Nov. 10, 2017

November 10, 2017

catholicnewsherald.com charlottediocese.org

Living stones

S E RV I N G C H R I ST A N D C O N N EC T I N G C AT H O L I C S I N W E ST E R N N O R T H C A R O L I N A

Giving thanks to God Pennybyrn at Maryfield celebrates 70 years of love, prayer, service

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First-ever Solemn Pontifical Mass offered in the diocese 3

Black Catholics in America

12-15

Celebrating all saints and all souls 10

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INDEX

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Contact us.......................... 4 Events calendar................. 4 Our Faith............................. 2 Our Parishes................. 3-11 Schools..............................16 Scripture readings............ 2 TV & Movies.......................17 U.S. news...................... 18-19 Viewpoints.................. 22-23 World news.................. 20-21

In honor of Veterans Day Deacons reflect on service to God and country 5

Our faith 2

catholicnewsherald.com | November 10, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

A SAINTLY LIFE

St. Margaret of Scotland, patron of large families

Pope Francis

Stop taking smartphone snapshots during Mass

T

he Mass is not a show, but a beautiful, transformative encounter with the true loving presence of Christ, Pope Francis said. That is why people need to focus their hearts on God, not focus their smartphones for pictures during Mass, he said.

When the priest celebrating Mass says, “Let us lift up our hearts,” he is not saying, “lift up our cellphones and take a picture. No. It’s an awful thing” to do, the pope said Nov. 8 during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

“It makes me so sad when I celebrate (Mass) in the square or in the basilica and I see so many cellphones in the air. And not just by the lay faithful, some priests and bishops, too,” he said.

“Please, Mass is not a show. It is going to encounter the Passion, the resurrection of the Lord,” he said to applause.

The pope’s remarks were part of a new series of audience talks on the Mass. The series, he said, should help people understand the true value and significance of the liturgy as an essential part of growing closer to God. A major theme highlighted by the Second Vatican Council was that the liturgical formation of the lay faithful is “indispensable for a true renewal,” Pope Francis said. “And this is precisely the aim of this catechetical series that we begin today – to grow in understanding the great gift God gave us in the Eucharist.”

“The Second Vatican Council was strongly driven by the desire to lead Christians to an understanding of the grandeur of the faith and the beauty of the encounter with Christ,” he said.

That is why, “with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, an appropriate renewal of the liturgy” was necessary.

The Eucharist is a wonderful way Jesus Christ makes Himself truly present in people’s lives, the pope said.

To take part in the Mass is to relive the Lord’s passion and redemptive death, where, on the altar, He is present and offers Himself for the salvation of the world, the pope said. “The Lord is there with us and present. But so many times we go, we look around, we chitchat with each other while the priest celebrates the Eucharist.”

If the president or any other famous or important person were to show up, he said, it would be a given “that we all would be near him, we would want to greet him. But think about it, when you go to Mass, the Lord is there and you, you are distracted, (your mind) wanders. Yet, it is the Lord!”

People should reflect on this, he said, and if they complain, “’Oh, Father, Mass is boring.’ What are you saying? The Lord is boring? ‘No, not the Mass, but the priest.’ Ah, well, may the priest be converted,” but just never forget that the Lord is always there.

Feast day: Nov. 16 On Nov. 16, the Church celebrates the feast day of St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland. Her feast day was originally June 10, but was moved to Nov. 16, the day of her death, upon the renewal of the Church’s liturgical calendar.

Some continue to celebrate her feast on June 10, but many, including all of Scotland, celebrate her feast today.

Margaret was born into royalty in Hungary around 1045.

Her father was Edward Atheling, heir to the English throne, and her mother was Princess Agatha of Hungary. Her family returned to England when she was 10 years old, but the Norman Conquest forced them into exile. By this time her father had died, and her mother fled with the children.

While fleeing the invading army of William the Conqueror in 1066, her family’s ship wrecked on the Scottish coast. They remained in Scotland, where they were assisted by King Malcolm III. In 1070, at the age of 25, Margaret married King Malcolm.

As queen, Margaret’s faith had a strong influence on her husband’s reign. She softened his temper and led him to practice virtue. She dignified the court, providing an example of purity and reverence that led others to follow in her path.

She and the king prayed together and fed the hungry, offering a powerful witness of faith to the people they served. They had eight children, including two who later were also named saints.

In addition to being a model wife and mother, Margaret worked tirelessly to bring justice and relief to the poor of Scotland. She also built churches, founded abbeys and encouraged practices of religious devotion. In her private life, she exhibited great prayerfulness and piety. Her influence was seen not only in her husband’s life, but throughout all of Scotland.

Margaret died in 1093, just four days after her husband and one of her sons were killed in battle. She was canonized in 1250 by Pope Innocent IV and named patron of Scotland in 1673. She is also one of the patron saints of large families.

— Catholic News Agency A stained glass window depicting St. Margaret of Scotland, in the chapel dedicated to her in Edinburgh Castle. Dating from the early 12th century, the chapel is the oldest surviving part of Edinburgh Castle.

More online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Read about the history of St. Margaret of Scotland Church in Maggie Valley, and learn more about other patron saints of families

Your daily Scripture readings NOV. 12-18

Sunday: Wisdom 6:12-16, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Matthew 25:1-13; Monday (St. Frances Xavier Cabrini): Wisdom 1:1-7, Luke 17:1-6; Tuesday: Wisdom 2:23, 3:9, Luke 17:7-10; Wednesday (St. Albert the Great): Wisdom 6:1-11, Luke 17:11-19; Thursday (St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Gertrude): Wisdom 7:22, 8:1, Luke 17:20-25; Friday (St. Elizabeth of Hungary): Wisdom 13:1-9, Luke 17:26-37; Saturday (The Dedication of the Basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne): Wisdom 18:14-16, 19:6-9, Luke 18:1-8

NOV. 19-25

Sunday: Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, Matthew 25:14-30; Monday: 1 Maccabees 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 6263, Luke 18:35-43; Tuesday (The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary): 2 Maccabees 6:18-31, Luke 19:1-10; Wednesday (St. Cecilia): 2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31, Luke 19:11-28; Thursday (St. Clement I, St. Columban, BI. Miguel Agustin Pro, Thanksgiving Day): 1 Maccabees 2:15-29, Luke 19:41-44; Friday (St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions): 1 Maccabees 4:3637, 52-59, 1 Chronicles 29:10-12, Luke 19:45-48; Saturday (St. Catherine of Alexandria): 1 Maccabees 6:1-13, Luke 20:27-40

NOV. 26-DEC. 2

Sunday (Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe): Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17, 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28, Matthew 25:31-46; Monday: Daniel 1:1-6, 8-20, Daniel 3:52-56, Luke 21:1-4; Tuesday: Daniel 2:31-45, Daniel 3:57-61, Luke 21:5-11; Wednesday: Daniel 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 2328, Daniel 3:62-67, Luke 21:12-19; Thursday (St. Andrew): Romans 10:9-18, Matthew 4:18-22; Friday: Daniel 7:2-14, Daniel 3:75-81, Luke 21:2933; Saturday: Daniel 7:15-27, Daniel 3:82-87, Luke 21:34-36

Our parishes

November 10, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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Giving thanks to God Pennybyrn at Maryfield celebrates 70 years of love, prayer, service PATRICIA L. GUILFOYLE EDITOR

HIGH POINT — Pennybyrn at Maryfield is celebrating 70 years of caring and compassion this week, marking the day in 1947 when five women religious arrived to carry out the mission of carrying for others in the High Point area.

Residents, supporters, staff and volunteers of the retirement and assisted living community gathered to give thanks to God for the anniversary milestone during a Mass offered Nov. 3 by Bishop Peter Jugis.

In his homily, Bishop Jugis praised the “miraculous” development of Maryfield over the past seven decades since five Sisters of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God were sent by their congregation in London, England, to High Point at the request of North Carolina Bishop Vincent Waters.

They left their families, their homeland and everything that was familiar to them in order to serve God in North Carolina, where they arrived on Nov. 14, 1947.

The five pioneer sisters – Sister Mary Patrice, Sister Anne Christina, Sister Maria Benignus, Sister Ellen Fitzgerald and Sister Mary Monica – purchased Penny House, originally built by George Penny in 1927, on Greensboro Road in High Point. They converted the home into a convent and a convalescent center with 22 beds. It became known as Maryfield after it was licensed as a nursing home in the 1950s.

Seventy years since they arrived, Maryfield has grown into a 71-acre continuing care retirement community

Residents, supporters, staff and volunteers of Pennybyrn at Maryfield gathered to give thanks to God for the assisted living community’s 70th anniversary during a Mass offered Nov. 3 by Bishop Peter Jugis.

Maryfield has “a beautiful, prayerful, Catholic atmosphere,” noted Father Tom Norris, O.S.F.S., pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in High Point, who concelebrated the Mass, along with Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, pastor of St. Pius X Church in Greensboro; Father James Solari, Maryfield chaplain; Father Joseph Dinh, pastor of Christ the King Church in High Point; and retired Father Robert Ferris. Father Noah Carter served as master of ceremonies. (Right) Margaret O’Connor, 96, receives a blessing from the bishop.

PHOTOS BY PAMELA OSBURN AND PATRICIA L. GUILFOYLE | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

called Pennybyrn at Maryfield. The facilities, which were entirely rebuilt in 2007, include a small neighborhood of 20 independent living cottages, a building of 131 independent living apartments, a building of 24 assisted living and 24 memory support apartments and a nursing care building. The Maryfield chapel houses Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, in which hundreds of volunteers from across the Triad have taken turns keeping vigil every day and night since the Feast of Corpus Christi on June 5, 1994.

Five Sisters of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God still live in Penny House, but the nursing home moved to a separate building behind the house in 1965. The community now totals 377 residents and 401 staff.

The sisters continue in the tradition of their founder, Frances Taylor, who took the name of Mother Magdalen, caring for their residents with the help and guidance of a board of directors and ambassador council comprised of people from the community.

Many of those supporters and volunteers were on hand Nov. 3 to give thanks for God’s blessings on Maryfield and for the gift of the sisters’ presence in High Point.

“It’s remarkable that those nuns came here 70 years ago and established this successful place,” said Ken Kaczmarek, a Maryfield resident and parishioner of St. Paul the Apostle Church in Greensboro.

“They are a joy.”

“Joy” is how Dick and De Martin also GIVING THANKS, SEE PAGE 24

DEO GRATIAS!

First-ever Solemn Pontifical Mass offered in honor of the Kingship of Christ PATRICIA L. GUILFOYLE EDITOR

CHARLOTTE — History was made in the Diocese of Charlotte Oct. 26, when a Solemn Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form was offered for the first time.

The Solemn Pontifical Mass, one offered by a bishop or a cardinal, was the first such Latin liturgy ever offered in the diocese.

A standing-room-only crowd of more than 400 people gathered inside St. Ann Church to attend the Mass, offered by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C., auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana, Kazakhstan.

An outspoken defender of the Catholic faith who grew up in the persecuted underground Church of the former Soviet Union, Bishop Schneider preached on the Kingship of Christ.

Jesus Christ is not only the king of heaven, Bishop Schneider said, but of all creation.

“Christ is the true King over all human ways and all human societies. He has conquered it by His Precious Blood,” he said.

“All things are in His Power. His empire not only includes Catholic nations, not only baptized persons, but also all those who are outside the faith.”

Individuals, families, nations – indeed, all peoples

More online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: See more photos from the Solemn Pontifical Mass at St. Ann Church At www.emperorcharles.org: Learn more about the cause for canonization of Blessed Karl of Austria – fall under Christ’s authority and it is out of love for Him that we recognize His Kingship, he said.

Excluding and alienating Christ from public life, and preventing people from worshiping Christ as King and confessing their faith, is a sign of dictatorship, he said.

Christians must especially stand up for Christ’s Kingship over the entire world when confronted by atheistic dictatorships, the bishop urged.

He recalled the “luminous” witness of 14-year-old martyr José Sánchez del Río, who was executed during Mexico’s Cristero War. Although he was imprisoned and tortured by the anti-Catholic government forces, the boy refused to renounce his faith – defiantly proclaiming “Viva Cristo Rey!” even as the soldiers cut him with machetes, stabbed him with bayonets, and finally shot him in the head. Moments before he died, he drew a cross in the dirt and kissed it. Pope Francis proclaimed him a saint on Oct. 16, 2016.

MASS, SEE PAGE 24

PATRICIA L. GUILFOYLE | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishop Athanasius Schneider, O.R.C., auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana, Kazakhstan, gives a blessing at the end of a Solemn Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form he offered Oct. 26 at St. Ann Church in Charlotte.

UPcoming events 4

catholicnewsherald.com | November 10, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishop Peter J. Jugis will participate in the following upcoming events: NOV. 10 – 6 P.M. Sacrament of Confirmation St. Vincent de Paul Church, Charlotte

NOV. 21 – 6 P.M. Sacrament of Confirmation St. Luke Church, Mint Hill

NOV. 12–17 USCCB Meeting, Baltimore

NOV. 28 – 6 P.M. Sacrament of Confirmation St. Luke Church, Mint Hill

NOV. 18 – 2 P.M. Sacrament of Confirmation St. Matthew Church, Charlotte

NOV. 30 – 10 A.M. Diocesan Foundation Board Meeting Catholic Conference Center, Hickory

NOV. 30 – 6 P.M. Sacrament of Confirmation St. Mark Church, Huntersville DEC. 2 – 11 A.M. Sacrament of Confirmation St. Mark Church, Huntersville

Diocesan calendar of events November 10, 2017

ENTERTAINMENT

Volume 27 • NUMBER 3

PERPETUAL HOPE GOSPEL CHOIR’S 37TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT, “GOD’S GRACE”: 3-5 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 12, Our Lady of Consolation Church, 2301 Statesville Ave., Charlotte. The concert is free and a love offering will be taken to raise funds for the choir. For details, call the parish office at 704-375-4339.

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

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.

ESPAÑOL Carrera Antorcha Guadalupana: 6 p.m. Jueves, Noviembre 16, en la Iglesia de St. James, 139 Manor Ave., Concord. Ven con nosotros para recibir la Morena de Tepeyac y San Juan Diego junto a la “luz de la esperanza” que viene directamente desde la Basílica de Guadalupe en la Ciudad de México. Para más información, llamar a 704-965-1290.

MINISTERIO DE PADRES Y MADRES ORANTES: 7 p.m. el tercer viernes de cada mes, en la Iglesia St. Thomas Aquinas, 1400 Suther Road, Charlotte. Todos los padres de familia están invitados a tener un re-encuentro con Jesús Sacramentado, en una Hora Santa. Todos unidos oraran por los hijos del mundo entero. En este Ministerio, el Rosario es nuestra arma y la Eucaristía es nuestra savia. Para más detalles, llamar a Gloria 704-807-5237.

CLASES DE INGLÉS: 6-9 p.m. todos los martes y jueves en el Community Life Center, en la Iglesia de St. Mary, 205 W. Farris Ave., High Point. Para más información y para registrarse, llamar al 336-848-6970.

INFORMATIONAL PROGRAMS ‘BREATHING WITH BOTH LUNGS,’ A PRESENTATION

BY FATHER JOSEPH MATLAK: 1-2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, at St. Mary, Mother of God Church, 22 Bartlett St., Sylva.

Father Joseph is a bi-ritual priest celebrating liturgies in the Byzantine Rite as well as both the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman Rite. He will speak about how the Church’s different ways of worship inform and illuminate one another. For details, email Matthew Newsome at smff@wcucatholic.org.

NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING NFP INTRODUCTION AND FULL COURSE: 1:30 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 11, St. Barnabas Church, 109 Crescent Hill Road, Arden. Topics include: effectiveness of modern NFP, health risks of popular contraceptives and what the Church teaches about responsible parenting. Sponsored

by Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte. RSVP to Batrice Adcock, MSN, RN, at 704-370-3230. Class will be in Spanish. La clase será en español.

PRAYER SERVICES & GROUPS ‘THE LEGACY OF SISTER THEA BOWMAN,’ BLACK CATHOLIC HISTORY MONTH CELEBRATION: 11 a.m.

