Sept. 1, 2017

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SPECIAL PULL-OUT INSIDE

Diocese of Charlotte Eucharistic Congress – Sept. 8-9, 2017

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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

Diocese still welcoming refugees under revised federal travel restrictions

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INDEX

Contact us.......................... 4 Events calendar................. 4 Our Faith............................. 2 Our Parishes................. 3-12 Schools......................... 14-16 Scripture readings............ 2 TV & Movies.......................17 U.S. news...................... 18-19 Viewpoints.................. 22-23 World news.................. 20-21

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Students return to school across the diocese 14-15

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From Czestochowa to Fatima Annual Polish Mass connects Mary’s messages of peace and faith

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Growth of Church in western N.C. sign of Holy Spirit at work At jubilee Mass, Bishop Jugis thanks priests for ‘serving with joy’

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S e p te m b er 1 , 2 0 1 7

Our faith 2

catholicnewsherald.com | September 1, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

A SAINTLY LIFE

Pope Francis

God wants people to dream big, not listen to cynics

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od wants people to live with hope and joy – not bitterness – and to dream with him of a better world, Pope Francis said.

“Please, make sure we do not pay attention to disappointed and unhappy people; let us not listen to those who cynically plead not to cultivate hope in life,” he said Aug. 30 during his weekly general audience.

People must ignore those who try to crush enthusiasm and smother “youthful euphoria,” he said. Instead, Christians must cultivate a “healthy utopia” based on what God wants for the world.

“God wants us to be able to dream like He does and, with Him as we journey, to be quite attentive to reality – dreaming of a different world,” he said.

Continuing his series of audience talks on Christian hope, the pope reflected on a reading from the Gospel of St. John (1:35-43), which describes how the first disciples heard of Jesus and wished to follow Him. Jesus asked the first two men, “What are you looking for?” because he sensed a healthy restlessness in their young hearts, Pope Francis said.

In fact, the pope said, young people who are not seeking something or looking for meaning in life “are not young, they have gone into retirement, they have aged before their time. It’s sad to see young people in retirement.”

Throughout the Gospels, he said, Jesus responds to the people He meets along the way; He is like an “arsonist,” the pope said, setting people’s hearts ablaze.

The intense joy Jesus ignites in those He encounters is the wellspring of every vocation, the pope said, whether it be marriage, consecrated life or the priesthood.

In that first encounter, Jesus “gives us new joy and hope and leads us – even through trials and difficulties – to an ever-fuller encounter with Him and fullness of joy.”

Jesus doesn’t want people who walk reluctantly behind Him, the pope said. “Jesus wants people who have experienced that being with Him gives immense joy that can be renewed each day in life.”

Any disciple who does not carry joy in his or her heart “does not evangelize in this world.”

People do not become preachers of God’s word by “sharpening the weapons of rhetoric,” the pope said.

“You can talk and talk and talk,” but it will not make a difference if that bright light of joy is missing from one’s eyes.

St. Peter Claver

Jesuit apostle to African slaves Feast day: Sept. 9 On Sept. 9, the Catholic Church celebrates St. Peter Claver, a Jesuit missionary who spent his life in the service of African slaves brought against their will to South America during the 17th century.

Peter Claver was born into a farming family in the Spanish region of Catalonia during 1581. He studied at the University of Barcelona as a young man, and joined the Jesuits as a novice at the age of 20.

While studying philosophy in Tarragona, Peter developed a friendship with an older Jesuit lay brother, Alphonsus Rodriguez. Although Alphonsus spent his days doing menial work as a door-keeper, he had immense insight into spiritual matters and encouraged Peter to become a missionary in the Spanish colonies. Pope Leo XIII would later canonize both men on the same day, almost two centuries later.

In 1610, Peter Claver – now a priest – arrived in Cartagena, a port city in present-day Colombia.

Despite Pope Paul III’s repeated condemnations of slavery during the previous century, European colonists continued importing African slaves, often sold by their own rulers, to work on plantations and in mines. Those who survived the St. Peter Claver is depicted preaching to slaves in Colombia. ship journey could expect to be worked to death by their masters. we try to speak to them with our lips.”

Peter was determined to sacrifice his own freedom to bring In keeping with his vow of “slavery,” Peter survived on minimal material aid and eternal salvation to the African slaves, in keeping amounts of food and sleep. His life of humility and penance led with his vow to become “the slave of the blacks forever.” The to miraculous occurrences – as when he healed the sick with the young priest made and kept this resolution despite his own health touch of his cloak, or appeared surrounded by a supernatural problems (aggravated by Cartagena’s tropical climate) and the light during his hospital visits. language barrier between himself and the population he served.

St. Peter Claver’s work came to an end with his death on Sept.

Many Spanish Royal officials in Cartagena appreciated Claver’s 8, 1654. He had baptized and taught the faith to more than 300,000 work, and made contributions toward the slaves’ relief and slaves during his four decades in Cartagena. religious education. The slave traders, on the other hand, found During the Vatican’s Synod for Africa in 2009, Cartagena’s the priest and his interpreters to be a nuisance. Meanwhile, some Archbishop Jorge Enrique Jiménez Carvajal lamented the fact Spanish expatriates who sought out the priest because of his holy that his city had been the center of an “awful commerce.” reputation, refused to enter the same church or confessional as But he spoke with gratitude for the fact that the same city the black slaves. had become the home of such a “great witness to sanctity,” the To minister to speakers of a foreign language, Claver often “apostle of the slaves, whose body rests in our cathedral, who employed pictorial representations of Catholic truths. He also lived to protect them and lead them towards the faith” in which communicated by means of generosity and expressions of love, they could experience God’s love. giving food and drink to the ailing workers and visiting them — CNA/EWTN News during bouts of sickness that often proved fatal.

“We must speak to them with our hands,” he reasoned, “before

Your daily Scripture readings SEPT. 3-9

Sunday: Jeremiah 20:7-9, Romans 12:1-2, Matthew 16:21-27; Monday: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Luke 4:16-30; Tuesday (St. Teresa of Calcutta): 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6, 9-11, Luke 4:3137; Wednesday: Colossians 1:1-8, Luke 4:38-44; Thursday: Colossians 1:9-14, Luke 5:1-11; Friday (The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary): Micah 5:1-4, Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23; Saturday (St. Peter Claver): Colossians 1:21-23, Luke 6:1-5

SEPT. 10-16

Sunday: Ezekiel 33:7-9, Romans 13:8-10, Matthew 18:15-20; Monday; Colossians 1:24-2:3, Luke 6:6-11; Tuesday (The Most Holy Name of Mary): Colossians 2:6-15, Luke 6:12-19; Wednesday (St. John Chrysostom): Colossians 3:1-11, Luke 6:20-26; Thursday (The Exaltation of the Holy Cross): Numbers 21:4-9, Philippians 2:6-11, John 3:13-17; Friday (Our Lady of Sorrows): 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12-14, John 19:25-27; Saturday (Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian): 1 Timothy 1:15-17, Luke 6:43-49

SEPT. 17-23

Sunday: Sirach 27:30-28:7, Romans 14:7-9, Matthew 18:21-35; Monday: 1 Timothy 2:1-8, Luke 7:1-10; Tuesday (St. Januarius): 1 Timothy 3:1-13, Luke 7:11-17; Wednesday (Sts. Andrew Kim Tae-gon and Paul Chong Ha-sang and Companions): 1 Timothy 3:14-16, Luke 7:31-35; Thursday (St. Matthew): Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13, Matthew 9:9-13; Friday: 1 Timothy 6:2-12, Luke 8:1-3; Saturday (St. Pius of Pietrelcina): 1 Timothy 6:13-16, Luke 8:4-15

Our parishes

September 1, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

Diocese of Charlotte R E AT N E S

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13th annual Eucharistic Congress Sept. 8-9, 2017

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Charlotte Convention Center

More information SPECIAL PULL-OUT: Inside this week’s edition, read an overview of the upcoming Eucharistic Congress FULL GUIDE: A PDF of the official Eucharistic Congress program guide is online at www. catholicnewsherald.com

Doreen Sugierski | Catholic News Herald

The Eucharistic Congress features many liturgical items that came from Fatima, Portugal – the site of apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd children 100 years ago. The

six candlesticks on the custom-built altar and the vestments worn by the priests and deacons are among the items acquired in Fatima.

more ONLINE: Go to www. goeucharist.com for everything you need to know before going to the Eucharistic Congress

Creating sacred space Items from Fatima add to beauty of Eucharistic Congress SueAnn Howell Senior reporter

CHARLOTTE — Every September the lower level of the Charlotte Convention Center is transformed from a dark, lifeless space into a joyful house of worship for thousands of Catholics attending the Diocese of Charlotte’s Eucharistic Congress. A signature part of the congress is the closing Mass, and this year’s celebration will be especially meaningful for one of its organizers.

Father Christopher Roux, rector and pastor of St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, helps to organize the liturgy for the Eucharistic Congress and serves as principal master of ceremonies.

Over the years, he and Father John Putnam, pastor of St. Mark Church in Huntersville, have helped acquire most of the liturgical items used during the congress from their pilgrimages to Fatima, Portugal, the home of the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, and it is the Year of the Immaculate Heart for the diocese – making the use of items from Fatima in the sacred liturgy this year all the more poignant.

Some of the items crafted in Fatima and brought back to Charlotte include 30 damask vestments for the principal Mass celebrants and 150 chasubles worn by other concelebrating priests at the congress, as well as at other large liturgical celebrations including the Chrism Mass. Also from Fatima are 80 white dalmatics worn by the deacons for these special liturgies.

“Most everything you see on the altar (at the Eucharistic Congress) came from Fatima,” Father Roux says. “It has happened over the time since we started the congress. We borrowed some things the first year, but then we began to acquire things over the years.”

The custom-designed altar at the Eucharistic Congress is topped with six large gold candlesticks acquired in Fatima, where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in 1917. Other items include the processional crosses and torches carried by the seminarians and altar servers in the Eucharistic procession.

“We have a tremendous number of volunteers who help us keep everything organized and packed and accounted for every year,” Father Roux says. “It’s a tremendous undertaking to move an entire church into and out of the convention center.”

The set-up process takes about 20 hours, from 8 a.m. Thursday until doors open to congressgoers at 6 p.m. Friday. That doesn’t include the months of planning that takes place leading up to the annual event. But the effort by scores of volunteers is worth every minute, Father Roux points out, because it enables the faithful to lift up their hearts to God in worship.

The “via pulchritudinis” – the way of beauty – is an essential part of the liturgy, he points out, because “the liturgy is a radiant expression of the paschal mystery, in which Christ draws us to Himself and calls us to communion,” quoting congress, SEE page 13

FATIMA ANNIVERSARY: At www. catholicnewsherald. com, follow coverage of the 100th anniversary celebrations of Our Lady of Fatima’s appearances, learn more about the history of Fatima through Father James Ebright’s series of commentaries, and see photos and videos highlights of the diocese’s recent Fatima Peace Pilgrimage

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UPcoming events 4

catholicnewsherald.com | September 1, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishop Peter J. Jugis will participate in the following upcoming events:

Correction

Sept. 2 – 5 p.m.

Installation of Father Paul Buchanan as Pastor Our Lady of Grace Church, Greensboro

Sept. 12 – 11 a.m.

Presbyteral Council Meeting Pastoral Center, Charlotte

Sept. 5 – 10 a.m.

Holy Mass for Missionaries of Charity Charlotte

Sept. 13 – 6 p.m.

Sacrament of Confirmation Immaculate Conception Church, Hendersonville

Sept. 8-9 13th Annual Eucharistic Congress Charlotte Convention Center, Charlotte

Sept. 17 – 9 a.m.

Sacrament of Confirmation Immaculate Heart of Mary Mission, Hayesville

A story in the Aug. 18 Catholic News Herald incorrectly identified which college Jack Deering is attending this fall. Deering attends University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. We regret the error.

Diocesan calendar of events September 1, 2017 Volume 26 • Number 24

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.

Entertainment Authentically Black Wholly Catholic “A Conversation in Music and Heritage”: 6:30-8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, at St. Gabriel Church, 3016 Providence Road, Charlotte. Everyone is welcome to attend an engaging evening featuring the soul-stirring gospel choir of Our Lady of Consolation Church.

Interspersed with hymns and music will be brief segments highlighting black culture and heritage, the conversion of Africans in America to Christianity, and the Church’s history with enslavement and place in the civil rights and Black Lives Matter movements. To RSVP, visit www.stgabrielchurch.org/RSVP or contact Cathy Esposito at 704-362-5047, ext. 276. an evening concert with Pianist sylvanna fraga: 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22, at St. Aloysius Church, 921 Second St., N.E., Hickory. Sylvanna Fraga will perform the most famous masterpieces including “Moonlight Sonata”

by Beethoven, “The Heroic Polonaise” by Chopin and more. For tickets and details, call the church office at 828-327-2341. Donations suggested but not required.

Fall Festival ‘Luke-a-palooza’: 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 23, at St. Luke Church, 13700 Lawyers Road, Mint Hill. Come celebrate, have fun, take a thrilling ride, play a game, eat delicious food, listen to great music, dance, take a chance, place a bid, buy a gift, be a sponsor or contribute. Proceeds to benefit St. Luke Ministries and Thomasboro Academy. For details, call the parish office at 704-545-1224.

Fourth annual Festival of Lebanon: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Commons Pkwy., Charlotte. Lebanese food and sweets, entertainment, cooking classes, souvenir shop, raffle drawing and fun for the entire family. For details, visit www.mmocnc.org/festival-of-lebanon. room at the inn 18th annual Benefit banquet ‘Building a culture of life with love’: Thursday, Oct. 5, at Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons, 3121 West Gate City Blvd., Greensboro. Featuring speaker Jeanne Mancini. For details or to sponsor a table, contact Marianne Donadio at 336-391-6299 or mdonadio@ Roominn.org.

Español 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. Inscripción e inicio de clases el 5 y 7 de septiembre. Para más información y para registrarse, llamar al 336-848-6970.

NATURAL Family Planning Respect life conference: 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 16, 109 Crescent Hill Road, Arden. The conference will include a variety of speakers and workshops on many Respect Life issues, from legislative tutorials to end of life ethics to post abortion healing and human trafficking. To register, contact Jessica Grabowski at 910-585-2460 or visit ccdoc.org/respectlife.

