Jan. 22, 2016

January 22, 2016

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‘If our effort allows one person to grow up to be the person God created, it’s all worthwhile’

‘Sharing God’s Gifts’ 2015 DSA campaign raises record $5.3M 6 INDEX

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Soggy March for Life proves marchers’ resolve 14-17

St. Barnabas Parish marks 50th anniversary 5

St. Matthew Church surpasses 10,000 registered families 3

Year of Mercy 2

catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Holy Door replica installed at St. Mark Church; parish launches food collection drive for Year of Mercy HUNTERSVILLE — A large depiction of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome has been installed on the exterior wall of St. Mark Church. The 7.5-by-11-foot image depicts the history of salvation in the Bible – 12 bronze panels that tell the story beginning with Adam and Eve through the Crucifixion of Christ and ending with the Opening of the Holy Door by Pope Pius XII in 1950. The history of the Holy Year and the opening of the Holy Door dates back to the 1300s when the Church adopted the tradition of proclaiming a Jubilee every 50 years. As a major part of this tradition, Catholics returned to Rome and walked through the Holy Door. To pass through the door was to pass into the presence of God and to confirm belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Pope Francis opened the Holy Door in December to begin the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.

Similar “Doors of Mercy” have been opened at cathedrals all over the world; the Diocese of Charlotte has holy doors at three churches: St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, St. Lawrence Basilica in Asheville and St. Pius X Church in Greensboro.

For St. Mark parishioners, the holy door reproduction is a reminder to become more merciful in their own lives and bring God’s mercy to others. (Pictured standing next to the

Pope Francis

No one is excluded from the mercy of God

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atholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians are called to work together in order to be a visible sign that God’s mercy excludes no one, Pope Francis said during his general audience Jan. 20.

The pope reflected on the theme of the annual week of Prayer for Christian Unity which was taken from the first letter of St. Peter and was selected by an ecumenical group from Latvia. The Lutheran cathedral of Riga, Latvia, he noted, contains a 12th-century baptismal font that serves as a sign of the common baptism that unites Catholics, Protestant and Orthodox Christians.

“St. Peter’s first letter is addressed to the first generation of Christians to make them aware of the gift received through baptism and the requirements it entails,” the pope said. “We too, in this week of prayer, are invited to rediscover this and do this together, going beyond our divisions.”

The pope said that although divisions are often caused by selfishness, the common baptism shared by Christians is an experience of being “called from the merciless and alienating darkness” to an encounter with God who is “full of mercy.”

“To start once again from baptism means to rediscover the source of mercy, the source of hope for all, so that no one is excluded from God’s mercy,” he said. “No one is excluded from the mercy of God.” The grace of God’s mercy, he added, is stronger than what divides Christians and in the measure one receives that grace, one becomes “capable of preaching to all his merciful deeds,” especially through a witness of Christian unity.

“We Christians can announce to all the power of the Gospel by committing ourselves to share the corporal and spiritual works of mercy,” he said. “This is a concrete witness of unity among us Christians: Protestants, Orthodox and Catholics.”

Pope Francis emphasized that the week of prayer serves as a reminder that Christians share a common mission in passing on to others the mercy they have received, especially with “the poor and the abandoned.”

“During this week of prayer, let us pray so that all of us, disciples of Christ, may find a way to work together to bring the mercy of the father to every part of the earth,” the pope said.

Photos provided by Amy G. Burger

door are Ethan and Trey Schneider.) Church members began the Year of Mercy by launching a permanent food collection drive for Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte. The collection bins were put in place in the narthex earlier this month, and parishioners including Martha Fleming (pictured) began donating food that will be taken weekly to the Catholic Charities food pantry in Charlotte.

Fundamental equality of the faithful Editor’s note: We are gratified to publish this series about the rights and obligations of the Christian faithful, as set forth in canon (Church) law, written especially for the Catholic News Herald by Mercy Sister JeanneMargaret McNally. Sister Jeanne-Margaret is a distinguished authority on canon law, author of the reference guide “Canon Law for the Laity,” and frequent lecturer at universities and dioceses. A graduate of The Catholic University of America with multiple degrees including a doctorate in psychology and a licentiate of canon law (JCL), she is a psychologist for the Tribunal of the Diocese of Charlotte and a judge in the Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Miami.

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anon 208 is a declaration of the principle of radical or fundamental equality. This means that all who have received baptism are equal members of the faithful. All the faithful are equal in dignity. This equality means equality regarding the enforceability of the law. One is not a member of the faithful to a greater degree for having received the sacrament of orders or an ecclesiastical office. For example, the obedience the faithful owe to the hierarchy is as just and as much a right as the respect the hierarchy owes to the rights of the faithful.

This follows the teaching of Vatican II: “If therefore in the Church everyone does not proceed by the same path, nevertheless all are called to sanctity and have received an equal privilege of faith through the justice of God. And if by the will of Christ some are made teachers, pastors and dispensers of mysteries on behalf of others, yet all share a true equality with regard to the dignity and to the activity common to all the faithful for the building up of the Body of Christ. For the distinction which

the Lord made between sacred ministers and the rest of the People of God bears within it a certain union, since pastors and the other faithful are bound to each other by a mutual need.

Pastors of the Church, following the example of the Lord, should minister to one another and to the other faithful. These in their turn should enthusiastically lend their joint assistance to their pastors and teachers. Thus in their diversity all bear witness to the wonderful unity in the Body of Christ. This very diversity of graces, ministries and works gathers the children of God into one, because ‘all these things are the work of one and the same Spirit.’” (“Lumen Gentium,” 32).

All forms of discrimination in the basic rights of a person is forbidden.

This canon states further that participation differs “according to one’s condition and function.” There is diversity among the People of God; different levels of responsibility exist. Some enter matrimony and have children, some become clerics, and other become consecrated religious, each with added responsibilities and obligations.

Difficulties arise when there are not adequate structures available to encourage involvement, or actually prevent involvement in one’s area of life or in the Church. Some may not know their rights and obligations. The idea is that the interrelationship of all the faithful shows the unity of the one Body of Christ.

Coming next: Communion with the Church

Your daily Scripture readings JAN. 24-30

Sunday: Nehemiah 8:2-6, 8-10, 1 Corinthians 12:12-30, Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21; Monday (The Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle): Acts 22:3-16, Mark 16:15-18; Tuesday (Sts. Timothy and Titus): 2 Timothy 1:1-18, Mark 3:31-35; Wednesday (St. Angela Merici): 2 Samuel 7:4-17, Mark 4:1-20; Thursday (St. Thomas Aquinas): 2 Samuel 7:18-19, 24-29, Mark 4:21-25; Friday: 2 Samuel 11:1-10, 13-17, Mark 4:26-34; Saturday: 2 Samuel 12:1-17, 10-17, Mark 4:35-41

JAN. 31-FEB. 6

Sunday: Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19, 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13, Luke 4:21-30; Monday: 2 Samuel 15:13-14, 30, 16:5-13, Mark 5:1-20; Tuesday (The Presentation of the Lord): Malachi 3:1-4, Hebrews 2:14-18, Luke 2:22-40; Wednesday (St. Blaise, St. Ansgar): 2 Samuel 24:2, 9-17, Mark 6:1-6; Thursday: 1 Kings 2:1-4, 10-12, 1, Chronicles 29:10-12, Mark 6:7-13; Friday (St. Agatha): Sirach 47:2-11, Mark 6:14-29; Saturday (St. Paul Miki and Companions): 1 Kings 3:4-13, Mark 6:30-34

FEB. 7-13

Sunday: Isaiah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11; Monday (St. Jerome Emiliani, St. Josephine Bakhita): 1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13, Mark 6:53-56; Tuesday: 1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30, Mark 7:1-13; Wednesday (Ash Wednesday): Joel 2:12-18, 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2, Matthew 6:1-16, 16-18; Thursday (Our Lady of Lourdes): Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Luke 9:22-25; Friday: Isaiah 58:1-9, Matthew 9:14-15; Saturday: Isaiah 58:9-14, Luke 5:27-32

Our parishes

January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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St. Matthew Church in south Charlotte currently has more than 10,000 registered families, making it the largest parish in the Diocese of Charlotte and one of the largest in the country. Pictured in this file photo, parishioners gather for Mass.

Doreen Sugierski | Catholic News Herald

St. Matthew Church surpasses 10,000 registered families SueAnn Howell Senior reporter

CHARLOTTE — St. Matthew Church hit a new milestone this month in its 30-year history, reaching 10,020 registered families.

The church in south Charlotte is one of the largest Catholic parishes in the U.S., now comprising 34,497 registered members, according to this month’s parish rolls.

Many of these newcomers have been part of a wave of people moving to the South in recent years, swelling the Diocese of Charlotte from just over 34,000 Catholics in 1972 to an estimated 456,000 Catholics last year.

St. Matthew Church has been a leading indicator of this growth since the parish was formed in 1986, when a fledgling congregation of 600 Catholics in the Ballantyne area began meeting at a local movie theater. Ballantyne and the Interstate 485 loop around Charlotte have boomed in the intervening three decades – and so has the parish.

The late Monsignor Joseph Kerin, former chancellor of the diocese and St. Matthew’s first pastor, helped build the parish activity center in 1989 and the present church

in 1996. Over the years a daily chapel, education building, ministry building and columbarium have been added to the 25-acre campus on Ballantyne Commons Parkway.

A satellite location in Waxhaw, dubbed St. Matthew South, was completed in October 2014. The multi-purpose building, which is dedicated to the Divine Mercy, serves more than 2,000 families in that area for weekend Masses and faith formation classes.

The parish offers eight Masses every weekend on its main campus, plus Maronite and Syro-Malabar Divine Liturgies each month. St. Matthew South offers three additional Masses every weekend. More than 50 trained volunteers assist in various roles at each Mass celebrated in the main church.

Maureen Regele is one of St. Matthew’s original parishioners.

Regele recalls attending Mass in the theater with her husband Steve and their three daughters.

“It was very cozy in the beginning – and surprisingly it’s still cozy with so many people,” she says. “Just being there, it’s like a family.”

Regele now serves with the parish’s newcomers ministry, which welcomes people to the parish and encourages them to join a parish group or ministry to meet others and get involved.

“We really encourage people to join something so they can get to know people in that large community on a more intimate basis,” she says. “So to me, it’s always felt like my extended family, because like so many others at the parish we’re all from somewhere else. We didn’t have our real family around.

It has been so great to have everyone so willing to help everyone

else. I know if anything ever happened, I could pick up the phone and someone would be right there.”

Newcomer Frank Monteleone is one of the newest of St. Matthew’s parishioners.

Monteleone, his wife and their two young children relocated to Ballantyne at the ST. MATTHEW, SEE page 21

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Tim P. Faragher | Catholic News Herald

St. Matthew Church’s parish family has boomed over the past 30 years. In 2015, the south Charlotte parish welcomed an average of 60 families per month, and this month the parish rolls topped 10,000 families for the first time. St. Matthew Church is believed to be one of the largest Catholic parishes in the U.S. (Source: Diocese of Charlotte Planning and Research statistics)

UPcoming events 4

catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishop Peter J. Jugis will participate in the following upcoming events: JAN. 22 – 11:30 A.M. Mass Giving Thanks to God for Gift of Human Life Basilica of National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Washington, D.C. FEB. 1 – 10 A.M. Catholic Schools Week Mass St. Michael School, Gastonia

FEB. 4 – 11 A.M. Catholic Schools Week Mass Charlotte Catholic High School, Charlotte FEB. 6 – 11 A.M. Mass for World Day of Consecrated Life St. Patrick Cathedral, Charlotte

Diocesan calendar of events January 22, 2016

Lectures & Workshops

Volume 25 • Number 8

‘Remembering the future and re-engaging the people of god – Pope Francis and Vatican II’: 9 a.m.-noon, Saturday, Jan. 30, St. Peter Church, 507 S. Tryon St. Charlotte. The 16th Annual Kennedy Lecture will feature Dr. Gerard Mannion of Georgetown University. In the past three years, the Church throughout the world has seen a whirlwind of activity, renewal and reform led by the pontificate of Pope Francis. Mannion will discuss some of the key areas in which the pope is encouraging a renewed, yet updated, commitment to Vatican II.

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

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

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.

Sidewalk Counseling TRAINING: Learn how to be an effective and prayerful witness at Charlotte abortion facilities as well as get involved with the growing local pro-life movement. After the 8 a.m. Mass, Saturday, Feb. 6, in the Family Life Center at St. Patrick Cathedral, 1621 Dilworth Road, Charlotte. Sponsored by C-PLAN of Charlotte. Register at www.prolifecharlotte.org/events.

WORKSHOPS ON POPE FRANCIS’ ENCYCLICAL LAUDATO SI’ ‘ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME’: 1-2:30 p.m. or 7-8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 12, at St. Eugene Church, 72 Culvern St., Asheville. Speaker Dr. Catherine Wright will discuss why Pope Francis wrote this encyclical and the idea that faith and science need to be in dialogue. The purpose is to give participants an overview of the letter and discuss how it is a part of Catholic Social Teaching. Q&A following the presentation.

For details, contact Cynthia Gibbs at 828-684-3555 or cynthia@gibbsco.com.

6th Annual Charlotte Catholic Men’s Conference: Saturday, Feb. 27, St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte. Speakers: Brian Pusteri of Broken Door Ministries, Joe McClane, speaker, author, evangelist; Father Chris Alar, MIC, director of the Association of Marian Helpers; Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari of Belmont Abbey; and Bishop Emeritus William Curlin. For details, visit www. catholicmenofthecarolinas.org.

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

Saturday, Jan. 23, at St. Vincent De Paul Church, 6828 Old Reid Road, Charlotte. 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.

PRAYER SERVICES & Groups Annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, at St. John Neumann Church.

Speaker will be Pastor In-Yong Lee of Cokesbury United Methodist Church. Music will be led under the direction of Soo-Jin Ridgell of St. John Neumann Church.

Participating churches include Christian Faith Assembly, Joy Church, Morning Star Lutheran and Cokesbury United Methodist. Refreshments will be available after the

service. For details, contact Shea Barja at 704-451-3629 or sheabarja@gmail.com.

St. Peregrine Healing Prayer Service: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte. Guest presider for this seventh anniversary healing prayer service is Father Christopher Krymski, OSM, director of the National Shrine of St. Peregrine and associate pastor at Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica in Chicago. For details, call the parish office at 704-543-7677.

Healing Mass and Anointing of the Sick: 2 p.m. every third Sunday of the month, St. Margaret of Scotland Church, 37 Murphy Dr., Maggie Valley. Individual prayers over people after Mass by Charismatic Prayer Group members. For details, call the parish office at 828-926-0106.