Sunday, Nov. 12, at St. Mary’s Church, 1414 Gorell St., Greensboro. There will be a showing of a “60 Minutes”

interview of her by Mike Wallace. For details, call the parish office at 336-272-8650.

CHARLOTTE CATHOLIC WOMEN’S GROUP MORNING REFLECTION: 9 a.m. Monday, Nov. 13, at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 6828 Old Reid Road, Charlotte. Come, listen and enjoy the talk by guest speaker Father Matthew Bean. Mass will be celebrated at 9 a.m., followed by refreshments, announcements and the reflection at 10:30 a.m. in the Assembly Room behind the chapel.

RSVP via the Charlotte Catholic Women’s Group website, EventBrite registration, to ensure there is enough food.

GUADALUPAN TORCH RUN (LA ANTORCHA GUADALUPANA): 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, at St. James Church, 139 Manor Ave., Concord. Join in receiving an image of Our Lady of Tepeyac and St. Juan Diego next to the “light of hope” that comes directly from the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. For details, call Leandro at 704-965-1290.

ST. PEREGRINE HEALING PRAYER SERVICE: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, in the Daily Mass Chapel, at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte. The healing prayer service is offered for all those suffering with cancer or other diseases. For details, call the parish office at 704-543-7677.

HEALING SERVICE: 8 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, St Dorothy’s Church, 148 St. Dorothy Lane, Lincolnton. A morning of confession, Adoration, talks and Mass with Healing Prayers with Father Miller. Adoration at 9 a.m., talk at 10 a.m., followed by Mass and Healing Prayers at 11 a.m.

For details, contact the parish office at 704-735-5575 or office@stdorothys.com.

IGBO MASS: 12 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19, at St. Mary’s Church, 1414 Gorell St., Greensboro. Please park in the Windsor Center parking lot. For details, call 336-707-3625.

PRO-LIFE ROSARY: 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, at 901 North Main St. and Sunset Drive, High Point. Come pray for the end of abortion, and invite anyone else who would support this important cause. Anyone with difficulty standing for 15-20 minutes is welcome to bring a folding chair. Outdoors, rain or shine. For details, call Jim Hoyng at 336-882-9593 or Paul Klosterman at 336-848-6835.

VIGIL OF THE TWO HEARTS: Join Catholics across Charlotte for Mass and overnight Eucharistic Adoration every first Friday-Saturday at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte to pray for the strengthening and healing of marriages and families, the conversion of our nation, and to offer reparation for the sins of mankind through prayer and penance. The vigil will begin with Mass at 8 p.m. each first Friday, followed by Adoration and scheduled prayer, and conclude with 8 a.m. Mass each first Saturday. For details and to sign up for Adoration times, go to www.prolifecharlotte.org.

ST. STEPHEN MARONITE CHURCH: Masses are offered every Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at St. Matthew Church’s Waxhaw campus, 4116 Waxhaw-Marvin Road, Waxhaw. St. Stephen Maronite Church of Charlotte is an Eastern-rite Catholic Church in full communion with the pope.

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 church office at 828-926-0106.

SUPPORT GROUPS & RETREATS RACHEL’S VINEYARD WEEKEND RETREAT: Oct. 20-22 in the Greensboro area. Rachel’s Vineyard can help men and women who have experienced abortion begin their healing journey. It creates a healing environment of prayer and forgiveness. The retreat works to reconnect people to themselves, their friends and family after having an abortion. For details, email Jackie Childers jackie.childers1@gmail.com.

SAFE ENVIRONMENT TRAINING “Protecting God’s Children” workshops are intended to educate parish volunteers to recognize and prevent sexual abuse. For details, contact your parish office. To register and confirm workshop times, go to www.virtus. org. Upcoming workshops are: CHARLOTTE: 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5, St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy.

HENDERSONVILLE: 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, Immaculate Conception, 208 Seventh Ave. W. SWANNANOA: 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, St. Margaret Mary Church, 102 Andrews Pl. THANKSGIVING ACTIVITIES ST. THERESE HOSTS CELEBRATION OF THANKS: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 23, in the Parish Life Center, St. Therese Church, 217 Brawley School Road, Mooresville.

The Community Thanksgiving Meal Committee invites the residents of Mooresville and surrounding communities to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal hosted by St. Therese Church. Families and individuals who may want to spend the afternoon in community and enjoy a fantastic meal are invited to join together to give thanks and feast on turkey with all the trimmings. “At this time, we can come together, enjoy a meal and fellowship, and give thanks to God, from whom all blessings flow.

All are welcome!,” said Father Mark Lawlor, pastor.

For questions, email mooresvillethanksgiving@gmail. com, call 704-453-4170, or visit www.sainttherese.net/ thanksgiving.

Correction The map accompanying the Oct. 27 story “Communion of Saints” incorrectly reported that the altar of St. Margaret Mary Church in Swannanoa has no relic. The altar contains the relic of an unidentified saint. We regret the error.

— Catholic News Herald

November 10, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI

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IN HONOR OF VETERANS DAY: CALLED TO SERVE

Deacons reflect on service to God and country SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

DEACON MICHAEL GOAD

CHARLOTTE — Deacon Michael Goad, who now serves at St. Gabriel Church, was only 18 when he entered the U.S. Air Force in 1979 and found himself stationed 1,100 miles from his childhood home in Aiken, S.C., at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas.

During his four years of military service, Deacon Goad worked as a C-130 aircraft mechanic, earning the rank of E5 staff sergeant. He credits his Catholic faith and his time of enlistment with preparing him for a life of service.

“God came into my life and my heart at the age of 10, in what I refer to as ‘my awakening,’” Deacon Goad recalls.

Growing up, he attended Catholic schools staffed by the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mercy.

“My faith, taught to me by those sweet Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy, didn’t force Jesus into my head, but rather loved Him into my life,” he explains. “The Church was my anchor of familiarity as I made my way out into the world for the first time. The military gave me the confidence to live anywhere.”

He credits one of the nuns with helping him become the man he is today. “Sister deNeri Faase was as tough as nails. She was demanding and expected us to be more than who we were.

“Anytime I encountered a challenging moment while in the service to my country, I’d always in my heart think, ‘What would Sister deNeri expect of me?’ She was my compass during those years.”

From his years of service in the military, Deacon Goad says, he learned a valuable lesson that has helped him in his vocation as a permanent deacon: to lead, one must first learn to follow.

“Looking back on those days, I suppose I have always been a nurturer by nature,” he says. “So being called by the Holy Spirit yet again to a life of service as servant is like wearing old comfortable clothes.”

“I love being a joyful herald of the Good News!

As a servant to the People of God, I still cannot adequately articulate this invitation God has invited me into. I still cannot believe I get to do this. God has always been generous to me and I am eternally grateful to be His son.”

He says he is proud to have served in the U.S. military because “as a patriot I owe much to her:

my freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I have always felt a deep desire to love and to serve something greater than myself. She deserves my fidelity,” he explains.

“I am proud to serve the Church now as a deacon because She possesses my heart. She reveals to me, in a most profound and meaningful way, God’s loving grace, mercy and forgiveness through the sacramental life of the Church.

“She teaches me how to love others as our Heavenly Father loves each of us. God is good!”

DEACON KEVIN AND THERESA WILLIAMS

When they were in their late teens, Deacon Kevin Williams and his wife Theresa joined the military.

Deacon Williams served in the U.S. Navy from 1977 to 1981 as a musician 3rd Class. Theresa served in the U.S. Army from 1977 to 1980 as a specialist 4th Class. The two met in 1977 at the Armed Forces School of Music in Little Creek, Va. Deacon Williams played the trumpet in the Navy, and Theresa was a percussionist in the Army band.

During their enlistments, the couple had different views on the practice of their Catholic faith, with Theresa actively living a sacramental life, while Kevin was not active with his faith.

“My faith played a big role (in my time of service in the military),” Theresa Williams recalls. “I prayed the 23rd Psalm a lot during boot camp. I also had a lot to pray about during the rest of my commitment.”

Deacon Williams admits he drifted away from the Church and did not have an active prayer life when he was younger. “I only went to Mass occasionally with Theresa because it was important to her,” he recalls.

Both are proud to have served their country.

“Not everyone can serve,” Theresa Williams explains. “Some don’t have what it takes. I think serving shows courage and patriotism.”

“There is a camaraderie between all who have served, no matter what they did,” Deacon Williams notes.

He is thankful to serve Our Lady of the Assumption Church as a permanent deacon now.

“It gives me the chance to connect with people about spiritual things, which has become my favorite subject,” he says. “It gives me the opportunity to try to make a difference in people’s lives, and I think it means I’m following what God wants me to do.”

‘I have always felt a deep desire to love and to serve something greater than myself.’

Deacon Michael Goad

Permanent deacons’ military service This Veterans Day, we thank in a special way our permanent deacons who served in the U.S. military and shared their service information with us. May God bless them and all those who served from the Diocese of Charlotte for their service to our country: Deacon Ron Caplette, St. Aloysius Church, Hickory (retired): U.S. Marine Corps, Platoon Sergeant, 1952-1961 Deacon Bob Desautels, St. Leo the Great Church, Winston-Salem: U.S. Army, E4, 1967-1970 Deacon Patrick J. Devine, Charlotte Airport Ministry: U.S. Navy, Petty Officer (3rd class), 1966-1970 Deacon Ralph Eckoff, St. Margaret Mary Church, Swannanoa: U.S. Navy, Yeoman YN2, 1951-1954 Deacon Michael F. Goad, St. Gabriel Church, Charlotte: U.S. Air Force, Staff Sergent (E-5), aircraft mechanic, 1979-1983 Deacon Bill Griffin, St. Matthew Church, Charlotte: U.S. Army, Sergeant (E-6), 1964-1970 Deacon Carl Hubbell, St. William Church, Murphy (retired): U.S. Air Force, Technical Sergeant, 1953-1973 Deacon David King, Pennybyrn at Maryfield, High Point: U.S. Army, Vietnam War, 1968-1972; U.S. Army Reserves, 1979-1989 Deacon Mike Leahy, St. Elizabeth Church, Boone (retired): U.S. Army, 1958-1962 Deacon Paul Liotard, Holy Cross Church, Kernersville (retired): U.S. Marine Corps, Corporal, 1957-1959 Deacon Larry Lisk, St. Paul the Apostle Church, Greensboro: U.S. Marine Corps, Sergeant, 1967-1969 Deacon Scott McNabb: U.S. Navy, Officer, Vietnam War Deacon Mark Mejias, Our Lady of Grace Church,

Greensboro: U.S. Army under NATO, Corporal (E4), 1974-1976 Deacon Bob Morris, St. Pius X Church, Greensboro: U.S. Army, 1st Lieutenant, Vietnam War, 1967-1968 Deacon Robert Murphy, St. Mark Church, Huntersville: U.S. Air Force, Staff Sergeant (E5), 1959-1967 Deacon Mark Nash, Immaculate Conception Church, Hendersonville: U.S. Navy, HM3, Hospital Corpsman, 1978-1980 Deacon Tim Ritchey, Holy Cross Church, Kernersville: U.S. Air Force, Airman First Class, 1965-1969 Deacon Bill Schreiber, St. Aloysius Church, Hickory: U.S. Navy, Naval Flight Officer, 19792002 Deacon Vincent H. Shaw, St. Mary’s Church, Greensboro: U.S. Army, Sergeant (E-5), 19571963 Deacon James H. Toner, Our Lady of Grace Church, Greensboro: U.S. Army, Captain, 1968-1972 Deacon Rafael J. Torres-Rivera, St. Luke Church, Mint Hill: U.S. Army, Specialist 4th Class, Vietnam War, 1965-1966 Deacon James P. Trombley, St. Mary Help of Christians Church, Shelby: U.S. Air Force, Master Sergeant, Vietnam War, Gulf War, 1970-1990 Deacon Richard Voegele, Immaculate Conception Church, Hendersonville (retired): U.S. Air Force, Airman First Class, 1959-1964; N.Y. Air National Guard, Sergeant, 1974-1975 Deacon Ben Wenning, St. Gabriel Church, Charlotte (retired): U.S. Navy, Petty Officer, Air Traffic Controller, 1955-1959 Deacon Kevin Williams, Our Lady of the Assumption Church, Charlotte: U.S. Navy, Musician 3rd Class, 1977-1981; Theresa Williams: U.S. Army, Specialist 4th Class, 1977-1980

St. Pius X Parish pays tribute to veterans LAURA KOSTA CORRESPONDENT

LAURA KOSTA | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Retired U.S. Army Col. Joe Adamczyk holds his dog tags, which include a St. Michael the Archangel medal, after the St. Pius X Veterans Day Tribute Mass Nov. 6.

GREENSBORO — When Joe Adamczyk decided to attend West Point after high school, he planned to get his education, do his time in the Army, then get out and return home to New Jersey.

He did his time, indeed, and then some. Plans changed, and he retired as a colonel after almost 30 years on active duty.

“At each milestone (of years served), there was a decision point, and the most important thing was that I enjoyed what I was doing, and my wife and children enjoyed it, so we had a lot of great opportunities over the years to serve,” Adamczyk said.

Throughout his career, laden with impressive accomplishments – earning a master’s degree, achieving designations of ranger and master parachutist, and becoming a battalion commander, inspector general and

chief of staff, to name a few – his faith remained central. Even his dog tags feature a medal of St. Michael the Archangel.

“There are some trying times, both personally and professionally, and you find solace, you find strength, you find wisdom in your faith,” Adamczyk said.

“I’ve done a few jumps out of airplanes; I’ve probably said more Hail Marys going out of an airplane than anybody around, and it always worked for me, I’m thankful to say.”

Now a parishioner at St. Pius X Church in Greensboro, Adamczyk was the featured speaker at St. Pius X’s Veterans Day Tribute Mass, celebrated Nov. 6. About 75 veterans were honored, representing all branches of the military and every conflict from World War II forward.

During his keynote speech, Adamczyk drew parallels between military members and all people of faith. He noted that St. Pius X Church’s mission statement calls for its members

to know, love and serve the Lord and others. Similarly, servicemen and women fulfill their duties by knowing, loving and serving their fellow soldiers and their country.

“To know, love and serve – all our veterans have understood that,” he said.

Adamczyk also explained that “veteran” doesn’t always just refer to a man or woman who has served in the military; it also describes someone with experience in a special skill.

To illustrate this, he asked the veterans in the congregation to raise their hands. Those who had served in the military – the conventional use of the word “veteran” – did so.

“I would contend that this whole church is full of veterans,” Adamczyk said, because everyone gathered is experienced in the mission of the Church to know, love and serve.

“You are veterans. You are veterans TRIBUTE, SEE PAGE 24

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 10, 2017 OUR PARISHES

CCHD collection set for Nov. 19, first World Day of the Poor CHARLOTTE — Pope Francis has named Nov. 19 the first World Day of the Poor. This is the same day that parishes in the Diocese of Charlotte and around the United States will participate in a second collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

This annual collection funds CCHD, founded by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to help break the cycle of poverty by funding organizations that help people help themselves.

With its mission of improving education, housing situations and local economic development, the CCHD continues to make a positive impact in communities nationwide. Seventy-five percent of collected funds support CCHD’s National Grant Program. Twenty-five percent of the funds from the collection are put to use in the Charlotte diocese.

“Over 46 million people in the United States live in poverty,” says Ralph McCloud, national CCHD director. “That is equivalent to the population of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and Nebraska, combined. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development works to empower those living in poverty to bring about change in their communities.”

The program puts the generous November parish CCHD offerings to work meeting the concerns and needs of the poor and vulnerable in communities across the nation by awarding Economic Development and Community Development Grants.

In the Charlotte diocese, the CCHD program is overseen by Catholic Charities’ Office of Social Concerns and Advocacy.

A yearly Local CCHD Grant Program distributes grants to non-profits around the diocese from funds obtained through the 25 percent of the CCHD collection kept for use in the diocese.

“Last year in May, 14 Local CCHD Grants totaling $38,700 were distributed to organizations building community, empowering people economically and supporting those who are marginalized in society,” said Joseph Purello, diocesan CCHD director.

