IHM names new principal

HIGH POINT — Dr. Maryanne Leonard is officially stepping into the role of principal at Immaculate Heart of Mary School in High Point after having served as interim principal for the past nine months, the Diocese of Charlotte Catholic Schools Office announced this week.

Leonard is an experienced Catholic educator with a deep connection to the IHM community. Before becoming interim principal, she served as IHM’s lead middle school English Language Arts teacher. Previous experience includes serving as teacher, curriculum facilitator and reading specialist for Guilford County Schools as well as stints as an adjunct professor at both Walden University and UNC-Greensboro. She holds a doctoral degree in curriculum instruction and supervision from UNCGreensboro, as well as multiple degrees from the College of New Rochelle in New York.

Leonard

— Catholic News Herald

Reflections on Christ’s Passion offered by exiled priests

Nicaraguan Father Oscar Benavidez (left) and Father Ramiro Tijerino were recently released after nearly seven months in a notorious Nicaraguan prison.

As we approach Holy Week and Christ’s Passion, death and resurrection at Easter, the Catholic News Herald asked the priests to reflect on the final expressions of Jesus –what’s known as the Seven Last Words from the Cross.

Before exile, Father Ramiro served as a pastor and as rector of John Paul II University in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, and Father Oscar served as a pastor and as advisor to the Matagalpa diocese’s Youth Ministry program. They are both critics of injustice and advocates for Nicaragua’s rural communities, the poor and the marginalized.

They are currently living in Charlotte, where Father Ramiro has family.

First Word

forgive them;

The first word of Jesus on the cross is a request to the Father: “Forgive them.” The cause of that forgiveness is His infinite love for humanity, for you, for me, and for all those who crucified Him yesterday and today. In that crucifixion on Calvary, the request for forgiveness has a justification: “because they do not know what they are doing.” What is it that they don’t know? Well, first of all, they don’t know that the one on the cross is innocent. And secondly, that the innocent who is on the cross is the Son of God.

And for us – do we know what we do? I think we do know. And it is perhaps the worst, that knowing that we do evil, we continue to do it. Today the world knows that abortion is the murder of an innocent person, and yet it continues to be carried out and even presented as a “human right.”

We know that war causes the death of many innocents, yet today there are 27 armed conflicts in the world. For all this, today more than ever, we need our Lord to continue asking the Father to forgive us. And on our side, we need to constantly acknowledge that we are sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. That we do evil knowing that we offend our Lord, thus manifesting the mystery of our freedom very well expressed by St. Paul the Apostle when he tells us: “In fact, I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I do not want”

(Romans 7:19).

Forgive us, Lord, for all our sins, those that we have committed even knowing that it was bad. Forgive also the negative consequences that those sins have left on me, on those I have offended and even on the people I say I love. Give us the grace of repentance and a constant desire to seek Your mercy. Amen.

— Fr. Ramiro Tijerino