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

Procession for Life: 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, Charlotte Catholic High School Chapel, 7702 PinevilleMatthews Road, Charlotte, hosted by the Charlotte chapter of Helpers of God’s Precious Infants. Procession followed by prayer at Family Reproductive Health on Hebron Road. For details, go to www.CharlotteHelpers. com.

Pro-Life Rosary: 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, 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.

Charlotte catholic women’s group morning reflection: Mass at 9 a.m. Monday, Feb. 8, at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 6828 Old Reid Road, Charlotte, followed by fellowship and reflection at 10:30 a.m. by Father Thomas Kessler, pastor of St. Philip the Apostle Church in Statesville. Questions? Contact Connie Hudack at 704-488-6822 or email cshudack@gmail.com.

Evening Novenas: Every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Christ the King Church, 1505 East Kivett Dr., High Point. All are invited to pray the Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Join them in praying for the needs of your families and for our hurting world. For details, contact the parish at 336 883-0244.

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.

CoNcord: 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, St. James Church, 139 Manor Ave. Jefferson: 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, St. Francis of Assisi Church, 326 E. Main St. (Spanish)

SUPPORT GROUPS Worldwide Marriage Encounter: Weekends scheduled for Feb. 5-7 in Asheville, or April 29-May 1 in Chapel Hill. Early sign-up recommended. For details, go to www.NCMarriageDiscovery.org or call 704-315-2144.

Alzheimer’s Caregiver and Family Support Group: Meets the first Monday of the month, 6:30-8 p.m., in the Family Center Room 203 at St. Mark Church, 14740 Stumptown Road, Huntersville. Organized with the Alzheimer’s Association, the monthly meetings are for the caregivers and family members of people with Alzheimer’s. For details, email Janet Urban at jgraceart@ yahoo.com.

POST-ABORTION HEALING: Rachel’s Vineyard is a weekend retreat for women and men to begin their healing journey after abortion. For details, go to www. rachelsvineyard.org or contact Jennifer Ganser, diocesan Respect Life coordinator, at 336-209-2161 or jmganser@ charlottediocese.org.

Grieving the loss of a spouse: Support group for husbands and wives who are mourning. Meets the second Monday of each month from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte. For details, call Sister Marie Frechette at 704-543-7677.

Year of mercy ‘iMercy – The Divine Hotspot’ mission: Jan. 25-27, St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte, presented by a team of Dominican priests.

Call the parish office at 704-5437677 or go to www. stmatthewcatholic.org for details.

The ‘Gospel of Mercy’: 3-4:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, St. Luke Church, 13700 Lawyers Road, Mint Hill. A discussion about the Jubilee Year of Mercy, led by Mercy Sister Mary Hugh Mauldin, examining both Old and New Testament understandings as well as other Church documents. Sister Mary Hugh will also review Pope Francis’ decree for the Year of Mercy, “Misericordiae Vultus.” Reading the decree before the class is recommended. Please bring a Bible and a copy of the decree. Discussion regarding the “how-to” will follow.

Light refreshments will be served. For details, call the parish office at 704-545-1224.

Year of Mercy website: Keep up to date on all Jubilee Year of Mercy events, download catechetical resources on the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, watch videos on the theme of mercy, and much more, at the Diocese of Charlotte’s Year of Mercy website: www. yearofmercy.rcdoc.org.

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.

January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI

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Photos by Paul Wojcik and Patricia L. Guilfoyle | Catholic News Herald

Bishop Peter Jugis presents a papal blessing from Pope Francis to St. Barnabas Parish Jan. 17 on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Also pictured are Father Adrian Porras, pastor, and fourth-degree Knights from the St. Barnabas council.

St. Barnabas Parish celebrates 50th anniversary Patricia L. Guilfoyle Editor

ARDEN — Welcoming. Like a family. Home.

Those were some of the words parishioners including Klaus and Jean Jockwig, Frank and Madonna Moyer, Barbara Indelicato and Jack Le Beau used to describe St. Barnabas Parish in Arden. They were among hundreds who celebrated the parish’s 50th anniversary Jan. 17 with a special Mass that featured several former pastors and other clergy, some of the founding families of the parish, and a special papal blessing from Pope Francis for the occasion.

The bilingual Mass was celebrated by Bishop Peter Jugis and concelebrated by Father Adrian Porras, pastor; Father Wilbur Thomas, rector and pastor of St. Lawrence Basilica in Asheville; and Father Dean Cesa, former pastor. Father Roger Arnsparger, former pastor, and Father Noah Carter, a former member of the parish, were also present for the celebration.

Surviving family members of the parish’s original 35 families were recognized, and fourth-degree Knights of Columbus of St. Barnabas Council served as honor guard.

“The celebration of the 50th anniversary is the perfect opportunity to rededicate ourselves to the mission of the parish, both on a personal basis and on a parish family basis,” Bishop Jugis noted in his homily.

A parish exists for three reasons, he explained. “First of all, and most importantly, for the praise and glory of Almighty God. He, of course, is the reason that we are here. We owe Him everything – our gratitude, our praise, our worship.”

Second, he continued, the parish’s mission is to help each member grow in holiness. And third, he said, a parish “is to be a center for evangelization.”

A parish’s mission, he said, is “to be concerned not only for our own salvation, but to be concerned for the salvation of everyone else – to make sure that everyone else has the chance to know and love Jesus as we do, and to bring them into His presence, by sharing our love of Christ, our love of the Lord.”

Bishop Jugis recalled the words of St. John Paul II in his 2001 apostolic letter “Novo Millennio Ineunte” (“At the Beginning of the New Millennium”): “Brothers and sisters, don’t settle for a life of mediocrity. Don’t settle for a shallow practice of the Catholic faith.”

“Your love of Christ must be present in everything that

Former pastors of St. Barnabas, other clergy, and founding members of St. Barnabas Parish were honored during the anniversary celebration.

(Above) Bishop Jugis encouraged parishioners to mark the anniversary by recommitting themselves to holiness – both personally and as a parish family. you do,” Bishop Jugis emphasized. “The relationship between husband and wife must reflect the love of Christ.

The relationship of parents and children must reflect the love of Christ. The relationship with people outside the family home, the poor, to all who are neighbor – even those who don’t like you – must reflect the love of Christ.”

We must make personal holiness our priority, just as

St. John Paul II preached, and the parish gives us the opportunity and the strength to do that, Bishop Jugis said.

He added, we cannot be evangelizers if our faith is not strongly rooted in the love of Christ.

“If we have a shallow, weak or mediocre practice of our faith, and a lukewarm love for Jesus,” he said, our sanctification and the evangelization of our culture will not be possible.

“On the 50th anniversary of this parish and as a plan for moving forward, make holiness your goal. Upon it is built everything else – both for yourself personally and for the parish family,” he said.

St. Barnabas began in 1964 as a mission parish of St. Lawrence Church (now Basilica) in Asheville with 35 founding families. It was chartered as a parish on Dec. 20, 1965. By 1984, the congregation had grown to more than 300 families who worked with the Diocese of Charlotte to buy land for a church to be built at its present location on Crescent Hill Road. The parish has continued to buy adjacent land, now totaling approximately 12 acres, for future growth.

During the past 50 years, eight pastors have led the parish: Father Joseph Maule (deceased), Father Joseph Cutter (deceased), Father Frank Bourbon (deceased), Father Joe Newell (deceased), Father John Schneider, Father Roger Arnsparger, Father Dean Cesa and Father Adrian Porras.

Today St. Barnabas Church has grown to well over 1,000 families including a large Hispanic family membership, and the parish has become a vital part of the south Buncombe County community, providing financial and spiritual support to numerous Catholic as well as community organizations.

After the celebration, Father Porras noted, “It was very special for me to be pastor of a parish celebrating its 50th anniversary. St. Barnabas has been a blessing to many people’s lives. Hopefully, for the next 50 years it will continue to be a place where people come to fulfill the two greatest commandments: to love God and to love neighbor.”

More online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: See more photos from St. Barnabas Parish’s 50th anniversary celebration

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catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 OUR PARISHES

2015 DSA campaign raises record $5.3M SueANn Howell Senior reporter

CHARLOTTE — Nearly 17,000 people helped to “Share God’s Gifts” in the 2015 Diocesan Support Appeal, which concluded Dec. 31.

The 2015 DSA campaign raised $5,295,300 from 16,628 donors across the diocese – 3 percent over the campaign goal of $5,120,000 and the most ever raised in this annual appeal. Overall, 27 percent of registered parishioners across the diocese shared an average gift of $318.

The annual campaign funds more than 50 programs, including the core operations of 23 ministries and agencies that serve thousands of people across the diocese – most notably, Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte for its counseling, food pantries, pregnancy support, refugee resettlement, elder ministry, Respect Life and other programs, as well as the programs and ministries of the Education Vicariate. It also supports multicultural ministries, seminarian education, the permanent diaconate, the annual Eucharistic Congress, and the diocese’s housing corporation.

“In 2015, we made a concerted effort through our various campaign materials to share with parishioners all the wonderful things being done throughout the diocese thanks to their DSA contributions,” said Kerry Ann Tornesello, associate director of development for the diocese.

“We asked everyone to ‘share their gifts’ of prayer and financial support, and they responded very generously.”

Parishioners in all 92 parishes and missions in the Charlotte diocese fund the annual DSA. Each parish is assessed a goal based on its average weekly collection.

Parishes that exceed their goal get to keep the extra funds they collect, while parishes which fall short of their goal in donations from parishioners make up the shortfall from their operating budgets.

In the 2015 campaign, 50 parishes and missions exceeded their DSA goal in payments.

Parishes that will receive rebates over $10,000 include St. Jude Mission in Sapphire; St. Bernadette Church in Linville; and Holy Cross Church in Kernersville.

Parishes that will receive more than $20,000 include St. Thérèse Church in Mooresville, St. Leo the Great Church in Winston-Salem, St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, Holy Family Church in Clemmons, Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro, and St. Philip the Apostle Church in Statesville.

“Our diocese is blessed to have thousands of people who ‘share God’s gifts’ by serving in the ministries and programs funded by the DSA each year, and to have thousands more people who support these ministries with their financial gifts,” Tornesello said.

With whom we share God’s gifts …

EDUCATION $1,568,276

MULTICULTURAL MINISTRIES $754,320

- Adult Education/Evangelization - Campus Ministry - Faith Formation Office - Youth Ministry - Catholic Schools Offices - Office of the Vicar of Education - Media Resources

31%

- Hispanic Ministries - Hmong Ministry - African American Ministry

15% VOCATIONS $378,542 - Seminarian Education - Permanent Diaconate

8% 7%

35% CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF CHARLOTTE $1,809,185 - Administration - Charlotte Office - Triad Office - Western NC Office - Refugee Resettlement Office - Office of Economic Opportunity - Family Life Ministries - Social Concerns and Advocacy, Respect Life - Counseling Services - Adoption and Pregnancy Support - Direct Assistance (Food Pantries)

4% DSA CAMPAIGN COSTS $239,609

OTHER $370,068 - Eucharistic Congress - Housing Ministry - Hospital Ministry

Tim P. Faragher | Catholic News Herald

John Cosmas | Catholic News Herald

Celebrating the Epiphany with sacred music CHARLOTTE — Worshippers gathered at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte Jan. 6 to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. A Mass in the Extraordinary Form was offered, featuring W.A. Mozart’s “Spatzenmesse” (“Sparrow Mass”) as sacred music.

The Feast of the Epiphany, also called Three Kings Day or Theophany, is traditionally celebrated on the 12th day after Christmas, on Jan. 6. In the dioceses of the United States, this feast has been moved to the Sunday between Jan. 2 and Jan. 8, so this year it was celebrated most widely on Jan. 3, but some still mark the feast day on its original date.

The Missa Cantata, or “sung Mass,” was offered by Father Jason Christian, parochial vicar. Father Patrick Winslow, pastor, and Father Matthew Kauth, priest in residence, were among the clergy who assisted at the Latin Mass.

The sacred music featuring Mozart’s “Mass in C major,” K. 220, was directed by Thomas F. Savoy, director of music and liturgical events at St. Thomas Aquinas Church. Savoy is also the founder of the Carolina Catholic Chorale, which is dedicated to performing sacred music in liturgical settings and acquainting Catholic musicians with the choral and instrumental heritage of Catholic tradition.

January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 OUR PARISHES

Faith is stronger than steel at St. Pius X Georgianna Penn Correspondent

GREENSBORO — At a recent liturgy, parishioners of St. Pius X Church were invited to sign spans of steel that are being used in the construction of their new parish life center.

Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, pastor, explained, “I have brought this steel into the church because our faith is the foundation we have built upon here at St. Pius X. And that faith has weathered the storms of life, like those contained in the Scriptures today. Your faith is stronger than any steel used in our building.”

Not only will the steel be used to connect the church and cloister to the new Simmons Parish Life Center being built on the Elm Street campus, but it also physically and symbolically ties together the completion of two capital campaign efforts at the growing parish, Monsignor Marcaccio noted.

“Your response in gratitude has brought these two huge efforts together, our two campaigns: ‘Making a Place at the Table’ and ‘Making a Place to Gather and Grow.’”

The first campaign helped to build the new church, which was dedicated in 2010. The latest campaign is funding the construction of the Simmons Parish Life Center and the DeJoy Primary Education Center. Both are expected to be completed this summer.

“I am asking you to sign the steel and make it your own,” Monsignor Marcaccio told parishioners. “These spans will be enclosed in the link between our buildings, like a time capsule, a signature, a snapshot, the steel sign that you are the bond that has brought these two efforts together.

“These beams are a physical sign to us that everything in ministry and fellowship is linked – yes, necessarily connected to what we celebrate at the center of our spiritual lives, which is our faith in Jesus Christ, made especially present in the Holy Eucharist.”

People of all ages took the time to sign the steel after Mass. Some wrote their names, some wrote their favorite Scripture verse, and others were invited to write what they were grateful for or some memory they have of life at St. Pius X. “The response to the invitation was wonderful!” Monsignor Marcaccio said afterwards. “We had to turn the steel several times for people to have room for their names. The signing became a sign in itself of our parishioners’ ownership of the project.”

Photo provided by Terry Rumley

Parishioners at St. Pius X Church in Greensboro sign some of the steel beams being used in the construction of their new parish life center, which is expected to be finished this summer.

Belmont Abbey College to add lights for 2016 baseball season Richard Walker Gaston Gazette

BELMONT — Ever since Belmont Abbey College began fielding baseball teams in the late 1800s, the Crusaders have relied on the sunlight to play their home games.