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

Saturday, Sept. 16, at St. Aloysius Church, 921 2nd St. N.E., Hickory. Topics include: effectiveness of modern NFP, health risks of popular contraceptives and what the Church teaches about responsible parenting. Sponsored

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

PRAYER SERVICES & Groups Pro-Life Rosary: 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, at 901 North Main St. and Sunset Drive, High Point. Come and help us pray for the end of abortion, and invite anyone else who would support this important cause. Anyone who would have difficulty standing for 15-20 minutes is welcome to bring a folding chair. Outdoors, rain or shine. For details, contact Jim Hoyng at 336-882-9593 or Paul Klosterman at 336-848-6835.

CCWG Evening Reflection: 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, at St. Mark Church, 14740 Stumptown Road, Huntersville. All catholic women are invited to attend.

The reflection starts at 7:30 p.m. Our guest speaker is Father Noah Carter, he will be sharing the story and writings of St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), specifically her collected works “On Woman.”

This event is free, to attend RSVP via our website www. charlottecatholicwomensgroup.org.

Divine Mercy Day of Healing: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy. For details and registration, go to www. stmatthewcatholic.org/divinemercy.

VIGIL OF THE TWO HEARTS: Join Catholics across Charlotte for Mass and overnight Eucharistic Adoration every first Friday-Saturday at St. Patrick Cathedral 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, beginning Sept. 1-2. For details and to sign up for Adoration times, go to www.prolifecharlotte.org.

Centennial Anniversary of Fatima: 7:30 p.m. the 13th of each month from May to October, at St. Michael the Archangel Church, 708 St. Michael’s Lane, Gastonia. All are invited to the recitation of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, outdoor candlelight procession and small reception.

For details, call the church office at 704-867-6212.

CHARLOTTE Maronite Mission: Masses are offered every Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at St. Matthew Church’s Waxhaw Campus, 4116 Waxhaw-Marvin Road, Waxhaw. The Maronite Mission 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.

SEMINARS/Retreats Encouragement for Women New To The Area, or Still Feeling New: 10 a.m.-noon or 7-8:30 p.m. beginning Wednesday, Sept. 13, at St. Thérèse Church, 217 Brawley School Road, Mooresville. A 10-week Just Moved–Newcomers’ class which will provide encouragement for women going through the transition and adjustment of moving. Based on the book “After the Boxes are Unpacked,” this is an opportunity to meet others, exchange insights and find the courage to put down roots all over again. Whether you stay at home, work outside the home, are single, married or retired, the stress of moving can overcome you at times. Make some time for yourself to share and to be assured by new friends that you will not feel lost in the shuffle.

For details, contact Sophia McNiff at 704-508-2217 or sophialmcniff@gmail.com.

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, contact Jackie Childers at Jack-ie.childers1@gmail.com.

Life in the Spirit Seminar: Oct. 27-29. 8 p.m. Mass, Friday, Oct. 27, at Our Lady of Mercy Church, 1730 Link Road, Winston-Salem; 8 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, and 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, at Holy Family Church, 4820 Kinnamon Road, Winston-Salem. The Life in the Spirit Seminar is an evangelization tool for a renewed life that will help us to have a deeper personal relationship with the Lord. It will allow us to receive a fuller experience of the work of the Spirit in our lives. For details, please contact Aimee Pena at 336-893-9534 or Lith Golamco at 732-453-4279.

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: Asheville: 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, St. Lawrence Basilica, 97 Haywood St. MOORESVILLE: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 6, St. Thérèse Church, 217 Brawley School Road GREENSBORO: 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, St. Paul the Apostle Church, 2715 Horse Pen Creek Road SALISBURY: 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 11, Sacred Heart Church, 375 Lumen Christi Lane

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

September 1, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com

Respect Life conference coming Sept. 16

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Annual collection Sept. 16-17 to help fund priests’ retirement and benefits plan

‘‘Humanae vitae’ 50 Years Later: Prophecy and Prescription for our Culture’ ARDEN — The Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte Respect Life office will sponsor a conference on “‘Humanae vitae’ 50 Years Later: Prophecy and Prescription for our Culture” from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, at St. Barnabas Church. Anyone interested in learning more about Church teaching on life issues is welcome to attend.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. John S. Grabowski, associate professor of Moral Theology and director of the Moral Theology/ Ethics department at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Grabowski earned a B.A. in theology at the University of Steubenville and a Ph.D. at Marquette University. He has served on the faculty at Catholic University for the past 25 years.

He and his wife Claire were appointed to the Pontifical Council for the Family by Pope Benedict XVI in the fall of 2009, where they have served as a member couple. He is also serving as a theological advisor to the USCCB’s Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family and Youth. In 2015 he was appointed by Pope Francis to serve as an expert (adiutor) at the Synod of Bishops on the Grabowski Family.

Grabowski has published widely in the areas of moral theology, marriage, sexuality and bioethics. His articles have appeared in scholarly journals as Nova et Vetera, The Thomist, The Heythrop Journal, and the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly as well as popular journals such as America, Commonweal, The Living Light and Share the Word.

His books include “Sex and Virtue: An Introduction to Sexual Ethics” (CUA Press, 2003) and “Transformed in Christ: Essays on the Renewal of Moral Theology” (Sapientia Press, 2017). He also wrote the foreword to the 1997 English edition of St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body.”

Grabowski has also taught a variety of courses for adults, catechists and lay ministers in the Washington area and has presented at conferences across the United States.

Other presenters during the Respect Life conference include Debbie Shinskie, who will address the topic of human trafficking. She has worked for a number of years as a maternalchild health registered nurse and educator for parents and professionals. She has two published textbooks in the field of human lactation.

Also active in her parishes and diocese, Shinskie has served as a parish Respect Life coordinator and master catechist with a focus in teaching Theology of the Body and RCIA topics before becoming director of the Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Presentations by Be Not Afraid Ministry and discussions of topics such as diocesan resources, end-of-life ethics, legislative Respect Life work, post-abortion healing/Rachel’s Vineyard, pregnancy support, regional pro-life resources and USCCB pro-life updates will also take place during the conference.

To register for the conference, contact Jessica Grabowski, diocesan Respect Life program director, at jrgrabowski@charlottediocese.org or call 910-585-2460 or 704-370-3229.

The diocesan Respect Life office is funded in part by the annual Diocesan Support Appeal.

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

OUR PARISHESI

Patricia L. Guilfoyle | Catholic News Herald

Priests from across the Diocese of Charlotte gathered Aug. 17 at St. Patrick Cathedral to give thanks for those celebrating jubilee anniversaries or retirement this year.

Growth of Church in western N.C. sign of Holy Spirit at work At jubilee Mass, Bishop Jugis thanks priests for ‘serving with joy’ Patricia L. Guilfoyle Editor

CHARLOTTE — The Church in western North Carolina is growing, and these “exciting times in our diocese” are all thanks to the Holy Spirit.

That was the message from Bishop Peter Jugis during the jubilee year Mass for priests Aug. 17.

Approximately 60 priests, including Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari from Belmont Abbey, joined Bishop Jugis for the jubilee Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral.

Bishop Emeritus William Curlin was principally honored during the Mass for his 60 years of priestly ministry. Bishop Curlin, who served as the third Bishop of Charlotte from 1994 to 2002, received prolonged applause from the priests and congregation at the end of Mass.

The Mass was also offered in thanksgiving for those celebrating 25 years of ordained ministry: Father Herbert Burke, Father George Byers, Father Stephen Hoyt, Father Andrew Latsko and Father John Putnam.

Monsignor John McSweeney was also honored on the occasion of his retirement.

In his homily, Bishop Jugis expressed gratitude to all of the priests for their service to Christ and His Church in western North Carolina – especially as it has grown over the past 45 years.

The Mass was offered during the diocese’s annual Priests’ Convocation Aug. 16-18, which focused on the theme “Missionary Discipleship: The Art and Spirituality of Pastoring in a Culturally

Diverse Diocese.”

This topic was particularly appropriate, Bishop Jugis noted, as he reflected on the growth and increasing diversity of the Charlotte diocese.

The number of Catholics living in western North Carolina has risen from just a few hundred in 1876, when the Benedictine monks founded Belmont Abbey, to more than 450,000 today.

Beyond the dramatic increase in numbers, the Catholic population has also become more diverse, Bishop Jugis noted.

“When all of us began serving in the Diocese of Charlotte, no matter what year it happened to have been, there was not the kind of diversity that we experience today,” he said.

“The Holy Spirit is constantly revealing for us new dimensions of the meaning of the words ‘one holy, catholic and apostolic.’”

Now, Mass is offered weekly in the Maronite rite, Ukrainian rite and SyroMalabar rite, as well as monthly in the Ge’ez rite.

“And their bishops have even appointed priests who are here with us to live here, to better serve the faithful of our sister churches,” he said.

There’s also incredible diversity in the Roman rite Church, he noted, with Masses offered weekly in English, Spanish, Hmong, Korean and Vietnamese, as well as occasionally in Polish and Igbo.

“Mass in the Extraordinary Form is also offered every week,” he added.

“And it’s all the work of the Holy Spirit,” he told the priests. “This is Catholicism … It is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, and it’s all happening right here. And you are a part of it – you are the ones making it happen.”

“I must thank you and commend you, my brothers, for all that you are doing JUBILEE MASS, SEE page 13

CHARLOTTE — There are 131 priests – 87 diocesan clergy and 44 clergy from nine religious orders – serving the People of God in the Diocese of Charlotte.

When it comes time for them to retire, the diocese wants to ensure they are taken care of since we have been blessed by their service through the years.

Bishop Peter Jugis, who shepherds the 92 churches and missions in the diocese, is asking the faithful to respond generously and with grateful hearts to the needs of the priests who faithfully serve us by contributing to the second collection Sept. 16-17 that will be taken up in all parishes.

“With the annual collection to fund the priests’ retirement and benefits plans, we financially sustain these men who give their lives to preach the Gospel and teach the Catholic faith; to lead God’s people in love; and to celebrate the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, in 92 parishes and missions throughout western North Carolina,” Bishop Jugis stated in a message to all parishioners.

He also points out that “even through the years of their retirement, these priests will continue to serve the people of our diocese. They will visit the sick in nursing homes and hospitals. They will go to our prisons, where they will counsel the inmates.

“Retired priests pray daily for the people of the diocese, offer Mass for the intentions of parishioners, and give of their time and talent to help with weekend Masses and confessions in parishes throughout the diocese.”

The diocese’s goal for the 2017 collection for the priests’ retirement and benefits plan is $1,823,000. Each parish is assessed 3.5% of their annual offertory to support the priests’ retirement and benefits plans.

This second collection defrays the amount that the parishes pay from their operating budgets.

Contributions from this collection will be added to pension plans for all active priests currently serving in our diocese, as well as the health benefits plan for active diocesan priests when they retire. For every dollar contributed, 55 cents goes to the Diocese of Charlotte Priests Pension Plan; 29 cents goes to the Diocese of Charlotte Retired Clergy Health Plan; 13 cents goes to pension contributions for religious order priests; and 3 cents goes to campaign costs.

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

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catholicnewsherald.com | September 1, 2017 OUR PARISHES

Diocese still welcoming refugees under revised federal travel restrictions Staff cuts not currently anticipated because of lower cap set by Trump administration CHARLOTTE — The Diocese of Charlotte continues to resettle refugees who have a “bona fide” relationship with refugees seeking to enter the United States from several majority-Muslim countries under the Trump administration’s temporary travel ban.

“We are still receiving cases that have a ‘bona fide’ relationship established,” said Susan Jassan, interim director of its Refugee Resettlement Office for the Diocese of Charlotte. “We expect a total of 25 individuals will arrive between Aug. 3 and Sept. 30.”

As part of his executive order instituting the travel ban, President Donald Trump capped the number of refugees this year at 50,000. That number, which was reached July 12, is down from the 110,000 set by President Barack Obama last October. In 2016, the U.S. took in 85,000 refugees.

The Charlotte diocese has resettled 255 refugees since Oct. 1, 2016. The majority have come from the Ukraine, Burma, Bhutan, Somalia and Syria. Another 54 have come from Cuba, but Catholic Charities’ resettlement and placement

services aren’t the same for those individuals.

From the countries banned by the Trump administration, the diocese’s refugee office has welcomed 56 people: 28 refugees from Somalia, 21 refugees from Syria, five from Iran, two from Sudan, and none from Libya or Yemen.

The U.S. Supreme Court said last month that grandparents may be included among those who have a “bona fide” relationship with refugees seeking to enter the United States from the majority-Muslim countries under the Trump administration’s temporary travel ban.

The Supreme Court originally announced June 26 that it would temporarily allow the Trump administration’s plan to ban refugees from the majority-Muslim countries, unless those refugees had “bona fide” relationships with parties in the United States, meaning certain family members, employees or universities.

The government’s list of family members included parents, spouses, children, adult sons or daughters, sons- and daughters-inlaw, siblings, fiancés, fiancées and in-law parents. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson July 13 ordered the Trump administration to expand that list to include grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and brothers- and sisters-in-law.

With the reduction in the number of refugees expected this year, staffing changes are possible for the local Refugee Resettlement offices in Charlotte and Asheville. More than 20 people work in those offices.

Refugees welcomed Oct. 1, 2016-Aug. 15, 2017 Countries covered by the revised travel ban:

28 Somalia

21 Syria

5 Iran

2 Sudan 0 Libya

Other nations: 54 Cuba 47 Ukraine 39 Burma 32 Bhutan 12 Afghanistan 12 Democratic Republic of Congo 11 Eritrea 11 Russia 9 Moldova 7 Iraq 5 Kazakhstan 4 El Salvador 4 Ethiopia 3 Latvia 2 Belarus 1 Honduras Tim P. Faragher | Catholic News Herald

“We are still waiting to make decisions on staffing changes,” Jassan said. “It will certainly be difficult to maintain our current staffing level with decreased arrivals.”

So far, the RRO has not made any staffing changes as a result of the travel ban, she said.

The travel ban and the current political climate in the United States have caused some concerns for refugees who are already here, Jassan noted.

I invite you to make space in your heart for this emergency of respecting the Godgiven rights of everyone to have access to adequate food. We share what we have in Christian charity with those who face numerous obstacles to satisfy such a basic need. At the same time we promote an authentic cooperation with the poor so that through the fruits of their and our work they can live a dignified life.

(Pope Francis, 12/10/13)

“We heard refugees expressing fears about living in the U.S. after the first executive order was issued in January,” she said. “It is not currently an overt expression on the part of refugees, as it was then.”

The Supreme Court has scheduled Oct. 10 to hear oral arguments in the Trump travel ban case.

— Kimberly Bender, online reporter. Catholic News Service contributed.

