Nov. 6, 2015

November 6, 2015

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

Smiles, tears as Poor Clares bid farewell 6

Embracing the spirit of friendship

Lighting the way St. Eugene first parish to launch solar panels in ‘Care of Creation’

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Special friends, volunteers share unique bond in ‘Spirit Club’

8 INDEX

Contact us.......................... 4 Español.................................13 Events calendar................. 4 Our Faith............................. 2 Our Parishes................. 3-12 Schools......................... 18-19 Scripture readings............ 2 TV & Movies.......................21 U.S. news..................... 22-23 Viewpoints.................. 26-27 World news................. 24-25

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A SAINT IN THE FAMILY: ST. MARIA GORETTI

Celebrating Black Catholics yesterday and today 14-17

Young saint’s relatives among thousands who venerate her relics during pilgrimage to Charlotte, Greensboro 3

Our faith 2

catholicnewsherald.com | November 6, 2015 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Pope Francis

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk

Families must forgive, not ‘end the day in war’

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he secret to healing wounds among family members is to “not end the day in war” and to forgive one another, Pope Francis said.

“One cannot live without forgiving, or at least one cannot live well, especially in the family,” the pope said Nov. 4 at his weekly general audience.

Recalling the recent Synod of Bishops on the family, the pope said that he wanted the final report to be published so that all may take part in the work of the past two years.

However, he said, his general audience talk would not examine the conclusions but rather reflect on the great gift that marriage and the family are for society, especially in a world that “at times becomes barren of life and love.”

The pope told the estimated 15,000 people in St. Peter’s Square that families are like “a great gym where one trains in giving and in mutual forgiveness.” Using the Gospel account of Jesus teaching the Our Father, the pope stressed that forgiveness heals the wounds often caused “by our weaknesses and our selfishness.”

“There is a simple secret in order to heal wounds and dissolve accusations: Do not end the day without asking forgiveness from one another, without making peace between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, daughters-in law and mothers-in law,” he said.

By immediately asking for forgiveness and forgiving others, the pope continued, the family becomes stronger and creates a solid foundation that can withstand any difficulties that may come.

In order to forgive, Pope Francis told the crowd, “you don’t need to make a great speech; a caress is sufficient and it’s all over. But, do not end the day in war. Understood?”

The pope also stressed that the synod emphasized the role that forgiveness plays in the vocation and mission of the family and that it not only saves families from divisions but helps society “become less evil and less cruel” as well.

The Church, he assured, “is always near to help you build your house upon the rock of which Jesus spoke.”

Christian families, the pope said, can do much for society and the Church and the upcoming Year of Mercy can be an occasion for families “to rediscover the treasure of mutual forgiveness.”

“Let us pray so that families may always be more capable of living and building concrete paths of reconciliation, where no one feels abandoned by the weight of their trespasses,” the pope said.

The mystery of male-female complementarity

“The Meeting of Pope Leo and Attila,” by Francesco Solimena, at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan

St. Leo the Great: Bishop of Rome Benedict XVI said in a 2008 general audience about the saint, “he was truly one of the greatest pontiffs to have honored the Roman See and made a very important contribution to strengthening its authority and prestige.”

Leo’s origins are obscure and his date of birth unknown. His ancestors are said to have come from Tuscany, though the future pope may have been born in that region or in Rome itself. He became a deacon in Rome in approximately 430, during the pontificate of Pope Celestine I. During this time, central authority was beginning to decline in the Western portion of the Roman Empire. At some point between 432 and 440, during the reign of Pope St. Celestine’s successor Pope Sixtus III, the Roman Emperor Valentinian III commissioned Leo to travel to the region of Gaul and settle a dispute between military and civil officials.

Pope Sixtus III died in 440 and, like his predecessor Celestine, was canonized as a saint. Leo, away on his diplomatic mission at the time of the pope’s death, was chosen to be the next Bishop of Rome. Reigning for more than two decades, he sought to preserve the unity ST. LEO, SEE page 10

FR. TAD, SEE page 10

Feast day: Nov. 10 The Church memorializes on Nov. 10 the fifth-century Pope St. Leo I, the first of three popes – along with Gregory (590604) and Nicholas (858-867) – whom later generations would called “great” because of their enormous impact in the Church and in society.

His involvement in the Fourth Ecumenical Council helped prevent the spread of error about Christ’s divine “St. Leo Magnus,” by and human natures, Francisco Herrera the he intervened for Younger, in the Prado the safety of the Museum in Madrid Church in the West against barbarian invasions, and he wrote numerous sermons and letters that later prompted him to be named a Doctor of the Church.

Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians also maintain a devotion to the memory of St. Leo the Great. (Churches of the Byzantine tradition celebrate his feast day on Feb. 18.)

“As the nickname soon attributed to him by tradition suggests,” Pope

J

ames Parker came out at age 17 and later entered into a relationship with another man. He worked as a gay activist for a while, but his personal experiences of intimacy and human sexuality eventually led him to grasp that “same-sex ‘marriage’ just doesn’t exist; even if you want to say that it does.” He concluded that trying to persuade those with homosexual inclinations that they can have marriage like heterosexual couples is basically to “hoodwink” them: “Deep down, there is no mystery between two men, ultimately.”

This striking insight helps bring into focus the authentic and remarkable mystery we encounter in the joining of husband and wife in marriage. That abiding mystery touches on their one flesh union and reveals an inner fruitfulness, enabling them to contribute together something greater than either can do alone, namely, the engendering of new life in the marital embrace. Ultimately, that life-giving mystery flows from their radical male-female complementarity.

St. John Paul II commented on this “mystery of complementarity” when he noted how “uniting with each other so closely as to become ‘one flesh,’ man and woman, rediscover, so to speak, every time and in a special way, the mystery of creation.”

The personal and bodily complementarity of man and woman, along with the “duality of a mysterious mutual attraction,” reminds us, again in the words of the pope, how “femininity finds itself, in a sense, in the presence of masculinity, while masculinity is confirmed through femininity.”

In recent times, nevertheless, the importance of the bodily and spiritual complementarity of man and woman

Your daily Scripture readings NOV. 8-14

Sunday: 1 Kings 17:10-16, Hebrews 9:24-28, Mark 12:38-44; Monday: Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12, 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17, John 2:13-22; Tuesday (St. Leo the Great): Wisdom 2:23-3:9, Luke 17:7-10; Wednesday (St. Martin of Tours): Wisdom 6:1-11, Luke 17:11-19; Thursday (St. Josaphat): Wisdom 7:22-8:1, Luke 17:20-25; Friday (St. Francis Xavier Cabrini): Wisdom 13:1-9, Luke 17:26-37; Saturday: Wisdom 18:1416, 19:6-9, Luke 18:1-8

NOV. 15-21

Sunday: Daniel 12:1-3, Hebrews 10:11-14, 18, Mark 13:24-32; Monday (St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Gertrude): 1 Maccabees 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63, Luke 18:35-43; Tuesday (St. Elizabeth of Hungary): 2 Maccabees 6:1831, Luke 19:1-10; Wednesday (The Dedication of the Basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Rose Philippine Duschesne): 2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31, Luke 19:11-28; Thursday: 1 Maccabees 2:15-29, Luke 19:41-44; Friday: 1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59, 1 Chronicles 29:10-12, Luke 19:45-48; Saturday (The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary): 1 Maccabees 6:1-13, Luke 20:27-40

NOV. 22-28

Sunday (Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe): Daniel 7:13-14, Revelation 1:5-8, John 18:33-37; Monday (St. Clement I, St. Columban, BI. Miguel Agustin Pro): Daniel 1:1-6, 8-20, Daniel 3:52-56, Luke 21:1-4; Tuesday (St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions): Daniel 2:31-45, Daniel 3:57-61, Luke 21:5-11; Wednesday (St. Catherine of Alexandria): Daniel 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28, Daniel 3:62-67, Luke 21:12-19; Thursday (Thanksgiving Day): Daniel 6:12-28, Daniel 3:68-74, Luke 21:20-28; Friday: Daniel 7:2-14, Daniel 3:75-81, Luke 21:2933; Saturday: Daniel 7:15-27, Daniel 3:82-87, Luke 21:34-36

Our parishes

November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

‘My mother always stressed the importance of faith and the Catholic Church and our connection to not just a saint, but a forgiving saint.’

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What others said about the tour of St. Maria Goretti’s relics “The reception and veneration of the relics of a beloved saint is an occasion to bring to the fore that which is generally hidden from view. The supernatural gift of faith, an otherwise invisible reality, took form this weekend in a tapestry of thousands and manifested in an almost miraculous way giving us all a glimpse of the hidden power that animates the lives of believers. Not only were the holy relics of a saint on display, so was the supernatural gift of faith. The saint and the holy faith of believers synergistically radiated a moving display of holiness and grace. Personally and pastorally, I am profoundly grateful to St. Maria Goretti.”

— Father Patrick Winslow, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Church, which hosted the tour in Charlotte

photos by SueAnn Howell and Cavin & Stovall Photography | Catholic News Herald

Children venerate the major relics of St. Maria Goretti Oct. 23 at Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro. (Below) Andy and Janet Goretti and their children, Alex, Natalie and Drew, bring up the gifts at Mass honoring their saintly cousin Oct. 24 at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte.

A SAINT IN THE FAMILY St. Maria Goretti’s relatives humbled by relics’ visit to North Carolina

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SueAnn Howell Senior reporter

housands of people packed into Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro and St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte to venerate the relics of St. Maria Goretti during the “Pilgrimage of Mercy” tour that passed through the Diocese of Charlotte Oct. 23-25. The national tour brought the remains of the Church’s youngest saint to the U.S. for the first time, and although it was a sacred moment for so many who came to venerate her relics, for two local families the visit meant much more.

Andy Goretti and Barbara Everitt, both of Charlotte, are cousins of the young saint, and they called the relics’ visit to the Charlotte diocese a humbling and inspiring moment.

Andy Goretti and his wife Janet, members of St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, and Everitt, a member of St. Matthew Church in Charlotte, attended Mass and spent time venerating the relics during the pilgrimage’s stops in both cities.

The national tour, which continues through Nov. 12, is under way just weeks before the Church begins an Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy on Dec. 8. Besides the Charlotte diocese, the tour included GORETTI, SEE page 20

“The parishioners, staff, clergy and faculty of Our Lady of Grace Church and School were all very excited to welcome her to the parish in October. It is a great honor that we can be a part of this great Pilgrimage of Mercy. Maria Goretti’s tour around the States in conjunction with the Church’s message of forgiveness is very dear to all of us at Our Lady of Grace. It was in God’s infinite mercy that Mary was spared original sin and so could be filled with grace upon grace. Father (Eric) Kowalski and I stress frequently in our teaching and preaching that nothing can separate us from the love of God except an unrepentant heart. St. Maria Goretti is the witness of faith in action! She offered her death to soften the heart of her attacker, and he was saved.

“I was particularly excited to share St. Maria Goretti with our parishioners and all the visitors who came to Greensboro and Charlotte for these days of prayer. When I was in Rome, I visited Maria’s church in Nettuno on many occasions. That church, too, is the parish of Our Lady of Grace!

Moved by her story, softened by her life’s witness and inspired by her heroic death, I saw how far this little girl had come in her walk with the Lord at such a young age. First, it put me to shame! Secondly, however, it challenged me to seek nothing but Christ, nothing but a radical love of Christ. Without having to make a pilgrimage to Italy, I hope the faithful visiting her will be challenged, as I was, to conversion and radical love.”

— Father Noah Carter of Our Lady of Grace Church, which hosted the tour in Greensboro “At a time when Christ is being censored throughout the public square, we see that violence and sexual perversions of all sorts flood our airways and poison our children daily. By following St. Maria Goretti’s example of love, forgiveness of her attacker and devotion to chastity, we can through our example help bring Christ back to the public square and do our part with Christ’s help to lead the next generation to a holier life.

“This pilgrimage is about more than experiencing relics, it is about coming away with a conversion of heart to lead the life Christ wants for us.”

— Jackie Gallagher, organizer for the North Carolina leg of the relics tour

More online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: More coverage from the visit of St. Maria Goretti’s relics to Greensboro and Charlotte, including video highlights and more photos

UPcoming events 4

catholicnewsherald.com | November 6, 2015 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishop Peter J. Jugis will participate in the following upcoming events: Nov. 7 – 4 P.M. Sacrament of Confirmation St. John Baptist de la Salle Church, North Wilkesboro

Nov. 15-19 USCCB Meeting Baltimore

Nov. 21 – 2 p.m.

Sacrament of Confirmation St. Matthew Church, Charlotte

Nov. 12 – 7 P.M. Sacrament of Confirmation St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Charlotte

Nov. 20 – 8:30 a.m.

Holy Mass St. Patrick Cathedral, Charlotte

Nov. 23 – 7 p.m.

Sacrament of Confirmation St. James Church, Concord

Nov. 14 – 10:30 A.M. Sacrament of Confirmation St. Gabriel Church, Charlotte

Nov. 20 Vineyard of Hope Carmel Country Club, Charlotte

Nov. 24 Diocesan Building Commission Meeting

Administration Bldg., 101 Mercy Dr., Belmont. Serrin’s presentation, “The Feminist Case Against Abortion,” focuses on the pro-life history of the feminist movement and makes the case for why feminists should oppose abortion. Wine and cheese reception to follow.

Hosted by the Sisters of Mercy. RSVP to CindyBrown@ feministsforlife.org.

Under the Gaze of God.” For details, call the parish office at 704- 536-6520.

Diocesan calendar of events November 6, 2015

Entertainment

Volume 24 • Number 3

‘Moving Movies’ Adult Education Fall Film Festival: 7 p.m. Fridays, Oct. 23-Nov. 6 at St. Luke Church, 13700 Lawyers Road, Mint Hill. Films will center on social justice and tolerance. All adolescents and adults are welcome. For details, call Dave Galusha at 704-256-9294.

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

STAFF 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

‘PTSD SHOW’ Jason Moon in Concert: 7 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 7, at St. John Neumann Church, 8451 Idlewild Road, Charlotte. Support and healing for veterans, families and communities suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. For details, visit www.jasonmoon.org.

Holiday bazaar and vendor fair: 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 7, in the Parish Life Center at St. Thérèse Church, 217 Brawley School Road, Mooresville. Lots of vendors, fall and Christmas crafts, bake sales and much more. For details, call Lisa Cash at 704-664-3992, ext. 105.

35th Annual Perpetual hope gospel choir concert: 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, in the Parish Life Center at Our Lady of Consolation Church, 1235 Badger Ct., Charlotte. Everyone welcome.

‘Hallelujah’: 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte.

Singer Kelley Mooney will perform the stirring Easter version of the Leonard Cohen classic that has made her a YouTube sensation along with other songs from her latest album. Mooney has generously agreed to perform in exchange for nonperishable food donations to the parish food pantry. For details, visit www.kelleymooney.com.

Hispanic communications reporter: Rico De Silva, 704-370-3375, rdesilva@charlottediocese.org

LECTURES & REFLECTIONS

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

NEWS: The Catholic News Herald welcomes your news and photos. Please e-mail information, attaching photos in JPG format with a recommended resolution of 150 dpi or higher, to catholicnews@charlottediocese.org. All submitted items become the property of the Catholic News Herald and are subject to reuse, in whole or in part, in print, electronic formats and archives.

ADVERTISING: Reach 165,000 Catholics across western North Carolina! For advertising rates and information, contact Advertising Manager Kevin Eagan at 704-370-3332 or keeagan@charlottediocese.org. The Catholic News Herald reserves the right to reject or cancel advertising for any reason, and does not recommend or guarantee any product, service or benefit claimed by our advertisers.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: $15 per year for all registered parishioners of the Diocese of Charlotte and $23 per year for all others.

POSTMASTER: Periodicals class postage (USPC 007-393) paid at Charlotte, N.C. Send address corrections to the Catholic News Herald, 1123 S. Church St., Charlotte, N.C. 28203.

‘Myths of the Reformation’: 1-2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, at Our Lady of the Mountains Mission, 315 North 5th St., Highlands. Presented by Dr. David Dorondo, professor of history at Western Carolina University, who will examine the most common myths about the Protestant Reformation. Everyone welcome. For details, email Matthew Newsome at smff@wcucatholic.org.

Day OF Reflection on ‘Laudato Si’ (‘CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME’): 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11, at Holy Family Church, 4820 Kinnamon Road, Winston-Salem.

‘Being good Stewards of God’s creation; pope Francis’ call to global solidarity’: Following the 6 p.m. Mass, Wednesday, Nov. 11, in the Parish Hall at Good Shepherd Mission, 105 Good Shepherd Dr., King. Event speakers are Matthew Burkhart of Catholic Relief Services and Joseph Purello of Catholic Charities. Registration required at 704-370-3225 or email jtpurello@charlottediocese.org.

‘A Night with Emily Wilson’: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte. All middle school, high school and college-aged girls in the diocese and their parents are welcome. Discussion will include a special evening of praise and worship that includes Wilson’s testimony about the beauty of being a young woman of Christ. For details, contact Wilson at www.emwilsonmusic.com.

Feminists for Life President Serrin Foster: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, Curtin Hall, Mercy

NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING NFP Introduction and Full Course: 1-5 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 14, at St. Barnabas Church, 109 Crescent Hill Dr., Arden. Topics include: effectiveness of modern NFP, health risks of popular contraceptives and what the Church teaches about responsible parenting. Sponsored

by Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte. RSVP to Batrice Adcock, MSN, RN, at 704-370-3230.

OTHER ‘Come And See’ – Who are Secular Franciscans?: 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, at the Franciscan Center, 233 N. Greene St., Greensboro. The Franciscan family of Greensboro invites you to this information session about the Franciscan way of life for Catholic men and women.

For details, contact Georgette Schraeder at 336-8848006, gschraeder@stleocatholic.com, or Marilyn DurajShowers, 336-547-0754, marilynduraj@gmail.com.

‘Be the Match registry’: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, in the NLC Banquet Room at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte. “Be the Match Registry” is a place where people with blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and sickle cell go to search for a second chance for life. They are in search of marrow or stem cell donors. Joining the registry is simple: fill out a form, swab your cheek, and you are done! All healthy individuals between 18 and 44 are encouraged to join, and minorities are especially needed. For details and donation process, should you match a patient in need, and patient/donor stories, visit www.bethematch.org. For details about the drive or to volunteer, email Monica at monica.oberthaler@gmail.com.

Bulletins inspired: 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, at St. John Neumann Church, 8451 Idlewild Road, Charlotte. Learn how to turn your publication into a lean and effective communication revelation. Presenter Mia Haber will show parish bulletin editors how to think and perform like a savvy designer. RSVP to Charlotte Smith at 1-800-621-5197, ext. 2702, or email smithc@jspaluch.com.