That will change later this winter when the Crusaders will be able to play night baseball for the first time in school history.

And Belmont Abbey baseball coach Chris Anderson hopes his facility upgrade will help the school connect even more with the local community and possibly begin hosting American Legion baseball games.

“We as a baseball staff felt getting lights was the thing we most needed to do for our program,” said Anderson, entering his third season as head coach. “And the president (Dr. William K. Thierfelder), the athletic director (Stephen Miss) and administration has really backed us on this.”

The Abbey hasn’t officially released its 2016 schedule, but Anderson said he has tentatively set Feb. 3 at 4 p.m. for the first game that lights would be necessary to finish a non-conference game against Catawba.

The biggest benefit for the Crusaders will be in giving them flexibility for three-game Conference Carolinas weekend series.

In the past, a day game on Friday and a doubleheader on Saturday was more frequent schedule for those games.

Adding lights gives the Abbey the opportunity to get more games in for night games or Sundays or Mondays.

Anderson also points out that playing at night would limit missed class time his players miss as well as allowing for other Abbey students to support their classmates.

“It’s a win-win for everybody involved here,” Anderson said.

The pursuit of night baseball isn’t new for the Abbey, which dropped baseball in 1972 after fielding teams since the 1880s and then restarted the program in 1990.

It’s been a part of ongoing upgrades to a facility that has added grandstand and press box areas in addition to a batting cage and pitching mounds in the past 10 years.

“It started becoming real when we started doing all of those improvements,” said Anderson, who was an assistant at the Abbey before returning in 2014 as head coach. “It’s just that there were so many other things we needed to do to upgrade and update the facility before adding lights.”

The final push started when Brian Rushing, Belmont Abbey College’s coordinator of marketing and promotions, began looking into getting the lights from Knights Castle in Fort Mill, S.C., when the Class AAA franchise moved to its new stadium in uptown Charlotte in 2014.

“That started a more serious look and cost evaluation of what lights could do for our program and for our school,” Anderson said.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of lights at Abbey Yards could well be the Gaston Braves Post 144-266 American Legion baseball team.

Ever since it was formed as a combination of Belmont Post 144 and Stanley Post 266 in 1997, the team has played its games at both East Gaston and South Point high schools.

Belmont Abbey would provide a central and neutral location in addition to giving the team a permanent home.

“It’s a discussion we haven’t had yet,” Anderson said. “But that’s a potential benefit to the community and for our program if we can work out the details and scheduling.”

Belmont Abbey College adds bowling to athletics line-up in 2016-’17 BELMONT — Belmont Abbey College’s Director of Athletics Stephen Miss announces the hiring of Clyde Ferguson Jr. to lead the college’s men’s and women’s bowling programs that will compete starting this fall. Textile Lanes in Belmont will serve as home for the programs.

The NCAA recognizes women’s bowling as a sponsored sport. The men’s program will compete under the auspices of the U.S. Bowling Congress.

“We are thrilled to announce the addition of bowling as a program at Belmont Abbey College and the hire of Clyde Ferguson Jr. as our first head bowling coach,” Miss said. “Ferguson’s enthusiasm for and Ferguson knowledge of the sport of bowling, as well as his impressive credentials as a teacher and mentor, bode well for the program’s future success.

Most importantly, Clyde is wellequipped to embrace the challenge of facilitating the formation and development of our students into well-rounded young men and women that will enable them to lead lives of integrity, to succeed professionally, to become responsible citizens, and to be a blessing to themselves and to others.”

Ferguson has been a bowling professional since 1999 and is ranked one of the top 100 bowling instructors in the United States.

He has been recognized by the International Bowling Pro Shop and Instructors Association, the U.S. Bowling Congress and is a USA Bowling Gold level coach. He has completed all levels of USA Bowling coach training.

“From day one my philosophy in coaching and education is that everybody has the potential to succeed,” Ferguson said. “I am excited about the prospect of building a competitive bowling program here at Belmont Abbey College. As our students’ mentor and coach, my primary responsibility is to help them to achieve their full potential.”

Before entering the bowling profession, Ferguson was a renowned band director at the high school level for 26 years, and led Hickory’s St. Stephen’s marching band to a top 10 world ranking.

Ferguson also has experience in the public sector, where he served as the director of the Western Carolina Youth Involvement Office under Gov. James Hunt.

A native of Lenoir, Ferguson is a graduate of Mitchell College and Gardner-Webb University. Ferguson and his wife Karen have five children and 12 grandchildren.

— Belmont Abbey College Athletics Department

January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com

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began his Jesuit life 60 years ago.

— Catholic News Herald

St. Gabriel’s pastor embarks on ministry at sea

In Brief Priest appointments announced CHARLOTTE — Bishop Peter J. Jugis announces the following parochial vicar appointments in the Diocese of Charlotte: Capuchin Franciscan Father Basant Kumar Digal has been appointed parochial vicar at Immaculate Conception Church in Hendersonville, effective Jan. 6. Father Digal joins Capuchin Franciscan Father Martin Schratz, pastor, and Capuchin Franciscan Father Roberto Digal Pérez, parochial vicar, at the parish. He comes to Hendersonville from Immaculate Conception Church in Bronx, N.Y. Also, Jesuit Father John Michalowski has been appointed parochial vicar at St. Peter Church in Charlotte, effective Jan. 1. He most recently served as pastor at Sts. Mary and Joseph Church Michalowski in Salem, N.H. He succeeds Jesuit Father Tom McDonnell, who recently left the parish after 11 years of service. At the request of the Jesuit provincial, Father McDonnell began a new assignment in December with the Diocese of Allentown, Pa., at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville, Pa., where he

CHARLOTTE — Father Frank O’Rourke, pastor of St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, announced earlier this month he will join Crystal Cruise Lines as its Catholic priest for World Cruise 2016, Jan. 24-May 11.

“I will join a Protestant minister and a rabbi in providing for the spiritual needs of the crew and passengers of Crystal Serenity,” Father O’Rourke wrote in the parish bulletin.

Father Ed Sheridan, former long-time St. Gabriel pastor, will serve the parish during Father O’Rourke’s absence. Father Sheridan will join Father Gabriel O’Rourke Carvajal-Salazar, parochial vicar, and Father Fidel Melo, priest in residence, to minister to parishioners’ needs along with “our deacons and with our well-seasoned staff,” Father O’Rourke added.

The priest will set sail from San Francisco Jan. 25 with a first stop in Honolulu, Hawaii; then off to Sydney, Australia, and several East Asian countries; before sailing back full-circle to U.S. soil via Alaska and San Francisco.

Father O’Rourke described his ministerial duties while on the Crystal Serenity: “I will offer Mass each day and on weekends have a vigil Mass on Saturday evening, Sunday morning and 10:30 p.m. Sunday evening for the crew in their quarters. So, in some ways, it is much like ministering in a parish with much more leisure and relaxation.”

— Catholic News Herald

Diocesan attorney retires CHARLOTTE — Richard Lucey, long-time attorney for the Diocese of Charlotte, recently announced his retirement.

Lucey is a parishioner at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte and a veteran juvenile law practitioner. The diocese became his client in 1981 at the invitation of Bishop Michael J. Begley.

Lucey was in private practice at that time, so the diocese became one of his regular clients. In 1992, Lucey Bishop John F. Donoghue “made him an offer he couldn’t refuse” and Lucey accepted a full-time position representing the diocese. One of the conditions of Lucey’s acceptance was that he would be allowed to continue serving families in juvenile law cases.

In 2013, Lucey was honored with the Mecklenburg County Bar Association’s Distinguished Service Award for his decades of service to families in juvenile court.

— Catholic News Herald

Pope Francis, Vatican II topics of upcoming Kennedy Lecture CHARLOTTE — Dr. Gerard Mannion of Georgetown University, who has written extensively on the theology of the Church, ethics and public theology, will deliver the 16th annual Kennedy Lecture, “Remembering the Future and Re-engaging the People of God: Pope Francis and Vatican II.” The annual Kennedy Lecture, sponsored by St. Peter Church in Charlotte, will be held starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 30. The public is invited.

Mannion is the Joseph and Winifred Amaturo

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Chair in Catholic Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is also a senior research fellow of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, co-director of the Church and World Program and heads the “Church and the Ecumenical Future” project. His philosophy and theology degrees were earned at King’s College, Cambridge, and New College, Oxford. He is the founding chair of the Ecclesiological Investigations International Research Network, which last May sponsored “Vatican II: Remembering the Future: Ecumenical, Interfaith and Secular Perspectives on the Council’s Future and Promise.”

One of the key inspirations behind Pope Francis’ transformative vision has been the enduring spirit of the Second Vatican Council – itself one of the most significant periods of reform in the Church’s history. In the 2016 Kennedy lecture, Mannion considers some of the key areas in which Pope Francis is encouraging a renewed, yet updated, commitment to Vatican II.

Healing prayer service to feature St. Peregrine expert CHARLOTTE — A healing prayer service for anyone suffering with cancer or other diseases will be held at St. Matthew Church in south Charlotte Thursday, Jan. 28, featuring Father Christopher Krymski, OSM, director of the National Shrine of St. Peregrine and associate pastor at Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica in Chicago.

Krymski The Detroit native was ordained a priest at Our IN BRIEF, SEE page 10

Catholic Schools Week January 31Catholic - February 6School

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catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 OUR PARISHES

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IN BRIEF

Learn about the Gospel of Mercy MINT HILL — A discussion about the Jubilee Year of Mercy will be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 30, at St. Luke Church, located at 13700 Lawyers Road in Mint Hill. Led by Mercy Sister Mary Hugh Mauldin, the discussion will focus on the “Gospel of mercy,” examining both Old and New Testament understandings as well as other Church documents. Sister Mary Hugh will also review Pope Francis’ decree for the Year of Mercy, entitled “Misericordiae Vultus.” Reading the decree before the class is recommended. Please bring a Bible and a copy of the decree.

FROM PAGE 9

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St. Peregrine statue at St. Matthew Church Lady of Sorrows Basilica in 1983. He has a master’s degree in Divinity from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a master’s degree in Art Therapy from The Art Institute of Chicago. He has led many parish missions, healing Masses and retreats in honor of St. Peregrine as well as dedicating new St. Peregrine local shrines throughout the country.

He has also written many prayer booklets about St. Peregrine as well as a daily meditation pamphlet and the book “Healing Blessings.”

For details, call the parish office at 704-5437677.

507 South Tryon St. Charlotte, NC 28202 www.stpeterscatholic.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.

Truck, boat, RV and motorcycle donations accepted.

855.930.GIVE (4483) www.ccdoc.org/CARS Catholic Charities relies on your direct support to help fund its various ministries.

CHARLOTTE — The Helpers of God’s Precious Infants – Charlotte chapter will host its next Procession for Life at the Charlotte Catholic High School chapel on Saturday, Jan. 30. Mass will be offered at 9 a.m. followed by prayer outside Family Reproductive Health on Hebron Road. Eucharistic Adoration in the high school chapel will also be held during the sidewalk vigil.

The Charlotte Helpers organizes prayerful, Eucharist-centered processions at local abortion facilities four times a year. Go to www. charlottehelpers.com for details.

Maronite Divine Liturgy now offered in Waxhaw WAXHAW — The Maronite Mission of Charlotte, an Eastern Rite Catholic Church, is now offering weekly Masses on Sundays at 12:30 p.m. at St. Matthew South Campus, 4116 Waxhaw-Marvin Road in Waxhaw. The mission’s pastor is Father Elie Mikhael, who can be reached at 704-543-7677, ext. 1043, or abouna@mmocnc.org.

Do you have a car sitting in a driveway catching leaves? Maybe it will not start or needs a major repair. Catholic Charities benefits from the donation of your vehicle. Donate your vehicle and receive a tax benefit!

Call 1-855-930-GIVE today!

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Pro-life vigil to be held in Charlotte Jan. 30

Belmont Knights Council earns top international award BELMONT — Knights of Columbus Council 11076 of Queen of the Apostles Church has earned the distinction of Star Council, one of the organization’s top awards, for the 2014-’15 fraternal year. The organization’s headquarters in New Haven, Conn., made the announcement of the award which recognizes overall excellence in the areas of membership recruitment and retention, promotion of the fraternal insurance program, and sponsorship of service-oriented activities. The award was presented by Past State Deputy Jack Murray and State Advocate J.C. Reiher at a ceremony held at the council’s business meeting Dec. 14 (pictured above).

In announcing the local winner of the Star Council Award, Carl A. Anderson, chief executive officer of the Knights of Columbus, said, “Please accept my sincere congratulations upon attaining this prestigious award. Your dedication to the order is seen in the high standard of excellence you have achieved. At the same time, I encourage you to carry forward this enthusiasm to meet the challenges that will face the Knights of Columbus in the years ahead. May this award be a reminder and in inspiration to the members of your council to continue to promote the ideals of Columbianism for the good of the Church, your community, and the order.”

“Receiving the Star Council Award is quite an honor for us. We are extremely proud of this accomplishment,” said Grand Knight Vin Lindgren, head of the local council.

The Knights of Columbus is the world’s largest Catholic lay organization. With more than 1.8 million members in more than 15,000 councils around the world, the Knights annually donate more than $170 million and 70 million hours of service to charitable causes.

— Mark Colone

CRS Rice Bowl begins with Lent on Feb. 10 During Lent, through Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Rice Bowl, parishes and schools engage in global solidarity through activities that promote prayer, fasting, learning and giving. Participating parishes and schools receive small “rice bowl” cardboard collection boxes to distribute to parishioner and student households. Rice Bowl coordinators also receive a poster, a Lenten calendar, and an implementation guide. The 2016 CRS Rice Bowl theme is “For Lent, For Life – What Your Give Up For Lent Changes Lives.” CRS Rice Bowl begins on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 10.

If a diocesan parish or school did not participate in the 2015 CRS Rice Bowl, but would like to do so during Lent of 2016, e-mail jtpurello@charlottediocese.org or call 704-3703225.

Parishes and schools that participated in CRS Rice Bowl in 2015 need not submit an order for 2016 CRS Rice Bowl materials, and should expect the same number of Rice Bowl items as received for Lent in 2015.

For every $3 in CRS Rice Bowl funds that go from the Diocese of Charlotte to CRS for its global projects, $1 remains in the diocese for local poverty and hunger alleviation projects funded by Catholic Charities’ CRS Rice Bowl Mini-Grants Program.

Catholic Men’s Conference coming up in February CHARLOTTE — The sixth annual Charlotte Catholic Men’s Conference will be held Saturday, Feb. 27, at St. Matthew Church in south Charlotte. Speakers will include Brian Pusteri of Broken Door Ministries, author Joe McClane, Father Chris Alar, MIC, director of the Association of Marian Helpers; Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari of Belmont Abbey, and Bishop Emeritus William Curlin. For details, go to www.catholicmenofthecarolinas.org.