“These grant recipient organizations are located in eight of the diocese’s 10 vicariates,” Purello added, “showing that the benefits of the CCHD Local Grants reach throughout the diocese.”

In his statement dated June 13, 2017, Pope Francis urged clergy, religious and faithful alike to assist the poor of the world.

“This new World Day, therefore, should become a powerful appeal to our consciences as believers, allowing us to grow in the conviction that sharing with the poor enables us to understand the deepest truth of the Gospel,” the pope said.

“The poor are not a problem: they are a resource from which to draw as we strive to accept and practice in our lives the essence of the Gospel.”

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter. USCCB.org and Vatican.va contributed.

More online At www.usccb.org/about/catholiccampaign-for-human-development: Learn more about CCHD’s national grant programs.

Information on the local grant program in the Diocese of Charlotte is available at www.ccdoc. org/cchdcrs.

Lexington pastor installed JULIA FREDRICA FOY MICHAELS CORRESPONDENT

LEXINGTON — A much anticipated day for the parishioners of Our Lady of the Rosary Church finally arrived Oct. 30, when Father Ambrose Akinwande was officially installed as their pastor.

The newly renovated church in Lexington was filled to capacity for the Mass, which was celebrated by Bishop Peter Jugis.

Among those in attendance were visiting clergy from near and far, including priests from Father Akinwande’s religious order, the Missionary Society of St. Paul: Father George Okeahialam, regional superior from Houston, Texas, and Father Romanus Ezeugwu, pastor of St. Benedict Church in Savannah, Ga. Also present were Father Basil Sede, pastor of St. Benedict Church in Winston-Salem; Father Peter Nouck, parochial vicar of Holy Family Church in Clemmons; Father Felix Nkafu, parochial vicar of St. Leo the Great Church in Winston-Salem; Father Henry Tutuwan, parochial vicar of St. Thérèse Church in Mooresville; Father Jim Turner, pastor of Our Lady of the Highways Church in Thomasville; and Father Sylvanus Idiong, a visiting priest from Nigeria.

The Lexington parish is Father Akinwande’s first assignment as a pastor.

His faith journey began as a little boy in Lagos, Nigeria, when he and his family, all of whom are devout Catholics, attended yearly celebrations hosted by the Missionary Society of St. Paul. At 21, he entered the seminary, and he was ordained to the priesthood on June 23, 2007. In 2012, after serving as administrative secretary to his superior general in Nigeria, he was assigned to the Archdiocese of GalvestonHouston in Texas.

Shortly after that assignment, Father Ambrose (as he became affectionately known) was transferred to St. Matthew Church in Charlotte in early 2013.

In December 2015, Father Ambrose arrived at Our Lady of the Rosary Church to serve as parochial administrator.

Those who know him and have served with him agree that he is full of

JULIA MICHAELS | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Father Ambrose Akinwande signs the Church documents during his installation as pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Lexington. Also pictured are Bishop Peter Jugis and Deacon Carlos Medina. compassion, energy and the desire to instill in his flock a respect and acceptance for all, and the need to forgive and to love one another unconditionally.

Father Kolawole John Paul Arowosoge said of his friend of 17 years, “Although we both grew up in the city of Lagos, it was not until I went to the seminary that I got to meet and know him. After all these years, the one thing I can say that is unchanged about him is that he is principled, hard-working and has a sincere personality. Ambrose would challenge me with the truth like an elder brother would, even when I was the auxiliary (i.e., student leader). He has the gift of wisdom and would stand for justice even if everyone is against it. He would always say that he is first accountable to God and then to authorities. As a leader, he sees himself as a servant, ready to lead in the front by example. One thing all would notice about the meticulous Ambrose is that, despite the fact that

he would challenge wrongs no matter whom it may concern, he is very, very respectful in his approach and dealings with everyone.”

For the installation Mass, Father Akinwande chose the Mass of the Holy Spirit, praying for the Holy Spirit’s guidance as he formally begins his pastoral work of teaching, governing and sanctifying his congregation.

Bishop Jugis asked the people of the parish to pray for their new pastor and help him in the work of the Church, which is to bring people closer to God. The bishop also congratulated and thanked the parish for its successful renovation project.

“The buildings support the ministries and support our path, our walk to eternal salvation,” he said. “What a wonderful work, a beautiful work, you’ve done right here in your parish church, in your renovation and remodeling of this beautiful church.”

Father Reese passes away NICEVILLE, Fla. — Retired Father Charles Thomas Reese passed away Nov. 2, 2017.

Born Dec. 27, 1923, in Wilmington, Del., he was one of seven children born to James M. Reese and Elizabeth Conovay Reese, and elected, as did his siblings, to devote his life to service in the Catholic Church.

He was a graduate of St. Ann’s Parochial School and a 1941 graduate of Salesianum High School in Reese Wilmington. He entered the novitiate of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales at Childs, Md. He graduated from Catholic University in 1946 with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy. He continued his theological studies at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, in 1949 and finished his theological studies in 1950 with a licentiate in theology from the Catholic University of Switzerland. He

was ordained to the priesthood on July 17, 1949.

When he returned to the States, he taught math at Bishop Duffy High School in Niagara Falls, N.Y., for two years and then at Cathedral Preparatory School in Erie, Pa., for four years. He was then asked by his provincial, Father William Buckley, to become a military chaplain in the U.S. Air Force. He served in the Air Force for 24 years with assignments in Thule, Greenland; Libya, Tripoli; London, England; U-Tapao, Thailand; and a number of assignments in the U.S. He was chief of the chaplain’s inspection team for the Air Force and ended his career as the staff chaplain to the Commander of the Air Force in Europe. He returned with the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit medals, Meritorious Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, and retired with the rank of colonel.

After retirement, Father Reese attended N.C. State University, where he earned a master’s degree in adult education. He joined the Diocese of Charlotte, where he worked for the next 10 years. During that

time he served as pastor of St. Philip the Apostle Church in Statesville; St. Benedict Church in Greensboro; Immaculate Conception Church in Hendersonville; and St. Ann Church in Charlotte. He then retired to Niceville, Fla., where he continued to assist at local parishes and at Eglin Air Force Base.

Besides his parents, he was preceded in death by his brothers, Monsignor Thomas J. Reese and Father James M. Reese, and his sister Catherine R. Hall.

He is survived by his sisters, Maryknoll Sister Mary C. Reese, Elizabeth R. Lynch and Cecilia R. Haywood; and many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

His family would like to thank the many longtime friends who enriched his life.

“Father Charlie” did not desire a public celebration of his life. Any contributions on his behalf should be made to the Maryknoll Sisters, P.O. Box 311, Mary Knoll, N.Y. 10545-0311.

McLaughlin Twin Cities Funeral Home was in charge of the arrangements.

— Catholic News Herald

November 10, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com

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Moore Place founder encourages people to listen to God’s ‘quiet whispers’ LISA GERACI CORRESPONDENT

CHARLOTTE — Kathy Izard, who led the development of Moore Place, a permanent housing facility to end chronic homelessness in Charlotte, recently presented a message of hope, faith and love to hundreds of St. Gabriel parishioners.

Izard described the journey to build Moore Place as the fruit of listening to the “quiet whispers” of God. “We wanted to highlight the challenges faced by the homeless in our city,” said Karen Brown, ministry leader and volunteer coordinator at St. Gabriel Parish.

On Oct. 25, Izard captivated the Charlotte parish’s audience with her amazing story of faith.

“St. Gabriel has a big heart for those who are homeless and hungry with nine ministries serving this population.

Examples of these are our Room in the Inn Ministry, our monthly Men’s Homeless Shelter dinner, and partnering with St. Matthew to furnish apartments for homeless women and children.

We thought Kathy’s personal story would resonate with our parishioners who care deeply about Kathy Izard Led the development of Moore the homeless,” Brown said.

Place in Charlotte; author of Izard started ‘The Hundred Story Home’ her presentation with a quote by Mark Twain: “The two greatest days in our life are the day we are born and the day we figure out why.”

“I never planned to write a book in my kitchen for six years,” Izard explained.

This year Izard received the Christopher Award for “The Hundred Story Home,” a memoir chronicling the miraculous creation of Moore Place.

“I never imagined building a building,” she continued. Yet the Bank of America Neighborhood Excellence Local Hero Award and the N.C. Housing Volunteer of the Year Award both went to Izard for building the apartment complex with 120 units intended to provide homes for the chronically homeless.

‘Be willing to take that leap of faith.’

“But I kept saying yes to that quiet voice of God. Be still, and listen to your whispers. I think God has a plan for each of us,” Izard said.

Izard, the mother of four daughters with her husband Charlie, worked as a successful graphic designer in Charlotte.

“Our family volunteered at Urban Ministry Center (an interfaith mission in the Charlotte area dedicated to end homelessness), for 10 years. It was the perfect excuse to skip church once a month,” Izard admitted. “We loved making meals there. It was one of our favorite family activities. But I always stayed on the right side of the steel counter, which separated ‘neighbors’ from volunteers.”

According to her memoir, even as she led a successful life, Izard wondered about her purpose in life and whether God was truly present in the world.

But, something – or rather, someone – changed all that.

Her answer did not come quickly, but it came clearly through the book-turnedmotion-picture “Same Kind of Different as Me” by Ron Hall, Denver Moore and Lynn Vincent, which is about the bond formed between an affluent art dealer and a homeless man. After reading the book, Izard kept hearing a small whisper: “Invite them to Charlotte.” She reached out to Moore, and he agreed to present at a fundraiser for Urban Ministry Center.

“I showed Denver the entire UMC, looking for affirmation, but receiving nothing even when showing him the garden, the soccer team, the art room – not a word said. The whole thing was wildly uncomfortable. Here I thought Denver, the wise book character, was going to fly off the pages and transform the life of one of the ‘neighbors’ and I was going to be a witness to it,” Izard recalled. “At the end, he asked me what was upstairs. There was nothing upstairs but offices. His reply was transformational.”

“Where are the beds?” Moore asked her.

There were no beds, she answered, and he replied, “You mean to tell me you do all this good in the day and then lock them out to the bad at night? Are you going to do something about this?”

“Denver changed me. I could no longer not see the problem: the beds. The next day 1,000 guests arrived at the True Blessings fundraiser and we raised over $300,000,” Izard said. But Moore’s question haunted

and propelled her: “Where are the beds?”

Other whispers guided Izard’s mission, including words from her father: “You can do anything, Kathy, really anything.” Her marketing professor: “Where is the concept, Green?” Corinthians 13:1: “And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” And a calendar quote: “Start something big and foolish like Noah.” She answered each whisper with a modest “yes.”

For more Five years, many donations and many At www.urbanministrycenter.org: Learn more about how you can help whispers later, Izard’s people in need in Charlotte team developed Moore Place and named it Order Kathy Izard’s book: “The Hundred Story Home” is available on after Denver Moore and Amazon, or call 704-926-0622 to purchase directly through UMC. Cost is donors John and Pat $15; all proceeds benefit Urban Ministry Center’s Moore Place.

Moore.

“It was impossible to “My whole attitude has changed. Since I imagine how these two events had taken have been here, I am clean and sober. I have place independently and were intricately a personality of love and yearning to learn linked,” Izard recalled. But Moore Place just absolutely everything I can,” said was the result after Denver Moore’s Burns. She beamed as she shows off her vital role in persuading Izard to start the 366-square-foot, fully furnished living area, project, and after John and Pat Moore took decorated with her collection of unicorn a step in faith by providing the UMC with a art and plants and a picture of her 20-yeargenerous donation to start the project. old daughter hanging over the couch.

Volunteers scoured the streets of Charlotte Izard said she has taken to heart Denver collecting lists of chronically homeless Moore’s words: “In a way we are all by interviewing thousands of potential homeless – just working our way towards “neighbors.” A list of 807 were identified, the home.” most vulnerable given first priority.

“Trust the whispers, no matter how “The realization hit me hard: once crazy it may seem,” she urged. “Be willing homeless people were housed, they are just to take that leap of faith.” people,” Izard said.

Ana Lothspeich, pastoral care director In partnership with Urban Ministry at St. Gabriel Parish, said she hopes Center, Moore Place is responsible for parishioners gain the insights Izard ending homelessness for 120 Charlotteans. outlined.

Residents including Ronnie Leggitte and “Homelessness is a chronic problem in Tabby Burns have been living at Moore Charlotte. Homeless people feel ‘invisible’ Place since it opened in 2012. to society and those around them,” she “I love the fact that I am able to actually said. “After listening to Kathy, St. Gabriel take care of myself. Self-care and self-love Church’s commitment to serve the are things you just can’t get on the street. homeless and hungry is even stronger. We A nice shower and a good shave, clean look forward to continue being part of the clothes. No heavy loads on my shoulders,” solution.”

Leggitte said.

‘Liturgy is a Christian life in a nutshell’ Jesuit liturgical scholar speaks at St. Peter Church SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

CHARLOTTE — A leading Jesuit liturgical scholar, Father John Baldovin, celebrated Mass and gave a presentation on the liturgy Oct. 29 at St. Peter Church. He is the author of numerous books, including “Bread of Life, Cup of Salvation.” Father Baldovin is a longtime friend of Jesuit Father James Shea, pastor of St. Peter Church.

Father Baldovin serves as professor of historical and liturgical theology at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry in Newton, Mass. He brought his concise, insightful approach from years of teaching to his presentation “Liturgical Prayer: What do we need today?” to more than 80 parishioners in Biss Hall.

In his initial remarks Father Baldovin addressed that St. Peter Church, being a Jesuit-run parish, has a particular Ignatian focus and his approach to the lecture would in some ways reflect that.

“Our inspiration, our own background that the Jesuits share in spirituality and training, is one of the basic things (found in a Jesuit parish). When the Jesuits were founded, St. Ignatius wanted us to become specialists in the ministries of the Word and of confession. That’s always been a very important thing for Jesuits.”

Father Baldovin noted that Jesuit spirituality is very heavy on experience. It is confident that God can be found in the experience of everyone and everywhere. “‘Finding God in all things’ is what we say. God can be found everywhere,” he said.

He noted that discernment is also important to Jesuits and serves as a means to have confidence that we can find God in our lives.

“I don’t want to talk about just what happens at the altar, because liturgy isn’t just what happens at the altar.

Liturgy is what happens everywhere,” Father Baldovin LITURGY, SEE PAGE 24

SUEANN HOWELL | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Jesuit Father John Baldovin (right) celebrated Mass Oct. 29 at St. Peter Church in Charlotte. A professor at Boston College, Father Baldovin visited the parish for a presentation on “Liturgical Prayer: What do we need today?” Deacon Jim Bozik (left) assisted at Mass.

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 10, 2017 OUR PARISHES

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY AMY BURGER

Honoring El Señor de los Milagros (The Lord of Miracles) HUNTERSVILLE — In Peru Our Savior is also known as “El Señor de los Milagros,” the Lord of Miracles. Parishioners at St. Mark Church paid homage to El Señor and their Peruvian heritage with a novena, Mass (offered by Father Brian Becker) and an outdoor procession coinciding with the feast day of the Lord of Miracles, Oct. 28. The Huntersville celebration echoed larger celebrations in Lima, Peru, which run Oct. 18-28 each year.

The origin of the miraculous image of “El Señor de los Milagros” dates back to 1650, when an unknown Angolan slave painted it on an adobe wall in Lima. Other black slaves began gathering around it to worship the Crucified Lord on Friday nights. In 1655, a powerful earthquake devastated Lima, almost destroying the city. However, the wall where “El Señor” was painted remained undamaged, and people began venerating the image. The first procession took place in 1687, after another massive earthquake shook Lima.

Women called “sahumadoras” (“incensers”), dressed in purple robes and white ropes and their heads covered with white veils, and men called “cargadores” (“carriers”), also clad in purple robes and white ropes – members of the “Hermandad de Cargadores y Sahumadoras del Señor de los Milagros del Perú” (“Confraternity of Carriers and Incensers”) – led the outdoor procession of a replica image on the campus of St. Mark Church.