PRAYER SERVICES & GROUPS Pro-Life Rosary: 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, 901 North Main St. and Sunset Drive, High Point. Outdoors, rain or shine. Parking available nearby. Come to pray for the end of abortion. For details, call Jim Hoyng at 336-882-9593 or Paul Klosterman at 336-848-6835.

FORTY HOURS DEVOTION: Nov. 15-17 at St. John Neumann Church, 8451 Idlewild Road, Charlotte. Father Jacques Philippe of the Community of Beatitudes in France will focus on this year’s devotion theme, “Living

IGBO Mass: 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, at St. Mary Church, 812 Duke St., Greensboro. For details, call 336707-3625.

St. Peregrine Healing Prayer Service: 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 19, in the Daily Mass Chapel and 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 17, at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte. Offered for all those suffering with cancer or other diseases. For details, call the parish office at 704-543-7677.

7th annual mooresville community Ecumenical thanksgiving prayer service: 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, at St. Thérèse Church, 217 Brawley School Road. This Thanksgiving service is an opportunity for Christians to come together and show unity and commitment to serving the community. Donations of cash or food items will be collected for the Christian Mission and Mooresville Soup Kitchen. For details, call Lisa Cash at 704-664-3992, ext. 105.

Holy spirit charismatic prayer meeting: Meets every Wednesday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at St. Margaret of Scotland Church, 37 Murphy Dr., Maggie Valley. For details, call Don Zander at 828-400-9291.

SAFE ENVIRONMENT TRAINING “Protecting God’s Children” workshops are intended to educate parish volunteers to recognize and prevent sexual abuse. Upcoming workshops are listed below.

For details, contact your parish office. To register and confirm workshop times, go to www.virtus.org.

Asheville: 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, St. Lawrence Basilica, 97 Haywood St. SUPPORT GROUPS Ministry of mothers sharing: 9-11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, at Queen of the Apostles Church, 503 North Main St., Belmont. Gathering will be a time for fellowship and study for spiritual growth. For details, email Debbie at qoaformation@aol.com.

COPING WITH GRIEF DURING THE HOLIDAYS: 2-4 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 15, at St. Pius X Church, 2210 North Elm St., Greensboro. Designed for anyone who has had a loved one pass away or experienced another significant loss such as a divorce or loss of a job during the holidays.

Program will help to deal with some of these concerns and share helpful ways to manage grief during this season, which can be a time of stress, anxiety and sadness. For details, call the parish office at 336-2734681 to register or email spx@stpiusxnc.com.

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.

November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI

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St. Eugene first parish to launch solar panels in ‘Care of Creation’ SueAnn Howell Senior reporter

ASHEVILLE — With a blessing of holy water and the flick of a few switches, St. Eugene Church became the first parish in the U.S. to launch a solar energy program in the spirit of Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical “Laudato Si’: On Care of Our Common Home.”

Parish organizers, church members, community leaders and more than 100 Asheville Catholic students gathered Oct. 28 to help Father Patrick Cahill, pastor, power up the 146 solar panels now positioned all over the roof of the church’s parish hall.

The first panels were installed Sept. 21 to coincide with the pope’s apostolic visit to the U.S. Parishioners and Asheville Catholic students signed their names on the backs of the panels to remember that day and the pope’s visit. One parishioner wrote: “These are the People’s Panels. We sign them to remember our response to the Pope’s Encyclical when he came here.”

The $142,500 project was a joint effort of the parish’s Care of Creation committee, the pastoral council, diocesan officials and Father Cahill. Parishioners raised the money through donations and matching grants, reaching their goal six months after a “Solar Sunday Weekend” appeal in March.

The system is expected to generate 45.99 kilowatts of power, about 22 percent of the church’s electricity needs.

The system will be “net metered,” which means that when the system produces more electricity than what the church uses, the meter runs backward.

That excess electricity flows back out to the power grid and Duke Energy provides a credit in the same amount as it would Bill Maloney have charged.

St. Eugene Church Each panel cost approximately $1,000 and comes with a 25year warranty. MB Haynes Energy Solutions of Asheville installed the system, which is owned by the parish and insured by Catholic Mutual of Omaha at no additional cost.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, congratulated St. Eugene Parish on its solar panel project.

In an Oct. 15 letter to organizer Bill Maloney, Cardinal Turkson wrote, “I wish to strongly congratulate your team, your parish, Father Pat Cahill and yourself for the great achievement in the care of creation. I am sure your example will be inspiring to many ecclesial structures.

“I also thank you for your support to the Holy Father Pope Francis and to his recent Encyclical Laudato Si’.”

Maloney noted, “The event (on Oct. 28) was full of fun and excitement. Father Pat, N.C. Representative John Ager and City Councilman Gordon Smith, representing Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, addressed the group.

“The day was drizzly and overcast, but as we started to move outside to bless the panels and cut the ribbon, the clouds parted and out came bright sunshine.”

“This was an historic day,” Father Cahill added. “As far as we know, we’re the only Catholic church that has installed solar panels, and it makes a big statement in our community of the importance of taking care of God’s creation. It was a thrill to receive a letter of

‘We picked solar.

What if every Catholic parish, school, home and business in the United States picked just one thing and did it? What a difference this would make for our children and grandchildren.’

Installers from MB Haynes Energy Solutions of Asheville placed the solar panels on the roof of St. Eugene Church’s parish hall.

Photo provided by St. Eugene Church

Father Pat Cahill powers on the new 146 solar panels atop St. Eugene Church’s parish hall during the ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 28.

Photo provided by John Warner

congratulations from Cardinal Turkson the very day we turned them on and officially ‘went solar.’”

The parish’s electricity bill runs approximately $1,797 per month, or about $21,564 per year. Project organizers know the solar panels will cut these costs, but besides saving money, they see this renewable energy solution as helping to reduce the church’s carbon footprint. And protecting God’s creation is an important part of the Christian mission, they say.

Maloney summarizes the parish’s effort: “Parishioners took up the challenge to ‘Care for the Earth.’ There was excitement, and donations poured in because it was

something concrete and everyone owned the project.

“We picked solar. What if every Catholic parish, school, ‘home and business in the United States picked just one thing and did it? What a difference this would make for our children and grandchildren.”

More online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Want to watch the solar panels live? Get directions and links to view the panels in action, as well as information on how your parish or school can start its own solar panel project.

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 6, 2015 OUR PARISHES

Help break the cycle of poverty CCHD collection being taken up in all parishes Nov. 21-22 CHARLOTTE — The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is the domestic anti-poverty program of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, working to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ “... to bring good news to the poor ... release to captives ... sight to the blind, and let the oppressed go free” (Luke 4:18).

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty by funding community programs that encourage independence.

Each November parishes in the U.S. take up a CCHD special collection. This year the collection is set for the weekend of Nov. 21-22.

Joseph Purello, director of Catholic Charities’ Office of Social Concerns and Advocacy, shares some insights regarding the CCHD collection and the grants funded by generosity of parishioners in the Diocese of Charlotte: “One of the many privileges I have directing Catholic Charities’ Office of Social Concerns and Advocacy is getting to know firsthand many wonderful organizations and grassroots programs utilizing local CCHD grant funds, with staff dedicated to fighting poverty in communities across the Diocese of Charlotte,” Purello says.

This past spring, local CCHD grants were awarded to 10 poverty-fighting programs in eight cities in the diocese: Charlotte, Forest City, Greensboro, Hayesville, Hickory, Lexington, Morganton and West Jefferson.

“Thanks to last November’s CCHD collection, our diocese was able to send $108,436 to the national CCHD office at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C., as well as sponsor a grants program with the $36,145 reserved for local use in the Diocese of Charlotte,” Purello notes.

“The CCHD collection raises funds for these grants, with 75 percent of distributed funds going to support national grants and 25 percent of distributed funds supporting grants for non-profits in the Diocese of Charlotte.”

Purello notes that all grant recipients, in the application process, receive endorsement from Catholic Church leaders (such as pastors, deacons or parish ministry coordinators) and host a site visit for a member of the diocese’s CCHD Advisory Committee.

CCHD local grant applicant organizations and projects for which funding is sought must operate in accord with Catholic teaching, he explains. “They must review a summary statement of that teaching provided by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and sign off on a statement that the grant recipient organization and its activities do not conflict with the social and moral teaching of the Catholic Church.”

For more information about the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and the upcoming special collection, and to view a video about how your donation makes a difference, go to www.usccb.org/about/catholiccampaign-for-human-development/collection/index.cfm.

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

CCHD grants available Are you working with a non-profit in the Diocese of Charlotte that has a poverty-fighting program which might benefit from a local CCHD grant (with grant funding up to $5,000)? Get more information and an application online at www.cssnc.org/cchdcrs after Dec. 1. The deadline to apply for the 2016 round of grant awards is Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016.

All grant applicants and projects are reviewed for their conformity to Catholic social doctrine, seek endorsement from local Catholic entity partners (e.g. parish, schools, vicariates), and participate in a grant review site visit. The work of reviewing and determining grant awards is undertaken by a seven-person diocesan CCHD Advisory Committee which comes from across the Diocese of Charlotte.

Contact Joseph Purello, director of Catholic Charities’ Office of Social Concerns and Advocacy, at jtpurello@ charlottediocese.org or call 704-370-3225 for details.

sueann howell | catholic news herald

The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration mingle with friends after being the guests of honor at Mass at St. Ann Church Oct. 31. Bishop Peter Jugis celebrated the Mass on the Vigil of All Saints and praised the Poor Clares for their joy and living witness to the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Hundreds of faithful attended the Mass to say their goodbyes to the sisters who move to the monastery at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Ala., in the coming days.

Smiles, tears as Poor Clares bid farewell to diocese SueAnn Howell Senior reporter

CHARLOTTE — Hundreds gathered for a bittersweet celebration Oct. 31 to say thanks and goodbye to the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, who are leaving Charlotte this month for Hanceville, Ala., to join other members of their cloistered order.

The Poor Clares will move to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, home of Mother Angelica, foundress of the Eternal Word Television Network. Mother Dolores Marie, who has been abbess at the Poor Clares’ St. Joseph Monastery in Charlotte, will take over as abbess there. Plans for a permanent monastery in the Diocese of Charlotte are being put on hold, but the nuns will retain their 333-acre tract near Shelby in the hopes that one day they will return as their order grows.

At a farewell Mass and reception at St. Ann Church, Bishop Peter Jugis injected a note of laughter amid the sadness, expressing his hope that “the second coming of the Poor Clares will come before the second coming of Jesus Christ.”

The Poor Clares came to the diocese from Ohio in 2010, where they moved into a small house next to St. Ann School that they converted into their monastery. There, they prayed constantly for the people of the diocese and for an increase in priestly vocations. Over the past five years, the nuns have been a welcome sight at diocesan celebrations including ordination Masses and the annual chrism Mass. They have served as a continual witness to the beauty of consecrated life, living in service to the Church through their sacrifices of prayer, penance and semi-enclosure.

At their farewell Mass on Oct. 31, Bishop Jugis shared what he believes is the legacy the Poor Clares leave to the diocese: “For one thing, the legacy of joyfully following Christ. The Poor Clares are joyful sisters. They have the joy that comes from knowing Jesus and living in Him,” he said. “Have you ever seen a sad Poor Clare of Adoration?”

“The Poor Clares’ charism of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament stands as a living example of the

doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Jesus is here – really, truly and substantially present in the Eucharist – and the Poor Clares perpetually remind us of this beautiful truth and treasure of the Catholic faith,” he said.

At the reception after Mass, Mother Dolores Marie expressed a few words of thanks before being overcome with emotion. She and the other five sisters spent much of the party hugging the many children and other people from around the diocese who came to wish them well – everyone’s smiles mixing with tears.

Following the news of their upcoming departure, there has been an outpouring of love for the Poor Clares.

“It has been a huge blessing and a piece of heaven for our family to have the Poor Clares here with us in Charlotte for five and a half years,” said John and Lucy Torres, parishioners of St. Ann Church. “Saying goodbye will be difficult, and we will miss them tremendously. We are forever grateful to God for having them in our lives.”

“Upon hearing the news of their transfer at the mandate of the Holy See, I could only think of the words of the angel to St. Joseph, ‘Rise, take the Child and His mother, and go.’ Through our Holy Father, the nuns of St. Joseph Monastery now receive these same words. This cross is difficult to accept, and yet we can be confident that their unwavering ‘yes’ to Jesus Christ and His Holy Church will bring a shower of graces to us and to their new home,” said Father Benjamin Roberts, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Monroe, who regularly celebrated Mass for the Poor Clares.

Abbey and Rick Lejk, parishioners of St. Ann Church, said, “Ever since their arrival on our campus at St. Ann’s, the Poor Clares have been a beacon of love, a fount of joy and a source of hope. They are a group of ladies who shine constantly with God’s blessings which they share unhesitatingly with all. These holy ladies, chosen by God to serve all, will leave a hole in our parish that will never be filled until they return. We pray for their safe trip and pray that they return to us very soon.”

“Having the Poor Clares here in our community FAREWELL, SEE page 20

Let’s keep talking.

November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com

Mercy Sister talks about immigration Rico De Silva Hispanic Communications Reporter

CHARLOTTE — Approximately 60 people came to St. Matthew Church in Charlotte Nov. 1 to hear Mercy Sister Rose Marie Tresp speak about Pope Francis’ constant invitation for the Church to embrace immigrants.

Sister Rose Marie has served since 2008 as the Mercy Director of Justice for the South Central province, covering 17 states, Guam and Jamaica. In her role as Director of Justice, one of her responsibilities is to educate and advocate with the Mercy Sisters, Associates and ministry leaders on immigration. She also regularly participates in the activities of the USCCB’s Justice for Immigrants.

She started her talk, entitled, “Why Pope Francis talks often about immigrants,” by quoting part of Pope Francis’ address to Congress during his September visit to the U.S.: “We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best as we can to their situation.”

“What I’d like to focus on particularly is when he says ‘seeing their faces,’” Sister Rose Marie said.

She encouraged people to view contemporary immigrants through the eyes of their own immigrant ancestors – seeing their faces and learning their stories.

She recounted the immigration story of her own grandmother, Anna Weismeier, who came to the United States in 1922 from Germany at the age of 20. She had gone to work as a nanny at the age of 12 because her parents could not afford to send her to school or feed her.

She also told the story of her brother-inlaw Jose Chavez, who came to the U.S. in the 1970s from El Salvador to escape the civil war there. He was just 15 when he began working as a migrant farm worker and in chicken processing plants.

“He told me the first place he worked, for six months, they didn’t pay him and they only fed him ramen noodles,” she recounted.

Chavez is currently a permanent U.S. resident, studying to earn citizenship.

People emigrate to the U.S. for several reasons, Sister Rose Marie explained: abject poverty; violence and war; forced immigration, such as slavery in previous centuries and now human trafficking; environmental devastation, such as hurricanes and earthquakes; and lastly, religious persecution. People are either pushed here for those reasons or they are pulled here because of the promise of a better, more secure and healthier life for themselves and their families.

Current immigration laws have made it more difficult for people to enter the U.S. legally, she noted, leading to a rise in “undocumented” immigrants living here without government permission. Before 1924, there was no visa requirement to enter the U.S., for example, she said. “So what that means is if your ancestors came in prior to

1924… you didn’t have to do anything except walk in the door, whether it was in Ellis Island, in California, in Texas.”

There are now an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., she said.

After the visa requirement was established, immigrants had to obtain a visa in their home country at the United States consulate or embassy in order to enter the country legally. In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act was passed. “That was really the last time we had any kind of immigration reform, and because of that immigration reform a lot of people already here were able to become documented. At that point, my brother-in-law was able to become a permanent resident,” she noted.

She continued, “Sometimes I hear people say, ‘Why don’t they just get in line?’ Well, they don’t because they can’t.”

There are only four paths for an undocumented immigrant to obtain legal immigration status, Sister Rose Marie explained. One option is through a work visa, by which a company or organization sponsors a worker to legally work and live in the U.S. for a predetermined time.

Another option is through a diversity lottery, limited to just 50,000 people per year, and also to countries not well-represented in the United States. Asylum to refugees escaping persecution is another avenue.

“We generally take about 80,000 refugees per year. The president is the one who decides on the number of refugees. However, it has to be funded by Congress,” she explained.

The fourth option is family status, by which an immediate family member who is a U.S. citizen can sponsor a spouse or child.

“If you don’t have any family relationships, or it’s going to take you a long time, there’s really not a line for you to get in,” she said.

OUR PARISHESI

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 6, 2015 OUR PARISHES

Country singer to bring inspirational style to St. Matthew

“Spirit Club has been a wonderful place for our 24-year-old young man with autism to go to and socialize with others. He has been doing this for the past two years and has a lot of fun and is involved in many activities throughout the year there. It gives us parents a break and a safe and positive place for him to hang out and be with others.

“We are fortunate to have this club at St. Mathews and such wonderful, dedicated volunteers like Jan, Linda and Coach Bob, who give their time and have such patience and kindness to spend time so joyfully with him. We hope they know how much we appreciate them and how grateful we are that how much of the love of Jesus is shown through all of them to our son.”

— Quinee and Linus Rego, parents “For me, Spirit Club means making new friends who make me smile and laugh.

It means showing up with the intention of looking for things that I can do to help and then forgetting that I’m working as a volunteer because I’m having so much fun just being with everyone, my new friends and the staff.”

— Vickie Berman, SPRED catechist and adult volunteer “The best thing of Spirit Club is helping people like making sandwiches for those who have no food, we make food for them. And making friends who like us for who we are, and we can be ourselves.”

— Victoria Atkinson, participant “Spirit Club is all about celebration. We get together and celebrate the gifts that each and every one of us have to offer every month. It is such an open and diverse group; people from all walks of life come to Spirit Club and bring their talents, passions and hobbies to share with one another.

“It is truly amazing to see the impact Spirit Club has on both the attendees and volunteers; we learn so much from each other.”

— Jennifer Morgan, volunteer “It’s an exciting experience that lets you have a good feeling inside you, knowing that you are able to help someone. The Spirit Club has a great group of kids and I enjoy spending time with them.”

— Tyler Sierra, volunteer “It is a privilege to be part of this club and work with wonderful volunteers and club members.”

— Linda Altritt, founder and leader of Spirit Club

Photo provided by Jan clemens

Special Friends in the Spirit Club enjoy some fellowship time with volunteers and family during one of their recent get-togethers at St. Matthew Church.

Embracing the spirit of friendship Special friends, volunteers share unique bond in ‘Spirit Club’ Jan Clemens Special to the Catholic News Herald

CHARLOTTE — St. Matthew Church has had a faith formation ministry, called the Special Religious Development Program (SPRED), for nearly 11 years.