STAY THE

C

O U R SE

The 8th Bishop Begley Conference on Appalachia Saturday, Sept. 23 from 9:30 to 3:30 PM, Hayesville, NC

Food Insecurity in Far Western North Carolina Please come and learn more about how food insecurity manifests itself in rural areas in general, and in particular, in far western NC. Issues addressed include causes of food insecurity and its effects on vulnerable populations, and efforts being made to address this social concern.

A $15 fee covers lunch and refreshments. Registration requested by September 8. Go to ccdoc.org/fwnc for event location, directions,

“I was kind of lost. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, what program, what major I wanted to aim for and being in Stay the Course helped me set a goal of what I want.

Now I want to be a lawyer.”

Eligibility: • • • • •

Reside in zip code 27105 New to college or struggling to stay enrolled in college Under the age of 35 Low income (Pell Eligible) Enrolled in at least one non-distance learning class

schedule, and registration form. -Questions? Call 704-370-3225

Speak to Navigator Alexis Long, M.Ed, at the Mazie S. Woodruff Center.

Office hours: Monday – Thursday 8:30 am -5:00 pm and Friday 8:30 am – 2:00 pm Call 336.734.7949 or email: along@forsythtech.edu.

or email ccdocsca@charlottediocese.org

ccdoc.org/staythecourse

September 1, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI

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Photos by Doreen Sugierski | Catholic News Herald

From Czestochowa to Fatima CHARLOTTE — Connection and our shared faith was the theme at a recent celebration of Polish culture.

Approximately 350 people attended the sixth annual Polish Mass Aug. 27, celebrated in honor of Our Lady of Czestochowa and, in a nod to the 100th anniversary this year, Our Lady of Fatima.

Father Matt Nycz, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church in Tonawanda, N.Y., celebrated the Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, assisted by Deacon James Witulski. The two men’s lives are connected, as they discovered not too long ago.

Deacon Witulski first met Father Nycz on a pilgrimage to Poland. The Polish-born priest now serves in the Diocese of Buffalo, N.Y., where Deacon Witulski was born, and he pastors the church where Deacon Witulski received his first Holy Communion.

That wasn’t the only “small world” moment. The Mass was concelebrated by Father Matthew Bean of St. Thomas Aquinas Church, who is from Buffalo and trained as an altar server with Father Nycz when he was a priest at Sacred Heart Church in Buffalo.

“Amazing how things are connected on a small and a large scale in our lives and in the world,” Father Nycz noted in his homily.

“On a large, historic scale the feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa on Aug. 26 also has many important connections,” he said. “This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of apparitions at Fatima. Pope St. John Paul II, who had a very strong personal devotion to Our Lady of Czestochowa, strongly believed that it was the Blessed

Virgin Mary who saved his life in the assassination attempt on his life on May 13, 1981, in St. Peter’s Square. In fact, he believed that his life was spared so he could fulfill a most special mission to introduce to the world the message and devotion of the Divine Mercy as recorded in the diary of the Polish mystic St. Faustina Kowalska. In the year 2000, after instituting the Divine Mercy feast and the beatification of the two visionaries of Fatima, Francisco and Jacinta, the third secret of Fatima was revealed to the world by the Vatican with a commentary. The secret mentions a call by the Blessed Virgin for consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by a pope in order that God would grant the world a period of peace.”

He continued, “The last apparition at Fatima on Oct. 13, 1917, brought a great miracle of the dancing sun seen by about 70,000 people. Just recently, millions of people witnessed another great sign in the sky, the Aug. 21 Great American Eclipse. Aug. 21 is also a date of another apparition of Our Lady at Knock, Ireland. There the visionaries saw Mary, St. Joseph, an altar with the Lamb of God, and an Apostle holding a book.”

That book most likely symbolized Revelation, he noted, and then he connected that with the day after the eclipse, Aug. 22, which marked the feast of Mary Queen of Heaven, and an upcoming stellar and planetary alignment occurring Sept. 23 that some say depict Revelation’s description of Mary: “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

“Mary’s apparitions, messages, the miracles of nature and signs in the sky seen by millions are powerful spiritual

reminders and call for conversion in these times of dimming of our moral lives and darkening of our culture,” Father Nycz said. “In the past century we have been witnessing repeated, serious attempts to rewrite God-given moral codes and redefine human relation to God and to one another. Perhaps we can rededicate ourselves to the message of Fatima, which is always the message of Mary and Jesus: daily praying the rosary, personal sacrifice and penance, ongoing conversion, and the reception of God’s grace through the sacraments of the Church.”

Deacon Witulski gave thanks for all of the blessings that flowed from the celebration, which was an opportunity for people of all backgrounds to come together and experience Polish culture yet also our shared Catholic faith.

“Many people came forward to express their appreciation for the opportunity to experience the beauty of this Mass, and they traveled from the corners of our diocese. Some have come for the first time and others have come year after year,” he noted.

People lined up for hours to receive the sacrament of reconciliation in either Polish or English, and after the bilingual Mass they venerated first-class relics of Poland’s famous saints: St. John Paul II and St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. They also enjoyed fellowship and lots of traditional Polish food after the liturgy.

More online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: See more photos from the annual Polish Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Church

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catholicnewsherald.com | September 1, 2017 OUR PARISHES

Immaculate Conception named official chapter of Nocturnal Adoration Society Giuliana Polinari Riley Correspondent

Photos by Giuliana Polinari Riley | Catholic News Herald

Cross A Thon 2017 FOREST CITY — Approximately 150 people from Immaculate Conception Church took part in the fifth annual Cross A Thon Aug. 12, a fundraiser and public witness by parishioners through the streets of Forest City. Carrying wooden crosses of various sizes, parishioners walked the one-mile route on West Main Street from Immaculate Conception Church to Grace of God Rescue Mission in Forest City. Father Herbert Burke led the Eucharistic Procession carrying the Blessed Sacrament, along with Deacon Sigfrido Della Valle and altar servers. Afterward, Deacon Della Valle conducted a 30-minute service in the church with Benediction and a bilingual sermon on unity in the Church through the Eucharist. Parishioners enjoyed food and entertainment afterwards on the church grounds. Musicians included the group “Sweet Harmony” (composed of Grace, Emily and Charles Rybak), guitarist Eligio Hernandez, and the parish’s Spanish choir. Michael Daigle organized the first Cross A Thon five years ago as a public display of parishioners’ willingness to follow Jesus, and as a fundraiser for various charitable organizations. Proceeds from the Cross A Thon will benefit the Hands of Hope for Life, (Help Offered in a Pregnancy Experience), the Knights of Columbus Disaster Relief Fund, and the Knights of Columbus L.A.M.B. (Least Among Our Brethren) program.

FOREST CITY — Immaculate Conception Catholic Church has established as a chapter of the Nocturnal Adoration Society.

The installation ceremony was held during Mass Aug. 12, celebrated by Capuchin Franciscan Father Roberto Perez.

United States North America Society president Raul Mendoza came from the headquarter in Laredo, Texas, to preside over the ceremony, along with Society officer Antonio Hernandez. Immaculate Conception’s Deacon Sigfrido Della Valle assisted with the ritual.

Thirty-five parishioners, including some children, were inducted in the society. Inductees also came from Shelby, Hendersonville, Charlotte, Newton, Mocksville and Franklin, according to Mendoza.

Candidates were inducted in the society individually in front of the altar, where Deacon Della Valle presented them with a badge as remembrance of their commitment to be faithful to the Nocturnal Adoration devotion, while officer Hernandez held the new chapter flag on their shoulders.

Badges were also presented to Father Perez and Deacon Della Valle.

After the installation, dinner was offered in the parish hall, fallowed by a question-and-answer session led by Mendoza and Father Perez.

Mendoza urged the congregation to extend an invitation to English-speaking individuals to participate in Nocturnal Eucharistic Adoration, and emphasized that the Office of the Most Blessed Sacrament book used during the devotion is now offered in both English and Spanish.

The Spanish community of Immaculate Conception Church has observed Nocturnal Eucharistic Adoration for six years on the second Saturday of each month, beginning with a meeting at 9 p.m. followed by Adoration from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

CCDOC.ORG

Anxiety / Depression Acid Reflux / Sleep Hormones / Fatigue Cholesterol / Acne

Catholic Charities seeks a North Carolina licensed (LPC, LCSW) full-time mental health counselor in our Charlotte office. Primary duties include: completing structured psychosocial assessments, developing and maintaining evidence based treatment plans, rendering evidence based therapy interventions primarily for adults and couples, completing progress notes, independently maintaining scheduling of clients and work flows that meet agency productivity standards and ability to operate within a secure database system. Some evening work is required but will offer flex scheduling. Bilingual Spanish speaking skills a plus but is not required.

Cover letter and resume (2 pages maximum) must be submitted electronically by 5:00 PM on 9/29/17 to Bryan Sullivan at besullivan@charlottediocese.org . No telephone calls please. For a detailed job description please visit ccdoc.org/jobs.

September 1, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI

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KAMPN’s Camp Cogger wraps up 2017 season, focuses on building ‘LIFE Village’ Diana Patulak Ross Correspondent

DEEP GAP — With its sixth season drawn to a close, the campers of Kids with Autism Making Progress in Nature (KAMPN) at Camp Cogger have all headed home.

Located in Deep Gap, near Boone, the free summer camp is owned and run by Dr. Jim Taylor and his wife Sue along with Program Coordinator Kelsey Trevethan.

Additional help comes from students at nearby Appalachian State University and other schools in the area.

Like most summer camps it includes fishing, hiking, berry picking, scavenger hunts, nature walks and campfires. But what sets Camp Cogger apart is it includes both children with autism as well as their families.

While the 2017 camp season has ended, fundraising for the planned KAMPN LIFE (Living Innovations for the Exceptional) Village continues.

The idea for a sustainable, residential community for adults with autism had been in Taylor’s mind for a number of years but it wasn’t until he met Candace Lang one summer that the idea became an actual project.

Lang’s daughter Erin was born with cerebral palsy and later diagnosed with autism. As her daughter grew older, Lang and husband, Rich, worried about who would care for her when they no longer could. Options in the area were limited.

“After the age of 21, services offered by the school system end,” Lang said. “All of the support staff that has been with our children since preschool are gone, leaving many families with little to no support.”

Lang crossed paths with Taylor in July 2014 after hearing about the success of Camp Cogger. After sharing her vision of an intentional community with Taylor, they agreed they were of the same mind and started the LIFE initiative.

In June 2016, Lang moved to Boone to work with Taylor on the project. In September she was hired as development director and together with Melissa Shore, a KAMPN Board member and mom of two boys on the autism spectrum, developed a business plan, designed a website, launched social media efforts and started grant writing. There are now three committees: Fundraising, Land Acquisition and Compliance.

“In the next 15 years, 500,000 children on the autism spectrum will be entering adulthood with few housing options,” Lang explains. “Where will these individuals live when their aging parents can no longer care for them?”

“As modern medicine and advances in education have allowed for our exceptional members of society to live longer lives, we must begin to plan for what happens when adults with disabilities enter adulthood,” Taylor adds.

Dr. Taylor is a 4th degree Knights of Columbus at St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country in Boone. Camp Cogger was named after another 4th degree Knight, the late Frank Cogger, He was a very dedicated and widely respected Knight in Conover.

Taylor has worked with children with disabilities and their families since 1964. Over the years the Knights have supported him in numerous programs in which he has been involved, even helping to build a playground on Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands where he was on sabbatical leave from East Carolina University.

This coming April, National Autism Month, plans are being developed to

have several cycling events, called “Cycling4LIFE,” conducted in several cities in western North Carolina. The Knights have expressed an interest in helping Taylor again and he plans to use future proceeds to help build the first residence at the LIFE Village. He is considering naming it “Knight’s Manor.”

While Camp Cogger is a summer program, LIFE Village will be a permanent residential community for adults who are on the autism spectrum or those with related disabilities who live in the North Carolina High Country. Like Camp Cogger, it will be a nonprofit.

Camp Cogger was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary on May 1, 2011, and was incorporated and received its 501c(3) status the same day. The law firm handling the legal paperwork said they had never seen that happen before as the process of becoming a nonprofit usually takes six months to a year, Taylor noted, adding, “Let’s pray for the same type of miracle for the LIFE Village.”

Get more info For DETAILS about volunteering or donating to either Camp Cogger or LIFE Village, go to www. kampn4autism.appstate.edu/camp-cogger or www. thelifevillage.net, or check them out on Facebook at KAMPN4Autism or KAMPNLIFEVillage. You can also email KAMPN4autism@gmail.com or info@ thelifevillage.net.

Photo provided by Dr. Jim Taylor

Residents of KAMPN enjoy an outdoor activity at their summer camp in Deep Gap.

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catholicnewsherald.com | September 1, 2017 OUR PARISHES

Experiencing difficulties in your marriage?

A Lifeline for Marriage September 22 – 24, 2017 in Raleigh, NC The Retrouvaille Program consists of a weekend experience combined with a series of 6 post-weekend sessions. It provides the tools to help put your marriage in order again. The main emphasis of the program is on communication in marriage between husband and wife. It will give you the opportunity to rediscover each other and examine your lives together in a new and positive way.

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

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Photo provided by Lisa Geraci

St. Luke’s Knights of Columbus council hosts Third Degree Exemplification Lisa Geraci Correspondent

Upcoming Days of Reflection Join Catholic Charities for an opportunity to gather with other seniors from around the diocese to deepen and share one’s faith. Days of Reflection provide the chance to experience the inspiring power of God’s love and be nourished by His word as one continues a life-long journey of faith.

• Tuesday, October 3rd Location: St. Mark Catholic Church, 14740 Stumptown Road, Huntersville, NC 28078 Presenter: Sr. Mary Hugh Mauldin, RSM, MA Topic: “God in My Life – My Life in God” Cost: $10 per person includes lunch – Make checks payable to Catholic Charities Deadline for Registration: Thursday, Sept. 21st • Thursday, October 26th Location: Catholic Conference Center, 1551 Trinity Lane, Hickory, NC 28602 Presenter: Fr. Ed Sheridan Cost: $15 per person includes morning snack & lunch – Make checks payable to Catholic Charities Deadline for Registration: Monday, Oct. 16th • Wednesday, November 8th Location: Holy Family Catholic Church, 4820 Kinnamon Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27103 Presenter: Fr. Brian Cook Cost: $15 per person includes hors d’oeuvres and lunch – Make checks payable to Holy Family Young at Heart Deadline for Registration: Monday, Oct. 30th To Register: Contact Sandra Breakfield at 704-370-3220 or email sabreakfield@charlottediocese.org

MINT HILL — On Aug. 12, St. Luke Church had the honor of hosting the Knights of Columbus’ Third Degree Exemplification Ceremony. Forty-one men from 12 different councils traveled from as far as Boone to become “Knighted.”