At www.catholicnewsherald.com: See video highlights from the procession of “El Señor de los Milagros” at St. Mark Church

November 10, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com

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At conference, Catholic educators urged to foster personal relationship with Jesus PATRICIA L. GUILFOYLE EDITOR

CHARLOTTE — More than 500 catechists and ministry leaders from throughout western North Carolina attended the Diocese of Charlotte’s second annual Catechetical Conference, held Nov. 4 at the Charlotte Convention Center.

The conference, organized by the diocese’s Education Vicariate and partly funded by the Diocesan Support Appeal, was designed to provide teachers and faith formation leaders with resources, information and inspiration to help their students – youth and adults alike – become strong disciples of Christ.

The conference opened with a bilingual Mass celebrated by Bishop Peter Jugis.

Father Julio Dominguez concelebrated.

In his homily, Bishop Jugis spoke of St. Charles Borromeo, whose feast was commemorated that day. The archbishop of Milan’s devotion to education in response to the widespread confusion of the Reformation – when clarity about the Catholic faith was needed – serves as a model for Catholic teachers in today’s confusing times, he said.

St. Charles Borromeo edited the catechism that sprung from the Council of Trent, founded some of the Church’s first modern seminaries to train priests, and was the first to establish the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) throughout his diocese. CCD has been a religious education program for Catholic children since 1562.

All of St. Charles Borromeo’s accomplishments, though, are not the reason why he’s recognized as a saint, Bishop Jugis said. He’s a saint because of “his personal holiness and his union with Jesus.”

That is “an important message we can draw from,” the bishop said, and he encouraged those present to focus on strengthening their personal relationship with Jesus before then teaching others: “First to know Jesus oneself, to be growing in an intimate friendship with Jesus, and then to be able to help our young people themselves to know Jesus and for them to grow in their intimate friendship with Jesus.”

“It’s all, of course, about Jesus,” he said, “knowing Him and forming strong disciples who are capable of following Him – not only just knowing what He teaches, but with their heart and their whole being

following Jesus as disciples.”

Spend time in Eucharistic Adoration, he encouraged participants, to deepen that relationship with Jesus. Their “strong witness” and devotion to personal prayer, he said, will inspire others to follow Christ.

Catechists attending the conference said they were excited to spend time learning from each other and finding ways to improve or enliven their ministry, whether it’s teaching children in faith formation classes or adults in the RCIA program.

Nicole Waer, director of religious education for Holy Spirit Church in Denver, said she was particularly interested in applying the conference’s theme, “Living as Missionary Disciples,” in her parish’s growing youth programs.

Keynote addresses were given by Sister Mary Johanna Paluch, professed with the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George and an associate theology professor at Franciscan University, and Esther Terry, director of the Camino program at the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life.

Both keynote speakers talked about the Catechism of the Catholic Church, encouraging everyone to read it and pray with it, not just use it as an occasional reference tool.

This is the 25th anniversary of the Catechism, which was promulgated by St. John Paul II in 1992. It sums up, in book form, the beliefs of the Catholic Church, but Sister Johanna noted with a smile, “Nobody reads it. People think it’s only for bishops.”

But, she emphasized, “The catechism is for everybody.”

It is the definitive resource for teaching the Catholic faith, second only to Sacred Scripture, she said. And the current Catechism is not a random invention, but instead a compilation designed for today’s audiences that is built on catechisms dating all the way back to St. Irenaeus and St. Augustine.

More than simply “words printed on a page,” the Catechism presents the truths of the Catholic faith in a concise, understandable way so that Catholics can better know Jesus and become His disciples – and that’s really what teaching the faith is all about, Sister Johanna said.

“Please, please read the Catechism! Find Jesus in the Catechism! Find your faith in the Catechism!” she urged. “I promise you that you’ll love it and that your life will change.”

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 10, 2017 OUR PARISHES

Celebrating all saints and all souls

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY MARKUS KUNCORO, AMY BURGER AND MARYANN LUEDTKE

CHARLOTTE — St. Ann Church’s pastor, Father Timothy Reid, offered a Solemn High Requiem Mass for All Souls’ Day Nov. 2.

HUNTERSVILLE — Father Brian Becker celebrates an All Souls’ Day Mass at Northlake Memorial Gardens Cemetery.

GREENSBORO — People lit candles at an All Souls’ Day Mass at St. Pius X Church.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY AMY BURGER

HUNTERSVILLE — Second-graders at St. Mark School chose a saint to research, then wrote essays, completed projects, and dressed as their saint for Mass Nov. 3. This was part of the preparation for their first Holy Communion.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY VICTORIA EWING WARE AND KATRINA CAPISTRANO

FOREST CITY — Children at Immaculate Conception Church celebrated All Saints Day by dressing like their favorite saint, and they shared information on the saint of their choice at a party attended by parishioners after Mass. Pictured are: Cecile Fox as St. Maria Goretti, Gabriel Lugo as St. John the Baptist, and all of the children with Father Herbert Burke, pastor, and Deacons Sigfrido Della Valle and Andy Cilone.

GIULIANA POLINARI RILEY | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

HAYESVILLE — On All Saints Day, Immaculate Heart of Mary Mission’s faith formation students presented a “Celebration of the Saints” before Mass. Each student chose a saint to research, dressed up like them, and presented a biography to the congregation.

WINSTON-SALEM — Kindergartners at Our Lady of Mercy School also dressed as their favorite saint for All Saints Day.

November 10, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com

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St. Patrick Cathedral is located at 1621 Dilworth Road East in Charlotte. For St. Patrick Cathedral’s Mass schedule, go to www. stpatricks.org.

In Brief

— Catholic News Herald

Ecumenical Thanksgiving prayer service being held in Mooresville MOORESVILLE — All are invited to the ninth annual Mooresville Community Ecumenical Thanksgiving Prayer Service that will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, at Williamson’s Chapel United Methodist Church (located at 575 Brawley School Road in Mooresville). Father Mark Lawlor, pastor of St. Therese Church in Mooresville, will deliver the homily. Besides St. Therese Parish and Williamson’s Chapel United Methodist Church, the following churches will be participating: Christ Community Church, Fieldstone Presbyterian Church, First Baptist Church, Higher Purpose Ministries, St. Luke Greek Orthodox Church, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church and Upper Praise Ministries.

The annual event is an opportunity for everyone to come together and show unity and commitment to serving the community.

Offerings will bless the Christian Mission and the Mooresville Soup Kitchen.

Friars elected The Capuchins of the Province of the Sacred Stigmata of St. Francis recently had their Provincial Chapter in Beacon, N.Y. The Chapter included the election of a new Council. Elected were (pictured from left) Capuchins Father Ronnie Giannone; Father Robert Pérez of Immaculate Conception Church in Hendersonville; Father Remo DiSalvatore (provincial), former pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte; Father Robert Williams (vicar); and Father Francisco Arredondo.

Witnessing to life SHELBY — St. Mary Help of Christians Church recently sponsored a North Carolina Right to Life booth at the Cleveland County Fair.

The exhibit featured fetal models at various stages of development, along with educational materials about abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Pictured are Natalie and Alan Friedl of Huntersville and their daughter Felicity visiting the booth, staffed by

— Capuchin Franciscan Father Martin Schratz

Relics available for veneration at St. Patrick Cathedral CHARLOTTE — For this month only, relics of several saints will be on display for veneration at St. Patrick Cathedral.

Father Christopher Roux, rector and pastor of the cathedral, displays the relics – some of which are from saints whose relics are not available anywhere else in the diocese – throughout November for public veneration.

The saints’ relics and their feast days are: n St. Jean Marie Vianney (Aug. 4) n St. Francis of Assisi (Oct. 4) n Sts. Jacinta and Francisco Marto (Feb. 20) n St. Jude the Apostle (Oct. 28) n 6 Passionist Saints: Paul of the Cross (Oct. 20), Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows (Feb. 27), Gemma Galgani (April 11), Bl. Dominic Barberi (Aug. 27), Maria Goretti (July 6) and Vincent Strambi (Sept. 26) n St. Stanislaus Kostka (Aug. 15) n St. Therese of the Child Jesus (Oct. 1) n St. Isidore (May 15)

SYLVA — Father Joseph Matlak will present “Breathing with Both Lungs,” about how the Church’s different ways of worship inform and illuminate one another, from 1 to 2 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 11, at St. Mary, Mother of God Church in Sylva. Father Matlak is a bi-ritual priest who offers Mass in the Eastern Catholic (Byzantine) rite as well as both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Roman Catholic rite.

The program is being presented by the Smoky Mountain Regional Office of Faith Formation.

Praying the rosary in Mooresville MOORESVILLE — Parishioners of St. Thérèse Church recently prayed the rosary at the Town Hall greens in Mooresville, part of the national Public Square Rosary Crusade. It was organized by Joann Bosi. Pictured with the group is Father Paul McNulty, parochial vicar.

— Lisa Cash

(Telecommuting from SC, NC or TN)

Provides a CRS presence for targeted dioceses in the Southeast region, and works to identify effective opportunities for collaboration and partnership in advancing CRS awareness, programs and activities, and advocacy priorities. He/she will assist partners in the use of CRS education and formation activities throughout the region. Must be bilingual English/Spanish.

Apply online: bit.ly/2zoHxmX

Jesuit alumni meet in Charlotte CHARLOTTE — St. Peter Church held a Jesuit Alumni and Friends gathering Oct. 22 that drew more than 90 people. Hosted by 22 U.S. Jesuit parishes and 2 international Jesuit parishes, the Mass and reception afterwards were an opportunity for alumni and friends of Jesuit schools to celebrate their common bond.

Schools represented included Georgetown University, Fordham University, Creighton University, Loyola University Chicago, Loyola Marymount Los Angeles, Loyola University New Orleans, Xavier University, Boston College, John Carroll University and the College of the Holy Cross.

— Joan Guthrie

CCDOC.ORG

National Adoption Month Anxiety / Depression Acid Reflux / Sleep Hormones / Fatigue Cholesterol / Acne

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St. Mary’s parishioners Lenita Roland (left) and Zuzana Rybnicek (right).

— Giuliana Polinari Riley

Relationship Manager Advocacy, Southeast Region

— Lisa Cash

Learn more about the Church’s liturgical worship

OUR PARISHESI

Join Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte in celebrating National Adoption Month to raise awareness during the month of November.

Catholic Charities has been helping people build their families through domestic adoption since 1948. Our professional staff provides ongoing comprehensive support, education, and guidance to prospective adoptive families as they continue through their adoption journey.

We believe that a child deserves to have a family to guide them through life. In turn, we know there are many families with the desire and hope to open up their hearts and homes to these children.

Visit ccdoc.org for more information.

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iiiNovember 10, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com

FROM TH

Living stones Black Catholics in America

Important dates in black Catholic American history 1565-1899 Blacks, both slave and free, help to found St. Augustine, Fla., the oldest town in the U.S. In 1693 Spain offers freedom in Florida to slaves who convert to Catholicism. Until 1763, these freed slaves live in a community northeast of St. Augustine. Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, or Fort Mose, established in 1738, is the first free black town in the U.S.

1781 Gov. Don Felipe de Neve recruits 11 families to settle on the Porciuncula River – now Los Angeles. The settlers are all Catholic, a mix of Africans, Spanish and American Indians. Meanwhile, Maryland’s black Catholic population grows to 3,000 as a result of Jesuit evangelization in the region.

1829 Women from Baltimore’s Haitian refugee colony begin to educate local children in their homes and in 1829 found the Oblate Sisters of Providence.

The first superior is Elizabeth Lange, born in Cuba of Haitian parents. A later archbishop dismisses the need for an order of black religious, but the sisters find advocates among the Redemptorists and in St. John Neumann, then archbishop of Philadelphia.

1839 In his 1839 apostolic letter, “In Supremo Apostolatus,” Pope Gregory XVI condemns the slave trade as the “inhuman traffic in Negroes.” Rome outshines the U.S. in race relations from the 17th to 20th centuries. Many U.S. bishops as well as men’s and women’s religious orders in this period own slaves, sometimes advocating for their

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he history of African American Catholicism began with the arrival of the Spanish settlers in the 16th century in Florida. In fact, on the first page of the 16th-century baptismal registers are the names of black infants who were baptized into the Body of Christ along with white infants in St. Augustine Church. Although the history of American Catholics is intertwined with the history of people of color, from the colonial period until today, African American Catholics have been too often the forgotten factor in the history of the Church in America.

A WITNESS TO THE SPIRIT

One evening in Paris in 1954, a renowned African American jazz pianist walked off the stage during a performance, cutting short her tour.

Mary Lou Williams had reached a high point in her career as musician, composer, and jazz pianist before she returned to New York and went into seclusion. In a nearby Catholic church, she found a shelter, and she found God. In 1956, Mary Lou Williams entered the Catholic Church.

She had been born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in Atlanta in 1910. Growing up in Pittsburgh, she was recognized as a child prodigy with remarkable musical gifts.

Encouraged by the priest who received her into the Church, Williams began composing religious music in a jazz idiom: three Masses and a cantata in honor of St. Martin de Porres. She began to work for the needy and to teach young students.

She was artist-in-residence at Duke University in North Carolina when she died in 1981. At the time of her death, she left a legacy of art and beauty. Even more, she left the example of how the artist’s performance can be channeled into prayer and how music might become the witness of the spiritual.

At some point, everyone must call a halt and evaluate the meaning of one’s life. The wisdom of Mary Lou Williams was to step back, to listen and to evaluate. This is the turning point in one’s life journey. This is when all of us can look back and see God’s intervention in ourselves, in our community, and in our world.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION

About 40 miles southwest of Charleston, S.C., stands a small church built in honor of St. James the Greater. This church is a witness to the faith of black Catholics who persevered in their Catholic faith without priest or Church for almost 40 years.

Before the Civil War, this small community known as Thomson’s Crossroad and later Catholic Crossroad was the site of several plantations. The plantation owners and many of their slaves had converted to Catholicism in the 1830s, and a church was erected and dedicated to St. James the Greater by Bishop John England of Charleston in 1833.

oper treatment. shop John England of Charleston, C., defends the American domestic ve trade, arguing that Pope Gregory’s ostolic letter refers only to slaves ported by the Spanish and Portuguese. ough claiming he is not personally in or of slavery, he says it was a “question the legislature and not for me.”

The church was burned down in 1856, and the plantation owners moved away after the Civil War. But the black Catholics remained and so did their faith, thanks to the fidelity and zeal of a former slave, Vincent de Paul Davis, who owned a general store where he taught children their prayers and acted as godfather to the many infants who were carried to Catholic churches, often at a distance, where they were baptized. The old baptismal register now located at St. Anthony Church in Walterboro, S.C., reveals several pages of names of people who were baptized with Vincent de Paul Davis as their sponsor.

Around 1892 the community of some 60 black Catholics was “discovered” by a Pallotine priest from Charleston, Father Daniel Berberich, who celebrated Mass with them twice a month. By 1894 a new church was built. Three years later a parochial school was added with a local teacher, and by 1901 there were two lay teachers. The present church was constructed in 1935.

Catholic Hill, its unofficial name, is a reminder to us all that a church is built of living stones. In this instance, they were those whose faith had been able to withstand time and neglect. The history of black Catholics is an ongoing saga of how black laypeople built our Church and made firm its foundation even when others had forgotten them.

Today St. James the Greater is still a mission and still a spiritual home for the local black community.

Catholics, both white and black, are accustomed to thinking of African American Catholics as recent converts. In fact, any ministry in the African American community will reveal many blacks whose Catholicism goes back to the dark days of slavery. Many have left the Church because of neglect or outright hostility. Others felt that they were unwelcome and undernourished.

Today, being black and Catholic means shining the beacon of hope in the darkness of discouragement, the searchlight of faith in the darkness of misunderstanding. Daniel Rudd, the black Catholic leader of the 19th century, described the black Catholic community’s task “to be a leaven for the race.”

GOD’S MAN OF HOPE

There is no other way to describe Augustus Tolton than as a man of hope. He had learned to hope in the face of incredible odds. Born a slave in Missouri in 1854, the second of three children of Martha Chisley Tolton and Peter Paul Tolton, both slaves and both Catholics, he escaped from slavery with his mother, sister and brother during the Civil War. His father had run away to join the Union Army in St. Louis, where he soon died.