This ministry has been a blessing, providing those with developmental disabilities the opportunity to become part of the faith life of the Church through religious development, preparing them to receive the sacraments, and participating in the liturgy.

A year and a half ago, the parish went one step further in this ministry, after the father of a young boy with developmental disabilities approached the pastor, Monsignor John McSweeney, with the concern that parents of children with autism and other challenges occasionally need a short respite.

Two SPRED catechists, Linda Altritt and Bob Estock, stepped up to develop and lead a program that would provide that – and much more.

God has created us to be social beings, as well as spiritual beings. Those with autism and other challenges often have difficulty in making friends and participating in a group. This realization evolved into a social group called “Spirit Club.” The motto of

Spirit Club is “Embracing the Spirit of Friendship.”

This club enables persons with special needs to enhance their social and communication skills and sensory awareness through athletics, art and service projects.

During the monthly two-hour session, under the guidance of adult volunteers, each participant has a “buddy,” a high school student volunteer who accompanies them during the activities. These student volunteers bond with the participants, and while doing so, develop the qualities of empathy and an understanding that we are more alike than different. As the teen volunteers mature, these are assets which shape their view of people whom they thought were “not like us.”

The original goals of Spirit Club have been more than met – a respite for the parents, a fun and social connection for those who need it, and a potential lifechanging experience for the teen volunteers.

If you visit Spirit Club, you will see a group of friends enjoying themselves together, embracing the spirit of friendship.

The emblem for Spirit Club is a Native American symbol for friendship, represented by two crossing arrows bringing two groups of people together: the special friends and the teenaged and adult volunteers. They embrace the spirit of friendship through team-building activities, sports, crafts and just having fun. Spirit Club welcomes new participants and also volunteers who would like to serve the Special Friends in Spirit Club. For details, email Linda Altritt at linnynync@carolina.rr.com.

Jan Clemens is the founder of SPRED at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte.

CHARLOTTE — How has a country singer from Canada found her way to North Carolina to perform a concert Nov. 22 at St. Matthew Church? Simple: An admiring fan, Richard White, from the parish invited her.

Kelley Mooney, a well-known country music recording artist and Prince Edward Island native, will give a concert at the south Charlotte church at 7 p.m. in honor of the parish’s SPRED Program.

Concert attendees are asked to bring a non-perishable food item to help Mooney stock the parish’s food pantry, a cause dear to Mooney’s heart, said Jan Clemens, founder of SPRED at St. Matthew Church. A love offering will also be taken up for Mooney’s travel expenses.

Mooney grew up singing, and her love of country music blossomed in the 1980s. In 1983, Mooney was invited to participate on a compilation album of PEI artists called “Our Songs.”

“I sang ‘We’ll Make Happiness,’” a song I wrote when I was 14 years old,” Mooney recalled. “I was then invited to appear as a guest on ‘Sounds of the Island,’ a weekly musical variety CBC television series which aired in the early 1980s.”

Another highlight in her musical career came in 1984, when she sang for Pope John Paul II during his visit to Halifax, Nova Scotia. “That was an incredible experience… climbing all those stairs to the stage. I don’t remember much more about that. Just all those stairs!” she laughed.

Her first album, “We’ll Make Happiness,” debuted in 1990, and her second album “Tomorrow” came out in 2011. Most recently, she completed a third album, “Still,” after experiencing a long illness.

She is candid about her life struggles. Her battle with alcoholism and her recent struggle with ulcerative colitis have given her an appreciation for her blessings, she said, and she wants her songs to bring joy and perhaps healing to others.

“I always knew God was there.

(During my illness) I came to think of Him as a person, a being in my life. He became real,” Mooney said.

Performing for others helps her.

She says it never fails that people come up to her after her concerts to share personal stories of struggles or illness and tell her they can relate to her.

“People are so happy to know it’s not just them (facing hardships).

They see that they’re not alone.”

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI

9

‘When you help a Room at the Inn, you don’t just save one or two lives. You save a heritage.’

Room at the Inn of the Triad hosts 16th annual banquet Georgianna Penn Correspondent

GREENSBORO — Hundreds gathered at Embassy Suites in Greensboro Oct. 15 for the 16th annual fundraising banquet for Room at the Inn of the Triad. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for people like you,” said Darlene Pawlik, the event’s keynote speaker and New Hampshire’s Right to Life Educational Trust Foundation Chair.

Pawlik expressed much gratitude for people and places like Room at the Inn. Conceived in rape and raised in a cycle of abuse, Pawlik carries the story of redemption inside her and strives to share hope by supporting pro-life agencies like New Hampshire Right to Life, Save the 1 and Care Net, an umbrella company for pregnancy care centers around the country.

Pawlik’s story got worse before it got better.

“Bad beginnings do not necessitate bad endings,” she said. The abuse began early in her life and gradually got worse. After many years of abuse, Pawlik became a victim of human trafficking and was sold many times. When she became pregnant, she faked an abortion. She was able to escape her abuser and find refuge in a home much like Room at the Inn. She said, for the first time ever, she realized “that there are good people in the world, willing to take in” unwed mothers and people in need. Now, happily married and the mother of five, Pawlik is a nurse and, yes, even a grandmother.

Pawlik blessed the evening with her story of hope and redemption, much like the many mothers who experience hope

each year through the programs, services and grace given to them through Room at the Inn of the Triad. RATI is a non-profit Catholic agency that provides shelter and programs to single, homeless pregnant women, offering them an alternative to abortion.

“When you help a Room at the Inn, you don’t just save one or two lives. You save a heritage,” Pawlik said.

Since 2001, Room at the Inn of the Triad has helped 200 mothers and their children. It provides food, shelter, clothing, transportation, child development services and life skills education. Room at the Inn not only helps mothers survive, but thrive.

“Since I’ve left Room at the Inn, I’ve just shot to the moon,” said one mother of her journey. From dependency to selfsufficiency, RATI helps mothers build families. From homelessness to safe housing, new moms obtain jobs and life skills training. They receive spiritual, financial and relationship guidance. Clients are also encouraged to pursue a college education while living at RATI. Albert Hodges, president of Room at the Inn of the Triad, wholeheartedly thanked the many donors and supporters, volunteers and staff.

“Marianne’s name is written on my heart,” he said in thanking RATI’s vice president of marketing and development, Marianne Donadio. He also thanked this year’s recipient of the Faithful Servant Award, Donielle Wilde, and thanked Monsignor Mauricio West, recipient of the Father Conrad Lewis Kimbrough Pro-Life Leadership Award. Hodges also thanked Marlene Dubose, who received the Jim and Elizabeth Hedgecock Volunteer Award,

Georgianna Penn | Catholic News Herald

Marianne Donadio, vice president of marketing and development for Room at the Inn of the Triad; Albert Hodges, president of RATI; and “Lew” McCloud, Culture of Life director for the N.C. State Council of Knights of Columbus, pose with a photo of Pope Francis during RATI’s annual banquet. and major sponsors including St. Pius X Church, St. Leo Church and the Knights of Columbus for their support over the years.

He expressed most gratitude to the mothers of Room at the Inn, describing them as his “heroes.”

SueAnn Howell | Catholic News Herald

Charlotte Center for Women hosts grand opening CHARLOTTE — Stanton Healthcare Charlotte Center for Women opened its doors to abortion-minded women on Oct. 29.

Brice Griffin, founder and director, cut the purple ribbon at the grand opening ceremony along with Stanton Healthcare staff and volunteers. Father Casey Coleman, parochial vicar of St. Vincent de Paul Church, led a prayer before the ceremony. The center’s first client, Neka, attended the event with her newlywed husband to share the ultrasound image of their child, who is due in late April.

The Charlotte Center for Women is located at 3707 Latrobe Dr. in Charlotte, just blocks away from the city’s busiest abortion mill. The Charlotte Center for Women is one of five such centers in the U.S., offering pregnancy testing, lifeaffirming options counseling, a sexual integrity program and post-abortion support. All services are confidential and provided at no cost to the client. For more information, to donate or to volunteer, go to www.thestantonproject.org or call 704-401-9320.

Photo provided by Deacon Ruben Tamayo

Witnesses for life CHARLOTTE — MiraVia held its annual “Witness For Life” fundraising banquet at the NASCAR Hall of Fame Crown Ballroom Oct. 22. The outreach ministry and maternity home for college-aged women based at Belmont Abbey College provides critical resources for women who choose life for their babies. MiraVia provided more than 30.960 diapers, 5,215 pounds of food, 192 life skills classes and housed five moms and five babies this past year.

Bishop Peter J. Jugis gave the invocation at the banquet, and journalist/activist Austin Ruse gave the keynote address. Dr. William Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College, received the Monsignor William Wellein Award for his commitment to upholding the teachings of the Catholic faith. Members of the Charlotte Catholic High School choir sang the National Anthem. For more information about MiraVia, go to www.mira-via.org.

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 6, 2015 OUR PARISHES

ST. LEO FROM PAGE 2

of the Church in its profession of faith and to ensure the safety of his people against frequent barbarian invasions.

Leo used his authority, in both doctrinal and disciplinary matters, against a number of heresies troubling the Western Church – including Pelagianism (involving the denial of original sin) and Manichaeanism (a gnostic system that saw the material world as evil). In this same period, many Eastern Christians had begun arguing about the relationship between Jesus’ humanity and divinity.

As early as 445, Leo had intervened in this dispute in the East, which threatened to split the churches of Alexandria and Constantinople. Its eventual resolution was, in fact, rejected in some quarters – leading to the present-day split between Eastern Orthodoxy and the so-called “non-Chalcedonian churches” which accept only three ecumenical councils.

As the fifth-century Christological controversy continued, the pope urged the gathering of an ecumenical council to resolve the matter. At the ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451, the pope’s teaching was received as authoritative by the bishops, who proclaimed: “Peter has spoken through the mouth of Leo.” His teaching, known as the “Tome of Leo,” brought to an end more than a century of serious Christological heresies. It confirmed that Christ’s eternal divine personhood and nature did not absorb or negate the human nature that He assumed in time through the Incarnation. Instead, “the proper character of both natures was maintained and came together in a single person.”

“So without leaving His Father’s glory behind, the Son of God comes down from His heavenly throne and enters the depths of our world,” the pope taught.

“Whilst remaining pre-existent, He begins to exist in time. The Lord of the universe veiled His measureless majesty and took on a servant’s form. The God who knew no suffering did not despise becoming a suffering man, and, deathless as He is, to be subject to the laws of death.”

In 452, one year after the Council of Chalcedon, St. Leo led a delegation to the gates of Rome to persuade

FR. TAD FROM PAGE 2

has come to be diminished and even negated in the minds of many, largely due to the diffusion of contraception. This way of intentionally impeding our own procreativity has effectively diminished and even undermined our ability to perceive the inner order and interpersonal meaning of our own sexuality.

St. John Paul II once described the root truth about human sexuality as that “characteristic of man – male and female – which permits them, when they become ‘one flesh,’ to submit at the same time their whole humanity to the blessing of fertility.”

The routine promotion of contraceptive sexual relations across all strata of society has effectively collapsed the mystery of sexuality into the trivial pursuit of mutually-agreed-upon pleasurable sensations. It has managed to reconfigure that sexuality into, basically, sterile acts of mutual autoeroticism. Men and women, neutered and neutralized by various surgeries, pharmaceuticals or other devices, no longer really need each other in their complementary sexual roles, with homosexual genital activity claiming the status of just another variant of the same game. This depleted vision of our sexuality strips out the beautiful mystery at its core and diminishes our human dignity.

Human sexuality clearly touches deep human chords, including the reality of our solitude. In the depths of the human heart is found a desire for completion through the total spousal gift of oneself to another, a gift that profoundly contributes to alleviating our primordial sense of human solitude.

Both St. John Paul II and Pope Francis have noted how the deeper mystery of communion that we

‘No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.’

St. Leo the Great the barbarian king Attila the Hun to abandon plans to sack the city and instead withdraw beyond the Danube River. Attila had amassed an empire extending from Kazakhstan to Central Europe, and Rome was next on his list of conquered territory.

“Leave Rome to the Romans,” Leo told him, “and a holy crown will come to your successors.” Some claim he was referring to the future Emperor Charlemagne.

According to legend, Attila the Hun said he agreed to quickly retreat because while Leo was talking to him he saw an apparition of Sts. Peter and Paul armed with swords, threatening him with divine wrath unless he obeyed the pope.

When the Vandal leader Genseric occupied Rome three years later, the pope also confronted him, unarmed, and obtained a guarantee of safety for many of the city’s inhabitants and the churches to which they had fled.

St. Leo the Great died on Nov. 10, 461. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XIV in 1754.

Besides the “Tome of Leo,” a collection of his 143 letters and 96 sermons still survives. His letters, written mostly to bishops, illustrate his constant efforts to bring about unity through discipline inside the Church. He also established rules for the selection of bishops and for the care of consecrated virgins. His sermons became instantly famous, especially his talks on the Incarnation of Christ.

— Catholic News Agency

More online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Read the “Tome of Leo” and excerpts from St. Leo the Great’s sermons

seek through intimacy is connected to this desire to overcome solitude. We are ultimately intended for communion, so our experiences of human solitude draw us into relationship, and beckon us to an encounter with the other.

Yet the union of friendship that arises between two men, for example, or between two women, while clearly important in helping to overcome solitude, can be predicated only on non-sexual forms of sharing if their friendship is to be authentic, fruitful and spiritually life-giving. Sexual activity between members of the same sex fails to communicate objectively either the gift of life or the gift of self.

Such activity countermands authentic intimacy by collapsing into a form of consensual bodily exploitation, contradicting the very design and meaning of the body in its nature as masculine or feminine. It represents, in fact, the lifeless antithesis of nuptial fruitfulness and faithfulness.

The beauty and meaning of every sexual encounter in marriage, then, is rooted not only in faithful and exclusive love, but also in the radical complementarity of spouses manifested in the abiding mystery of their mutual procreativity. Pope Francis, speaking at the 2015 Synod of Bishops and addressing the theme of “The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and in the Contemporary World,” reiterated this divine design over human sexuality when he stressed: “This is God’s dream for His beloved creation: to see it fulfilled in the loving union between a man and a woman, rejoicing in their shared journey, fruitful in their mutual gift of self.”

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.

RICO DE SILVA | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

The back of the Marketplace’s store on wheels, nicknamed “The Rolling Shack,” a customized delivery van, loaded with fair trade fashions like purses, jewelry, leather bags and such, was at the center of the International Fair Trade Sale at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte Oct. 25.

Marketplace sale at St. Matthew Church raises awareness of fair trade Rico De Silva Hispanic Communications Reporter

CHARLOTTE — The Marketplace, a Christian-based fair trade store in Cornelius, brought its store on wheels to St. Matthew Church in Charlotte for the parish’s first International Fair Trade Sale Oct. 25.

The event was sponsored by the parish’s Peace and Justice Ministry “to raise awareness to fair trade,” said Bruce Mlakar, the ministry’s coordinator. “The Marketplace does a fantastic job helping people raise themselves out of hopelessness and poverty. Today we have them here to raise awareness to the St. Matthew faith community and at the same time raise some money for what they do.”

The Marketplace has been in business since 2012. When it opened its doors in Cornelius, the Marketplace had business relationships with only two groups in two countries. “Now, we are in 23 countries with 63 groups,” noted Marisa Sellman, its founder and director.

The Marketplace holds fair trade sales in Christian churches throughout the Southeast. Its store on wheels, fittingly nicknamed “The Rolling Shack” by Sellman, is a customized delivery van, fully loaded with fair trade fashions including men’s and women’s clothes, purses, jewelry, leather bags and other accessories.

“They travel around this time of year to churches and organizations, not just within North Carolina, but other states, Virginia, Georgia, etc. And they do these sales… They’re bringing to light the difference they’re making in people’s worlds,” Mlakar noted.

The sale at St. Matthew was scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, but it was an immediate success even before Sellman and the Marketplace’s volunteers could unload their goods and pitch a tent in the parish hall. “It’s been crazy. They started finding us in the parking lot, near the fashion truck, the Rolling Shack… Customers have been running in here. We have had a steady flow of customers. The line has been all the way through the back (of the hall) for most of the morning,” Sellman said.

The Marketplace was born from Sellman’s desire to apply her business skills and experience in Christian ministry. “I met up with the first groups and started marketing, and realized that if I can connect the person who is purchasing the product to the person making the product, that was a beautiful connection,” she explained.

Sellman also pointed out that people in general love to help others in need, but most of the time they don’t see an effective way to do it. Fair trade commerce can provide that tangible link between people.

“By buying a shirt or buying a necklace or buying a purse, knowing that is going to change somebody’s life,” she said, “people are more than willing to do that.”

November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com

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In Brief Deacon joins Mooresville parish CHARLOTTE — Bishop Peter Jugis has granted faculties to Deacon Gregory A. Hutar for the Diocese of Charlotte and appointed him to serve as a permanent Hutar deacon for St. Thérèse Parish in Mooresville effective Sept. 18.

Deacon Hutar was ordained on Sept. 11, 1981, for the Diocese of Duluth, Minn. He and his wife Kathryn Jean are parents of four children and seven grandchildren. They moved to the diocese from Ely, Minn.

OUR PARISHESI

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Feminists for Life president coming to diocese BELMONT — The Sisters of Mercy will host a lecture

by Feminists for Life President Serrin Foster at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. Foster 18, in Curtin Hall, Mercy Administration Bldg., 101 Mercy Dr., Belmont. Foster’s presentation, “The Feminist Case Against Abortion,” focuses on the pro-life history of the feminist movement and makes the case for why feminists should oppose abortion. Wine and cheese reception to follow.

RSVP to CindyBrown@feministsforlife.org.

— Catholic News Herald

Photo provided by Connie Ries

Living rosary St. Pius X Knights, other councils kick off ultrasound initiative

2 seminarians become lectors COLUMBUS, Ohio — Seminarians Alfonso Gamez and Britt Taylor were installed as lectors Nov. 1 during Mass celebrated by Bishop Daniel Thomas of the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, at the Pontifical College Josephinum, where the two are studying for the priesthood. They are pictured above with Monsignor Christopher J. Schreck, rector and president. Seminarians installed as lectors typically are first-year theologians and are commissioned to proclaim the Word of God in the liturgical assembly and to catechize the faithful.

— Josh Altonji and Carolyn A. Dinovo

Vatican II’s take on religious life topic of upcoming presentation HIGH POINT — The Sisters of Mary, Mother of God in High Point will host a special Solari presentation on “Vatican II’s Decree on Religious Life 50 Years Later,” with guest speaker Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari from Belmont Abbey, from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, at Ilderton Hall at Pennybyrn at Maryfield Community Center, 109 Penny Road in High Point. Abbot Placid will also touch briefly on the upcoming opening of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. All are welcome.

