the month. For details, call Kevin Berent at 803287-7898.

CLEMMONS HOLY FAMILY CHURCH, 4820 KINNAMON ROAD — Charismatic Prayer Group: 7:15 p.m. Mondays. All are welcome.

GREENSBORO ST. PIUS X Church, 2210 N. ELM ST. — Blood Drive: 9:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Friday, May 30, in the Kloster Center. For details, call David Ray at 336-404-1933.

HIGH POINT IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY CHURCH, 4145 JOHNSON St. — Red Cross Blood Drive: 8 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Saturday, May 24. To schedule an appointment, call Lisa at 336-306-0606.

LENOIR St. Francis of Assisi Church, 328 B Woodsway Lane — The rosary, led by Father Gabriel Meehan, is prayed every Monday evening at 7 p.m., in the Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel. All are welcome.

MAGGIE VALLEY ST. MARGARET OF SCOTLAND CHURCH, 37 Murphy Dr. — Life in Spirit Seminar: 7-8:30 p.m. every Wednesday until June 4

MURPHY ST. WILLIAM CHURCH, 765 ANDREWS Road — Spring Into Summer Sale: 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, May 31. Lots of foods and sales available. Sponsored by the Ladies Guild.

— Grief Support Group: 10:30 a.m. Tuesdays in the conference room. “Embracing Your Grief” should be helpful for those mourning the recent loss of a loved one.

WAYNESVILLE St. John the Evangelist Church, 234 Church St. — Natural Family Planning Introduction and Full Course: 1- 5 p.m. Saturday, July 26. Topics includes: Effectiveness of modern NFP, health risks of popular contraceptives and what the Church teaches about responsible parenting. Sponsored by Catholic Charities. RSVP to Batrice Adcock, MSN, RN, at 704370-3230.

Is your PARISH OR SCHOOL hosting a free event open to the public? Deadline for all submissions is 10 days prior to desired publication date. Submit in writing to catholicnews@charlottediocese.org.

— Pro-Life Rosary: 11 a.m. Saturday, June 7, at 819 North Main St. and Sunset Drive, to pray for the end of abortion. For details, contact Jim Hoyng at 336-8829593 or Paul Klosterman at 336-848-6835.

HUNTERSVILLE St. Mark Church, 14740 Stumptown Road — The Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians welcomes all women who are practicing Roman Catholics, and who are Irish by birth, who are the wife of a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, or the mother of a junior member to join. For details, call Bernadette Brady at 704-210-8060.

— Charlotte Athletes for Christ Youth Ministry: 7-8:30 p.m. Meets the first and third Wednesday of the month. The ministry provides an evening of fun, athletic activities, a great meal, and featured speakers who address faith and athletics. For details, call Tim Flynn at 704-948-0231.

ST. Thomas aquinas church, 1400 suther road — Squirettes of Mary Circlette Open House: 4-5 p.m.

Saturday, May 31, in the parish office. Catholic

May 23, 2014 Volume 23 • Number 16

1123 S. Church St. Charlotte, N.C. 28203-4003 catholicnews@charlottediocese.org

704-370-3333 PUBLISHER: The Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis, Bishop of Charlotte

EDITOR: Patricia L. Guilfoyle 704-370-3334, plguilfoyle@charlottediocese.org ADVERTISING MANAGER: Kevin Eagan 704-370-3332, keeagan@charlottediocese.org SENIOR REPORTER: SueAnn Howell 704-370-3354, sahowell@charlottediocese.org Online reporter: Kimberly Bender 704-808-7341, kdbender@charlottediocese.org GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Tim Faragher 704-370-3331, tpfaragher@charlottediocese.org COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT/CIRCULATION: Erika Robinson, 704-370-3333, catholicnews@ charlottediocese.org Hispanic communications reporter: Rico De Silva, 704-370-3375, rdesilva@charlottediocese.org

The Catholic News Herald is published by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte 26 times a year.

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May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI

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‘HERE I AM. SEND ME.’

16 men poised to become permanent deacons for the diocese on May 31 CHARLOTTE — Bishop Peter J. Jugis will ordain 16 men to the permanent diaconate at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 31.

The ordination Mass will be celebrated at St. Mark Church in Huntersville, located at 14740 Stumptown Road, and all are welcome to attend.

Permanent diaconate candidates in the Diocese of Charlotte go through two years of lay ministry training, then a year of aspirancy for prayerful discernment to the call to ordination. That is followed by four rigorous years of formation. For married candidates, wives also participate in the formation process.

Fifteen of the 16 permanent diaconate candidates were installed as acolytes by Bishop Jugis at Mass on Aug. 7, 2013, at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, one of the final public steps in their formation process.

When the current permanent diaconate class is ordained on May 31, the diocese will have 120 permanent deacons serving throughout western North Carolina.

Once ordained deacons, the men will be able to assist at the altar during Mass, proclaim the Gospel at Mass, give homilies, administer the sacrament of baptism and officiate at weddings. Permanent deacons serve in parishes and in specialized pastoral areas such as Hispanic Ministry, RCIA, the airport chaplaincy and prison ministry.

The next class of 19 permanent diaconate candidates completed their first year of aspirancy this spring.

For more information about the permanent diaconate in the Diocese of Charlotte, go to www.charlottediocese.org or call Deacon Ron Steinkamp, director of the permanent diaconate, at 704-370-3344.

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

sueann howell | catholic news herald

Fifteen of 16 men enrolled in the permanent diaconate for the Diocese of Charlotte were installed as acolytes by Bishop Peter J. Jugis on Aug. 7, 2013, at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte.

Schreiber

Ukattah

Schrieber

Anzola

Staub

Bozik

Trombley

Diaz

Harrison

Mejias

Goad

Sebastian

Tamayo

Della Valle

McGahey

Sanctis

Transitional diaconate ordination set for June 7 at St. Patrick Cathedral CHARLOTTE — Seminarian Casey Coleman will be ordained to the transitional diaconate for the Diocese of Charlotte by Bishop Peter J. Jugis at 10 a.m., Saturday, June 7, at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte. Coleman is currently studying at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.

The transitional diaconate is the final step toward priestly ordination. Once ordained a deacon, Coleman can proclaim the Gospel at Mass, give homilies, baptize and officiate at weddings. He will have an additional year of theological studies and spiritual formation before being ordained

to the priesthood next June.

Coleman, 32, is the son of Keith and Caroline Coleman of Weddington. He was born in Dayton, Ohio, and spent much of his childhood in Ohio. He is a graduate of Sun Valley High School in Monroe. He earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University in 2004.

Coleman studied pre-theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, entering in 2009. He transferred to the Pontifical College Josephinum to study theology in 2011.

A parishioner of St. Matthew Church in

south Charlotte, Coleman served at St. Dorothy Church in Lincolnton in 2011 and St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte in 2012 during his summer assignments for the diocese. He also served on the Totus Tuus summer catechesis team at St. Coleman Patrick Cathedral during the summer of 2012.

Coleman, who was baptized but not raised Catholic, says he first realized he had a vocation to the priesthood in 2006,

when he was 24. He was a parishioner at St. Aloysius Church in Hickory at that time.

“I think that I first thought I might have had a vocation to the priesthood in 2006 after I was confirmed, but I did not fully realize I had a vocation until spring of 2008,” Coleman explains. “And then by that summer, I was certain and began filling out an application to the diocese in October.”

All are welcome to attend the transitional diaconate Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral on June 7.

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

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catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 OUR PARISHES

‘I believe that Christ continues to “step and act in this world” through His priests’

(At left) Father Michael Kottar was ordained in the Diocese of Metuchen, N.J., in 1994 by Bishop Edward Thomas Hughes, where he served until moving to the Charlotte diocese in 1999.

Photo provided by Josh Altonji of the Pontifical College Josephinum

Graduates Christopher Hamilton and Deacon Paul McNulty are pictured with Monsignor Christopher Schreck, rector/ president of the Pontifical College Josephinum, on May 10.

Two from the diocese graduate from Pontifical College Josephinum COLUMBUS, Ohio — Deacon Paul McNulty and Christopher Hamilton, seminarians for the Diocese of Charlotte, were awarded degrees May 10 from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.

Deacon McNulty earned a Master of Divinity, which signifies fulfillment of the requirements for priestly ordination, and Christopher Hamilton received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy. Deacon McNulty’s home parish is St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte. Hamilton’s parish is St. Thomas Aquinas, also in Charlotte.

During the 115th Baccalaureate Mass and Commencement Exercises, the Class of 2014, numbering 40 students from 14 dioceses, was awarded degrees and certificates from the College of Liberal Arts, Pre-Theology Program or School of Theology, thereby becoming alumni of the only pontifical seminary outside of Italy.

The Baccalaureate Mass held in St. Turibius Chapel was celebrated by Monsignor Christopher J. Schreck, rector and president of the Josephinum. “’This is the day the Lord has made,’” he said, quoting Psalm 118. “Those words expressed by the psalmist are often repeated and prayed throughout the Easter season. Truly this day, today, is the day the Lord has made.

We gather together to celebrate this Mass of Thanksgiving and Baccalaureate, to honor our graduates, and we give thanks today for all that they have accomplished and achieved.”

The homily was given by Father Kyle Schnippel, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and a Josephinum alumnus who 15 years ago celebrated his own graduation from the College of Liberal Arts. This year, Father Schnippel concludes a long and distinguished term of service as the archdiocesan vocations director.

“Priests exist to be witnesses to Christ,” he said, “and to call the world to conversion. Our desire for our people should be their deeper conversion of heart.”

He encouraged the graduates to “strive always to preach the truth with love, to be good and worthy servants of the Lord, and to be worthwhile minsters of the Gospel, so that your faith and the faithful entrusted to you might know that deep and profound love of the Lord, through your ministry and your witness to the Gospel at all times and in all places.”

Mass was followed by a reception for graduates and guests; more than 200 parents, family members and friends of the graduates joined the seminary community for the day’s festivities.

— Catholic News Herald

Photo provided by Father Michael Kottar

Father Kottar looks back on 20 years of priesthood SueAnn Howell Senior reporter

SHELBY — Shelby is a long way from New Brunswick, N.J., where Father Michael Kottar served in his first parish after his ordination for the Diocese of Metuchen 20 years ago. In 1994, he was ordained by Bishop Edward Thomas Hughes, and five years later he found himself in North Carolina, where he now serves as pastor of St. Mary Parish.

As he looks back over the past 20 years, Father Kottar shares with the Catholic News Herald some of his memories: CNH: What was your first assignment?

Father Kottar: My first assignment was St. Peter the Apostle in New Brunswick, N.J. What do I remember? City life! St. Peter’s was an old Irish parish with both a parish grammar and high school. It was a big stone church with no air conditioning. The Northeast Corridor high speed rail line runs right behind the church.

In the summer, when all the windows were left open during Mass, you could hear the blast of the trains and the station announcements for the next train to New York. That was where I developed my pulpit voice!

The rectory and offices were located in an old converted mansion with four large white pillars in the front. In reality it was run down, but from the street it looked impressive. One of the neighborhood boys, after asking where I lived, said, ‘Man, you live in a judge’s house.’ I won’t forget that.

CNH: What have been some of your favorite assignments?

Father Kottar: In 1999 I received permission to work in the

Meehan

Fitzgibbons

Kollithanath

Hoover

Other anniversaries

Also celebrating their ordination anniversaries are: 55 years – Father Gabriel Meehan, retired 30 years – Father Peter L. Fitzgibbons, pastor of Our Lady of the Annunciation Church in Albemarle, and Father Philip X. Kollithanath, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Asheboro 25 years – Father Conrad Hoover, retired

Diocese of Charlotte for three years. Bishop William Curlin welcomed me to the diocese. (Bishop Peter J. Jugis has since incardinated me, and I say a special thanks to both bishops.)

I drove straight down from New Jersey to the south side of Charlotte – St. Matthew Church – the largest in the diocese KOTTAR, SEE page 16

Father Kessler: Priests should follow the example of Peter STATESVILLE — Father Thomas Kessler, pastor of St. Philip the Apostle Church in Statesville, recently shared some insights on his three decades of serving the faithful in both the Diocese of Allentown, Pa., and the Diocese of Charlotte.

Father Kessler was ordained in 1984 by the late Bishop Thomas J. Welsh of Allentown. He served several parishes in that diocese before serving as a missionary with the Society of Kessler St. James the Apostle, serving in rural Bolivia from 1988 until 1993.

Upon his return to the U.S., Father Kessler served as a professor and director of spiritual activities at Notre Dame High School in Bethlehem Township, Pa. He then had the privilege of servicing as director of pastoral formation at the Archdiocesan Seminary of St. Paul in St. Paul, Minn.

Since his relocation to the Diocese of Charlotte in 1999, Father Kessler has served five parishes in the diocese: St. Dorothy Church in Lincolnton; St. Leo the Great Church in Winston-Salem; Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Monroe;

St. Matthew Church in Charlotte; and now at St. Philip the Apostle Church in Statesville.

Father Kessler shares that what he enjoys most about being a priest is “the diversity of the ministry of the Catholic priesthood.”

The most important thing he has learned over the past 30 years?

“The importance of prayer,” he says.

And for men discerning the priesthood?

“Don’t discern too much,” he says. “Discernment is a word that became especially popular after the Second Vatican Council, and so many nuns and priests seemed to have discerned themselves right out of their vocation. A good attitude of discernment might be to follow the example of Peter, ‘We’ve been hard at it all night and have caught nothing, but if you say so, Lord!’

Father Kessler marked his 30th anniversary with his parishioners at daily Mass earlier this month. He says, “If God blesses me with 10 more years, I would hope to have another nice celebration for my 40th anniversary.”

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI

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Belmont Abbey celebrates new class of graduates BELMONT — On May 17, 328 students graduated from Belmont Abbey College, during commencement exercises held on the front lawn of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians. Commencement was preceded by a Baccalaureate Mass celebrated by Benedictine Abbot Placid D. Solari of Belmont Abbey. As is tradition, the graduates processed in to the graduation ceremony behind the Loch Norman Pipe Band. Dr. Anne Carson Daly, the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty, presented the candidates for degrees and the degrees were conferred by Dr. William K. Thierfelder, president.

Valedictorian was Kyrie Watson. The senior address for traditional students was given by Darren Balkey, who was also the Abbey Student of the Year, and the Adult Degree Program address was given by Reginald Polite. The commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient was scheduled to be Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, but he was unable to make it because of a canceled flight. Instead, students received a great send-off from Abbot Placid.

Photo provided by Sharon Johns

KAMPN summer camps return Rico De Silva Hispanic Communications Reporter

DEEP GAP — The second annual KAMPN (Kids with Autism Making Progress in Nature) Camp Cogger summer camp, coming to Deep Gap this July, makes happy campers of autistic children and their families.

The idea of Dr. Jim Taylor, KAMPN’s Camp Cogger was inspired by Taylor’s grandson,Charlie, who was diagnosed with autism when he was 3. Jim and his wife Sue are parishioners of St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country Church in Boone, and live in Deep Gap, 14 miles east of Boone.

“When he (Charlie) was about 4 or 5 years old, and when he will come up here, a total change basically kind of took over when he was free in nature to just explore. We followed and shadowed, but the freedom of being able to just explore God’s beautiful creation and nature made a big difference in him. It seems like Charlie was the catalyst in planning and then being directed by the Lord to start the program,” Taylor explained.