Martha Tolton crossed the Mississippi River with her three children in a rowboat to Illinois where she joined many other blacks who had fled slavery to a free state.

Growing up in poverty, Augustus soon developed a desire to become a priest.

With the support of two priests in Quincy, Ill., one of whom was a Franciscan, he looked for a seminary where he could study, but no American seminary was willing to accept an African American as a student.

Hoping against hope, with the help of the minister general of the Franciscans, Augustus Tolton found a place at Urban College in Rome, the seminary attached to the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, where students from Africa were already enrolled. When the time came for Tolton to be ordained, the cardinal prefect of the congregation announced that if Americans had never seen a black priest it was time for them to see one.

After his ordination in 1886, Father Tolton was sent home to Quincy, where he had a triumphal return. Later, however, he suffered petty persecution by a fellow priest in

1842 Founded by Henriette Delille and Juliette Gaudin in New Orleans, the Sisters of the Holy Family become the second religious order for black women. Biracial and of African descent, the founders are free people of color. The order ministers to poor blacks, educating and tending the sick. During an outbreak of yellow fever, the nuns heroically nurse the sick and are thus granted public recognition. But they are not allowed to wear their habit in public until 1872.

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a nearby parish. In 1889 Father Tolton moved to Chicago, and with the support of the archbishop, began a black parish with the name of St. Monica.

That same year St. Katharine Drexel began the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, whose vocation was to evangelize blacks and Native Americans. Drexel used the enormous fortune left to her by her father for her work. In 1890 Father Tolton wrote to her asking for financial help in the construction of his parish in Chicago.

His letters reveal the great simplicity of this very holy man and the sense that he had of the burden God had given him in the service of African Americans. In an 1891 letter to Drexel, he wrote: “I for one cannot tell how to conduct myself when I see one person at last showing their love for the colored race. One thing I do know and that is it took the Catholic Church 100 years here in America to show up such a person as yourself. ... In the whole history of the church in America we can’t find one person that has sworn to lay out their treasury for the sole benefit of the colored and Indians. As I stand alone as the first Negro priest of America, so you Mother Catherine stand alone as the first one to make such a sacrifice for the cause of a downtrodden race. Hence the South is looking on with an angry eye, the North in many places is criticizing every act. Just as it is watching every move I make. I suppose that is the reason why we had no Negro priest before this day, they watch us just the same as the Pharisees did our Lord.”

He went on to express his great hope for the future: “I really feel that there will be a stir all over the United States when I begin my church. I shall work and pull at it as long as God gives me life, for I see that I have principalities to resist anywhere and everywhere I go.”

Father Tolton did not know that the Healy brothers, former slaves from Georgia, were the first black priests in America. Still Father Tolton, whom everyone knew to be black, did leave a model of holiness and service that would inspire the many African American priests who would follow him. He died suddenly in 1897. His life was a witness to one man’s untiring hope; we are a witness to his undying faith.

The story of the first black priests in the United States is in many instances a tragic one. Still, it is also a story of courage and perseverance. In fact, this alternating experience of tragedy and courage, discouragement and achievement is the story of everyone who takes up the cross daily to follow Christ.

Evangelization in our Church today for African Americans means recalling the story of the black saints in our country who blazed a trail before us.

LEAVEN IN THE WORLD

In 1964, a small African American woman named Lena Edwards, already a living legend, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson. She was an indefatigable worker in the cause of health and healing, especially for the poor and the forgotten.

Born in 1900 into a black, Catholic, middle-class family in Washington, D.C., she was still in high school when she developed a desire to become a physician. She attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., a traditionally black university, where her father was a professor in the dental school. In 1924 she graduated from the medical school at Howard and began her medical practice in Jersey City, N.J., with her husband, also a physician.

Dr. Lena Edwards became a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, serving on the staff of the Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital for almost 30 years before accepting a teaching position back in Washington, D.C., at Howard University Medical School.

Edwards was as fervent a Catholic as she was a physician. She raised six children, one of whom is an Atonement Friar, almost single-handedly. A Franciscan tertiary, she attended Mass daily and personally lived a life of voluntary poverty. Besides her participation in civic

1766-1853 Arriving in New York from Haiti in 1787 with his owner, Jean Bérard, Pierre Toussaint is apprenticed to a New York hairdresser. He becomes a friend to the city’s aristocracy by dressing the hair of wealthy women. When Bérard dies penniless, Toussaint

LEAVEN, SEE PAGE 14

financially supports Bérard’s wife, nursing her through emotional and physical ailments. She grants him his freedom in 1807. His stable income allows him to buy freedom for his sister and his future wife, and to be generous with many individuals and charities, including an orphanage and school for black children.

He cares for the ill when yellow fever sweeps the city and opens his home to homeless youth, teaching them violin and paying for their schooling.

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 10, 2017 FROM THE COVER

LEAVEN FROM PAGE 13

affairs, she worked for interracial justice as a member of the Catholic Interracial Council. She served just as faithfully in community affairs related to the welfare of the poor and to minorities. In her teaching she stressed the need for physicians to be as concerned about the social conditions of their patients as with their medical needs.

At 60, Edwards gave up her teaching and went to Texas to practice medicine among migrant workers. Using her own funds and money from other sources, she began a maternity hospital, trained a staff, and started a credit union.

Eventually forced to give up her work among the migrant laborers because of ill health, she returned to New Jersey where she continued her community work, her talks and conferences, as well as her financial support of many college students, including the establishment of a

1875 Although James Healy and his nine siblings – all fathered by a Georgia plantation owner – are officially slaves, their father brings them north for education and freedom. Three of the Healy brothers – James, Patrick, and Alexander – become the first African American priests in the U.S., although they do not identify with being black and never speak out on behalf of blacks.

Bishop John Fitzpatrick of Boston, a friend of their father, encourages the boys to attend Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass. James studies for the priesthood in Paris and is ordained bishop of Portland, Maine, in 1875. His brother, Patrick Francis Healy, a Jesuit who conceals his African origins for much of his career, becomes president of Georgetown University in 1874 (ironic because Georgetown admitted no black students until the mid-1900s).

James would not ally himself with black Catholic leaders nor agree to address meetings of black Catholics, once citing St. Paul’s admonition that there shall be no Greek nor Jew in Christ.

scholarship for women medical students at Howard University.

Edwards died in 1986 at the age of 86, leaving the memory of a courageous lay woman who lived out her mission to “exercise (Christ’s) apostolate in the world as a kind of leaven,” as stated in the Vatican II document on the laity.

WALKING WITH CHRIST

Walking with Christ on the streets of Washington in December of 1978, one of Washington’s true men of God died.

Llewellyn Scott was born in Washington, D.C. in 1892. As a boy he had been stricken with rickets, a bone disease caused by a deficiency in Vitamin D. It crippled him so badly that he could not walk.

Thanks to the interest of the wife of the Army surgeon general, the young boy was given medical treatment. Scott was finally able to walk for the first time at the age of 10. He was enrolled in a parochial school, became a Catholic, and was finally able to catch up on his schooling.

In time, he graduated from Howard

University and served in the Army in World War I. He briefly taught school in North Carolina and in the District of Columbia, and then became a social worker.

Everything changed, however, at the beginning of the Great Depression in 1930. He acquired property in the heart of Washington and opened the Blessed Martin de Porres Hospice to provide shelter and food for homeless men, funded at first with a donation from Dorothy Day and his own life savings. The hospice was open to all but especially to black men who often were unable to find assistance elsewhere.

Scott finally gave up his government job and devoted all of his time and effort to the service of homeless men.

Scott was a short, unprepossessing man, soft-spoken and nonthreatening. He was someone in whom men could confide and to whom one could talk. His hospice was openly Catholic and always had a chapel and a space for prayer. Scott, who like Edwards had great devotion to St. Francis, was received by three popes and received annual donations from the archbishop of Washington, and in his own quiet way was active in the civil rights movement.

He marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. shortly before King’s murder in Memphis.

Scott died from leukemia in 1978 at the

1889 In January 1889 almost 100 black Catholic men meet with President Grover Cleveland on the last day of the first black Catholic lay congress in U.S. history.

Daniel Rudd, a journalist from Ohio and founder of the American Catholic Tribune, becomes a leader of black laity. Fiercely proud of the Catholic Church, Rudd claims the Church is the one place of hope for black people. Rudd recruits delegates to the first Black Catholic Congress, hoping to “let them exchange views on questions affecting their race; then uniting on a course of action, behind which would stand the majestic Church of Christ.” The delegates’ statement calls for Catholic schools for black children, endorses temperance, appeals to labor unions to admit blacks, advocates better housing, and praises religious orders for aiding blacks.

Rudd also helps organize the first lay Catholic congress of the entire U.S. in 1889, where he insists that blacks be treated as part of the whole, not as a special category. At the fourth Black Catholic Congress in 1893, Charles Butler decries prejudice and discrimination

age of 86. For some he was simply an ordinary man; but for all he was a man who did extraordinary things. He touched the lives of many across the country, and he turned the lives of some completely around. All this was done without an imposing staff, without programs, without forms and paperwork, without fanfare – he simply walked with Christ on the streets of Washington.

THE GIFT OF BLACKNESS

More than 30 years ago on his visit to the shrine of the Ugandan martyrs, Pope Paul VI launched a challenge to the people of Africa to bring to the Catholic Church their precious and original gift of “blackness.”

The challenge has reached all the sons and daughters of Africa, even today.

Our spiritual gifts have been the lives and works of countless people who have walked, and walk still, in the sight of God. Despite the violence of chains, ropes, and whips; despite the pettiness and the rejection, they have built up the Church and made her holy.

— “The History of Black Catholics in the United States,” by Benedictine Father Cyprian Davis. Copyright © 2002 Claretian Publications. Reprinted by permission from the August 2002 issue of U.S. Catholic magazine, www.uscatholic.org.

within the Catholic Church, asking, “How long, O Lord, are we to endure this hardship in the house of our friends?” The congress calls attention to the Church’s failure in its mission “to raise up the downtrodden and to rebuke the proud.”

1909 The fraternity of the Knights of Peter Claver is established by the work of Josephite priests as a parallel to the Knights of Columbus. It soon develops chapters for women and young people.

1916 Led by Thomas Wyatt Turner, the Committee for the Advancement of Colored Catholics forms during World War I to care for black Catholic servicemen, neglected by both the Knights of Columbus and the black YMCA. After the war, the group broadens its focus. Its advocacy gives birth to a new national forum for black Catholics. Its purpose: “Collection of data concerning colored Catholics, the protection of their interests, the promotion of their welfare, and the propagation of the faith among colored people.” The U.S. bishops, despite requests from Rome to act on behalf of blacks during the race riots and lynchings of 1919, avoid the topic at their first annual meeting.

In response, the committee publicly urges the bishops to denounce discrimination and consult with black Catholics, saying, “at present we are neither a part of the colored world (Protestant), nor are we generally treated as full-fledged Catholics.”

1916 The Georgia legislature introduces a bill prohibiting whites from teaching black students. Although the law eventually fails, a community of black sisters is formed to teach. In 1922 the sisters relocate to New York where they start a soup kitchen and begin educating local children. In 1929 they affiliate with the Franciscan Third Order, becoming the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary. Still active in Harlem, their ministries have spread elsewhere in the United States.

1920 The Society of the Divine Word in Greenville, Miss., with the blessing of Pope Benedict XV, opens St. Augustine’s, the first seminary for blacks. Some American bishops are still not convinced of the merit of a black priesthood.

November 10, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com

American black Catholics of note

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

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

He spearheaded the building of St. Monica Church for black Catholics, dedicated in 1894, and died after suffering heat stroke on a Chicago street on July 9, 1897.

n Venerable Mother Henriette Delille, foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans A free woman of color living in New Orleans in the 19th century, Delille wanted to be a religious but legal and social restraints 20 years before the abolition of slavery and the Civil War prevented local communities from accepting her. Therefore, she and two other free women sought to form their own. The Church gave them permission to form a pious society that took no vows and whose members were free to withdraw as they wished. They aided the poor, the sick, the elderly and helpless, the lonely, and the uninstructed who needed care.

Hundreds of more women soon followed them in consecrating themselves to God’s service as Sisters of the Holy Family, and Delille was named their leader. Known as the “Servant of Slaves,” Delille died in 1862. n Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence Elizabeth Clarisse Lange’s parents were refugees who fled to Cuba from the revolution taking place in their native Saint Dominque (present-day Haiti). Her father was a gentleman of some financial means and social standing. Her mother was a Creole. However, in the early 1800s young Elizabeth left Santiago de Cuba to seek peace and security in the United States.

Providence directed her to Baltimore, where a great influx of French-speaking Catholic San Dominguios refugees was settling.

She was a courageous, loving and deeply spiritual woman, and a strong, independent thinker and doer. Although she was a refugee, she was well educated and had her own money. It did not take long to recognize that the children of her fellow refugees needed education. She determined to respond to that need in spite of being a black woman in a slave state long before the Emancipation Proclamation. She used her own money and home to provide free education to children of color, and eventually founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence,

the first Black Catholic order in the United States.

Lange practiced faith to an extraordinary degree. In fact, it was her deep faith which enabled her to persevere against all odds.

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

His stable income allowed him to buy freedom for his sister and his future wife, and to be generous with many individuals and charities, including an orphanage and school for black children. He not only provided money, but manifested genuine care and concern for the afflicted. He cared for the ill when yellow fever swept the city and opened his home to homeless youth, teaching them violin and paying for their schooling. His wife shared in his philanthropic efforts, and their home became a shelter for orphans, a credit bureau, an employment agency and refuge for priests and poverty-stricken travelers.

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

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

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

FROM THE COVERI

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What is Black Catholic History Month?

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

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

Of Roman Catholic parishes in the United States, 798 are considered to be predominantly African-American. Most of those continue to be on the East Coast and in the South.

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

As of February 2017, there are 15 living African-American bishops, eight of whom remain active, and six U.S. dioceses are headed

by African-American bishops.

— USCCB

What is the diocese’s AfricanAmerican Affairs Ministry?

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

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

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

— www.charlottediocese.org

Predominantly black parishes in the Diocese of Charlotte 1931 Xavier University in New Orleans is established by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and becomes the first black Catholic university in the U.S. 1958 American bishops denounce racial prejudice as immoral for the first time.

1965 Many Catholic clergy and women religious join the march in Selma, Ala., marking the Church’s foray into the civil rights struggle for racial equality.

1966 Father Harold Perry, SVD, is ordained auxiliary bishop of New Orleans, becoming the second black bishop in U.S. history.

1968 Prior to the meeting of the Catholic Clergy Conference on the Interracial Apostolate in 1968, Father Herman Porter of the Rockford, Ill., diocese invites all U.S. black Catholic clergy to a special caucus. More than 60 black clergy gather to discuss the racial crisis and decide to form a permanent organization. They send a statement to the bishops strongly criticizing the Church but clear in its expression of their devotion and hope. It lists nine demands for the Church to be faithful in its mission to blacks and to restore the Church within the black community. The caucus remains active today.

Our diocese has four parishes with an AfricanAmerican Catholic heritage: n Our Lady of Consolation Church, Charlotte (1955, combining the former St. Mary and Our Lady of Perpetual Help parishes) n St. Mary’s Church, Greensboro (1928) n St. Benedict the Moor Church, WinstonSalem (1940) n St. Helen Mission, Spencer Mountain (early 1900s)

1979 The U.S. bishops issue a Pastoral Letter on Racism, “Brothers and Sisters to Us,” reiterating opposition to the persistent presence of racism and calling attention to the relationship between racial and economic justice.

1985 The National Black Catholic Congress is re-established in 1985 as a coalition of black Catholic organizations. In 1987, NBCC renews the tradition of gathering black Catholics from across the country. The first renewed congress, Congress VI (the first five took place in the 1800s), takes place in May of 1987 in Washington, D.C. NBCC holds a national congress every five years, and each event attracts growing numbers of attendees.

More online 1990 The National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus designates November as Black Catholic History Month.