Perpetual Hope Gospel Choir to perform in concert CHARLOTTE — The award-winning Perpetual Hope Gospel Choir will present its 35th annual concert at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, at Our Lady of Consolation Church in Charlotte. The concert will be held in the Parish Life Center, located next to the church at 1235 Badger Ct. All are welcome.

GREENSBORO — The Knights of Columbus at St. Pius X Church, along with other local councils, recently kicked off a fund raising drive to be able to buy an ultrasound machine for the Greensboro Pregnancy Center.

After Mass Oct. 4, Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio gave the Knights a donation of $1,000 to get the initiative started. (He is pictured above with Chris Meirez, Warren Duhaime and Grand Knight John Joyce Jr.) Nearly 90 percent of mothers who see their unborn children with this procedure choose life – making it one of the most effective tools in the fight to protect the unborn. It is estimated that this one machine will be able to reach more than 2,000 clients, which means that it may save more than 1,800 lives.

STATESVILLE — Members of St. Philip the Apostle Church in Statesville prayed a “living rosary” Oct. 11 in front of the church. Father Thomas J. Kessler, pastor, and a good number of the parish families and children gathered together around the parish youth who represented the beads of the rosary with blue and white balloons strung together to form a rosary. The children led the corresponding prayers and when everyone was finished, the balloons were released into the sky.

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— John Russell

N.C. bishops issue conscience protection alert North Carolina’s two bishops have issued an alert through their public policy arm, Catholic Voice North Carolina. Bishop Peter Jugis and Bishop Michael Burbidge are asking people to contact their congressional representatives in support of the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act. This legislation clarifies the right of medical personnel to refrain from participating in abortion procedures. The right of conscience for medical workers, while long established in U.S. law, has come under recent attack. For example, California recently passed legislation requiring almost all health care plans to pay for elective abortions.

The bishops are concerned that a mandate for hospitals, even religiously affiliated hospitals, to perform abortions could be next. To read the alert, visit www.catholicvoicenc.org.

— David Hains, diocesan director of communication

Let’s keep talking.

We welcome your parish’s news! Please email news items to Editor Patricia L. Guilfoyle at catholicnews@ charlottediocese.org.

Donate Your Car Make your car go the extra mile.

Donate your car to Catholic Charities to help fund programs for those in need. All vehicle makes, models and years welcome.

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 6, 2015 OUR PARISHES

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Please pray for the following priests who died during the month of November.

Rev. John P. Bradley - 2003 Rev. John J. Hyland - 1975 Rev. Msgr. John P. Manley - 1981 Rev. John S. Regan - 1976 Rev. Leonard E. Schellberg - 2014 Rev. Stephen A. Sullivan - 1989

Photo provided by Aida Tamayo

600 Discalced Carmelites attend national congress MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The Washington Province of the Discalced Secular Order of Carmelites in the U.S. hosted the 2015 National OCDS Congress Oct. 14-17 in Milwaukee. More than 600 Discalced Secular Carmelites, including priests, friars and religious, attended the event that occurs only once every 10 years. Seven active members of the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Group in Charlotte attended the congress. They are pictured with Discalced Carmelites Father Kieran Kavanaugh, prolific author and translator of the works of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, reformers of the Carmelite order.

Pictured (from left) are Virginia Nash, Celeste Richards, Karen Devore, Ann McClintock, Father Kavanaugh, Ana Rivera, Aida Tamayo and SueAnn Howell. Participants in the congress celebrated the feast of St. Teresa of Avila at Holy Hill Basilica and Carmelite Monastery Oct. 15, marking the end of the year-long celebration of the fifth centenary of her birth.

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David Hains | Catholic News Herald

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Just in time for Veterans Day Attendees at the 2015 Eucharistic Congress in September got to hear the inspiring story of Father Vincent Capodanno.

Father Daniel Mode, a chaplain, told the story of Father Capodanno’s devotion to the soldiers he served with in Vietnam in the 1960s. Father Capodanno was killed as he ministered to troops during a battle in 1967. Father Mode’s Eucharistic Congress talk is now available for viewing on the Diocese of Charlotte’s YouTube channel. Pictured above is Father Capodanno in Vietnam, and Father Mode at the Congress.

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November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com

Vicariatos Hispanos de Boone y Salisbury tienen coordinadores nuevos Rico De Silva

Día de los Santos y de los Difuntos es una oportunidad para reflexionar en nuestra mortalidad

N

oviembre es uno de mis meses favoritos en la Iglesia, especialmente porque celebramos la fiesta de todos los Santos, el primero de Noviembre, y el Día de los Difuntos, el 2 de Noviembre. Ambas fiestas son una excelente oportunidad de recordar y celebrar las vidas de nuestros santos favoritos, recordar a nuestros seres queridos, amigos y familiares que ya han fallecido. Sin embargo, creo que los más importante de estas dos fiestas es la de recordar que tan corta son nuestras vidas en comparación con la Vida Eterna.

La semana pasada tuve la oportunidad de visitar un cementerio en Winston-Salem durante un viaje de la escuela de mi hija. El cementerio en cuestión se llama ‘God’s Acre,’ el ‘Acre de Dios’ en español. Prácticamente todas las personas sepultadas ahí vivieron durante el siglo XIX, y la gran mayoría de ellas fallecieron relativamente jóvenes en comparación con nuestros tiempos modernos. Yo calculo que la edad promedio basándome en las lapidas del Acre de Dios eran como unos 40 años. Esto me hizo reflexionar mucho en camino de vuelta a Charlotte porque si miramos, o estudiamos las vidas de los santos, nos damos cuenta que la gran mayoría de ellos también vivieron vidas relativamente cortas en comparación con la vida actual del siglo XXI. Pero, lo sorprendente del caso, es que estos hombres y mujeres pudieron, con la ayuda y gracia de Dios lograr no solo ganarse el Cielo, sino también hacer muchas veces grandes cosas para la gloria de Dios y el servicio al prójimo.

Entonces, yo me pregunto en voz alta, ¿Por qué si yo que presentemente tengo tantos recursos, vivo en un país en que prácticamente todo es posible con el sacrificio, el trabajo fuerte y la ayuda de Dios, en realidad, no he logrado nada para que como dice Jesús en el Evangelio, “Otros vean sus obras y le den gloria a Dios?”

Yo creo que la respuesta es bien sencilla: En general, nosotros los seres humanos, estamos conformes con nuestras vidas porque a veces pensamos que vamos a vivir para siempre en esta vida. No reflexionamos en que todos nos estamos muriendo, pero la mayoría de nosotros no sabemos cuándo nos vamos a morir.

Cada ser humano nace con una misión. Algo que Dios, dentro de su plan divino, quiere que se cumpla en este mundo, pero solamente cada uno de nosotros pueden cumplir su misión específica y personal que Dios ha preparado para nosotros desde antes que Él nos creara.

Aprovechemos este mes de Noviembre, que la Iglesia dedica a todos los difuntos y a las Almas del Purgatorio, para reflexionar acerca de nuestra mortalidad, y preguntémosle a Dios Padre si estamos viviendo una vida de acuerdo a su voluntad. Si supiéramos que el final de nuestras vidas se acerca, ¿Estamos caminando el camino de ‘Hágase tu voluntad hacia en la tierra como en el Cielo?’

Esta es una pregunta que debemos hacernos cada día porque no sabemos la hora o el día en que Jesús nos va a llamar a su presencia para darle cuentas de nuestra existencia.

Que Dios los bendiga.

Rico De Silva es el Especialista de Noticias Hispanas del Catholic News Herald.

Rico De Silva Hispanic Communications Reporter

BOONE — El Padre Camilo Cárdenas es el nuevo Coordinador del Ministerio Hispano del Vicariato de Boone. El Padre Cárdenas es originario de Colombia, y es un sacerdote diocesano de la Diócesis de Providence en Rhode Island. El sacerdote empezó su labor en el Vicariato de Boone el 1 de Julio del corriente.

El Padre Cárdenas ha sido sacerdote desde hace 17 de años, 11 de ellos como sacerdote en la Diócesis de Providence. El Padre comenta acerca del Ministerio Hispano en la Diócesis de Charlotte, “Me alegra por el esfuerzo del ministerio hispano, creo ha hecho un gran alcance, veo que tiene presencia en casi toda el área de la Diócesis,” dijo el Padre Cárdenas.

El Padre Cárdenas también habló de la presencia Latina durante el último Congreso Eucarístico de la diócesis, “De logros podría hablar por el Congreso Eucarístico pasado, vi mucha gente hispana, eso expresa que han logrado concientizar a la comunidad hispana de su deber ser activos en la Iglesia, de la necesidad de unidad y manifestar su presencia como Iglesia comprometida y promesa para futuras generaciones.”

El Padre identificó tres retos en su vicariato actualmente.” En el Vicariato de Boone creo el reto más grande es que la población hispana se sienta más parte de la Iglesia, que puedan ser activos dentro de cada una de sus Parroquias. Entiendo que muchos de ellos ejercen una labor del campo y los ocupan largas horas, lo cual interfiere en su deseo de reunirse, de aprender y de liderar su pueblo,” dijo el Padre Cárdenas.

“Otro reto es la participación en la Eucaristía Dominical, el gran número de hispanos no corresponde con los que llegan a la Eucaristía, falta más conciencia y amor por la

RICO DE SILVA | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Los dos nuevos coordinadores hispanos de vicariato, la Hermana Joan Pearson, coordinadora de Salisbury, y el Padre Camilo Cárdenas, coordinador de Boone. presencia del Jesús en la Eucaristía que se hace presente para fortalecer sus vidas. A esto se agrega las distancias que deben manejar, y tal vez muchos sin licencias de conducir.”

El Padre Cárdenas dijo también que en el Vicariato de Boone le han dado una recepción muy calurosa y cordial, y también agregó que las familias Hispanas se sienten contentas de tener un sacerdote Latino entre ellos. “La gente se siente más en familia y alegres de este encuentro con alguien que pueda hablarles en su idioma, escucharles sus dificultades o celebrarles sus sacramentos donde puedan entender bien. Estoy muy agradecido con la Diócesis y con todos los que me han apoyado en las diferentes comunidades y espero juntos coordinadores, SEE page 20

Hermana de la Caridad da charla de inmigración en la Parroquia de San Mateo Rico De Silva Hispanic Communications Reporter

CHARLOTTE — Cerca de unas 60 personas asistieron a una charla acerca de inmigración en la Iglesia de San Mateo en Charlotte el pasado Domingo, 1 de Noviembre.

La expositora fue la Hermana de la Caridad, Rose Marie Tresp, RSM; y el título de su charla en ingles fue “Why Pope Francis talks often about immigrants,” (Porque el Papa Francisco habla frecuentemente acerca de los inmigrantes).

La Hermana Rose Marie, citando al Papa Francisco al comienzo de su charla leyó, “’No nos debemos echar para atrás por sus números (los inmigrantes), sino por el contrario verlos como personas; mirando sus caras y escuchando sus historias; y tratando de atender de sus necesidades de la mejor manera que podamos de acuerdo a sus necesidades.’”

“La parte en la que me quiero enfocar durante esta charla es la parte cuando él dice ‘mirando sus caras.’ Ahora, yo no sé cuántos de ustedes, que no son inmigrantes, saben la historias de sus antepasados,” dijo la Hermana Rose Marie durante su charla.

“A lo mejor muchos de ustedes saben de qué país vinieron sus antepasados pero a lo mejor no saben la razón por la cual ellos vinieron o fueron obligados a venir a los Estados Unidos. Esto es lo que podemos considerar como ‘mirando sus caras.’ Ahora, yo les voy a enseñar algunas caras,” continuó la religiosa.

La Hermana Rose Marie habló acerca de su abuela, Anna Weismeier, quien inmigró a los Estados Unidos en 1922 desde Alemania a la edad de 20 años. Anna trabajó como una niñera en su país de origen desde los 12 años porque sus padres no tenían dinero para alimentarla.

Una vez aquí en los Estados Unidos, siguió trabajando como niñera hasta que conoció al abuelo de la Hermana Rose Marie. También habló acerca de José Chávez, quien vino a los Estados Unidos de El Salvador durante la década de los 70 a la edad de 15 años. José vio cuando su padre fue asesinado a balazos durante la guerra civil salvadoreña. “Después de eso, su madre lo escondió y poco después lo mandó a este país, al cual vino sin papeles. Una vez aquí, Jose trabajó principalmente en agricultura y en fábricas de procesar pollo.” Chávez es el cuñado de ella. “Él me contó que los primeros seis meses que trabajó aquí en los Estados Unidos, no le pagaron nada y lo único que le daban de comer eran fideos.”

La hermana identificó cinco razones principales por las cuales las personas inmigran a este país: La pobreza; guerra y violencia en el país de origen; inmigración forzada como la trata de los esclavos africanos en el siglo XIX, y actualmente el tráfico de seres humanos; catástrofes del medio ambiente como huracanes y terremotos; y finalmente persecución religiosa.

La Hermana Rose Marie también habló acerca de los factores que atraen y que empujan a los inmigrantes a inmigración, SEE page 20

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iiiNovember 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com

FROM TH

Celebrating Black Cathol What is Black Catholic History Month?

On July 24, 1990, the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus of the United States designated November as Black Catholic History Month to celebrate the history and heritage of black Catholics. November is significant because two important black saints are commemorated within the month: St. Martin de Porres’ feast day (Nov. 3) and St. Augustine’s birthday (Nov. 13). With All Saints and All Souls’ Day, we also remember the saints and souls of Africa and the African Diaspora.

African-American Catholics by the numbers There are 3 million African-American Catholics in the United States.

Of Roman Catholic parishes in the United States, 798 are considered to be predominantly African-American.

Most of those continue to be on the East Coast and in the South.

About 76 percent of African-American Catholics are in diverse or shared parishes, and 24 percent are in predominately African-American parishes.

Check out the many educational resources online detailing the contributions of African-American Catholics in the U.S., at www.usccb.org/issues-andaction/cultural-diversity/african-american/resources.

— USCCB

What is the diocese’s AfricanAmerican Affairs Ministry?

On May 17, 1985, a group of 10 people calling themselves the Committee for Concerned Black Catholics met to discuss issues and concerns that were particular to black Catholics in the diocese. They urged then Bishop John Donoghue to coordinate efforts of black Catholics in the diocese.

In July 1985, the ministry was officially begun as the Diocesan Committee on Black Catholic Ministry and Evangelization, and was a part of the diocesan Ministry for Justice and Peace. In 1989 it became a separate office to address and serve the needs and concerns of black Catholics in the diocese.

Since then, the African-American Affairs Ministry has grown. Its main goal is to make visible the work, contributions, traditions and culture of black Catholics to the Church and to society, and to propose adequate diocesan responses to racism and other social injustices.

— www.charlottediocese.org

Celebrate Black Catholic History Month at OLC Our Lady of Consolation Church in Charlotte is hosting the following celebrations in honor of Black Catholic History Month: n Nov. 6, Black Catholic History Month Banquet: Friends and community supporters are invited to an evening of food and entertainment showcasing the parish. 7-10 p.m. in the Parish Life Center. Cost: $25 per person; tickets available at the parish office. Evening attire. n Nov. 8, Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory: Archbishop Gregory will celebrate the 11 a.m. Mass in the Parish Life Center. n Nov. 13, Speech Night for Children: The Ladies Guild is sponsoring a Speech Night for youth of the parish. n Nov. 15, Perpetual Hope Gospel Choir 35th Anniversary Concert: Come hear a performance from the award-winning Perpetual Hope Gospel Choir, 3:30 p.m. in the Parish Life Center. Free will offering.

For details, go to www.ourladyofconsolation.org.

Photos provided by Rosheene

Black Catholics across the diocese, including the vibrant parish of Our Lady of Consolation Church in Charlotte, are rooted in praise and spirituality. Our Lady of Consolation’s award-winning choir, th Perpetual Hope Gospel Choir, is pictured above during a concert, along with a recent African-Ameri Affairs Ministry sponsored tent revival at the parish.

HE COVER

November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.comiii

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lics yesterday and today

osheene Adams

he ican

Predominantly black parishes in the diocese

At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Read more about these parishes

The diocese has four parishes with an African-American Catholic heritage:

n Our Lady of Consolation Church, Charlotte (1955, combining the former St. Mary and Our Lady of Perpetual Help parishes)

n St. Mary Church, Greensboro (1928)

n St. Benedict the Moor Church, Winston-Salem (1940)

n St. Helen Mission, Spencer Mountain (early 1900s)

Education a vital part of African-American Catholics in the diocese from the earliest days

Our Lady of Consolation School opened on Jan. 28, 1957. It was staffed originally by three AfricanAmerican Oblate Sisters of Providence, founded by Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange (read more about her on page 17). Fifty African-American students were enrolled. Later, enrollment grew to about 150 students in grades K-8. The Oblate Sisters of Providence withdrew from the school in 1983 and only grades 4-8 were offered after that time due to low enrollment. The diocese closed the school in 1988.

Pictured are two Oblate Sisters of Providence with first-grade students.

Photos provided by Diocese of Charlotte Archives

This 1957 photo depicts Mercy Sister Mary Rose Carroll with a student at the former St. Benedict School in Belmont.

On Sept. 28, 1936, the Franciscan Sisters of Alleghany opened St. Anthony of Padua School in Asheville, who also ran a girls’ school in Winston-Salem. The school, which served primarily African-American students, was attached to St. Anthony of Padua Parish.

The sisters remained until 1969 when the school closed. The parish was later combined with that of St. Lawrence Basilica. Pictured are the parish’s Franciscan priests and sisters with students in front of the school.

Biloxi’s retired bishop has historic local ties Bishop Emeritus Joseph L. Howze of Biloxi, Miss., was the first priest of the Diocese of Charlotte to become a bishop and the first black Catholic bishop in the 20th century to head a diocese. At the time of his retirement in 2001, he was the top-ranking active black Catholic bishop in the U.S. A native of Daphne, Ala., he converted to Catholicism in 1948. He was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Raleigh on May 7, 1959, and his first assignment was at Our Lady of Consolation Church in Charlotte.

When the Diocese of Charlotte was carved out of the Diocese of Raleigh in 1972, then Father Howze was serving as the pastor of the Parish (now Basilica)

of St. Lawrence in Asheville. Soon after, he was consecrated auxiliary bishop of Natchez-Jackson, Miss., and in 1977 he became the first bishop of the Diocese of Biloxi. He retired in 2001.

The bishop recently shared some recollections of growing up in the segregated South and how racial healing was gradually brought about through the 1964 Civil Rights Act. “I think I was about 9 years old when the Depression came on,” he said. “I remember that there was very strong segregation in Alabama, especially in Baldwin County. We went to public schools and the schools for the black kids were closed in March so they could work in the potato fields. The other schools were not closed. So that shows

you the difference between the races during that particular time. Segregation was pronounced.”