January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com

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Photo provided by the Pontifical North American College

Carlson installed as reader ROME — Diocese of Charlotte seminarian Michael Carlson, a member of St. Ann Church in Charlotte, was one of 68 members of the first-year class at the Pontifical North American College installed as a lector Jan. 10. This ministry, the first of those given to seminarians in their formation for ordination to the priesthood, gives them the ministry within the Church to proclaim the readings at the Church’s liturgies. Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, was the celebrant of the Mass and during the rite presented each candidate with the Lectionary, the book containing the readings from Holy Scripture which are proclaimed at Mass. While doing so, he instructed them, “Take this book of Holy Scripture and be faithful in handing on the Word of God, so that it may grow strong in the hearts of His people.” (Carlson is pictured in the back row, eighth from the right.)

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BOOKKEEPING POSITION The Diocese of Charlotte is accepting applications for two bookkeeping positions for the Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools at two Charlotte locations.

Responsibilities include a variety of activities related to accounts payable, cash receipts, database management and other accounting related duties.

Requirements include: • High school diploma minimum (college accounting courses preferred) • At least three years of relevant experience • Excellent computer skills – specifically with Microsoft Excel and 10-key.

• Experience with Blackbaud software a plus.

Please send resume and salary history by January 31, 2016 to

CCDOC On the Go Join a network of staff, volunteers, clients and community supporters and stay connected with photos, videos, social media and daily news updates with the new Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte app.

Looking for help? The CCDOC app provides detailed service descriptions and location information for every office. Call or email a location with just one touch.

Designed specifically with the mobile audience in mind, the CCDOC app is an integrated tool that compliments the website and provides a fast, easy resource to keep up with what’s going on across western North Carolina. With your support, CCDOC can strengthen families, build communities and reduce poverty.

employment@charlottediocese.org The Diocese of Charlotte is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

The app is free to download and available for all mobile devices, iPhone and iPad.

Ken Altman

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catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 12

Padre Fidel Melo

La compasión de Dios en el Año Santo de la Misericordia

E

n el libro del profeta Isaías encontramos el anuncio del ungido de Dios, el Mesías prometido. Ocho siglos antes de nuestra era cristiana, el profeta Isaías hace una descripción de la misión del Mesías como si lo hubiese estado mirando en persona. El profeta entrega un mensaje con la promesa de un futuro libertador, un mensaje de esperanza.

Isaías hace una magnífica presentación de la vida y la obra o ministerio del futuro Mesías, pero no la hace por su cuenta, sino que la pone en boca de Dios Padre diciendo: “esto dice el Señor: Miren a mi siervo, a mi elegido en quien me complazco, en el he puesto mi espíritu. No gritará, no clamará. Abrirá los ojos al ciego, sacará a los cautivos de la prisión, luz de las naciones, sacará de la mazmorra a los que habitan en tinieblas, no romperá la caña resquebrajada, no apagará el pábilo vacilante” (Is. 42, 1-4, 6-7) y así con estas y otras palabras el profeta describe la figura del futuro Mesías que habría de venir para ser luz del mundo, justicia de las naciones y liberación del pecado que agobia a su pueblo. Describe la misión del Mesías como el que reconstruye lo destruido, el que rescata de la oscuridad, el que restablece la armonía perdida entre el creador y su pueblo.

En este año santo de la Misericordia estas palabras del profeta se hacen todavía más profundas bajo la invitación del Papa Francisco a redescubrir la misión redentora del Mesías, misión de amor, misión de Misericordia. Al escuchar las palabras del profeta Isaías sobre el Mesías, inmediatamente pensamos en como esas palabras encuentran su cumplimiento en la persona, vida y ministerio de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo. El Siervo callado y humilde desde su nacimiento, con una entrega total hasta la cruz, quien se despojó de todo honor y gloria y se anonadó a sí mismo hasta la muerte y una muerte de cruz (Fl. 2,6-11) y todo para otorgarnos la gracia de la redención por la Misericordia de Dios.

Me llama mucho la atención la expresión de Isaías: “no romperá la caña resquebrajada, no apagará el pábilo vacilante” (Is 42,3).

Este verso en especial, está cargado de un profundo sentido de la caridad y amor de Dios que no es otra cosa que la Misericordia. La

Este año Santo de la Misericordia no dejemos pasar la oportunidad de reencontrarnos con Jesucristo, el Mesías prometido.

caña resquebrajada, pábilo vacilante o la mecha que aún humea, es una metáfora que se refieren a la humanidad debilitada y herida por el pecado (resquebrajada, mecha a punto de apagarse) y se refiere a los pobres, los oprimidos, los pecadores. Parte de la humanidad debilitada son los que sufren la carencia de los recursos necesarios para llevar una vida digna, los que sufren la exclusión ya sea en el ámbito de lo económico, político o social.

Esta humanidad debilitada la conforman también los oprimidos por los pecados, faltas personales, comunitarias, pecados sociales; cuando el maligno hace caer a las personas, las comunidades y sociedades en la ofensa a Dios. En general es la humanidad debilitada o herida por el pecado original cuyas consecuencias se hacen visibles en las diferentes dimensiones de la vida en el diario proceder de las personas. La Buena nueva es que Cristo el Mesías no vino a romper esa “caña resquebrajada”, esa humanidad ya debilitada sino a redimirla por la Misericordia de Dios Padre, vino a restablecer la armonía perdida, vino a traer la esperanza de romper los lazos de la muerte y del pecado y a abrir las puertas de la misericordia divina; “porque Dios no envió a su hijo al mundo para condenar al mundo, sino para que el mundo sea salvo por El” (Jn. 3,17). Cristo no vino a hacer más pesada la carga humana sino a dar alivio, descanso y liberación de la opresión del maligno; “Venid a mi todos lo que andan agobiados con trabajos y cargas, que yo los aliviaré. Tomad mi yugo sobre vosotros, y aprended de mí, que soy manso y humilde de corazón; y hallareis el reposo para vuestras almas. Porque suave es mi yugo y ligero el peso mío” (Mt. 11,28-30). Que hermosísimas palabras de consuelo, de reconciliación y perdón de Jesucristo, Mesías Redentor, que vino a quitarnos las cargas heredadas por pecado, que no vino a “quebrar” lo ya resquebrajado o herido sino que trae la sanación en su perdón misericordioso.

Este año Santo de la Misericordia no dejemos pasar la oportunidad de reencontrarnos con Jesucristo, el Mesías prometido, acerquémonos a Él por medio de un sincero arrepentimiento, una buena confesión y practicando las obras de Misericordia; enseñando al que no sabe, dando buen consejo al que lo necesita, corrigiendo fraternalmente al que se equivoca, consolando al triste, perdonando las ofensas recibidas, sufriendo con paciencia los defectos de los demás haciendo oración por los demás (vivos y difuntos). Dando pan al que no tiene, agua al sediento, vistiendo al que lo necesita, asistiendo al peregrino, visitando a los enfermos, a los encarcelados, dando cristiana sepultura a los que mueren. Mostrando así, la Misericordia de Dios en Jesucristo, nuestro Mesías y Redentor.

Que Dios los bendiga.

EL PADRE FIDEL MELO es el Vicario del Ministerio Hispano de la Diócesis de Charlotte.

Vicariato de Charlotte tiene Nuevo Coordinador Hispano Rico De Silva Hispanic Communications Reporter

CHARLOTTE — Eduardo Bernal es el nuevo Coordinador del Ministerio Hispano del Vicariato de Charlotte a partir del 1 de Enero del corriente.

Bernal reemplaza a Carlos Castañeda, quien dejó la posición vacante el pasado Septiembre cuando acepto una plaza en la Arquidiocesis de Washington.

Bernal ya tiene experiencia como coordinador de Bernal vicariato, ya que se está transfiriendo desde el Vicariato de Smoky Mountain, en el cual ha servido desde el 2000.

“Estoy extremadamente emocionado de poder venir y servir a los hermanos y hermanas de la Vicaria de Charlotte.

Estoy aquí para servir. Ya estoy entrevistándome con algunos pastores y algunos líderes. Creo que hay mucho ánimo, creo que hay mucho interés. Creo que la gente está buscando trabajar en la pastoral de conjunto y esto me emociona mucho,” dijo Bernal.

“Creo que ha sido providencial que Eduardo pueda estar aquí. Estamos también muy ilusionados con su arribo aquí a Charlotte, y que pueda darle continuidad al ministerio que ya ha sido realizado por otros coordinadores aquí en el pasado,” dijo el Padre Fidel Melo, Vicario Diocesano del Ministerio Hispano. “Él viene con mucho ánimo y todos estamos muy contentos con lo que juntos podamos hacer como equipo, como familia de Dios, y de trabajo en este proceso en el que todos estamos unidos,” agregó el Padre Melo.

Jorge Morel Band a dar concierto en San Marcos el 23 de Enero Rico De Silva Hispanic Communications Reporter

HUNTERSVILLE — El talentoso músico católico, Jorge Morel y su banda, Jorge Morel Band, darán un concierto en el Centro Familiar de la Iglesia de San Marcos en Huntersville el próximo Sábado, 23 de Enero a las 7 p.m.

La Jorge Morel Band estará acompañada también del músico Anthony Wood, quien hará el acompañamiento en el teclado y el bandoneón, además de cantar como invitado.

Wood, quien vendrá desde Boston, Massachusetts, participó en el “reality show”: “Yo soy el Artista,” que realizó la cadena de televisión Telemundo.

El evento está organizado por el Ministerio Hispano de San Marcos y la Jorge Morel Band.

“En el concierto estaremos exponiendo una gran variedad de mi música. Esta vez en sentido acústico con banda en vivo. Además de la exposición de Jesús Sacramentado, a quien le cantaremos en una hora Santa incluida en el concierto,” dijo Jorge Morel.

Agregó Morel, “Es la primera vez que realizamos un concierto bajo este concepto en la parroquia. Queda la invitación abierta para todos los lectores del Catholic News Herald-Español, y todas las comunidades a participar de este magno evento de gran bendición. Con este concierto queremos iniciar un gran proyecto de conciertos de espiritualidad y de calidad profesional en la diócesis.”

La Parroquia de San Marcos está localizada en la 14740 Stumptown Rd., en Huntersville. Se pide una ofrenda de $10.

January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

GROWING IN FAITH AND THEOLOGY

ALL ARE WELCOME!

A collaborative adult religious education program sponsored by: St. Gabriel Catholic Church St. John Neumann Catholic Church St. Luke Catholic Church

St. Matthew Catholic Church St. Peter Catholic Church Queen of Apostles Catholic Church

Winter Semester 2016 REGISTER FOR A COURSE ONLINE AND PAY BY CREDIT CARD AT WWW.STMATTHEWCATHOLIC.ORG/GIFT You can also view complete course descriptions and read faculty biographies all in one convenient place.

A. Glittering Vices and Life-giving Virtues

Fr. William McConville, OFM, Ph.D Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday February 23, 24, 25 | 7 – 9pm St. Matthew Catholic Church New Life Center Banquet Room $30 Fee

B. For Earth’s Sake: Re-Awakening to Creation Theology Catherine Wright, Ph.D Wednesdays - February 3, 17, 24 and March 2 | 7 – 8:30pm St. Peter Catholic Church Biss Hall $30 Fee

C. “Hey! You Talkin’ to Me?”

Fr. Pat Hoare Thursdays - February 4, 11, 18, 25 | 7 – 8:30pm St. John Neumann Catholic Church Ministry Center $30 Fee

Registration Name

Our Lady of Consolation Catholic Church Holy Spirit Catholic Church St. Phillip Neri Catholic Church

There is a $30 registration fee for all courses except I. Catholic school teachers, parish faith formation and youth ministry catechists are eligible for a reduced fee of $20 per person for Course A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H (not applicable to Course I). Course I, the Spanish language course is offered free of charge as an outreach to the Hispanic community.

D. The History of the Catholic Church in the USA

G. Retreat Day: Praying from the Darkness

E. The Book of Revelation

H. Spiritual Direction: A Journey into the Heart of God and Self

Dave Galusha, MA Mondays - February 1, 8, 22 | 7 – 9pm St. Matthew Catholic Church New Life Center 234/235 $30 Fee Sr. Mary Hugh Mauldin, RSM, MA Tuesdays - February 2, 9, 16, 23 | 7 – 8:30pm St. Gabriel Church Ministry Center $30 Fee

F. Genesis Revisted

Susan Brady, MA Fridays - February 5, 12, 19, 26 | 10 – 11:30am St. Matthew Catholic Church New Life Center Banquet Room $30 Fee

Fr. Charlie Miller, OFM, LCSW Saturday - March 5 | 9:45am – 3pm | Lunch provided St. Gabriel Church Ministry Center $30 Fee

Linda Flynn Thursdays - February 4, 11, 18, 25 | 7 – 8:30pm St. Matthew Catholic Church New Life Center 132/125 $30 Fee

I. El Laico En La Iglesia Y En El Mundo

Padre Gabriel Carvajal–Salazar Lunes 1, 8, 15, 22 de Febrero a las 7pm Iglesia San Gabriel, Charlotte NC Es Gratis

Register for a course online and pay by credit card at www.stmatthewcatholic.org/GIFT You can also view complete course descriptions and read faculty biographies in one convenient place.

City Zip

BY MAIL Fill out one form for each participant. Detach and enclose the $30 per person, per course fee. There is no charge for course I. Catholic school teachers, parish faith formation and youth ministry catechists pay $20 for each course except G. Return the registration and payment to one of the nine GIFT sponsoring parishes. Make checks payable to GIFT c/o St. Matthew Church.

Fees are non-refundable after February 1. (please print clearly)

Phone

Course Selection

Email

A _____ B _____ C _____

Street

Parish

Return form and check to any of the Gift sponsoring parish offices.

D _____ E _____ F _____

G _____ H _____ I _____*

*No charge: Course I is an outreach to the Hispanic community. Completing and sending in a registration is required.

For more information, please call or email Michael Burck, Director of GIFT at 704-543-7677 x 1020 or mburck@stmatthewcatholic.org

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iiiJanuary 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com

FROM TH

sueann howell | catholic news herald

Tina Witt, coordinator of the annual March for Life Charlotte, shields the crucifix, carried by a Missionary of the Poor, from the downpour which challenged even the most seasoned marchers during the 10th annual event Jan. 15 through uptown Charlotte.