Camp Cogger is an overnight camping program that gives children with autism and their families an opportunity to experience summer camp – hiking, music, evening cookouts, marshmallow roasts and more. The twoday camping experience provides up to More four families per session the opportunity to online enjoy, at no cost to them, nature in a relaxed At www. environment. Parents can join with other kampn4autism. parents to share experiences of raising a appstate.edu: Learn special needs child. more about KAMPN “One of the parents that was here last summer and the upcoming said how wonderful it was being with other summer sessions to families that have children with autism, so be held in July when their child would do some sort of different behavior that’s not understood by the general public, they were feeling accepted and benefited from each other’s company,” Taylor said.

KAMPN is a non-profit organization, and it’s entirely community-funded.

Taylor has more than 45 years of experience in the special education field.

Currently retired, Taylor is a full-time volunteer developer and fundraiser for KAMPN. He decided to name the program Camp Cogger to honor the memory of his late friend, Frank Cogger, who passed away in 2012. Cogger was a parishioner of St. Joseph the Worker Church in Newton.

Taylor credits the Virgin Mary with Camp Cogger’s early success. “We were incorporated in May 1, 2011, and we dedicated it to the Blessed Mother.

On that same day, May 1, 2011, we miraculously received 501 (c3) nonprofitable charitable organizational status. Our four-generation law firm in Boone said they’ve never seen that happened. And I know that it was through Mary’s intervention, and that she is watching over us,” Taylor said.

Serenity House Hospice to open in Huntersville Rico De Silva Hispanic Communications Reporter

HUNTERSVILLE — The house on 14108 Stumptown Road looks like a typical two-story home.

For its future residents, though, it will most likely be the last place they’ll come home before they die.

Known as “Serenity House of Huntersville,” it is a comfort care home for terminally ill patients, a place where they can receive end-of-life care in a home environment. The Serenity House program is run by the Carolina Comfort Coalition, a nonprofit organization currently led by campaign chairs Sam and Liz James. Serenity House of Huntersville is the second home of its kind, after Serenity House of Mooresville, also run by the Carolina Comfort Coalition, which opened in 2007.

Serenity House of Huntersville is expected to open doors officially by the end of June.

Suzanne Donati, the coalition’s marketing and development coordinator, writes, “Although Serenity House is a place where people die, it’s not about death – it’s about ensuring that the final days are full of life.”

“Huntersville is a very good location. Houses are almost identical here,” Donati said. “This house is a unique gift that we can give to the community; nobody else is doing it.”

The program is 100 percent community funded, and although the coalition is run by a small staff, Serenity House of Mooresville relies on volunteers to be the faces residents can call family. “The volunteers chose the name ‘Serenity House’ based of the Serenity Prayer. They thought that was very significant and had a great connection to the work that we do – particularly one part of that prayer which is, ‘living one day at time; enjoying one moment at a time, and accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.”

The idea for Serenity House was conceived in 2007 by Cheryl Pletcher, a Hospice nurse, and the coalition’s executive director. Pletcher relocated to the Mooresville area from Rochester, N.Y., where Pletcher ran a comfort care home for the terminally ill. “When she moved down here, she

More online At www.carolinacomfortcoalition.org/learn/ serenity-house-of-huntersville: Learn more about Serenity House of Huntersville and how to become a volunteer

was working for Hospice, and she realized that there are not comfort care homes here in North Carolina,” Donati said.

Pletcher kept encountering terminally-ill people who had no immediately family nearby to help them, so Pletcher and seven other members of the Mooresville community formed the Carolina Comfort Coalition. Serenity House Mooresville was opened later that year. Since then, members of St. Thérèse Church in Mooresville have been among those to volunteer and support the project.

Patients find out about Serenity House mainly through Hospice, and there is a limit of two patients per home and a 90-day staying period.

All the residents receive their medical care from Hospice while under the Serenity House roof.

“Hospice talks to the patients about us, and tells them we’re not a medical provider and that we don’t look like a hospital environment. We look like a home environment. Nobody likes to die in a hospital,” Donati said.

Serenity House of Huntersville will open to serve the growing need of a comfort care home facility in the north Mecklenburg County area, Donati said. On May 18, Serenity House of Huntersville held a housewarming and a nondenominational home blessing. The Rev. Paul Thompson, lead pastor of Huntersville United Methodist Church, led the house blessing, and Huntersville’s Mayor Jill Swain was among the attendees.

Donati said Serenity House of Huntersville is currently in need of volunteers in the Huntersville area. “We need 42 volunteers before we can open the House. We’re about halfway there,” she said.

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catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 OUR PARISHES

Celebrating the month of Mary

Cathedral’s Marian grotto blessed CHARLOTTE — A Marian grotto on the grounds of St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, dedicated in the memory of babies lost through abortion and miscarriage, and for the consolation of their parents, was blessed May 11. Pictured, children of the cathedral parish laid flowers at the feet of the statue of Mary and Father Christopher Roux, pastor and rector of the cathedral, sprinkled the new grotto with holy water.

Photos by Patricia L. Guilfoyle | Catholic News Herald

Praying the rosary HUNTERSVILLE — Homeschool students at St. Mark Parish in Huntersville participated in a May crowning on May 9 following the 9 a.m. Mass. Afterwards, they processed to the Monument to the Unborn where the children prayed a rosary.

Mike FitzGerald | Catholic News Herald

Crown of kudzu SYLVA — For the month of May, children at St. Mary, Mother of God Parish in Sylva made a crown of kudzu for the May crowning.

Vicki Dorsey | Catholic News Herald

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI

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Celebrating the month of Mary A beautiful May day WINSTON-SALEM — Students at St. Leo School enjoyed picture-perfect weather for their annual May crowning May 9, which was led by eighth-graders Gina Dissosway, Carrie Semke and Lexi Starets.

Photo provided by Donna Birkel

Photo provided by Karen L. Hornfeck Photo provided by Dr. Cris Villapando

First Communicants crown Mary GREENSBORO — Our Lady of Grace School’s second-grade class recently participated the May Crowning of Mary, a long-standing tradition at the school. On the first Mass day after the students’ first Holy Communion, students place a crown of flowers on a statue of Mary to honor her. Pictured are the second-grade students, teacher Terran Tysor, principal Kurt Telford and teacher Celia McMullen.

Flores de Mayo The Filipino American Community of the Carolinas celebrated the Flores de Mayo festival May 10 at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte. Children processed wearing various sashes that depicted the four cardinal virtues and the many titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary (i.e., Mystical Rose, Tower of David, Morning Star, etc.) The culminating activity was the prayerful offering of flowers to the Blessed Mother.

Flowers for Mary CHARLOTTE — Preschool students at St. Thomas Aquinas Preschool gathered May 1 to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary with song, a crown and flowers.

Photo courtesy of St. Thomas Aquinas Church facebook page

Crowning Mary Photo provided by Pat Burr

St. Michael students hold May crowning GASTONIA — Second-graders who received their first Holy Communion at St. Michael School in Gastonia led the annual May crowning May 16 at St. Michael the Archangel Church. Father Matthew Buettner and Deacon Art Kingsley led worshippers in prayer, and the kindergarten through eighth-grade students also took part in the procession, praying and singing songs. Gordon Dubisky was the crown bearer, and eighth-graders Houston Tolbert, Jason Osemeka assisted Bridget Lowry in placing the crown on Mary’s head.

HIGH POINT — Second-grade students at Immaculate Heart of Mary School in High Point led the school in a beautiful Mass to celebrate their first Holy Communion.

Photo courtesy of Immaculate heart of Mary school facebook page

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catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 OUR PARISHES

Receiving the sacraments

Photos by Vicki Dorsey | Catholic News Herald

SYLVA — Nine children received their first Holy Communion at St. Mary, Mother of God Church in Sylva during two Masses on May 3 and 4.

Photo provided by Claudia Graham

SWANNANOA — A record number of catechumens and candidates were received into the Church at St. Margaret Mary Church in Swannanoa during the Easter Vigil Mass. Ten people were confirmed, including Charles Diez (pictured above), by Father Matthew Leonard, pastor.

Vicki Dorsey | Catholic News Herald

ANDREWS — Twelve children received their first Holy Communion at Holy Redeemer Church in Andrews, the smallest parish in the diocese, on May 13. The entire community attended the Mass, filling the little church to standing room only, to hear as Father George Byers encouraged the children to remember that Jesus earned this special day for them and how the Eucharist will help carry them through this life.

DENVER — Bishop Peter J. Jugis confirmed 46 teens at Holy Spirit Church May 1. Four candidates from St. Thérèse Church in Mooresville also joined the celebration.

Doreen Sugierski | Catholic News Herald

Doreen Sugierski | Catholic News Herald

DENVER — Twenty-six children received the Body and Blood of Jesus for the first time May 10 at Holy Spirit Church in Denver. Father Carmen Malacari, pastor, celebrated the Mass, assisted by Deacon James Atkinson. After their First Communion, the children gathered in front of the altar and sang “Beautiful Savior.”

CHARLOTTE — Children at St. John Neumann Church in Charlotte received their first Holy Communion May 10.

Photo provided by Al Tinson and Marty Schneider

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

“Behold I make all things new.”

(Rev. 21:4)

E ALL THI NG S

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Confession English and Spanish Tracks for Adults K-12 Education Tracks for Students Religious information displays Vendors of Catholic merchandise

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Vocation and Catholic Education information Holy Mass – Concelebrated by Bishop Peter Jugis and the priests of the Diocese of Charlotte

GoEucharist.com

BEHOL

Concert of Sacred Music (Friday evening) Eucharistic Procession through the streets of Charlotte Holy Hour

- Rev. 21:5

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D, I

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DIOCESE OF CHARLOTTE Tenth Eucharistic Congress, September 19 – 20, 2014 Charlotte Convention Center

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catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 OUR PARISHES

Lay Carmelite community forms at St. Mark Church SueAnn Howell Senior reporter

HUNTERSVILLE — St. Mark Church parishioner Donna Fodale had to give up her Carmelite community at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Lynbrook, N.Y., when she moved to the Charlotte area in 2011. This is not an easy thing to do for a fully professed Third Order Carmelite. It’s

to do that because of the needs of my family. Her spiritual director at the time suggested that she look into a Third Order community.”

Her mother made her profession in 1999.

“I was at her profession, pregnant with my daughter, and I felt that same excitement in my heart. The desire was there and I knew that it came from God. I felt very drawn to all the Carmelite charisms, but especially prayer.

For me it was and still the essence of my spiritual life. I eventually went back and joined the community, went through formation and was professed in June of 2003.”

Now, more than a decade after her final profession as a Third Order Carmelite, Fodale hopes to share the treasures of Carmelite spirituality with others.

“One of the greatest treasures for me is the Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. This was something that my mother and I also shared. She has been with me my entire life and, through Carmel, has helped me enter into a deeper relationship with her Son, Jesus.”

Fodale is looking forward to building a Carmelite community at St. Mark Parish.

“Through community we really have an opportunity to experience what the Apostles experienced with Christ. We become the hands and feet of Christ – not only with each other, but it pours out into our daily lives. We grow in our faith and share in each other’s joy and sufferings. It is a blessing!”

‘My hope is God’s hope. That we grow in love, faith and charity.’

Donna Fodale like leaving your family, as you become sisters and brothers in Christ with the kindred souls in your community, sharing one another’s joys and sufferings.

Hoping to connect with other Catholics who share the Carmelite charisms, Fodale is now spearheading the effort to begin a Third Order Carmelite community at St. Mark Parish. The lay Carmelite group met for the first time April 29 with 18 people in attendance. Fodale recalls how her mother’s life as a Third Order Carmelite after she was widowed really had an impact on her.

“I first began thinking of joining a Third Order because of my mother,” Fodale said. “She was a widow and wanted to become a religious. She was unable

She wants to help souls grow in their faith and deepen their relationship with God. She looks forward to helping others learn about Carmelite spirituality, its call to silence, prayer and an awareness of God’s action within one’s soul.

“My hope is God’s hope. That we grow in love, faith and charity. Carmel is a call, it is a vocation within our vocation…

Our entire day becomes a prayer. It is a beautiful thing.”

Currently, the new Third Order Carmelite community is meeting on one Tuesday evening a month. Their next meeting is at 7 p.m. June 24 in Room 203 of the Monsignor Kerin Family Center at the parish.

Fodale has a message for those who may be experiencing a call to the Carmelite order.

“One thing I would like to say is that Carmel is a call from God. If people feel the desire but are worried for whatever reason, give that to God. I sometimes think that people think they are not capable or worthy of certain things. We must remember that none of us are worthy – look at the Apostles when Our Lord called them.

“To be a Third Order Carmelite, you don’t need to be a theologian. You just have to have an open heart and trust. God so often calls those you would least expect – myself included – and I am so happy that I said ‘yes’ because it has changed my life!”

For more information about the Third Order Carmelite community at St. Mark Parish, contact Donna Fodale at 704-2374820 or by email at dfodale@verizon.net.

MARTYRS: FROM PAGE 2

Joseph Mukasa, Lwanga and some of the other pages went to the White Fathers to receive baptism.

In May 1886, King Mwanga learned that one of the boys was learning catechism.

He was furious and ordered all the pages to be questioned to separate the Christians from the others. With great courage, Charles led 24 young pages, aged 13 to 25, to proclaim their Christian faith.

They were condemned to march 37 miles to their place of execution, Namugongo, where they were to be burned at the stake. On the way, Matthias Kalemba, was cut to pieces by the executioners and left to die.

On June 3, 1886, the Feast of the Ascension, Charles Lwanga was separated from the others and burned at the stake. The executioners slowly burnt his feet until there was only charred remains, but he was still alive. Then they promised they would let him go if he renounced his faith. He refused, saying, “You are burning me, but it is as if you are pouring water over my body.” Just before the flames reached his heart, he looked up and said in a loud voice, “Katonda! – My God!” and died. He was only 21 years old.

There were 22 protomartyrs in all. The persecutions spread during the reign of Mwanga, with 100 Christians, both Catholics and Protestants, being tortured and killed.

— Catholic News Agency

Join us for SonFest 2014!

St. John Neumann Catholic Church 8451 Idlewild Road | Charlotte, NC 28227 Friday, June 13 5:00 PM – 11:00 PM Saturday, June 14 1:00 PM – 11:00 PM Our 4th annual event features a variety of entertainment, food, rides and continuous live music on the main stage both nights!

• Midway with carnival-favorite foods, games and face painting • Special appearance by Drex and Maney of the “Drex and Maney Morning Show” on KISS 95.1 Friday night from 5:00 – 9:00 PM • $15 wristbands available for unlimited rides on Friday night only ( Does not include the Gyro Extreme or the Bungee Trampoline) • Amusement rides such as the Paratrooper, Berry-Go-Round, Way Out Swing and Thomas the Train • Hamburger and hot dog eating contests • Silent auction with items such as vacation packages, electronics and spa services available for bidding

Grand finale fireworks show on Saturday at 10:00 PM sponsored

by Keffer Automotive

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief Diocese adds greater focus to Mecklenburg jail ministry CHARLOTTE — Deacon James Witulski has been appointed the liaison for the Catholic Jail Ministry-Mecklenburg County.

Jail and prison ministry is an assignment to the deacons of the diocese and with a population of 3,000 between Jail Central in Uptown and Jail North in Statesville, the Mecklenburg County jails needed a greater Catholic ministry focus.

Witulski Deacon Witulski will complete the required county jail training sessions and then be able to meet inmates face to face and in group settings.