However, Bishop Howze said his family was fortunate in that they were never the targets of serious racial backlash.

Nevertheless, Bishop Howze said that, as a young boy, he wondered about different aspects of racial segregation. “I wondered why, when we got on a public bus, we had to sit in the back with a curtain drawn in front of us and things like that,” he told the Gulf Pine Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Biloxi. “But there was no racial violence directed toward me and my family when I was growing up.”

— Catholic News Herald and Catholic News Service

Photo provided by Diocese of Charlotte Archives

Then Father Joseph L. Howze (second from right) is pictured following his priestly ordination in Raleigh in 1959. Installed as the first bishop of the Diocese of Biloxi, Miss., in 1977, he was the third African-American priest to be ordained a bishop in U.S. history and the first black Catholic bishop in the 20th century to head a diocese.

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 6, 2015 FROM THE COVER

Black Catholic popes, saints and leaders

lack Catholic history can be traced to the Acts of the Apostles (8:26-40) when St. Philip the Deacon converted the Ethiopian eunuch – one of the first moves the Apostles made to evangelize outside Jerusalem and thus sow the seeds for the universal Church.

Christianity spread throughout North Africa, and the region featured prominently in the early Church as the birthplace of saints, popes and Western monasticism.

Three popes of the early Church were born in north Africa: n Pope St. Victor I (189198 or 199): He was the first pope to celebrate the liturgy and write Church documents in Latin rather than Greek. He is most famous for decreeing that Easter be universally celebrated on a Sunday, a practice already common in the West, but not so in Pope St. Victor I the East. His feast day is July 28. n Pope St. Miltiades (also called St. Melchiades) (311314): He was pope when Constantine the Great defeated his enemies and assumed control over Rome, paving the way to the end of persecution of Christians. Constantine gave the pope the Lateran Pope St. Miltiades palace (now known as the Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran), which became the papal residence and seat of Christian governance. He was the last pope to be buried in a catacomb. His feast day is Dec. 10. n Pope St. Gelasius I (492496): The first pope to be Pope St. Gelasius called the Vicar of Christ, he is most famous for affirming the primacy of the papacy based on Jesus’ command naming Peter the “rock of the Church.” He promoted a type of “separation of Church and State” but emphasized that Church authority is always superior to civil law. He ordered reception of the Eucharist under both species, and he used his own funds and the papal lands to feed the poor of Rome during a severe famine. His feast day is Nov. 21.

The Scillitan martyrs The Scillitan Martyrs were the first documented African martyrs. The 12 Christians, seven men and five women, were martyred in 180 in Scillium (in what is present-day Algeria and Tunisia) for refusing to call the Roman emperor their god. Unlike other Christians, they were not tortured but put on trial and offered 30 days to change their minds. When they still refused to recant their faith, they were put to death by the sword.

“The Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs,” a contemporaneous account of their trial and execution, is considered to be among the earliest documents of the Church in Africa and also the earliest example of Christian Latin.

Their feast day is July 17.

St. Perpetua and St. Felicity Just after the death of Pope St. Victor I, St. Perpetua and St. Felicity underwent their martyrdom in Carthage, around 203.

St. Perpetua was a young, well-educated noblewoman and mother living in Carthage in North Africa. At the age of 22, she was jailed for her faith. While in prison she continued to care for her infant child and put up with tortures designed to make her renounce her faith. St. Perpetua was sacrificed at the games as a public spectacle.

St. Felicity was a pregnant slave girl who was imprisoned with her. Little is known about her life because, unlike Perpetua, she did not keep a diary. Only a few days before her execution, Felicity gave birth to a daughter, who was secretly taken away to be cared for by some of the faithful.

They share the feast day of March 7, and their names are forever mentioned together in the Roman Canon of the Mass.

St. Moses the Black St. Moses the Black was a thief, murderer and adulterer who through the grace of conversion was transformed into a pacifist, priest and martyr.

A large, imposing figure, he became the leader of a gang of bandits who roamed the Nile Valley spreading terror and violence. Attempting to hide from authorities, he took shelter with some monks in the desert near Alexandria. The dedication of their lives, as well as their peace and contentment, deeply influenced him. He gave up his sinful ways and joined the community.

At some point, he was ordained a priest and became the leader of a colony of desert hermits. At about age 75, about the year 407, word came that a group of renegades planned to attack the colony. The brothers wanted to defend themselves, but Moses forbade it. He told them to retreat, rather than take up weapons. He and seven others remained behind and greeted the invaders with open arms. All eight were martyred by the bandits.

His feast day is Aug. 28.

St. Martin de Porres The only black saint from the Western Hemisphere so far, St. Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru, in 1579. His mother was a freed slave from Panama, and his father was a Spanish gentleman who did not want him. Early in his life, he demonstrated humility, charity for the poor and a love for animals, and devotion to

the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the age of 11, he took a job as a servant in the Dominican friary in Lima and performed the work with such devotion that he was called “the saint of the broom.”

He spent the rest of his life in the friary – as a barber, farm laborer, almoner (church worker in charge of distributing money to the poor) and infirmarian (person who nurses the sick in a monastery), among other tasks.

St. Martin’s love was allembracing, shown equally to humans and to animals, even vermin, and he maintained a shelter for stray dogs and cats.

In recognition of his devotion, his superiors dropped the stipulation that “no black person may be received to the holy habit or profession of our order” and Martin was vested in the full habit and professed solemn vows as a Dominican brother.

Afterwards, he became more devout and more desirous to be of service, establishing an orphanage and a children’s hospital.

A close friend of St. Rose of Lima, he died on Nov. 3, 1639, and was canonized on May 6, 1962. His feast day is Nov. 3.

St. Charles Lwanga and Companions The Society of Missionaries of Africa (known as the White Fathers) had been in Uganda for only six years but had built up a community of converts who were soon gaining new converts themselves.

Many of these converts lived and taught at the royal court, where the violent ruler and pedophile King Mwanga routinely forced himself on the young boys and men who served him as pages and attendants.

After other Christians were martyred by the king, Charles Lwanga took over instructing the young Christian community – and the charge of keeping the boys and men away from the king.

When the king learned that another page was being taught the faith, he thrust a spear through the young man’s throat and sealed the royal compound. Knowing what was coming, Lwanga baptized four catechumens that night. The next morning Mwanga separated the Christians from the rest, saying, “Those who do not pray stand by me, those who do pray stand over there.”

He demanded of the 15 boys and young men (all under 25) if they were Christians and intended to remain Christians. When they answered “yes,” he condemned them to death. They were marched 37 miles to Namugongo, where those who were not killed along the way were burned to death on June 3, 1886.

The White Fathers were expelled from Uganda, but when they returned after Mwanga’s death, they found 500 Christians and 1,000 catechumens waiting for them.

St. Josephine Bakhita Josephine Bakhita, born in 1869, was a Sudanese-born former slave who became a Canossian nun in Italy, living and working there for 45 years.

She was known for her smile, gentleness and holiness. She even once said, “If I were to meet the slave-traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, for if that did not happen, I would not be a Christian and Religious today.”

She died in 1947, and in 2000, she became the first African woman to be canonized in modern times. She is the first person to be canonized from Sudan and is the patron saint of the country.

Her feast day is Feb. 8.

Other notable black Catholics Sainthood causes for four AfricanAmerican Catholics have been opened with the Church: Father Augustus Tolton, priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago; Mother Henriette Delille, foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans, who has been declared venerable; Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence; and Pierre Toussaint, who was brought to New York as a slave and later became a well-known philanthropist, also declared venerable. n Father Augustus Tolton, priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago Father Augustus Tolton was born a slave in 1854 on a plantation near Brush Creek, Mo. His father left to try to join the Union Army during the Civil War. In 1862, his mother escaped with her three children by rowing them across the Mississippi River and settling in Quincy, Ill. Young Augustus had to leave one Catholic school because of threats; he found a haven at St. Peter Parish and School, where he learned to read and write and was confirmed at age 16.

He was encouraged to discern his vocation to the priesthood by the Franciscan priests who taught him at St. Francis College, now Quincy University, but could not find a seminary in the United States to accept him. He eventually studied in Rome and was ordained for the Propaganda Fidei Congregation in 1886, expecting to become a missionary in Africa. Instead, he was sent back to Quincy, where he served for three years before coming to the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1889.

He spearheaded the building of St. Monica Church for black Catholics, dedicated in 1894, and died after suffering heat stroke on a Chicago street on July 9, 1897. n Venerable Mother Henriette Delille, foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans A free woman of color living in New Orleans in the 19th century, Delille wanted to be a religious

November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com

FROM THE COVERI

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Black Catholic popes, saints and leaders but legal and social restraints 20 years before the abolition of slavery and the Civil War prevented local communities from accepting her. Therefore, she and two other free women sought to form their own. The Church gave them permission to form a pious society that took no vows and whose members were free to withdraw as they wished. They aided the poor, the sick, the elderly and helpless, the lonely, and the uninstructed who needed care.

Hundreds of more women soon followed them in consecrating themselves to God’s service as Sisters of the Holy Family, and Delille was named their leader. Known as the “Servant of Slaves,” Delille died in 1862. n Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence Elizabeth Clarisse Lange’s parents were refugees who fled to Cuba from the revolution taking place in their native Saint Dominque (present-day Haiti). Her father was a gentleman of some financial means and social standing. Her mother was a Creole.

However, in the early 1800s young Elizabeth left Santiago de Cuba to seek peace and security in the United States. Providence directed her to Baltimore, where a great influx of French-speaking Catholic San Dominguios refugees was settling.

She was a courageous, loving and deeply spiritual woman, and a strong, independent thinker and doer. Although she was a refugee, she was well educated and had her own money. It did not take long to recognize that the children of her fellow

refugees needed education. She determined to respond to that need in spite of being a black woman in a slave state long before the Emancipation Proclamation. She used her own money and home to provide free education to children of color, and eventually founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first Black Catholic order in the United States.

Lange practiced faith to an extraordinary degree. In fact, it was her deep faith which enabled her to persevere against all odds. To her black brothers and sisters she gave of herself and her material possessions until she was empty of all but Jesus, whom she shared generously with all by being a living witness to His teaching. She died in 1882. n Venerable Pierre Toussaint, brought to New York as a slave and later became a well-known philanthropist Coming to New York from Haiti in 1787 with his owner, Jean Bérard, Pierre Toussaint was apprenticed to a New York hairdresser. He became a friend to the city’s aristocracy by dressing the hair of wealthy women, and when Bérard died penniless, Toussaint financially supported Bérard’s wife and nursed her through emotional and physical ailments. She granted him his freedom in 1807.

His stable income allowed him to buy freedom for his sister and his future wife, and to be generous with many individuals and charities, including an orphanage and school for black children. He not only provided money, but manifested genuine care and concern for the afflicted. He

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cared for the ill when yellow fever swept the city and opened his home to homeless youth, teaching them violin and paying for their schooling. His wife shared in his philanthropic efforts, and their home became a shelter for orphans, a credit bureau, an employment agency and refuge for priests and poverty-stricken travelers.

Proud to be black, Toussaint generously supported the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore.

In his later years, Toussaint still worked to help others. One of his clients advised him, “Toussaint, you are the richest man I know, why not stop working?” He replied, “Then I should not have enough to help others, madam.” Two years after his wife’s death, he died in 1853 aged 87.

Sister Thea Bowman Sister Thea Bowman was born Bertha Bowman in a small Mississippi town in 1937, the granddaughter of a slave. Raised a Methodist, she fell in love with Catholicism from the teachers at her school, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. She converted to Catholicism and at 15 joined the order, taking the name Thea, meaning “of God.” She was sent to La Crosse, Wis., where she studied and taught until 1961, when she returned to her hometown to teach at her alma mater before pursuing doctoral studies at The Catholic University of America. She later taught at Catholic University and at Xavier University in New Orleans.

After 16 years as an educator at the elementary, secondary and university level, she was invited by the bishop of Jackson, Miss., to become a consultant for intercultural awareness. For the rest of her life she dedicated her life to building up the Black Catholic community and sharing the Gospel message through prayer, song, teaching, writing and preaching.

She was instrumental in the creation of many Catholic multicultural and African-American projects such as the first edition of “Lead Me, Guide Me,” an African-American Catholic hymnal. She helped found the National Black Sisters Conference in 1966.

In 1984 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but she did not let her declining health slow her down. Confined to a wheelchair, she gave an historic address to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1989, and she continued to inspire others with her love and joy even in the midst of her suffering.

She was posthumously awarded an honorary doctorate in theology from Boston College, the first to any African-American woman.

— Sources: Catholic News Agency, www.catholiconline.com, www.AmericanCatholic.org, www.catholic.org, EWTN, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Wikipedia

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In Brief

CCHS hosts debate tourney CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte Catholic High School Debate and Speech Team hosted its second annual Queen City Invitational Tournament Oct. 24, attended by 400 students and 175 parent judges, coaches and volunteers from 19 schools across North and South Carolina. The tournament started with an opening prayer and welcome speech from Dr. Janice Ritter, diocesan superintendent of schools, followed by remarks from Principal Kurt Telford.

Recipients of the 2015 Queen City Invitational Overall Sweepstakes Awards were: Riverside High School, Greenville, S.C., first place; Southside High School, Greenville, S.C., second place; and Ardrey Kell High School, Charlotte, third place.

Photos provided by Carrie Vest

Immaculate Heart of Mary School in High Point has achieved LEED certification, established the Norcross STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Math) Program and added three classrooms to the second floor of its new building. Pictured at the Oct. 21 ribbon-cutting are IHM School, parishioners and members of the High Point community with Father Vince Smith, O.S.F.S., and Mark and Rena Norcross.

— Mary A. Morales

IHM celebrates growth, innovation STEM program, LEED certification among achievements Carrie Vest Special to the Catholic News Herald

Schools support CROP Hunger Walk St. Gabriel and St. Pius X Schools were among those that recently organized their own schoolwide CROP Hunger Walks to help fight hunger.

For students at St. Gabriel School, it was their seventh annual event and recognized by the Charlotte CROP Hunger Walk as being among its highest school contributors.

At St. Pius X School, eighth-graders teamed up with their kindergarten “prayer buddies” to help lead the walk Oct. 23. Pictured above are (from left) Whitley Kemp, Ashley Pritchett, Gianna Costello and Emma Briody.

— Michele Snoke and Jean Navarro

HIGH POINT — Immaculate Heart of Mary School hosted a ribbon-cutting event Oct. 21 to celebrate its LEED certification, new Norcross STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Math) Program and the addition of three classrooms to the second floor of its new building. IHM School, parishioners and members of the High Point community gathered for a prayer service led by Father Vince Smith, O.S.F.S., followed by the ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the many achievements.

IHM is one of nine schools in North Carolina to achieve the “LEED for Schools” rating system. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification is the leading program for buildings, homes and communities that are designed, constructed, maintained and operated for improved environmental and human health performance. The designation for schools includes the following: a building that performs better and more efficiently, ensuring that the health of students and teachers is protected, and enabling the project to be financially profitable and economically viable.

“IHM’s LEED certification demonstrates tremendous green building leadership,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Mark and Rena Norcross were honored at the ribbon-cutting for their $2 million gift to IHM and the introduction of the Norcross STEM Program, which will address the national need

for more young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. STEM integrates these subjects in a way that enables students to think critically, solve problems and find solutions to complex problems. The Norcrosses’ gift is the largest single donation in the history of the Diocese of Charlotte.

“Over the last 10 years, more individuals and couples have made commitments of six- and seven-figure gifts to their parishes, their Catholic schools, agencies and ministries of the diocese, the diocesan foundation and the ‘Forward in Faith, Hope, and Love’ campaign,” noted Jim Kelley, diocesan director of development. “These individuals see the work of the Church as worthy of that kind of investment and see the significant impact that the Church has on the lives of so many people.”

“Rena and I are honored to be part of the growth and innovation at IHM Catholic School,” said Mark Norcross.

“Our investment represents a long-term commitment to helping children grow, enhancing their Christian educational opportunities, and ensuring a brighter future for our community.”

Norcross also talked about the benefits of LEED certification, noting, “LEED schools in the United States have shown a 15 percent decrease in absenteeism and a 5 percent increase in test scores.”

Work has also begun on the second story of the IHM School wing. The area will feature two new classrooms and a dedicated science lab, which will become the new home for the middle school STEM classes. IHM is proud to have four STEM-certified teachers on staff.

“We are truly blessed as a faith community to have such a vibrant and growing education facility. We feel so fortunate for the gifts of all our IHM family and in a special way, the gift of Rena and Mark Norcross,” said Father Smith. “Together we are fulfilling the dream of a first-class education, in a world-class facility, provided by loving professionals.”

November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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Photos provided by Charlotte Catholic High School

Charlotte Catholic students aid S.C. flood victims Photos provided by the Menkhaus family and Nanine Hartzenbusch Fox

Julia Menkhaus dives at the start of her 100-meter backstroke trial at the Summer Junior Nationals, where she made the Olympic Trials cut in August.

Charlotte Catholic student swimmer qualifies for Olympic trials Nanine Hartzenbusch Fox Special to the Catholic News Herald

CHARLOTTE — As the high school swimming season quickly approaches, Charlotte Catholic High School will have a very determined scholar-athlete on the team.

Sophomore Julia Menkhaus, 15, qualified for the Olympic Trials in August during a time trial in San Antonio, Texas, at Junior Nationals. Her time of 1:03.3 in the long course 100-meter backstroke earned her the opportunity to Menkhaus participate in the 2016 Olympic Trials in Omaha next June. Success in Nebraska – at the “fastest” meet in the world – would pave the way to a spot on the U.S. Olympic Swim Team.

Julia joins four other Charlotte Catholic High School women swimmers before her to qualify for the Olympic Trials: Nora McCullagh, now swimming at University of Texas; Elsa Welshofer, swimming at Princeton University; Maria Sheridan, at Duke University; and Becca Postoll at the University of Michigan.

Earlier this year, in March, Julia missed the cut at the Speedo Sectionals in Indianapolis by just 0.18 second. After missing the cut she hit the pool hard and spent the summer training six days a week, participating in her summer neighborhood swim league and even went back to her old gymnastics coach Luidmilla Shobe at Southeastern Gymnastics for added dry land conditioning drills.

“I returned to my gym to strengthen my weaknesses,” she said.

Julia started swimming competitively in the sixth grade, and before that she was a competitive gymnast with Southeastern Gymnastics.

By the time she competed in San Antonio in August, she was “broken down mentally and physically,” as she describes. Her challenge was to remain focused and work hard all summer while friends relaxed on beaches and visited destinations far and wide. If the summer was challenging, the day of her trial was even more so. Her race was during the middle of the day, at an outdoor pool in Texas with the sun shining hot and brightly – the worst conditions for a backstroker. But she made the cut on the last day of the meet, a testament to her hard work and belief in her potential.