2001 The first National Gathering of Black Catholic Women, organized by the National Black Sisters Conference, is held in Charlotte, N.C. More than 300 women religious from across the U.S. attend.

At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Read more about black Catholics throughout history, including popes, saints and notable black Catholic leaders such as St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, St. Moses the Black, the Scillitan martyrs and St. Josephine Bakhita Also at www.catholicnewsherald.com: Read more about the four historically black parishes in the Diocese of Charlotte At www.nbccongress.org: Learn more about the National Black Catholic Congress

Our schools 16

catholicnewsherald.com | November 10, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief CCHS National Merit honors announced CHARLOTTE — Three Charlotte Catholic High School seniors – Mary Cecilia Polking, Connor Blaise Ruff, and Matthew Louis Weber – have been named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, and 10 seniors have been named Commended Students in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program.

The Commended Students are Jacob Daniel, Austin Franks, Sarah Gilles, Ariel Hobbs, Charles Nenichka, John Powell, Lauren Schmidt, Nicholas Scibelli, Andrew Shooman and David Williams.

Nearly 1.6 million high school juniors from more than 22,000 high schools nationwide entered the 2018 competition by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in the fall of 2016.

Approximately 16,000 students qualified as semifinalists, representing less than 1 percent of all U.S. high school seniors. This group includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.

Approximately 34,000 students nationwide qualified as Commended Students, and are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise. Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 scorers on the PSAT. The National Merit Scholarship program was founded in 1955 to distinguish and honor academically talented American high school students and to encourage them to develop their talents and skills to the fullest. The competition is very rigorous, and scholarship winners are chosen based on their skills, abilities, extracurricular accomplishments, and potential for future success.

— Carolyn Kramer Tillman

BMHS teacher featured in publication KERNERSVILLE — As students progress through high school and college, the expectation is that they will take control over their learning. Self-regulated learning theory has become very popular in guiding learning and instruction to help students do just that. Bishop McGuinness High School teacher Dr. Maria DiBenedetto has recently co-written a chapter on self-regulation and the standards in the new “Handbook of Self-Regulation of Learning and Performance” (Schunk & Greene, 2018). The book contains chapters by several renowned scholars and experts in the field of educational psychology. The chapter is titled “Self-regulation: An integral part of standards-based education” and provides an overview of how standards, when translated into goals, can provide teachers and students with guidance and direction in learning.

— Kimberly Knox

Pet blessings SALISBURY — Sacred Heart School hosted its annual Blessing of the Animals, in honor of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and ecology, last month for students and their furry, fluffy, feathered and scaley friends. Students brought their puppies, kittens, fish, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, a chicken and a mouse.

Pictured is Simon Mueller with his chicken Olga.

— Robin Fisher

St. Ann students make snack packs

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY TAMMY EASON

CHARLOTTE — First-grade students in Katie Buckley’s class at St. Ann School recently worked together to make 65 snack pack bags to be donated to students in the community who are in need of additional food at home. The first-graders hand-selected items for each bag that they thought another child would enjoy and made cards to include with the snacks.

— Kathy McKinney

Celebrating 75 years of Catholic education GASTONIA — St. Michael School held a 75th jubilee event to celebrate the school’s educational legacy in the community. St. Michael School was established in 1942 through the support of the Sisters of Mercy. When the school first began, the Sisters of Mercy served as teachers and educators.

The jubilee celebration opened with a prayer offered by Father Matthew Buettner, pastor of St. Michael Church, and remarks from Sheila Levesque, the current principal. Joe Puceta, who served as principal for more than 20 years, spoke of the schools family atmosphere and continued growth. Lauren Andrews and Rileigh Hazen, former students and alumni, spoke of their educational experiences at St. Michael School. Dino Dimeo, a former parent, spoke of the school community and the strong educational foundation that the school provides. Mercy Sister Carolyn Mary Coll, a former teacher, spoke of her experiences and discussed some of the school’s rich history.

The campus was open with children’s activities and opportunities to visit classrooms. Alumni and guests were given an opportunity to reminisce about past years by viewing school memorabilia and photos from each of the previous decades. The day of fun and fellowship concluded with Mass at St. Michael Church.

Mix

November 10, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

For the latest movie reviews: catholicnewsherald.com

In theaters

‘Novitiate’ At a time when the reforms of Vatican II caused some nuns to leave the convent, a wide-eyed young woman (Margaret Qualley) decides to enter, having fallen in love with God. There a rigid tyrant of a mother superior lords it over her new charges, making it her mission to scrutinize them to see if they are up to the rigors of life in the order. Writer-director Margaret Betts follows the novices as they struggle with faith, sexuality and the effects of change in the Church. An artistic drama with compelling performances, the film reveals its creator’s lack of familiarity with Catholicism.

Several instances of rough language.

CNS: O (morally offensive); MPAA: R

‘Thor: Ragnarok’ A healthy dose of humor keeps this sweeping Marvel Comics adaptation, the second sequel to the 2011 original, on the boil, although it still registers as overlong. The straight-shooting Norse god of thunder (Chris Hemsworth) and his ever-wily brother, Loki, will have to patch up their differences if they are to defeat the schemes of their elder sister, the goddess of death, Hela. She has been released from a long captivity by the demise of their father, Odin, and aims to dominate their home planet, Asgard. Along with Loki’s shifting loyalties, Thor must also contend with Hela’s destruction of his trademark hammer and with being taken prisoner by a bounty hunter, who hands him over to the impresario of a series of gladiatorial games. Also features Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk. Not for impressionable kids. Possibly acceptable for older teens.

Constant stylized violence with little gore, occasional crass language.

CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: PG-13

‘A Bad Moms Christmas’ Aggressive vulgarity is the incongruous hallmark of this holiday-themed sequel. As the trio of mothers (Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn) featured in the 2016 original deal with the wholly unrealistic problems caused when their own moms show up for Christmas, with or without an invitation. The only thing more tiresome than their sex-obsessed wisecracking is their self-important resolve to take the feast back and celebrate it in their own fashion. To say they’ve lost touch with the reason for the season is an understatement.

Pervasive rough and crude language.

CNS: O (morally offensive); MPPA: R

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On TV n Saturday, Nov. 11, 8 p.m. (EWTN) “Called and Chosen: Father Vincent R. Capodanno.” This EWTN original docu-drama presents the life and ministry of Servant of God Father Vincent R. Capodanno, a U.S. Marine chaplain who was killed on Sept. 4, 1967, giving his life as he tried to minister to a fallen soldier during the Vietnam War. n Wednesday, Nov. 15, 4:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Michael the Visitor.” Narrated by Stockard Channing, this charming fable is an adaptation of Tolstoy’s classic tale about a lost young man with an amazing secret. n Wednesday, Nov. 15, 6:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Pakistan: Shahbaz Bhatti, A Man with a Dream.” An exploration of the life of Shahbaz Bhatti, an outspoken critic of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and the only Catholic in Pakistan’s cabinet, who predicted his own assassination and preemptively recorded a message in the event of his death. n Thursday, Nov. 16, 6:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Giorgio: A Modern Day Miracle Story.”

The family of a comatose young adult finds the miracle they’ve been praying for after beseeching for Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati’s heavenly intercession. n Friday, Nov. 17, 11 a.m. (EWTN) “Women of Grace.” Johnnette Benkovic hosts a special live episode of “Women of Grace,” discussing issues important to women and how they can best live out their faith in today’s world.

n Saturday, Nov. 18, 8 p.m. (EWTN) “Pius XII: Under the Roman Sky.” Featuring James Cromwell as the title role, a portrayal of the heroic efforts of Pope Pius XII to save the Jews of Rome from the Nazis during World War II. Part 1. n Thursday, Nov. 23, 6 p.m. (EWTN) “The Crusaders: Journey’s of Faith.” Combining epic dramatic sequences and insights from leading historians, this mini-series seeks to clear up the many myths and distortions, presenting viewers a well-rounded knowledge of this important historical event. Filmed in the Holy Land and Europe. n Friday, Nov. 24, 5:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Evangelizing the Culture for Marriage and Family: Avoiding Conflicts and Misunderstandings when Evangelizing for Marriage.” Based on the book “Getting the Marriage Conversation Right,” William B. May’s six-part mini-series on the future of marriage and the rights of children if marriage is redefined. n Friday, Nov. 24, 8 p.m. (EWTN) “Angola: Get up and Go.” Bishops, missionaries and other witnesses give testimony to the persecution that Christians in Angola have endured and how the people have kept their faith in the midst of communism and war.

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Our nation 18

catholicnewsherald.com | November 10, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Nation’s leaders urged to ‘engage in real debate’ on curbing gun violence WASHINGTON, D.C. — The nation’s leaders “must engage in a real debate about needed measures to save lives and make our communities safer,” said the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ domestic policy committee. Such debate is essential because “violence in our society will not be solved by a single piece of legislation, and many factors contribute to what we see going on all around us,” said Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Fla., chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

His Nov. 7 statement was issued in response to “recent and horrific attacks” in the country, referring to the mass shooting Nov. 5 at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, that left 26 people dead and 20 others wounded, and the Oct. 1 the mass shooting in Las Vegas during an outdoor concert that left 58 people dead and hundreds of others injured.

“For many years, the Catholic bishops of the United States have been urging our leaders to explore and adopt reasonable policies to help curb gun violence,” Bishop Dewane said.

The Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs gun massacres “remind us of how much damage can be caused when weapons -- particularly weapons designed to inflict extreme levels of bloodshed – too easily find their way into the hands of those who would wish to use them to harm others,” he said.

Bishop Dewane said the USCCB continues to urge a total ban on assault weapons, “which we supported when the ban passed in 1994 and when Congress failed to renew it in 2004.”

Other efforts the bishops support include measures that control the sale and use of firearms, such as universal background checks for all gun purchases; limitations on civilian access to highcapacity weapons and ammunition magazines; and a federal law to criminalize gun trafficking.

— Catholic News Service

CNS | JOE MITCHELL, REUTERS

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is Catholic, attends a candlelight vigil after a mass shooting Nov. 5 at the First Baptist Church in rural Sutherland Springs.

USCCB president decries mass shooting at Texas Baptist church CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Catholic Church stands “in unity” with First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and the larger community after a shooting during Sunday services took the lives of at least 26 people and injured at least 20 others.

Those who died ranged in age from 1 to 72 years old, and included 14-year-old Annabelle Pomeroy. Her father, Frank Pomeroy, is pastor of the church but he was not at the service.

“We stand in unity with you in this time of terrible tragedy – as you stand on holy ground, ground marred today by horrific violence,” said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of GalvestonHouston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

With San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, “I extend my prayers and the prayers of my brother bishops for the victims, the families, the first responders, our Baptist brothers and sisters, indeed the whole community of Sutherland Springs.”

Pope Francis Nov. 7 called the mass shooting an “act of senseless violence” and asked Archbishop Garcia-Siller to convey his condolences to the families of the victims and to the injured. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, also sent assurances of the pope’s prayers in a message to the archbishop.

Law enforcement officials told CNN that a lone gunman entered the church at about 11:30 a.m. while 50 people were attending Sunday services. Almost everyone in the congregation was shot. Sutherland Springs is 30 to 40 miles southeast of San Antonio.

Two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press the suspect was Devin Kelley, described as a white male in his 20s. He parked at a gas station across the street from the church, crossed the street and allegedly began firing as he walked toward the church and then

continued firing once inside. He was wearing black tactical-type gear and used an assault weapon, AP said.

After he left the church, he was confronted by a local resident who had a rifle “and engaged the suspect,” AP said, quoting Freeman Martin, who is with the Texas Department of Public Safety. The suspect was later found dead in his vehicle some distance away. Police said Kelley died from a selfinflicted gunshot wound.

Kelly had been in the Air Force but was discharged for bad conduct, allegedly for domestic abuse, and served a 12-month sentence in confinement after being courtmartialed in 2012.

His in-laws were members of the church.

“We need prayers!” exclaimed Archbishop Garcia-Siller in a Nov. 5 statement. “The evil perpetrated on these (families) who were gathered to worship God on the Lord’s Day – especially children and the elderly – makes no sense and will never be fully understood,” he said. “Disbelief and shock are the overwhelming feelings; there are no adequate words. There can be no explanation or motive for such a scene of horror at a small country church for families gathered to praise Jesus Christ.”

He added, “Let’s help these brothers and sisters with prayers; they need us. Also, pray fervently for peace amidst all of the violence which seems to be overwhelming our society.

We must be lights in the darkness.”

“When we go to church to worship God we enter a world that is what we dream life will be,” said Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, in a Nov. 5 statement. Those murdered in the church, he added, “have given the ultimate witness.”

Bishop Seitz said, “As with any act of terror we must not allow evil behavior to make us

fearful or to prevent us from doing what is right. Ultimately, we know that the love of God will be victorious.”

“Our hearts ache for those suffering from the terrible loss of life,” said the Texas Catholic bishops in a joint statement Nov. 6. “We open our hands and hearts for these families in this moment of terrible tragedy. We should all fall on our knees in prayer in this moment of disaster.”

“Our nation struggles to comprehend, to understand, to face another moment that demands that we address the root causes of such horrendous brutality,” said a Nov. 6 statement from Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta.

“Among the causes that must be confronted are easy and unrestricted access to militarystyle firearms, the lack of similarly unrestricted access to effective mental health care for too many emotionally fragile citizens, and the proliferation of hatred and vitriolic material on social and mass media that often radicalizes people who then act in ways that harm and terrorize us all.”

“We ask the Lord for healing of those injured, His loving care of those who have died and the consolation of their families,” Cardinal DiNardo said. “This incomprehensibly tragic event joins an ever-growing list of mass shootings, some of which were also at churches while people were worshipping and at prayer, he continued.

“We must come to the firm determination that there is a fundamental problem in our society. “A culture of life cannot tolerate, and must prevent, senseless gun violence in all its forms. May the Lord, who Himself is peace, send us His spirit of charity and nonviolence to nurture His peace among us all,” the cardinal said.

November 10, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief Advocates decry government’s TPS decision for Nicaraguans WASHINGTON, D.C. — Immigration advocates decried a Department of Homeland Security decision to end Temporary Protected Status for 2,500 Nicaraguans who have been living in the United States for nearly 20 years. They also lamented during a call with reporters Nov. 7 that Elaine Duke, acting secretary of Homeland Security, put off a decision on TPS for 57,000 Hondurans for six months, saying more time was needed to determine if they could remain in the U.S. because of adverse social and economic conditions in their homeland. Randolph P. McGrorty, executive director of Catholic Legal Services in the Archdiocese of Miami, said U.S. law is meant to be implemented “with a certain degree of kindness and compassion,” and that sending people to countries that are ill-prepared to welcome them would do far more harm than good. He called on policymakers in Congress and the administration of President Donald Trump to recognize that Nicaraguans, Hondurans and other TPS holders are vibrant members of their parishes, neighborhoods and workplaces. “I think they deserve to have some sense of belonging,” he said.

Detroit Catholics at ‘fever pitch’ over beatification of Fr. Casey DETROIT — For decades during the Great Depression and afterward, Capuchin Franciscan Father Solanus Casey was the “go-to” guy for those who were sick, poor, afflicted or discouraged in their faith. Standing at the doors of St. Bonaventure Monastery on Detroit’s east side, the holy friar would welcome dozens -- if not hundreds -- of visitors per day: families with an ill child, destitute fathers desperate to make ends meet, loved ones distraught over a relative’s drifting from the faith. And no matter the situation -- whether a healing was imminent or not -- he would tell them the same thing: “Thank God ahead of time.” Now that Father Solanus is set to be beatified Nov. 18 at Detroit’s Ford Field, home to the NFL’s Detroit Lions, the entire city is heeding his advice. “I think excitement is at a fever pitch. Everybody is so enthused about it. I get people asking me about the occasion all the time,” said Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron in an interview with The Michigan Catholic, the archdiocesan newspaper. “The quick way the tickets were all assigned is a strong sense of the enthusiasm of the whole community.”

Mass formally opens canonization cause for Black Elk PINE RIDGE, S.D. — During a Mass to formally open the sainthood cause for Nicholas Black Elk, the Native American was described as someone who merged the Lakota and Catholic culture in a way “that drew him deeper into the mystery of Christ’s love and the Church.”