He is presently limited to visiting with inmates behind a glass barrier.

With this appointment, the Diocese of Charlotte’s jail ministry will become routine in two of the largest county jail systems in the diocese: Forsyth and Mecklenburg counties.

Deacons are among those routinely visiting state and federal prisons in the diocese.

Deacon Witulski also remains assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Charlotte.

— Deacon Ron Steinkamp

SJN collects clothes for adopted parish CHARLOTTE — Parishioners of St. John Neumann Church in Charlotte recently collected more than 650 gallons of clothing for St. Luke Church in Cuthbert, Ga. St. Luke’s is a parish that St. John Neumann Parish adopted. Through the generosity of the parishioners, St. Luke’s received 30 gallon bags full of women’s, men’s and children’s clothing, as well as an assortment of winter jackets and accessories. Len and Patti DeChant and Susan Sweet delivered the clothing May 2.

Estate planning seminar coming up in Charlotte CHARLOTTE — The Diocese of Charlotte will present a free estate planning seminar from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25, at the Diocesan Pastoral Center, 1123 S. Church St. The focus will be on wills, trusts, powers of attorney, probate and bequests as well as Catholic teaching on end-of-life issues. If you are preparing or updating a will, if you have recently moved here from another state, or if you have an interest in learning more about the probate process and estate planning in general, you will want to attend.

Arden celebrates National Day of Prayer

— Cathie Stout and Bob Hinkel

Carolina Catholic Chorale to sing Haydn Mass CHARLOTTE — Starting at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 29, the Carolina Catholic Chorale will sing Johann Michael Haydn’s “Missa Beatissimae Virginis Mariae” as sacred music for a Mass in the Extraordinary Form at St. Ann Church in Charlotte. The Chorale, directed by Thomas F. Savoy, will be accompanied by a nine-piece chamber orchestra and organ. This exuberant work of a young Haydn is fitting music for the joyful Feast of the Ascension. The St. Ann’s Schola, under the direction of Terese Rowe, will lead the Gregorian chants of the day. For details, call 518-878-5660 or email carolinacatholicchorale@gmail.com.

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Youths serve at Mass SPENCER MOUNTAIN — The youth of St. Helen Mission recently participated in a special Mass celebrated for them by Monsignor Mauricio West, pastor. From pre-kindergarten through high school, everyone had an opportunity to participate as greeters, lectors, altar servers and ushers.

— Andrew Luksa

— Jennifer Noto

A caring approach to all of your family's legal needs

ARDEN — Parishioners of St. Barnabas Church in Arden, led by the parish’s ecumenism commission, participated in the National Day of Prayer May 1. Deacon Michael Stout was the emcee for the event and Father Adrian Porras, pastor, opened with a prayer. Various community leaders offered a prayer and scripture passage for our nation.

Christian Cherry, an attorney with Grier, Furr & Crisp, will present legal information. He is an estate planning attorney with a concentration in wills, estates, trusts and probate, and his presentation will include an open question and answer session. Judy Smith, diocesan gift planning director, will provide information on planned giving and bequests.

“This seminar offers a great way to learn more about these important topics in a relaxed environment along with the opportunity to have your questions answered by an attorney and it is absolutely free” said Ray Paradowski, president of the Diocese of Charlotte Foundation Board of Directors.

This is the third greater Charlotte area seminar offered by the diocese. Last year’s seminar was attended by parishioners from thirteen parishes in the Charlotte area.

The event is free but registration is required to reserve a take-home packet of materials. Parking is also free and light refreshments will be served.

To register or get more information for this seminar, contact Judy Smith at 704-370-3320 or jmsmith@charlottediocese.org.

OUR PARISHESI

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Students makes presentation on saints Students receive blessing BOONE — Parishioners at St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country Church in Boone who are graduating from Appalachian State University this semester recently received a blessing from pastor Father David Brzoska.

ALBEMARLE — Annika Kuleba recently presented to Our Lady Of Annunciation parishioners her research project about St. Kateri Tekakwitha. The leader of the Albemarle parish’s youth ministry, Adam Storms (holding the project), required each of the parish’s 18 confirmation candidates to present a brief biography of their favorite saints. Kuleba, 13, is in the eighth grade at West Stanly Middle School.

— Amber Mellon

— Done M. Espina

PROPERTIES MANAGER The Diocese of Charlotte is currently accepting applications for the position of “Properties Manager” within the Diocesan Properties & Risk Management Department. This position is primarily responsible for the oversight of diocesan construction projects; the relationships with tenants and property management companies; and for the communication, implementation, and monitoring of risk management policies and procedures, as well as processing and tracking of insurance related claims, in conjunction with diocesan insurance carrier.

Requirements include: • Bachelor’s degree • Minimum of five years related experience • Ability to read and interpret blueprints, submittals, and contracts.

• Knowledge of Federal / State - Building & Safety regulations and codes.

• Knowledge of Insurance concepts, requirements, and procedures.

• Must be process driven and proficient in MS Word, Excel, and Project.

• Ability to work both independently and with a team • Strong written, verbal and inter-personal skills Please send resume and salary history by May 30th 2014 to: Anthony J. Morlando – Diocesan Properties Department Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte 1123 South Church Street Charlotte, NC 28203 Or email to ajmorlando@charlottediocese.org.

The Diocese of Charlotte is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 OUR PARISHES

9-year-old wins triathalon HUNTERSVILLE — Jet Francis, 9, finished first in the 7- to 10-year-old girls age group at the East Coast Triathlon Festival in Richmond, Va., May 4. Francis completed the 100-meter lake swim, 3.1-mile bike, and 1-mile run in 18 minutes, 58 seconds. A third-grade student at St. Mark School in Huntersville, Francis has competed in triathlons since she was 4.

Mass celebrated for altar servers

— Randy Francis

CHARLOTTE — A Mass was celebrated at St. Ann Church May 6 to honor altar servers from the parish and surrounding parishes who faithfully serve both the Novus Ordo Mass and the Mass in the Extraordinary Form. More than 35 altar servers vested for Mass, with the overflow of boys seated in the front pews. Father Timothy Reid, in his homily, called the “army of altar servers” his sons and encouraged them to live lives of holiness, stressing that their service to Our Lord on the altar calls them to a higher standard. Father Reid, Father Matthew Kauth and Father Peter Shaw served as celebrant, deacon and subdeacon, respectively, for the Solemn High Mass for the Feast of St. Dominic Savio. St. Dominic was one of St. John Bosco’s students in Turin, Italy, in the early to mid-1800s. He learned to serve the altar at age 5. He died at the age of 14 in 1857. He was canonized by Pope Pius XII. Pope Pius XI, who earlier had declared him Venerable in 1933, described Dominic as “small in size but a towering giant in spirit.”

Photos by SueAnn Howell | Catholic News Herald

Women’s Day of Reflection held in Brevard

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BREVARD — Nearly 200 women of Sacred Heart Parish in Brevard and 23 other area churches attended the eighth-annual Christian Women’s Day of Reflection March 22 hosted by Sacred Heart Church in Brevard.

Capuchin Franciscan Father Andrew Nowak, pastor, opened the program with a prayer.

Following that was a musical interlude provided

by Sylvia Villarreal-Bryson, a parishioner at Sacred Heart, (pictured above) and the Toot Sweet Horn Trio. Bryson led the group in two ecumenical songs and sang “The Lord’s Prayer” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Patty Stump of the Billy Graham Training Center, The Cove, then spoke about Christian women’s identity and their relationship with God. She suggested that women avoid too much “busyness” and spend more time in close communication with God – in other words, to be more of a “Mary” and less of a “Martha.”

— Dorice Narins

Mickey Ellington President

Derek W. Hunter Sr. Funeral Director

We welcome your parish’s news! Email photos and news items to Editor Patricia L. Guilfoyle at plguilfoyle@ charlottediocese.org.

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

Start Your Engines!

The Diocese of Charlotte and the Catholic News Herald will host the 2014 Catholic Media Conference the annual meeting of the Catholic Press Association of the U.S. and Canada and the Catholic Academy of Communication Professionals — June 18-20 in Charlotte.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., the

ADDITIONAL SPEAKERS Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli,

president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications – one of the leaders in creating the Holy Father’s digital communication efforts, including a Twitter presence that now tops 13 million followers

Leo Brunnick, founder/CEO of

Patheos.com

Heather King, Catholic essayist and blogger

Mason University law professor and founder of Women Speak For Themselves

newly elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

And from Patheos.com:

Helen Alvare, George

Father Matt Malone, S.J., editor of America magazine

Dr. Hosffman Ospino, Boston College, leading researcher of U.S. Latino Catholics

Jim Stipe, Catholic Relief Services photographer

Kevin Slimp, Adobe PDF software

executive editor, The Jesuit Post

newspaper designer

Father Eric Sundrup, S.J.,

Rebecca Dussault, Olympic

cross country champion

Elizabeth Scalia, managing

editor, Patheos Catholic Channel (blogs at The Anchoress)

Deacon Greg Kandra (blogs at

The Deacon’s Bench)

pioneer

Ed Henninger, award-winning Michelle Buckman., Carolinasbased Catholic fiction writer

Katrina Fernandez (blogs at The

Crescat)

Kathryn Jean Lopez (blogs at K-Lo-at-Large)

The conference will also feature an exclusive prescreening of Sony Pictures’ “When the Game Stands Tall,” starring Jim Caviezel, Michael Chiklis and Laura Dern, about legendary football coach Bob Lacouceur.

Register to attend: www.allthingscmc.com

•

One-day passes and student rates available.

15

16

catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 OUR PARISHES

GENES: FROM PAGE 2

create a new type of human being could unmask a dark and troubling ideology “in which man tries to take the place of his Creator,” resulting in an “unjust domination of man over man.”

Even as scientists move forward with the project of rewriting our own genes to cure grave diseases, some will be tempted to go further and use techniques like CRISPR to engineer designer human embryos during in-vitro fertilization; genetically modified monkeys have already been

produced using this method in China.

A prior CDF document called “Donum Vitae” unequivocally describes the grave problems with subjugating embryonic human beings for research purposes.

The remarkable tools becoming available raise daunting ethical concerns about the subjugation of man to his own technology, and call for thoughtful measures and vigilance to ensure the proper use of these techniques now and in the future.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, Mass., and serves as the director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. See www. ncbcenter.org.

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KOTTAR: FROM PAGE 6

and I guess the largest in the country. The Capuchins were leaving and Monsignor John McSweeney had just arrived the day before. I think we were both in shock.

Thousands of families! Two priests!

Monsignor McSweeney told me the last time he was there it was all farmland.

Another assignment was the smallest parish in the diocese, Holy Redeemer Church in Andrews and Prince of Peace Mission in Robbinsville, in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. Less than 100 families.

The first time I drove out there I was almost two hours from Asheville and wondering how long the state of North Carolina could be. It’s long! Route 74 became two lanes and I entered the Nantahala Gorge.

I said to myself, “This is really the end of the world. What have I got myself into?” The little church and rectory in Andrews has the best view of any in the diocese. Half of Graham County is in the Smoky Mountains National Park. I used to joke that we had more black bear as parishioners than humans. And they all tithed!

CNH: What are some of the biggest lessons you have learned over the past 20 years?

Father Kottar: I have learned that people love priests because they bring them Christ – the Holy Eucharist and all the sacraments and blessings when the priest acts in persona Christi.

Pope Francis, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, said priests have been “anointed to anoint ... anointed to make every person

who comes into this world, everyone who loves the Lord, feel the goodness and tenderness of God.” The priest has been anointed with the oil of gladness, so his oil will never dry up. It is also just the presence of the priest, like a home visitation or at a social function, which calls to mind the love of Christ. God is not somewhere off in the distance, but Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once said that what’s essential about Christianity is Christ Himself. “God stepped into the world and acted; so it is an action, a reality, not only an intellectual entity.” I believe that Christ continues to “step and act in this world” through His priests.”

CNH: What advice would you give to a man discerning a vocation to the priesthood?

Father Kottar: For a man discerning the priesthood, I recommend prayer, the Holy Eucharist and frequent confession.

Start praying the rosary and develop a relationship with the Blessed Mother. She told us to do that at Fatima.

As Pope Francis recently said to seminarians, a strong relationship with Mary helps us have a strong relationship with the Church. Both are mothers.

Speaking of Pope Francis and those great images in his homilies, I would encourage a young man to start reading the daily Mass homilies of Pope Francis. They are in summary form on the internet, and they are chock full of great lines and ideas that you can really sink your teeth into.

One that stands out is that the priest must really know his people. He has to “smell like the sheep.” And a young man discerning should watch out for those “intellectual aristocrats.” The intellect is necessary, but study always lead to a deeper relationship with a person – the Divine Person – Jesus Christ.

“Everything we needed in terms of our faith was right here.”

—Joe and Helen Drozd, Pennybyrn residents

This beautiful community captures the heart and soul of the Catholic faith.

“We looked at a number of communities,” says Helen Drozd, “and came to see Pennybyrn because it was Catholic. As soon as we arrived we realized it was where we wanted to be.”

The Sisters of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God founded what would later become Pennybyrn at Maryfield. Today, Mass is celebrated daily, two Catholic chapels grace the community and several retired priests reside here. “We feel this is holy ground,” says Helen.

“We were also looking for a continuum of care,” noted Joe, “because my mother had been living with us, and she needed a higher level of care.” Pennybyrn allowed the three of them to move to the community together. “Joe’s mom had probably the best three years of her life here,” says Helen.

Pennybyrn’s location is ideal for the couple. They appreciate the amenities, and love the ambiance and beauty of the 71-acre campus, with its well-kept grounds and winding paths. “I attend swimming classes, and Joe uses the fitness center,” says Helen. “There are concerts and activities all the time, and at dinnertime we have our choice of venues, with a friendly wait staff and an expansive menu.”

“We chose to move to Pennybyrn because it simply felt unlike any other community we visited,” says Helen.

Call 336-821-4050 to receive the popular Planning Guide for Seniors or details about one of our Discover Pennybyrn events.

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CNH

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 18

Alfonso Gámez-Alanís Foto de los Archivos del año 1987, en el eseentonces-Obispo de Charlotte, John Donoghue, Mons. Joseph Kerin, Sor Pilar Dalmau, ACJ, que era en esa época la Directora del Centro Católico Hispano y el Padre Gerard Clark en la Catedral de St. Patrick en Charlotte.

Mayo es el mes de la Virgen En este mes de Mayo, la Iglesia enfoca la devoción a la Virgen María. Muchas de nuestras comunidades rezan rosarios, forman parte de procesiones Marianas, o tal vez la tradicional coronación a Nuestra Madre Santísima. Estas tradiciones, quizas son unas de las que más confusión produce para nuestros hermanos protestantes, quienes son famosos por criticarnos por la veneración que le damos a la Madre de Dios.

Cuando estaba en la preparatoria por primera vez fui confrontado sobre mi devoción a Nuestra Señora. Mis amigos protestantes y algunos Testigos de Jehova me hacian la famosa pregunta de “¿Porque los católicos le dan tanta importancia a la Virgen Maria?” Muchas veces esta pregunta seguía con una letanía de razones por los cuales a María no se le debería dar ninguna importancia.

Recuerdo muy bien que en estas ocasiones me sentía personalmente ofendido. Pues, para mí la Virgen María era, y sigue siendo mi Madre. De tal manera que cuando escuchaba estos comentarios, eran comentarios dirigidos a mi Madre; Nuestra Madre; la Madre de Dios. Desde muy temprana edad, mis padres me inculcaron una devoción a la Virgen María. Desde mi niñez, mis padres me contaban milagros en sus vidas que atribuyen a la Virgen al inmigrar ellos aquí a los Estados Unidos.