St. Luke Church welcomed the largest contingent, with 17 new Knights – largely thanks to co-membership directors Billy Bushman’s and Fabio Revilla’s successful recruitment of Hispanic parishioners.

St. Luke’s Deacon Rafael Torres, Father Binoy Davis (priest chaplain from Knights of Columbus Council 10582) and seminarian Pablo Lopez all reached “full knighthood,” receiving the fraternal degree.

In attendance were several state officers and grand knights, including State Secretary Dan Lange, State Warden Sergio Miranda, State Family Director Fred Burton, and Regional Membership and Planning Consultant Ron Cortopassi.

More than 40 Exemplification personnel and observers solemnly watched the prestigious occasion.

The Exemplification honoree was David R. Jones, who passed away last year. Jones served as past state deputy, district deputy, Third Degree captain and St. Luke grand knight. He was an example of everything

the Knights symbolize, giving charity to the distressed and expressing love of God and family, unity and fraternity with the Knights, and support for the Mint Hill community. Jones hosted this very ceremony 10 years earlier, but his calling still lives on through the memories he instilled in his wife Cheryl, his brother Knights and his parish community.

Cris Caines as conferring officer and Art Mathieu as warden led the Exemplification Ceremonial Team. Alongside St. Luke’s Exemplification Leader Don Cermack, the team was able to execute the mission in only two months instead of the usual threeplus months.

“The ceremony is one of the best I have attended over the last 20 years, and I have been to a lot of them. All three did a fabulous job,” said fellow Knight Jim Strauss.

The induction date of Aug. 12 is a symbolic day for the Knights in another way. It is the birthday of the founder of the Knights of Columbus, Venerable Father Michael J. McGivney. The newly called Third Degree Knights ended with a prayer for the late Father McGivney, praying for his canonization using prayer cards blessed upon Father McGivney’s sarcophagus that had been provided by Assembly 2208 Faithful Navigator David DeBrosse. The cards will become third-class relics if Father McGivney is declared a saint.

September 1, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI

CCDOC.ORG

Case Coordinator - Winston-Salem Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte seeks a full-time Case Coordinator to manage the regional direct assistance programs, provide case management services, and work closely with agency staff and community collaborators.

Go to www.ccdoc.org/jobs for details.

Program Director - Winston-Salem, NC Photo provided by John Russell

St. Pius X Knights hold fund raiser GREENSBORO — St. Pius X Knights of Columbus met at the Harris Teeter on Battleground Avenue and Horsepen Creek Road Aug. 12 for an all-day fund raising event in support of L.A.M.B. (Least Among My Brethren), a foundation whose sole purpose is to aid and support people with intellectual disabilities. Their efforts raised almost $1,000. Pictured are (from left): Dan Shepard, Neil Rochette, Glenn Spivey, Burt Brown, Lily Allen, Joe Allen, Council L.A.M.B. Director John Kosco and Dan Allen.

Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte seeks a full-time professional to administer, plan and coordinate program services in accordance with grant and agency requirements, supervise staff, and interface with funders and community collaborators.

Go to www.ccdoc.org/jobs for details.

CCDOC.ORG

Paul Doizé | Catholic News Herald

Helping out

Forgiveness and Healing Following Abortion

KERNERSVILLE — Members of the Knights of Columbus Council 8592, including Mike Mastrolia (pictured above) recently collected money for L.A.M.B. (Least Among My Brethren) during Kernersville’s annual Honeybee Festival Aug. 19. The Knights ended up collecting $428 in the seven hours the festival was held which, according to Grand Knight Dennis Machuga, “is the largest amount in the last three years that I’ve been involved.”

Catholic Charities can help men and women who have experienced abortion begin their healing journey. Rachel’s Vineyard Weekend Retreat creates a healing environment of prayer and forgiveness. The retreat works to reconnect individuals to themselves, their friends, and family and to realize God’s ever present love.

Diocese of Charlotte Greensboro Area

October 20-22, 2017 For more information please contact either: Jackie Childers: 980-241-0251 / Jackie.childers1@gmail.com Jennifer Ganser: 336-209-2161 / jmganser@charlottediocese.org

Other Ramianing 2017 Retreats In Sourounding Dioceses Archdiocese of Atlanta, GA Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2017

Contact: 404-717-5557 / pathjody@gmail.com

Diocese of Richmond, VA October 13-15, 2017

Photo provided by Dennis Machuga

Saying thanks KERNERSVILLE — In appreciation for their dedication and service to the parish, the Holy Cross Knights of Columbus Council 8509 recently treated the parish’s altar servers to a bowling party at Countryside Lanes in Kernersville. The 25 youth who attended were treated to two games of bowling, hotdogs, cookies and snacks.

Contact: 804-432-2589 / rv4hope@gmail.com

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catholicnewsherald.com | September 1, 2017 OUR PARISHES

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief Charlotte-area Catholics called to participate in ‘Vigil of the Two Hearts’ CHARLOTTE — 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. Tying in the First Friday and Saturday devotions of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts together with Mass and Adoration, 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, beginning Sept. 1-2 and Oct. 6-7.

The city-wide prayer effort is being organized by the Catholic Pro-Life Action Network (C-PLAN) and local parish Respect Life ministries. For details and to sign up for Adoration times, go to www.prolifecharlotte.org.

Charlotte parishioner takes religious vows CHARLOTTE — Brian Sullivan, a member of St. Matthew Church in Charlotte, recently professed his first vows as a Capuchin Franciscan brother. He made his profession of vows with the Province of the Sacred Stigmata on July 21 during Mass at St. Francis of Assisi Sullivan Church in Hackensack, N.J. His parents are Pat and Ralph Sullivan also of St. Matthew Catholic Church.

Photo provided by Maggie Herbstritt

N.C. Columbiettes elected to national leadership positions UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Three North Carolina Columbiettes were recently elected to the group’s national board during the 59th Columbiettes Supreme Council Convention. Elected to the Supreme Board were: Anne Sullivan, Supreme Advocate, who was elected as Supreme Financial Secretary; Carole Samperton, Supreme Director, who was elected as Supreme Sentinel; and Marlene Korn, N.C. Immediate Past President, who was elected as a three-year director to the Supreme Board.

Five delegates from North Carolina traveled to attend the Aug. 18-19 convention, which had as its theme “Lend a Hand – Lift a Heart�: N.C. State President Sara Archer, a member of St. Matthew Church in Charlotte; State Immediate Past President Marlene Korn, a member of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Lexington; State Vice President Ginny Grant, also a member of Our Lady of the Rosary Church; State Secretary Maggie Herbstritt, and Past State President Megan Hauser, both from Bishop Greco in Clemmons. Supreme Advocate Anne Sullivan and Supreme Director Carole Samperton also attended the convention, as did Mary Couvillon, N.C. Eastern Chapter President; Past N.C. President Marge Benes and her husband Dave; and Gen Rollin from St. James the Greater Auxiliary in Charlotte.

North Carolina became a Columbiettes state in 2000, and is now the fourth largest Columbiette state nationwide with 894 members. The Columbiettes are a charitable service organization that works hand-in-hand with the Knights of Columbus.

Being a spouse of a Knight of Columbus is not necessary to join the Columbiettes. All practicing Catholic women 18 or older are welcome to join.

To learn more about joining or forming a Columbiette auxiliary, contact Marlene Korn, N.C. State Expansion Chairperson, at marjkorn@atmc.net.

$10,000 reported stolen from St. Ann Church bank deposit

7R -HVXV WKURXJK 0DU\ LQ WKH VSLULW RI 6W -RVHSK ZH HPEUDFH WKH YLUWXHV RI VLPSOLFLW\ VHOI VDFULILFH DQG FKDULW\ LQ RXU DSRVWROLF ZRUNV Come, see for yourself what joy it is to be a Sister of St. Joseph the Worker For information contact: Sister Patricia Jean, SJW sjwvocations@gmail.com www.ssjw.org

CHARLOTTE — Police are investigating the reported robbery of more than $10,000 from St. Ann Church’s weekly bank deposit.

According to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police report, an unarmed man robbed a parish employee Aug. 28 when she attempted to deposit the parish’s weekly offertory in the night deposit box at the Wells Fargo branch used by the parish. The total taken amounted to $10,654.

According to the report, the suspect accosted the employee outside the bank Monday a little after 11 a.m. and “strong arm robbed her,� then “fled the scene on foot.� The employee was not injured, and she immediately alerted police.

The stolen cash, totaling $1,816, will be covered by insurance and will not affect parish finances. Another $8,838 in checks were also in the bag. The parish will be contacting parishioners whose checks were among those stolen. Additionally, a claim will be filed with the Diocese of Charlotte’s insurance carrier for stolen funds that are not ultimately recovered, diocesan officials said. — Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor

OLC gospel choir to perform at St. Gabriel Church CHARLOTTE — All are invited to an upcoming performance of the award-winning Our Lady of Consolation gospel choir from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 20, at St. Gabriel Church.

The program is entitled “Authentically Black –

Photo provided by Capuchin Franciscan Father Martin Schratz

On mission HENDERSONVILLE — Nearly two dozen teens and adults from Immaculate Conception Church recently participated in a mission trip to the Dominican Republic, spending a week working on various community projects, praying and having fun with their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Wholly Catholic: A Conversation in Music and Heritage Featuring Our Lady of Consolation’s Gospel Choir.� Interspersed with hymns and music will be brief segments highlighting black culture and heritage, the conversion of Africans in America to Christianity, and the Church’s history with enslavement and place in the civil rights and Black Lives Matter movements.

The program is free, but RSVP to www. stgabrielchurch.org/RSVP or to Cathy Esposito at 704-362-5047, ext. 276. St. Gabriel Church is located at 3016 Providence Road.

Sept. 23 Begley Conference to highlight food insecurity HAYESVILLE — “Food Insecurity in Western

North Carolina,� the eighth Bishop Begley Conference on Appalachia sponsored by Catholic Charities, will be held starting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, at Hayesville First United Methodist Church. Anyone interested in learning more about food insecurity in the far western rural counties of North Carolina – its causes and its effects on vulnerable populations and efforts being made to address this concern – is welcome to attend.

Hayesville First United Methodist Church is located at 989 US-64 Bus. in Hayesville. Go to www.ccdoc.org/fwnc for details.

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

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Diocese of Charlotte Eucharis

‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord’

What’s at the Eucha

Adoration, prayer & confessio

This year’s Eucharistic Congress highlights the Year of the Immaculate Heart of Mary CHARLOTTE — The faithful of the Diocese of Charlotte are invited to the 13th annual Eucharistic Congress – a free, two-day event celebrating our Catholic faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist Sept. 8-9 at the Charlotte Convention Center.

In what has become an annual gathering of the Church in western North Carolina, the Eucharistic Congress is expected to attract more than 15,000 people from around the state and the Southeast.

As Bishop Peter Jugis has announced this is a special Year of Mary in the diocese, this year’s Eucharistic Congress theme is “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,” which are Mary’s words from the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel.

The congress will include Mass; a Eucharistic procession through uptown Charlotte; the sacrament of confession; speakers and programs geared especially for adults, children and college students; vendors offering Catholic merchandise and information; and more.

It will begin at 7 p.m. Friday with a welcome from Bishop Jugis in Hall A of the Convention Center. At 7:15 p.m. Byzantine rite vespers will be prayed. This will be followed by a Bible study at 8:15 p.m. by Father Jeffrey Kirby entitled: “With Our Lady in Spiritual Battle.”

Father Kirby is the pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church in Indian Land, S.C. He holds a doctorate in moral theology from Holy Cross University in Rome and a Master of Arts in philosophy from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He serves as an adjunct professor of theology at Belmont Abbey College and Pontifex University. He has written several books, including “Lord, Teach Us to Pray” and “Kingdom of Happiness: Living the Beatitudes in Everyday Life.”

After the Bible study, there will be an evening Eucharistic procession to St. Peter Church starting at 9 p.m., where Adoration will take place all night. There will also be a special College Night program for college students during which the G.K. ChesterTones will perform.

Saturday’s congress events kick off at 9:15 a.m. with a Eucharistic procession that follows a new route from St. Peter Church to the Charlotte Convention Center.

A Holy Hour – featuring a homily by Monsignor Christopher Schreck, rector of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio – will immediately follow the procession at 10:15 a.m.

An English track, Spanish track, Vietnamese program, and youth and college student tracks will be offered throughout the day. Bishop Peter Jugis will celebrate Mass at the conclusion of the congress Saturday at 4:15 p.m.

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

Mass and fellowship with thousands of other Catholics from across our diocese

More information online At www.goeucharist.com: See the full schedule of events, read more about the featured speakers and activities, get parking information, and more.

#GoEucharist Connect with the Congress FOLLOW LIVE COVERAGE OF THE EUCHARISTIC PROCESSION starting after 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept.

9, on Facebook Live and Twitter (@CatholicNewsCLT).

SHARE YOUR PHOTOS AND COMMENTS via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Use the hashtag #GoEucharist to connect with other participants. Follow the Catholic News Herald’s coverage on Twitter (@CatholicNewsCLT) and Facebook.

ENTER OUR CONTEST Visit www.catholicnewsherald.com before Sept. 13 and enter our online contest for a chance to win a $25 Visa gift card.

Educational talks, music and fun

English and Spanish Tracks speaker line-up Holy Hour homilist: Monsignor Christopher Schreck Rector of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio

Bible Study: Fr. Jeffrey Kirby

English Track: Dr. Mario Enzler

English Track: Sr. John Dominic Rasmussen

‘With Our Lady in Spiritual Battle’

‘I Served a Saint–St. John Paul II’

‘Forming Children as Disciples of Christ: Education in Virtue

Pastor, Our Lady of Grace Church in Indian Land, S.C.

Former Swiss Guard, now headmaster of a classical academy in New Hampshire

8:15 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8

12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9

Dominican nun, author of Christian curriculum based on Aquinas’ teachings

10:15 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 9 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9

stic Congress – Sept. 8-9, 2017 LINE UP:

(Wells Fargo Plaza) • Banners • Faithful

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aristic Congress?

Heads up! Eucharistic procession route, line-up and start time are different this year The Eucharistic Procession, in which Bishop Peter J. Jugis carries a monstrance containing a consecrated host – the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – is a highlight of the two-day Eucharistic Congress. This year, the procession line-up, route and start time have been changed to accommodate another event taking place near St. Peter Church.

The Eucharistic Procession will begin at 9:15 a.m. at St. Peter Church at 507 S. Tryon St. Please do not gather near St. Peter Church or in The Green.

As is tradition, this year’s First Communicants will lead the procession.