‘If our effort allows one person to grow up to be the person God created, it’s all worthwhile’

Soggy March for Life Charlotte proves marchers’ resolve SueAnn Howell and Kimberly Bender Catholic News Herald

CHARLOTTE — More than 100 people shrugged off the chilly rain and high winds Jan. 15 to march through uptown Charlotte for the 10th annual March for Life Charlotte.

The prayerful march, held each January to mark the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, calls attention to the more than 57 million lives lost and the need to end the tragedy of abortion. The march kicked off after a Mass for the Unborn offered by Father Casey Coleman, parochial vicar of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte. Father Coleman also served as guest preacher for the march.

Before the March for Life started off from the diocesan Pastoral Center, Bishop Peter Jugis and all those present offered a prayer to God. “Our culture has drifted so far from Your ways and does not respect the absolute right to life of the child in the womb. Give our country the grace of repentance and conversion to turn away from the culture of death and embrace the culture of life,” Bishop Jugis prayed.

More than 150 marchers then walked up to Independence Square at the corner of Trade and Tryon streets. Once there, Father Coleman delivered the keynote address in the midst of a heavy downpour.

“Our Holy Father Pope Francis has called this a Jubilee Year of Mercy... We have come here today, my brothers and sisters, because the Spirit of the Lord is upon each and every one of us. By our very baptism, we have been given this very Spirit and anointed by Him and are called to that same mission of mercy. Therefore, we must go forth and proclaim liberty to the captives,” Father Coleman said.

He emphasized we must proclaim “liberty” to pregnant mothers in need, those who are duped into thinking they don’t have any other options besides abortion. What they need MARCH, SEE page 17

More coverage online At www. catholicnewsherald. com: See video highlights and more pictures from the March for Life Charlotte

At www.facebook.com/ catholicnewsherald: Watch short video clips with comments from parishioners who talked about why they joined this year’s March for Life

On Twitter: Share why you stand up for the dignity of life using the hashtag #whywemarch

HE COVER

January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.comiii

Scenes from the rain-soaked March for Life Charlotte Jan. 15 attended in part by Bishop Peter Jugis, Father Casey Coleman, Father Santiago Mariani and more than 150 participants.

Photos by sueann howell | catholic news herald

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catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 FROM THE COVER

Marchers hold signs in support of the Right to Life during March for Life Charlotte Jan. 15 during the talks at Independence Square and in front of the federal courthouse in Charlotte.

sueann howell | catholic news herald

“Everything we ne of our faith was r

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Pennybyrn’s location is ideal for the couple. They apprreciate the amenities, and love the ambiance and beauty of the 71-acre campus, with its well-kept groounds and winding paths. “I attend swimming classes, and Joe uses the fitness center,” says Helen. “T There are concerts and activities all the time, andd at ddi dinnertime i we hhave our choice h i off venues, with i h a friendly f i dl wait i staff ff andd an expansive i menu.””

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

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January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com

FROM THE COVERI

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MARCH FROM PAGE 14

instead, Father Coleman said, is to know the love of the Father.

“We must do this at all cost because to be truly filled with mercy and to love with mercy is to be compassionate.

To love with true compassion. Which means to suffer with.

We must find these women and fathers and all these people affected by the culture of lies and tell them that abortion is not the way,” he continued.

Father Santiago Mariani, parochial vicar of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Monroe, then addressed the crowd in Spanish.

Afterwards, attorney George Rouco, a parishioner of St. Thérèse Church in Mooresville who is running for Congress, gave an address that was briefly interrupted by the deluge and high winds which knocked out the public address system – prompting marchers to gather closer to hear his testimony about nearly being aborted.

“Both of my parents were Cuban exiles,” he said. “They left Cuba in 1961 and 1962 after they were oppressed. They fought against the Castro regime and were forced out of their country and they moved to Florida where they started a family.”

His family struggled as there were six children and two adults living in a gang-infested area of Miami. His mother was counseled by her doctor to abort him because of the family’s difficult situation. His parents stood firm in their Catholic faith and refused.

“Fast forward 30 years, and my wife and I were expecting our first child. He was born with a congenital heart defect.

Our doctor...said he would have a tough life. He said we could abort him so he would not have to go through with open heart surgery at 13 days of age.

“But my wife and I are staunch believers in the sanctity of life, believing that every child is a gift from God. We chose to have our child and today he is 5 years old. He’s healthy. He’s a wonderful child of God,” Rouco said.

Due to technical difficulties with the sound system, testimonies of women from the Silent No More awareness

Now Enrolling!

Marchers (from left) Jason Murphy, Michael Witt, Ron Fischer and Ray Maxon carry the statue of the Blessed Mother expectant with the Baby Jesus during the March for Life Charlotte Jan. 15. sueann howell | catholic news herald

campaign were cancelled and the march proceeded to the sidewalk in front of the Charles R. Jonas Federal Building and Courthouse on West Trade Street, where they were joined by Bishop Jugis to pray a rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for an end to abortion.

Andrea Hines, regional coordinator for Silent No More, believes it is important to hold a march in Charlotte because “it is a destination city for abortions, with three independent abortion facilities located here and also a Planned Parenthood office which, at that office, does abortion referrals to the local abortion facilities.

“Not only do local Charlotteans have abortions here, but people come for abortions from other areas of North Carolina and the other states of South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee and Florida. Mecklenburg County has the highest number of abortions in the state, with over 7,250 occurring each year,” Hines said.

“It is important to bring visibility to the situation, light to the darkness, to let people know that abortion is wrong and it is opposed. Most media only promotes and glorifies the pro-death side of abortion. It is an opportunity to be voices to the voiceless. Lastly, it is an opportunity to bring grassroots effort of trying to save the unborn locally,” she continued.

All Nine Schools

Start With Us.

Deacon Jack Staub, who serves at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte, was among the marchers this year.

“Our culture seems to indicate that life is irrelevant. We have to make a statement to show that it is not irrelevant – that all life is precious and special,” Deacon Staub said.

“We do that by making visible signs that people can see.

Some people will accept it and some won’t and some will think about it. What we want to do is convert hearts.”

Bob Loughlin, long-time co-coordinator of the March for Life Charlotte, was also among the marchers out in the rain and cold Jan. 15.

“I think as we keep putting the message of the value of human life and human dignity out there...gradually we are winning this battle. We go out there on a lunch hour and we see people passing us by, all kinds of people of all ages and all different backgrounds going about their business. I always wonder if just one time someone saw our message and a child was saved.

“I have a suspicion that it may be more than one. It makes our effort worthwhile. It doesn’t matter if it’s 15 degrees and the wind is blowing, or if it’s 40 degrees and it’s raining. If our effort allows one person to grow up to be the person God created, it’s all worthwhile.”

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Admissions: 704.370.3273

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www.macs-schools.com

Our schools 18

catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief

St. Ann students collect coats for needy CHARLOTTE — Faculty and students at St. Ann School are embracing the Year of Mercy with activities and teachings, so their school and students grow in faith and learn to live the acts of mercy daily. Their focus during the month of January is the Corporal Act of Mercy – Clothe the Naked. The students demonstrated their understanding of this mercy through a coat drive for children who are cold this winter season. Their items were donated to “Steve’s Coasts for Kids,” which in turn works with Crisis Assistance Ministry to distribute to those in need.

— Kathy McKinney

(Above) Fourth-graders from St. Gabriel School’s 4C class recite the “Traveling Chalice” prayer for vocations as part of their morning-prayer routine during the week of Jan. 18.

(Left) The traveling Chalice sits in the back of the classroom besides a statue of Our Lady of Fatima to raise vocations awareness among students, and as a reminder for them to pray for priestly and religious vocations. The pilgrim chalice started with the fifth-grade class last fall and will make its way through each grade by the end of the school year.

Ippolito wins St. Mark’s Geographic Bee

Photos by Rico De Silva | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

HUNTERSVILLE — Elise Ippolito, a seventhgrade student at St. Mark School, recently won the school competition of the 2016 National Geographic Bee. The school geography bee was the first round in the 28th annual National Geographic Bee. Thousands of students in the fourth through eighth grades at schools around the United States and in the five U.S. territories are participating in the National Geographic Bee. Ippolito School champions, including Ippolito, will take a qualifying test. Up to 100 of the top scorers on that test in each state will then be eligible to compete in their state bee on April 1.

The National Geographic Society will provide an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., for state winners to participate in the Bee national championship rounds May 22-25. The firstplace national champion will receive a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the Society including a subscription to National Geographic magazine, and a National Geographic Expeditions trip to a national park in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.

The national finals will air on television on the National Geographic Channel and PBS stations.

Check local listings for dates and times.

— Denise Reis

Traveling Chalice makes its way through St. Gabriel School Rico De Silva Hispanic Communications Reporter

CHARLOTTE — Fourth-grade students in 4C at St. Gabriel School in Charlotte have one more reason to say their morning prayers at the beginning of their school day this week: “The Traveling Chalice” sits enthroned in the back of their classroom, next to a small statue of Our Lady of Fatima, as a reminder to pray for priestly and religious vocations.

The Traveling Chalice was started at the beginning of this school year to encourage students to pray for vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life in the Diocese of Charlotte.

Principal Sharon Broxterman said the pilgrim chalice idea was initially conceived when she first arrived at St. Gabriel School in 1999. “Monsignor Richard Bellow was pastor here, and he would come every week and do a classroom Mass to try to teach the children about the Mass in a very close setting. So, we had the chalice,” Broxterman said.

The PTO’s Faith Advisory Committee, a partnership between parents and teachers whose mission is to encourage the faith in our schools, took on the idea and put the plan together.

Throughout the school year, the chalice is traveling to every grade level at St. Gabriel School, spending one week in each classroom. While they are custodians of the pilgrim chalice, the

students in that class pray for an awareness of and increase in religious vocations. The chalice will travel from the fifth-grade class all the way to the kindergarten class by the end of the school year.

After the students say their morning prayers, 4C’s teacher Amy Schatz leads her class in the special prayer for vocations and “we talk about the chalice and what it means to have it in our room.”

“The Traveling Chalice is something that we knew,” said committee member Darby McClatchy, as some parents were familiar with the idea from other schools and parishes. “And we thought this might be something neat to do in our school, where the chalice would move from classroom to classroom,” she said.

McClatchy, whose son is a fifth-grader at St. Gabriel School, hopes the traveling chalice will inspire awareness about religious vocations among the young students.

“Also, to help students start thinking about what God has blessed all of us with – gifts and talents that, even at a young age, we can start thinking about and be open to. And who knows?

Maybe some of these boys and girls may be called to religious life.”

More online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: See a short video about St. Gabriel School’s Traveling Chalice

January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

CTK students explore the saints during ‘Bridge Week’ Logan Thayer, Jessica Pautz, Luke Modzelewski and Arielle Ippolito Special to the Catholic News Herald

HUNTERSVILLE — Building a new school allows for unique traditions to be created. At Christ the King High School in Huntersville, “Bridge Week” is just such a tradition – becoming central to the school’s developing identity.

“Bridge Week” is the name for the week each January that splits the school’s first and second semester. Rather than resuming regular classes after Christmas break, students instead spend the week exploring a theme, with the ultimate goal of gaining a deeper understanding of their faith. In the past, “Bridge Week” themes have ranged from the dignity of the human person to caring for God’s creation.

This year, the focus was on saints in the 21st century, and so the school looked to examples of and participated in many activities related to modern sainthood.

The program was developed by Assistant Principal Michael Smith, with the help of the school’s faculty and students.

On Monday, students began the day by celebrating Mass, followed by breakfast sponsored by the PTO, and then time for students to meet and put finishing touches on their presentations. These presentations were on a saint of the students’ choosing and connected to the week’s overall theme.

Saints chosen ranged from ancient to modern, including St. Francis of Assisi, St. Joan of Arc, St. Cecilia and St. Lydia.

The purpose of the presentations was to be both dynamic and informative, so students presented using iMovies or PowerPoints, and they included activities such as writing messages to cancer patients to caring for God’s creation by making blankets for shelter dogs and bringing a petting zoo to campus.

On Tuesday, following the presentations, students heard Father Tad Pacholczyk, director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, speak about embryonic stem cell research. Both students and teachers took away the

message that moral standards should never have to be compromised in the way of professional success. (That evening, Christ the King parents had a chance to attend a similar presentation by Father Pacholczyk about end-of-life decisions.)

The spirit of “Bridge Week” continued on Wednesday, with students continuing to learn about the lives of saints and participating in hands-on activities meant to inspire modern sainthood. That afternoon, Brian Kaup, St. Mark Church’s high school ministry coordinator, gave a talk and attempted to navigate his way through a set of mousetraps…while blindfolded and without shoes. Kaup used the demonstration to represent the many sins we encounter throughout our lives, symbolically showing the importance of always remaining focused on God. For the final two days of “Bridge Week,” Christ the King seniors went on a retreat at the Catholic Conference Center in Hickory.

Leaving behind their cell phones and computers, the seniors had the opportunity to get to know each other better and spend their free time in other ways. Chaperoning teachers each shared a personal story with an important message, such as how to listen to God or advice for avoiding troubles in college. The seniors agreed that the retreat was a great bonding experience.

Back at the school on Friday, Chancellor Abbot Placid Solari from Belmont Abbey College spoke to the rest of the student body on the life of St. Benedict, founder of the Benedictine order. After, each student was given a blessed St. Benedict medal with the letters “V R S N S M V - S M Q L I V B,” on the reverse side, the first letters of a Latin prayer of exorcism against Satan (“Vade retro Satana! Nunquam suade mihi vana! Sunt mala quae libas. Ipse venena bibas!” “Begone Satan! Never tempt me with your vanities! What you offer me is evil. Drink the poison yourself !”)

Logan Thayer, Jessica Pautz, Luke Modzelewski and Arielle Ippolito are Christ the King High School’s senior journalism staff. Lisa Daidone is their advisor.

Our Lady of

Mercy A Blue Ribbon School of Excellence for

PreK-8th

Catholic School

Faith Academics Values - Tuesday, January 26, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

- Tuesday, February 2, 9:00 a.m. - noon - Thursday, February 11, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

- Tuesday, March 8, 9:00 a.m. - noon

1730 Link Road Winston-Salem, NC 27103 (336) 722.7204 www.ourladyofmercyschool.org Welcoming students of all races, religions, ethnic and national origins.

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

(803) 327-2097

Center for Spirituality rockhilloratory.org

oratorycenter@gmail.com

36th Cardinal Newman Lecture The Newman Lecture is an annual gift from the Rock Hill Oratory to the regional Church to celebrate the life and ministry of the English Oratorian, Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman. This year’s talk will be on reconciliation and forgiveness.