Hace dos años, mi fe católica fue puesta a prueba de nuevo. Esta vez por mis hermanos católicos, quienes seguido me decian que pensaban que tenía una vocación al sacerdocio. Inicialmente, yo negaba que estaba llamado al sacerdocio. Dure meses tratando de distraerme, huyendo de lo que ahora reconozco que era la voz de Nuestro Señor llamándome para seguirlo. En fin, la Virgen María me dio la respuesta y el valor que necesitaba para contestar el llamado de Dios en mi vida.

Como católicos, nosotros honramos a la Virgen María, no solo porque es la Madre de Dios, si no tambien porque ella es el ejemplo perfecto de un discípulo de Jesucristo. María es el ejemplo perfecto para todo cristiano. La Virgen María escuchó el llamado de Dios, y sin duda, tuvo miedo, pero sin pensarlo, inmediatamente respondió con un “si”, un “si” que cambió la historia del mundo. Basandome en su ejemplo, decidí imitar a Nuestra Madre, y como ella, le dije al Señor “hagase en mí según tu Palabra.”

En la obra de C.S. Lewis (un autor cristiano de Inglaterra) llamada “El Gran Divorcio” hay un diálogo donde un alma se encuentra en el Purgatorio y un ángel le explica al ser humano que hay dos diferentes tipos de personas en el mundo; Los que le dicen a Dios “Hágase su Voluntad,” y los que le dicen “Hágase Mi Voluntad.”

Nuestra Madre, como todas las madres, nos enseña a nosotros sus hijos por medio de su ejemplo.

La humildad de Nuestra Madre dio fruto al Redentor del mundo, nuestro Sumo Sacerdote, Jesucristo. Como seminarista estudiando para el sacerdocio, mi relación con la Virgen ha incrementado significativamente.

María formó en su vientre a Cristo nuestro Sumo Sacerdote, entonces, de la misma manera, una devoción a María nos ayuda a formar a nosotros los seminaristas hacia la imagen de Cristo en nuestros corazones. ¡Que nuestra Madre, nos cubra con su manto y forme cada día más en todos nosotros a la persona de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo!

Alfonso Gámez-Alanís es un seminarista de la Diócesis de Charlotte estudiando en el Seminario Pontifico Josephinum en Columbus, Ohio. Alfonso es miembro de la Parroquia de la Inmaculada Concepción en Hendersonville.

Foto de los Archivos de la Diócesis de Charlotte

Monseñor Joseph Kerin, uno de los pioneros del Ministerio Hispano de la Diócesis Rico De Silva Hispanic Communications Reporter

HUNTERSVILLE — Cientos de personas asistieron al funeral del Monseñor Joseph Kerin en la Parroquia de San Marcos en Huntersville el pasado 22 de Abril. Mons.

Kerin falleció el 14 de Abril pasado en el hogar Pennybyrn at Maryfield en High Point. Mons. Kerin fue el segundo Canciller en la historia de la Diócesis de Charlotte desde 1979 hasta 1986 bajo los episcopados de los Obispos Michael Begley, primer Obispo de Charlotte, y el Obispo John Donoghue, ambos obispos ya difuntos también.

Sin embargo, muchos hispanos de nuestra Diócesis tal vez no saben que Mons. Kerin fue uno de los pioneros del Ministerio Hispano. Kerin fue el Director del entonces, Centro Católico Hispano, en la Ciudad de Charlotte en 1977. El Obispo Begley creó el Centro Católico Hispano en Septiembre de 1972, año en que la Diócesis de Charlotte fue creada. El sacerdote italiano, Padre Alex Duchie fue el primer director del Centro Católico Hispano, y actuó como tal desde 1972 hasta 1975.

Mons. Kerin actuó como Director del Centro Católico Hispano desde 1977 hasta 1987. El Obispo Begley envió al Padre Kerin a trabajar en las misiones en México en 1973, y el sacerdote regresó de México en 1975. Fue trabajando como sacerdote misionero en donde el futuro Canciller de la Diócesis de Charlotte aprendió a hablar español y comenzó a desempeñarse en el ministerio hispano, algo que el sacerdote continuó haciendo hasta el día de su retiro.

Robert y Ángeles Murphy conocieron al Padre Kerin en 1971 cuando era el Párroco de Nuestra Sra. de la Asunción en Charlotte. “El Padre Kerin bautizó a nuestro hijo Charlie en Mayo de 1972 cuando estaba en la Asunción…

En 1977, cuando el Padre Kerin era el Director del Centro Católico Hispano, Robert y yo pertenecíamos al Concilio Pastoral Hispano del Centro,” dijo Ángeles Murphy.

“El Padre Kerin decía la Misa en español, oía Confesiones, bautizaba, etc. El Padre Kerin ayudó mucho al Ministerio Hispano desde que el regreso de México y

había aprendido nuestro idioma,” dijo Ángeles.

Sara Wolf, quien fue presidenta del Concilio Pastoral del Centro Católico durante los años 80, “el Padre Kerin fue divino. Como persona y como sacerdote era una excelente persona. Siempre trataba de ayudar a las personas.

También era un excelente administrador tanto como Canciller de la Diócesis, y al mismo tiempo como Director del Centro Católico Hispano,” dijo Wolf.

El Diácono Carlos Medina, que actualmente sirve en la Catedral de St. Patrick en Charlotte, conoció al Padre Kerin cuando se mudó a Charlotte en 1981. En ese entonces, además de ser Canciller de la Diócesis y ser Director del Centro, Mons. Kerin también estaba a cargo de la Catedral de St. Patrick en Charlotte. Medina recuerda el espíritu misionero de Kerin, “Me acuerdo que íbamos a Linconton a llevar ropa a los hispanos que trabajaban en el campo, y el Padre Kerin decía la Misa para ellos, oían confesiones,” “El Padre Kerin le dio mucho empuje al Ministerio Hispano aquí en la Diócesis. Él siempre buscaba lideres aquí, y desarrolló mucho la formación de líderes en la comunidad hispana,” dijo Medina.

“Mucha gente no sabe, pero el Padre Kerin asistió al Encuentro Nacional del Ministerio Hispano de los Obispos de los Estados Unidos que se celebró 1985,” dijo él.

Al final de la década de los 90, el Padre Kerin se encargó de desarrollar la Parroquia de San Marcos, la cual en ese entonces apenas empezaba a formarse. El 12 de diciembre el año 2000, el Mons. Kerin celebró por primera vez una Misa Solemne en honor de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe en San Marcos. Esta celebración de la Virgen de Guadalupe se continua celebrando todos los años en la Parroquia de San Marcos hasta el día de hoy.

También Mons. Kerin comenzó en San Marcos una Misa bilingüe que se celebra todos los domingos a la 1 pm.

“Aun en estos días, Mayo de 2014, la Iglesia de St. Mark continua celebrando todos los Domingos la Santa Misa Bilingüe a la 1:00 pm. y los miembros Latinos siguen asistiendo a la Santa Misa y recibiendo el Sacramento de la Santa Eucaristía,” concluyó Ángeles Murphy.

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

Where are you going?

QUO VADIS DAYS II

JUNE 23-27, 2014 * Belmont Abbey College A camp for Catholic men ages 15-25 to learn more about the priesthood, deepen their faith, and help discern God’s call in their lives.

www.charlottediocese.org/vocations

19

Our schools 20

catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Charlotte Catholic principal Jerry Healy resigns CHARLOTTE — Jerry Healy has resigned as principal of Charlotte Catholic High School.

Healy’s resignation follows an audit of school finances by the Diocese of Charlotte, which was launched in March after questions arose over the use of funds from a non-school account. The audit uncovered “questionable disbursements” from accounts belonging to the school.

“Mr. Healy has been a dedicated educator and employee of the diocese throughout his professional career,” said Superintendent Janice Ritter in a letter to parents dated May 21. “He has had a positive impact on the lives of many students and their parents. It is my hope he will be remembered in this light.”

In his resignation letter, Healy writes: “It has been one of the greatest joys of my life to serve our students and their families for the last forty-four years. I am grateful for all the families I have come to know, the teachers, administrators, and clergy I have worked with, and the relationships I have developed. I am a better person because of each of you...

“I regret any turmoil and upset that has caused distraction from the mission and values of our school and our students.”

Officials with the Charlotte Catholic High School Foundation, an independent fundraising organization that provides scholarships and supplies for the high school, alerted diocesan leaders in March to what they believed were possible financial discrepancies in one of the foundation’s accounts.

Deloitte & Touche conducted an independent audit of the high school’s finances, at the request of diocesan officials, in an “abundance of caution.”

“In addition to reviewing all CCHS accounts, their work included interviewing personnel and reviewing electronic files,” Ritter said in the letter. “Key staff at the diocese, along with the hired consultants, took the time to carefully review the information so that we would be certain that follow-up steps taken would be prudent, fair, and fact-based.

“The auditors did uncover instances of questionable disbursements from accounts belonging to CCHS; these transactions are separate and apart from Charlotte Catholic High School Foundation accounts, In addition, their work brought to light other areas of concern.

However, as this is a personnel issue, my comments must be limited.”

Communications director for the diocese, David Hains, said “We are not planning to prosecute this matter.”

Healy had been placed on leave while the audit was being conducted.

Other administrators at Charlotte Catholic assumed Healy’s duties while he was on leave, Hains said.

Leaders are already working to find a permanent replacement for Healy as principal.

“I realize you have questions and concerns as to the future leadership of CCHS,” Ritter said in the letter.

“Necessary steps are being taken to fill the principal position as quickly as possible. I ask that you keep this in mind and not give credence to rumors and speculations which are circulating.”

Healy has served as principal of Charlotte Catholic since 2003, but his career with Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools goes back much earlier. He was hired 44 years ago as a teacher at St. Patrick School in Charlotte.

In 1975, he moved to Charlotte Catholic to teach. In 1993, he became principal of St. Gabriel School in Charlotte, and two years later, he was named principal of Holy Trinity Middle School in Charlotte.

In addition to his duties as principal, Healy served on the Diocese of Charlotte School Board, representing all the school system’s principals. He also sat on the board of directors for the MACS Education Foundation.

Charlotte Catholic, founded in 1955, is the largest of three high schools in the diocesan schools system.

— Catholic News Herald

‘God showed up a lot in my week at Jamaica’ CCHS student missionaries reflect on working with the poor in Jamaica CHARLOTTE — Each year during Easter break, Charlotte Catholic High School students go on a mission trip to Kingston, Jamaica, to work with the Missionaries of the Poor, a community of religious brothers and sisters dedicated to “joyful service with Christ on the Cross,” serving the poorest of the poor in this island nation.

This year two separate groups of 17 students and three adult chaperones made the trip: one volunteering during Holy Week, April 14-19; and the other during Easter Week, April 21-26.

While on the small Caribbean island, the students worked alongside the joyful, religious men and women in the MOP centers. The students helped care for orphans, malnourished children, the elderly, terminally ill AIDS patients, at-risk and disabled children, and physically and mentally disabled residents.

The young missionaries also attended Mass and spent time with the Missionaries of the Poor brothers and sisters, participating in the events of Holy and Easter Week.

Four CCHS students recently shared their reflections of their experiences on mission in Jamaica.

Katharina Traynor

“Last year I was given an amazing opportunity to attend a mission trip to Jamaica with my school. My mom had told me the amazing experiences she had while on her mission trip to Jamaica, which inspired me to give it a shot. After hearing my mom’s personal experiences in Jamaica, I became very excited for the trip.

Before I left I heard countless times that the people I meet in Jamaica would make a larger impact on my life than I would on theirs, which did not make sense to me at all. I was the one volunteering. Wasn’t I supposed to be the one making an impact on someone else’s life?

While in Jamaica I volunteered at four different shelters for various groups of people (including the AIDS/ HIV center and Jacob’s Well, a center for women who had been abandoned).

Throughout the week in Kingston I felt the closest to God that I think I will ever feel. After just five minutes in Jacob’s Well, I cried for what seemed forever. I could not believe that people with so little could be so happy and

photo provided by patty favory

Charlotte Catholic High School students interact with residents at a MOP center in Jamaica. welcoming to strangers. They taught me more than I could ever learn by sitting in religion class.

Before going to Kingston I thought I was doing this great thing because I wanted to help people who were less fortunate than me. It turns out that I was the one who was less fortunate. I had gone through years thinking that material things were important, when in reality they are not the things that truly make you happy.

The women in Jacob’s Well had gone through things in their lives that one should never have to face.

Though they had no families or material possessions, they were the happiest people I have ever met, and because they were so close to God they had no need for any of the materialistic things in this life.

It is amazing that you can learn the most from the people who have the least. Returning this year was amazing because it reminded me of my first experience and how fulfilling it was.”

Traynor is pictured on the cover holding a child at a MOP center in Jamaica on her recent mission trip.

Caroline Pierle

“God showed up a lot in my week at Jamaica. With praying and going to church every day, I feel like my relationship with Him has been strengthened. He let amazing things happen, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience with my friends and also everyone I met in Jamaica.

I feel like I was helpful. I helped some of the poorest people in the world and I hope I had an influence on those people’s lives. It felt good to be able to go to different centers

and experience different parts of the mission trip. Just doing little things for them made me so happy. It was a good feeling to help people who need it.

My life has definitely been changed.

It has made me realize how fortunate I am and the amazing people who love and care about me in my life.

This mission trip has made me want to keep helping the poor and people in need because I hate seeing people having to live in such bad conditions.

I’ve come to realize that I need to stop taking the simple things in life for granted. People in Jamaica are lucky to be eating, drinking, getting showers, and having comfortable beds while I take that for granted every day.

I really enjoyed the Jamaica trip.

I couldn’t believe I was actually going because I had wanted to go on a mission trip for years and then it actually happened. It was life changing, and I loved the experience of being able to help the poor. Also, it was my first time going out of the country and going to Jamaica was perfect. I would definitely go back or even go to other countries on a mission trip. I love helping others and I’m very sensitive when it comes to me seeing how they have to live, so helping them to my best ability is something that I really enjoy.”

Elyse Ferris

“I could really feel God’s presence in the people I met during my week in Jamaica. The brothers of the Missionaries of the Poor are some of MISsIONARIES, SEE page 22

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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St. Mark School raises $59,000 for JDRF Kids Walk to Cure Diabetes School leads nation in fundraising HUNTERSVILLE — For the third consecutive year, students at St. Mark School in Huntersville have been named top nationwide school fundraiser for the JDRF Kids Walk to Cure Diabetes. The school community raised $59,000 through grassroots efforts including penny wars, raffles and dress down days, in addition to direct donations and corporate matches. Last week, JDRF confirmed that St. Mark’s fundraising totals placed them first out of 800 schools nationwide that participated in the School Walk campaign this year.

“Our school families are so generous,” Terri Langbo, chair of St. Mark’s JDRF service project and mother to three Type I diabetic children, said in a release.

“It never ceases to amaze me how the school community can come together each year to help kids with diabetes. With so many kids in the school who deal with diabetes each day, the students feel like they are helping their friends when they donate spare change and ask for pledges.”