First Communicants should assemble at the intersection of South Tryon Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard by 8:30 a.m. The street will be closed off to allow the procession to assemble. First Communicants should wear their First Communion attire. Parents must walk alongside their children throughout the procession.

Banner carriers should arrive no later than 8:30 a.m. to be lined up at Wells Fargo Plaza.

The faithful are encouraged to spread out along the procession route and join the procession behind their parish’s or organization’s banner as it passes by on its way to the Charlotte Convention Center.

The procession will proceed north on Tryon Street, then turn onto East Third Street. From there, the procession will turn right onto Brevard Street, then turn right onto Stonewall Street and continue into the Charlotte Convention Center. Enter the convention center through the large doorway, where ushers will then direct you. Inside the Convention Center, only the banner carriers will process down the main aisle.

The Eucharistic Procession will culminate inside Hall A of the convention center, where a Holy Hour will be celebrated starting at 10:15 a.m. Saturday. Monsignor Christopher Schreck,

rector of the Pontifical College Josephinum, will deliver the Holy Hour homily.

Following the Holy Hour, silent Eucharistic Adoration will be held in the Chapel in Hall B, adjacent to the Confession Area. Members of the Knights of Columbus will stand at the entrance to the Chapel, where everyone is invited to come in, kneel and pray for as long as they like. Adoration will conclude at 4 p.m., and the celebration of Holy Mass will begin at 4:15 p.m. with Bishop Peter J. Jugis as the main celebrant.

— Catholic News Herald

English Track: Anthony J. Digmann

Spanish Track: Fr. Rafael Capó

Spanish Track: Fr. José Luis Serrano

Spanish Track: Fr. Julio Domínguez

‘Introduction to Catholic Apologetics’

‘El Papel de Maria en la Evangelización’ Participa en las principales organizaciones del ministerio hispano y sirve en la Iglesia de los EEU

‘El Mensaje de Maria a las Familias’

‘Acto de Reparación a los Sagrados Corazones’ Sacerdote diocesano de la diócesis de Charlotte, Encargado del Congreso Eucarístico en la parte Hispana

Catholic religious ed teacher, author and video producer 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9

12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9

Es sacerdote de la Diócesis de Tampico, México 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9

2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9

Mass homilist: Bishop Peter Jugis Bishop of Charlotte and founder of the diocesan Eucharistic Congress 4:15 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9

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YOUR FIRST COMMUNICANTS ARE INVITED TO PROCESS WITH US! His Excellency, The Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis, Bishop of Charlotte

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Where: First Communicants should

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Digital Editions Free Trials!

September 1, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

Find out how to help underwrite a Radio Station in your community.

CarolinaCatholicRadio.org

The Carolina Catholic Radio Network (CCRN) is looking for Parishes, Catholic Schools and Home Schools to partner with us to develop compelling local programs that broadcast what’s happening with our Catholic Faith, our Parish Ministries and our Catholic Schools/Home Schools. We have several radio stations available to underwrite across the diocese. All network programming is provided by EWTN as a gift from Mother Angelica.

We seek to Spread the Truth of the Eternal Word across the Charlotte Diocese and North Carolina!

REVERENT COVERINGS Offering chapel veils and other clothing in following Our Lady in reverent femininity Booth #s 616, 618 “I Come from Heaven” - Our Lady of Fatima

Andrea Hines 704-996-4597 revcoverings@gmail.com

Photo provided by Father Mark Lawlor

Bishop Emeritus William Curlin shares a smile after Mass with Bishop Peter Jugis and Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio. Bishop Curlin is celebrating his 60th anniversary of ordination this year.

JUBILEE MASS FROM PAGE 5

to meet the pastoral needs of this growing, diverse Catholic population. It’s a lot of work, and I know that you are working hard,” he said.

“I also thank you for serving with joy and

CONGRESS FROM PAGE 3

from Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis.”

“As Saint Bonaventure would say, in Jesus we contemplate beauty and splendor at their source,” the pope wrote. “This is no mere aestheticism, but the concrete way in which the truth of God’s love in Christ encounters us, attracts us and delights us, enabling us to emerge from ourselves and drawing us towards our true vocation, which is love.

“The truest beauty is the love of God, who definitively revealed Himself to us in the paschal mystery. The beauty of

with genuine love for your parishioners, because that reveals to all of us that you have a shepherd’s heart.”

“As we honor our brothers on their jubilees of priesthood and retirement, let us all be grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given us to serve in these exciting times in our diocese,” he prayed. “May we return to Him 30-, 60-, 100-fold for all that He has given us.”

the liturgy is part of this mystery; it is a sublime expression of God’s glory and, in a certain sense, a glimpse of heaven on earth.”

It is for this reason that Father Roux wanted to bring back items from a holy place such as Fatima to share with the faithful of the Diocese of Charlotte, he says.

“We could simply have Mass in a big empty room with a couple of candles. But due to the importance of what it is we are doing and what it is we are celebrating, and the importance of beauty in worship – raising our hearts and minds to God – we made the conscious effort to try to make that room as beautiful and church-like as possible.

“Beauty is a reality, and beauty helps raise our hearts and minds to God.”

The more times you enter, the higher your chances to win! Contest ends Sept. 13.

WIN A $25 VISA GIFT CARD! Visit the Catholic News Herald on Facebook Follow us on Twitter @catholicnewsCLT Read the Catholic News Herald online at the redesigned www.catholicnewsherald.com, with: • More photos and videos

• More local news

• Classified job listings

• Fully compatible with all mobile devices and tablets

Subscribe to our free PDF e-edition Email catholicnews@charlottediocese.org or call 704-370-3333

Estate Planning Elder Law | Probate WAITING COULD DEVASTATE YOUR FAMILY St. Matthew’s Parishioner

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Our schools 14

catholicnewsherald.com | September 1, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Welcome back to class Students return to school across the Diocese of Charlotte

SALISBURY — Sacred Heart students started back to school Aug. 23, opening the day with a morning assembly that included saying Pledge of Allegiance, praying the Lord’s Prayer and singing The Star Spangled Banner.

SALISBURY — Third-grade teacher Erin Brinkley turned a small corner of the classroom into a prayer retreat. Father John Eckert, pastor, blessed the classroom grotto.

Photos provided by Robin Fisher

GREENSBORO — Happy first-graders in Mary Katherine Branson’s class at the first day at St. Pius X School.

GREENSBORO — Kate Dickson’s and Emme Garner’s students had a fun time with their first-grade class at St. Pius X School.

Photos via Facebook

More online At catholicnewsherald.com: See more photos from the schools

Photo via Facebook

CHARLOTTE — Seventh- and eighth-graders return to Holy Trinity Middle School excited for the year.

September 1, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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Photos by Tara Heilingoetter | Catholic News Herald

Stepping up to the plate for a new school year CHARLOTTE — Families in the Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools system enjoyed a Charlotte Knights ball game Aug. 20 to kick off the start the new school year this month. Students from St. Gabriel School sang the National Anthem and Christ the King High School baseball player Nicholas Hodges threw out the first pitch. Families brought donations to aid the local Catholic Charities food pantry.

GASTONIA — The first week at St. Michael School ended with a blessing by Father Matthew Buettner, pastor, who blessed the hallways, classrooms and offices.

Photo via Facebook

Photo provided by Amy Burger

HUNTERSVILLE — Students are welcomed back by Monsignor Richard Bellow as they go to their classrooms at St. Mark School Aug. 23.

GREENSBORO — Our Lady of Grace School eighth-graders start their final year with a team tower challenge to encourage teamwork.

Photo VIA FACEBOOK

KERNERSVILLE — Our Lady of Grace School alumni gear up for freshmen orientation at Bishop McGuinness High School.

Photo via Facebook

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catholicnewsherald.com | September 1, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Invites You

23rd Annual Fundraising Banquet

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief

“Love Begins At Home”

CCHS Debate and Speech Team elects officers

Thursday, October 19, 2017 Check-in: 5:30 p.m. ~ Dinner: 6:30 p.m.

Charlotte Convention Center ~ Crown Ballroom

Featured Speaker ~ Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle, a Catholic wife, mother and grandmother, is an award-winning and best-selling journalist and author of over two dozen books. She enjoyed a decade-long friendship with St. Teresa of Calcutta and her spiritual director was John A. Hardon, S.J. She also is a television host on EWTN and creator of Everyday Blessings for Catholic Moms, Catholic Mom’s Café, and Feeding Your Family’s Soul. She participated in an international congress for women at the Vatican, received a special blessing from St. Pope John Paul II for her work on St. Teresa of Calcutta and appears on national television and radio. Her memoir is entitled The Kiss of Jesus.

Reservations are free but REQUIRED. Deadline to register is October 9, 2017.

To make your reservation or host a table of 8-10 people, register online: https://miraviabanquet23.eventbrite.com OR meganwhiteside@mira-via.org, 704-525-4673 ext. 13.

MiraVia, Inc. is a Catholic non-profit maternity and after-care program serving women and their children in the Charlotte, N.C. region. All material support and services are offered free of charge to clients. Please visit our website, www.mira-via.org, for more information.

St. Gabriel teacher accepted to Notre Dame School Leadership Program CHARLOTTE — St. Gabriel School teacher Kaylin Ranagan was recently accepted into the MaryAnn Remick Leadership program at the University of Notre Dame. This rigorous, 25-month program prepares transformational school leaders who make God known, loved and served as they build robust Catholic school communities.

After completing the program, Ranagan will receive a master’s degree in educational leadership, joining more than 60 percent of St. Gabriel School teachers who have a master’s degree in an area of education. Ranagan is pictured with St. Gabriel School Principal Michele Snoke.

CHARLOTTE — The Debate and Speech Team at Charlotte Catholic High School is ready to begin the 2017-’18 season, and has elected a slate of new officers.

Pictured are Co-Presidents Connor Ruff and Charles Nenichka; Vice President of Debate Caleb Schilly; Vice President of Speech Myia LeGrande; Lincoln-Douglas Debate Captains David Williams, Jack Kelly and David Edwards; Public Forum Debate Captains Will McKane, TJ DiVittorio, Charles Haltiwanger and AJ Sciacca; and Speech Captain Samantha Pean. Not pictured is Secretary Elizabeth Gregory.

Plans are under way for the fourth annual Queen City Invitational Debate and Speech Tournament, which will be hosted by Charlotte Catholic on Oct. 28. More than 700 attendees are expected from schools across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.

— Carolyn Kramer Tillman We welcome your school’s news! Please email news items and photos to Editor Patricia L. Guilfoyle at plguilfoyle@charlottediocese.org.

— Darby McClatchy

Part I: Worship Main Church 9:00 am Mass, Exposition, Singing of Chaplet, Anointing of Sick, Blessing with St. Faustina’s Relic

Part II: Symposium ($35) Banquet Room Spiritual Care for the Sick and Dying Resource tables are open during meals and breaks.

10:15 am

Registration/Continental Breakfast

10:45 am

Welcome and Hymn

11:00 am

Spiritual Care for the Sick and Dying Rev. Jeffrey Kirby, STD

11:45 am

Box Lunch/Resource Tables

12:15 pm

St. Faustina’s Spirituality in Dealing with Illness, Death, Scorn, Fear Rev. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC

1:00 pm

15 Minute Break/Resource Tables

9 am to 3 pm

1:15 pm

St. Matthew Pastoral Care Ministry Deacon Gary Schrieber

September 16, 2017

2:00 pm

Keynote Address: Healthcare Professionals Bringing Divine Mercy to Spiritual Care Dr. Bryan Thatcher

2:45 pm

Resource Tables

3:00 pm

Closing

Spiritual Care of the Sick and Dying St. Matthew Catholic Church

8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy Charlotte, NC 28277 (704) 543—7677

Cry of the Poor

God Bless America

Register at www.stmatthewcatholic.org/divinemercy

Mix

September 1, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

For the latest movie reviews: catholicnewsherald.com

In theaters

Congregation centennial: Supporting Eastern Catholics against all odds Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

‘All Saints’ Fact-based story of a dwindling Episcopal parish in Smyrna, Tenn., and the pastor (John Corbett) assigned by the local bishop to shut it down and sell off its property. Partly due to the revitalizing influence of an influx of devoutly Anglican refugees from Southeast Asia, the clergyman sees unexpected hope for his congregation and launches a scheme to preserve the community, and help the newcomers, by transforming the fields around the church into a profitable farm. His plan draws the support of his dedicated wife but the steady opposition of an ornery veteran parishioner.

Wholesome drama celebrates Christian faith and family life. So believers may be willing to overlook its sluggish pace and often awkward tone. Mature themes, including references to atrocities.

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

‘Leap!’

This charming animated film, set in 1880s France, centers on two best friends (voices of Elle Fanning and Nat Wolff) who escape from an orphanage to pursue their dreams in Paris. He plans to be a famous inventor, while she longs to be a dancer. A cleaning woman at the City of Light’s opera house who was once a prima ballerina, until sidelined by injury, takes pity on the lass and agrees to train her. A couple of rude jokes do not seriously detract from visually stunning imagery and a winning story about friendship, perseverance and helping others in need. Brief scatological humor, a less than flattering representation of women religious.

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

‘Good Time’ When their attempt to rob a bank goes awry, a petty criminal (Robert Pattinson) evades capture, but his mentally challenged brother (Benny Safdie) ends up in custody. Desperate to free his vulnerable sibling, the hood embarks on a nocturnal odyssey through the underworld of New York City during which he tries to get his emotionally unstable girlfriend to loan him bail money, then takes refuge in the home of a Haitian immigrant and her teenage granddaughter, before joining forces with a parolee in a scheme to make a quick windfall by selling a cache of liquid LSD. This intense crime drama presents a subtly shaded portrait of its protagonist, aided by an outstanding performance from Pattinson. Pervasive rough and crude language.

CNS: L (limited adult audience); MPAA: R

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, an office that supports the Eastern Catholic churches and strives to ensure that the universal Catholic Church treasures its diversity, including in liturgy, spirituality and even canon law.

Coincidentally established five months before the Russian Revolution, the congregation continually has had to face the real persecution and threatened existence of some of the Eastern churches it was founded to fortify.

Until 1989-’90, many of the Byzantine Catholic churches – including, notably, the Ukrainian Catholic Church, the largest of all the Eastern churches – were either outlawed or severely repressed by the communist governments of Eastern Europe, said Archbishop Cyril Vasil, a member of the Slovak Catholic Church and secretary of the congregation.

No sooner had the Soviet bloc disintegrated and once-persecuted churches begun to flourish, then the first Gulf War broke out. And then there was the invasion of Iraq. And the turmoil of the Arab Spring across North Africa.