Black Elk’s love for God and Scripture led him to become a catechist, fulfilling the mission of all disciples, said Bishop Robert D. Gruss of Rapid City in his homily at the Oct. 21 Mass at Holy Rosary Church in Pine Ridge. The bishop said that for 50 years Black Elk led others to Christ often melding his Lakota culture into his Christian life. “This enculturation can always reveal something of the true nature and holiness of God,” he said, adding that Black Elk always “challenged people to renew themselves, to seek this life that Christ offers them.” With the formal opening of his cause, Black Elk now has the title “servant of God.” Black Elk was born sometime between 1858 and 1866. He died

Aug. 19, 1950, at Pine Ridge.

Priest resigns as consultant on doctrine after letter to pope WASHINGTON, D.C. — After publication of his letter to Pope Francis questioning the pontiff’s teachings, Father Thomas Weinandy has resigned from his position as consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine. The Capuchin Franciscan priest is former executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Doctrine and Canonical Affairs, serving in the post from 2005 until 2013. He expressed loyalty to the pope but told him that “a chronic confusion seems to mark your pontificate.” He released his letter to several Catholic and other media outlets Nov. 1, including Crux. The priest told Crux, a Catholic news outlet, he did not write the letter in an “official capacity,” and he was alone responsible for it. Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of GalvestonHouston, USCCB president, said the priest’s resignation “gives us an opportunity to reflect on the nature of dialogue within the Church.”

He said it should be acknowledged “legitimate differences exist,” but he urged all involved in Church debates exercise “Christian charity.”

Bishops: Puerto Rico still facing ‘unprecedented level of need’ WASHINGTON, D.C. — As November began, the people of Puerto Rico still faced “an unprecedented level of need” because of hurricanes Irma and Maria, which devastated the island in September, said the chairmen of two U.S. bishops’ committees. They called for “meaningful action” through legislative means and emergency funds to address “both the immediate and long-term needs of the Puerto Rican population.” They also urged Catholics and all people of goodwill to show support of “our brothers and sisters in such dire need.”

Irma hit Puerto Rico Sept. 7 and Maria hit Sept.

20, creating even more destruction than the first hurricane. To date, more than 70 percent of Puerto Rico is without electricity and running water. Other islands, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, are also facing challenges in their recovery.

Cardinal Wuerl: Catholics must confront, overcome sin of racism WASHINGTON, D.C. — The sin of racism must be recognized, confronted and overcome, Washington Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl said in a new pastoral letter, “The Challenge of Racism Today.” “Intolerance and racism will not go away without a concerted awareness and effort on everyone’s part. Regularly we must renew the commitment to drive it out of our hearts, our lives and our community,” the cardinal wrote in a letter dated Nov. 1, All Saints’ Day, that was addressed to the clergy, religious and laity of the Catholic Church of Washington. The letter from Washington’s archbishop comes at a time when racism issues and calls for racial justice have sparked protests on city streets, college campuses and even pro football fields across the country. “The mission of reconciliation takes on fresh emphasis today as racism continues to manifest itself in our country, requiring us to strengthen our efforts. We are all aware of incidents both national and closer to home that call attention to the continuing racial tensions in our society,” Cardinal Wuerl wrote.

He noted that the nation’s Catholic bishops have established an Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism made up of clergy, laywomen and laymen “to speak out against this divisive evil that leave great harm in its wake.”

Mercy sisters call for ‘unencumbered’ bill to help young migrants WASHINGTON, D.C. — The president of the

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Oct. 30 urged members of Congress to pass a bill that would help a group of young migrants who were brought to the U.S. as children without legal documentation, but one that wouldn’t include “measures that endanger” other migrants. In a letter, Mercy Sister Pat McDermott asked for what’s called a “clean” DREAM Act. The DREAM Act stands for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act and would, in theory, help youth and young adults brought illegally into the country as minors attain some form of immigration relief. But what that relief would look like has not been defined by members of Congress who haven’t been able to pass such a legislative measure since it was first introduced in 2001. Because of the DREAM acronym, those who could qualify are popularly known as “Dreamers.” Some 800,000 of those youth, until recently, could apply for a work permit and a reprieve from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, that had been put into place in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama. In September, however, President Donald Trump rescinded the DACA program and asked Congress to find a legislative fix. Some have suggested a version of the DREAM Act as that fix.

— Catholic News Service

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Our world 20

catholicnewsherald.com | November 10, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Pope, global leaders discuss concern for climate change, migration CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis met earlier this week with Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary-general, and former Irish President Mary Robinson to discuss shared concerns about peace, human rights and climate change.

“Pope Francis has shown great moral leadership on the crucial issues of our time. His assertion of the values of peace and human dignity resonates with people of all faiths and those of none,” Annan said in a written statement released after the Nov. 6 meeting in the pope’s residence.

Annan and Robinson made the private visit Nov. 6 together with Lakhdar Brahimi and Ricardo Lagos as members of “The Elders,” an independent group of global leaders who use their experience and influence to support peace and human rights.

The four representatives met with the pope “to express their appreciation and support for his work on global peace, refugees and migration, and climate change,” according to The Elders’ website.

The organization is “proud to stand in solidarity with him today and in the future as we work for justice and universal human rights,” Annan, chair of The Elders, said in his statement.

Annan told Vatican Radio it was important for them to visit the pope because they hold a number of interests and values in common, and they wanted to “discuss how we can work together, how we can pool our efforts on some of these issues.”

Robinson, who is also a former U.N. high commissioner for human rights and a U.N. envoy on climate change, told Vatican Radio that they spoke about climate change and other issues where “the pope has given leadership.

We felt there was a great deal of common ground between us.”

Other issues they discussed, Annan told the radio, were migration, nuclear weapons, the mediation of conflicts and “the importance of giving women a voice and respecting their role.”

“I hope this will be the first of many meetings,” he said.

They expressed their appreciation for what the pope has been doing, Robinson said, and how he, like The Elders, is “trying to be a voice for the voiceless” and the marginalized.

“I think he could be a future ‘Elder,’” Annan told the radio, to which Robinson remarked, “I think he’s a Super Elder.”

Former South African President Nelson Mandela formally launched The Elders 10 years ago after British entrepreneur Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel presented their idea of taking the traditional practice of looking to one’s village elders for guidance and conflict resolution and applying it to today’s “global village.”

CNS | PAUL HARING

Pope Francis lays roses on graves at the SicilyRome American Cemetery and Memorial in Nettuno, Italy, Nov. 2.

War brings only death, cruelty, pope says at U.S. military cemetery CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

NETTUNO, Italy — “No more, Lord, no more (war)” that shatters dreams and destroys lives, bringing a cold, cruel winter instead of some sought-after spring, Pope Francis said looking out at the people gathered for an outdoor Mass at a U.S. war memorial and cemetery.

“This is the fruit of war: death,” he said, as the bright Italian sun lowered in the sky on the feast of All Souls’ Day, Nov. 2.

On a day the Church offers special prayers for the faithful departed with the hope of their meeting God in heaven, “here in this place, we pray in a special way for these young people,” he said, gesturing toward the rows of thousands of graves.

Christian hope can spring from great pain and suffering, he said, but it can also “make us look to heaven and say, ‘I believe in my Lord, the redeemer, but stop, Lord,” please, no more war, he said.

“With war, you lose everything,” he said.

Before the Mass, Pope Francis placed a white rose atop 10 white marble headstones; the majority of the stones were carved crosses, one was in the shape of the Jewish Star of David.

As he slowly walked alone over the green lawn and prayed among the thousands of simple grave markers, visitors recited the rosary at the World War II Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial site in Nettuno, a small coastal city south of Rome.

In previous years, the pope marked All Souls’ Day by visiting a Rome cemetery. This year, he chose to visit a U.S. military burial ground and, later in the day, the site of a Nazi massacre at the Ardeatine Caves in Rome to pray especially for all victims of war and violence.

“Wars produce nothing other than cemeteries and death,” he said after reciting the Angelus on All Saints Day, Nov. 1. He explained he would visit the two World War II sites the next day because humanity “seems to have not learned that lesson or doesn’t want to learn it.”

In his homily at the late afternoon Mass Nov. 2, Pope Francis spoke off-the-cuff and said people do everything to go to war, but they end up doing nothing but destroying themselves.

“This is war: the destruction of ourselves,” he said.

He spoke of the particular pain women experience in war: receiving that letter or news of the death of their husband, child or grandchild.

So often people who want to go to war “are convinced they will usher in a new world, a new springtime. But it ends up as winter – ugly, cruel, a reign of terror and death,” the pope said.

Today, the world continues to head off fiercely to war and fight battles every day, he said.

“Let us pray for the dead today, dead from war, including innocent children,” and pray to God “for the grace to weep,” he said.

Among the more than 7,800 graves at the Nettuno cemetery, there are the remains of 16 women who served in the Women’s Army Corps, Red Cross or as nurses, as well as the graves of 29 Tuskegee airmen. Those buried or missing in action had taken part in attacks by U.S. Allies along Italy’s coast during World War II. After the Mass, the pope visited the Ardeatine Caves, now a memorial cemetery with the remains of 335 Italians, mostly civilians, brutally murdered by Nazi German occupiers in 1944.

The pope was led through the long series of tunnels and stopped to pray several minutes in silence at a bronze sculpted fence symbolizing the twisted, interlocking forms of those massacred.

Walking farther along the dark corridors, he placed white roses along a long series of dark gray cement tombs built to remember the victims.

The victims included some Italian military, but also political prisoners and men rounded up in a Jewish neighborhood. They were all shot in the back of the head in retaliation for an attack on Nazi soldiers. The Nazis threw the bodies into the caves and used explosives to seal off access. After the war, a memorial was built on the site.

Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, chief rabbi of Rome, sang a short prayer, and the pope prayed to God, merciful and compassionate, who hears the cries of his people and knows of their sufferings.

Through the risen Christ, Christians know that God is not the god of death, “but of the living, that your covenant of faithful love is stronger than death and a guarantee of resurrection,” he said.

November 10, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief Women named undersecretaries of office for laity, family, life VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis named a bioethics expert and a seasoned canon lawyer, both women, as undersecretaries of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life. The appointments of Gabriella Gambino, a bioethics professor at Rome’s Tor Vergata University, and Linda Ghisoni, a judge on the regional tribunal of the Diocese of Rome, were announced Nov. 7 at the Vatican. Gambino was appointed undersecretary of the dicastery’s section for life, while Ghisoni was named to the section for the laity, the Vatican said.

Teach students role of justice in migration, pope says VATICAN CITY — Catholic universities need to study the root causes of forced migration and ways to counter the discrimination and xenophobic reactions it provokes in so many traditionally Christian nations, Pope Francis said.

“I would also like to invite Catholic universities to teach their students, some of whom will become leaders in politics, business and culture, a careful reading of the phenomenon of migration from the point of view of justice, global co-responsibility and communion in cultural diversity,” he said. The pope made his remarks during an audience Nov. 4 with members of the International Federation of Catholic Universities, who were attending a world congress in Rome Nov. 1-4 titled, “Refugees and Migrants in a Globalized World: Responsibility and Responses of Universities.” Pope Francis praised the organization’s efforts in the fields of research, formation and promoting social justice.

Pope asks U.S. to welcome migrants, urges migrants to respect laws ROME — Pope Francis called on the people of the United States to welcome migrants and urged those who are welcomed to respect the laws of the country. “To all people (of the U.S.) I ask: take care of the migrant who is a promise of life for the future. To migrants: take care of the country that welcomes you; accept and respect its laws and walk together along that path of love,” the pope said Oct. 26 during a live video conversation with teenagers from around the world. Pope Francis was speaking with teens participating in a program of the international network of “Scholas Occurrentes.”

At the event, broadcast by the U.S. Spanish-

language network Telemundo, the host asked the pope for a message to immigrants in the United States. Many face difficulties after the Trump administration’s recent call to tighten immigration laws.

Vatican, Lutheran federation announce study on church, Eucharist, ministry VATICAN CITY — The official Catholic-Lutheran dialogue will begin a deeper exploration of common beliefs and differences on “church, Eucharist and ministry,” the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation announced. When Pope Francis joined Bishop Munib A. Younan, then the president of the Lutheran World Federation, for a prayer service in Sweden in 2016, the two noted the pain many of their fellow Catholics and Lutherans – especially Catholics and Lutherans married to each other – experience when they cannot share the Eucharist at each other’s services. The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation said their next task will be “to discern in a prayerful manner our understanding on church, Eucharist and ministry, seeking a substantial consensus so as to overcome remaining differences between us.”

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 10, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Thank you, St. Michael’s Fred Gallagher

T

he year was 1942, 10 years before I was born, and just a couple of years after my family had moved to Gastonia. My grandfather, who by this time had eight grandchildren (with many more to follow), just kept on bothering his good friend, Father Alphonse Buss, the Benedictine monk from Belmont Abbey who was the pastor of St. Michael Church. This time, the haranguing my grandfather was known for was about how important it was to establish a Catholic elementary school in

Gastonia. He got other parishioners behind him and, lo and behold, St. Michael’s School opened in a cottage on Jackson Road with 22 pupils. My oldest brother was one of them and a few years later my next brother started there. A few years after that, the school, located now about a mile away in a beautiful new building on a street that would later be renamed St. Michael’s Lane, schooled the last three of my parents’ five boys, yours truly included.

Almost the entire Catholic population of Gastonia lived within a mile or two of that school, which was by now right beside the church. And from the very beginning the Sisters of Mercy came from their convent in nearby Belmont to teach us – Sisters Concilia, Celestine, Redempta, Scholastica,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ignatius and many others. I can still see the habits flying when one sister or another would join us in a kickball game. And when all the jokes about penguins or rulers over the knuckles become a stale cliché, I am inclined to meditate upon the fact that these women, these brides of Christ with a teaching charism, really did love us.

I went over to the school recently for its 75th anniversary reunion. I heard great stories and saw classmates I hadn’t seen in more than 50 years. I looked at the scrapbooked photographs and found old pictures of each of my brothers and a couple of me, too, my classmates and friends. I walked the halls and peeked into classrooms. I remembered Father Gregory Eichenlaub, beloved pastor of St.

many others from over the years: Wofford, McDonnell, Eck, Jacobs, Colleta, Zamiello, Vlaservich, Galligan, Duff, Johnson, Nelli, Hoffman, Van Pelt, Walkowiak, Farris, Withers, Bergman, McDaid, Wilson. And so many more who lived their religion as a minority in a southern cotton mill town and who lived with the irony that our county was named for William Gaston, a North Carolina Supreme Court judge who fought diligently for racial and religious freedom… and who was a devout Catholic.

How better to top off the reunion than to attend Mass and receive the Eucharist I learned so much about in St. Michael’s School – the Person of Christ I learned so much about in St. Michael’s School.

And how better to conclude the day than

(Above) Benedictine Father Gregory Eichenlaub, pastor and superintendent of St. Michael School, with the Sisters of Mercy teachers at the new school building in the 1960s. (Above left) The combined fifth- and sixthgrade classes in 1964. I am the boy in the far back, closest to the watchful eye of Sister.

Michael’s Church from 1944 to 1973 and superintendent of the school. Any kid of my era who attended will remember Father actually coming into the classrooms to personally give out report cards. And every single time he wrote “OUGHT” on the blackboard, reminding us that we are not necessarily here on earth to do what we “want” to do but rather what we “ought” to do. Needless to say, for many of us that was always a daunting experience!

The memories were even sweeter standing inside the building, finding the fondness for another day and time in the recesses of my mind and the hidden places of my heart. When I was at St. Michael’s the Catholic population of North Carolina was less than one half of 1 percent. A one-time head of the Gaston Ministerial Association was said to have uttered during the Kennedy Presidential campaign that he would rather see a Communist in the White House than a Catholic.

Our school, the school for which my grandfather and his fellow parishioners lobbied so passionately, was a pioneer.