St. Mark’s campaign kicked off March 10 with an action-packed pep rally at the school featuring Charlotte mascots Sir Purr of the Panthers, Chubby from the Charlotte Checkers and Lug Nut from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Charlotte media personalities Larry Sprinkle and Stacey Simms emceed the event that featured a video presentation from JDRF about children who live with Type 1 diabetes, a testimonial from Simms’ son Bennie who has Type 1 diabetes, and ended with the student body joining in exercises led by the staff of Champions Fitness in Cornelius.

In the weeks leading up to the school’s walk, the students participated in penny wars; a classroom competition to see which class can collect the most

pennies. This event alone yielded more than $3,600 in loose change.

Students were also able to purchase raffle tickets for prizes that ranged from free dress down passes to boat rentals, a spa package and a weeklong retreat at Snowshoe Mountain. Spirit days encouraged students to come to school sporting their craziest hairstyle, favorite team jersey and even in their pajamas in an effort to build momentum for the fundraising effort.

The campaign culminated in a school-wide walka-thon March 22. Students in grades K-5 took turns walking around the school’s outdoor track, jumping rope, and testing their skills with hula-hoops and pogo sticks. Middle school students competed in the annual dodge ball tournament, with each class sporting crazy costumes to add to the energy of the event.

Money raised by St. Mark School will help to fund JDRF’s Artificial Pancreas Project, which is researching technology that will automatically monitor blood sugar levels and deliver insulin as necessary to those with Type 1 diabetes. Currently those with Type 1 diabetes have to undergo a multistep process several times daily to check blood sugar levels and inject insulin. By automating the detection of blood sugar levels and the delivery of insulin, APP has the potential to transform their lives.

JDRF (formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) is the leading global organization funding Type 1 diabetes research. As the largest charitable supporter of Type 1 diabetes research, JDRF is currently sponsoring $530 million in scientific research in 17 countries.

— Catholic News Herald

Photo provided by Kristen O’Malley

St. Mark middle school students competed in an annual dodge ball tournament, with each class sporting crazy costumes to add to the energy of the event, to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

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22

catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief

AOH gives to St. Michael School GASTONIA — The Sons of Erin Division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians recently donated $500 to St. Michael School PTO for the completion of a new kindergarten playground.

— John (Seán) F. O’Daly

Junior Girl Scouts make 1,000 ‘cranes for peace’

Olympic gold medalist visits IHM School HIGH POINT — High Point native and Olympic speed skater Heather Richardson and her fiancé, Dutch Olympic gold medalist Jorrit Bergsma, recently spoke to students at Immaculate Heart of Mary School. The children were inspired by their stories of what it takes to be an athlete competing on a global level and thrilled to see an actual Olympic gold medal. Richardson also spoke with the students about her involvement with Cancer Guideposts for Strength.

— Carrie Vest

CHARLOTTE — St. Gabriel School’s fifthgrade Junior Girl Scout Troop 1010 worked on their Bronze Award by making and folding 1,000 paper cranes for peace based on the story of Sadako, an 11-year-old girl who believed the Japanese legend that if she folded a thousand paper cranes the gods would make her healthy again. Today, the origami crane symbolizes peace, hope and love.

The Junior Girl Scouts’ project displayed in a shadow box was presented to Principal Sharon Broxterman and Assistant Principal Michele Snoke to hang in the lobby of the school as a gift of thanks for all the girls have learned about peace, friendship, love, giving, hope, faith and wisdom during their time at St. Gabriel School.

— Michele Snoke

MISSIONARIES:

broadened my scope on life. I look up to the brothers, and I want to follow their example of living a selfless life in the name of Christ.”

FROM PAGE 20

the most selfless, caring and joyful people I’ve been privileged enough to spend time with. They truly are the hands and feet of Christ in the world, and for that I admire them.

The residents in each of the MOP centers in Kingston are so sweet, and it was an awesome experience each day being able to work with them. I loved being with the children, and I hoped that I was brightening their days as they were brightening mine. I found myself feeling especially attached to one boy, Dahrniel, in the Bethlehem home. Although he’s unable to talk or stand on his own, he is such a happy little guy. He loves to be held and cuddled, and his gorgeous smile warmed my heart. During our last day in town, I found it hard to put my little buddy back in his crib and say goodbye.

I was sad to leave, but I’m excited to go back to Kingston with CCHS again next year. I can’t wait to see the brothers and all the residents again. I returned to the States with a different perspective on the world. It was strange at first landing in the Atlanta airport, getting accustomed to the First World once again.

After stepping out of my little bubble of Charlotte, North Carolina, I realized that there are more important things to worry about in life than the trivial, day-to-day problems we all deal with. Realizing there is so much to be done for the poor around the globe, materialism and excess seem so superficial and unnecessary.

There is a calling from God to us all, no matter what our vocation may be, to serve others in His name. The mission trip this year

Margaret Kunik

“I felt God in Jamaica, especially when working with the people. Being able to see the people happy and smiling despite the circumstances they were in, showed me how powerful God’s love can be. The residents had such strong faith and you could feel it just being with them. I felt like I was able to help by making the residents happy and smile. Also being able to help them with useful and essential things like cleaning them, feeding them, maybe could in the long term contribute to prolonging their lives.

I really enjoyed being with the HIV patients. One lady was so sweet and so thankful for us being there. I enjoyed being able to communicate with her and make her happy, while she also made me happy. It gave me a new outlook on a life.

It showed me that the things I’ve been brought up (in America) to value so much like education, marriage, and ultimately getting a good job/having funds/etc., can be important to some extent, but overall those things won’t bring you the true happiness you desire.

Seeing the residents in the centers happy made me realize that making others happy and having God in your life and sharing your love with others is the true key to happiness and a good life. While getting a good job and good grades can seem and are important in our culture, that shouldn’t be the only thing you strive for in life.

It made me realize and appreciate all that I have, but also showed me that the material things I possess will only take me so far.”

— compiled by SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

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May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

Latin Exam award winners CHARLOTTE — Charlotte Catholic High School’s 145 Latin students took the National Latin Exam in March, and the National Latin Exam Committee has recognized students earning superior scores on the exam.

Latin I Awards were given to: Julia Dudick, Gold Summa Cum Laude (Perfect Paper), Cole Davies, Gold Summa Cum Laude, Christina Vu, Gold Summa Cum Laude, Kelsie Roper, Gold Summa Cum Laude, Bryan Borders, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Stephen Clement, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Stephen Knips, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Luke Santschi, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Jaclyn Perkins, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Catherine Stevens, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Savannah Clawson, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, David Kloiber, Magna Cum Laude, Nicholas Derrico, Magna Cum Laude, Uwade Akhere, Magna Cum Laude, Erin McCullagh, Magna Cum Laude, Brendan Young, Magna Cum Laude, Robert Fontana, Magna Cum Laude, Greg O’Shields, Magna Cum Laude, Grace Burud, Magna Cum Laude, Thomas Fry, Magna Cum Laude, Zina Y, Magna Cum Laude, Erin Lynch, Magna Cum Laude, Katharine Johnson, Magna Cum Laude, Saidey Whalen, Magna Cum Laude, Robert Kriedler, Magna Cum Laude, Katia Carmichael, Cum Laude, Katharine Miller, Cum Laude, Sarah Anderson, Cum Laude, Christopher Shallal, Cum Laude, Justin Cabrera, Cum Laude, Daniella Rubinich, Cum Laude, Alexandria Wilson, Cum Laude, Grant Stuckey, Cum Laude, and Mallory Gruender, Cum Laude.

Latin II Awards were given to: Sarah Poetzsch, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Christopher Anderson, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Michael Nantais, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Matt Curry, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Betsy Scarisbrick, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Darren Miller, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Michael Marcoux, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Owen Winters, Magna Cum Laude, Andrew Robinson, Magna Cum Laude, Katherine Bruce, Magna Cum Laude, Chalmers Middleton, Magna Cum Laude, Maddie Gustafson, Cum Laude, Brooke Beard, Cum Laude, James Champion, Cum Laude, Jacob Collins, Cum Laude, and Geniveve Salzer, Cum Laude.

Latin III Awards were given to: Kitty Cona, Gold Summa Cum Laude, Nicole DeFeo, Gold Summa Cum Laude, Christopher Lokey, Gold Summa Cum Laude, Polly Jasper, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Faith Kressner, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Clare Gibbons, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Christian Chapman, MagnaCum Laude, Nicole Vallandingham, Magna Cum Laude, Tristan Waterbury, Magna Cum Laude, Elise George, Magna Cum Laude, Megan Almon, Magna Cum Laude, John Turner, Magna Cum Laude, Lucy Green, Magna Cum Laude, Virginia Vasquez-Rios, Cum Laude, Cole Nelson, Cum Laude, Hannah Hawkins, Cum Laude, and Christopher Campione, Cum Laude.

AP Latin Awards were given to: Sumner Dudick, Gold Summa Cum Laude, Alexander Sheldon, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Carolyn Nguyen, Silver Maxima Cum Laude, Evan Berretta, Magna Cum Laude, Matthew Lauder, Magna Cum Laude, and Stephanie Grant, Cum Laude.

Photo provided by Suzanne Cona

THE ORATORY Center for Spirituality 434 Charlotte Avenue, P.O. Box 11586 Rock Hill, SC 29731-1586

(803) 327-2097

rockhilloratory.org

oratorycenter@gmail.com

Discovering God Anew: Women in Dialogue with God This three-part program, which will begin next fall, is designed for women who seek a deeper relationship with God and desire spiritual growth and personal formation. The program focuses on a personal journey done with others so that a sense of community is developed.

The Oratory Center for Spirituality is excited to offer this opportunity being facilitated by Sr. Susan Schorsten, HM and Sr. Gay Rowzie, HM. To learn more about this program you are invited to an information session on Saturday, June 7, 2014.

Two sessions are offered:10:00 am-12:00 Noon and 2:00-4:00 pm in the Newman Hall Parlor.

For further information, please contact the Oratory Center for Spirituality at (803)327-2097 or oratorycenter@gmail.com.

His Excellency The Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis Bishop of Charlotte requests the honor of your presence at the Liturgy of Ordination to the Diaconate Mr. Casey Allen Coleman Saturday, the seventh day of June Two thousand and fourteen at ten o’clock in the morning Cathedral of Saint Patrick 1621 Dilworth Road, East Charlotte, North Carolina Reception immediately following Great Hall

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Mix 24

catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

On TV n Friday, May 23, 7:49 a.m.

(EWTN) “Papal Audience.”

From the Vatican, Pope Francis delivers his weekly address to the faithful.

In Brief

n Friday, May 23, 10:30 a.m.

(EWTN) “Catholic View for Women: Making the Switch from Contraception to NFP.” Discussion on the beauty of the Church’s teaching on contraception and the way Natural Family Planning can improve marriages. n Saturday, May 24, 9 p.m.

(EWTN) “Santa Barbara.” A cinematic look at St. Barbara who became a Christian and suffered martyrdom in the early Church.

‘The Railway Man’ This searing account of a former prisoner of war who is unable to overcome the emotional trauma of his past sufferings is directed by Jonathan Teplitsky from the eponymous autobiography by Eric Lomax. During World War II, Lomax (Jeremy Irvine) was one of thousands of British-led Allied troops forced into slave labor by Japanese forces following the latter’s 1942 capture of Singapore. Three decades later, Lomax (now played by Colin Firth) fell for and wed a former nurse (Nicole Kidman). But his captivity’s long shadow loomed over their marriage. Insights provided by one of Lomax’s fellow P.O.W.s (Stellan Skarsgard), together with revelations concerning his principal tormentor’s (Hiroyuki Sanada) current status move his story forward, initially along a negative moral trajectory, but eventually toward an unexpected and powerful conclusion fully in line with scriptural values. Graphic scenes of violence, including torture, and a suicide.

CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: R

‘Million Dollar Arm’ Based on real events, this breezy baseballthemed conversion story finds a down-on-hisluck Los Angeles sports agent (Jon Hamm) traveling to India to mount an “American Idol”-type reality show on which cricket bowlers compete against each other as pitchers. But when the two young winners (Suraj Sharma and Madhur Mittal), both raised in remote rural villages, return with him to the States to train for a major-league tryout, the businessobsessed bachelor finds himself called upon to protect and mentor them since they’re utterly bewildered by life in urban America. He gets help from an Indian enthusiast for the game (Pitobash) and from the comely tenant (Lake Bell) of a cottage on his property for whom he’s begun to fall. Non-marital situations, a smattering of sexual humor, some crass language.

CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: PG

Additional reviews: n ‘Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return’: CNS: A-I (general patronage); MPAA: PG n ‘Moms’ Night Out’: CNS: A-1 (general patronage); MPAA: PG

Photo provided by Scythian

Scythian will play at the White Squirrel Festival in Brevard May 24. Pictured from left are Tim Hepburn, Josef Crosby, Danylo Fedoryka, Alexander Fedoryka and Ben-David Warner.

Scythian to play music festival in Brevard May 24 Kimberly Bender Online reporter

BREVARD — “The pope has opened for us,” jokes Danylo Fedoryka, the rhythm guitarist, accordion player and singer for Scythian.

Named after Ukrainian nomads, Scythian merges Irish, gypsy and Americana music.

The backbone of the band’s sound is Celtic, said Fedoryka, a classically-trained pianist.

Scythian blends traditional Irish music with Eastern European gypsy and American bluegrass traditions.

“Something people have found intriguing about us is that we’re classically trained, and then we transitioned to Celtic music and then to music from all over the world,” Fedoryka said.

Scythian will play an all-ages show at the White Squirrel Festival in Brevard at 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 24.

“Our trademark is getting people involved in our shows, like a village square ho-down.

Everyone comes together and dances, claps, stomps and sings. The mission of our band is to get everyone to relax and dance and have a good time,” Fedoryka said. “We have a great rapport with the audience. Every show is interactive and joyful.”

Scythian, which started as a group of street performers, is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a band with the release of its latest album “Jump at the Sun.” The album won’t be released until Aug. 15, but songs from the new album will debut at the May 24 show and it will be available for pre-release purchase.

Washington, D.C.-based Scythian has played in the Carolinas countless times and recorded one of its albums in Asheville. In 2008, Scythian played to a crowd of more than 300,000 at World

More online At www.facebook.com/scythian: Learn more about Scythian At www.youtube.com/scythianmusic: Listen to their music

Youth Day after Pope Benedict XVI delivered his benediction.

“That’s the most we’ve ever played for,” Fedoryka said. “We like to say, ‘The pope opened for us.’ It was the Holy Spirit who really gave us the spot.”

Fedoryka and his brother Alexander were among the band’s founders. The brothers and their eight siblings were educated by their Juilliard-trained mother, and their father is a Catholic philosopher.

“My brother and I, we started playing because we were drawn to Irish and folk music,” he said. “We are Catholics who play music. We’ve always been very confident of that. We are joyful, and we have a vibrant faith. We really make a point to make beautiful melodies and keep it light.”

“God draws people to Himself through beauty,” and Fedoryka said one thing his mother taught him while he was learning to play music is, “If you do it true to God’s glory and make it beautiful, then it will be great.”

All five members of the band attended Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.

Danylo and Alexander live in Philadelphia and are members of the Secular Oratory of St. Philip Neri. They also volunteer with the Little Sisters of the Poor.

n Saturday, May 24, 11 p.m.

(EWTN) “Saint Mariana of Jesus.” Priests and religious offer their insights on the life Saint Mariana of Jesus, an Ecuadorian mystic who was blessed with many spiritual gifts and graces. n Monday, May 26, 12 p.m.