“I’m a very determined person,” she said, adding that her goal is to go to a topranked college swimming program after graduating from Charlotte Catholic.

What does she love best about swimming?

“It’s hard to describe but –– you’re in your own world,” she said.

She thanks her parents Pete and Stephanie Menkhaus for their steadfast support, her gymnastics coach Shobe, her Charlotte Catholic coaches Brian Gross and Tim Berens, and coaches David Marsh, Alan Pfau and Peter Verhoef at Swim MAC, where she trains year-round.

With high school swim tryouts and practices now starting in November, Julia said she is excited to be swimming for Charlotte Catholic High School, to be part of a team celebrating 14 years of success.

Nanine Hartzenbusch Fox is the communications coordinator for Charlotte Catholic High School.

CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte Catholic High School community came together recently to benefit flooding victims of Hurricane Joaquin in South Carolina coastal areas.

Responding to a school-wide food and supply drive, Athletic Director Kevin Christmas, teachers, staff and high school students filled an 18-foot truck with a ton (2,000 pounds) of food, household items and cleaning supplies Oct. 16. On Oct. 18, Charlotte Catholic High School Dean of Students Randy Belk and former CCHS Football Team Head Coach Jim Oddo drove the truck to Catholic Charities-Pee Dee in Conway, S.C. According to Kelly Kaminsky, regional coordinator for Catholic Charities-Pee Dee, the food and supply donation benefited local families in North Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach, Surfside, Conway, Loris and Socastee.

Supplies were brought to drop sites closer to the families impacted by flooding, isolated and devastated by the floods. Many of these homes have had only boat access due to flooding damage. Catholic Charities-Pee Dee also assisted half a dozen other areas, including Kingstree in Williamsburg County and Georgetown County communities.

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 6, 2015 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

GORETTI

daily – especially, as Father Carlos shared so emphatically, forgiving ourselves.”

Barbara Everitt

FROM PAGE 3

stops at 24 other dioceses spanning 16 states.

St. Maria Goretti died in 1902 after being repeatedly stabbed by a young man who had attempted to rape her. The 11-yearold’s last words were of mercy towards her 20-year-old attacker: “I forgive Alessandro Serenelli … and I want him with me in heaven forever.” Serenelli reported that St. Maria appeared to him in his prison cell six years after he was incarcerated on a 30year sentence for her death. That occasion began his dramatic transformation from a violent and ruthless man to that of a renewed soul intent on spreading devotion to God and his saintly victim. St. Maria is held up by the Church as a model of the virtues of forgiveness, mercy and purity.

St. Maria’s mother Assunta Goretti was unable to care for her surviving children after the girl’s death, and the family was split up.

Three of her brothers moved to America and put down roots, raising large families – some of whom eventually settled in Charlotte.

Andy and Janet Goretti

Andy Goretti’s grandfather Giovanni Goretti was St. Maria’s cousin.

“Overall, growing up Catholic and having St. Maria Goretti as a relative was always an honor and humbling. I am the youngest of 10 children, and my mother always stressed the importance of faith and the Catholic Church and our connection to not just a saint, but a forgiving saint.”

Two of Andy’s siblings, brother Nicholas Goretti and sister Carolina Stratton, are members of St. Peter Church in Charlotte.

“It was always a thought for my wife Janet and I to someday attend her relics in Nettuno, Italy, so having the relics come to the U.S. and make stops in the Carolinas is really just a small miracle,” he explains.

He went to see the relics in Greensboro and in Charlotte.

A family venerates the major relics of St. Maria Goretti Oct. 24 at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte. sueann howell | catholic news herald

“The tour stop in Charlotte was pretty amazing and humbling. I also had the fortune to venerate in Greensboro the Friday before, and that was a very peaceful time and experience with St. Maria’s relics.”

His family also brought up the gifts at the Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Church Oct. 24. He admits he has declined bringing up the gifts at Mass in the past out of feelings of unworthiness, but this time he agreed when approached by the tour’s organizers.

“I have never brought the hosts up in my life. I never quite felt worthy or comfortable doing it when asked in the past, as bringing the hosts up, to me, is one of the most honored parts of Mass.

“On Saturday, I did not feel nervous or uncomfortable, but instead felt very privileged and honored to be taking the hosts to so many that went out of their way to come see St. Maria Goretti. I felt it was the least we could do as her descendants.

Father Carlos Martins of Treasures of the Church, which is leading the tour of St. Maria’s relics in the U.S., gave an inspiring homily in which he recounted the story of St. Maria’s mercy and her attacker’s remorse, Andy says.

“Maria didn’t put her faith in a situation.

She put her faith in God,” Father Martins said in his homily. “Because she made this

FAREWELL FROM PAGE 6

has been such a blessing to our family, especially our daughters. Seeing their beautiful vocation in action has been a tremendous reminder of how joyful the consecrated life can be and how it must please Our Lord,” said Bill and Debbie Rusciolelli, members of St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte. “We will, of course, miss having them nearby, but our prayers will never be far.”

“Thanks in part to their powerful prayers for vocations, both my brother and my son are now in seminary for our diocese,” said Beth Ohlhaut of St. Ann Church. “Their

COORDINADORES FROM PAGE 13

podamos desarrollar una pastoral que nos lleve al Señor y a la unidad como Iglesia.”

SALISBURY — La Hermana Joan Pearson es la nueva Coordinadora del Ministerio Hispano del Vicariato de Salisbury. La Hermana Joan empezó su labor como tal oficialmente el 1 de Octubre, después de haber hecho ministerio parroquial en la Iglesia de San Francisco de Asís en Lenoir por seis años.

La Hermana Joan pertenece a la Comunidad de las Hermanas de San Jose en Filadelfia, Pennsylvania, y el pasado 8 de Septiembre celebró su 45 aniversario como hermana religiosa.

“Yo estoy muy contenta de ser una

decision, she left this world a saint.”

Says Andy, “He did a fantastic job retelling the story and the personal miracles he was aware of. Having my children hear the story from him will be something they, nor my wife and I, will ever forget.

“Both Friday and Saturday’s visits with St. Maria’s relics, the venerators and Father Martins were easily the biggest highlight in my faith life. If nothing else, I would like to thank all that went to see the relics in the Carolinas and that I felt very privileged to attend Mass with so many who came out to touch St. Maria.”

Andy’s wife Janet, who came into the Church in 2004, said attending the Oct. 24 Mass was truly moving. “I was amazed to see the extraordinary number of people there. Father Carlos’ narrative of the events surrounding her attack, death and the conversion of Alessandro Serenelli was so moving.”

Learning of St. Maria’s mother’s tremendous suffering moved her the most, she says. “Assunta Goretti is an inspiration to all of us who are mothers and know how much we suffer for our children.

“The message of forgiveness is so strong throughout the story of St. Maria Goretti and so appropriate in today’s world,” she adds. “It is something we all need to practice

friendship has borne fruits for our diocese and our family that are immeasurable. Our love for them won’t change with the distance, but we will so miss seeing them and just knowing they’re here praying with us and for us.”

“For so many of us here in Charlotte, it was like having a little bit of heaven right there in that small brick house off Hillside Avenue. Being with the sisters – even for a few minutes – was always an opportunity for grace. Hearing them chant prayers in their chapel or just seeing them at Mass always lifted my spirits,” said Aleanne Kennelly of St. Patrick Cathedral. “The Poor Clares have shown us how to live as saints. Their lives are full of selfless love and holiness, sacrifice and discipline, unwavering faith and trust in God and, of course, devotion and prayer to Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. They have a spiritual strength and wisdom that comes from this devotion ... but it is the pure joy of the Poor

monja. Yo pienso que la vida religiosa es algo maravilloso y una vida bendecida,” dijo la Hermana Joan.

“Yo creo que nuestra diócesis tiene una gran visión en la manera como ha establecido y organizado la oficina del Ministerio Hispano. En Octubre, tuve la oportunidad de asistir a mi primera reunión de coordinadores de vicariatos, bajo el liderazgo del Padre Fidel (Melo). Pasé la mayor parte del día escuchando lo que se decía durante este,” dijo la Hermana Joan.

La Hermana Joan concluyó con palabras de elogio, “Me siento de verdad muy privilegiada de poder trabajar al lado de este gran grupo de personas humildes, los cuales se esfuerzan diariamente a poner sus talentos celosamente al servicio de los católicos Hispanos de nuestra diócesis.”

“As a child, I often heard about Maria’s story and carried her holy card in my missal,” recalls Barbara Everitt, another Goretti cousin. “As time passed and I became immersed in life (three children of my own, teaching high school, moving away from most of my family), the story also dimmed. I regret saying that I did not stay as connected as I should have.

She heard about the relics tour from a cousin in New Jersey, and said, “the fire returned. I was so excited to recognize that I could, in fact, personally see her relics.”

Everitt is a descendant of Domenico Rossetti, who married Maria Goretti’s sister, Rosa Carlini. Rossetti is her paternal grandfather’s father, which makes St. Maria and her grandfather first cousins.

“I remember my grandfather always saying Maria was his cousin and that he was a baby when she moved away from Corinaldo. His aunt and other cousins moved back after Maria was killed,” she explains.

Her grandfather moved to New Jersey as a young man and had nine children “who in turn had scores of offspring,” Everitt says.

Everitt attended the Solemn High Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Church Oct. 24 with one of her daughters and her 12-year-old granddaughter Sara. “It was so beautiful.

To think that Maria was the same age as Sara when she was martyred is a sobering thought. To realize that Maria’s resolve resulted in hundreds of thousands of pilgrims venerating her is humbling. To be related to her is a gift – a gift I will never take lightly again.”

She is also thankful for the gift of her newfound relatives, Andy and Janet Goretti, whom she had not met before. “Finding out about Andy, a cousin that lives so near to me, is another gift from Maria!”

“What a difference in all of our lives has been made by this little saint. We are blessed to be a part of her family and so honored to have an intermediary in heaven.”

Clares that is perhaps their greatest gift. Their faces glow with happiness and it draws people to them. We could never thank them enough for all they have done for us.”

“Our son Chris was one of the first to meet the Poor Clares when he helped unload the rental truck with their belongings when they moved to Charlotte. I think they started praying for him then and continue as Chris grows in his faith,” said St. Mark parishioners Allen and Gini Bond, whose son Chris is a seminarian for the diocese. “We have been truly blessed to have them as our dear friends but also as great prayer warriors for us, our diocese and our Holy Catholic Church. They will be missed, but know that each time we turn on EWTN we will remember them.

May their order prosper and grow.”

INMIGRACIÓN FROM PAGE 13

los Estados Unidos. “La atracción aquí siempre han sido los trabajos.”

“Antes se daba el caso que las personas que venían, principalmente de México, venían a los Estados Unidos en tiempos de cosecha y en temporadas en que había mucho trabajo, y después regresaban a su país por un tiempo. Sin embargo, desde que han aumentado la seguridad en la frontera, muchas personas se han quedado aquí sin documentos.”

Los factores que empujan o que obligan a las personas de salir de sus países son las condiciones en sus propios países y las regulaciones de este país.

“En realidad solo hay cuatro maneras de entrar a este país legalmente: por medio de una visa de trabajo…Por medio de la lotería de diversidad (esto solo aplica a país de Asia, África y no a Latino América). Como un refugiado político, si la persona tiene temor de que está siendo perseguida en su país.”

La última opción es por medio de un familiar con papeles que pueda reclamar a un familiar en el extranjero.

La Hermana Rose Marie estimó que actualmente hay 11 millones de inmigrantes indocumentados en los Estados Unidos. La Hermana Rose Marie trabaja para la oficina de Justicia Social de las Hermanas de la Caridad en el Sureste y Centro de los Estados Unidos.

Mix

November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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In theaters

newcomer (Sienna Miller) who becomes both his sous chef and his true love. There’s a pleasant enough dessert awaiting audiences toward the end of director John Wells’ predictable conversion story.

But the bad-boy protagonist’s tantrums make for an entree that many will find over-spiced while the undisguised but unrequited love Bruhl’s character entertains for him, although discreetly dealt with, will certainly not be to every taste. As for yet another instance of the big-screen maneuver whereby any group of people can form a “family” based on shared interests and mutual support, it’s long since lost whatever doubtful savor it may originally have possessed.

Cohabitation, mature themes, constant rough and occasional crude language.

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

‘Our Brand Is Crisis’

‘Burnt’ Ego-driven culinary drama in which a Paris-trained chef (Bradley Cooper) whose alcohol and drug addictions caused his promising career to crash returns from professional exile, takes over the kitchen of a prestigious London restaurant and obsessively pursues a three-star rating from France’s Michelin Guides. Among the colleagues he berates with obscenity-laden lectures in his drive for perfection are an old friend (Omar Sy) whose enmity he earned on his way down, but with whom he has reconciled, and a fetching

Lured out of seclusion by a duo of political operatives (Anthony Mackie and Ann Dowd), an emotionally fragile spin doctor (Sandra Bullock) with a mixed record in U.S. elections joins them in working for a Bolivian presidential candidate (Joaquim de Almeida) whose campaign is in free-fall. By securing an unlikely victory for her client, the devious image-maker hopes to win the latest round in her longrunning feud with an even more unscrupulous American consultant (Billy Bob Thornton) who has similarly been imported to help elect a rival aspirant. An unstable mix of cynicism and simplistic idealism corrodes the entertainment value of director David Gordon Green’s comedy, a fictionalized and satiric version of the real-life events recounted in filmmaker Rachel Boynton’s 2005 documentary of the same name. Interludes of sleazy wordplay and bawdy visual humor make it fit for grownups only. About a half-dozen uses of profanity, frequent rough and crude language, a couple of obscene gestures.

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

Other movies n ‘Rock the Kasbah’: CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: R n ‘Steve Jobs’: CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: R n ‘The Last Witch Hunter’: CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: PG-13

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On TV n Saturday, Nov. 7, 9 p.m. (EWTN) “Pius XII: Under the Roman Sky.” Featuring James Cromwell as the title role, a portrayal of the heroic efforts of Pope Pius XII to save the Jews of Rome from the Nazis during World War II. Part 1. n Monday, Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m. (EWTN) “A Travel Guide to Heaven: Flight Plan.” Despite humanity’s limited capacity to imagine beyond this life, Host Anthony DeStefano introduces new ways for viewers to truly picture what Heaven will be like. n Wednesday, Nov. 11, 7 a.m. (EWTN) “The Grunt Padre in Vietnam.” The life of Father Vincent Capodanno, who committed his life and ultimately gave it up for the service of U.S. Marines fighting in Vietnam. n Wednesday, Nov. 11, 6 p.m. (EWTN) “Father Bradley Remembered: A Journey of Faith.” A look at Father Paul Francis Bradley’s calling as a military chaplain, who served in three wars, and won numerous medals for his years of service. n Friday, Nov. 13, 3 p.m. (EWTN) “Saint Frances Cabrini.”

Bob and Penny Lord visit notable places from the life of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, who left her native Italy to care for the many impoverished immigrants in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. n Monday, Nov. 16, 11:15 a.m. (EWTN) “Made for Life.”

A look at the gift of children and the need for a child to have both a mother and father present in their lives.

Produced by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. n Wednesday, Nov. 18, 10:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Kateri.” After witnessing the atrocities of war, a young, orphaned Mohawk girl embarks on a fervent journey of faith as a Catholic missionary for her people. An EWTN original movie.

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Our nation 22

catholicnewsherald.com | November 6, 2015 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishops to consider election document, USCCB priorities, sainthood causes Mark Pattison Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. bishops will consider whether to approve a new introductory note and a limited revision of their quadrennial statement on political responsibility during their Nov. 16-19 fall general assembly in Baltimore.

The statement, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” is reissued every four years and takes into account the latest issues taking center stage in the political arena. The document, which in general calls for Catholic voters to consider the common good when going to the polls, has been released before every presidential election for almost four decades.

What a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops news release described as “a limited revision” and new introductory note for “Faithful Citizenship” were prepared by a working group led by Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-

Houston, vice president of the USCCB. The bishops also will discuss and vote on a proposed formal statement on pornography, “Create in Me a Clean Heart: A Pastoral Response to Pornography.”

The bishops had given their approval a few years ago to craft a statement on the subject.

They are scheduled to discuss and vote on a proposal to take up a one-time national collection to fund the completion of the Trinity Dome in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. No structural work is needed, but shrine officials have been in planning meetings about the ornamentation of the mosaics on the underside of the dome, visible from within the shrine. The big, blue dome has no ornamentation although the shrine’s other domes do. No date has been set to begin and no deadline to complete it. As of yet, no cost has been affixed to the project.

The bishops also will hear a report from

Vineyard of

You are cordially invited to the 13th Annual

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Friday, November 20, 2015 at 6:15 pm Carmel Country Club 4735 Carmel Road Charlotte, North Carolina 28226 Join Catholic Charities for an evening of thanksgiving and celebration with a cocktail reception followed by seated dinner.

Fruit of the Vine Recognition will be presented to Saint John Neumann Catholic Church, Reverend Patrick T. Hoare, Pastor RSVP by November 13: sluc@charlottediocese.org/704-370-3232 or register online at ccdoc.org/vineyardofhope The event is complimentary; however, you will be invited to make a very generous gift to help raise $150,000 to support the continued mission of Catholic Charities to strengthen families, build communities, and reduce poverty in the Charlotte area.

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the USCCB Subcommittee on the Church Latin America on the golden anniversary of the annual national Collection for the Church in Latin America.

Three canonization causes also will go before the bishops for the canonical consultation required to advance their causes: n Father Aloysius Ellacuria was a 20th-century Claretian Missionary priest from the Basque region of Spain who spent much of his priestly ministry in the American Southwest, including Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix. He was regarded as a mystic who urged spreading the message of Our Lady of Fatima. n Sister Ida Peterfy was the SlovakHungarian-born founder of the Society Devoted to the Sacred Heart. She endured the deprivations of World War II and the onset of Soviet domination of her homeland before she fled, first to Toronto and then to Los Angeles. She had a puppet show on local TV, “My Friend Pookie,” which was popular for several years and became nationally known by educators and families, then developed the “Sacred Heart Kids’ Club” series of half-hour video instruction on the Catholic faith. n Antonio Cuipa, who along with more than 80 “companions,” was martyred for the faith in colonial Florida between 1549 and 1706. Cuipa, an Apalachee Indian converted by Franciscans, may have been studying for the priesthood when he was seized by another Indian band, nailed to a cross and set afire. Witnesses said Cuipa had a vision of Mary while he was dying.

The bishops will discuss and vote on proposed revisions to strategic priorities for the next USCCB planning cycle, which cover 2017-’20, following up on input given a draft version of these priorities during their June meeting in St. Louis.