Then the war in Syria. And Israeli-Palestinian tensions continue. The Chaldean, Syriac Catholic, Coptic Catholic, Melkite and Maronite churches have paid a high price.

“In all of this, the Eastern churches suffer the most because they find themselves crushed in the struggle between bigger powers, both local and global,” Archbishop Vasil said in mid-August. Even those conflicts that are not taking direct aim at Christians in the Middle East make life extremely difficult for them, and so many decide to seek a more peaceful life for themselves and their families outside the region.

One impact of the “exodus,” he said, is the greater globalization of the Catholic Church.

While 100 years ago, when the Congregation for Eastern Churches was established, only a few Eastern churches had eparchies – dioceses – outside their traditional homelands, today they can be found in Australia, North and South America and scattered across Western Europe.

“In Sweden today, a third of the Christians are Chaldeans or Armenians,” he added. “In Belgium and Holland, where Catholicism has suffered a decline, communities are reborn with the arrival of new Christians, which is a reminder of the importance of immigrants bringing their faith with them.”

In countries like Italy, where thousands of Ukrainians and Romanians have come to work, they add ritual diversity to the expressions of Catholicism already found there, he said.

The growing movement of people around the globe means that part of the congregation’s job is to work with the Latin-rite bishops and dioceses, “sensitizing church public opinion” to the existence, heritage, needs and gifts of the Eastern Catholics moving into their communities, the archbishop said. Where an Eastern Catholic hierarchy has not been established, the local Latin-rite bishop has a responsibility “to accept, welcome and give respectful support to the Eastern Catholics” as their communities grow and become more stable.

The idea, Archbishop Vasil said, is to help the local Latin-rite bishop seriously ask himself, “How can I help them free themselves of me

17

On TV n Friday, Sept. 1, 8 p.m.

(EWTN) “Reviving the Roman Catholic Church in Eastern Russia.” Various parishioners give moving accounts about how the revival of the Catholic Church in Russia has personally impacted their lives. n Saturday, Sept. 2, 3 p.m.

(EWTN) “Called and Chosen: Father Vincent R. Capodanno.”

An EWTN original docu-drama on the life and ministry of Venerable Father Vincent R. Capodanno, a U.S. Marine chaplain who gave his life while trying to minister to a fallen soldier in Vietnam. n Saturday, Sept. 2, 8 p.m.

(EWTN) “Mother Teresa.” The first of a two-part drama of the little woman who called herself “a pencil in God’s hands.”

CNS | courtesy Vatican Philatelic and Numismatic Office

The Vatican Philatelic and Numismatic Office is marking the 100th anniversary of the Congregation for Eastern Churches with a stamp featuring details from the chapel in the congregation’s office. The stamp will be released Sept. 7. and get their own bishop?”

Although it has only 26 employees – counting the prefect, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, and the receptionist – the Congregation for Eastern Churches works with 23 Eastern Catholic churches and communities, fulfilling the same tasks that for Latin-rite Catholics fall to the congregations for bishops, clergy, religious, divine worship and education.

The congregation’s approach in some areas is different than its Latin-rite counterparts because it follows the Eastern Catholic traditions and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. For instance, some of the Eastern churches ordain married men to the priesthood.

But the congregation’s primary concern is the survival of the Eastern Catholic churches, which is an issue not only in places where Eastern Catholics are threatened with death or driven from their homelands by war.

Archbishop Vasil said others risk losing their Eastern Catholic identity through assimilation.

Some of the blame, at least before the Second Vatican Council, lies with the Vatican and the Latin-rite hierarchy and religious orders, who, for decades encouraged Eastern Catholics to be more like their Latin-rite brothers and sisters.

Vatican II urged a recovery of the Eastern Catholic traditions, liturgy and spirituality. But, especially for Eastern Catholics living far from their churches’ homelands, uprooting vestiges of the “Latinization” can prove difficult, Archbishop Vasil said.

Especially for Eastern Christians whose ancestors immigrated two or three or four generations ago, the archbishop said, maintaining their specific identity as Chaldean, Ruthenian or Syro-Malabar Catholics is a challenge.

“The greatest danger in the coming years is extinction,” Archbishop Vasil said. “We don’t know what history has in store for us, but we must make sure we have done everything possible to avoid this danger.”

n Sunday, Sept. 3, 2:30 p.m.

(EWTN) “A Story that is not Finished Yet.” Learn about the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a major milestone in Mexico’s Catholic history after the time of the Spanish Conquest. n Friday, Sept. 8, 8 p.m.

(EWTN) “Candles in the Dark.”

A documentary detailing the life of Father Richard Ho Lung, founder of the Missionaries of the Poor, from his humble beginnings to his mission of joyful service to society’s most forgotten people. n Saturday, Sept. 9, 8 p.m.

(EWTN) “Mother Teresa.” The second of a two-part drama of Mother Teresa, whose calling to serve the “poorest of the poor” in Calcutta was legendary. n Sunday, Sept. 10, 1:30 p.m.

(EWTN) “Fatima.” This feature film recounts the events of Fatima through the eyes of a Catholic peasant singer whose boyfriend converts from atheism by the supernatural grace of the apparitions. n Wednesday, Sept. 13, 1:30 p.m. (EWTN)”Fatima.” Pope John PauI II travels to Fatima to thank Our Lady for sparing his life from the assassin’s bullets. Produced by Centro Televisivo Vaticano. n Wednesday, Sept. 13, 4:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Day the Sun Danced.” A variety of animated children’s programs that provide a valuable resource for children learning the faith. n Wednesday, Sept. 13, 6:30 p.m. (EWTN) “The Message of Fatima.” A docu-drama series on the prophecies, messages and warnings given to the three shepherd children by Our Lady of Fatima in 1917.

Our nation 18

catholicnewsherald.com | September 1, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishops form new body to address ‘sin of racism’ that ‘afflicts’ nation Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Saying there is an “urgent need” to address “the sin of racism” in the country and find solutions to it, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has established a new Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism and named one of the country’s AfricanAmerican Catholic bishops to chair it.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, USCCB president, initiated the committee Aug. 23 “to focus on addressing the sin of racism in our society, and even in our Church, and the urgent need to come together as a society to find solutions.”

He appointed Bishop George V. Murry of Youngstown, Ohio, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Catholic Education, to chair the new ad hoc committee.

“Recent events have exposed the extent to which the sin of racism continues to afflict our nation,” Cardinal DiNardo said in a statement.

“The establishment of this new ad hoc committee will be wholly dedicated to engaging the Church and our society to work together in unity to challenge the sin of racism, to listen to persons who are suffering under this sin, and to come together in the love of Christ to know one another as brothers and sisters.”

The naming of members to serve on the new body will be finalized in coming days, the USCCB said in an announcement.

It added that the committee’s mandate “will be confirmed at the first meeting, expected very shortly.”

“I look forward to working with my brother bishops as well as communities across the United States to listen to the needs of individuals who have suffered under the sin of racism and together find solutions to this epidemic of hate that has plagued our nation for far too long,” Bishop Murry said in a statement.

“Through Jesus’ example of love and mercy, we are called to be a better people than what we have witnessed over the past weeks and months as a nation. Through listening, prayer and meaningful collaboration, I’m hopeful we can find lasting solutions and common ground where racism will no longer find a place in our hearts or in our society.”

The new ad hoc committee also will “welcome and support” implementation of the U.S. bishops’ new pastoral letter on racism, expected to be released in 2018. In 1979, the bishops issued a pastoral on racism titled “Brothers and Sisters to Us,” in which they addressed many themes, but the overall message then as today was “racism is a sin.”

It is the first ad hoc committee the bishops have established since instituting the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty in 2011 to address growing concerns over the erosion of freedom of religion in America.

CNS | Adrees Latif, Reuters

A man walks through floods waters and onto the main road Aug. 26 after surveying his property which was hit by Hurricane Harvey in Rockport, Texas.

Texas parishioners shocked by devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey James Ramos Catholic News Service

HOUSTON — With floodwater as high as 20 feet from swelling bayous and waterways, thousands of homes in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston flooded as Tropical Storm Harvey continued to batter southeast Texas earlier this week.

Bishops from dioceses along the midTexas Gulf Coast, including Victoria and Galveston-Houston, granted dispensations from regular Mass Sunday obligations Aug. 27.

The storm, which made landfall a day earlier as a Category 4 hurricane, was downgraded to a tropical storm and claimed at least 20 lives. The recordbreaking rainfall, as much as 28 inches over 24 hours in four counties in the archdiocese, was “unprecedented” and “catastrophic,” according to the National Hurricane Center. The region typically sees about 49 inches of rain in a year.

In southeast Houston, Father David Bergeron, a member of the Companions of the Cross order, spent Saturday night in his truck on a highway because of rising floodwater. The next morning, he kayaked the flooded streets to try to find wine to celebrate Sunday Mass for nearby stranded neighbors.

Sitting atop his red kayak, Father Bergeron told a local TV reporter on a live broadcast that he was trying to return home to celebrate Mass. He had visited Galveston for a kayak trip the previous day.

“I tried to go back home for Mass and ... I didn’t make it,” Father Bergeron said.

The priest used his kayak to visit a nearby convenience store for supplies as

well as wine to celebrate Mass for nearby stranded neighbors.

Thirty miles north of Houston, 29-yearold Eric Robinson spent the morning of Aug. 27 walking three miles in floodwater to morning Mass at Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in The Woodlands even though a dispensation had been given.

In his homily, Father Pat Garrett, pastor, encouraged people to pray for flood victims and first responders. After Mass, Robinson trekked back to his apartment, wading through waist-deep water.

The Texas Catholic Conference said the bishops of the state’s 15 dioceses are coordinating relief efforts. The conference requested “people join in prayer for the coastal and inland areas being affected, and consider donating money to local dioceses and Catholic Charities.”

Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, asked bishops across the country to consider a special collection during the weekend of Sept. 2-3 or Sept. 9-10 to assist victims of Hurricane Harvey along the Gulf Coast.

Funds collected will support emergency aid and recovery efforts under Catholic Charities USA and pastoral and rebuilding support to the affected dioceses through the bishops’ conference.

The storm has dumped as much as four feet of rain on some areas of Texas and Louisiana, weather observers have reported.

Thousands of people have evacuated flooded homes and communities and remained in emergency shelters across the region.

Among the most affected areas are the Diocese of Victoria and the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, which Cardinal Daniel

N. DiNardo, USCCB president, oversees.

Numerous parishes and schools have been flooded while others have offered facilities as shelter. Parishes have also helped distribute food and emergency supplies to storm victims.

Hurricane relief special collection to be held Parishioners across the Diocese of Charlotte have the chance to help victims of the recent Hurricane Harvey disaster on the weekends of Sept. 2-3 and Sept. 9-10 through a special collection taken up at Masses at participating parishes. The special collection will fund both short-term emergency aid as well as long-term disaster recovery efforts.

Donations should be made payable to one’s local parish, noted for “Disaster Relief.”

Donations will be forwarded by parishes to the diocesan finance office, which will then distribute the funds to Church partners offering disaster relief and recovery to affected communities.

In an Aug. 29 memo to pastors about this collection, Monsignor Mauricio West, vicar general and chancellor of the diocese, wrote, “As you are no doubt aware, communities in southeast Texas and the surrounding region have been struck by devastating flooding and high winds caused by Hurricane Harvey. This disaster has created a situation beyond which the local communities and agencies cannot handle without outside assistance.” Monsignor West also encouraged prayers at this time: “Let us pray for all those impacted by disasters such as this recent tragedy and for a generous response to those in need.”

September 1, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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In Brief Charlottesville’s Catholic students ready to heal wounds, chaplain says WASHINGTON, D.C. — After the weekend of mayhem in Charlottesville, Va., the town’s college Catholic community was wondering – like many others around the nation – what to do. The protest and counterprotests making national news were unfolding right in their hometown and the rally’s torch-lit march and angry chants the night of Aug. 11 were even closer to home – on the grounds of their campus, the University of Virginia. “We started to come together as a community Saturday night and Sunday, saying how do we respond?” said Dominican Father Joseph-Anthony Kress, University of Virginia’s Catholic chaplain. “As a Catholic community, we had to start with prayer and that’s what we did,” said the priest, who was reached by Catholic News Service at a studentleaders’ retreat off campus Aug. 16. Although the campus had not started its fall semester and new and returning students had not moved in Aug. 12 when the white supremacist rally was taking place in Charlottesville, there were still some students on campus as well as faculty and staff, and about 250 of them gathered for a prayer vigil and rosary for peace Aug. 13 at St. Thomas Aquinas, the university’s parish church.

Couple asks for apology from priest for past KKK actions ARLINGTON, Va. — A Catholic priest in the Arlington Diocese who wrote a column asking forgiveness for the time he spent as a member of the Ku Klux Klan 40 years ago when he was “an impressionable young man” has never paid court-ordered restitution for cross-burning and other racist actions he pleaded guilty of doing at that time. “As a young adult I was Catholic, but in no way practicing my faith,” Father William Aitcheson, now 62, wrote in an Aug. 21 op-ed posted on the website of the Arlington Catholic Herald, the diocesan newspaper. “The irony that I left an anti-Catholic hate group to rejoin the Catholic Church is not lost on me.

It is a reminder of the radical transformation possible through Jesus Christ in his mercy.

While 40 years have passed, I must say this: I’m sorry. To anyone who has been subjected to racism or bigotry, I am sorry. I have no excuse, but I hope you will forgive me,” he wrote.

The Washington Post reported Aug. 24 that when Father Aitcheson was in his early 20s and a student at the University of Maryland, he was the leader of a KKK lodge in Maryland and was arrested and charged with making bomb threats, manufacturing bombs and burning a cross on the front lawn at the house of an African-American couple, Barbara and Phillip Butler, in Prince George’s County, Md., in 1977.

At the time he pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay restitution to the couple of $20,000 but never did so, the Butlers, who are themselves Catholic, said at a news conference Aug. 23.

Some news reports put the amount he owed at $26,000, which included other fines. The priest is not giving interviews.

Texas governor signs bill restricting coverage of abortions AUSTIN, Texas — Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed a bill into law Aug. 15 that limits insurance coverage for abortion procedures.

The measure passed both chambers of the Republican-controlled Legislature during a special session that Abbott ordered lawmakers to hold to address several issues. Under the

new law, Texans “will not be forced” to pay for elective abortions through their insurance plans. Its supporters say it is an important part of Abbott’s pro-life agenda. When the law takes effect Dec. 1, Texas will become the 11th state to restrict abortion coverage in insurance plans.