(EWTN) “Archdiocese for the Military Services Memorial Mass.” Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio celebrates this Mass in Washington. n Monday, May 26, 6 p.m.

(EWTN) “Never Far From Home.” A look at the life of Catholic military chaplains, and their experiences as pastors, guides, friends, confidants and confessor. n Friday, May 30, 5 p.m.

(EWTN) “Saint Joan of Arc: Maid for God.” A docudrama on the life and legacy of St. Joan of Arc, who was called

by God to save France. Watch dramatizing scenes of her life along with interviews with historians and experts. n Monday, June 2, 2:30 p.m.

(EWTN) “Super Saints: St. Anthony of Padua.” Bob and Penny Lord travel to Italy to explore the life of St. Anthony of Padua, the Franciscan frair known for the eloquence of his preaching. n Monday, June 2, 6:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Lives of the Saints: Walk Softly with God.” A glimpse into the lives of pilgrims who travel to Lough Derg where St. Patrick’s Purgatory, a pilgrimage site on Station Island, sits on the lake. n Tuesday, June 3, 6:30 p.m.

(EWTN) “Saint Francis and Brother Bernard.” A close look at the life and spirituality of St. Francis’ first follower Brother Bernard and their way of life. Filmed on location in Assisi, Italy.

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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Saint Benedict Press partners with Catholic Scripture Study International SueAnn Howell Senior reporter

CHARLOTTE — Local publisher Saint Benedict Press announced May 12 that it has been named exclusive publisher and distributor for Catholic Scripture Study International. CSS publishes 31 Bible and faith-related studies led in parishes, colleges and other group settings across the country, as well as individual home study.

Saint Benedict Press will immediately begin publishing and distributing CSS’s Bible and faith-related studies, while working with CSS to create new studies and to make CSS’s vast library of content available in new ways.

“Over the past several years I’ve watched my friends at Saint Benedict Press bring Bibles, ‘Catholic Courses,’ and other faith-building resources to thousands of parishes and homes,” said Gail Buckley, founder and president of CSS. “In 2010 we partnered to create the CSS Bible, and I am thrilled about my new expanded partnership with Saint Benedict Press through which we will create even more CSS studies and further our mission of gaining souls for Christ.”

CSS courses include explorations of individual books of the Bible such as Genesis, Exodus and the Gospel of John, as well as faith-related studies such as “Humanae Vitae” and “A Scriptural Study of Angels.” CSS studies are authored by well-known scholars and Bible experts

such as Dr. Scott Hahn, Steve Ray, Mike Aquilina and Mark Shea.

“My family has been publishing and distributing Bibles for four generations,” said Conor Gallagher, vice president of Saint Benedict Press. “So it only seemed natural for us to partner with a wonderful woman known as ‘The Bible Lady.’

“Gail has done amazing work with CSS, spreading the faith across the country and around the world through these enriching studies. For Saint Benedict Press to partner with Gail and the wonderful folks associated with CSS is an honor and blessing.”

Founded in Charlotte in 2003, CSS has grown rapidly and is present in hundreds of parishes today. More than 50,000 students have enrolled in CSS studies in the past 11 years. Among the seven bishops, seven priests and 12 laymen and women on the CSS Advisory Board are Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl; Charlotte Bishop Peter J. Jugis; Raleigh Bishop Michael F. Burbidge; Dr. Mary Healy; Dr. John Bergsma; and Patrick Madrid.

Working together, Buckley and Saint Benedict Press will continue the growth of CSS. Saint Benedict Press will add CSS studies to a catalog of products now found in more than 1,500 parishes, and will provide hundreds of parishes free sample studies on request. In coming weeks, select CSS individual studies will be made available to Saint Benedict Press’ network of stores and resellers.

“I feel confident that I am following God’s

plan for CSS,” Buckley explained. “As I’ve always said, this is His program, not mine; I am only His steward. He called me to start it; He gave me the ideas and the grace to do it, and through the years brought many wonderful people into my life to help me. Now He has brought about this partnership.”

The CSS study Program will continue to be available for purchase at www.CSSProgram.net and www.

SaintBenedictPress.com. Study leaders, students and new inquirers may contact Saint Benedict Press toll free at 800-437-5876 or at css@saintbenedictpress.com.

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Carmela Manago - Executive Director

Youth Minister –

St. Mark Catholic Church St. Mark Catholic Church is accepting applications for the position of a High School Youth Minister. This is a full-time position responsible for further developing a comprehensive, sustainable youth ministry program that leads high school teens to embrace and nurture a life-long relationship with Christ and His Church by active participation in parish life.

Requirements include: Candidate must be a practicing Catholic, pocessing a strong commitment knowledge and understanding of Catholic teachings, practices and organization structure.

Proven leadership qualities, strong interpersonal and relational communication skills both with teens and parents, and strong organizational skills are a must in maintaining a vigorous pace with meeting the programming needs of teens, parents and volunteers.

BA in Theology (or comparable preparation) 3-5 years of youth ministry experience in a leadership position. Experience with Life Teen programming a plus.

Please send resume and salary history by June 1st, 2014 to: Donna Smith, Director of Faith Formation St. Mark Catholic Church 14740 Stumptown Road Huntersville, NC 28078 Or email to Donna.Smith@stmarknc.org St. Mark Catholic Church is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Our nation 26

catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief Ark. to appeal ruling to strike down ban on same-sex unions LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas took center stage in the same-sex “marriage” debate May 9 when a state judge overturned a 10-year constitutional amendment that banned samesex unions in the state. The morning after Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza handed down his ruling, the Carroll County Clerk’s Office in Eureka Springs began issuing marriage licenses. In all, 15 licenses for samesex couples were issued.

Arkansas became the first Southern state to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

Seventeen states legally recognize same-sex unions, as does the District of Columbia.

The Catholic Church’s “defense of traditional marriage is rooted in natural law and in values held in common through the ages independent of religious conviction, including but not limited to the complementarity of the sexes, the need for procreation and the stable family as a building block of society,” Little Rock Bishop Anthony B. Taylor said May 12.

Harvard ‘Black mass’ outcry leads to cancellation CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A Harvard University student group’s plan to conduct a satanic ritual “black mass” May 12 on campus brought a public outcry, leading to its formal cancellation and an apparently impromptu off-campus version of the event, as well as a well-attended alternative Catholic Holy Hour. The planned event had drawn wide criticism from religious leaders as well as students, alumni and faculty at Harvard. As the organizers of the black mass scrambled to find an off-campus venue for their event, an estimated 2,000 Catholics and others gathered at the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology before a eucharistic procession down Massachusetts Avenue to join the holy hour at St. Paul’s Catholic Church.

Father Michael E. Drea, the senior Catholic chaplain at Harvard, thanked participants in the Holy Hour, saying the light of Christ, represented by the Easter candle, invited believers to joy and peace in union with God.

New National Review Board members named WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three new members of the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board, which monitors dioceses’ performance in dealing with sexually abusive priests and creating a safe environment for children throughout the Church, were appointed May 1 by Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., president of the bishops’ conference. The new members are Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald J. Schmid of Granger, Ind.; Judge Mary. K. Huffman of Centerville, Ohio; and Nelle Moriarty, a marriage and family therapist in Rochester, Minn. Their terms start in June.

The all-lay board was formed by the U.S. bishops in 2002 to provide an independent review and to critique how well U.S. Catholic dioceses were dealing with sexually abusive priests and their victims, and to keep track of what policies, personnel and programs the bishops were establishing to create a safe environment for children.

— Catholic News Service

Cardinal, at Catholic prayer breakfast, calls for immigration reform In separate remarks, Princeton professor says days of ‘comfortable Catholicism’ over Mark Pattison Catholic News Service

and “comfortable Catholicism” are over.

“The question each of us today must face is this: Am I ashamed of the Gospel?” said George, who also is chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

“Powerful forces and currents in our society press us to be ashamed of the Gospel – ashamed of the good, ashamed of our faith’s teachings” on the sanctity of life and traditional marriage, he added. “These forces insist that the

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, the keynote speaker at the 10th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, issued a call for immigration reform.

Cardinal O’Malley recalled his early years of ordained ministry as a Capuchin Franciscan priest at the Spanish Catholic Center in Washington, not far from the hotel where the breakfast was held.

The work there “was an uplifting experience in my life,” he recalled in remarks at the May 13 breakfast. “Most of my parishioners were undocumented workers, refugees from the wars in Central America,” he said. “We received thousands of immigrants from all over Latin America” during that era, he added.

“They were not evil invaders but people seeking to feed and clothe their families in safety, much like the immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany and Poland.”

Cardinal O’Malley said a just solution for those CNS | Tyler Orsburn immigrants would be Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston speaks to the crowd during the 10th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast May 13 at similar to that for Jean the Washington Hilton. More than 800 people attended the event in the nation’s capital.

Valjean, the protagonist of “Les Miserables”: Church’s teachings are out of date, retrograde, insensitive, “Not to punish them but to initiate new and more just laws to uncompassionate, illiberal, bigoted – even hateful. These replace a system that is broken and woefully inadequate.” currents bring pressure on all of us – most especially on The cardinal remembered that, while working at the young Catholics – to yield to this insistence. ... They command Spanish Catholic Center, he once – at the request of someone us to conform our thinking to their orthodoxy, or else say in the State Department – gave shelter to a Romanian nothing at all.” diplomat who was seeking political asylum in the United George likened such changing circumstances to the States. When he asked the diplomat why he wanted to stay difference between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. “The in the U.S., the man replied that the Romanian government memory of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem has faded. wanted him to stop going to church. “He said he could not live ... The love affair with Jesus and His Gospel and His Church is without the Eucharist,” Cardinal O’Malley said the man told over. Elite sectors of the cultures of Europe and the Americas him. no longer welcome His message,” he said. “Friday has come.”

Cardinal O’Malley told the crowd of about 800 at the But Catholic teaching on abortion and marriage is “a breakfast that in his ministry, he “brings glad tidings of the crucial part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” George said.

Gospel to the periphery.”

“You believe the truth – in its fullness – about the dignity of “Sometimes that periphery can mean Harvard,” where a the human person and the nature of marriage as proclaimed student-sponsored “black mass” to be held at the university by the Church – our only secure source of understanding the was officially canceled shortly before the May 12 event.

Gospel message.”

“Being archbishop of Boston can be a contact sport,” Cardinal To be a witness to the Gospel today, according to George, “is O’Malley joked before adding, “Sometimes the periphery can to be a marked man or woman. It is to expose oneself to scorn mean Wall Street.” and reproach.”

Whereas during his years as a priest, an example of “the He added there are “heavy costs” of discipleship, including most difficult mission in the world” for evangelization might discrimination, the loss of employment or professional have meant the Papua New Guinea highlands, now it means advancement opportunity, exclusion of honors and the United States and Western Europe, where society “still recognition, and “may even cost one treasured friendships” lives in the residue of Christian culture,” Cardinal O’Malley and “produce familial discord and even the alienation of said. The challenge is to make people there “disciples and family members.” disciple-makers.”

Despite assertions that Catholics are “on the wrong side of In an earlier address at the breakfast, Robert P. George, history” on such issues, George said, “history is not God. God the McCormick professor of jurisprudence at Princeton is God. History is not our judge. God is our judge.”

University, said the days of “socially acceptable Christianity”

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

As Hispanics approach majority in U.S. Church, needs for ministry loom Patricia Zapor Catholic News Service

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Training of pastoral leaders and provision of most other resources for Hispanic ministry aren’t keeping up with the fast-approaching time when Hispanics will make up the majority of Catholics in the United States, according to a new report.

“Hispanic Catholics have reached critical mass in the Church,” said Dr. Hosffman Ospino, lead author of the National Study of Catholic Parishes with Hispanic Ministry. He said 55 percent of all U.S. Catholics under 30 are Hispanic and Hispanics account for 71 percent of the growth in the U.S. Catholic population since 1960.

“Ignoring the growth of Hispanic Catholics in the United States would be self-defeating for our churches and schools,” he added.

Ospino, assistant professor of theology and ministry at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, presented his findings from the first major survey of how parishes are handling the rapid demographic shift May 5 at the college.

Hispanics currently account for about 40 percent of all U.S. Catholics and their share of the population is continuing to increase.

Nationwide, 4,358 parishes – almost onequarter of the U.S. total – were identified as having some sort of organized ministry to Hispanics.

The study cited many signs of vitality in parish Hispanic ministry – including youth, a strong permanent diaconate system and thriving apostolic movements. But other areas require urgent attention, it said.

Among the “urgent dynamics” of parish Hispanic ministry that are in need of attention, it listed: disproportionately limited financial and human resources, a “disquieting gap” in Hispanic enrollment in Catholic schools, and a cohort of pastoral leaders who are approaching retirement age with too few people in training to replace them.

The study pointed out that the oldest Catholic parishes under the flag of the United States were and continue to be Hispanic.

In the Southwest, a vibrant Catholic Church existed long before the United States acquired parts of Mexico, making for Hispanic-dominated parishes that predated the development of “national” parishes. National parishes were created in the 19th century to minister to European immigrants such as Germans, Italians and Poles, intended to be a temporary system for helping newcomers maintain their faith connections while they integrated.

As the study notes, “when absorbing the annexed Mexican territories, long-standing Hispanic parishes were typically treated as ‘only’ national parishes,” although many different nationalities fall under the cluster of Hispanic.

The report is a summary of the findings of a national study, conducted by the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry in collaboration with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate of Georgetown University. Several future reports will delve into angles such as education and leadership training, Ospino said.

The study is based on responses to surveys sent to diocesan and parish leaders who work in Hispanic ministry. Parishes were counted as offering Hispanic ministry if they offer Mass or religious education in Spanish, for example, even if they don’t formally have a Hispanic ministry

program, Ospino said.

Other elements in the report include discussion of leadership structures and leadership development; apostolic movements such as Cursillo and Communion and Liberation; and programming and education for children, youth and adults In an event at Boston College where the study was released, Mark Gray, of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington, said one conclusion he draws from the study that should catch the attention of Church leaders is “if you don’t do Hispanic ministry well, then you face an uncertain future.”

Unlike past generations of immigrants, he said, people today have many more choices in where they can go to worship, whether another Catholic parish that offers something different, a non-Catholic Christian church that is welcoming or even the growing phenomena of dropping all religious affiliation.

“We call them drive-bys,” Gray said, because people will drive by a church that doesn’t offer what they need and go elsewhere.

Timothy Matovina, a University of Notre Dame professor of theology and executive director of that school’s Institute for Latino Studies, pointed to some of the study’s findings he thinks are significant: that two-thirds of the pastors doing Hispanic ministry are not Hispanic; that most of them got any training they have in Hispanic ministry on their own; and that just 13 percent said they received relevant training in Hispanic ministry in the seminary.

Matovina also observed that the immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean who are adding to the surge of Hispanics in the Church are arriving to find a different sort of Church than did earlier waves of immigrants.

“A hundred years ago, immigrants arrived to an immigrant Church,” he said.

“Now they are arriving to a middle-class Church.”

It will be important to the future of the Church for the more established parts of the Church, where there is more money and power, to think of the growing sector of less-wealthy Hispanics as deserving of their support as part of the same Church, Ospino said.

Ospino told a story to illustrate how that’s relevant to meeting the pastoral needs of a working-class or poor group of newcomers.

He described a parish with a high level of immigrants that was in financial crisis.

The parish was administered by a religious order that also ran three wealthier, nonimmigrant parishes in the same region.