A vote will be taken on the inclusion of “Excerpts From the Roman Missal: Book for Use at the Chair” in U.S. dioceses.

Presentations will be made to the bishops by, among others, Dominican Sister Donna Markham, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA. The national network launched its “#End45” campaign to cut U.S. poverty just ahead of Pope Francis’ visit.

Carolyn Woo, president and CEO of

Catholic Relief Services, will join with Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, CRS chairman, in a presentation on how CRS programming is responding to Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si’.”

Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport, Conn., will update his brother bishops on next year’s World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland.

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston will give an update on diocesan Project Rachel ministries for post-abortion healing.

Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, N.Y.m chair of the USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, will report on marriage and family life ministry.

Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chair of the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, will introduce a trailer to a movie on “Dignitatis Humanae,” the Second Vatican Council’s decree on religious freedom.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services will give a presentation on the need to increase the number of priests for the military chaplaincy.

The USCCB Working Group on the Life and Dignity of the Human Person will report on a communications research project and planning for a convocation. The bishops also will hear recommendations on implementing the Year of Mercy, which starts Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

The bishops will choose a treasurer-elect for the USCCB as well as chairmen-elect for six standing committees: Divine Worship; Migration; Domestic Justice and Human Development; Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations; and Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth. Bishops also will be chosen for the boards of CRS, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency, and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, or CLINIC. The bishops also are scheduled to vote on the 2016 USCCB budget and the 2017 diocesan assessment that helps fund USCCB operations.

The public session of the bishops’ fourday assembly is only the first two days.

Watch live Monday, Nov. 16, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. EST (EWTN) “USCCB Fall General Assembly.” Live coverage as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ meets for its annual fall general assembly in Baltimore. Coverage continues 2-3 p.m. EST; resumes Tuesday, Nov. 17, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

EST; and concludes Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2-4:30 p.m.

EST

Let’s keep talking.

November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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In Brief Energetic Ga. priest wins Catholic Extension’s Lumen Christi Award RAY CITY, Ga. — The construction of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Ray City, scheduled to be dedicated in March, is a dream come true for Catholics in this area of southern Georgia near Valdosta in the Savannah Diocese. Retired Savannah Bishop J. Kevin Boland said, “What you see happening in Lakeland and in Adel, in Nashville and in Ray City, in all of that part of south Georgia, that’s kind of a miracle in the South. The reason why the Church there is able to accomplish this – with the help of Catholic Extension, Angel of course, and with the help of others – is the vibrancy of the faith of the Catholic people.”

For the past eight years, Father Fredy Angel has been the pastor of St. Anthony of Padua’s predecessor parish – Queen of Peace in Lakeland and its missions – which covers three counties. In that role he has been the energetic, tireless and enthusiastic shepherd, teacher, motivator and guiding force behind what one of his parishioners called a “revival” among Catholics there.

On Oct. 5, Catholic Extension announced that Father Angel is the recipient of the 2015-’16 Lumen Christi Award from Catholic Extension,

which will be presented Nov. 8 during a celebration in Ray City.

Religious freedom said to merit ‘seat at the table’ with other concerns WASHINGTON, D.C. — In many nations around the world, “religious freedom flourishes,” but in too many other countries, “people face daunting, alarming and growing challenges because of their faith,” a State Department official said at a Capitol Hill hearing Oct. 27.

Rabbi David Saperstein, the State Department’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, made the comments in testimony before a House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations. Also testifying was Robert George, who is chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF. The bipartisan body was created in 1998 through the International Religious Freedom Act. U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who is the subcommittee’s chairman and called the hearing, played a key role in the law’s passage 17 years ago. In his testimony, Rabbi Saperstein remarked that the law “has had a significant impact on the way religious freedom is viewed not only in the United States but around the world” but “alarming” challenges remain.

various news reports and sources say that the suspension is because officials there lack an abortion doctor for the site. At the news, Green Bay Bishop David L. Ricken expressed prayers “that this place may remain closed forever so that innocent lives are spared and mothers and fathers may find the true gift and blessing of the perpetual commitment in marriage.”

Bishop Ricken also offered prayers for others connected with the Grand Chute facility. “We understand and pray for those who have been associated with this clinic,” he told The Compass.

“We pray most especially for the mothers and fathers of the innocent children whose lives were taken there. As a Church, we extend to them the mercy of Jesus. We pray for those ‘medical’ personnel who have performed abortions in this clinic that their minds might receive light and understanding of the gravity of taking the life of another human being, especially one who is voiceless, defenseless and innocent.”

House bill holds up federal funds for Planned Parenthood for a year WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted Oct. 23 to block federal funding for a year to affiliates of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and redirect the money to community health centers. The provision is part of a

23

reconciliation bill – H.R. 3762 – that voids some major provisions of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Law. Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act passed in a 240-189 vote along party lines.

“Planned Parenthood now commands about one-third of the total abortion ‘market,’” said Carol Tobias, National Right to Life president.

“For far too long, federal taxpayer dollars have been funneled to the nation’s abortion giant, and it’s time for that to stop. We applaud passage of the reconciliation bill and we urge the U.S. Senate to act quickly.” The Senate cannot block the bill with a filibuster, but even if it were to pass, it will face a guaranteed veto by President Barack Obama.

According to its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood received at least $528 million annually from the federal government and state governments. The House vote “is an important step forward in ending the massive, unnecessary and immoral funding of Planned Parenthood,” said Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life. “We in the pro-life movement have to continue to work this process with patience, perseverance and political wisdom, as long as it takes, to defund Planned Parenthood.”

— Catholic News Service

CCDOC.ORG

Wis. clinic suspends abortions; pro-lifers hope for permanent stop GREEN BAY, Wis. — The only facility still performing abortions in the northeast Wisconsin has suspended abortions for the next six months. Planned Parenthood in Grand Chute suspended abortions in mid-October, citing a lack of medical staff. The building, and Planned Parenthood’s office in Appleton, remains open.

While Planned Parenthood did not respond to The Compass, Green Bay’s diocesan newspaper,

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Our world 24

catholicnewsherald.com | November 6, 2015 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Synod report urges ‘accompaniment’ tailored to family situations Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — While not specifically mentioning the controversial proposal of a path toward full reconciliation and Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried, members of the Synod of Bishops on the family handed Pope Francis a report emphasizing an obligation to recognize that not all Catholics in such a situation bear the same amount of blame.

The 94-paragraph report approved Oct. 24, the last working day of the three-week synod, highlighted the role of pastors in helping couples understand church teaching, grow in faith and take responsibility for sharing the Gospel. It also emphasized how “pastoral accompaniment” involves discerning, on a case-by-case basis, the moral culpability of people not fully living up to the Catholic ideal.

Bishops and other full members of the synod voted separately on each paragraph and the Vatican published those votes. The paragraph dealing specifically with leading divorced and remarried Catholics on a path of discernment passed with only one vote beyond the necessary two-thirds.

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna told reporters Oct. 24 that the key word in the document’s discussion of ministry to divorced and civilly remarried people is “’discernment.’ I invite you all to remember there is no black or white, no simple yes or no.” The situation of each couple “must be discerned,” which is what was called for by St. John Paul II in his 1981 exhortation on the family, he said.

The cardinal told Vatican Insider, a news site, that although St. John Paul called for discernment in those cases, “he didn’t mention all that comes after discernment.” The synod’s final report, he said, proposes priests help divorced and remarried couples undergoing conversion and repentance so that they recognize whether or not they are worthy to receive the Eucharist. Such an examination of conscience, he said, is required of every Catholic each time they prepare to approach the altar.

As Pope Francis said at the beginning of the synod, Church doctrine on the meaning of marriage as a lifelong bond between one man and one woman open to having children was not up for debate. The final report strongly affirmed that teaching as God’s plan for humanity, as a blessing for the Church and a benefit to society.

While insisting on God’s love for homosexual persons and the obligation to respect their dignity, the report also insisted same-sex unions could not be recognized as marriages and denounced as “totally unacceptable” governments or international organizations making recognition of “’marriage’ between persons of the same sex” a condition for financial assistance.

The report also spoke specifically of: the changing role of women in families, the Church and society; single people and their contributions to the family and the Church; the heroic witness of parents who love and care for children with disabilities; the family as a sanctuary protecting the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death; and the particular strain on family life caused by poverty and by migration.

The Church recognizes a “natural” value in marriage corresponding to the good of the husband and wife, their unity, fidelity and desire for children. But the sacrament of marriage adds another dimension, the report said. “The irrevocable fidelity of God to His covenant is the foundation of the indissolubility of marriage. The complete and profound love of the spouses is not based only on their human capabilities: God sustains this covenant with the strength of His Spirit.”

But human beings are subject to sin and failure, which is why synod members recommend the need for “accompaniment” by family members, pastors and other couples. “Being close to the family as a traveling companion means, for the Church, assuming wisely differentiated attitudes: sometimes it is necessary to stay by their side and listen in silence; other times it must indicate the path to follow; and at still other times, it is opportune to follow, support and encourage.”

A draft of the report was presented to synod members Oct. 22, and 51 bishops spoke the next morning about changes they would like to see in the final draft. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters that several bishops mentioned specifically a need to improve the text’s references to “the relationship between conscience and the moral law.”

The text refers to conscience in sections dealing with procreation and with marital situations the Church considers irregular, particularly the situation of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.

First, though, synod members promised greater efforts to be with couples in crisis and praised divorced Catholics who, “even in difficult situations, do not undertake a new union, remaining faithful to the sacramental bond.” Such Catholics, they noted, can and should “find in the Eucharist the nourishment that sustains them.”

Those who have remarried without an annulment of their sacramental marriage must be welcomed and included in the parish community in every way possible, the report said. “They are baptized, they are brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit gives them gifts and charisms for the good of all.”

Quoting from St. John Paul’s exhortation on the family, the report insists that pastors, “for the sake of truth,” are called to careful discernment when assisting and counseling people who divorced and remarried.

They must distinguish, for instance, between those who “have been unjustly abandoned, and those who through their own grave fault have destroyed a canonically valid marriage,” in the words of St. John Paul.

Priests must “accompany interested people on the path of discernment in accordance with the teaching of the Church and the guidance of the bishop,” the report said.

While the report makes no explicit mention of absolution and the return to Communion, it seems to leave some possibility for such a solution by quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s affirmation that “imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified” because of different conditions. Just as the degree of guilt will differ, the report said, “also the consequences of the acts are not necessarily the same in all cases.”

In several places the text praises the teaching of “Humanae Vitae,” the document of Blessed Paul VI on married love and the transmission of life. “Conjugal love between a man and a woman and the transmission of life are ordered one to the other,” the report said.

“Responsible parenthood presupposes the formation of the conscience, which is ‘the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths,’” said the report, quoting from the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. “The more spouses try to listen to God and His commandments in their consciences, the freer their decision will be” from external pressures, the report said.

More online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Review full coverage of the recently concluded Synod of Bishops on the Family

Synod had difficult moments as it tried to proclaim truth, pope says Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — The first task of the Catholic Church “is not to hand down condemnations or anathemas, but to proclaim the mercy of God,” Pope Francis told members of the Synod of Bishops on the family.

At the end of the synod’s final working session Oct. 24, Pope Francis was honest about the differences of opinion present among synod participants and about the tone of their discussions sometimes exceeding the bounds of charity. But he framed all those differences as an opportunity for learning.

“In the course of this synod, the different opinions that were expressed freely – and, unfortunately, sometimes with methods that were not completely charitable – certainly led to a rich and lively dialogue,” the pope said.

The synod, he said, was a time of trying “to broaden horizons in order to overcome every hermeneutic of conspiracy or closed-mindedness so as to defend and spread the freedom of the children of God (and) to transmit the beauty of Christian newness, which sometimes is covered by the rust of a language that is archaic or simply incomprehensible.”

“For the Church,” he said, “concluding the synod means to go back to really ‘walking together’ to bring to every part of the world – every diocese, every community and every situation – the light of the Gospel, the embrace of the Church and the support of the mercy of God.” The synod sessions, the pope said, were designed to have people speak openly about the needs of families and to face them “without fear and without hiding our heads in the sand.”

The gathering, he said, was a time “to witness to all that the Gospel remains for the Church the living source of eternal newness against those who want to ‘indoctrinate’ it into dead stones to hurl at each other.”

Without mentioning specific differences, such as deeply varied cultural approaches to homosexuality, Pope Francis said synod members learned that “what seems normal for a bishop on one continent can seem strange – almost a scandal – to a bishop from another.”

The synod tried to find better ways to convince the world of the importance of the family based on the lifelong marriage of one man and one woman, he said, knowing that it should not be afraid to shake “anesthetized consciences or to dirty its hands animatedly and frankly discussing the family.”

“The experience of the synod,” he said, “has made us understand better that the true defenders of doctrine are not those who defend its letter, but its spirit; not ideas, but people; not formulas, but the free gift of God’s love and forgiveness.

This is in no way to detract from the importance of formulas, laws and divine commandments, but rather to exalt the greatness of the true God, who does not treat us according to our merits or even according to our works, but solely according to the boundless generosity of His mercy.”

Clearly, he said, the three-week synod did not resolve every problem facing families or even every question of how the Church can best minister to them. But it did try “to enlighten them with the light of the Gospel and the 2,000-year tradition and history of the Church” formulated in ways people today can understand.

Without acting as if every form of modern family life was equally valid, but also without “demonizing others,” he said, the synod wanted “to embrace fully and courageously the goodness and mercy of God who surpasses our human calculations and wants nothing other than that ‘all would be saved.’”

Pope sets up new dicastery for laity, family, life Pope Francis announced he is establishing a new office for laity, family and life, which combines the responsibilities of two pontifical councils. The pope made the announcement Oct. 22 during the afternoon session of the Synod of Bishops on the family.

“I have decided to establish a new dicastery with competency for laity, family and life, that will replace the Pontifical Council for the Laity and the Pontifical Council for the Family. The Pontifical Academy for Life will be joined to the new dicastery,” the pope said.

The responsibilities of the new office will be spelled out in a document being drafted by a commission the pope said he already has appointed.

November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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In Brief ‘Nostra Aetate’ at 50: The ‘Magna Carta’ of interreligious dialogue ROME — Representatives of the world’s religions gathered in Rome to commemorate and reflect on the 50th anniversary of “Nostra Aetate,” the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on relations with other religions.

Although it is the shortest of the Second Vatican Council’s documents, its influence continues to be felt in the life of the Church today, said speakers at an anniversary conference Oct. 26-28 sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews. Comboni Father Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, secretary of the interreligious dialogue office, said that while much has been done since the document’s publication, there is still much more to do in advancing relations between the Catholic Church and non-Christian religions.

Jesus’ disciples are called to lead without lecturing, pope says VATICAN CITY — As disciples, Christians are called to imitate Jesus’ heart and lead others directly to Him, without lecturing them, Pope Francis said. Thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 25 for the closing Mass of the Synod of Bishops. The Mass concluded three weeks of intense discussion and debate on pastoral responses to the challenges facing families in the modern world. Reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading, which recalled Jesus’ healing of Bartimaeus, a blind beggar from Jericho, Pope Francis said Christ is not content with giving the poor man alms, but preferred to “personally encounter him.” Jesus asking the beggar what he wanted may seem like a senseless question, the pope said, but it shows that Jesus “wants to hear our needs” and “talk with each of us about our lives, our real situations.” When Jesus’ disciples address Bartimaeus, they use two expressions: “take heart” and “rise,” the pope said. “His disciples do nothing other than repeat Jesus’ encouraging and liberating words, leading him directly to Jesus, without lecturing him,” he said. “Jesus disciples are called to this, even today, especially today: to bring people into contact with the compassionate mercy that saves.”

Cardinal Parolin: Apostolic exhortation on the family could come soon VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said an apostolic exhortation on the family following the recently concluded Synod of Bishops could be released soon. “I imagine that it won’t take long because usually these things should be done in a relatively short time, otherwise it loses its strength a bit, its impact,” Cardinal Parolin told Vatican Radio Oct. 28. “I think if the pope decides to do it, he will do it relatively quickly.”

The postsynodal apostolic exhortation follows a request made by the synod fathers in their final report. “We humbly ask the Holy Father to evaluate the opportunity of offering a document on the family, so that in it, the domestic Church may ever more shine Christ, the light of the world,” the Oct. 24 report stated. As in past synods, Cardinal Parolin said that the apostolic exhortation will be based on the synod’s final

report. However, he said the release of the document has not been discussed yet.

Pope to visit Africa Nov. 25-30; including Central African Republic VATICAN CITY — Despite continued instability and outbreaks of violence in the Central African Republic, the Vatican announced Pope Francis will spend about 33 hours in the country during a Nov. 25-30 visit to Africa. Releasing the schedule for the trip, the Vatican said that while the pope is in the Central African Republic Nov. 29-30, he will visit a refugee camp, hold a meeting with evangelical Christians and visit a mosque in Bangui, the nation’s capital. The country has known little peace or development in its 55 years of independence.

Kenya is the first stop on Pope Francis’ first visit to Africa as pope; there, too, he will meet with ecumenical and interreligious leaders, but he also will visit the Kangemi slum on the outskirts of Nairobi. Traveling to Uganda Nov. 27, the pope will honor the memory of the 23 Anglican and 22 Catholic Ugandan martyrs, killed for their faith on the orders of King Mwanga II between 1885 and 1887.

Vatican official, consultant arrested for documents leak VATICAN CITY — A Vatican official and a former lay consultant on a pontifical commission were arrested for leaking documents to an Italian journalist who has announced plans to publish them in a book.

Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, and Francesca Chaouqui, a former member of the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Organization of the EconomicAdministrative Structure of the Holy See, were taken into custody by Vatican police, the Vatican press office announced Nov. 2.

Chaouqui, who previously worked in public relations and communications for Ernst & Young Italy, and Monsignor Vallejo Balda both served on the pontifical commission established

by Pope Francis in 2013 to develop solutions for greater fiscal responsibility and transparency in all Vatican offices. They were questioned over the weekend of Oct. 31-Nov. 1 by Vatican police who have been investigating “the removal and dissemination of news and confidential documents,” the press office said.

Those who give their lives in service are not losers, pope says VATICAN CITY — Serving and giving oneself for others may make one “seem like a loser in the eyes of the world,” but in reality that person is imitating Christ’s love and service, which conquered death and gave life to the world, Pope Francis said. “He who serves, saves,” the pope said. “On the contrary, he who does not live to serve does not serve to live.” Pope Francis presided over Mass Nov. 3 in St. Peter’s Basilica in remembrance of cardinals and bishops who died in the past year.

Women’s right to maternity leave must be protected, pope says VATICAN CITY — Businesses are called to promote harmony between work and family for their employees, especially for women with children or who are starting families, Pope Francis said. The pope said that many times, women who announce their pregnancy are fired from their positions, when instead they “must be protected and helped in this dual task: the right to work and the right to motherhood.”