Saturday, February 20 9:30am – 2:30pm Dr. Joseph Favazza

The Many Faces of Mercy Pope Francis has called for 2016 to be a Year of Mercy. But mercy is no only child: it has many siblings, including peace, justice, truth, forgiveness and reconciliation. We will carefully consider mercy in a variety of contexts.

The Newman Lecture is open to all without charge and includes noontime Eucharist, a light lunch and a short chamber music concert. Books and other resources will be available for purchase.

While pre-registration is not required, we would appreciate you contacting us with numbers of participants to help us plan accordingly.

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catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

For the latest movie reviews: catholicnewsherald.com

In theaters

odds day job and inspiration to rethink his sideline, from his supportive wife (Lara Jean Chorostecki) and from an elderly parishioner (Diahann Carroll), who’s witty and wise as well as devout. In adapting Chris Whaley’s fictionalized 2009 memoir, director Warren P. Sonoda provides viewers with fast-paced entertainment, ably juggling action in the ring with drama in the house of God. Good and evil are clearly defined, bad behavior is condemned, and characters who lose their way, and fail to find redemption, are served a heaping helping of just desserts. Some mild violence, wrestling action, a few mature themes.

CNS: A-II (adults and adolescents); MPAA: PG-13

‘Norm of the North’ A wisecracking polar bear (voice of Rob Schneider) ventures south to New York City to save his home environment from destruction in this silly but harmless animated comedy. As he goes up against a maniacal developer (voiced by Ken Jeong) who’s out to build luxury housing on the Arctic ice shelf, the upbeat ursine wins the support of the mogul’s assistant (voice of Heather Graham) and of her precocious daughter (voice of Maya Kay). While his adventures are suitable for all ages, and incorporate positive messages about family and friendship, merely average visuals, heavyhanded homilies about the need to go green as well as an excessive reliance on scatological jokes, a trio of mischievous lemmings relieve themselves in public at every opportunity combine for a rather tedious outing.

Mild cartoonish violence, a bit of adult wordplay.

CNS: A-I (general patronage); MPAA: PG

‘The Masked Saint’ Unlikely, yet fact-based, story of a professional wrestler-turned-pastor (Brett Granstaff) who resumes his career in the ring to raise money for his crumbling church while also fighting crime as a masked vigilante by night. He draws encouragement in his against-the-

‘Other movies’ n ‘The Forest’: CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: PG-13

On TV n Friday, Jan. 22, 9 a.m. (EWTN) “March for Life.” Live and complete coverage of the biggest pro-life event in the United States: the 2016 March for Life in Washington, D.C. n Saturday, Jan. 23, 11 p.m. (EWTN) “40.” A pro-life film with a focus on how the legalization of abortion in America has affected women, children and society for over 40 years. n Sunday, Jan. 24, 10 p.m. (EWTN) “A Man for Others: The Life of Father Roberto Balducelli.” The life and work of Italian immigrant priest Father Roberto Balducelli of the Diocese of Wilmington, Del., who had been an inspiration to everyone who knew him, from victims he aided during World War II to the local Italian community. n Thursday, Jan. 28, 12 p.m. (EWTN) “Shawn’s Eyes.” Documentary about Shawn Riney, a man born with Down Syndrome, and how his life touches the hearts of families who know him. n Thursday, Jan. 28, 6:30 p.m.

(EWTN) “Let Us Love: Support for Women Suffering from Addiction.”

Monsignor Figueiredo visits a home for women suffering from addiction, shares memories of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta with Cardinal Angelo

Comastri, and talks about St. Frances Cabrini, who devoted her life to children in need. n Friday, Jan. 29, 6:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Let Us Love: Compassion for Those with HIV/AIDS.” Monsignor Figueiredo visits a home where HIV/ AIDS patients are treated with the love and medical attention they need, shares memories of Blessed Teresa with Cardinal Marc Ouellet, and studies St. Damien of Molokai, who had the courage to work with lepers. n Saturday, Jan. 30, 8 p.m. (EWTN) “Bakhita.” Dramatic life of St. Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese-born slave who became a nun in the order of the Cannossian Sisters and was canonized by St. John Paul II. Part 1. n Sunday, Jan. 31, 10 p.m. (EWTN) “Two Suitcases St. Giuseppina Bakhita.” This story of St. Josephine Bakhita, the first African nun canonized by the Church, highlights her heroic virtue in the midst of physical suffering, and takes you to the cities of Italy where she lived after her release from slavery.

Release from slavery, her life as a religious, and an ongoing discussion between one of her sisters and her blood brother who rediscovers the Church.

16th Annual Kennedy Lecture

YOU’RE INVITED!

Remembering the Future and Re-engaging the People of God:

Pope Francis and Vatican II

Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy

Official Pilgrimage of the Diocese of Charlotte —

A Spiritual Journey to Rome, Siena & Assisi October 12 – 21, 2016

Under the Spiritual Direction of

Fr. Michael Kottar St. Mary Help of Christians Parish, Shelby, N.C. and

Fr. Carmen Malacari Holy Spirit Church, Denver, N.C. Program Pricing $3,299 from Charlotte, N.C. plus $650 in airport taxes and $150 in tips

GERARD MANNION Amaturo Professor of Catholic Studies at Georgetown University; Senior Research Fellow of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs

Saturday, January 30, 2016 8:30a.m. coffee 9:00–12:00 Lecture

To receive the color brochure and registration, please contact our Group Coordinator, Mrs. Jean Judge: jmjudge@charlottediocese.org / (704) 487-7697 x 103

St. Peter Catholic Church | 507 South Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC Parking is free underground at “The Green” (enter to the left of the church) for information: www.stpeterscatholic.org

January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

ST. MATTHEW FROM PAGE 3

end of last year from Long Island, N.Y., for his wife to begin a new job at Levine’s Children’s Hospital in Charlotte.

“After we relocated, we went looking for parishes. We went over to the parish, went to our first Mass and were very pleased,” Monteleone says.

Monteleone says he plans to lend his talents to the parish’s Catholics in Career Transition ministry.

And he will be in good company. In all, St. Matthew Church counts 7,000 volunteers in its 103 ministries.

“This is something that is great about St. Matthew – the number of ministries you can contribute to and participate in and be part of the parish life is very compelling,” he says.

Pat Tomlinson, the parish’s faith formation director, reports that there are currently 3,670 students and 613 catechists in the faith formation program. There are also 130 people involved in the SPRED and Bridge ministries, which provide programs for children and adults with special needs.

“I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to spend the last 18 years watching St. Matthew Parish become the beautiful, holy, caring community it is today,” says Tomlinson. “Under the loving direction of Monsignor McSweeney, we have always had a vision statement (“Connected in Christ! Moved by the Spirit!”) and a mission that we were working towards.

“And with the efforts of a very passionate staff and an amazing group of ministry leaders and volunteers, we have become the welcoming, spirit-filled, sharing parish we are today.”

Michael Burck, the parish’s adult faith formation director, shares that last year the parish offered 72 adult faith formation programs that attracted more than 3,235 people. Another 2,000 people also participated in Fall and Lenten small group programs, he says.

“My first full year (at the parish) was the 2010-’11 school year,” Burck says.

“Our total that year was just over 2,000 participants. Since then, we have increased our participation by 160 percent.

Terry DeMao has been a parishioner at St. Matthew since 2001 when she relocated from London, England. She serves the parish as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion and as a member of the Word Ministry.

“There are many advantages of being here at this ‘mega church’,” DeMao explains. “There are hundreds of activities going on here! Everyone can find something to do every day of the week for three months and not repeat the same one. If someone is overwhelmed easily by crowds, it can be unnerving on weekend Masses. However, the key is to join the small groups and get involved. There are so many incredible people here with so many gifts and talents. There is also an amazing spirit of generosity at St. Matthew, a real giving mentality.”

DeMao adds, “I brought Catholic Scripture Study International to St. Matthew about seven years ago. We have a year-long CSS Bible study each year. This year we are doing the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and we have 65 registered students.

Not bad for a Tuesday morning! My study is only one of many, many Bible studies going on. It’s like a mini college.”

Mary Pat Arostegui and her husband Vince have been active St. Matthew parishioners for the past 15 years. As a couple they helped to bring Teams of Our Lady to St. Matthew Church shortly after

‘It feels big, but it doesn’t feel that big!’

Frank Monteleone

Doreen Sugierski | Catholic News Herald

they moved to Charlotte.

Arostegui says the Teams are “a great opportunity for married couples to grow in their love for Our Lord and His Church and to nourish our faith along with four to five other couples and (ideally) a spiritual counselor on a monthly basis.” ”One advantage of membership (at St. Matthew) is the variety of ministries that are offered. The only disadvantage might be in not finding one’s niche, simply because looking at the whole picture is so overwhelming,” she says.

Like many of St. Matthew’s parishioners, Arostegui is involved with multiple ministries – including the Welcome Ministry, Nursing Home Visits, Mel’s Diner, Catholic Scripture Study, Rosary Prayer Group and Pro-Life Ministry.

“There is, indeed, something for everyone, even in a ‘mega-church’!” she says.

St. Matthew is now emphasizing greater outreach and opportunities for spiritual growth among its members, even as the parish family gets super-sized.

The parish’s new long-range plan for 2016-’18 has an emphasis on mercy, in keeping with the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy inaugurated by Pope Francis on Dec. 8.

Burck shares that he has worked for

over 30 years in ministry in five different parishes and that St. Matthew Church is the first parish he has worked in “that has a truly working parish council that develops a pastoral plan every three years and works to implement it.”

“St. Matthew’s pastoral plans always seek to increase engagement, meaning they are always working to make sure their parishioners are growing in their relationship with God, deepening their sense of community and actively serving

21

in the ministries of the parish,” Burck explains. “I think St. Matthew Church realizes that providing good, meaningful adult faith formation programs is very important in making that a reality.”

Mark Schuler, chairman of St. Matthew’s pastoral council, explains the successful level of engagement with parishioners: “We have developed a welcoming culture and invite parishioners to get engaged in at least one thing. We believe this leads to a deeper spirituality and overall life satisfaction. When you combine this with over 100 ministries, numerous faith formation activities and the frequency of Mass, you create something for everyone.

“Our size, scale, talent and diversity is a gift and opportunity. Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year of Mercy is providing the direction for the 2016-2018 pastoral plan. We hope to inspire parishioners to a higher level of engagement and an increase in both corporal and spiritual acts of mercy.”

“I’m blessed to be a part of it,” says Monsignor John McSweeney, who has served as St. Matthew’s pastor since 1999. “The emphasis on my part on the baptismal responsibility of each person and a respect for each person is part of our philosophy. St. Matthew has a responsibility to communicate the message of Jesus to His Church locally, nationally and internationally through our unique efforts. That is done through our prayer ministries and the different outreach ministries.

“The key to St. Matthew, from my viewpoint, is the active involvement of lay leaders – women and men – the role of deacons, the role of women religious and the four priests connected to St. Matthew.”

Long Islander Monteleone knows his family may be the one of the newest families at St. Matthew Church, but he’s already promoting the benefits of his new parish home.

“You feel like you’re walking into a large church, but at the same time you still feel like you’re part of the family of that parish.

It feels big, but it doesn’t feel that big!”

Estate Planning, Elder Law and Probate PLANNING TODAY FOR YOUR FAMILY’S TOMORROW St. Matthew’s Parishioner

704.843.1446 | www.ncestateplanninginfo.com

15720 Brixham Hill Ave, Suite 300

|

Charlotte/Ballantyne

Our nation 22

catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

National Park Service honors Jesuit missionary with legacy day Nancy Wiechec Catholic News Service

TUMACACORI, Ariz. — Jesuit Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, an Italian missionary to the American Southwest known as the “Padre on Horseback,” was honored Jan. 10 at the Tumacacori National Historical Park with Kino Legacy Day. The celebration of the priest – who founded 24 missions and was also known as an astronomer, builder, mapmaker, linguist, agriculturalist and stockman – kicked off the yearlong celebration of the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary.

Bob Love, superintendent of Tumacacori National Historical Park, said Father Kino played a key role in the park’s story.

But that morning, park rangers left much of the storytelling to Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, whose diocese covers the land that Father Kino crisscrossed, building his missions when he traveled more than 15,000 miles by horseback.

During Mass, held outside the ruins of Mission San Jose de Tumacacori church, the bishop told the crowd what it is to be a great missionary. He compared missionaries such as Father Kino to archers, ardent with a singular, fixed target.

“They teach Christ, they preach Christ, they lead to Christ,” he said. “That was the purpose of Kino’s whole life, to lead the native peoples to Christ. To teach them about a God who loved them dearly and who was there among them, always at their side.”

The Tumacacori mission dates to the early 1800s. It had a short-lived tenure as an active church. Apache attacks, upheaval following war with Mexico and one particularly hard winter led to its abandonment by the mid-1800s. The site was named a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, and in 1990 Congress created Tumacacori National Historical Park, which includes the old monument land and the remains of two smaller missions.

Father Kino was born in 1645 in the northern Italian town of Segno and was educated by Jesuits. As a young man, he fell seriously ill and prayed for God’s grace and healing, calling on the Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier as intercessor. When he got well, he joined the Jesuits.

He yearned to do missionary work in China, but was sent to Mexico instead. He worked in Baja California for three years and spent the rest of his life in Pimeria Alta, what is now the northern part of Mexico’s Sonora state and southern Arizona.

Diocesan Residential Housing Director

CNS | Nancy Wiechec

Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., walks in procession to celebrate Mass outside the mission at Tumacacori National Historical Park in Tumacacori, Ariz., Jan. 10. The Mass was part of the park’s Kino Legacy Day marking the 325th anniversary of the Jesuit missionary’s first visit to an O’odham village there.

Abortion number, rate both down, says ‘State of Abortion’ report Mark Pattison Catholic News Service

The nonprofit Catholic Diocese of Charlotte Housing Corporation seeks an experienced housing professional for the promotion, development, maintenance and operation of diocesan-owned or partnered affordable and market rate housing facilities and the provision of accompanying social services for seniors, families and individuals with special needs.

Visit our website for a complete job description: www.charlottediocese.org/ministries-a-departments/housing Cover letter and resume must be submitted electronically by 5 p.m. on Friday, February 12, 2016 to JVWidelski@charlottegiocese.org No phone calls please.

The Diocese of Charlotte is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Both the number of abortions and the rate of abortion is dropping, according to figures released in the third annual “State of Abortion in America” report issued by the National Right to Life Committee.

The number of abortions, which had peaked at about 1.6 million in 1989, is now down to 1 million, according to federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics quoted in the report, which was issued Jan. 14.