The religious order leaders went to the three wealthier parishes asking for support to keep the immigrant parish open. “They said no,” Ospino said.

In a subsequent interview with CNS, Ospino said perspectives such as that of the nonimmigrant parishes in that story illustrate a basic flaw in how many American Catholics think about the growth of Hispanics toward dominance in the Church.

“We need to shift the language in the Church,” Ospino said. “We can’t simply treat Hispanics as a subgroup of the Church anymore. In many parts of the country, to speak about Hispanic Catholics is to speak about the majority of the Church.”

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Ken Altman

Our world 28

catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

What Pope Francis is saying Being Christian means belonging to the Church VATICAN CITY — Being a Christian means belonging to the Church, remembering with others all God’s saving actions and celebrating the covenant between God and His people by participating in Mass, Pope Francis said. “A Christian without the Church is a pure idea, it is not real,” the pope said May 15 during Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives.

“It would be like something made in a laboratory, something artificial, something that could not give life.”

Commenting on the day’s first reading, Acts 13:13-25, in which St. Paul explains that the newly formed Christian community traces its history to the people of Israel, the pope said the idea of one Christian alone, without connection to a community and its history, makes no sense. Understanding who Jesus was requires recognizing that He, too, was born into the people of Israel and kept alive the memory of what God had done for His people.

“Jesus Christ did not fall from heaven like a hero who comes to save us,” the pope said. “No, Jesus Christ had a history.”

Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras attend a prayer service in Jerusalem in January 1964. Pope Francis will meet Patriarch Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew May 25 during his three-day visit to the Holy Land.

The ecumenical meeting will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1964 session between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras.

Resolve Church tensions with discussion, prayer VATICAN CITY — In the Church, as in any other situation, “problems cannot be resolved by pretending they don’t exist,” Pope Francis said. “Confronting one another, discussing and praying – that is how conflicts in the Church are resolved,” the pope said May 18. He focused his remarks on the day’s first reading, Acts 6:1-7, which describes how the early Christian community, as it grew to include people from different groups, began to experience internal tensions, and how those tensions were resolved at a meeting of the disciples.

Be meek, open to joy, newness offered by the Holy Spirit VATICAN CITY — Christians who are too serious and gloomy have the Holy Spirit missing from their lives, Pope Francis said. Be meek and open to the Spirit and don’t fight the joy and unexpected newness He brings, the pope said May 13 during Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae. People who think they can and do know everything won’t be able to understand God, he said in his homily.

Jesus always had trouble with people who “believed that religion was only about texts and laws,” he said. For them, all that was necessary was “to fulfill the commandments and nothing more. They didn’t imagine the Holy Spirit existed.”

As a result, all they did was demand explanations from Jesus. “They wanted to debate. Everything was in the head, everything was about the intellect,” and there was no “heart, no love, no beauty, no harmony.”

It never mattered what Jesus said and did, he said. Even raising Lazarus from the dead “right in front of them” could not convince them because they refused to “open their heart to the Holy Spirit.” Belief for them was based on “ideas, their own ideas. They are full of pride. They think they know it all,” he said.

Allow Holy Spirit to lead, even when Spirit is unpredictable VATICAN CITY — Christians must recognize that they do not lead or guide the Church, but that the Holy Spirit does and the Holy Spirit can be unpredictable, Pope Francis said.

“If, for example, an expedition of Martians arrived tomorrow,” and one said he wanted to be baptized, “What would happen?” he asked May 12 during Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae. Explaining that he really was talking about Martians, something unimaginable, Pope Francis said that if the Holy Spirit prompted the most unusual being to seek baptism, who would we be to hinder that person?

The pope focused his homily on the day’s first reading, Acts 11:1-18, which tells of the Apostles’ discussion – and consternation – over the Holy Spirit descending on a group of Gentiles at a time when the rest of the community of believers came from the Jewish tradition. From the very beginnings of Christianity, the pope said, Church leaders and members have been tempted at times to block the Holy Spirit’s path or try to control it.

— Catholic News Service

CNS | Giancarlo Giuliani, Catholic Press Photo

In Holy Land, Pope Francis will focus on unity, not ignore conflict Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — On Pope Francis’ first trip to the Holy Land, May 24-26, his agenda will focus on the search for Christian unity, particularly between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. But inevitably, in a region so rich in history and so fraught with conflict, he will address other urgent issues, including dialogue with Jews and Muslims, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the plight of the Middle East’s shrinking Christian population.

The Vatican has emphasized that the pope’s main purpose on the trip is to meet in Jerusalem with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, considered first among equals by Orthodox bishops. The official logo for the papal visit is an icon of the Apostles Peter and Andrew, patron saints of the churches of Rome and Constantinople, joined in a fraternal embrace.

Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew are scheduled meet four times during the pope’s three-day visit. Their private meeting May 25 will mark the 50th anniversary of the encounter in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople, which opened the modern period of ecumenical dialogue.

At an ecumenical service that evening, representatives of the three churches who share custody of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher – Catholic, Greek-Orthodox and Armenian – will pray together at the site of Jesus’ burial and resurrection. The event will be “extraordinarily historic,” according to the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, since the three communities normally observe strict separation when they worship in the church.

Despite the focus on relations among Christians, Pope Francis’ brief visit will not take in the northern Israeli region of Galilee, where most of Israel’s Christians live. Both St. John Paul and Pope Benedict included the region on their much longer visits, respectively, in 2000 and 2009.

About 1,000 Galileans, out of a total congregation of about 9,000, will attend Pope Francis’ Mass in Bethlehem May 25. Christians from Lebanon and Iraq are expected at the other public papal Mass of the trip, in Amman, Jordan, May 24.

The predicament of Christians throughout the Middle East will be “among the principle concerns” that the pope discusses with Patriarch Bartholomew, the patriarch said. The region’s Christian population has sharply diminished and grown increasingly precarious over the past decade, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Arab Spring revolts against authoritarian regimes and the Syrian civil war.

Pope Francis has been especially vocal about Syria, and if he addresses that conflict during the trip, he is most likely to do so in Jordan, where he will meet with Syrian as well as Iraqi refugees following a visit to the possible site of Jesus’ baptism.

The pope’s encounters with non-Christian religious leaders are scheduled for the last day of his visit, when he meets with the Muslim grand mufti of Jerusalem and the two chief rabbis of Israel in separate events. In contrast to the visits of St. John Paul and Pope Benedict, this papal trip to the Holy Land will not feature any event with representatives of the three major monotheistic faiths.

Rabbi David Rosen, international director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, calls that omission a “missed opportunity” for promoting peaceful coexistence, and speculates it could reflect the Vatican’s desire to avoid a repeat of an embarrassment during the 2009 papal visit. On that occasion, an interreligious event in Jerusalem involving Pope Benedict was cut short after a Muslim cleric not scheduled to speak took the microphone and criticized Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.

The interreligious dimension of the upcoming trip was enhanced May 15 when the Vatican spokesman announced that, for the first time in history, a papal entourage would include Muslim and Jewish leaders: Omar Abboud and Rabbi Abraham Skorka, two friends of the pope from his days as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

All of the events on Pope Francis’ schedule will unfold against the sobering background of the latest breakdown in peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.

The pope is most likely to address that problem in his speeches and private remarks to Palestinian and Israeli political leaders. His meeting with Palestinian refugee children May 25 will also serve as a poignant illustration of the need for a resolution.

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief Pope to beatify Pope Paul VI at end of synod on the family VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis will beatify Pope Paul VI Oct. 19 during the closing Mass of the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family. Pope Francis signed a decree May 9 recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Pope Paul, who led the Church from 1963 to 1978, and authorized publication of the Oct. 19 beatification date, according to a Vatican statement May 10.

The miracle involved the birth of a baby in California in the 1990s. The family’s name and city have not been released, but according to news reports, a pregnant woman whose life was at risk along with the life of her baby was advised by doctors to terminate the pregnancy.

Instead she sought prayers from an Italian nun who was a family friend. The nun placed a holy card with Pope Paul’s photograph and a piece of his vestment on the woman’s belly. The baby was born healthy. For Pope Paul’s sainthood cause, physicians continued monitoring the child’s health up to the age of 12 and everything was normal.

Pope Paul’s connection with the themes expected to be raised at the synod on the family Oct. 5-19 include the encyclical for which is he is most known, “Humanae Vitae.” The 1968 encyclical, usually described as a document affirming the Church’s prohibition against artificial contraception, places that conclusion in the context of Catholic teaching on the beauty and purpose of marriage, married love and procreation.

Cardinal hopes synod will find new ways to share teaching on family WASHINGTON, D.C. — Initial reviews of responses from around the world on questionnaires about Church teaching on the family in advance of this fall’s extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family show the teaching is misunderstood, said a cardinal who will run one the synod’s sessions. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, Philippines, said he found the responses “shocking, if I am allowed to use that word. Shocking because almost in all parts of the world, the questionnaires indicated that the teaching of the Church regarding family life is not clearly understood by people, and the language by which the Church proposes the teaching seems to be a language not accessible to people.”

“So this is my hope, not for change -– how can you change the biblical teachings? But maybe a real pastoral and evangelical concern for the Church: How do we present the good news of the family to this generation, with its limitations, with its greatness, with its unique experiences?

“We should not be talking only to one another.

The gospel of the family, the good news that is the family, should be presented to families where they are and how they are.”

Pope tells U.N. respect for life, solidarity essential for development VATICAN CITY — Meeting top officials of the United Nations, Pope Francis called for a “worldwide ethical mobilization” that would push technical programs for justice, peace and development further by promoting respect for human life, “fraternity and solidarity. An important part of humanity does not share in the benefits of progress and is, in fact, relegated

to the status of second-class citizens,” the pope said May 9 during a meeting at the Vatican with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and members of the U.N. System Chief Executives Board for Coordination. The board includes the directors of 29 specialized agencies and U.N. departments. The Vatican and Catholic organizations around the world work closely with many of them, such as the World Food Program and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

However, tensions also have arisen with some of the departments and agencies, particularly concerning population control programs and efforts to broaden access to legalized abortion.

While Pope Francis did not dwell on the tensions or mention any of them specifically, he insisted that the promotion of human dignity include a recognition that “life is sacred and inviolable from conception to natural death.”

Bishops ask pope to beatify Archbishop Romero SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Pope Francis assured the bishops of El Salvador that the sainthood cause of slain Archbishop Oscar Romero was proceeding well, and the bishops asked him to come to El Salvador to preside personally over the archbishop’s hoped-for beatification. Archbishop Jose Escobar Alas told reporters May 18 that he and three other Salvadoran bishops met the pope at the Vatican May 9 to discuss the cause of Archbishop Romero, who was shot and killed March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass in a hospital in San Salvador.

The pope told the Salvadoran bishops that he was pleased the process was moving ahead, but he gave no indication of when it would be completed, the archbishop told reporters.

Archbishop Romero’s sainthood cause was opened at the Vatican in 1993, but was delayed for years as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith studied his writings, amid wider debate over whether he had been killed for his faith or for political reasons.

O Holy St. Jude!

Apostle and Martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, near kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor for all who invoke your, special patronage in time of need; to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart, and humbly beg you, to whom God has given such great power, come to my assistance.

In return I promise to make your name known and cause you to be invoked.

St. Jude pray for us who invoke your aid.

(Say 3 Our Fathers, 3 Hail Mary’s, 3 Glory Be)

Pope encourages Mexican bishops on problems of migration, drugs VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis underscored migration and the narcotics trade as among the gravest ills plaguing the Church in Mexico and called on the country’s bishops to help their flocks through solidarity and prayer. The pope made his remarks May 19 to Mexican bishops making their “ad limina” visits to the Vatican.

“I have learned much from what you have told me,” he told the bishops, led by Cardinal Jose Francisco Robles Ortega of Guadalajara, president of the Mexican bishops’ conference.

“You leave me with serious worries about your churches. Some of your children who cross the border, all the problems of migration, those who don’t make it to the other side. Children who die, children killed by hired assassins. All these serious problems. And then drugs, which is something you suffer from very seriously today.”

Pope sets up board to hear appeals of clerical sex abuse offenders VATICAN CITY — The Vatican indicated Pope Francis was establishing a commission under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to examine the appeals of priests punished for sexual abuse of minors and other very serious crimes. In a brief note May 19, the Vatican press office announced the pope had nominated Argentine Archbishop Jose Luis Mollaghan of Rosario to be a member of the congregation “in the commission being established to examine the appeals of clergy for ‘delicta graviora,’” the Vatican term for sexual abuse of minors and serious sins against the sacraments.

— Catholic News Service

In 2010, Haiti was hit by a devastating earthquake.

Today, the country is still reeling.

Watch the Mercy for Haiti film and help us continue to make a difference for those forgotten. Visit urgentcares.org/haiti

Visit urgentcares.org to make a donation, or mail your gift (payable to CMMF) to P.O. Box 16367, Asheville, NC 28816

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ViewPoints 30

catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Letter to the editor

God’s grace abounds at PRC For years I have been concerned about the many abortions performed in our country and the broken lives that these abortions have left in their wake.

This concern led me to volunteer at the Pregnancy Resource Center on Fourth Street in Charlotte. After going through extensive and thorough training, I served as a receptionist once a week for one year. Greeting clients, answering phones, making appointments and administering pregnancy tests were all part of my duties.

I was then asked to serve as a counselor, and I have been doing that once a week for four years. In this role I meet with a client, hear her story, listen to her needs and try to provide assistance. Sometimes it’s offering parenting classes that are held at the PRC. Other times someone may need information about community resources that help with needs like housing, food and clothing. Usually literature on fetal development is given to each client.

Sometimes a client requests

information about abortion procedures and risks. This information is given in a factual, truthful, yet respectful and sensitive manner. Ultrasounds are offered at the center on a case-by-case basis, and all the services at the PRC are free. At the end of each counseling session I usually say a little prayer with the client, asking God’s blessing on her and her life.

Many of the women coming through the doors of the PRC have very hard lives and many complicated problems. The staff and volunteers extend the welcome and love of Christ to all those we serve.

Our clients know that we care not only for their babies, but also for them. Often I am blessed and uplifted when a client expresses her deep faith and trust in God and His mercy.

The PRC is a place where God’s grace abounds. I am so grateful that He led me there.

Patricia Hennessy is a member of St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte.

Most-read stories on the web Through press time on May 21, 7,651 visitors to www.catholicnewsherald.com have viewed a total of 17,620pages. The top seven headlines in May are: n Hundreds gather for seminarian Michael Kitson’s funeral Mass...............................................2,484 n Altar servers honored at St. Ann Church...............................................................................................514 n Charlotte Catholic student petition taken offline...............................................................................498 n Charlotte Catholic’s principal Jerry Healy resigns........................................................................... 406 n Belmont Abbey welcomes five novices.................................................................................................304 n Meteorologist-turned-monk ordained a Benedictine priest at Belmont Abbey....................... 288 n Charlotte Catholic High School names Mike Brodowicz new football coach.............................. 277

Protecting God’s Children We proclaim Christ to the world around us by our efforts to provide a safe environment for all people, especially the young and the vulnerable.

In 2002, the bishops of the United States issued the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The charter addresses the Church’s commitment to respond effectively, appropriately and compassionately to cases of abuse of minors by priests, deacons or other church personnel.

DIOCESAN REQUIREMENTS FOR REPORTING MINISTRY-RELATED SEXUAL ABUSE OF A MINOR 1. Any individual having actual knowledge of or reasonable cause to suspect an incident of ministry-related sexual abuse is to immediately report the incident to the Chancery.