“As a firm believer in Texas values I am proud to sign legislation that ensures no Texan is ever required to pay for a procedure that ends the life of an unborn child,” Abbott said in a statement. “This bill prohibits insurance providers from forcing Texas policyholders to subsidize elective abortions. I am grateful to the Texas Legislature for getting this bill to my desk, and working to protect innocent life this special session.”

Abbott also signed a measure to expand reporting requirements for complications resulting from abortion procedures. “The health and safety of women is of the utmost importance, and we must have the most accurate data available in order to create good policy,” he said.

CMSM speaker: Religious brothers often overlooked PHOENIX — The Church needs to look beyond ordained clergy for leadership, said Marianist Father James Heft during an address at the annual meeting of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men in Phoenix in early August.

“Early on in the life of the church, religious life was a lay movement. Beginning in the third century, the desert fathers were typically not ordained, and a century later when monastic communities began to form, they remained a largely lay movement,” Father Heft said. “By the time active religious orders arrived on the scene in the 12th and 13th centuries, the vast majority of their members were ordained. If there were any brothers, they were to serve the priests,” he said Aug. 3. Father Heft is the Alton Brooks professor of religion and president of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California. He founded the institute in 2006. Before that, he was at the Marianist-run University of Dayton in Ohio, first as chair of the theology department, then senior vice president and university provost and finally chancellor. Author or editor of 11 books and numerous articles, he is now working on a book on the mission of Catholic colleges and universities.

Vatican astronomer: Eclipse a way to appreciate creation HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. — A total solar eclipse is a rare event, something to appreciate and enjoy in the mind of Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory. So as the first eclipse crossed the country from coast to coast in 99 years Aug. 21, Brother Consolmagno wasn’t going to do anything but take it in and think about the beauty and mystery of God’s creation. The astronomer urged an audience in a packed Sts. Peter and Paul Church during a pre-eclipse program in this southwestern Kentucky town near the point of maximum eclipse to take the time to reflect on what the two minutes and 40 seconds of totality means to them.

“Pray for good weather,” he said to laughs.

“But also pray for what God wants you to learn from the experience.”

Tens of thousands of people had descended on Hopkinsville, a city of 33,000 an hour northwest of Nashville, Tennessee, by late Aug. 20. Thousands more were expected the morning of the eclipse.

Brother Consolmagno said he was as excited as anyone to view the blackening of the sun.

He also said that as a scientist and a person of faith, he is guided by inquisitiveness to explore the heavens and the desire to better understand how God put the universe together. There is no conflict between science the faith, he said.

— Catholic News Service

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Respect Life Conference September 16, 2017

St. Barnabas Catholic Church, Arden, NC The Respect Life Program of Catholic Charities invites all Respect Life Parish Coordinators and Advocates in the diocese to attend the annual diocesan Respect Life Conference.

The conference will begin at 9:30 AM. Doors open with registration and morning refreshments at 8:30 AM. Lunch will be included. Please note that there is a Saturday Vigil Mass at St. Barnabas at 5:30 PM. Our speaker topics include pregnancy support, Be Not Afraid, end of life ethics, human trafficking, legislation and advocacy, Rachel’s Vineyard, regional pro-life programming, USCCB Pro-Life Secretariat updates, diocesan resources and more. We will also have a few groups tabling at lunchtime with wonderful resources to share from around the diocese.

To register please rsvp by email to Jessica Grabowski at jrgrabowski@ charlottediocese.org confirming your attendance and indicating any dietary restrictions – Thank you.

Do not hesitate to contact Jessica with any questions at 704-370-3229 or 910-585-2460. Visit ccdoc.org/respectlife for more information.

Our world 20

catholicnewsherald.com | September 1, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Vatican II liturgical reform ‘irreversible,’ pope says Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — The Catholic Church must continue to work to understand the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council and why they were made, rather than rethinking them, Pope Francis said.

“After this magisterium, after this long journey, we can affirm with certainty and magisterial authority that the liturgical reform is irreversible,” Pope Francis told participants in Italy’s National Liturgical Week.

The pope’s speech to the 800 participants Aug. 24 was the longest and most systematic talk he has given as pope on the theme of the liturgy since Vatican II. Instead of reconsidering the council’s reforms, he said, priests and liturgists should work on “rediscovering the decisions made” in reforming the liturgy, “internalizing its inspirational principles and observing the discipline that governs it.”

The National Liturgical Week is sponsored by the Liturgical Action Center, which organizes liturgical training as well as national, regional and diocesan conventions to “disseminate and promote liturgical pastoral guidelines proposed by the Italian bishops’ conference,” according to its website.

After congratulating the organization on its 70th anniversary, Pope Francis said the Church has lived through “substantial and not superficial” events throughout its history, including with the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent liturgical reform.

Citing the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, “Sacrosanctum Concilium,” the pope said the reform responded to “real needs and the concrete hope for a renewal,” which would offer a living liturgy where the faithful were no longer “strangers or silent spectators.”

For this reason, he added, the Church must continue to rediscover the reasons for the reform and “overcome unfounded and superficial readings, partial revelations, and practices that disfigure it.”

Reflecting on the week’s theme – “A living liturgy for a living Church” – Pope Francis said the liturgy is “alive” through the living presence of Jesus.

Liturgical signs, including the altar, direct the gaze of the priest and the faithful to “Christ, the living stone, who was discarded by men but has become the cornerstone of the spiritual edifice in which we worship.”

“The liturgy is life for the entire people of the Church,” he said. “By its nature, the liturgy is ‘popular’ and not clerical, because it is – as the etymology teaches us – an action for the people, but also of the people.”

The liturgy, he continued, unites Church members through prayer, and it “gathers in prayer all those who seek to listen to the Gospel without discarding anyone; it summons the great and small, rich and poor, children and elderly people, healthy and sick, just ones and sinners.”

“In the image of the ‘immense multitude’ celebrating the liturgy in the sanctuary of heaven,” Pope Francis said, “the liturgical assembly overcomes through Christ every boundary of age, race, language and nation.”

The liturgy is “not an idea to understand,” but rather a “source of life and light for our journey of faith,” he said. Therefore, the rites and prayers become “a school of Christian life” for the faithful “by what they are and not by the explanations we give them.”

“This is still the commitment I ask of you today: to help ordained ministers as well as other ministers – cantors, artists, musicians – cooperate so that the liturgy may be the source and culmination of the vitality of the Church,” the pope said.

CNS | Mauricio Duena Castaneda, EPA

Bicyclists pass the Bogota cathedral, which is surrounded by scaffolding Aug. 3 in preparation for Pope Francis’ Sept. 6-10 visit to Colombia.

Path to peace: Pope’s visit aims to help Colombians take next steps Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis had promised to visit Colombia once a peace accord was in place, but his visit Sept. 6-10 is less about congratulations than about consolidation.

“He comes to take the first step with us,” said the bishops of Colombia in a document designed to prepare people for the pope’s visit.

In the Gospel of St. John, the apostle Peter is the first to enter the empty tomb after Jesus’ resurrection, the bishops wrote. In a similar way, St. Peter’s successor, the pope, will visit Colombia, which they described as “a terrible tomb” that “has been crushed with armed conflict, drug trafficking, insecurity and inequality.”

Looking at Pope Francis’ previous visits to places trying to overcome civil strife, violence and division – the Holy Land, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Central African Republic – it is clear Pope Francis recognizes that making and keeping peace require courage and sacrifice.

The people of Colombia are right to celebrate the 2016 peace accord that came after the suffering of 52 years of civil war. Pope Francis obviously will praise that accomplishment, but he also will urge them to “take the first step” toward reconciliation, the theme of the visit.

After a conflict in which at least 220,000 people died and more than 6 million people were uprooted from their homes, it won’t be easy. A small rebel group that was not part of the 2016 accord still exists, and the country faces a host of complicated processes for reintegrating former combatants into society and compensating victims of the conflict.

“Peace is a work of justice,” Pope Francis said during a Mass in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 2015. It is “not a justice proclaimed, imagined, planned, but rather a justice put into practice, lived out.”

The first step has to be to let go of festering anger and resentment, the pope has said. But he knows that is not easy.

Celebrating Mass in South Korea in 2014, Pope Francis told Catholics: “Jesus asks us to believe that forgiveness is

the door which leads to reconciliation. In telling us to forgive our brothers unreservedly, He is asking us to do something utterly radical, but He also gives us the grace to do it.”

“What appears, from a human perspective, to be impossible, impractical and even at times repugnant, he makes possible and fruitful through the infinite power of His cross,” the pope told the South Koreans at the “Mass for Peace and Reconciliation.”

In striving for peace or trying to shore up the foundations of peace, every person has a part to play, the pope has insisted each time he has visited a community recovering from the horror of war.

And, looking at the need for forgiveness, the pope emphasizes it is not only about a willingness to forgive one’s enemies. It’s about taking responsibility for any way that one contributed to the tensions, even remotely, and asking forgiveness.

At a Marian shrine in Sri Lanka in 2015, Pope Francis prayed with families that had suffered during the country’s 25-year civil war. He offered words of consolation and of hope for the future, urging prayers “for the grace to make reparation for our sins and for all the evil which this land has known.”

“It is not easy to do this,” the pope told them. “Yet only when we come to understand, in the light of the cross, the evil we are capable of, and have even been a part of, can we experience true remorse and true repentance. Only then can we receive the grace to approach one another in true contrition, offering and seeking true forgiveness.”

Another step is one Pope Francis has urged all over the world, but especially in countries yearning for peace: making a serious commitment to listen to one another and respond to the needs of those whose dignity has been crushed by poverty, discrimination or exclusion from political and social life.

“In order to successfully oppose the barbarity of those who would make of every difference the occasion and pretext for further unspeakable violence,” he said in Sarajevo, “we need to recognize the fundamental values of human communities, values in the name of which we can and must cooperate, build and dialogue, pardon and grow; this will allow different voices to unite in creating a melody of sublime nobility and beauty, instead of the fanatical cries of hatred.”

September 1, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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In Brief Vatican confirms pope’s visit to Myanmar, Bangladesh in November VATICAN CITY — A day after appealing for an end the violent persecution of the Rohingya people, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, the Vatican announced Pope Francis will visit the country in late November. After the visit Nov. 27-30 to the cities of Yangon and Naypyitaw in Myanmar, the pope will travel on to Dhaka, Bangladesh, Nov. 30-Dec. 2, the Vatican said Aug. 28. After praying the Angelus with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square Aug. 27, Pope Francis said he was saddened by the news “of the persecution of a religious minority, our Rohingya brothers and sisters.” News media reported violent clashes Aug. 25-26 after Rohingya fighters attacked 30 police stations.

More than 100 people, mostly insurgents, have been reported killed, according to the BBC. Most of the Rohingya population in Myanmar’s Rakhine state have been denied citizenship in Myanmar, which is predominantly Buddhist. About 120,000 Rohingya are trapped in internally displaced person camps near the state capital, Sittwe. A further 400,000 live in the state’s north, currently under martial law.

Dublin archbishop outlines themes to prepare for World Meeting of Families KNOCK, Ireland — The president of the 2018 World Meeting of Families stressed that “there is no such thing as the ideal family” but that “there is an ideal of family,” which is what the church is seeking to promote through the international gathering of families in Ireland.

In his homily delivered to a packed basilica at Knock Shrine in County Mayo, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said while there is no family that is ideal, there are “families who struggle, at times heroically.” He also asked, “How do we help our young people to encounter the path of faithful love as the only truth path toward human happiness? How do we teach fidelity in a world where everything is disposable?” Speaking to media at the launch of the yearlong lead-in program of catechesis on “Amoris Laetitia,” Pope Francis’ postsynodal apostolic exhortation on the family, Archbishop Martin said the program was about long-term renewal, and that the international gathering, which up to 5,000 families from overseas are expected to attend, would not be “a seven-day wonder.” The meeting is scheduled Aug. 21-26, 2018.

Imprisonment without hope for the future is torture, pope says VATICAN CITY — Although prisoners must pay a price for their crimes, incarceration must not be used as a method of torture but rather an opportunity to become contributing members of society, Pope Francis said. Punishment can be fruitful only when inmates are helped to look toward the future rather than only back at a past lived out in shame, the pope said in a video message Aug. 24 to inmates at the Ezeiza federal penitentiary in Argentina. “Let us not forget that for punishment to be fruitful,” the pope said, “it must have a horizon of hope, otherwise it remains closed in itself and is just an instrument of torture; it isn’t fruitful.”

The pope’s video message was addressed to inmates taking part in the prison’s university studies program, which he said was one of many programs that provide “a space for work, culture, progress” and are “a sign of humanity.”

He thanked prison administration officials for

allowing the program as well as the inmates in charge of the student center -- Marcelino, Guille and Edo -- who he said he “knew by phone.”

‘Blood flowing on sidewalks’: Tagle criticizes drug war MANILA, Philippines — Two prominent Philippine bishops criticized the government’s war on drugs after a week in which more than 80 people were reportedly killed in stepped-up efforts to end drug use.

In a pastoral letter read at Masses Aug. 20, Manila Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle called the problem of drugs a “humanitarian concern that affects all of us. The illegal drug problem should not be reduced to a political or criminal issue,” he said. The cardinal proposed a “multisector dialogue” hosted by the archdiocese in the nation’s capital to address illegal drugs. He said the “menace of illegal drugs” was real and destructive, calling it a complex issue. He enjoined government agencies, schools, faith groups, law enforcement, families of those killed as well as addicts and pushers and others to come together and seek solutions to the problem.

Since he took office in June last year, President Rodrigo Duterte vowed to rid the country of crime with a threat to kill drug addicts and dealers. He also urged the public to go after criminals. Human rights groups put the number of dead in police operations as well as unexplained killings at more than 7,000.

This summer, local news outlets have reported 10,000 killed so far.

human and natural ecology,” the pope said according to Vatican Radio. Founded in 2010

by Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna and British parliamentarian Sir David Alton, the Catholic Legislators Network meets annually “to discuss the promotion of Christian principles in the political arena,” according to the organization’s website.

Top Vatican official discusses terrorist threat, immigration VATICAN CITY — The Vatican obviously is concerned about terrorist threats, “especially for the senseless hatred” it represents, and will continue to remain vigilant, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. Speaking to reporters Aug. 26, Cardinal Parolin said he had seen the most recent video attributed to Islamic State in which the pope and Vatican are threatened, and “one cannot help but be concerned.” However, he said, he did not believe the video prompted extra security measures beyond those that have been in place for some time.