The abortion rate for all women of childbearing age is now down to 210 abortions per 1,000 live births.

The number of abortions performed at Planned Parenthood clinics, though, is up 250 percent in the same time period, according to Carol Tobias, NRLC president. The rate, Tobias added, has remained “relatively steady the last three years,” although the numbers have dropped for other services Planned Parenthood provides at its clinics.

Tobias characterized Planned Parenthood’s revenues as “steady abortion income and a cool half-billion in income from state and federal governments.”

One of NRLC’s priorities is government defunding of Planned Parenthood. President Barack Obama vetoed a bill that would have eliminated Planned Parenthood’s eligibility to receive federal grants.

“This is the first time now that the Congress has actually approved legislation to defund Planned Parenthood,” said Douglas

Johnson, NRLC’s legislative director. “The procedural pathway has been set. The only thing lacking now is a pro-life president.”

Johnson said the current Congress is “a pro-life Congress.” He cited 10 House rollcall votes and four Senate roll-call votes, all of which had garnered a majority of pro-life votes. He added none of the Senate votes met the threshold to override a presidential veto of the defunding measure. That would apply to a scheduled Jan. 26 vote in the House to override Obama’s veto. “That veto is going to be sustained,” Johnson predicted.

The “State of Abortion” report noted that for 2012, the last year for which statistics are available, “more than one in five ... abortions performed at eight weeks gestation or earlier were listed as ‘medical’ abortions by the CDC.” “Medical,” the report added, “is code for chemical,” frequently “morning-after” drugs.

In the 36 states that report the marital status of women undergoing abortions, “married women accounted for just 14.7 percent of abortions,” the report said, “with 85.3 percent of aborting women being unmarried.”

One exception to the 2012 statistical overview is the number of women dying from a legal abortion, the last year for which statistics are available is 2011. That year, two women died, compared to 10 in 2010. Since the 1973 Supreme Court decisions permitting abortion virtually on demand, 424 women have died in abortions, according to “The State of Abortion.”

January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief Supreme Court agrees to review Obama’s actions on deferred deportation WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court Jan. 19 agreed to review President Barack Obama’s executive actions to protect from deportation both those who came to the U.S. as children and the immigrant parents of children who are U.S. citizens or legal residents of this country. “We’re excited and pleased that the Supreme Court will examine the merits of these executive actions,” said Jeanne Atkinson, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, known as CLINIC. “This should be taken as a sign of hope for the estimated 5 million people who stand to benefit from the opportunities presented by DAPA and the expansion of DACA,” she said in a statement.

In 2015, Obama’s executive actions expanded a 2012 program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and created the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, known as DAPA. His actions, which are supported by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have yet to be implemented. They were put on hold Nov. 9 by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which upheld a Texas-based federal judge’s injunction against Obama’s actions. “Deferred action” would allow millions of immigrants who qualify to continue to work without fear of deportation.

With new initiative, Knights aim to work more closely with parishes LEVITTOWN, Pa. — The Knights of Columbus has announced an initiative designed to bring the Knights into closer cooperation with parishes. Changes were noted in an address delivered by Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson in November to a San Antonio meeting of state deputies and reprinted in the December issue of Columbia, the Knights’ magazine. “We will use our resources of time, talent and money to strengthen parish-based and parish-sponsored programs,” he wrote. According to Anderson, the 1.9 million-member Catholic fraternal group, organized into over 15,000 councils operating in the United States and a number of other countries, will continue its focus on spirituality, charity, unity, brotherhood and patriotism. But it will strive to bring its activities into greater identification with parishes under the supervision of parish pastors, avoiding duplication or any perception of competition.

Among the changes involved, the Knights will not build or acquire any new council halls.

This change, where parish rather than separate facilities are used for meetings and activities, has already allowed the formation of councils that would not have been able to afford a building, and will avoid members having to devote too much time and effort to support the building by renting it for unrelated activities.

Push for legalizing assisted suicide stalls out in New Jersey Senate TRENTON, N.J. — At least for the foreseeable future, assisted suicide will remain illegal in New Jersey. The state Senate’s legislative session expired at noon Jan. 12, ensuring that a bill that would have legalized the practice would not come to a vote. The Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act had passed the state assembly

23

in November 2014, and supporters of the practice had been lobbying state senators to pass the bill ever since.

It was a bill that Trenton Bishop David M. O’Connell had called “another tragic example of human hubris,” saying that Catholics in the state should speak out against the “choice we should never make.” And speak out they did, flooding phone lines and inboxes with messages of opposition to a practice the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls “morally unacceptable.”

Some legislators changed their mind about the bill after hearing from so many concerned constituents.

Catholic advocates join in outcry over ICE deportations at start of year WASHINGTON, D.C. — Catholic advocacy agencies quickly joined the pushback after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the beginning of the year arrested immigrants, all Central American families, who were in the United States illegally. After a series of meetings with Homeland Security officials Jan. 11, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters, “I think you’re going to find a pause in these deportations.”

But Jeanne Atkinson, executive director of the Catholic Legal Information Network, known as CLINIC, said she was left with the impression the arrests will continue, although likely not in early morning roundups that advocates said spread terror throughout immigrant communities after women and young children were sent to detention centers. Atkinson said she told Homeland Security, “We would like you, at a minimum, to change how you’re going about doing this. We were very strong and I would think, effective, actually, in highlighting just those issues.” Her organization, which offers legal assistance to immigrants, is based in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, Md. “There’s a lot of fear in the community, and so we’re trying to make sure that people do have a sense of who is most at risk,” Atkinson said. “For example, there’s a memo from 2011.

(ICE agents) can’t go into churches, hospitals or schools to pick up people. So we want to make sure that people understand that they can continue going about their lives.”

Supreme Court rules Florida’s death penalty system unconstitutional WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court Jan. 12 said the state of Florida’s death penalty system is unconstitutional because it allows judges, rather than juries, to determine whether a convicted criminal should get a death sentence. Michael B. Sheedy, executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops in Tallahassee, said the conference was “pleased this decision was issued so promptly” on what was the first day of Florida’s 2016 legislative session. “This should compel the Legislature to address the issue immediately,” he said in a statement.

Ruling 8-1 in Hurst v. Florida, the high court said that the state’s “capital sentencing scheme” violates the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Writing for the majority, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the amendment, which guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, “requires a jury, not a judge, to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death.” The case is named for Timothy Lee Hurst, convicted of the 1998 murder of his manager at a Pensacola, Fla., fast-food restaurant. In Florida, the jury plays an advisory role, deciding if the defendant is eligible for the death penalty, then a judge determines whether that sentence should be imposed.

— Catholic News Service

Experiencing difficulties in your marriage?

A Lifeline for Marriage February 12 - 14, 2016 in Raleigh The Retrouvaille Program consists of a weekend experience combined with a series of 6 post-weekend sessions. It provides the tools to help put your marriage in order again. The main emphasis of the program is on communication in marriage between husband and wife. It will give you the opportunity to rediscover each other and examine your lives together in a new and positive way.

For confidential info or to register: (434) 793-0242 or retrouvaillenc@msn.com. Visit our Web site: www.retrouvaille.org.

Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School is accepting applications for a Director of Advancement Position to begin: March 2016 Terms: Full time (30+ hours), Exempt

Position Summary:

The Director of Advancement reports directly to the Pastor and is a member of the school’s leadership team. Primary responsibilities include implementing and advancing programs and events relating to fundraising, recruitment, and marketing/communications. He/She will work to promote awareness of Our Lady of Mercy School, increase school enrollment, develop and implement fundraising projects, research possible grants, and develop and implement the school’s marketing strategy, including public relations and advertising.

Qualifications: • Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, or other related field • Experience in a development, recruitment or marketing position strongly preferred • Passion for the mission of Catholic education Please send resume with cover le�er to Karen Simon at simonresrc@gmail.com no later than January 29, 2016.

Please see our school website for more details on job functions www.ourladyofmercyschool.org > About Us > Job Opening 1730 Link Road Winston-Salem, NC 27103 (336) 722.7204

Our world 24

catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Church’s credibility found in showing mercy, pope says in new book Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

CNS | Marko Djurica, Reuters

Migrants walk through a frozen field after crossing the border from Macedonia, near the village of Miratovac, Serbia, Jan. 18.

Pope to migrants: Do not be robbed of hope, joy of living Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Welcoming thousands of migrants and refugees to the Vatican for their own Year of Mercy celebration, Pope Francis urged them to resist everything that would rob them of hope and joy.

“Each of you is the bearer of a history, culture and precious values and, unfortunately, also often of experiences of poverty, oppression and fear,” the pope said Jan. 17. But gathering in St. Peter’s Square for the Holy Year “is a sign of hope in God. Don’t allow yourselves to be robbed of hope and the joy of living, which spring from the experience of divine mercy, also thanks to the people who welcomed and helped you.”

The pope prayed that passing through the Holy Door and attending a special jubilee Mass “will fill your hearts with peace.” He also thanked the inmates of a maximum security prison in Milan who prepared the hosts consecrated at the Mass.

According to the Italian news agency, ANSA, an estimated 7,000 migrants from 30 countries were present. The group passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, following a 9-foot tall, 3-foot wide wooden cross made out of the wreckage of boats carrying migrants from northern Africa to Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island.

The Mass was celebrated by Cardinal

Antonio Maria Veglio, president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, who said in his homily that the cross was “an expressive symbol” of the tragic circumstances facing migrants who risk their lives seeking a better future.

The World Day of Migrants and Refugees, he said, was “a fitting occasion to remember that the church has always contemplated in migrants the image of Christ. Moreover, in the Year of Mercy, we are challenged to rediscover the works of mercy where, among the corporal works, there is the call to welcome the stranger.”

The presence of migrants is a visible sign of the universality of the church and the integration of newcomers is not about “assimilation” but an opportunity to recognize “the cultural patrimony of migrants” for the good of the universal church.

“Everyone has something new and beautiful to contribute, but the source and steward is the Spirit,” he said. “No one should feel superior to the other, but all must realize the need to collaborate and contribute to the good of the sole family of God.” Recalling Pope Francis’ message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Cardinal Veglio compared the plight of migrants to the Holy Family exiled in Egypt, which serves as a reminder that the “welcoming of the stranger means welcoming God himself.”

Pope makes ‘mercy Friday’ visit to elderly, infirm ROME — As part of his personal observance of the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis made an unannounced, “private” visit to a retirement home and to a group home for people in a persistent vegetative state, the Vatican said.

The visits to the 33 residents of the Bruno Buozzi Retirement Home and the six residents of Casa Iride Jan. 15 were announced with the hashtag #MercyFriday by the pontifical commission organizing the Year of Mercy. The Vatican previously announced that one Friday each month during the Holy Year, Pope Francis would personally and privately perform a work of mercy. The series ended up beginning very publicly Dec. 18 when he visited and celebrated Mass at a shelter run by the Rome diocesan Caritas. For the January visit, journalists were not invited or even informed. Even the residents of the two facilities were not told in advance, said a statement issued by the Vatican press office once the pope had returned to the Vatican. Pope Francis was accompanied by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who is in charge of the jubilee organizing committee; the archbishop’s office tweeted several photos of the pope’s visit.

VATICAN CITY — Being ministers of God’s mercy, Church members overcome “prejudice and rigidity,” taking risks like Jesus did in order to heal and to save, Pope Francis said.

In Jesus’ day, lepers were cast out of the community “to avoid contamination: the healthy needed to be protected,” but Jesus, at His own risk, “goes up to the leper and He restores him, He heals him,” Pope Francis said in a new booklength interview on mercy.

“By welcoming a marginalized person whose body is wounded and by welcoming the sinner whose soul is wounded, we put our credibility as Christians on the line,” the pope told the Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli in “The Name of God Is Mercy.” The book was released worldwide Jan. 12.

In the interview, the pope spoke about experiencing an overwhelming sense of mercy during confession when he was 17 and discussed the need he saw to invoke a jubilee Year of Mercy. He also talked about the relationship of mercy and justice and addressed criticism that his focus on mercy amounts to watering down Church doctrine and tolerating sin.

Tornielli asked Pope Francis why he so frequently and negatively mentions the “scholars of the law” in his morning homilies. The pope responded that in the Gospels “they represent the principal opposition to Jesus: they challenge Him in the name of doctrine” and such an attitude “is repeated throughout the long history of the Church.”

Using the example of Jesus’ close contact with lepers despite the Old Testament law that lepers be excluded from the community, Pope Francis said it is obvious that the exclusion of lepers was meant to contain disease, but it led to social and emotional suffering and, what is worse, to a sense that lepers had committed some sin which caused their disease. They were excluded from the community, but also from a relationship with God. In literally reaching out to lepers, the pope said, Jesus “shows us a new horizon, the logic of a God who is love, a God who desires the salvation of all men.”

Jesus touched and healed the lepers, he continued. “He didn’t sit down at a desk and study the situation, He didn’t consult the experts for pros and cons. What really mattered to Him was reaching stranded people and saving them.”

Pope Francis said a similar attitude by the Church today “provokes angry mutterings from those who are only ever used to having things fit into their preconceived notions and ritual purity.”

“Caring for outcasts and sinners does not mean letting the wolves attack the flock” or jumping into the darkness with sinners, he said; it means being aware of the reality of sin and sharing the reality that God always is ready to forgive the sinner.

January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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In Brief Church leaders condemn new vandalism at two Christian sites in Jerusalem JERUSALEM — One week after a Christian cemetery was desecrated outside of Jerusalem, two more Christian sites were vandalized in the city. Several anti-Christian slogans in Hebrew were discovered scrawled along the walls of the Benedictine Dormition Abbey monastery and the neighboring Greek Orthodox seminary, both located on Mount Zion next to the walls of the Old City. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem denounced the acts, which occurred Jan. 16 and 17, and repeated its belief in the importance of education toward tolerance while urging “followup” against those who incite intolerance against Christians. “It is regrettable that such episodes of hatred come 50 years after ‘Nostra Aetate’ which initiated the interreligious dialogue of the Catholic Church with other religions, and turned a new page between Catholic Church and Judaism,” the patriarchate said in a statement Jan. 17. “We hope that the perpetrators will be arrested before proposed threats are carried out.” For the Dormition Abbey, which is believed to have been built on the spot where Mary died, it was the fifth time the building was vandalized in recent years.

Dialogue, remembrance, peace highlighted as pope visits synagogue ROME — While the Catholic Church affirms that salvation comes through Jesus, it also recognizes that God is faithful and has not revoked His covenant with the Jewish people, Pope Francis said. Interrupted repeatedly with applause at Rome’s main synagogue Jan. 17, the pope said the Church “recognizes the irrevocability of the Old Covenant and the constant and faithful love of God for Israel.” The statement, which he already had made in his 2013 exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” was repeated in a recent document by the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. The document reaffirmed Pope Benedict XVI’s teaching that the Church “neither conducts nor supports” any institutional missionary initiative directed toward Jews.