2. The Chancery will then report the incident to the proper civil authorities. The individual reporting the incident to the Chancery will be notified of the particulars regarding the Chancery’s filing of the incident with civil authorities.

3. This reporting requirement is not intended to supersede the right of an individual to make a report to civil authorities, but is to ensure proper, complete and timely reporting.

Should an individual choose to make a report to civil authorities, a report is still to be made to the Chancery.

The charter can be found on the diocesan website, Charlottediocese.org, click on the tab, “Safe Environment.”

Father Robert Barron

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To evangelize through beauty

n his masterpiece “Brideshead Revisited,” Evelyn Waugh implicitly lays out a program of evangelization that has particular relevance to our time.

“Brideshead” refers, of course, to a great manor house owned by a fabulously wealthy Catholic family in 1920s England.

In the complex semiotic schema of Waugh’s novel, the mansion functions as a symbol of the Catholic Church, which St. Paul had referred to as the “bride of Christ.” To Brideshead comes, at the invitation of his friend Sebastian, Charles Ryder, an Oxford student, devotee of the fine arts and casual agnostic. Charles is overwhelmed by the sheer majesty of Brideshead’s architecture and the sumptuousness of its artistic program, which includes magnificent painting and sculpture, as well as a fountain of Berninilike delicacy, and a chapel that was a riot of baroque decoration. Living within the walls of the manse, Charles mused, was to receive an entire artistic education. The beauty of the place would entrance Charles for the rest of his life, drawing him back again and again.

In the course of his many visits, Charles came, of course, to know the inhabitants of the house, Sebastian’s strange and beguiling family. Especially through Sebastian’s mother, the aristocratic and devoutly Catholic Lady Marchmain, he became familiar with the moral demands of the Catholic Church, especially as they pertained to Sebastian’s increasing problem with alcohol. For many years, Charles joined Sebastian in his friend’s rebellion against these strictures, but in time, he came to appreciate their importance, indeed their indispensability.

Finally, at the very close of the story, we learn that Charles, the erstwhile agnostic, had come to embrace the coherent philosophical system of Catholicism and to worship the Eucharistic Lord who was enshrined in the beautiful chapel at Brideshead. Many years after entering that chapel as a mere aesthete, he knelt down in it as a believer.

This brief and utterly inadequate summary of Waugh’s narrative is meant simply to highlight a rhythm that obtains, I would argue, effective evangelization. The best evangelical strategy is one that moves from the beautiful to the good, and finally, to the true. Especially within our cultural matrix, so dominated by relativism and the valorization of the right to create one’s own system of meaning, commencing with either moral demand or the claim to truth will likely raise insuperable blocks in the person one wishes to evangelize. (Who are you to tell me how to behave or what to believe? How can you be so arrogant as to think that you should impose your values

on me?)

This is precisely why moralizing and intellectualizing are often non-starters in regard to persuasion. But there is something unthreatening about the beautiful. Just look at the Sistine Chapel ceiling or the Parthenon or Chartres Cathedral or Picasso’s “Guernica.” Just read “The Divine Comedy” or “Hamlet” or “The Wasteland.” Just watch Mother Teresa’s sisters working in the slums of Calcutta or Rory McIlroy’s golf swing or the movements of a ballet dancer.

All of these work a sort of alchemy in the soul, and they awaken a desire to participate, to imitate, and finally, to share.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, one of the great advocates of the aesthetic approach to religion, said that the beautiful claims the viewer, changes him, and then sends him on mission. The pattern is more or less as follows: first the beautiful (how wonderful!), then the good (I want to participate!), and finally, the true (now I understand!). A young man watches a skillfully played game of baseball, and it awakens in him a profound desire to play as well as those whom he admired; and then the actual playing of the game teaches him, from the inside, the rules and rhythms of baseball. A completely inadequate way of drawing a kid into the world of baseball would be to start with a clarification of the rules or with a set of drills. Rather, show him the beauty of baseball, and he will want to play, and having played, he will know.

The same applies regarding faith. I might suggest that the evangelist start with the Sainte Chapelle or the life of Francis of Assisi or the Little Flower’s “Story of a Soul” or Thomas Merton’s “Seven Storey Mountain” or Gregorian chant, or perhaps best of all, a carefully executed liturgy of the Roman rite. These would function in the manner of Brideshead, captivating even the most bored agnostic. Then, the wager goes, the captivation would lead to a desire, perhaps vague at first, to participate in the moral universe that made those artistic expressions possible. And finally, the participation would conduce toward a true and experiential understanding of the thought patterns that undergird that way of life. First the beautiful, then the good, then the true.

I wonder whether this winsome aesthetic approach might prove more fruitful in a postmodern culture so instinctively skeptical of dogma, either intellectual or moral.

Father Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry Word on Fire and the rector/president of Mundelein Seminary. He is also the creator of the awardwinning documentary series, “Catholicism.” Learn more at www.WordonFire.org.

May 23, 2014 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

Allison Schumacher

I

Deacon James H. Toner

Mary’s sacrifice illuminates what parents do for their priest sons

n our Catholic devotion we recognize the tremendous faith of our Lady at the Annunciation – a fiat that saw its heroic culmination in a living martyrdom on Calvary as she watched her Son die a cruel death on the Cross to redeem mankind. We honor the mysteries of the Blessed Virgin’s life in the rosary and we acknowledge the wounds inflicted on her Immaculate Heart when we gratefully honor her under the title of our Lady of Sorrows. Throughout the liturgical year, we gratefully and lovingly commemorate the key moments in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Yet I would challenge and suggest that there are many hidden, yet poignant sacrifices which the mother of the Priesthood of Christ underwent for our sake.

After the Child Jesus pierced His beloved Mother’s heart by remaining in Jerusalem for three days, He went home with Mary and Joseph and remained submissive to them for the next 21 or so years. For 30 years altogether, Mary lived a hidden life with her Son, and we can only imagine the beautiful conversations, the beautiful exchanges, they shared together.

During those decades of intimacy she would have come to know His Heart like no other, to see His human personality blossom.

She knew His favorite foods, His habits of living, His recreational choices, and how He prayed. She could pick up on the inflections in His voice and the layers of meaning in His eyes. Their hearts beat as one and all that she did revolved around Him, for her motherhood claimed her entire person.

Then came the day when everything in their lives took a major shift – a life-changing, world-shattering, reality-shaking change. In the insignificant town of Cana in Galilee, St. John reports that a marriage was taking place.

Let us pause for one moment to let those words penetrate into our minds, and more so into our hearts. He writes, “On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; Jesus also was invited to the marriage with His disciples” (Jn 2:1-2).

We take for granted the obvious: the above-mentioned parties were all present at a wedding between a man and a woman, mutual friends of these guests.

And yet, is the Holy Spirit using the natural events of daily life to point to another deeper Reality – a supernatural marriage between God and all mankind, flowing through the Priesthood of Christ and the spiritual maternity of His mother? A marriage was indeed taking place. She was there; He was there; and the Apostles, who would one day share in Christ’s Priesthood, were there.

On that momentous day, a public embarrassment became the catalyst for hastening the very hour when the Son of God would offer His Sacrifice to the Father and redeem mankind – the most important hour of all human history, past, present and future.

At this wedding, a mother’s heart became a priestly heart as she offered the sacrifice of her Son and ushered in the Priesthood of Christ.

For He says to her, “Woman, what does this have to do between you and me?” In other words, He is saying, “Do you realize what you

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Learn more At www.charlottediocese.org/vocations: Learn more about the upcoming Quo Vadis Days discernment retreat on June 23-27

are asking? If I work this miracle and begin my public ministry now, the relationship between us will change, never to be the same.

I will not belong to you alone as your Son, but will be the Priest who belongs to all men.

And if you make this offering now, every fiber of your maternal, feminine heart will be intertwined in this mission, for you will belong to all.”

In that concentrated moment, the Blessed Virgin Mary would not have recklessly made her reply. Perhaps she paused before telling the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” But when she did make her response, there is no doubt she was resolutely aware of the sacrifice she was making. It was a continuation of her fiat (“Let it be done”) that stimulated her willing and sacrificial offering. Through a maternal intervention at this wedding, the water became wine in preparation for that Holy Thursday night when the wine would become the Precious Blood of the Paschal Lamb.

Why is this intense moment, so enflamed by supernatural charity, a type of marriage between the divine and the human? A woman was present, and she gave her “yes.” The God-Man was present, and He gave His “yes.”

The water became wine, the first miracle commenced His public ministry, and now their hearts were focused on the goal: His Sacrifice on Calvary, where new life would be birthed from His Priesthood and her spiritual motherhood. And this life would continue to flow through the Priesthood, shared by His Apostles and their successors.

It was a fantastic sacrifice to make! Mary hastened Her Son’s hour and offered Him to the world, and He no longer belonged to her alone. In fact, never again would He be hers alone. Countless disciples began following Him, while throngs of crowds distanced her from Him physically. On Calvary, He gave her the world of souls to be her children, and throughout history she has been the mother to generation after generation. Her heart had to be expansive enough to hold every single soul within the Communion of Saints.

Only a heart that could make such a fantastic sacrifice of her God-Man Son would indeed be immense enough to carry the world inside her priestly, maternal heart.

And so, dear parents, if the Lord calls your son to His Holy Priesthood, what response will you make?

Allison Schumacher is a freelance writer who works with MiraVia in Belmont. This is the second in a series of commentaries highlighting the importance of discernment, and the role a retreat like the Diocese of Charlotte’s Quo Vadis Days means for young men who may be called to a priestly vocation.

What we know that ain’t so “The trouble ain’t what people don’t know, it’s what they know that ain’t so.” — Attributed to Josh Billings

I

n almost every walk or way of life, there will be an accumulation of mistakes, half-truths and fables.

As a college and high school baseball coach, I have heard many such errors.

Players sometimes think that a throw from deep shortstop (called “the hole”) to first base will pick up speed if the throw is bounced. Not true. Some players think a fastball rises. Nope.

Some think a ball will go farther off a heavy bat than a lighter bat. Generally not true, and what matters is bat speed.

Some players, running to first, will leap for the bag, thinking they will arrive faster than if they run through the base. It ain’t so. Some fans think a ball that settles right on the foul line is foul. No, it’s fair because the foul lines, the three bases and home plate are all completely in fair territory.

Here are the most common errors I hear about Church teaching: n The Spirit of Vatican II tells me that .. (fill in the rest). We should read the documents of Vatican II and know the theology of Vatican II. The “Spirit of Vatican II” is a much-abused and amorphous term. n Vatican II got rid of the distinction between mortal and venial sin. No. There is a vital difference between the two types of sin, and mortal sin is deadly to the soul. n Catholics no longer have to tell their sins directly to the priest in the sacrament of reconciliation. Untrue. Personal confessions are required unless, for instance, you’re about to go into combat. n Limbo has gone away. The Church never officially taught “Limbo.” It was – and still is – a matter of theological conjecture. We trust to God’s great mercy the souls of any infants who die without baptism. n There is no hurry about being baptized. Wrong. Infants should be promptly baptized within a few weeks after their birth. And the baptized should still be given saints’ names. n Mass “doesn’t count” unless the priest is “O.K. with God.” Well, the priest should be in the state of grace, but the sacraments do not depend upon his personal holiness, his kindness or his frame of mind. As long as the proper minister (bishop, priest or deacon) uses the right matter, says the right words, and intends to do what the Church intends, the sacrament is valid. n All religions are basically the same. Of course not. It is hardly triumphalism to point out that some “religions” teach things that any Christian would have to reject, and some Christian faiths vary considerably from the historical teaching of the Catholic Christian faith, which comes us from the Apostles. n To be saved, you don’t have to read the Bible. Well, yes, that is technically true, but the Bible is the Word of God, and every Catholic should know its contents. n Catholics are “people of the book.”

Actually, no. Catholics believe that the

Word of God is, indeed, found in the Bible but also that it is a Living Word, found in the Church’s doctrine, life, and worship (known as “Sacred Tradition”). n It’s O.K. to skip Mass on Sunday. If you’re really sick, yes. But we have the duty (and the joy) of worshiping God on Sundays and holy days of obligation. We don’t want God to take us lightly, and we most certainly shouldn’t take Him lightly. n The priest can basically make up most parts of the Mass. No, there are specific guidelines such as the Sacramentary (the big red book) which he must follow. n It’s OK to substitute some readings at Mass. No, it isn’t. The (usually) two readings – ordinarily one from the Old Testament, one from a New Testament epistle – and the Gospel are established by the Church on a three-year cycle. n The deacon is concelebrating Mass with the priest. No. Deacons do not celebrate holy Mass, or hear confessions, or administer the Sacrament of the Sick. Roman-rite deacons – who are clergymen, not lay people – can baptize, witness marriages (without Mass), proclaim the Gospel, preach homilies, conduct funeral services, and bless items. n A lay person may give the homily if it’s called a “reflection.” The homily or sermon – even if styled a “reflection” – may be given only by a bishop, priest or deacon. n We are all saved anyway. That is called “presumption,” and it’s wrong. n There is no Hell. Scripture, tradition and the Magisterium of the Church have consistently taught that there is a hell, but we don’t know for certain that anyone is, or how many are, in it (although Judas is often named). n Indulgences went away after Martin Luther. Not true, and indulgences can and should be a key part of Catholic spirituality. n Catholics may vote however they please. No, we Catholics should vote after forming our consciences on the basis of defined Church teaching. n Receiving Holy Communion from the priest is “worth more” than receiving it from an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. Where did you get that one? Not true. n We worship the Blessed Virgin Mary. Is this one still around? No, we honor her; we do not worship her. She is a redeemed creature, although the greatest boast of our human race!

There is much misinformation today about the Church and its teachings. If you are puzzled or disturbed by what you think the Church teaches, ask your priest.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, “There are not 100 people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.” We want to be sure that people (including all of us) know what the Church is, what the Church teaches, and what the Church promises.

Deacon James H. Toner serves at Our Lady of Grace Parish in Greensboro.

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catholicnewsherald.com | May 23, 2014 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

A Love that is Lived

Meeting spiritual and temporal needs has been a primary concern of the Christian community since the earliest days of the Church. As needs continue to grow locally, we are committed to meeting them with new and increased services.

A hallmark of our Judeo-Christian religious tradition and a corporal work of mercy is to provide shelter for those in need.The Catholic Diocese of Charlotte Housing Corporation (CDCHC) currently provides housing to nearly 75 individuals. The CDCHC was established to create, maintain, promote and operate housing facilities and accompanying services for seniors and low-income and vulnerable individuals.

committed to building an additional facility, Mother Teresa Villa.

Forward in Faith, Hope and Love will earmark $2,500,000 in funding to support housing initiatives for seniors. Additional housing will provide independent living to individuals who no longer feel that their home is the most practical or best option.

Forward in Faith, Hope, and Love is being conducted in all 92 parishes and missions. The programs, services, and facilities supported by these funds will significantly influence the scope of our mission well into the future. The challenge is great, but so too are the faith, hope and love of the people of the Diocese of Charlotte. We invite you to be a part of this The CDCHC opened its first facility, Curlin Commons in Mooresville, effort and to help us enhance the future of the Catholic Church in central followed by Good Shepard Gardens in Salisbury. To address the needs and western North Carolina. of our developmentally disabled brothers and sisters the CDCHC is

Learn more about the campaign:

www.forwardfaithhopelove.org