African American kids were to become our classmates before the public schools were integrated. We became community in a way that reverberates with me still. The moral code was emblazoned. The family names still echo in time: Baugh, Cherry, Gardner (all cousins) there from the start as do so

receiving a blessing, along with other alumnae, from Father Matthew Buettner, present-day pastor of the church, a man himself with a fervent appreciation of a Catholic education.

It was a good day, a day to feel gratitude for all the priests and nuns and administrators and parents who made and continue to make St. Michaels’s a vibrant Catholic presence. It was a good day to remember basketball on the blacktop where a family center sits now; friendships born of a common culture and anchored in the faith of our parents; exposure to adults giving their lives to Christ; staring at a giant portrait of St. Michael himself and wondering of his courage and strength, not knowing how much I would call on it in years to come. It was a good day to remember prayers of the ages before the day’s endeavors, long since outlawed in the public schools; school Masses and serving on the altar, first with Latin responses, then, in English; absolute mischief in the schoolyard, the guilt that followed and the confession that followed that.

Yes, it was a good day to remember growing up under the patronage of heaven’s superhero and to say, “Thank you, St. Michael’s.”

FRED GALLAGHER is an author and editor-in-chief with Gastonia-based Good Will Publishers Inc.

November 10, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

23

Deacon James H. Toner

What we know that ain’t so:

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

Column conclusions and a farewell WHAT WE THINK IS THE RIGHT ROAD

E

verybody knows that capital punishment violates the right to life, that it’s an affront to human dignity, that it erodes respect for human life, that it’s motivated by vengeance, that it does not deter, that it removes the possibility of reform, that the state has no right to inflict the death penalty, and that innocent people often receive the death penalty.

BUT IT’S THE WRONG ROAD These are prominently among the bromides we “know” that ain’t so. Space limitations prevent lengthy explanation of why and how each of these eight statements is morally or logically defective.

If you find yourself surprised at reading that these common objections to capital punishment are, in fact, mistaken, Edward Feser and Joseph Bessette offer substantial instruction in their very recently published “By Man Shall his Blood be Shed: A Catholic Defense of Capital Punishment.”

“Capital punishment,” they contend, “is philosophically justified, consistent with Scripture Catechism of the Catholic Church 2105 and long-standing Church teaching, and necessary to achieve the common good.”

The eight propositions above are refuted clearly, concisely and cogently. “Catholic teaching and traditional Church practice,” they write, “allow no room for rejecting the death penalty as intrinsically wrong.”

Before studying this book, I would have argued along lines which would have accepted many of the eight propositions above, while citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2267. Then along came Feser and Bessette, whose book is acclaimed by Jesuit Father James Schall; Jesuit Father Kevin Flannery; noted canon lawyer Edward Peters; Father George Rutler; Catholic convert and philosopher J. Budziszewski; Dr. Robert Royal, editor of the highly respected daily column “The Catholic Thing”; and many others.

These are solid, serious Catholic thinkers.

Hmmm. Before I spoke or wrote again about capital punishment, I thought, I ought to read the book carefully.

“By saving innocent lives, by affirming the sacredness of the lives of murder victims, and by treating murderers as morally accountable creatures who deserve punishment proportional to their crimes, the death penalty plays a vital role in upholding human dignity and in promoting a culture of life,” it stated.

If your education leads you to question or

‘The social duty of Christians is to respect and awaken in each man the love of the true and the good.’

challenge that assertion (as I would have a few weeks ago), I urge you to study this book. You may well find yourself agreeing with Father Gerald Murray, the well-known canon lawyer, frequent EWTN guest, and regular contributor to “The Catholic Thing”: The book “conclusively show(s) that in Catholic doctrine the death penalty is a moral, legitimate and appropriate punishment for certain heinous crimes.”

CONCLUSION In “What We Know That Ain’t So,” I have argued that much of what passes for worldly wisdom is just that – the so-called “wisdom of the world” (1 Cor 3:19). Our Catholic worldview, which ought to be formed in and by genuine wisdom, should be the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16), but it is often darkened and even corrupted. We Catholics, therefore, have a constant and critical duty to learn (and, by the grace of God, to exemplify) the truths of the faith.

This column has been founded upon four convictions: First, there are evil forces at work in the world (Eph 2:2 and 5:12, John 14:30), threats from which we minimize or ignore at our grave spiritual peril.

Second, the greatest ethical threat to us today is false compassion, as we were warned by such Catholic stalwarts as Mother Angelica, Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy. It is never right to do wrong. Evil does not deserve pity; it requires conversion to the truth. A false “mercy,” which condones sin, is the diabolical masquerading as the angelic (see Wisdom, Chapter 2).

Third, we must be orthodox Catholics, despite the costs (John 15:18). Recently, a Notre Dame law professor, Amy Coney Barrett, was nominated to be a judge on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. One senator, Dianne Feinstein, reproached Barrett by saying that “dogma lives loudly within you.” (Isn’t that exactly what all Catholics should aspire to?)

Fourth, we should expect even greater chaos soon. We live at a time when the Church is under the greatest assault it has endured since 1517. And the most grievous challenges to orthodoxy may come from people who ought to know better. Therefore, triangulate: Read the Bible, understand and learn Sacred Tradition, and study the Magisterium.

There is profound reason why, for centuries, Mass was ended with the “Last Gospel” (John 1:1-14). One hopes for its liturgical restoration, and we treasure its promise: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Nor will the darkness ever fully and finally defeat Him – or us who are His followers: “Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matthew 28:20 DRB).

This marks my final “What You Know That Ain’t So” column. Thank you to the Catholic News Herald staff, and thank you, readers, for your time and patience. Oremus Pro Invicem! (Let us pray for one another!)

DEACON JAMES H. TONER serves at Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro.

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 10, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

LITURGY FROM PAGE 7

explained. “If the liturgy does not end in you and me offering God ourselves, our whole selves, then something is missing.”

He gave the formal definition of liturgy, saying that liturgy is the formal ritual activity of the Christian community which serves that goal of Christian life as worship.

“Liturgy ultimately has a purpose. It is not a tool but it does have a purpose, and that is to serve the goal of us becoming true worshipers of God in spirit and in truth.”

Another key point Father Baldovin touched on is that in the liturgy there is the same basic dynamic. He noted that we read Scripture before we baptize, marry, anoint the sick and celebrate the Eucharist, for example.

“Why? Because God’s gift to us always comes first,” he said. “Liturgy is never just our good idea. It is our response to God.” The primary focus of Christian worship is always the same, he said. “It is not us, it is Jesus Christ. We use the term the ‘Paschal Mystery.’ It is a way of talking about the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord.

We celebrate it every Sunday – His triumph over sin and death, and our hope of glory.”

Father Baldovin reminded those gathered that the liturgy is always celebrated in light of the Paschal Mystery. “”That means we are always worshiping the Holy Trinity. Every Sunday is Trinity Sunday (in that respect).”

During his 60-minute presentation, he shared some basic principles of liturgy to remember.

“Liturgy is always God’s act first. Liturgy is always what God is doing in our midst before we respond in gift and response… The word liturgy means work ‘of the people.’

The original meaning of the word in Greek means ‘for the people.’”

He also stressed that context is text.

Liturgy is a whole experience. It is not just an experience of a text. “You cannot find

TRIBUTE FROM PAGE 5

in the army of Christ,” he said.

Besides Adamczyk’s reflection, the Mass incorporated rituals throughout to honor the gathered servicemen and women. Each veteran was given a boutonnière to recognize his or her status. After the presentation of the colors and the Pledge of Allegiance, altar servers led the procession with six military flags: one for each of the four branches of the armed services, one for the armed forces reserves and one for prisoners of war and those missing in action, as well as the American and papal flags.

Other special tributes included a missing man’s ceremony and the recognition of veterans by military branch. St. Pius X School students served as readers, the choir, ushers and altar servers. Many students sat with their veteran relatives, and several more students have close relatives serving overseas right now.

The Tribute Mass is often an emotional celebration for all involved, pastor Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio told the congregation. Teary eyes reached their pinnacle when retired Maj. Jay Callahan played “Taps” on the bugle, the lone figure standing by an empty table set in remembrance of those missing in action.

A reception for the veterans followed the Mass.

“It means so much to them to come back and socialize – that’s kind of the fun part,”

the experience of the liturgy just in a text…

The liturgy is a whole artistic experience. It engages all of our senses.”

Father Baldovin said liturgy should always be related to ordinary life. “One of the greatest challenges is that we intuitively understand what we do when we come together to worship especially on a Sunday liturgy. We come together as God’s people, the Body of Christ. We intuitively understand that it is somehow related to our life. It is very important to keep on working to make those connections.”

He noted that our churches would see more worshipers on a regular basis if people worked harder to understand that.

“Liturgy is a Christian life in a nutshell. It is the Christian life in a ritual form. That’s why it aids us in presenting our bodies to the Lord. That is why every liturgy relates to our need to do peace and justice.”

He also asserted that liturgy is not a tool for manipulation. “We expect entertainment in every moment of our lives… But we don’t go to church for entertainment.

“Liturgy is not a plaything… The liturgy we have can be done well,” he said. “Sometimes liturgy grabs us. It should grab us.

“Liturgy is not an aesthetic form, it is embodied. It is such an embodied experience.

Think of the touch, and movement. There is a kind of choreography.”

Ultimately, Father Baldovin said, liturgy leads to adoration.

“The right name for a human being is ‘the person who adores God.’ That is our ultimate end,” he explained. “There are a lot of steps along the way, but that is our ultimate end.

We are made to know, love and serve God. Everything on earth is to be used in order to do that.”

Read more Jesuit Father John Baldovin’s book “Bread of Life, Cup of Salvation” is available at www.amazon.com. His 12-part series on “Understanding the History of the Mass” is available at www.nowyouknowmedia.com.

said Therese Chase, chair of the Veterans Day of Remembrance committee. “They come here and sit and talk with old veteran friends and new ones they’ve met from the same branch of service.”

The Veterans Day Tribute Mass at St. Pius X is a tradition dating back about 10 years, Chase said. A retired military parishioner brought the idea to the parish staff, and ever since, the parish’s Spirituality Committee has collaborated with the school to make it happen.

While its main goal is to celebrate the parish’s veterans, it’s also an important event for students, Assistant Principal Chris Kloesz said.

“It’s so critical that our young people are given the opportunity to meet the veterans that are able to come out today to express their gratitude,” Kloesz said. “Out in public, children are sometimes less apt to approach a veteran, but in an atmosphere like this, where we are honoring the veterans, it’s a great opportunity for the school-aged kids to come out and say thank you and be in the midst of what I consider to be real-life legends and heroes.”

Kloesz, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran, also is able to share with his students first-hand experience of how faith informs military service.

“As veterans, as military service members, we know that God plays such a huge role in providing us protection, providing us the grace and strength to overcome odds and to do what our service members do to protect our nation,” he said. “We’re protected by God; therefore, we can protect our nation.”

GIVING THANKS FROM PAGE 3

describe their experience living for the past three years at Maryfield. Dick Martin praised the sisters’ “sustained commitment and holy sacrifice” in caring for the sick and the elderly over the past seven decades. Good health, he noted, is not to be taken for granted.

“We tend to give ourselves too much credit for our own health. We need help from the Lord, and Pennybyrn is a step in that direction.”

God’s presence is felt everywhere at Maryfield, residents and staff said – not only in caring for the sick or the dying, not only in Perpetual Adoration or at the frequent Masses offered in the chapel, but also in the smiles and the love of everyone who lives or serves on the Maryfield campus.

“It’s just amazing,” said Ann Carr of High Point, a longtime volunteer and one of four people who inaugurated Perpetual Adoration at Maryfield 23 years ago. “I come almost every day, and I feel uplifted. It’s a beautiful place – I see the care that the people are given. I also see the fidelity of married couples, taking care of each other. It’s been a very rewarding experience for me.”

“I’ve never been to a nursing home that has a chapel like this,” she continued. The focus on prayer and on Eucharistic Adoration, and the joyful presence of the sisters, “makes a difference. The Holy Spirit is here.”

Maryfield has “a beautiful, prayerful, Catholic atmosphere,” agreed Father Tom Norris, O.S.F.S., pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in High Point, who concelebrated the Mass with Bishop Jugis. The Mass was also concelebrated by Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, pastor of St. Pius X Church in Greensboro; Father James Solari, Maryfield chaplain; Father Joseph Dinh, pastor of Christ the King Church in High Point; and retired Father Robert Ferris. Father Noah Carter served as master of ceremonies.

Ann Birmingham, a nurse administrator for 18 years at Maryfield, added, “It’s the most wonderful place in the world.”

“It’s just wonderful!” echoed Margaret O’Connor, a charter resident who’s called Maryfield home for the past 18 years. “I arrived here in an ambulance 18 years ago this week,” she said with a smile, recounting how she fell and broke

MASS FROM PAGE 3

Saints like José Sánchez del Río show us the way to enthrone Christ in our hearts, our minds and our wills, Bishop Schneider said. We should look to their example and ask for their intercession in our lives, praying that Christ will be “the king of every soul.”

Father Joseph Matlak served as deacon, Father Jason Barone was subdeacon and Father Noah Carter was master of ceremonies for the Mass.

The liturgy was the first Mass of a confessor not a bishop, “Os Justi.” The Mass setting was “Missa Iste Confessor,”

by Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina.

The liturgy commemorated Blessed Karl, the last emperor of Austria and king of Hungary. Crowned in 1916 during the height of World War I, he sought a peaceful end to the conflict and in the war’s

several bones that required extensive rehabilitation. Now about to turn 97, O’Connor said she loves everything about Maryfield. “The sisters are wonderful, everything is wonderful!”

Diane Peace, whose mother Doris Casey was in full nursing care at Maryfield for four years until her death, praised the sisters’ and the staff’s commitment to caring for the entire person and treating everyone like family. “The care they give the dying here is beautiful,” she said.

Mission leader Sister Lucy Hennessy, SMG, who is originally from Limerick, Ireland, noted that the five founding sisters “embarked on a journey of faith to come to an unknown place and serve a people they yet did not know. They truly had little of this world’s goods or even money in their possessions, but they had a heart filled with faith and with hope, and that is what made the difference.”

They cooperated with God’s will through their obedience, generosity and dedication, Sister Lucy said, as did so many people in the community who stepped forward to help build and staff Maryfield over the years.

As the needs of the community have grown, the sisters’ dedication to caring has evolved into a new, vibrant retirement lifestyle and care for people of all faiths.

“It’s a great day to celebrate 70 years of heritage,” said Pennybyrn at Maryfield’s president, Richard Newman. Though the scope of what the sisters do has changed and broadened over the years, “the core values are still the same. Respect for the person and the hospitality of the sisters are still as strong as it was in the beginning.”

Maryfield’s mission remains the same as it did when the sisters arrived in 1947, Sister Lucy said: “to demonstrate God’s love for those whose lives we touch.”

“This morning as we continue to reflect on how far we have journeyed over the past decades, we are profoundly grateful for what God has accomplished in and through us,” she said. “Circumstances may have changed but the same strong faith and trust in what God can still do remains, as we too look forward to serving those in need for many decades to come.”

Maryfield’s 70th anniversary is like any other milestone in life, noted supporter Leo Gottschalk – in a way, it’s only a number, but it’s evidence of so much more. “Years may pass, but it’s important to celebrate God’s blessings.”

— Kathy Roach, correspondent, contributed.

aftermath he was forced into exile. He died sick and penniless in 1922, aged only 34. His last word before dying was “Jesus.”

The liturgy was offered under the auspices of the Emperor Karl League of Prayer for Peace Among the Nations, which promotes the cause for canonization of Blessed Karl.

It was the first Solemn Pontifical Mass (offered by a bishop and additional ministers) and only the second Mass in the Extraordinary Form offered by a bishop since the diocese’s founding in 1972. The first was a Mass offered on Dec. 25, 1985, at Queen of the Apostles Church by Bishop George Lynch, the retired auxiliary bishop of Raleigh.

The gathering was hosted by St. Ann Parish and the Charlotte Latin Mass Community, which presented Bishop Schneider with a spiritual bouquet of prayers after the Mass. Bishop Schneider bowed and replied with a smile, “Thank you, and remain always Catholic!”