“The challenge is to protect their right to a job that is given full recognition while at the same time safeguarding their vocation to motherhood and their presence in the family,” the pope said Oct. 31 in an audience with the Christian Union of Italian Business Executives. Catholic men

and women in the world of business are called to live faithfully “the demands of the Gospel and the social doctrine of the Church,” he said, and become “architects of development for the common good.”

Syriac Catholic bishops call for diplomacy to achieve peace in Syria, Iraq BEIRUT — Syriac Catholic bishops, meeting in Lebanon during their annual synod, called for a diplomatic solution to achieve peace in Syria and Iraq. In a statement released at the conclusion of the synod, the bishops pleaded for an end to the civil war in Syria, now in its fifth year and urged countries – particularly those directly involved in the conflict – to follow a path of “negotiation to find a peaceful political solution.” With Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan presiding during the Oct. 26-29 gathering at the patriarchal convent of Our Lady of Deliverance in Harissa, Lebanon, the Church leaders focused in particular on the dire circumstances caused by war and terrorism in its dioceses in Syria and Iraq. The bishops denounced the “barbaric acts” carried out by the Islamic State, pointing to the destruction of archaeological and cultural sites integral to the history of Syria and Iraq in places such as Palmyra, Syria, and the ancient monasteries of Mar Behnam in Iraq and Mar Elias in Syria. They also condemned the desecration of Christian graves and the transformation of Churches into mosques.

Pope: God doesn’t condemn sinners; He weeps, waits for their conversion VATICAN CITY — God loves His children so much that He does not condemn them – He weeps when they stray, commit evil or refuse His love, Pope Francis said at morning Mass.

God will wait until the final moments of a sinner’s life, like he did for the good thief on the cross, who mocked and derided Christ, but then repented and was saved, the pope said in his homily Oct. 29. “The worst person, the worst blasphemer is loved by God with a fatherly tenderness,” he said. The pope looked at the day’s reading from the Gospel of St. Luke, in which Jesus laments the evil ways of Jerusalem, “you who kill the prophets,” and mourns His loving attempts “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings” to gather and protect such an unwilling people. But no matter how reluctant or defiant people are, God “waits, He does not condemn, He weeps. Why? Because He loves,” the pope said.

China announces it will change its policy, allow all families 2 children

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announced they would change the nation’s one-child policy, which most strictly applied to Han Chinese living in urban areas. The Oct. 29 announcement was contained in a Xinhua news agency report on the Communist Party’s Central Committee in Beijing. It said China would allow all couples to have two children, but did not provide additional details. The Chinese government imposed its one-child policy in 1979 to curb the growth of the population that, at that time, was reaching 972 million people. It now stands at 1.3 billion.

Philippines to host International Eucharistic Congress VATICAN CITY — Just over a month into the Year of Mercy, Catholics from around the world will gather in Cebu, Philippines, for the International Eucharistic Congress, an opportunity to remind Catholics that reaching out to all with the Gospel is a key act of mercy. Archbishop Jose S. Palma of Cebu told reporters at the Vatican Oct. 27 that the theme of the congress – “Christ in you, our hope of glory” – was chosen long before Pope Francis announced the special jubilee Year of Mercy would begin Dec. 8. However, he said, the Jan. 24-31 congress in Cebu will be filled not only with reflections on hope and mercy, but also on the inclusion of the poor and marginalized.

Bishops plead for climate change action VATICAN CITY — Presidents of the U.S. and Canadian bishops’ conferences joined leaders of the regional bishops’ conferences of Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania and Europe in signing an appeal for government leaders to reach a “fair, legally binding and truly transformational climate agreement” at a summit in Paris. Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, signed the appeal Oct. 26 at the beginning of a joint news conference at the Vatican. The appeal, Cardinal Gracias said, was a response to Pope Francis’ letter on the environment and an expression of “the anxiety of all the people, all the churches all over the world” regarding how, “unless we are careful and prudent, we are heading for disaster.” The appeal is addressed to negotiators preparing for the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris Nov. 30-Dec. 11. The bishops called for “courageous and imaginative political leadership” and for legal frameworks that “clearly establish boundaries and ensure the protection of the ecosystem.” The bishops also asked governments to recognize the “ethical and moral dimensions of climate change,” to recognize that the climate and the atmosphere are common goods belonging to all, to set a strong limit on global temperature increase and to promote new models of development and lifestyles that are “climate compatible.”

BEIJING — China’s Communist Party leaders

— Catholic News Service

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 6, 2015 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Sister Mary Raphael

Lady of Sorrows, in faith she walked A

s a little girl there were many times I could not fully comprehend the gravity and intricacies of a given situation.

Youth and lack of experience kept me in the dark. However, in some instances I simply looked at my mother’s response and seeing her sorrow, I became serious and sad. I may not have understood the complete reason for her tears, but watching her grieve brought pain to my heart and made me sympathetic to the troubling situation.

The Church gives us a similar opportunity to walk with our heavenly Mother under the title of Our Lady of Sorrows, with the feast day of Sept. 15. But no matter what time of the year, it is always good to ponder the spiritual martyrdom of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to learn from her example of suffering, to apply that example in bearing with our own crosses, and to become compassionate to the sufferings of our neighbors.

As Mother of the Redeemer, Mary possessed a unique role in the drama of mankind’s salvation. Far from playing the part of a passive bystander, she experienced Christ’s Passion in a way no saint ever could.

The prophet Simeon foretold Mary’s spiritual martyrdom when he told her, “Your own soul will be pierced by a sword” (Luke 2:35).

Traditionally, Catholic devotion honors seven distinct sorrows of our Lady: the Presentation in the Temple, the Flight into Egypt, the Loss of Jesus for Three Days, the Way to Calvary, the Crucifixion, the Descent from the Cross, and the Burial of Jesus.

While each sorrow played a valuable role in salvation history, each was fulfilled by the climax of Christ’s death on the cross.

Many of Jesus’ acquaintances and friends ran from Calvary in fear, but St. John tells us that Mary stayed with her Son on the cross (John 19:25). She knew her place, and she held it firmly.

From this position near the cross of Christ, the Blessed Mother shows us specifically how to suffer. First, she remained next to Christ – not off in a corner wallowing in her own grief. Secondly, she stood; she did not swoon or make a scene. She courageously bore the crushing blow of watching her Son die in agony, and her tranquility flowed from a docile spirit. Her directive from the Annunciation reverberated in the consummation of her Son’s sacrifice on Calvary, “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

St. Bernard explained Mary’s spiritual and emotional anguish poignantly when he wrote, “Perhaps someone will say: ‘Had she not known before that He would die? Undoubtedly. ‘Did she not expect Him to rise again at once?’ Surely. ‘And still she grieved over her crucified Son?’ Intensely. Who are you and what is the source of your wisdom that you are more surprised at the compassion of Mary than at the passion of Mary’s Son? For if He could die in body, could she not die with Him in spirit? He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since His.” Why was her love unlike any other since Christ’s love? St. Teresa of Avila once said that to be a woman means to love and to suffer, and St. Gianna Beretta Molla pointed out that a person “cannot love without suffering or suffer without loving.” Mary was the perfect woman. Her capacity for loving was greater than any other person’s, and her capacity for suffering reached beyond our comprehension.

However, hers was not a suffering of despair. Even in her pain, though, our Blessed Mother remained sensitive to those around her. Jesus told her to take John as her son (John 19:26). What sacrifice it must have been to offer her perfect Son in exchange for broken humanity! Yet, she wholeheartedly embraced all of us and intercedes for us daily.

In our spiritual lives there may be times, when in our weakness and helplessness, we struggle to carry our crosses. Maybe we fail to understand the depth of Christ’s sufferings, or the sufferings of our neighbors. If we look to the sorrowful heart of Our Lady, though, she will enlarge the capacity and sympathy of our own hearts to love at all cost.

Sister Mary Raphael is a member of the Daughters of the Virgin Mother, a community dedicated to serving the spiritual and practical needs of the sacred priesthood and of seminarians in the Diocese of Charlotte.

Father George David Byers

T

You’re adopting me? Really?

his is a true account of how God adopts us into the family of faith (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:5) by way of a personal analogy. On the first day of my first parish assignment as a transitional deacon, I met a single foster mom who had adopted three very troubled older children. She told me their story: The children were two brothers and a sister, 6, 9 and 11 years old, who over time had been in and out of literally hundreds of foster homes – spending a week here, a few days there, perhaps just an hour over yonder. Foster parents who lasted a full week with them were incomparably more patient than the rest, but then they too gave up. No one wanted them.

As you might imagine, these two brothers and their sister had become hardened cynics even at their young ages, and more familiar with the streets than with any “family.” They were convinced that no one would love them, which had been proved to them time and again as so many doors were slammed behind them. Distrusting anyone, they became proficient in showing their worst behavior to everyone.

The single mother who now wanted to adopt these children had come to the parish to ask that they be baptized, which was also their desire. “You are a very strong, charitable woman to want to adopt children of this age,” I told her, “since they would surely have been through so many miserable experiences of being rejected in foster homes.”

This great woman of faith then recounted that her love for them was also expressed with a firm and consistent correction of them when needed. She said that the predictability gave them a sense of security.

They had now been living with her for six months.

She hadn’t thrown them out on the street.

She told me that the first three months with them seemed scripted by hell. The children showed their worst – breaking the windows, breaking the dishes, taking razors to the carpets and furniture and curtains, and destroying everything they could. They nearly succeeded in burning down her house five times.

Three months into living there, for no particular reason, the children realized that this woman really

did love them, that she wasn’t going to throw them out on the street, even though they had done their best to show their worst. From that day onward, she told me, they were angels. They were eager to help, wanting to do the dishes, sweep the floor, wash the windows – whatever they could do to show their filial respect and love for her, who they now considered their mom.

Their cynicism had been answered with love. They now knew what it was to be in a family, perhaps for the first time in their lives. More than this, they wanted what this woman had: the faith lived within the family of faith. They couldn’t get enough of what it means to be in a family, and in God’s family.

This is a good lesson for us all: Always be there for the most vulnerable, and never compromise anyone for the sake of self-congratulatory expedience. The Lord will have this lesson put to the test even daily in our own lives, with others testing God-given faith and love, wanting to see that such faith and love is true within us when tried in this way and that. It’s not that people want to be aggravating; it’s that they want to be encouraged by seeing the strength of this faith and love in difficult circumstances. Haven’t we ourselves done this? Cynicism is cured with the prompt mercy of steadfast friendship with Jesus. We have all had good people in our lives.

When our faith and love are tested, we will surely fail unless we realize that we ourselves have tested the Lord in our sin, showing our worst to Him. He has shown us firm, consistent correction and mercy, giving us a sense of security with the very wounds which we inflicted on His hands and feet and side, in His Heart. We are lost in cynicism until we have an attitude of humble thanksgiving, like that in which the three children of this woman learned to rejoice.

So what is the most awesome adoption story ever?

That of the great Woman, clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet, crowned with 12 stars, and the Church who have adopted us, bringing us right into the family of faith with great joy.

Father George David Byers is administrator of Holy Redeemer Parish in Andrews.

November 6, 2015 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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Letters to the editor

We must turn back to God and uphold the truth

Help available for Catholic veterans Deacon James H. Toner

What we know that ain’t so:

“What you think is the right road may lead to death” (Prv 14:12)

Supercilious savvy What we think is the right road

W

e know so much. We know science and mathematics; we know architecture and engineering; we know sociology and criminal justice. We have made so much progress in so many fields, and everything is getting better and better.

All we have to do is to trust our leaders and ourselves, and we can have heaven on earth.

But it’s the wrong road It’s true that we have made progress in a number of areas. We humans, though, are still plagued with the sins and evils which have been always been part of history.

In fact, the worst sin, many theologians have told us, is the kind of pride represented in the notion that we can build paradise, or perfect ourselves, right here and right now (for reference, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church 57, 1784, 1866 and 2094).

One could mention the Fall, the Tower of Babel, or Proverbs 3:5 (GNB) our human tendency to exalt ourselves by minimizing God and divine authority. There is, however, one largely ‘That Hideous unknown Strength: A scriptural verse Modern Fairy Tale which seems to for Grown-Ups,’ by capture the gist C.S. Lewis. of any serious conversation about what we know, or don’t.

As the Israelites were building their country, they were attacked by a large army and disaster appeared imminent.

On the verge of military doom, they desperately appealed to God: “But as we know not what to do, we can only turn our eyes to thee” (2 Chronicles 20:12 DRB). This translation (from “ut oculos nostros dirigamus ad te”) is important because it gives us the core of Catholic moral teaching: our eyes should be always on God, who is our help, our joy and our destiny, if we keep him paramount in our lives. The secular world tells us to “keep your eyes on the

‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Never rely on what you think you know.’

Suggested reading

prize.” Baseball coaches, similarly, tell their hitters to keep their eyes riveted to the ball.

This is precisely the meaning of the quotation from Chronicles, quoted above. When we transfer our vision, our trust, our faith, from God to our leaders and ourselves, we invite chaos and corruption into our personal and national lives (see Proverbs 29:18 and 14:34). When we lose the humility of God’s righteousness, we fill the void with our own pride – and with false leaders, who, appealing to our bloated self-importance, tell us that we are on the long march to personal or earthly perfection.

Here, then, is the great good sense of the traditional prayer at the foot of the altar (which is Psalm 42, or 43 in recent translations), where the priest and people pray: “Defend me, take up my cause against people who have no pity; from the treacherous and cunning man rescue me, O God. ... Send out your light and your truth. ... I shall go to the altar of God, to the God of my joy.” Light and truth are found, not in fleeting and fraudulent promises from the false gods of merely human endeavors but, rather, from the God we worship at Mass.

Not for nothing does the Bible sternly warn us against putting too much trust in our political leaders (Psalms 118:8, 146:3). That is true as well of trusting too much in any other humans, in any other field.

A key point of traditional Catholic philosophy is the importance of our knowing what we do not know – by which is meant that we must keep our eyes first and foremost on God, not accepting mountebanks who promise us paradise if only we will be progressive enough to reject “false Catholic teaching.” It was the French Catholic writer Charles Peguy who said, “It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been committed for fear of not looking sufficiently progressive.” And it was Padre Pio who told us that, without God’s grace, all we know is how to sin.

When we are asked, directly or indirectly, what we know for sure, the secular world replies with a comment about death and taxes. Catholics, however, have a surer and more serious response: we know that we are sinners in need of a Redeemer. And we know, with Job, that our Redeemer liveth (19:25).

It is to God that we turn, praying, “Open my eyes that I may see the wonderful truths in your law” (Ps 119:18 GNB).

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

Did you know there is something unique about being a Catholic veteran? Catholic War Veterans, USA, is one of the oldest veterans service organizations in the nation.

It was founded in 1935 by World War I Army chaplain Monsignor Edward J. Higgins, L.L.D., to nourish Catholic veterans in their love for God, country and home.

It is the only Catholic-based organization whose membership is solely made up of military veterans and whose main focus is to help other veterans in need. This meant, and still means, assistance to returning veterans and their families, their neighborhoods, fellow Catholics, and all other veterans and citizens in their communities alongside other veterans organizations. Catholic War Veterans, USA, is in all states and has exemplary Catholic action, family-based activities for all service men and women, veterans and families accessible to carry out its programs with the aid of all Catholic veterans in a given CWV post, chapter or department/state. Catholic War Veterans members need only to have served in active duty over a period of time for 90 days, not necessarily in combat.

Catholic War Veterans, USA, exists because of the love of God, country and home, and its growth depends upon prayer, Catholic veteran identity, and mostly by the graces of God, who loves each of us. We are Catholic veterans who love our God, our country and our fellow man, and we strive to live our lives in the presence of a loving God. Give Catholic War Veterans, USA, a chance in your community by emailing catholicwv@att.net, or contacting me at ann. roberts1@hotmail.com or 660-744-3625. More information is also online at www.cwv.org.

God bless and thank you for your service to God, country and home.

I do not understand the Catholic News Service article in the Oct. 9 edition of the Catholic News Herald, “Vatican says pope’s meeting with Ky. clerk is not an endorsement.” Of course the pope and the Catholic Church endorse Kim Davis.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church – specifically sections 2335, 2337, 1639 and 1641 – provides just a few points of the Church’s teaching on the nature of marriage. What Kim Davis is doing is exactly what all Christians are called to do. We are to live the Gospel even if we are persecuted for spreading God’s truth.

To love is to show someone when they are in error and inform them when they are hurting their soul. In this upcoming Year of Mercy, we as God’s people need to focus on spiritual works of mercy. Our souls are the most important part of our human nature.

Love should always be our moving force. We must admonish the sinner and instruct the ignorant. We must do this by helping people understand and learn the truths which God has revealed to us.

Our world is thirsty for truth and we tire from the truths being changed, where right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right. The verse from Amos 8:11-12 is worth pondering.

We as a world are under judgment, and that is why we continue to lose on every front. Christians need to turn back to God because He is the light. I pray for moral strength for ourselves and our shepherds every day, because we all need it so much.

Michael W. Doub lives in Hamptonville, N.C.

Ann Roberts lives in Missouri.

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From online story: “Those who give their lives in service are not losers, pope says” Through press time on Nov. 4, 10,984 visitors to www.catholicnewsherald.com have viewed a total of 21,842 pages. The top five headlines in October and November so far have been: n Greensboro, Charlotte parishes host relics of St. Maria Goretti...................................................................1,141 n St. Mark Adoration Chapel redesigned ‘for glory and honor of God’............................................................521 n St. Gabriel students form living rosary................................................................................................................ 422 n Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration announce merger of two communities........................................... 302 n Charlotte Catholic student earns Hispanic honor.............................................................................................277

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 6, 2015 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Filipino Catholics in action

The 2015 Annual Festivities of the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary

On October 24, 2015, more than 400 devotees from 15 Marian groups celebrated the Queenship of the Most Holy Rosary at St. Matthew Catholic Church. The day opened with three presentations by Sr. Zenaida Mofada, O.P., Deacon Gary Schreiber, and Dr. Cris V. Villapando to remind the community of the indispensable role the Blessed Mother has in our lives. Afterwards, Susan Supil, Malou Casida, Dr. Ben Lorenzo, Dr. Nini Bautista, and Jane Escobal provided reflections on each of the decades of the Luminous Mysteries to focus on Our Lord’s Paschal Redemption. The culmination was reached when Fr. Ted Kalaw, a priest from the Religious Order of the Clerics Regular Minor, sang the entire Filipino liturgy in Tagalog.

For more information about the Filipino Catholic community in the Diocese of Charlotte, please contact Dr. Cris Villapando at the Office of Faith Formation 704-370-3246 or crisv@charlottediocese.org