For the Year of Mercy 2015-2016, the main boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Square was closed to traffic; it never reopened. But while

pilgrims approaching St. Peter’s Square for Pope Francis’ weekly general audience on Wednesdays and his Angelus address on Sundays had already been subjected to security checks, Italian police seemed to take more time doing the checks after the terrorist attack in Barcelona Aug. 17.

Cardinal Parolin visits Russia, focuses on ecumenism and peace VATICAN CITY — Although he said planning a papal trip to Russia was not on the agenda, the Vatican secretary of state said his visit to Moscow was designed to build on the meeting Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill had in Cuba in 2016. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state, visited Moscow Aug. 21-24 and met with the patriarch and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as with leaders of Russia’s Catholic community.

The list of topics for the meetings ranged from ecumenical dialogue and interreligious cooperation to current world affairs and climate change, he said in a series of interviews before leaving Rome.

— Catholic News Service

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Pope urges respect for the life and dignity of migrants, refugees VATICAN CITY — With millions of people fleeing violence, persecution and poverty around the globe, individual nations must expand options that make it possible for migrants and refugees to cross their borders safely and legally, Pope Francis said. “The principle of the centrality of the human person, firmly stated by my beloved predecessor, Benedict XVI, obliges us to always prioritize personal safety over national security,” Pope Francis wrote in his message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2018. The Vatican will mark the day Jan. 14, while in the United States, the bishops’ conference sets aside an entire week – Jan. 7-13 – as National Migration Week.

The pope’s message for the annual event was released Aug. 21, earlier than normal, to stimulate Catholic involvement in the U.N. process for developing and adopting a Global Compact for Migration and a Global Compact on Refugees. Since the U.N. General Assembly voted in September 2016 to draw up the compacts, the Vatican and many Catholic organizations have been participating in the discussions and hearings to formulate them.

The U.N. hopes to have a draft of the compacts ready by February and to present them to the General Assembly in September 2018.

Pope: Catholic social teaching can help in building just society VATICAN CITY — Catholic politicians should be guided by the Church’s moral and social teachings when crafting legislation, Pope Francis said. Meeting with participants in the annual meeting of the International Catholic Legislators Network Aug. 27, the pope said that Church teaching can contribute to a more humane and just society, but only if the Church is allowed a voice in answering “the great questions of society in our time. The laws that you enact and apply ought to build bridges of dialogue between different political perspectives, also when responding to precise aims in order to promote greater care for the defenseless and the marginalized, especially toward the many who are forced to leave their countries, as well as to promote a correct

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September 16th - St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Hickory |One Day Class Spanish: 8 am to 10:30 am | English: 1:30 pm to 5 pm September 23rd - St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, Boone | One Day Class Spanish: 9 am to 12 pm | English: 1pm to 4 pm September 23rd – North Charlotte |Three Class Series, 1 pm to 4 pm For more information visit our website or contact Batrice Adcock, MSN at 704.370.3230 or bnadcock@charlottediocese.org.

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catholicnewsherald.com | September 1, 2017 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Fred Gallagher

T

Fr. Marcel Amadi

The Eucharistic Congress: An encounter with the Real Presence

he first official Eucharistic Congress occurred in France in 1881. Since then, they have occurred all over the world. And for 13 years now the Diocese of Charlotte has put together its own Eucharistic Congress.

A Eucharistic Congress is simply a gathering of clergy and laity that centers on the Real Presence of Christ as we all experience that Presence in the Eucharist. Now of the many formal definitions of the word “congress,” the simplest is: “The act of coming together; an encounter; a meeting.”

For 20-some years now, I have been going every

‘In the Diocese of Charlotte’s Eucharistic Congress it’s almost like sharing that private encounter with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament with hundreds and hundreds of people.’ other week at midnight to a Eucharistic Adoration chapel to kneel or sit and pray, read, write or meditate. Every hour over the years has added something to the growing, heartfelt notion that God is holding me in the palm of His hand and that He is showering His graces upon my wife and my children and all those I love. And for 20-some years it has always been an encounter. I have always met Christ in a special way there in the golden monstrance in the form of a host, before my eyes and before my heart: a small “congress” of hope and desire, of gratitude and sometimes, perhaps, even desperation.

Do I meet or encounter Christ in other ways?

Let’s hope so! Let’s hope we all encounter Him and His love, His guidance, His strength and His mercy in a thousand and one ways every single day! But these meetings in small chapels are special in their own way.

In the Diocese of Charlotte’s Eucharistic Congress it’s almost like sharing that private encounter with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament with hundreds and hundreds of people.

If you’ve never been to a Eucharistic Congress, it can be strange and overwhelming at first. Then comes this growing feeling of unity with other Catholics – one you may have never felt in this way before. We process with the bishop and many of our priests and deacons and sisters in the

religious life through the streets of Charlotte, a onetime bastion of Protestantism, with the Blessed Sacrament held high, our unabashed devotion, at this moment not private at all, on display for all curious onlookers, a universal statement of our belief in the Real Presence in solidarity with our fellow Catholics.

We are African American, Hispanic, Montagnard, Irish and Polish, Italian and Indian.

We are old ones feeling the peculiar, particular spiritual challenges of our age and we are the newest additions to our families, a fresh joy in the rooms of our homes. We are hoping for a better job or praying over retirement; feeling the fears and encroachments of disease or cultivating a new-found perspective on health. We are Catholics.

We pray the rosary. We go to confession. We converse with saints, angels and those who have gone before us. The Mass is so much more than a prayer service; devotion more than a good deed.

We ascribe to the power of beauty in painting and statuary, to the penetrating symbolism of water and incense and oil. And sometimes we come together in droves to simply say “yes” as Mary did, to the dwelling of Jesus Christ in us and among us.

Our Eucharistic Congress is simply an affirmation of all we believe.

We will process and we will take part in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, thousands strong. We will sing along as we hear the best voices of our area praise the Lord. We will listen to talks and homilies and special prayers to aid us as we face the difficulties of living as Catholics in a post-Christian society. We will walk the halls and see the Catholic product offerings from devotional books and saints’ writings to medals and rosaries and First Communion gifts. We may find one of the many priests who serve our diocese, smiling amid friends and parishioners or waiting patiently in a chair to hear our confession. We will bear witness to our vibrant Church alive with souls just like us, and we will feel the Real Presence of Christ among them.

The Eucharistic Congress is not just for our Southern neighbors now making a home here, not just for home schoolers, not just for traditionalists, not just for those whose piety is more on the obvious side, not just for the Gregorian chant crowd or the Praise and Worship crowd.

No, it is for all of us.

Wherever we are on our journey, whatever our relationship to the Church, whatever troubles and doubts we feel, our “Congress” is an encounter with the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, with the Real Presence of Christ in our fellow Catholics, with the Real Presence of Christ in our own hearts, ready to comfort us and strengthen us and mend us. Come and be a part of the encounter.

I promise, you won’t regret it.

Fred Gallagher is an author and editor-in-chief with Gastoniabased Good Will Publishers Inc.

Campus Ministry: The joy and hope of the Church and society

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hen I started serving as a campus minister nearly two years ago, I definitely felt like a freshman. The only difference was while many first-year students weren’t certain what their major would be, I knew what mine was: to win souls for Christ through the establishment of God’s kingdom on the four campuses I step on.

Now, as a “junior” in my campus ministry experience, I feel more comfortable in my role, and the students I encounter on the campuses bring so much joy to my heart. They make me appreciate working in this section of the Lord’s vineyard. Through this ministry, I have also been challenged and empowered by the words from the last verse of the Gospel of Matthew: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:19-20).

“Go” is an action word, a moving word, a motivating word and an energetic word. If any group of people meets this description, it is our college students – our hope, our joy, our future.

College is a time of new beginnings and fresh explorations. Every day I wake up with joy in my heart because it’s another opportunity to fulfill the mandate of our Lord and Savior. This joy is fuller in me when I meet and interact with college-aged men and women who have taken it upon themselves to carry out the instructions of Jesus by making more disciples on campus, thereby expanding the kingdom of God here on earth.

Campus ministry is described by the U.S. bishops in their 1985 pastoral letter “Empowered by the Spirit: Campus Ministry Faces the Future” “as the public presence and service through which properly baptized persons are empowered by the spirit to use their gifts on behalf of the Church in order to be signs and instruments of the kingdom in the academic world.”

It is evident that the Church has a mission to fulfill in various academic institutions of learning and to the society at large through them. Consequently, we cannot lose sight of the individual needs of both students and staff – especially when we consider the fact that the academic community plays a major role in determining how an individual perceives the world through philosophies, ideologies, research and experimentation. All of these are reflected in the areas of education, business, government, sports and so much more. So it is imperative for the Church to invest in her future leaders who pass through colleges and universities. Because it is vibrant and has “an audience receptive to the kind of innovation which may in the future prove beneficial to the larger Catholic community,” the campus ministry community becomes a think tank and an incubator for the Church. It is at this juncture that the Church and the college or university become partners in molding and fostering future leaders for the Church and society. Hence another ministerial function outlined by the U.S. bishops for campus ministry is “Developing Leaders for the Future.”

My heart has been gladdened and blessed on numerous occasions when I see our college students owning their faith, stepping up to spiritual directions, elated at receiving the sacraments, sitting at table with other students at meals, planning and participating in liturgical celebrations, and availing themselves of community building, leadership training, service projects, retreat weekends, the Eucharistic Congress, small faith sharing groups and Bible studies. These and many more reasons are signs of great things happening in the Church and society through our college students. Furthermore, an acronym for “CAMPUS” that will help students maintain good human qualities goes thus: C, cool; A, amiable; M, meek; P, patience; U, understanding; S, sweet.

During his 1987 apostolic journey to the U.S. and Canada, St. John Paul II told religious education leaders: “Dear friends, Jesus shares with you His teaching ministry. Only in close communion with Him can you respond adequately. If you continue to be faithful to this ministry today, as you have been in the past, you will be doing much in shaping a peaceful, just and hope-filled world for the future. Yours is a great gift to the Church, a great gift to your nation.”

Father Marcel Amadi is campus minister for Bennett College, North Carolina A&T, Salem College and Wake Forest University.

September 1, 2017 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI

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Parish spotlight

Bobby Speers

There are no couch potatoes in heaven

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t’s so easy to let our faith lives become automatic and routine. Just like when we’re lounging around on the couch at home, we can easily become too lazy. We think, ‘OK, I might sin a little, but not that badly.’ We sit through Mass although we think it’s boring, we take the Eucharist because it’s seems like the thing to do, we pray for a minute, we drop a couple of bucks in the offertory basket, and we think we’re good to go. Actually, this is the very definition of a spiritual couch potato!

The Apostle Paul is so clear when he sent this letter to the church at Corinth: “Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way.

They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor 9:24-27).

In another of his letters, St. Paul writes in Galatians 5:7: “You were running well; who hindered you from following (the) truth?”

Be honest, when was the last time you used spiritual discipline to read a religious Catholic book or Bible, attended a religious study at your parish or in a small home group, did manual work at the church, joined a committee or helped with church events? When was the last time you did spiritual exercises to increase your holiness and deepen your faith? In the past month, have you been to reconciliation, listened to a homily, prayed a rosary, attended a spiritual retreat, had a desire to go to the Eucharist Congress, actively participated at Mass, gave more to charity, helped your neighbor even when you didn’t want to, forgave someone, complimented

instead of complained, or prayed to Jesus to say thank you? Are you spiritually stronger today than you were last year?

If not, you need a spiritual overhaul because there are no couch potatoes in heaven!

Some of you may read this and ask, what is this race thing?

St. Paul was a spiritual fitness trainer – constantly encouraging, coaching, correcting and teaching his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Better than I can, he explains his race theme in his letter to the Hebrews: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.

For the sake of the joy that lay before Him He endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken His seat at the right of the throne of God. Consider how He endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: ‘My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved

by Him; for whom the Lord loves, He disciplines; He scourges every son He acknowledges.’

“Endure your trials as ‘discipline’; God treats you as sons. For what ‘son’ is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are without discipline, in which all have shared, you are not sons but bastards.

Besides this, we have had our earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not (then) submit all the more to the Father of spirits and live?

They disciplined us for a short time as seemed right to them, but He does so for our benefit, in order that we may share His holiness. At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.

“So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed.” (Heb 12:1-13) Amen!

Bobby Speers is a writer who lives in Hickory and serves as chairperson of St. Aloysius Church’s evangelization commission.

Photo provided by St. Thérèse Church

Big rummage sale funds parish needs MOORESVILLE — St. Thérèse Church in Mooresville completed its 30th annual rummage sale Aug. 4-5, raising approximately $22,000 for the parish. Over the years, parish projects such as upgrades to flooring, lighting or sound equipment have been funded by the proceeds from the rummage sale. The women’s SWAT team (Special Works and Tasks) coordinates the annual sale, which is quite popular in the Mooresville community.

Letter to the editor

Don’t overlook the contributions of the elderly I so enjoyed the Viewpoints commentary from Sister Constance Carolyn Veit in the Aug. 18 issue of the Catholic News Herald. I am in my 70s and for a long time I have felt that the older people in my parish have been ignored when it comes to adult education or programs to help us keep our faith strong. We are the pray-ers of the parish, attend daily Mass, volunteer for Adoration hours, and bring Holy

Communion to those in hospitals, nursing homes or are home bound. It is true that we do have the time to do these things, and they are vital to the life of the Church, but we need “food” to help us grow and learn more about our faith. Yes, the younger parishioners are the future of our parish, but we older parishioners are the ones to help keep things going, and we never get tired of learning about our faith and spreading it to others, so please help us to do that.

Helen Kelleher lives in Matthews.

Most-read stories on the web Through press time on Aug. 30, 10,660 visitors to www.catholicnewsherald.com have viewed a total of 22,030 pages. The top 10 headlines in August were: n New pastor of largest Catholic flock in U.S. settles in................................................................. 1,853 n Priest assignments for 2017...............................................................................................................1,842 n Nine new men move into St. Joseph College Seminary............................................................... 940 n View the current print edition of the Catholic News Herald..........................................................716 n 15 men take next step towards ordination as permanent deacons.............................................701 n Fatima Peace Pilgrimage....................................................................................................................... 602 n Syro-Malabar Catholics celebrate consecration of first church in Charlotte...........................410 n At jubilee Mass, Bishop Jugis thanks priests for ‘serving with joy’............................................271 n Eucharistic Congress of the Diocese of Charlotte...........................................................................277 n Bishop Jugis encourages St. Joseph College seminarians Aug. 13.............................................216

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Eucharistic Congress

Procession Route Change!

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Procession Line-Up 8:30 am - Procession Begins

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the 13th Eucharistic Congress September 8 & 9, 2017 Charlotte Convention Center www.GoEucharist.com