No saint has a sin-free past, no sinner is hopeless, pope says VATICAN CITY — There is no saint without a past and no sinner without a future, Pope Francis said in his morning Mass. In his homily during Mass Jan. 19, the pope reflected on the day’s first reading (1 Sm 16: 1-13), which recounts Samuel’s anointing of David as king of Israel. In choosing David, the pope said, God calls on Samuel to look past appearances and look “into the heart. We are often the slaves of appearances and allow ourselves to pursue appearances,” he said during Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae. “But God knows the truth.”

The pope said that although “to the eyes of man this boy did not count,” God chose David, who then lived “the life of a man anointed by the Lord and chosen by the Lord.” God’s choice did not mean David was without sin. The pope said God did not make David a saint but rather he became a saint after living a long life, a life known for moments of both holiness and sin.

Faith is a gift, pope says VATICAN CITY — No one deserves faith and no one can buy it; faith is a gift that changes one’s

life and allows people to recognize Jesus as the Son of God with the power to forgive sins, Pope Francis said at his morning Mass. Praise is the proof that one truly has faith and believes “that Jesus Christ is God in my life,” the pope said Jan. 15 during the Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae. Jesus, he said, was sent “to save us from our sins, to save us and bring us to the father. He was sent for that, to give His life for our salvation.” However, the pope added that is “the most difficult point to understand.”

The Gospel for the day, Mark 2: 1-12, recounted Jesus’ healing of a paralytic in Capernaum and the tension that arose among those who followed Jesus when he told the ailing man that his sins were forgiven. Many in the crowd had their hearts “open to faith,” but there were others, the pope said, who accepted Jesus as a healer but not His authority to forgive sins.

Best legacy children can receive from parents is faith, pope says VATICAN CITY — The best thing parents can pass on to their children is their religious faith, Pope Francis said as he baptized 26 babies.

Ensure this faith “not be lost, help make it grow and pass it on as a legacy,” he told the infants’ parents and godparents. The pope presided over the annual morning liturgy in the Sistine Chapel Jan. 10, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

He told the parents that when he asked them, “What do you ask of God’s Church” for their child and they responded, “Faith,” the ritual was part of “a chain” of handing on the faith throughout history. “These children, as the years go by, will be taking your place with another child – your grandchildren – and they will ask the same thing: faith,” he said in his brief, unscripted homily.

“Don’t forget that the greatest legacy that you can leave your children is faith,” he said, adding he hoped they would always be capable of helping their children grow in the faith.

‘Soap opera’ love isn’t true love, pope says VATICAN CITY — True love comes from God and is expressed through His mercy and forgiveness, not through sentimental expressions that can easily vanish, Pope Francis said. Although many people use the word ‘love,’ “when used, it is not known what it exactly means,” the pope said in his homily Jan. 8 during his morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae. “What is love? There are times we think of soap opera love. No, that does not look like love. Or love may seem like enthusiasm for a person and then it is extinguished,” he said.

— Catholic News Service

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General Counsel Diocese of Charlotte The Diocese of Charlotte has an opening for the position of General Counsel.

The successful candidate should possess a thorough understanding and appreciation for the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church as well as the ecclesiastical structure of the Catholic Church. The successful candidate must have Bar admission to practice in the State of North Carolina and should have at least 10 years’ experience as a practicing attorney.

Qualified candidates should provide a resume and letter of interest by January 31, 2016, to: Human Resources Director Diocese of Charlotte 1123 South Church Street Charlotte, NC 28203 Or email: employment@charlottediocese.org The Diocese of Charlotte is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

‘In His infinite wisdom and love, God doesn’t give us any more than we can handle.’

Justin Reilly

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Effective mercy is what we as Catholics must do

n 1727 the French Ursuline Sisters arrived in New Orleans and founded an orphanage, the first Catholic charitable institution in what would become the United States. Over the decades the Society of St. Vincent de Paul organized local charity efforts into a national movement that would eventually be known as Catholic Charities.

Now, there are 164 Catholic Charities agencies in the United States at 2,361 locations, serving a total of 8.7 million people. Here in the Diocese of Charlotte, Catholic Charities provided services to nearly 20,000 people in need in 2015.

The reason that Catholic Charities is so prevalent is that the Catholic Church has been, and is, dedicated to that very basic Christian call of charity: To love your neighbor. Catholic Charities takes the “Golden Rule” and organizes it as a service to the community.

In December, we entered the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, and to celebrate Catholic churches around the world literally opened their doors to invite in all who seek mercy. The word “mercy” helps define our tradition of charity. The great theologian and philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas makes a distinction between two types of mercy: affective and effective.

Affective mercy is what amounts to pity – one sees the need but does not respond. Effective mercy, however, is something that we do: “It’s a positive action for the good of another, it is taking steps to relieve the miseries of the other.” Our tradition invites us to participate in effective mercy.

In the first several months of his papacy, Pope Francis signaled clearly to the world that mercy would be central to his ministry. He showed up at a juvenile detention center in Rome, Casal del Marmo, on Holy Thursday to wash the feet of 12 inmates. Pope Francis displayed for us that if we are indeed a people of mercy that we must attend to those who are in desperate need of that mercy.

In 2009 I visited St. Patrick Church in Washington, D.C. to attend my first Mass. For quite some time I had been contemplating what seemed like a clear call to join the Catholic Church. My visit to St. Patrick’s confirmed this call – not only because I was overwhelmed with the sacredness and ritual, but because it was also the first time I saw a Catholic Charities sign. Without knowing anything more than the name, I intuitively understood that the existence of Catholic Charities must come out of a deep theological commitment to the vulnerable and those on the margins. It must offer mercy.

It does. And we saw this commitment manifested in Pope Francis’ recent visit to the United States.

Pope Francis declined an invitation to lunch with some of the most powerful people in the world. His reason for saying no to the leaders of Congress: to have lunch with clients of Catholic Charities at St. Patrick Church in Washington, D.C. In his address at St. Patrick Church, Pope Francis said: “Jesus not only wanted to show solidarity with every person. He not only wanted everyone to experience His companionship, His help, His love. He identified with all those who suffer, who weep, who suffer any kind of injustice. He says this clearly: ‘I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’” (Mt 25:35) Each day at Catholic Charities we respond to this call to feed the hungry, visit the sick and welcome the stranger. And together, as people of faith and action, we fulfill the calling to be, as Pope Francis puts it, “islands of mercy in a sea of indifference.”

‘Without knowing anything more than the name, I intuitively understood that the existence of Catholic Charities must come out of a deep theological commitment to the vulnerable and those on the margins. It must offer mercy.’

Justin Reilly is the Asheville regional director for Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte.

Anne Tinsdale

Trust in God’s plan in God’s time

A

s easy as it might seem, and as rewarding as it can be, it can be tough to be the parents of an only child. And it can be really tough to be the single parent of an only child. I know, because my parents were the parents of one very difficult and demanding child.

I remember every night offering to mortgage my soul if only God would send me a brother or sister. I also remember the EMTs carrying my mother out on a stretcher to take her to the hospital after another miscarriage.

“Why does this happen?” Simply, as a result of original sin, the mechanisms of our bodies are not in perfect synchronization according to God’s design.

And He alone knows what is best for every family – how many of His children He wants us to care for, and how many we can handle.

I have an unforgettable mental image of the day Mom’s life as a single mother began.

Dad was only 56, but little was known then about the dangers of smoking, exacerbated by minimal exercise and rich Southern cooking.

It was a glorious October afternoon, the final day of the World Series, and Holy Name Sunday – a perfect day for the annual Holy Name Parade. The line of the procession ended at the altar set up in the park, ready for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The volume blasted from the little portable radio that had been my dad’s eighth-grade graduation gift, as the parade and the world series ended.

Our parish contingent passed and as I made my way through the crowd to give him the results, Dad suddenly stepped out of line, keeled over and hit the ground, dead from a massive coronary.

I was 13 – not a good age for such a shock, especially when you’ve been a “daddy’s girl” all your young life. The next several years were really tough on my mom. I’m sure there were times when she longed to be anyone but my mother. Only through her faith and trust in God did we survive my adolescence.

Scripture tells us to have faith and believe that God will give us the grace to do His will.

In His infinite wisdom and love, He doesn’t give us any more than we can handle. His is

always the best plan.

Unfortunately, there exists a common misconception, especially among Catholics, that if a couple submits their family planning to God’s will, they might as well forget about having any extra money, time or anything else. They’ll need a big house…with lots of bedrooms. This is just as erroneous as the perception that couples with only one child, or even no children,

have something wrong with them or they’re practicing birth control.

Just as there is a time for everything in God’s plan, there is also a reason – sometimes known only to Him. Sometimes it means that we have to wait a while for an answer to our prayers and to see His plan unfold. God’s “time” is eternity, and one generation is but a speck in that vastness.

If we really want to know what that plan is, all we have to do is ask: “Let me know your will, Lord, and give me the grace to follow it.” Whatever His plan, with that attitude you can hardly go wrong!

Anne Tinsdale, OFS, is a member of the Respect Life Commission with responsibility for the Spiritual Adoption program at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Gastonia.

Her prayers were answered in the next three generations when she became the mother of seven, grandmother of 15, and great-grandmother of five (at last count), and with profession in the Order of Franciscans Secular (OFS) in the year 2000, immediately gained a worldwide family of thousands of brothers and sisters. Reprinted with permission from American Life League’s “Celebrate Life Magazine.”

January 22, 2016 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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Parish spotlight

Father Fidel Melo

The mercy of God in the context of the Jubilee Year of Mercy I

n the Book of the Prophet Isaiah we find the announcement of the anointed of God, the promised Messiah. Eight centuries prior to our contemporary Christian era, the prophet Isaiah describes the mission of the Messiah, almost as if he was looking at the Messiah face to face. The prophet delivers a message with the promise of a future liberator, a message of hope. Isaiah makes a wonderful depiction of the life and ministry of the future Messiah, but he doesn’t use his own words, but he uses the words of God the Father saying, “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street.

A bruised reed he shall not break, a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching,” (Is 42:14).

With these words and others, the prophet Isaiah describes the figure of the upcoming Messiah who is to come to be the light of the world, justice for the nations and freedom from the slavery of sin that oppressed His people. Isaiah describes the mission of the Messiah as someone who rebuilds what has been destroyed, as one who rescues His people from darkness, and reestablishes the lost harmony between the Creator and His people.

During this Jubilee Year of Mercy, these words of the prophet take on an even deeper meaning after Pope Francis’ invitation to rediscover the redemptive mission of the Messiah, a mission of love, a mission of mercy. As we listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah describing the Anointed One of God, we immediately reflect on how these prophetic words are fulfilled in the Person, the life and ministry of Our Lord Jesus Christ – the quiet and humble servant since His birth, with a complete self-offering even to His death, death on a cross, (Phil 2:6-11). And Christ did all that to offer us the grace of redemption through the mercy of God. It really jumped at me when Isaiah writes: “A bruised reed he shall not break, a smoldering wick he shall not quench” (Is 42:3). This verse is especially charged with a deep sense of the mercy and love of

Christ came to bring hope and ... open the doors of the Divine Mercy of God.

God, which is none other than His mercy.

The bruised reed and the smoldering wick are metaphors for a weakened and wounded humanity, and they refer to the poor, the oppressed and the sinners.

Part of that weakened humanity includes those lacking resources to live a life with dignity, those who have been excluded in our society – be it economically, politically or socially. This weak part of the human race is also composed of those oppressed by sin, personal and community sins, social sins; which happens when the Enemy leads people, communities and societies to fall in temptation and offend God. In general, our humanity is weakened and wounded by original sin, and its consequences are manifested in the different aspects of our daily living.

The Good News is that Jesus, the Christ, did not come to break this “bruised reed,” our weak humanity, but He came to redeem it with the mercy of God the Father. Christ came to reestablish the lost harmony between God and man. Christ came to bring hope and break the chains of death and to open the doors of the Divine Mercy of God. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (Jn 3:17). Christ did not come into the world to burden our humanity, but He came into the world to relieve and to liberate it from the oppression of the evil one. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Mt 11:28-30).

Such beautiful, consoling and forgiving words Our Lord Jesus Christ offers us! Our Messiah and Redeemer came to unburden us from the yoke and the inheritance of sin, and came to bring healing in His mercy and forgiveness.

During this Year of Mercy, let’s not miss the opportunity to have an encounter with Jesus Christ, the Promised Messiah.

Let’s draw close to Him with sincere contrition for our sins, by making a good confession and by practicing the works of mercy: spiritual works of mercy such as instructing the ignorant, giving good counsel to those in need, consoling the sorrowful, forgiving offenses, praying for the dead, etc. And let’s also practice the corporal works of mercy: Feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the sick and the imprisoned, sheltering the stranger and burying the dead. Let’s show the world the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, Our Messiah and Redeemer.

May God bless you.

Father Fidel Melo is the vicar for Hispanic Ministry for the Diocese of Charlotte.

Photo provided by Nancy Concato

Visible sign of God’s mercy LINCOLNTON — A new crucifix was recently blessed and installed outside St. Dorothy Church in Lincolnton.

Most-read stories on the web

‘We are often the slaves of appearances and allow ourselves to pursue appearances.”

Pope Francis

From online story: “No saint has a sin-free past, no sinner is hopeless, pope says” Through press time on Jan. 20, 5,772 visitors to www.catholicnewsherald.com have viewed a total of 10,890 pages. The top 10 headlines in January were: n Weaver Chorale in Greensboro invited to sing at the Vatican........................................................468 n Faithful brave rain for March for Life in Charlotte...............................................................................323 n How to make a pilgrimage for the Year of Mercy............................................................................... 236 n Bishop Emeritus Curlin opens Door of Mercy in Greensboro..........................................................206 n View the current print edition of the Catholic News Herald............................................................. 189 n Queen of the Apostles Choir performs in Rome...................................................................................132 n Priest appointments announced for Hendersonville, Charlotte...................................................... 120 n Jorge Morel Band a dar concierto en San Marcos el 23 de Enero................................................. 102 n New app for the Year of Mercy.................................................................................................................... 77 n Bishop Jugis gives five suggestions to grow in holiness.....................................................................70 Did you know you could read this whole edition in a device-friendly PDF online before it arrives in your mailbox? Go to catholicnewsherald.com/features/current-edition.

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catholicnewsherald.com | January 22, 2016 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD