September 1, 2023
Volume 32 • 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
Contact us 2
Español 14-17
Our Diocese 4-11
Our Faith 3
Our Schools 12
Scripture 3, 17
U.S. news 18-19
Viewpoints 22-23
World news 20-21
Between the rewards of work and the joy to be found on the other side of sorrow, September is a time to appreciate the fruits of our labors and the consolations of heaven that allow us to rest easy. As Ecclesiastes 5:12 says, “The sleep of a laborer is sweet.”
Here are a few ways to celebrate this month’s feast days that remind us of these truths:
APPRECIATE
With Labor Day coming Sept. 4, now is a good time to consider what the Church has to say about the dignity of work. The Catechism tells us that “work honors the Creator’s gifts and the talents received from Him” and that man “shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish” (CCC 2427). Catholic figures such as St. Joseph and Servant of God Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, also exemplify the dignity of work. Share the stories of these holy people with the children in your life and teach them to entrust the work of growing up to Our Lord through praying the morning offering.
EDITOR: Spencer K. M. Brown
704-808-4528, skmbrown@charlottediocese.org
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Kevin Eagan
704-370-3332, keeagan@charlottediocese.org
HISPANIC MEDIA MANAGER: César Hurtado
704-370-3375, rchurtado@charlottediocese.org
MULTIMEDIA DESIGNER: David Puckett
704-808-4521, dwpuckett@charlottediocese.org
EDITORIAL TEAM: Kimberly Bender
704-370-3394, kdbender@charlottediocese.org
Annie Ferguson 704-370-3404, arferguson@charlottediocese.org
Troy C. Hull
704-370-3288, tchull@charlottediocese.org
Christina Knauss, 704-370-0783, clknauss@charlottediocese.org
COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT/CIRCULATION: Erika Robinson 704-370-3333, catholicnews@charlottediocese.org
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Liz Chandler 704-370-3336, lchandler@charlottediocese.org
ASSISTANT COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Patricia L. Guilfoyle 704-370-3334, plguilfoyle@charlottediocese.org
THE CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD is published by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte 26 times a year.
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The deep “dolors” or sorrows that come with the cross of Jesus and the sufferings of Mary find comfort in the Resurrection. The feasts of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Sept. 14, and Our Lady of Sorrows, Sept. 15, are a time to remember the agony of Our Lord and the “Seven Sorrows” of His Mother, and to find consolation in the truth that Jesus has conquered the world. Parents can help kids grasp this serious concept in a fun way by offering them seven sour candies with a sweet interior. Feast day crafts and more are at www.catholicicing.com
CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF MARY
Amid the laborious and sorrowful themes of September, there is also great joy. This month the Church celebrates the fruit of a different kind of labor: that of St. Ann, who gave birth to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Feast of the Nativity of Mary is celebrated Sept. 8. Honor her by making a birthday cake (like this blue ombré cake at right, online at www.catholiccuisine.com) or blueberry muffins (www.thecatholickitchen.com).
— Annie Ferguson
ESPAÑOL
HORA SANTA : 7-8 p.m. Todos los jueves del mes con excepción de los primeros jueves. En la Capilla del segundo piso, Family Life Center en St. Patrick, 1621 Dilworth Road East, Charlotte. PRAYER SERVICES
IGBO MASS : 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 17, St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 812 Duke St., Greensboro. For details, call 336-707-3625.
OUR LADY OF THE HOLY ROSARY: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, Riverside Park, 305 Tappan St., Spruce Pine. Join us for a candle lit 15-decade rosary procession through the town of Spruce Pine and for the special intention of the conversion of our mountains to the faith. For details, email jacqueline.hinshaw@outlook.com.
ROSARY RALLY FOR OUR NATION 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, Latta Park Pavilion, 601 E. Park Ave., Charlotte. Enjoy faith and fellowship as we seek Our Lady’s intercession and pray the holy rosary. Drinks and snacks provided.
ST. PEREGRINE HEALING PRAYER: 6-7 p.m. second Thursday of each month in the New Life Center Building adjacent to St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte. The St. Peregrine healing prayer service will include a blessing with a relic of St. Peregrine, the patron saint of people afflicted by cancer, leg ailments or any lifethreatening disease, and of at-risk youth. All are welcome.
PRO-LIFE ROSARY After the 9 a.m. Mass every third Sunday at Mother Teresa Pro-Life Memorial, St. Vincent de Paul Church, 6828 Old Reid Road, Charlotte WORKSHOPS
MEDICARE BASICS- AN EMPHASIS ON OPEN ENROLLMENT:
1-2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18, St. Joseph Church 720 W. 13th St., Newton. New to Medicare? Learn the basics, including eligibility requirements, when to sign up, how much it costs, and what it covers! Vickie Blevins, executive director of the Catawba County Council on Aging, presents free, unbiased, accurate information. To Register, contact Sandra Breakfield, Catholic Charities Elder Ministry Program Director, at 704-370-3220.
Bishop Peter J. Jugis will participate in the following events:
SEPT. 8-9
Eucharistic Congress
Charlotte Convention Center
SEPT. 12 – 11 A.M.
Presbyteral Council Meeting
Pastoral Center, Charlotte
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the tiny woman recognized throughout the world for her work among the poorest of the poor, was beatified Oct. 19, 2003. Among those present were hundreds of Missionaries of Charity, the order she founded in 1950 as a diocesan religious community. Today the congregation also includes contemplative sisters and brothers, and an order of priests.
Born to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje, Macedonia, Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was the youngest of the three children who survived. For a time, the family lived comfortably, and her father’s construction business thrived. But life changed overnight following his unexpected death.
During her years in public school, Agnes participated in a Catholic sodality (confraternity) and showed a strong interest in the foreign missions. At age 18, she entered the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. It was 1928 when she said goodbye to her mother for the final time and made her way to a new land and a new life. The following year she was sent to the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling, India. There she chose the name Teresa and prepared for a life of service. She was assigned to a high school for girls in Calcutta, where she taught history and geography to the daughters of the wealthy. But she could not escape the realities around her – the poverty, the suffering, the overwhelming numbers of destitute people.
St. Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of His love to all. Obtain from the Heart of Jesus (make your request here). Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate His light and love to others. Amen.
In 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling to make a retreat, Sister Teresa heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear. I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” She also heard a call to give up her life with the Sisters of Loreto and instead, to “follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.”
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Cause of Our Joy, pray for us.
St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.
After receiving permission to leave Loreto, establish a new religious community, and undertake her new work, Sister Teresa took a nursing course for several months. She returned to Calcutta, where she lived in the slums and opened a school for poor children. Dressed in a white sari and sandals – the ordinary dress of an Indian woman – she soon began getting to know her neighbors – especially the poor and sick – and getting to know their needs through visits.
The work was exhausting, but she was not alone for long. Volunteers who came to join her in the work, some of them former students, became the core of the Missionaries of Charity. Others helped by donating food, clothing, supplies and the use of buildings. In 1952, the city of Calcutta gave Mother Teresa a former hostel, which became a home for the dying and the destitute. As the Missionaries of Charity expanded their reach, services were extended to help orphans, abandoned children, alcoholics, the aging and street people.
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: 1
Thessalonians 5:1-6, 9-11, Luke 4:31-37;
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 5:1-4a, Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23; Saturday (St. Peter Claver): Colossians 1:2123, Luke 6:1-5
Pope Francis confirmed plans to publish a “second Laudato Si’,” which is expected to update and expand on his 2015 encyclical on the environment.
Greeting visitors in the Paul VI audience hall after his weekly general audience Aug. 30, the pope drew attention to the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation Sept. 1, the beginning of the Season of Creation, a monthlong ecumenical period for prayer and action to promote ecological principles. The Season of Creation ends Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis Assisi.
For the next four decades, Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor and forgotten. Her love knew no bounds. Nor did her energy, as she crisscrossed the globe pleading for support and inviting others to see the face of Jesus in the poorest of the poor. In 1979, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1995, Mother Teresa visited Charlotte at the invitation of then Bishop William Curlin, who was a close friend and her confessor. She spoke to a crowd of thousands at Bojangles’ Coliseum, and she officially opened a convent for the Missionaries of Charity to serve the poor and vulnerable women in the city.
Mother Teresa died Sept. 5, 1997, and she was canonized by Pope Francis on Sept. 4, 2016.
She left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity. Her response to God’s call made her a “mother to the poor,” a symbol of compassion to the world, and a living witness to the thirsting love of God.
— Spencer K.M. Brown, Franciscan Media and catholic.org“On that date I intend to publish an exhortation, a second Laudato Si’,” Pope Francis said. The document will be the sixth apostolic exhortation of his pontificate and the first since his February 2020 post-synodal exhortation on the Amazon.
To conclude his weekly audience, the pope asked Catholics to join with “our Christian brothers and sisters in the commitment to caring for creation as a sacred gift of the Creator.”
“It is necessary to side with the victims of environmental and climate injustices, striving to end the senseless war on our common home, which is a global, terrible war,” he said.
The pope had mentioned the upcoming document Aug. 21 when he met with a group of lawyers; he said he was preparing the document as a “second part to Laudato Si’ to update it on current problems.”
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 21:4b-9, Philippians 2:6-11, John
3:13-17; Friday (Our Lady of Sorrows): 1 Timothy
SEPT. 17-23
Sunday: Sirach 27:30-28:7, Romans 14:79, 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 Kin Tae-gon
Pope Francis also mentioned the letter July 26 when he spent an hour responding to questions from young people from the Archdiocese of Melbourne, Australia, according to Archbishop Peter A. Comensoli. “We decided to keep mum about it, to let Pope Francis share the news when he wanted,” the archbishop posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The Season of Creation grew out of the observance of the day of prayer, which originated in the Orthodox Church and was added to the Catholic Church’s calendar by Pope Francis in 2015. In his message for this year’s celebration, the pope called on world leaders attending the U.N. climate summit in Dubai Nov. 30 to Dec. 12 to “institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel.”
For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com
CHARLOTTE — Bishop Peter J. Jugis announces that Father Thomas J. Kessler, a parochial vicar at St. Matthew Parish in Charlotte and former pastor of St. Philip the Apostle Parish in Statesville, has been appointed parochial vicar at St. Luke Parish in Mint Hill, effective Aug. 25.
CHARLOTTE — The Diocese of Charlotte’s parishes, schools and ministries will offer paid pregnancy and parental leave for employees who give birth or have a child placed in their care through adoption or foster care, diocesan officials announced Aug. 21. Eligible employees who are becoming new parents may request up to two weeks of paid parental leave to care for and bond with their child, and to begin adapting to their expanding family. In addition, mothers who give birth may also request up to two weeks of paid pregnancy leave to aid in their recovery from childbirth – providing them a total of four weeks of combined paid pregnancy and parental leave. This new paid leave benefit does not replace other available benefits, but rather, enhances and may be paired with existing benefits (including vacation and sick time), to give eligible employees additional paid time away as they welcome their child.
“Building up and supporting the family is at the heart of the Church’s mission, and we especially want to support those who are working for the Church,” Bishop Peter Jugis said in the announcement. “As our diocese continues to grow, we’re blessed to be in a position to offer paid pregnancy and parental leave for employees in our schools, churches and pastoral center who are establishing families – ‘thus contributing to the renewal of society and of the People of God.’”
CHARLOTTE — After several months of planning, St. Thomas Aquinas Parish announces that Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration - continuous exposition of the Blessed Sacrament occurring 24/7 – in its chapel will begin Friday, Sept. 1. Sign-ups for Adoration began earlier this year, but those interested can still get involved and help to ensure all hours are covered for the opening. Times that have recently become available and need an additional adorer are 6 p.m. Sunday, 8 p.m. Monday, 8 p.m. Tuesday, 8 p.m. Wednesday, and 8 p.m. Thursday. Besides Eucharistic Adoration in the chapel, Adoration will occur in the church during Benediction. All other opportunities of exposition will be held in the chapel.
For details, call the parish office at 704-549-1607 or go online to www.stacharlotte.com.
MORGANTON — Members of St. Charles Borromeo Parish recently received awards from the Diocese of Charlotte for outstanding service in their community. Recipients were: Christina Skelly, a 2023 graduate of Patton High School, who received the Bishop Begley Award; Elias Phipps, a 2023 graduate of Draughn High School, who received the St. Timothy Award; and Father Ken Whittington, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish, who received the Pope St. John Paul II Award.
LIZ CHANDLER lchandler@charlottediocese.org
SPRUCE PINE — Inside North Carolina’s Mountain View Correctional Institution, a long gray line forms behind a microphone in the gym.
Thirty-six “offenders” – or “residents” as they are called on this special Saturday night – are clad in gray uniforms, sweating and fanning themselves as they await their turn to speak. It’s August, and the room fans are off so everyone can be heard.
Near the back of line is a young man named Joshua, aged 30, nicknamed “Monster.” He’s Native American, from the Lumbee tribe. Black tattoos cover his face and neck, among them a Carolina Panther, a Thundercat, and monster claws beneath his left eye.
As the line advances toward the microphone, Joshua listens as his fellow residents take turns describing what this three-day prison retreat with clergy and volunteers from the Diocese of Charlotte has meant to them.
“I’ve never felt like part of a family like I have the last couple of days,” a resident named Greg, tearing up, told the crowd of 75 residents, volunteers and visitors.
Another resident shared: “Just to feel like a human being again is amazing.”
Then came Joshua, who’s in prison for murder.
He was already thinking about returning to full-time prison life after the retreat, so he made a request: “Please keep us in your prayers – even when you leave.”
The next day, Joshua would make another request. This one, even more personal and enduring.
The Mountain View prison retreat was part of the Catholic “Residents Encounter Christ” movement, embraced by dioceses, parishes and a variety of other religions to bring hope – and Jesus – to inmates around the world.
For residents of Mountain View, a medium-security prison for up to 884 men, the retreat was a curiosity and an opportunity. To get out of their cells. To interact with “outsiders.” To enjoy meals from beyond the prison walls.
But what they took away from the retreat, the residents said, was so much more.
It began with this invitation: “You can spend three days in the house/cells, doing all those things you do every day, day after day. Or you can show some courage, take a risk, and see what Jesus has in store for you.”
About half of the 36 residents who signed up said they were Catholic. Others were Baptist, Lutheran, Muslim, Christian and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“We don’t go in to proselytize or convert anyone, we just want to introduce or reintroduce the grace of Jesus,” says Rich Winslow, a devoted Catholic and retired scientist/ organizational manager, who has led more than 100 prison retreats – and even initiated his own son into prison ministry: Monsignor Patrick Winslow, the diocese’s vicar general and chancellor.
“Prison ministry is a priority for Bishop (Peter) Jugis, and has always been inspiring for me since that first time my dad invited me in,” said Father Winslow, who once served as chaplain in a maximum security prison in New York.
North Carolina prison leaders say they welcome programs that positively inspire inmates.
“We like to find groups that can come in and provide hope,” said Associate Warden Greg Swink. “When people come in and show they care, then there’s hope.”
The Mountain View retreat unfolded around 12 tables in the gym over the weekend of Aug. 18-20. Each table became a community of residents and volunteers, who shared stories, answered questions, and got to know one another.
An exhausting agenda included more than two dozen speakers, testimony from inmates, singing and musical performances, four meals, confessions, Mass, and the Saturday night Open House – when visitors were allowed inside the prison and residents made presentations and spoke from their hearts.
“I’m not really much into religion,” one resident said when his turn came at the microphone, “but this weekend got me thinking differently, and I just feel blessed.”
Another said: “I’ve had the devil on my shoulder for a long time. I just hope I finally got him off.”
A prison retreat, organizers say, is meant to spark a quest for Christ and Christian living among inmates and
is $199,000, with $117,000 in distributions to date.
“We spend it on things that add value to the parish,” said Father Paul Asoh.
CHARLOTTE
— The Diocese of Charlotte Foundation recently reached a milestone: growing its endowment distributions from $10 million to $15 million in less than four years.
The foundation gives people and organizations a way to provide long-term financial stability for the diocese and its more than 180 recipient parishes, schools and ministries. It now tops $85 million in assets.
An endowment is a permanent fund in which the principal is never touched, but the income from it can be used according to the wishes of the donor organization or individual. Endowments generate income and help to sustain the long-term strength and viability of the diocese and its parishes, schools and ministries.
The $15 million was distributed from 172 of these endowments. For the other 175 endowments, distributions will be made when the recipients have a particular need.
Established in 1997 with an initial gift of $200,000, the Joseph M. Bryan Sr. Endowment has provided $536,000 in distributions to the 71-year-old Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro. Most notably, the fund provided over $109,000 to replace the steam boilers, which were leaking and deemed past their useful life. The endowment is currently valued at $352,000.
“The Joseph M. Bryan Sr. endowment has enabled us to keep the lights on and the church heated,” said Matt Fitzgerald, director of campus facilities for Our Lady of Grace.
“The mission of the Church is the salvation of the souls through praise, worship and, especially, the sacraments. We help enable that by creating an environment that is safe, peaceful and beautiful through maintenance, repair and upkeep. Endowments make all the difference to churches such as Our Lady of Grace,” he continued.
St. Mary Mother of God Church in Sylva is also making needed repairs and improvements through an endowment established in 2010 and named for the parish. With an initial gift of $178,000, the current market value
The church, which also serves the students, faculty and staff at nearby Western Carolina University, has seen many young families join the parish, bolstering its faith formation program and its needs. Most recently, the monies have gone toward the HVAC system for classrooms and the conference center.
“[This endowment] means a lot,” said Father Asoh. “It’s made a huge difference.”
Jim Kelley, diocesan development director, said that to date, more than 1,600 people in the Diocese of Charlotte have notified the Development Office that they are making an estate gift to a diocesan entity in their will or estate plan.
Since the foundation’s establishment in 1994, Kelley has seen gifts that range from thousands to millions of dollars, and donors continue supporting the Church through endowments as a way to keep giving long into the future.
Kelley said he is gratified to see these endowments being put to good use for the benefit of parishes, schools and ministries throughout the diocese.
“These distributions provide funds that change people’s lives. This is all done because individuals or entities established endowments because they love the Church, and they want to provide for its future. People making these endowments are a wonderful gift for the Church,” Kelley said. “We hope more and more of our parishioners will establish endowments in their wills or estate plans.”
Interested in setting up – or adding to – an endowment to benefit your parish or Catholic school? You can establish an endowment in the Diocese of Charlotte Foundation by leaving a bequest in a will, a beneficiary designation from a retirement plan, a trust or annuity, or a gift of real estate, life insurance, cash or securities. For details, contact Gina Rhodes at 704-3703364 or gmrhodes@rcdoc.org.
SWANNANOA — Father Christian Cook was installed as pastor of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Swannanoa on Aug. 17. The vicar forane of the Asheville Vicariate, the Very Reverend Adrian Porras of St. Barnabas Church in Arden, came to celebrate the installation Mass, where Father Cook took an oath and signed the official installation documents. A celebration with parishioners followed the Mass. “I have noticed that, with each assignment, I gain more and more friendships in Christ,” said Father Cook. “I still hear from former parishioners from years ago, and they always assure me of their prayers. As I begin my time at St. Margaret Mary, I look forward to becoming the spiritual father of more of God’s children, and making more of those same friendships that have sustained me in my vocation.”
— Catholic News Herald
Father Casey Coleman, pastor of Our Lady of Grace, offers Mass in 2022 in honor of the 70th anniversary of the church. Since it’s inception in 1997, the Joseph M. Bryan Sr. Endowment has provided $536,000 in distributions to the Greensboro parish, providing necessary funds to help with facility needs.
PHOTOS
MOORESVILLE — Four stained glass windows were recently installed at St. Therese Church, two behind the organ and two by the confessional. “After much prayer and conversation with our generous benefactors and the diocesan Office of Divine Worship, we decided on the following saints,” said Father Mark Lawlor, pastor of St. Therese. The saints represented in the windows include St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, St. Patrick, St. Junipero Serra, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare of Assisi.
CHARLOTTE — One might wonder how a single parish could pack and ship over 50,000 pounds of food to those in need, and do it all in a single day. As the old adage goes, “Many hands make light work,” and for St. Matthew Parish, such labor was a joyous undertaking. On Aug. 12, with over 1,200 parishioners and volunteers – including the entire Charlotte Catholic High School football team – a total of 311,424 meals were packed and shipped to the poorest of the poor, both locally and around the world, completing the 21st Annual Monsignor McSweeney World Hunger Drive with record success. With funds raised from July 15 through Aug. 5, the annual meal-packing event brought together a diverse community.
“Our parishioners truly feel the people we are helping are part of our family and understand how critical the needs are,” said Steven Favory, co-director of the Monsignor McSweeney World Hunger Drive and Executive Director of the St. Marc School in Haiti.
The meals and funds go to support the Missionaries of the Poor and St. Marc School in Haiti, along with a youth hostel in India, poor villages in Venezuela, and are also donated to food pantries at local Food Lions.
THE BIG LEAGUES OF CHARITY
OK, pay attention. There are three important things to remember when you volunteer for St. Matthew Church’s massive annual meal-packing event here in Charlotte.
They are: The rice goes in last; keep your hair net on at all times; and the rice goes in last. Got it? Good. Because this isn’t like selling brownies after the 5 p.m. vigil Mass. This is the big leagues of parish-based brotherly love. There are instructional videos, forklift operators, logistics experts, and three work shifts totaling more than a thousand participants organized into eight-person assembly lines. Everybody’s got a job. Everybody wears a hair net. And at the end of the day, when the dehydrated vegetable dust settles and the well-oiled machine that is the Monsignor McSweeney World Hunger Drive comes to a halt, the output is prodigious: truckloads of cardboard boxes containing the equivalent of more than 300,000 nutritious, ready-to-cook meals, most of which are bound for Haiti. That’s a lot to process, in more ways than one. What you need to understand is that St. Matthew is just like your
parish, only 10 times larger.
Located in south Charlotte, St. Matthew is a bonafide megachurch, with some 11,000 families on the parish rolls, 101 busy ministries, and a cavernous, 2,100-seat modern church. Everything about St. Matthew is super-sized, including its charitable outreach. And that’s a good thing, because no country in the Western Hemisphere needs a big-hearted Catholic community like St. Matthew in its corner more than Haiti does now.
Remember the earthquake that devastated the Caribbean country in 2010? The living conditions there are far worse now.
Haiti is in a slow death spiral. When President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021, chaos ensued. Two years later, there’s still no presidential successor, the national government has effectively ceased to function, the power grid is down, and armed gangs rule the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
What makes the situation worse than it was after the earthquake is that humanitarian groups can’t rush to the rescue. It’s simply too dangerous. In July, the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince ordered its nonessential personnel to return to the United States. The State Department has issued a Level 4 advisory cautioning Americans not to travel there.
“Violent crime, often involving the use of firearms, such as armed robbery, carjackings, and kidnappings for ransom that include U.S. citizens are common,” the embassy warns on its website.
“Right now there is nothing functioning in the country,” said Brother Louima Israel, the local superior of the Missionaries of the Poor in Cap-Haitien on the north coast of Haiti, where the order operates aid centers for children and the elderly. “Even if you have money, there’s nothing to buy. And politically there’s nobody in charge.”
What can one Catholic parish do? A lot, it turns out.
The parish has had a close relationship with the Missionaries of the Poor and its founder, Father Richard Ho Lung, since the late 1990s. When the first group of parishioners visited the order’s base in Cap-Haitien years ago they asked how they could help. “We need food,” was the response. So St. Matthew got busy.
To date, its annual food drives have yielded more than 4.1 million pounds of food and medical supplies – the fruits
of more than 48,000 volunteer service hours. The parish also has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for educational and sustainability projects in northern Haiti, including a sewing trade school, an agricultural training center, and a K-12 school, St. Marc’s, which recently graduated its first college-bound student.
While such an event is a giant undertaking, St. Matthew volunteers do it all with a spirit of joy and love – and even a little bit of fun.
“The meal-packing event is almost like a competition because we try to pack as many as we can most efficiently as we can,” explained Ed Billick, a retired operations executive for Frito-Lay who joins the effort every year with a group of his friends.
“We challenge each other at the table and we bust each others’ chops a little bit and kid around and motivate each other and just have a good time,” Billick said. “So, yeah, it’s about feeding the poor in Haiti, but gosh, it’s [also] about getting together with your brothers and sisters in Christ and just having some fun.”
Some people might wonder if it’s really worth it. Isn’t 300,000 meals a year – as impressive as that sounds – just a drop in the bucket for a country with the enormous needs that Haiti has?
Those kinds of questions stop when you have an opportunity to see a student at St. Marc’s School sitting down to eat one of those meals. In some cases, Favory says, it’s the only one they’ll eat all day.
The point isn’t to fix Haiti, Favory says, it’s to make a difference where you can. Each person does their small part, trusting that God can fill the gaps with his grace.
“To be able to help the poorest of the poor and those who are hungry, is truly amazing,” Favory said. “But best of all is to see all the youth and families, and really the whole community, come out and give their time to others. It’s a win-win – as those in need are fed and provided for, but also to see the parish’s works of mercy in action.”
To date, St. Matthew Parish and the Monsignor McSweeny World Hunger Drive have packed and shipped over 3.4 million meals to Haiti, India, Venezuela and the local community.
How to help At
ANNIE FERGUSON arferguson@charlottediocese.org
WINSTON-SALEM — Every Wednesday, Maureen Irwin picks, washes and packs nutrient-rich produce from the garden she so carefully tends on the Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte property near downtown WinstonSalem.
Paired with the Catholic Charities food pantry, the effort feeds 60 to 80 families each week. Irwin, a volunteer who runs the garden, sets up a table each Thursday with the food pantry coordinator. The clients, some of whom live close enough to walk to the garden, then peruse the selection.
“It’s really a good location for them. There are specific clients of Catholic Charities who come, and they get the things from the pantry but then also the fresh foods from the garden,” Irwin says. “We try to give clients their choices because some people love beets and some people hate beets, so we don’t just put them in their cart whether they want them or not.”
The 1,440-square-foot garden was established in 2018 and features 10 beds that grow foods such as lettuce, spinach, kale, tomatoes, peppers, peas, beets, onions, carrots, eggplant, watermelon, beans and okra.
“People go crazy over the tomatoes and peppers, especially,” Irwin says with a smile. “I love being outside and taking advantage of everything that nature has to offer. I also love providing fresh, good food for people whose options are limited.”
So far this season, the garden has produced 190 pounds of food with more expected. The 2022 growing season yielded more than 350 pounds.
Irwin, who has tended successful backyard gardens for many years, has the help of about 10 volunteers who help plant, water, harvest and provide for other needs such as an irrigation system that solved the problem of needing a 200-foot hose to reach the garden.
The system, developed by volunteer Carl Westcott, doesn’t go directly to the garden, however. Instead, they installed a tank that’s fed by rainwater and condensation from the air conditioner. Its motor and pump get the water where it needs to go.
“Now, we mostly use God’s water as opposed to city water, and that was a huge help,” Irwin says.
The garden also offers educational opportunities for local students. Middle schoolers have visited to learn about topics such as crop rotation and soil testing. The garden, which is registered with the state extension service, has been a learning experience for Irwin too.
She notes that she learns new things every year and that the extension service’s free courses for community gardeners were very helpful in developing the space and building the pollinator garden.
Elsa and Hernan Sabio have been volunteering at the food pantry for the past 10 years and at the garden since its inception. Elsa waters and Hernan repairs items such as the hoses and trellis. They note that the team’s work in the garden has inspired clients to volunteer, too.
“We were aware that some of the population that we serve in the food pantry may not have access to the more naturally grown foods, so we thought if something can be grown and be made available fresh too, that would be great,” Hernan says. “That was the seed of how it got started, and it made a lot of sense to us.”
Elsa adds, “It’s a good way of providing food to those who need it, but it’s more than just the produce. It’s from our garden. We have put our love into growing it. We give it to them, and they really appreciate it. They say, ‘Oh, this is from your garden!’”
As the regional director of Catholic Charities in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, Glynis Bell adds, “We are grateful to Maureen and her garden team for making it possible for our participants to enjoy a variety of nutritious veggies they normally wouldn’t have. This has been a great addition to our already extensive outreach program.”
In 2020, the Catholic Charities office in Asheville started a similar garden when the pandemic interrupted regular work.
Because he couldn’t meet with clients at the time, Scott Meltsner – the office’s bilingual clinical mental health counselor – decided to start a garden to help staff members, clients, and program participants handle the stress of a difficult year.
“I was bringing in some of the produce from my home garden and having people really like it, so I thought, ‘Wow, wouldn’t that be a great thing for us to have here?’ Meltsner recalls. “Somewhere we can just grow the food at the office and give it away while getting our clients involved in some way.”
Jesse Boeckermann, western regional director for Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, agreed.
“Working with the earth has great therapeutic benefits,” he says. “It also allows us to distribute fresh and healthy food to 40 to 45 families during our food pantry each Wednesday.”
Now the 150-square-foot garden is in its third season, and Kristen Pollock – AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer and impact coordinator for Catholic Charities – oversees the project while other staff members contribute as they can.
“I never tire of the miracle of putting one small seed in the dirt and watching it turn into pounds of food to eat,” Pollock says.
This year’s crop includes tomatoes, peppers, beans, okra, cucumbers, gourds, and a few flowers.
“I’m thankful to be part of an organization that is willing to use resources to grow healthy food and distribute local produce to local people,” says Pollock. “That is a value of many in and around Asheville, and it’s great to be a part of it.”
Nearby businesses have been very supportive, offering volunteers to help with the gardening.
Boeckermann adds, “We’d love to expand this project to grow more food and help more people in need.”
Special to the Catholic News Herald
CHARLOTTE — The Season of Creation begins Sept. 1 with the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends on Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
Since 2015, Pope Francis has asked Catholics each year to start the month of September by praying for our common home.
“The annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation offers to individual believers and to the community a precious opportunity to renew our personal participation in this vocation as custodians of creation, raising to God our thanks for the marvelous works that He has entrusted to our care, invoking His help for the protection of creation and His mercy for the sins committed against the world in which we live,” Pope Francis said in his
CHARLOTTE — With lectures from leading doctors and recovery specialists, St. Matthew Parish is hosting a seminar to help families and individuals who are suffering from the pains of addiction. Join parishioners and faithful from across the diocese at 7 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 21, at St. Matthew Church as attendees explore the crisis of addiction and solutions to combat this rising problem.
The National Center for Drug Abuse reports that, as of 2020 (the most recent data available), more than 37 million Americans 12 or older were considered users of illegal drugs. In 2021, 4,041 North Carolinians and 2,168 South Carolinians died of drug overdoses. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, from 2019 to 2022, overdose deaths related to synthetic opioids increased by 276 percent. Each day, numbers like these continue to rise.
People afflicted with addiction or substance use disorder – a treatable disease affecting the brain that leads to an inability to control the use of legal and illegal substances – are suffering. When substance use disorder affects one family member, there is a ripple effect throughout the entire family. The earlier there is intervention, the better the outcome for all.
All are welcome to join as attendees explore this crisis and possible solutions. This educational seminar consists of a panel of experts and individuals directly affected by addiction, including:
n Dr. Christopher Lord, a graduate of Teas Medical Branch with a specialty in addiction medicine
n Ben Mount, former director of the Atlantic County Health Department and member of St. Matthew Parish
n A counselor from Dilworth Center, which has provided treatment for alcoholism and drug addiction, comprehensive assessments, and medical treatment plans for more than 30 years
n A participant from the Dilworth Center who will discuss his own personal journey with addiction
n Union County District Attorney Trey Robison
n Representatives from local law enforcement agencies.
At the end of the presentations, attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions in a group setting.
The event is free and open to the public. St. Matthew Church is located at 8015 Ballantyne Commons Parkway, Charlotte, N.C. 28277. — Catholic
inaugural announcement for the World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation in 2015. During the Season of Creation, Catholics are called to focus efforts to protect the planet for ourselves and future generations.
The theme for the 2023 Season of Creation is “Let Justice and Peace Flow.” This theme is inspired by the words of the prophet Amos: “Let justice flow on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.”
Pope Francis notes, “God wants justice to reign; it is as essential to our life as God’s children made in His likeness as water is essential for our physical survival.”
The five-week-long Season of Creation encourages and assists the faithful to respond to Pope Francis’ call to care for the environment – as individuals, as family, as parishioners and as members of community.
Consider reading Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si” –whether for the first time or to explore more deeply the pope’s message.
The full text is posted at www. laudatosimovement.org, along with more resources and the pope’s statement for the 2023 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ webpage www.usccb.org/environment also focuses on environmental concerns – with resources such as prayers, educational videos, advocacy information, and Church quotes and statements about the environment. The webpage also includes links to the encyclical “Laudato Si’” as well as a “Laudato Si’” discussion guide.
JOSEPH PURELLO is director of the Office of Social Concerns and Advocacy for Catholic Charities.
HUNTERSVILLE — St. Mark Church’s Respect Life Ministry hosted N.C. Right to Life’s annual Camp Joshua teen pro-life training seminar Aug. 11-12.
More than 30 high school students attended the training to learn how to advocate pro-life beliefs from a medical and philosophical perspective before they headed back to school.
The seminar covered age-appropriate topics including the history of abortion and pro-life laws, fetal development, abortion pill reversal, and how to counter pro-abortion arguments through reasoning and science.
The event also featured a special livestream from sidewalk counselors praying in front of an abortion facility in Greensboro.
The two-day event was the second and final camp this summer organized by N.C. Right to Life. The first was held at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Raleigh in July.
Dr. Bill Pincus, president of N.C. Right to Life and member of St. Joseph Parish in Asheboro, said he was pleased at the turnout and enthusiasm of the attendees.
“The combined Raleigh and Charlotte Camp Joshua events were the largest ever in the history of North Carolina Right to Life,” Pincus said. “We wish to thank St. Mark Catholic Church for allowing us to use its facilities to help promote a
Dr. Bill Pincus
N.C. Right to Life president
culture of life throughout North Carolina.”
For more information about future Camp Joshua camps and other pro-life activities, visit N.C. Right to Life at www. ncrtl.org.
— Mike FitzGerald, correspondent
‘The combined Raleigh and Charlotte Camp Joshua events were the largest ever in the history of North Carolina Right to Life.’
CHARLOTTE — Bishop Peter Jugis and members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem celebrated one of their patron saints – St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great and discoverer of the True Cross – during a special Mass Aug. 18.
The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem was founded nearly a thousand years ago by the pope during the Crusades when Jerusalem came under attack. Today, men and women of the order still defend and support the Catholic presence in the Holy Land through their charitable work.
Now one of the order’s patron saints, St. Helena used her position as mother of the Roman emperor Constantine to care for the poor, imprisoned and exiled after her conversion to Christianity. After her son also converted and legalized Christianity throughout the Roman Empire in the early fourth century, she traveled to Jerusalem and ordered the construction of the Basilicas of the Nativity in Bethlehem and of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. When she then began construction of a church over the site of Christ’s crucifixion, death and resurrection – the Church of the Holy Sepulchre – the True Cross and three iron crucifixion nails were unearthed.
The Mass on St. Helena’s feast day was
offered by Bishop Jugis at St. Patrick Cathedral and concelebrated by Father John Putnam, pastor of St. Mark Church in Huntersville and chaplain of the order’s Charlotte chapter, and Father Christopher Roux, a member of the order and rector of the cathedral. Assisting were Deacons Daren Bitter and Brian McNulty.
In his homily, Bishop Jugis praised St. Helena’s steadfast faith and her love for the poor, especially her concern for Christians in the Holy Land.
“We can learn a lot from St. Helena, to imitate her virtues of generosity and charity,” he said. “She was on fire for the love of Christ and love of the Church,” and her faith and actions helped spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.
“The Church is indebted to her so much,” he said. “She is the perfect patron saint of the Equestrian Order because of her charity and generosity (and) her love for Christ and the Church. She is the perfect patron saint because of her support of the poor and of Christian communities in the Holy Land.
“And how appropriate that she discovered the cross of Christ in Jerusalem – the cross, which is the very symbol of charity, the charity which so marked her life.”
Bishop Jugis encouraged the members to imitate St. Helena in their own lives. “Let us put the love of Christ always into action in our lives, by charity and generosity in service to others.”
Today, the Equestrian Order has
arferguson@charlottediocese.org
CHARLOTTE — Students in six Catholic schools across the diocese will receive a total of $78,700 in financial aid from the C. Philip Johnston-Aline W. Kaneer Scholarship Fund, paying all their tuition for the 2023-’24 academic year.
The fund was created by Johnston with $4 million from his estate after his death in 2017.
Johnston was born in Charlotte but lived all over the country before retiring in the Southeast. He attended Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md., and earned a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1958. He worked in the entertainment industry, but when acting work became scarce, he took a “temporary job” working for Conrad Hilton in a new credit card venture called Carte Blanche. He rose to success in the emerging industry and, after reaching the position of senior vice president at a large regional bank in St. Louis, he left to lead a nonprofit organization specializing in consumer credit counseling.
Students from all 20 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Charlotte are eligible for scholarship awards from the fund.
The Johnston Scholarship follows students throughout their time in schools in the Charlotte diocese.
The schools that students will attend this year are Bishop McGuinness High School in Kernersville; Charlotte Catholic High School; Our Lady of Mercy and St. Leo schools in Winston-
Salem; Sacred Heart School in Salisbury; and St. Michael School in Gastonia.
The scholarship awarded to each student ranges from $7,000 to $15,000 depending on the tuition cost and need. Each student can continue receiving assistance through the scholarship fund every year for the length of their academic career as long as they remain eligible.
“I first met with Mr. Johnston back in 1989. He made his decision to put this (scholarship) gift in his estate back then,” said Jim Kelley, diocesan director of development. “He never wavered from that commitment, even though he moved away from the diocese in his later years.”
Kelley noted, “More and more people across the diocese like Philip Johnston are recognizing a range of needs in the Church here in western North Carolina – including our Catholic schools, parishes, seminarian education, Catholic Charities and St. Joseph College Seminary – and remembering these ministries in their wills and estates.”
Since 1986, diocesan entities including parishes, schools and ministries have received 44 gifts of $1 million or more from individuals like Johnston. They typically help fund capital projects or endowments.
Interested in establishing an endowment to benefit the Church in western North Carolina? For details, contact Gina Rhodes at 704-370-3364 or email gmrhodes@rcdoc. org.
approximately 30,000 members in 40 nations worldwide.
Members are required to travel regularly on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and the global amount of aid they send to support the work of the Latin Patriarchate and the other Catholic institutions in the Holy Land is more than $10 million annually.
Knights and ladies wear capes featuring a thick red “Jerusalem cross” that has four miniature crosses in each corner of the main cross. Each of the five crosses represents the five wounds of Christ. Learn more about their work at www. midatlanticeohs.com.
KERNERSVILLE — Holy Cross Parish Knight of Columbus Council 8509 joined the local community on Aug. 19 during the annual Honeybee Festival in Kernersville. The Knights spent the entire seven hours passing out Tootsie rolls, accepting any amount of donations, and telling people about the organization, raising funds for local charity and operation L.A.M.B. – a charity which helps those with intellectual disabilities. “At this year’s Honeybee festival, we had a record-setting year collecting for special education programs within the Forsyth County school district. The Knights are very grateful to the community for their outstanding support,” said fundraiser organizer, Dennis Machuga.
CÉSAR HURTADO rchurtado@charlottediocese.org
CHARLOTTE — Father Julio Dominguez, the episcopal vicar for Hispanic Ministry in the Diocese of Charlotte, is making a series of pastoral visits to the vicariates and various apostolic movements across the diocese. With the Hispanic community representing nearly half of the Catholic population in western North Carolina, the aim of these visits is carrying out and publicizing the pastoral priorities announced earlier this year by Bishop Peter Jugis. Father Dominguez aims to visit every vicariate in the coming months, Sister Juana Pearson said.
“We are halfway through the process, and we still have seven visits pending, four to vicariates and three to apostolic groups,” said Sister Juana, assistant vicar at the Charlotte Pastoral Center. “Father Julio wants to hear the questions and proposals of the people, in order to continue to grow the Hispanic pastoral plan for the diocese.”
During the visits, Father Dominguez shares the development plans for Hispanic ministry – the expansion of evangelization and diocesan pastoral priorities – and then has an open dialogue with participants to present any concerns, questions or needs of their community.
Sister Juana commented that she has
been glad to see that people are not only thinking of their local parish, but of the entire diocese as a whole, “in a living community,” that is coming together to evangelize and make plans to further grow the Catholic community.
Regarding the participants, Father Dominguez said that the leaders of the different ministries are especially invited to the meetings, along with the faithful who are also more than welcome to join.
“We are thrilled to see even priests and deacons come out to the meetings, and it gives us joy because it motivates people when they see that their pastors are interested in them and want the best for the Hispanic ministry,” Sister Juana said. During the meetings, attendees are asked to scan a QR code with their mobile devices to open an anonymous survey. The questionnaire includes multiple choice and open questions, where parishioners can elaborate on their concerns or questions regarding the services they expect to receive from their Church in the coming years.
The answers are diverse among the apostolic movements and various ministries. However, Sister Juana explained, one can see an interest in generating a deeper level spirituality through requests for more retreats, family assistance, evangelization and more.
Referring to the presence of the coordinators of the Hispanic ministry of the vicariates in each of the meetings, Father Dominguez expressed that these meetings “empower the coordinators.” They are valuable people delegated by the bishop to serve in the implementation of
his pastoral priorities and to accompany the faithful in their spiritual journey.
In the Diocese of Charlotte, Hispanic ministry coordinators are on the payroll to manage and oversee local missions. Currently, there are 10 coordinators, one for each vicariate.
Sergio López, coordinator of the Winston-Salem vicariate, said that, “in addition to transmitting and receiving valuable information, the pastoral visit to his vicariate has served as great support for the work of the coordinators, especially lay people.”
The pastoral visit in the Winston-Salem vicariate brought together leaders and parishioners from St. Benedict the Moor Parish in Winston-Salem, Our Lady of Grace Parish in Greensboro, Holy Family
Parish in Clemmons, Divine Redeemer Parish in Booneville, and Holy Angels Parish in Mount Airy.
“It’s been a spark of interest among parishioners,” said Deacon Enedino Aquino, Hispanic ministry coordinator in Greensboro. “Sometimes we can ‘fall asleep’ in our missions, and this meeting has been a ‘shake’ for people to get involved again. To learn about the programs they develop, the resources available and the priorities at hand.”
The visits will conclude this Fall, after which there will be an evaluation and formulation of the pastoral plan for the Hispanic ministry of the Diocese of Charlotte, with the goal to provide abundant activities and foster continued growth in years to come.
TROY HULL tchull@charlottediocese.org
Dressed in traditional native Polish attire, more than 200 people filled the pews of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte on Sunday for a special Mass offered in Polish – an annual custom held in honor of Our Lady of Czestochowa, St. John Paul II and St. Maria Faustina Kowalska.
The 12th annual Mass was celebrated by Polish Father Michal Szwarc of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Buffalo, N.Y. Father Raymond Esuka Ekosse of St. Thomas Aquinas Church concelebrated. Deacon James Witulski assisted at Mass and was co-organizer of the celebration with his wife, Mary Witulski.
Attendees were treated to traditional hymns sung by a Polish choir. While the Mass was celebrated in Polish, the homily was also delivered in English. Confessions in Polish and English were offered prior to Mass.
After the Mass, the faithful had the opportunity to venerate a first-class relic of St. John Paul II: a drop of his blood on a fragment of his cassock from the day he was shot in 1981. A reception was also held after Mass.
CHARLOTTE — Charlotte Catholic High School will be featured on ESPN’s High School Football Showcase this year. Their Sept. 1 matchup with Providence Day School was selected as one of nine games ESPN will air featuring matchups between some of the best high school football talent and teams from across the country.
The Charlotte rivals’ game will air live from Providence Day School at 7 p.m. on ESPNU. It will be the first game aired in this year’s showcase. Charlotte Catholic lost to Providence Day by just one point last season.
The Cougars will look to make another playoff run with a pair of senior TEs: Jack Larsen, committed to Notre Dame, and Nick Seggara, committed to Ohio University. The GEICO ESPN High School Football Showcase will feature 39 players ranked in ESPN’s top 300 high school seniors and juniors.
CHARLOTTE — At the end of the 8:30 a.m. school Mass on Aug. 25, Father Brandon Jones, parochial vicar, led St. Ann students, teachers and the parish congregation in a consecration of the school and the 202324 school year to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
After the Mass, Father Jones went to the school campus, visiting every classroom, office and gathering area, blessing the building, its students, faculty and staff with holy water.
BELMONT — Parents in the Charlotte area have a new educational option for their high school-aged children. Modeled on an integrated Catholic classical curriculum, Drexel High School opened Aug. 16, launching its inaugural school year with Mass at the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians at nearby Belmont Abbey.
The high school is operated independently of the Diocese of Charlotte. Only ninth and 10th-grade students were admitted for the 2023-’24 academic year, but the school will add 11th and 12th grade in the next two consecutive years. Sixteen students are enrolled this year, and classes are held at Connections Church at 304 McAdenville Road in Belmont.
Drexel High School’s stated mission is “to form students in Truth, encourage them in wonder, educate them in the liberal arts and sciences, and prepare them for life as capable and responsible children of God committed to knowing, loving, and serving God through their work, leisure, and prayer.”
The idea to start the school came from parents who are committed to classical liberal arts and wanted to ensure there was an option for students to continue on that path after middle school graduation.
“We sat around my kitchen table and said, ‘OK, we’re starting a school,’” said Jenny Ryan, the acting head of school and a mother of six, with two attending Drexel High School this fall. “We needed something for our families on the west side of Charlotte who want to continue their classical education in the Catholic tradition.”
St. Katharine Drexel, the patroness of the school, was a pioneer of the Catholic faith and education. She was a major benefactress in the construction of the
basilica at Belmont Abbey and area Catholic churches.
Currently, the school is primarily run by its board of directors, many of whom have children at St. Michael School in Gastonia or homeschool and want to ensure that they are able to continue their classical education in high school.
Joseph Wysocki, the dean of the Honors College at Belmont Abbey College and his wife Jeanne; Phil Brock, the development director of Belmont Abbey College and his wife Liz; and Kelly Salomon, the vice president of Newman Guide Programs for the Cardinal Newman Society and her husband Mike; and Jessica Grabowski, the Respect Life program director for the Diocese of Charlotte and her husband Paul, are among the board members.
“All of our board members are couples because we thought it was important since parents are the primary educators of their children, so we consider both to be equal board members,” Ryan said.
The search for a permanent headmaster will soon commence, with the hope to hire one in the next year. For now, the leadership is pleased with the progress of the school.
There are three teachers on staff, including Haley Tomaszewski, who most recently taught at St. Michael School. Her classes include algebra, geometry, Latin I, and a mini course on drawing. She is also co-teaching a course on the Feminine Genius.
“My desire is that students find beauty in mathematical patterns, order in Latin translation, and wonder in the design of creation; but much more, I want Drexel
students to realize what it means to be fully human and, in loving the good, to become more like God themselves,” she said.
The school’s curriculum combines philosophy, history and English into a class called The Humane Letters.
“These subjects speak to each other so well and because we follow that classical timeline, the literature is influencing the history and vice versa and the philosophy is influencing the literature of the time that we’re studying,” Ryan said. “The students are already making connections, which has been great to see.”
The science sequence is different too.
“It’s a physics-first approach in which all students start with conceptual physics, and that’s because it’s seen as the foundation of all the other scientific subjects such as chemistry and biology,” Ryan added.
The curriculum also includes Art of Leisure, which involves a variety of courses, such as Tomaszewski’s drawing class, aimed at helping students incorporate leisure into their lives, helping them to find a healthy balance with work and to avoid automatically turning to a screen to unwind.
Ryan noted that the school supports students in discerning their primary vocation, such as being a wife and mother or husband and father, as well as their secondary vocation in the type of work they are called to pursue.
“It’s been a very exciting time,” Ryan said as she expressed gratitude for everyone who has helped make Drexel High School a reality. “We expect to grow incrementally and look forward to seeing all God has in store for our school.”
Applications for the 2024-’25 school year will open in October. For more information, go to www.drexelhigh.org
Eucharistic Congress is an event like no other. Part worship experience, part diocesan “family reunion,” the annual Eucharistic Congress is an opportunity to deepen our faith and be inspired by Christ’s love for us.
Father Matthew Kauth
10:15 a.m. Saturday: On the Gospel of Luke 24:13-35
Father Matthew Kauth was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Charlotte in 2000. He has served in diocesan parish ministry and as a high school chaplain, delivered popular lectures on scripture and theology, and taught theology at Belmont Abbey College. In 2014 he spearheaded a commission to determine the feasibility of establishing a college seminary in the Charlotte diocese in cooperation with Belmont Abbey. As a result, St. Joseph College Seminary was founded in 2016. Father Kauth became its first rector, where he continues to serve today.
Bishop Peter Jugis will open the 2023 Eucharistic Congress at 6:45 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8, at the Charlotte Convention Center. Solemn vespers will follow at 7 p.m., led by the men of St. Joseph College Seminary.
A special note: Bishop Jugis, who founded the Eucharistic Congress in 2005,will celebrate his 20th anniversary as bishop next month.
Also this year, the diocese is partnering with the U.S. bishop’s National Eucharistic Revival. Kris Frank, its senior director of strategy and outreach, will emcee and give the keynote talk at 8 p.m. Friday.
After the opening ceremonies, spend time in Adoration at St. Peter Church (507 S. Tryon St., across the block from the convention center). Adoration will be held from 9:30 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday.
Begin Saturday’s events by joining in a dramatic Eucharistic Procession from St. Peter Church to the convention center. It culminates with a Holy Hour and homily by Father Matthew Kauth, rector of St. Joseph College Seminary.
There will be programs in English, Spanish and Vietnamese, as well as tracks for special needs families, and high school and college students.
Another highlight of this year’s congress is a new Family Track. From 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, take a tour through exhibits on sacramentals, enjoy craft activities, and more. Pre-registration online is encouraged to ensure your preferred time slot.
The concluding Mass will be offered by Bishop Jugis at 4:15 p.m.
Go online
Dr. John Bergsma
12:30 p.m. Saturday: ‘Mass Conversion: How I Discovered the Eucharist & the Catholic Church’
Dr. John Bergsma is a professor of theology at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. The former Protestant pastor speaks regularly on Catholic radio and at conferences and parishes nationally and internationally, and he has written more than a dozen books on Scripture and the Catholic faith.
Sister Angela de Fatima Coelho, MD, ASM
1:30 p.m. Saturday: ‘Sr. Lucia – A Eucharistic Woman’
Coelho
Sister Angela de Fatima Coelho is a world renowned expert and speaker on the Messages of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. In 2009, she was named vice postulator for the cause of Jacinta and Francisco Marto, two of the Fatima visionaries. In 2012, she became postulator of their cause, and two years later, she was also appointed vice postulator for the cause of Servant of God Sr. Lucia, the third and last surviving Fatima seer.
Deacon Omar Gutierrez
2:30 p.m. Saturday: ‘Always With Us: Christ’s Presence in the Poor’
Deacon Omar Gutierrez is president and co-founder of the Evangelium Institute, a non-profit dedicated to providing dynamic catechetical and spiritual formation to adults and Catholic organizations. He is a nationally recognized expert on Catholic Social Teaching.
Gutierrez
At www.goeucharist.com Get more information about the 2023 Eucharistic Congress and register for the family, high school and special needs tracks. 4:15 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9
Join Bishop Peter Jugis and priests of the Diocese of Charlotte for the celebration of Holy Mass at the conclusion of the 2023 Eucharistic Congress, starting at 4:15 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, inside the Charlotte Convention Center. (This vigil Mass fulfills your Sunday obligation.)
NOTE: First Communicants are invited to join the entrance procession for the closing Mass of the Eucharistic Congress at 4 p.m. Saturday. Parents should bring their children to Room 218 in the convention center by 3:45 p.m.
9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 9
The Eucharistic Procession, in which Bishop Peter 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.
Join the Eucharistic Procession through uptown Charlotte to the Charlotte Convention Center, where the Eucharistic Congress will be held. It will start at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, at St. Peter Church at 507 S. Tryon St. Line up along the procession route by 8:30 a.m. as noted at right. Parishioners, please gather anywhere along the purple procession route to join in behind your parish’s banner as it passes by.
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.
Parking decks are located at The Green (adjacent to St. Peter Church) and the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Flat parking is available at 510 S. Caldwell St. and 510 S. College St. You can also park along the Lynx Blue Line and get off at the 3rd St./Convention Center stop.
Padre D. Roberto De La Mora
12:30 p.m. del sábado: ‘La Eucaristía, Alimento Nutritivo para la Familia’
De La Mora
El Padre D. Roberto De La Mora es sacerdote de la Arquidiócesis de Guadalajara, México. Se desempeñó como asesor del Encuentro Matrimonial Mundial durante 30 años, como profesor de Derecho Canónico y formador del Seminario durante 13 años; y como pastor durante 13 años. Actualmente, es párroco del Expiatorio Eucarístico de Guadalajara y Director Espiritual de Adoración Nocturna de la Arquidiócesis de Guadalajara desde hace dos años.
Padre Miguel A. Bernal
1:30 p.m. del sábado:‘Somos bilingües: nuestro primer Idioma es el Amor’
Bernal
El Padre Miguel A. Bernal nació en Sevilla, España, y fue ordenado sacerdote por la Arquidiócesis de Sevilla en septiembre de 2001. Sirvió en el ministerio en Sevilla como capellán de hospital, párroco y profesor de teología en el Instituto de la Santísima Virgen María (Hermanas de Loreto) durante 14 años. Tras su ordenación sacerdotal, obtuvo el título de Máster en Filosofía Moderna y Cultura Contemporánea por la Universidad de Sevilla. Actualmente, ministra en la Diócesis de Bridgeport, Connecticut, donde es coordinador del ministerio de habla hispana en el Decanato de Greenwich, Connecticut.
Padre Ramiro Tijerino y Padre Óscar Danilo Benavides Dávila
2:30 p.m. del sábado: ‘Testimonio de Fe en la Tribulación’
El Padre Ramiro Tijerino y el Padre Óscar Benavides, de Matagalpa, en el norte de Nicaragua, se han mantenido firmes en su fe a pesar de la adversidad. Estaban entre los cientos de nicaragüenses que fueron arrestados y encarcelados por cargos falsos y luego exiliados por el presidente de Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, por criticar al gobierno.
El Padre Ramiro se ha desempeñado como párroco y rector de la Universidad Juan Pablo II en Managua. El Padre Óscar se ha desempeñado como párroco y como asesor del programa de Ministerio Juvenil de la diócesis de Matagalpa.
El Padre Ramiro fue detenido en agosto pasado cuando la policía federal allanó las oficinas de su obispo, el obispo de Matagalpa Rolando Álvarez, un feroz crítico del régimen que recientemente fue condenado a 26 años de prisión tras negarse al exilio. El Padre Óscar también fue detenido en agosto pasado. Fueron sentenciados a 10 años en una infausta prisión y centro de tortura en Managua. El 9 de febrero, los dos fueron despojados de su ciudadanía nicaragüense y exiliados a Estados Unidos. Ahora, han venido a Charlotte.
La Procesión Eucarística, en la que el Obispo Peter Jugis lleva una custodia que contiene una hostia consagrada (el Cuerpo, la Sangre, el Alma y la Divinidad de Jesucristo) es un punto culminante del Congreso Eucarístico de dos días. Únase a la Procesión Eucarística por el centro alta de Charlotte hasta el Centro de Convenciones de Charlotte, donde se llevará a cabo el Congreso Eucarístico. Comenzará a las 9 a. m. del sábado 9 de septiembre en la iglesia San Pedro en 507 S. Tryon St. Haga fila a lo largo de la ruta de la procesión a las 8:30 a. m., como se indica a la derecha. Feligreses, reúnanse en cualquier lugar a lo largo de la ruta de la procesión púrpura para unirse detrás del estandarte de su parroquia a medida que pasa. La Procesión Eucarística culminará dentro del Salón A del centro de convenciones, donde se celebrará la Hora Santa a partir de las 10:15 a.m. del sábado.
The Charlotte Convention Center prohibits outside food from being brought inside. The prohibition includes coolers and other containers of food. Food service options are available in the building, and many restaurants are located around the Convention Center.
Over 80 commercial and informational vendors will be on hand inside the Charlotte Convention Center, from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday night, Sept. 8, and on Saturday, Sept. 9, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For a list of vendors, go to www.goeucharist.com/vendors
El Congreso Eucarístico de la Diócesis de Charlotte es un evento como ningún otro. Parte experiencia de adoración, parte ‘reunión familiar’ diocesana, el Congreso Eucarístico anual es una oportunidad para profundizar nuestra fe y ser inspirados por el amor de Cristo por nosotros.
El Obispo Peter Jugis abrirá el Congreso Eucarístico 2023 a las 6:45 p.m. del viernes 8 de septiembre en el Centro de Convenciones de Charlotte. Las vísperas solemnes seguirán a las 7 p.m., dirigidas por los seminaristas del Seminario Universitario San José. Como nota especial, el Obispo Jugis, quien fundó el Congreso Eucarístico en 2005, celebrará su 20 aniversario de ordenación el próximo mes. También este año, la diócesis se ha asociado con la Campaña de Avivamiento Eucarístico Nacional de los Obispos de Estados Unidos. Kris Frank, su director de estrategia y divulgación, será el maestro de ceremonias y dará la charla principal a las 8 p.m. del viernes. Después de la ceremonia de apertura, participe en la Adoración en la Iglesia San Pedro (507 S. Tryon St., frente al centro de convenciones). La Adoración se realizará de 9:30 p.m. del viernes a 7 a.m. del sábado.
Comience los eventos del sábado uniéndose a la Procesión Eucarística desde la Iglesia San Pedro hasta el centro de convenciones. Culmina con una Hora Santa y homilía del Padre Matthew Kauth, rector del Seminario San José.
Habrá programas en inglés, español y vietnamita, así como otros para familias con necesidades especiales, estudiantes de secundaria y universitarios. Otro punto importante del congreso de este año es un nuevo Programa Familiar. De 11:30 a.m. a 1:30 p.m. del sábado, haga un recorrido de exhibiciones sobre sacramentales, disfrute de actividades artesanales y más. Se recomienda la preinscripción online para garantizar su horario preferido. La misa de clausura será ofrecida por el Obispo Jugis a las 4:15 p.m.
Más online
En www.goeucharist.com : Obtenga más información sobre el Congreso Eucarístico 2023 e inscríbase en los programas de familia, escuela secundaria y necesidades especiales.
Únase al Obispo Peter Jugis para la celebración de la Santa Misa al concluir el Congreso Eucarístico, a partir de las 4:15 p.m. del sábado 9 de septiembre, dentro del Centro de Convenciones de Charlotte. (Esta Misa de vigilia cumple con su obligación dominical.)
NOTA: Los primeros comulgantes están invitados a unirse a la procesión de entrada para la Misa de clausura del Congreso Eucarístico a las 4 p.m. del sábado. Los padres deben traer a sus hijos a la Sala 218 del centro de convenciones antes de las 3:45 p.m.
parishioners who are called to this ministry. At Mountain View, volunteers from nearby St. Lucien Church in Spruce Pine and its mission St. Bernadette spent months planning and executing the retreat, under the leadership of Father Christopher Bond. For Joshua, the retreat was indeed a “spark,” he said.
He was 20 when he was convicted of second-degree murder in 2014. He’s not even halfway through his sentence of up to 37 years – so he needs something, he says, to help him endure.
“Being Catholic has kind of grabbed my attention because of the commitment it asks of you. You don’t just show up once a week,” Joshua said. “There is someone who can help connect you to God. I’ve learned how to pray the rosary and how to identify what I believe.”
Other inmates remained unsure about Catholicism, but said the teachings translated to their own beliefs.
A resident named Robert, serving 10 years for trafficking Fentanyl, said he came to the retreat for the food. When his turn at the microphone came, he joked about what he had received: “I got a full belly.”
Indeed, there had been pizza, barbecue, subs and fried chicken. But Roberts also expressed gratitude: “I didn’t know what to expect but I’m really glad I signed up. It’s easy for me to go to the dark side...I don’t want to be there anymore.”
‘ANYTHING CAN BE FORGIVEN’
Confession was among the retreat’s highlights. Prison residents and volunteers wrote down sins that weighed on them – then their papers were collected and burned. Priests placed ashes on participants’ foreheads, then after sacramental confessions in private, the priests wiped away the ashes. While only Catholics could receive the sacrament of absolution, the moment represented a cleansing for many. Another highlight came in the tearful testimony of a seminarian: His father had died in prison, he shared, causing him great pain as a boy. It got residents thinking, they said, about the pain they’d caused their own children.
But it was the homily at Mass that was particularly piercing, said Joshua, who sat in the front row.
“I want to talk about two things,” Father
Winslow told the crowd. “Anger and forgiveness.”
“Anger is a human response to an injustice. (Even) the Lord got angry in the den of thieves,” he said. It’s when an angry response becomes disproportionate to the injustice, he said, “that we cross the line.”
He continued: “A disproportionate response is a lack of self-control. You can’t control your emotions.”
He then moved to forgiveness. “For every sin, we cause harm to three relationships. First, with God. Second, with the (aggrieved) person. And third, you harm the relationship with yourself.”
To be forgiven, he said, someone must absorb the sin or “pay the price to give you room to grow and change.”
“Anything can be forgiven” by God, he said, if you come to him in a humble spirit of contrition. Aggrieved victims, Father Winslow said, also pay a price for your actions. They may or may not forgive.
“Perhaps the hardest is to forgive ourselves,” he said. “We can be terribly punitive, downright punishing with ourselves…To forgive hurts, you have to feel the pain. But you must forgive yourself to grow and become different. That’s where new life begins.”
Joshua heard his own story in the homily. Reflecting after Mass, he replayed his crime.
It happened Aug. 17, 2011, when he was 18. “I shot a guy” five times in retribution, he said, because the man had beaten down a friend of Joshua’s and stolen the friend’s necklace. Looking back now, he says, “I would have never shot the guy. It was disproportionate.”
As the retreat came to a close, residents across the prison reacted.
Eighteen men signed up for classes to study the faith and follow the process for the non-baptized to enter the Catholic Church. Dozens of Hispanic Catholics who hadn’t attended but heard stories of the retreat began asking to meet with a priest, too. Father Julio Dominguez, vicar of the diocese’s Hispanic Ministry, has already answered the call, agreeing to visit the prison monthly.
Joshua made a special request, too.
“I want to be baptized,” he shared.
“I’m choosing to become Catholic with all of me, hoping I can connect with God. I’ve seen what man can do. Now I want to see what God can do.”
It’s a request Father Bond and his parish are already planning to fulfill.
CHARLOTTE — Across the Diocese of Charlotte, thousands of men and women are locked up in jails and prisons – and Deacon James Witulski wants to reach them all.
The pandemic hampered the diocese’s efforts to bring comfort – and Christ – to inmates within its 46 counties.
But now, Deacon Witulski and other prison ministry leaders are calling on the diocese’s 92 parishes and missions to redouble efforts to reach out to people who are incarcerated within their territories – and the diocese is there to help.
“Jesus did not forsake those who were imprisoned and of course was jailed Himself,” Deacon Witulski said. “We are called to minister to the convicted and condemned, just as we would our neighbors.”
Parishes have long formed the backbone of the diocese’s prison outreach, individually attending to nearby jails and prisons. Some priests regularly make the rounds to hear confessions, bring absolution, and say Mass for Catholic inmates. Among others, parishes and priests serving Alexander, Anson, Forsyth, Mecklenburg, Stanly, and the Triad counties
have been particularly active.
The diocese launched its prison ministry with Deacon Witulski at the helm in 2019 to help coordinate, encourage and provide resources for parishes who are connecting with Catholic and non-Catholic inmates. The ministry also responds to letters from inmates, provides Bibles and is working on plans to help inmates successfully re-enter the community.
The diocese also partners with parishes to provide weekend prison retreats, like the August visit to North Carolina’s Mountain View Correctional Institution in Spruce Pine.
“We like to meet them where they are,” said Deacon Witulski. “We talk and share and pray. We strive to talk about the mercy of God – no sin is too great for the mercy of God if one repents. It really gives them a sense of hope and dignity they may not have had for some time.”
Contact Deacon James Witulski at jhwitulski@ rcdoc.com for information about participating in prison ministry within the Diocese of Charlotte.
Please pray for the following priests who died during the month of September:
Rev. Msgr. Thomas Burke – 2001
Rev. Msgr. Arthur Duncan – 2002
Rev. Gregory Eichenlaub, OSB – 1975
Rev. James King – 1978
Rev. John J. Murray – 1997
Rev. Edward F. O’Doherty – 1998
Rev. Bernard Rosswog, OSB - 1999
Hay una palabra en latín que siempre me ha llamado la atención: totus. Muchos católicos la conocemos o la hemos escuchado en algún momento. Significa “todos”, sin excepción alguna. Evoca totalidad y comunión.
Si en algún momento nos encontráramos buscando una palabra con la capacidad de representar lo que significa ser un cristiano católico, creo que totus puede ser esa palabra. Es un término saturado de la idea de universalidad y una invitación radical a entrar en relación con los demás y con todo lo que existe.
Todavía estoy procesando el momento emocionante cuando el Papa Francisco afirmó que en la Iglesia hay lugar para “todos, todos, todos”. Lo dijo durante la ceremonia de apertura del Día Mundial de la Juventud del año 2023, frente a cientos de miles de jóvenes reunidos en Lisboa que provenían de toda esquina del planeta.
El Papa dijo, “hay espacio para todos. Para todos. En la Iglesia, ninguno sobra. Ninguno está de más. Hay espacio para todos. Así como somos. Todos. Y eso Jesús lo dice claramente”.
La gran multitud, retumbando en sus propios idiomas, hacía eco a la fórmula tríadica: todos, todos, todos; everyone, everyone, everyone; totus, totus, totus. Así proclamaban nuestros jóvenes católicos, al unísono con el sucesor de Pedro.
Vivimos en un mundo definido por batallas tenaces que buscan incluir y excluir. Individuos, organizaciones, instituciones, naciones y poderes se esfuerzan por establecer criterios rigurosos para determinar quién pertenece y quién no pertenece; quién tiene acceso a entrar y quién se queda afuera. Aquellos que son excluidos luchan por sobrevivir y a participar en cuanto les sea posible.
Entonces escuchamos a nuestros jóvenes católicos, proclamando a una sola voz: todos, todos, todos. Dicho clamor no es una mera aspiración ingenua. Es un recordatorio y una corrección. Un recordatorio del plan original de Dios para la Iglesia; de que el Evangelio de Jesús es un llamado a acoger y no a excluir. Es una corrección de curso, especialmente cuando en nuestras comunidades, colegios e incluso en nuestras familias se comienza a adoptar el lenguaje de exclusión.
El ser cristiano católico jamás debe equipararse al proceso de demostrar cierto valor y credenciales para hacerse miembro de un club con intereses especiales. Muchas veces olvidamos esto. Por ser bautizados, a pesar de nuestras diferencias, opiniones y la lucha diaria por entender de lleno el misterio de la existencia humana, la comunión eclesial es de hecho nuestro punto de partida. ¡Ya somos Iglesia! Y como tal estamos invitados permanentemente a la comunión.
Por supuesto, hay que tener en cuenta el pecado y la posibilidad de que alguien tome la decisión consciente de alejarse de la comunión eclesial. Aún así, las puertas del perdón y la reconciliación siempre están abiertas. Somos parte de una Iglesia en donde hay lugar para todos: todos, todos, todos.
DR. HOSFFMAN OSPINO es profesor de teología y educación religiosa en Boston College.
El Padre Julio Domínguez, vicario episcopal del Ministerio Hispano de la Diócesis de Charlotte, conversa con líderes laicos del vicariato de Salisbury durante la visita pastoral que los reunió en la parroquia Sagrado Corazón. A las reuniones asisten también los coordinadores de vicariato, que son personas delegadas por el Obispo Jugis para servirlo directamente en la implementación de sus prioridades pastorales.
CÉSAR HURTADO rchurtado@charlottediocese.org
CHARLOTTE — El Padre Julio Domínguez, vicario episcopal del Ministerio Hispano de la Diócesis de Charlotte, se encuentra realizando una serie de visitas pastorales a los vicariatos y diferentes movimientos apostólicos con el objetivo de llevar la voz del Obispo Peter Jugis y dar a conocer sus prioridades pastorales, según lo dio a conocer la hermana Juana Pearson, asistente del vicario en el Centro Pastoral de Charlotte.
“Nos encontramos a la mitad del proceso, y aún tenemos pendientes siete visitas, cuatro a vicarías y tres a grupos apostólicos”, dijo la hermana Juana.
“El Padre Julio quiere escuchar las respuestas, interrogantes y propuestas de la gente, de la base, todo ello como primer paso para la formulación del plan pastoral hispano para la diócesis”.
Durante las visitas, y tras exponer los planes de desarrollo, expansión de la evangelización y prioridades pastorales diocesanas, se genera un diálogo abierto con los participantes que exponen sus puntos de vista y las necesidades comunitarias de su región.
La hermana Juana comentó que con gusto ha podido apreciar que la gente no solo piensa en su parroquia en particular sino en toda la diócesis en su conjunto, “en una comunidad viva” que requiere aumentar su tarea evangelizadora y planear las acciones a tomar en un futuro cercano.
Respecto a los participantes, dijo que se invita a las reuniones especialmente a los líderes de los diferentes ministerios, sin dejar de lado a los fieles en general que son bienvenidos a integrarse. “Hemos visto con agrado que también se han acercado sacerdotes y diáconos, y nos da alegría porque motiva mucho a la gente el ver que sus pastores, a sus guías espirituales, están interesados en ellos y quieren lo mejor para el ministerio hispano”, dijo la hermana Juana.
Finalmente, se solicita que las personas escaneen un código QR con sus dispositivos móviles para acceder a una encuesta anónima que deben completar en el momento.
El cuestionario incluye preguntas de opción múltiple y abiertas, donde el feligrés puede explayar sus respuestas
respecto a los servicios que esperan recibir de su Iglesia en los próximos años.
Las respuestas son diversas, de acuerdo a los intereses particulares de los movimientos apostólicos y diversos ministerios. Sin embargo, explicó la hermana Juana, se puede ver un interés en generar un cambio en la espiritualidad a través de la solicitud de un mayor número de retiros, asistencia a la familia, la amabilidad en la atención, la evangelización permanente y otros. “Lo importante es que antes que críticas se reciben sugerencias y muchos deseos de cambios positivos”, dijo.
Respecto al uso de QR para las encuestas, la hermana Juana dijo que, “los que piensan que nuestra gente no es capaz de utilizar la tecnología disponible a su servicio están completamente equivocados”, puesto que ha podido ser testigo de primera línea que su uso es muy familiar en jóvenes y adultos.
En referencia a la presencia de los coordinadores del ministerio hispano de los vicariatos en cada una de las reuniones, expresó que estas reuniones “empoderan a los coordinadores”, quienes son personas valiosas delegadas por el obispo para servirlo directamente en la implementación de sus prioridades pastorales y el acompañamiento de los fieles.
La hermana Juana resaltó que, en la Diócesis de Charlotte, se cuenta con coordinadores de ministerio hispano en nómina, con pago, para hacerse cargo de la posición. “Un caso extraordinario en todo Estados Unidos, y que refleja el especial interés de nuestra diócesis en el pueblo católico hispano, desde las etapas iniciales del ministerio hispano bajo la dirección del anterior obispo, Williams Curlin”.
En la actualidad, se cuenta con diez coordinadores, uno para cada vicaría. De ellos, dos son sacerdotes, cuatro diáconos y cuatro laicos.
Sergio López, coordinador del vicariato de WinstonSalem, dijo que particularmente, además de la transmisión y recepción de información valiosa, la visita pastoral a su vicariato ha servido como respaldo al trabajo de los coordinadores, especialmente laicos, como es en su caso en particular.
A la visita pastoral en esa vicaría, asistieron líderes y feligreses de las parroquias San Benito el Moro en Winston-
CHARLOTTE — A partir del martes 29 de agosto, todos los martes y jueves, de nueve de la mañana hasta la una de la tarde, la Casa Marillac, brazo de asistencia comunitaria de la parroquia Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, cederá sus instalaciones a Cognosante, una organización consultora de servicios de salud que proporciona asistencia capacitada y certificada establecida por los Centros de Servicios de Medicare y Medicaid (CMS) para la solicitud e inscripción para las personas y sus familias determinadas inelegibles para la cobertura de Medicaid o CHIP.
“Estamos para ayudar a las familias y niños que han perdido cobertura de seguro de salud, y ayudar en el proceso de recertificación, renovación, o redeterminación de Medicaid, si se determina que continúan siendo elegibles o ayudar a encontrar cobertura de salud en el Mercado de Salud, el programa anteriormente conocido como ObamaCare (CuidadoDeSalud.gov)”, dijo Rita Domínguez, MPH, CHES, y especialista en proyección comunitaria de Cognosante.
La especialista explicó que durante la pandemia de COVID-19, los estados dejaron de revisar la elegibilidad para Medicaid y el Programa de Seguro Médico para Niños (CHIP). Sin embargo, a partir del 1 de febrero del 2023, se le permitió a los estados reiniciar esas revisiones, por lo que algunos adultos y niños perdieron su cobertura de Medicaid o CHIP a partir del 1 de abril de este año.
“Nuestros asistentes certificados del Programa de Asistencia de Inscripción pueden ayudarlo gratuitamente a comprender mejor sus opciones de seguros médicos. Estamos listos para responder a sus preguntas, guiarlo a través del proceso de solicitud de inscripción y si es necesario, recomendarlo a otra agencia para recibir apoyo o recursos adicionales”, dijo.
“Va a ser algo bueno para la comunidad”, dijo Guadalupe Navas, coordinadora general de la Casa Marillac.
“Rita Domínguez, a quien conocemos bastante bien y ha trabajado de la mano con el Diácono Eduardo Bernal, coordinador del ministerio hispano del vicariato de Charlotte, en todo lo relacionado con la Pastoral y Promotoras de Salud, nos ha contactado para este programa. Ella ha ayudado mucho, no solo a la Guadalupe, sino también a otras parroquias. Por eso le hemos abierto las puertas. La mayoría de gente con la que hablo que tiene Medicaid, no sabe cómo funciona. Y otros lo han perdido por esta razón. Por eso va a ser muy importante que a nuestra comunidad, a cada personas, se le de el tiempo necesario para que se le ayude con información, educación y asistencia con la inscripción”, dijo Navas.
La Casa Marillac inicialmente ha programado esta asistencia por seis meses, aunque de ser necesario el plazo inicial podría extenderse significativamente.
Las personas pueden recibir cobertura de cuidado de salud sin costo o de bajo costo con Medicaid o CHIP, pero deben calificar según sus ingresos, de acuerdo con las pautas del nivel federal de pobreza, el tamaño de su familia y las edades. Cada estado maneja su propio Medicaid.
Según Medicaid, esta organización provee cobertura de salud, a través de compañías de seguros o directamente a traves de organizaciones hospitalarias o clínicas, a más de 86 millones de personas en Estados Unidos, incluyendo adultos eligibles de bajo ingresos, niños, mujeres embarazadas, adultos mayores, y personas con discapacidad.
Los requisitos para acceder a los beneficios de Medicaid y CHIPS varían de acuerdo al estado de residencia.
Más online
En www.updatemyhealthcare.com : Encuentre mayor información, o escriba un correo electrónico a CMS_EAP-NC@cognosante. com. Si prefiere, llame al 336-310-887. Para ser atendido necesita previamente agendar una cita con los asistentes.
CHARLOTTE — La demanda por la educación católica continúa aumentando a medida que las escuelas de toda la Diócesis de Charlotte, desde pre-K hasta la escuela de posgrado, dieron la bienvenida a un número de estudiantes sin precedentes a sus campus.
Las 20 escuelas primarias, intermedias y secundarias del sistema han dado la bienvenida a nuevos maestros y líderes de California, Connecticut, Maryland y Michigan, entre otros estados. La inscripción se ha incrementado en un 12 por ciento en los últimos diez años, y casi un 18 por ciento desde que comenzó la pandemia en 2020. Si bien no se hará un recuento oficial hasta octubre, son ya más de 8.100 estudiantes.
Belmont Abbey College ha registrado una inscripción récord de 650 nuevos estudiantes, que ingresan como estudiantes de primer año, transferencias o graduados de primer año.
El Seminario Universitario San José ha dado la bienvenida a ocho nuevos seminaristas, lo que eleva la inscripción actual a 21 hombres que están discerniendo un llamado al sacerdocio mientras completan estudios universitarios en filosofía en Belmont Abbey College.
En Winston-Salem, la Escuela Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia está agregando una sala de conferencias, renovando e instalando baños, actualizando tecnología y completando una remodelación de cocina de $ 150,000.
La Escuela Inmaculada en Hendersonville está aprovechando su primer año utilizando el nuevo laboratorio STEM de última generación. La escuela Nuestra Señora de la Asunción en Charlotte inauguró su nuevo SmartLab a fines del año escolar pasado, donde los estudiantes trabajan con robots y drones, computadoras y iPads, impresoras 3D y un grabador láser.
ESCUELAS SECUNDARIAS
Charlotte Catholic High School comienza el año escolar con su clase de primer año más grande con 400 estudiantes. La inscripción también ha aumentado en las otras tres escuelas secundarias de la diócesis: Cristo Rey en Huntersville, Obispo McGuinness en Greensboro y Canongate en Arden, que comienza su primer año completo como una escuela independiente reconocida por
el Obispo Peter Jugis como afiliada de la diócesis. Los departamentos deportivos de las escuelas secundarias están planeando el crecimiento con eventos de recaudación de fondos. La campaña ‘Spirit of Victory’ de la escuela Obispo McGuinness ayudará a pagar nuevas canchas de tenis, un campo de práctica adicional y baños. Cristo Rey está lanzando una campaña para actualizar a gradas estilo estadio alrededor de su campo de fútbol, así como agregar baños y estacionamiento.
Charlotte Catholic reutilizó el espacio en una segunda sala de pesas, instaló un simulador de golf gracias a la generosidad de los donantes y convirtió un aula en una sala multimedia de última generación para clases y reuniones de grupos pequeños.
Uno de los únicos 15 colegios y universidades en el país reconocidos por la Sociedad Cardenal Newman por su fuerte identidad católica, Belmont Abbey College ha visto un crecimiento en la inscripción y las instalaciones.
La universidad dará la bienvenida a su clase entrante más grande con un aumento de más del 15 por ciento en los estudiantes en comparación con el otoño pasado. Parte del atractivo son los nuevos programas de maestría en Administración de Empresas (MBA), Liderazgo de Enfermería (MSN), Liderazgo y Análisis de Datos.
En febrero, la universidad dio a conocer un plan de desarrollo de $100 millones y una campaña de fondos ‘Made True’ para una variedad de mejoras, con $80 millones de la meta ya recaudados.
En Mount Holly, el Seminario Universitario San José se está preparando para dar la bienvenida a su clase “Hotel”, llamada así por la octava letra del alfabeto para significar su octava clase entrante de seminaristas desde que comenzó el programa en 2016.
Además de los seminaristas universitarios, dos seminaristas mayores de la comunidad Lumen Dei en Perú se unirán al seminario universitario este año como parte de los esfuerzos para fortalecer el ministerio hispano de la diócesis.
La primera fase del seminario se completó y pagó en 2020 y los planes están casi completos para la segunda fase final, que agregará una capilla principal, oficinas, una plaza y un salón de bienvenida para recibir visitas, así como realizar conversatorios y retiros de parroquias locales.
FOREST CITY — La Iglesia Inmaculada Concepción celebró el pasado 12 de agosto un aniversario más de la Adoración Eucarística Nocturna. En la imagen se puede ver a un grupo de los participantes que acompañan al Sagrado Sacramento, junto al Padre José Juya y el Diácono Sigrido Della Valle, ambos coordinadores del ministerio hispano de los vicariatos de Gastonia y Smoky Mountains respectivamente. En la parroquia, la Adoración Nocturna se lleva a cabo en la Capilla todos los segundos sábados de cada mes, desde las 10 de la noche hasta las seis de la mañana del domingo.
GASTONIA— La comunidad colombiana e hispana en general se congregó en la parroquia San Miguel Arcángel en Gastonia para conmemorar la fiesta de la Virgen de Chiquinquirá, patrona de Colombia. Una hermosa procesión encabezada por el Padre José Juya precedió a la celebración de la Misa. En 1919, el presidente de Colombia, Marco Fidel Suárez, coronó a la Virgen de Chiquinquirá como Reina de Colombia. La imagen, que permanece en la Basílica Santuario Mariano Nacional de Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Chiquinquirá, ha sido trasladada en ocasiones a la capital, Bogotá, para pedir a Dios por el fin de guerras, catástrofes o epidemias.
MARION — Miembros del ministerio hispano de la parroquia Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles en Marion se encuentran en proceso de conseguir su Certificación Catequética. El diácono Darío García, coordinador del ministerio hispano del vicariato de Hickory, al que pertenece esta iglesia, dijo estar satisfecho del interés, preparación y dedicación mostrada por los catequistas. “Es una misión muy importante la de llevar la palabra de Dios y las enseñanzas del Catecismo de la Iglesia Católica a los niños, jóvenes y adultos. Es poner la fe en sus corazones, no solo en sus mentes”, dijo.
WINSTON-SALEM — El administrador parroquial de la Iglesia Benedicto El Moro, Padre Melchesideck Yumo, realizó la ceremonia de presentación a varios niños de origen hispano en la misa del domingo 20 de agosto. La ceremonia, hermosa y llena de gozo, adquiere un significado y simbolismo especial pues el pastor presenta a los bebés tomándolos en sus brazos y los levanta frente al altar, ofreciéndolos al Señor, para después mostrarlos a la comunidad. La tradición de origen africano encuentra gran recepción en la comunidad hispana que la recibe con muestras de alegría.
CHARLOTTE — Veinte parejas participaron de la más reciente preparación prematrimonial que se realizó en la parroquia San Gabriel en Charlotte. Las parejas de novios que desean contraer el sacramento del matrimonio y, también las parejas que viven en unión civil y desean regularizar su situación marital religiosa, deben registrarse en sus parroquias y completar, además de la documentación requerida, una sesión de charlas en las que se les ofrece valiosa información que les ayudará a construir un matrimonio sólido, saludable y basado en la santidad.
Cada 8 de septiembre, día en que la Iglesia celebra la Natividad de la Virgen María, los cubanos tienen una razón “extra” para estar contentos y agradecidos: la Iglesia en Latinoamérica y España recuerda a la Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, patrona de Cuba.
“Mi saludo a los hijos de Cuba que en cualquier parte del mundo veneran a la Virgen de la Caridad; junto con todos sus hermanos que viven en esta hermosa tierra, los pongo bajo su maternal protección, pidiéndole a Ella, Madre amorosa de todos, que reúna a sus hijos por medio de la reconciliación y la fraternidad”, dijo San Juan Pablo II en uno de los hermosos discursos que pronunció durante su histórica visita a la isla en 1998.
YO SOY LA VIRGEN DE LA CARIDAD
Dice la historia que, en algún momento entre los años 1612 y 1613, tres niños entre los nueve o diez años se embarcaron en una travesía con el propósito de recoger sal. Sus nombres eran Juan de Hoyos, Rodrigo de Hoyos y Juan Moreno, conocidos tradicionalmente como “los tres juanes” que estaban en condición de esclavos y trabajaban en las minas de cobre.
Durante el trayecto, los niños divisaron un objeto de color blanco flotando sobre la espuma del mar. Al acercarse, vieron que era la imagen de la Virgen María con el niño Jesús en brazos, flotando, sobre una tablilla en la que estaba escrito: “Yo soy la Virgen de la Caridad”.
Los pequeños tomaron la imagen y la llevaron consigo de vuelta hacia las minas donde trabajaban. Allí, el administrador del Término Real de Minas de Cobre ordenó levantar una ermita donde se conservaría la imagen y designó a Rodrigo de Hoyos como capellán del santuario.
Cierta noche, Rodrigo se dio cuenta de que la imagen no estaba en la ermita. Entonces se organizó una intensa búsqueda, pero no la encontraron.
A la mañana siguiente, sin mayor explicación, la Virgen estaba en su altar, en la ermita, como de costumbre. Todos quedaron sorprendidos porque la puerta del recinto había sido cerrada debidamente la noche anterior. Para mayor sorpresa de todos, el hecho volvió a suceder varias veces más.
Es así que los residentes concluyeron que la Virgen, de pronto, quería que su imagen fuera llevada a otro lugar. Se decidió trasladarla en procesión al Templo Parroquial del Cobre, donde los pobladores la recibieron con júbilo.
Así, casi sin querer, la imagen empezó a ser llamada “Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre”.
Todo este relato está basado en el testimonio de Juan Moreno, uno de los tres niños, setenta y cinco años después de los acontecimientos, y que se conserva en los Archivos de Indias ubicados en Sevilla, España. Juan dio su testimonio a los 85
VIENE DE LA PÁGINA 14
Salem, Nuestra Señora de la Gracia, Sagrada Familia en Clemmons, Divino Redentor en Boonville, y Holy Angels en Mount Airy.
“Ha sido un despertar del interés de los feligreses”, dijo el Diácono Enedino Aquino, coordinador del ministerio hispano en Greensboro. “A veces nos adormilamos,
años, en condición de único sobreviviente del célebre hallazgo en el mar. Es posible también que la imagen encontrada fuera la que el rey Felipe II encomendó llevar a la Isla en manos de Francisco Sánchez de Moya, militar español. Por esos tiempos los piratas acechaban a las embarcaciones reales y puede que la imagen se haya perdido en un naufragio, y posteriormente fuera encontrada por los “tres juanes”. El deseo del rey era erigir un santuario en las serranías de Cuba y poner la imagen allí, como sin duda al final sucedió.
IDENTIDAD CUBANA, IDENTIDAD MARIANA
Durante las guerras de independencia de Cuba, la devoción a la “Cachita”, como cariñosamente la llaman los cubanos, se fortaleció entre los soldados independentistas. Las tropas solían encomendar su lucha a esta advocación y la victoria final fue ofrecida en su honor. Los veteranos de la gesta de independencia, en 1915, pidieron al Papa que declarase a la Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre como Patrona de Cuba. En 1916 Benedicto XV les concedió esta petición y fijó su festividad para el 8 de septiembre.
El santuario donde se conserva hoy la imagen mariana fue inaugurado el 8 de septiembre de 1927, y en 1977 el Papa Pablo VI elevó este recinto a la dignidad de Basílica. El 24 de enero de 1998, la Virgen de la Caridad fue coronada como Reina y Patrona de Cuba por San Juan Pablo II durante su visita apostólica a la isla.
— Condensado de ACI Prensa
nos adormecemos, y esta reunión ha sido una Buena ‘sacudida’ para que la gente se involucre nuevamente, conozca de los programas que desarrollan no solo en su parroquia sino a nivel de vicaría, los recursos disponibles y las prioridades de trabajo”, añadió.
Las visitas deben concluir en otoño, para luego dar paso a las etapas de evaluación y formulación del plan pastoral del ministerio hispano de la Diócesis de Charlotte, que regirá las actividades de este ministerio en los próximos años.
SEPTIEMBRE 3-9
Domingo: Jeremías 20:7-9, Romanos 12:1-2, Mateo 16:21-27; Lunes: 1 Tesalonicenses 4:1318, Lucas 4:16-30; Martes: 1 Tesaloniceses 5:16, 9-11, Lucas 4:31-37; Miércoles: Colosenses
1:1-8, Lucas 4:38-44; Jueves: Colosenses 1:914, Lucas 5:1-11; Viernes (Fiesta de Natividad de la Santísima Virgen María): Miqueas
5:1-4, Mateo 1:1-16, 18-23; Sábado (San Pedro Claver, presbítero): Colosenses 1:21-23, Lucas 6:1-5
SEPTIEMBRE 10-16
Domingo: Ezequiel 33:7-9, Romanos 13:8-10, Mateo 18:15-20; Lunes: Colosenses
1:24–2:3, Lucas 6:6-11; Martes (Santísimo Nombre de María): Colosenses 2:6-15, Lucas 6:12-19; Miércoles (San Juan Crisóstomo): Colosenses 3:1-11, Lucas 6:2026; Jueves (Fiesta de la Exaltación de la
En la imagen, el Papa Francisco enciende una vela ante la estatua de la Virgen de la Caridad, patrona de Cuba, en el Santuario de la Basílica Menor de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad en El Cobre, Cuba, el 21 de septiembre de 2015, durante una visita pastoral a la isla.
OSV NEWS / FOTO DE CNS
Santa Cruz): Números 21:4-9, Filipenses
2:6-11, Juan 3:13-17; Viernes (Nuestra Señora de los Dolores): 1 Timoteo 1:1-2, 12-14, Juan 19:25-27; Sábado (Santos Cornelio y Cipriano): 1 Timoteo 1:15-17, Lucas 6:43-49
SEPTIEMBRE 17-23
Domingo: Eclesiastés 27:33–28:9, Romanos
14:7-9, Mateo 18:21-35; Lunes: 1 Timoteo
2:1-8, Lucas 7:1-10; Martes (San Genaro Obispo y mártir): 1 Timoteo 3:1-13, Lucas
7:11-17; Miércoles (San Andres Kim Taegon, presbítero, y San Pablo Chong Hasang y compañeros, mártires): 1 Timoteo 3:14-16, Lucas 7:31-35; Jueves (Fiesta de San Mateo, Apóstol y evangelista): Efesios 4:1-7, 11-13, Mateo 9:9-13; Viernes: 1 Timoteo 6:2-12, Lucas
8:1-3; Sábado (San Pio de Pietrelcina): 1
Timoteo 6:13-16, Lucas 8:4-15
Considere unirse a los más de 2 millones de miembros de la organización fraternal católica más grande del mundo y registrándose en línea hoy en: www.kofc.org/joinus/es
Por tiempo limitado - Membresía en línea GRATISUse el código de promoción (BLESSEDMCGIVNEY)
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the state’s sixweek abortion ban in an Aug. 23 ruling, permitting the law to go into effect.
The 4-1 ruling lifts a previous freeze on the law implemented amid a legal challenge shortly after Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed the legislation in May.
In an opinion for the majority, Justice John Kittredge wrote that “the legislature has found that the State has a compelling interest in protecting the lives of unborn children,” and that it would be “a rogue imposition of will by the judiciary for us to say that the legislature’s determination is unreasonable as a matter of law.”
The ruling finding the 2023 law constitutional comes just months after the same court found a similar law unconstitutional in a January ruling.
Justice John Cannon Few, who found the previous ban unconstitutional but the 2023 version constitutional, acknowledged that some might note that change, but argued he saw a difference in the legal substance of each of those pieces of legislation.
“Planned Parenthood argues the 2023 Act is no different from the 2021 Act because both ban most abortions at same point in time,” Few wrote, adding, “Thus, Planned
Parenthood argues simplistically, my vote should be the same” as it was in the previous case.
Writing that he stands by his previous findings in the other case, Few argued, “Ultimately, the General Assembly did not attempt to simply re-enact the same legislation, as Planned Parenthood argues,” instead amending the 2021 Act “in what appears to be a sincere attempt to comply” with the high court’s ruling in the previous case.
McMaster said in a statement that the ruling “marks a historic moment in our state’s history and is the culmination of years of hard work and determination by so many in our state to ensure that the sanctity of life is protected.”
“With this victory, we protect the lives of countless unborn children,” he said.
In a statement, Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South
is “grateful that our state Supreme Court chose to uphold the dignity of all human persons, especially those who cannot speak for themselves.”
“We will continue to work for the safety and protection of all mothers and their children, and we recommit to the Catholic Church’s unwavering belief that all life is sacred – from conception to natural death,” Acquilano said.
Lisa Van Riper, president of South Carolina Citizens for Life, said in a statement that the ruling “restores protection for all human beings with a detectable heartbeat.”
“By upholding the Heartbeat bill, the majority of the S.C. Supreme Court has affirmed that the General Assembly and Governor Henry McMaster acted within their power to carry out their most basic governmental responsibility of protecting a human being’s right to life,” she said.
said “this abortion ban takes away people’s ability to control what happens to their bodies, forcing many South Carolinians to remain pregnant against their will.”
Michael F. Acquilano, director of the South Carolina Catholic Conference, told
“South Carolina Citizens for Life commends the S.C. Carolina Supreme Court, the General Assembly, the Governor and Attorney General Alan Wilson for their work to protect the least among us from the barbaric practice of abortion on demand after the unborn child has a heartbeat,” Van Riper said.
“It is time for all of South Carolina to embrace life and to move to meet the needs of its mothers and children with
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Protecting the innocent “is a proper consideration” in the government regulation of firearms, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case over whether the government can prohibit a person with a domestic violence restraining order from possessing a firearm. In the fall, the court will hear oral arguments in the case, United States v. Rahimi. Besides the USCCB, members of Congress and a number of faithbased organizations and other groups that advocate for victims of domestic violence also filed amicus briefs in the case. “As the Church teaches, and this Nation’s historical traditions demonstrate, the right to bear arms is not an unqualified license that must leave vulnerable family members to live in fear,” said the USCCB’s amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief, which was filed Aug. 22. “Abused victims are precisely the people whom a just government is tasked with protecting. The Second Amendment does not stand as a barrier to their safety.”
RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will seek the passage of a 15-week abortion ban if Republicans gain control of the state’s General Assembly this fall, NBC News reported. The General Assembly is a bicameral body that consists of a lower house, the Virginia House of Delegates, and an upper house, the Senate of Virginia. Republicans currently control the House of Delegates but not the Senate, which defeated a similar abortion ban earlier this year. NBC News reported that Youngkin and his political team “are devoting significant resources to gaining Republican control of the General Assembly this fall,” and are planning a “conservative agenda” that would include legislation lowering the state’s current abortion limit from 26 weeks and 6 days gestation to 15 weeks. The proposal would include exceptions for cases of rape or incest, or a maternal mortality risk. Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter shared a statement with OSV News saying the governor “supports finding consensus on legislation which would extend protections from Virginia’s current standard to when babies begin to feel pain in the womb at 15-weeks with exceptions.” Virginia is the only state in the South that has not enacted additional abortion restrictions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that led to widespread legal abortion access in the U.S., although not all of those measures are currently in effect, such as those in Florida, which are subject to a legal challenge.
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A federal court decision in favor of a Catholic orchardist in Michigan, who announced that his farm would not host same-sex weddings and was banned from a farmers market as a result, is being hailed as a victory for free speech and religious liberty. In an Aug. 21 decision, U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Maloney for the Western
District of Michigan said Country Mill Farms and owner Stephen Tennes “were forced to choose between following their religious beliefs and a government benefit for which they were otherwise qualified.” Stephen and his wife Bridget Tennes, parishioners at St. Mary Parish in Charlotte, Michigan, military veterans and the parents of seven children, together operate Country Mill Farms on more than 200 acres in Charlotte. In his ruling, Judge Maloney wrote that the expulsion from the farmers market by City of East Lansing officials violated Country Mill’s and Tennes’ “free exercise rights.” He said that “denying a person an equal share of the rights, benefits, and privileges enjoyed by other citizens” because of that person’s faith “discourages religious activity.” The Catholic Diocese of Lansing, Michigan, welcomed the outcome of the case, with its general counsel praising Tennes and Country Mill Farms for their “courageous defense of marriage and their religious beliefs in the face of discrimination.” Alliance Defending Freedom represented Tennes in the lawsuit. ADF senior counsel Kate Anderson said Tennes is eager to “mend fences with current city officials” and get back to Country Mill Farms’ mission of “glorifying God by facilitating family fun on the farm and feeding families.”
HIGHTSTOWN, N.J. — Launched in 2016, the Laudato Si’ Animators Program is an initiative of the Laudato Si’ Movement. Its Animators Program certifies individuals committed to its three pillars of ecological conversion, sustainability and prophetic advocacy, thus creating “a global network of motivated Catholics who are empowered to bring Laudato Si’ to life in their communities,” its website states. Animators Program resources include a daily newsletter, monthly prayer guides and connections to Laudato Si’ Circles, monthly prayer-based small groups that meet throughout the world. As part of its initial training, the program supports its animators as they create and execute projects in their own parishes or communities. The program has nearly 13,000 certified animators globally, with about 200 in the U.S. Registration is open for a self-paced, on-demand animator training course beginning Oct. 7. Program materials say the course teaches “the main concepts of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ and how it fits into the Catholic social teaching principles of human dignity, the common good and solidarity.” Thompson, 68, and his wife, Cheryl, joined the Animators Program, receiving certification at the end of May, and began implementing the program at their St. Anthony of Padua Parish in the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey. He told OSV News he would encourage fellow Catholics to become Laudato Si’ Animators “because the need is critical.”
PHILADELPHIA — Ukrainian Catholics in the U.S. observed Ukraine’s Independence Day with a mix of solemn joy and hopeful prayer. Ukrainians around the world observed the Aug. 24 holiday – which marks the day in 1991 when Ukraine declared independence from the former Soviet Union – with rallies, religious services and cultural events. This year’s Independence Day took place amid the ninth year of Russian aggression, begun in 2014, and the second year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “Our soldiers are on the front line. They hold the battle, and they keep Ukraine existing,” Father Roman Pitula, rector of the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadelphia, told OSV News. Amid tens of thousands of documented atrocities by Russian troops in Ukraine, Scripture has been a source
of strength, said Father Volodymyr Radko, a Ukrainian Catholic priest who serves in the Archeparchy of Philadelphia. Ukrainians are battling against Russia’s “long history” of aggression “not because they love war, not because of profit, but to protect the life of our family, our children, our elderly,” he said. Eugene Luciw – president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America’s Philadelphia chapter a – told OSV News he draws strength from the popular Ukrainian hymn “Bozhe velykyi, yedynyi (Lord, great and almighty, protect Ukraine).” “I like its closing, which speaks of wisdom, so that (Ukraine) may survive for many happy years,” said Luciw.
ARLINGTON, Va. — With National Suicide Prevention Month approaching in September, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington, Va. – just a few miles from the nation’s capital – is urging mental health discussion and engagement, rather than avoidance and evasion. “Who of us do not know someone – even in our own families or maybe
ourselves – who are struggling with significant mental health issues,” Bishop Burbidge asked in the latest edition of his “Walk Humbly” podcast, “including anxiety and depression – and even, sadly, despair; loneliness for some.” Statistics demonstrate Bishop Burbidge’s question is anything but rhetorical. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that more than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness. Of youth ages 13-18, one in five – either currently, or at some point during their life –have had a seriously debilitating mental illness. In 2022, at least 49,449 Americans took their own lives, according to the CDC. That reality requires an integrated response, said Bishop Burbidge. “We recognize the whole person – we’re body; we’re soul; we’re spirit – and mental health is part of who we are,” Bishop Burbidge said. “And we know that people are struggling. So first of all, we want people to be able to acknowledge that; to talk about it.” The Diocese of Arlington hosted a special Mass and conference Aug. 26 – “Beloved of God: Overcoming Stigma and Finding Community, A Day of Prayer for Mental Health” – dedicated to solidarity with those experiencing mental health challenges.
LVIV, Ukraine — Russian occupiers launched an attack Aug. 22 on St. Teresa of the Child Jesus Roman Catholic Church in the town of Skadovsk, located in the Kherson region in eastern Ukraine, Bishop Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk of OdessaSimferopol confirmed on Facebook.
“A group of armed special forces, cloaked in masks and wielding weapons, encircled the Roman Catholic chapel,” the bishop said, describing the dramatic event.
With determined force, they “broke down the door and broke into the chapel and began a search,” Bishop Szyrokoradiuk said.
Russians, who are occupying the region, declared that their actions constituted a deliberate operation designed to counteract terrorist activities. Russia occupies Crimea and parts of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Mykolayiv and Zaporizhzhya oblasts, or regions.
“Fortunately, there were no people in the chapel at the time, otherwise they all would have been captured as terrorists,” stated the bishop.
“Access to the chapel is denied to anyone, and the searches are ongoing. Strangely, they also broke windows,” Bishop Szyrokoradiuk said.
“I believe they will find whatever they want there: weapons, explosives, you name it,” the bishop wrote, citing a common practice of the occupier -- to brand religious premises as places of “terrorism” or “drug dealing” only to seize property and make the faithful unable to access.
Bishop Szyrokoradiuk also said in his Facebook post that Russians dubbed the parish pastor as “the main drug lord,
falsely putting him on the wanted list.”
The priest left for Poland before the start of the war in February 2022. Another priest is now in charge of the parish and the bishop said he forbade him to go to the church as he would “simply be arrested and imprisoned.”
“As we can see, the methods of the KGB haven’t changed,” the bishop said,
remembering the Soviet persecution of both Roman and Ukrainian Catholic churches under communism.
“Therefore, I ask everyone for prayers, so that the good Lord may shorten the days of the devil’s actions and the days of suffering for our people,” emphasized the bishop.
Parishioners previously gathered in the church for prayer, but now they no longer
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow Sept. 30, 2022, to annex four Ukrainian regions partly occupied by his forces. On Aug. 22, Russian occupiers launched an attack on St. Teresa of the Child Jesus Roman Catholic Church in the town of Skadovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to a Facebook post by Bishop Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk of Odessa-Simferopol.
have such an opportunity. The chapel is closed and no one is allowed in, the bishop said, asking for prayers for Catholics, who are being persecuted by the Russian occupiers.
Skadovsk has been occupied almost since the beginning of the Russian invasion. Russian troops entered the city at the beginning of March 2022.
MEXICO CITY — The Nicaraguan regime has extinguished the Jesuits’ legal status and ordered the expropriation of its assets, effectively making it illegal for the Society of Jesus to operate in the Central American country. The cancellation of the Jesuits’ status on Aug. 23 follows the confiscation of the Jesuit-run Central American University a week earlier. The authorities accused the school of hosting a “center of terrorism” and seized its campus in the capital city of Managua.
Last year, the Ortega regime exiled and arrested hundreds of Catholics - including Nicaraguan Bishop Rolondo Alvarez and dozens of priests. After nearly eight months of imprisonment, two priests, Fathers Ramiro Tijerino and Óscar Danilo Benavides Dávila, were released and have resettled in the Diocese of Charlotte. Bishop Alvarez is still in prison.
The Jesuit province in Central America condemned the cancellation, saying in an Aug. 23 statement that this is part of a government policy of systematic repression that violates human rights and appears “to be aimed at consolidating a totalitarian state.”
“The decision was made without the record that the administrative procedures established by law have been carried out,” the statement continued. “We hold the president and the vice president of Nicaragua responsible for, at least, endorsing these facts and preventing the existence of conditions of judicial independence and neutrality that would allow measures to stop, reverse and sanction them.”
The Nicaraguan interior ministry accused the Jesuits of lacking the proper oversight for a non-governmental group and failing to file tax information with the government between 2020 and 2022. The status of non-citizen Jesuits remains uncertain as the order would lack the legal standing to sponsor their immigration
visas. The legal cancellation of the Jesuits culminates a campaign of hostilities against the order and what had been its best-known project in the country, the Central American University.
ERNAKULAM, India — The Eastern-rite Syro-Malabar Church appears on the brink of a split with dissident Catholics in a southern Indian archdiocese refusing to celebrate a synod-approved Mass Aug. 20 in open defiance of a pontifical delegate. A Vatican delegate appointed to settle the decades-old liturgy dispute has returned to Rome amid his disciplinary actions worsening the situation.
The Syro-Malabar Church, one of Eastern Catholic churches, is in full communion with the Catholic Church. On Aug. 17, the Vatican delegate ordered all the priests in the archdiocese to offer the synod-approved Mass as of Aug. 20. The prelate also sought the closure of parish churches if they faced protests against his order. Only six of the 328 parishes in the archdiocese celebrated Mass in the synod-approved form. In seven parishes, people stopped the priests from complying with the order from the pontifical delegate. An overwhelming majority of priests and parishes stuck to their traditional Mass, in which celebrants faced the altar.
“I think now we are on a path of never going back. The feeling is to become an independent Catholic Church under the pope. We will be happy to be independent of an oppressive system,” said a senior priest of the archdiocese.
VATICAN CITY — Like St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first native North American woman to be canonized, all Christians must embrace their unique call to service of God and neighbor as well as the personal crosses that come with it, Pope Francis said during his weekly general audience Aug. 30. He centered his talk on the example of the Native American saint
canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. A 17thcentury Algonquin Mohawk born in presentday New York State, St. Kateri converted to Catholicism at 19 after her family died in a smallpox epidemic that left her face scarred and her vision impaired. In addition to her physical challenges, the “misunderstandings, persecutions and even death threats she suffered following her baptism” gave St. Kateri a “great love for the cross, the definitive sign of Christ’s love,” the pope said. “Bearing witness to the Gospel does not only concern what is pleasing,” Pope Francis said. “We must also know how to carry our daily crosses with patience, faith and hope.” After seeking refuge in a Jesuit mission in nearby Montreal, St. Kateri participated in the spiritual life of the community while teaching children and caring for the sick and elderly. She realized her desire to serve the church by resisting efforts to force her to marry, and eventually making a vow of perpetual virginity in 1679, the pope said. “Of course, not all are called to make the same vow as Kateri; still, all Christians are called each day to commit themselves with an undivided heart to the vocation and mission entrusted to them by God, serving him and neighbor is a spirit of charity,” Pope Francis said.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis prayed that God would raise up a new generation of “welleducated and faithful Catholics leaders committed to promoting the church’s social and ethical teachings” through public service, especially in politics. Such leaders, he told members of the International Catholic Legislators Network, can contribute to building God’s kingdom by placing human life and dignity at the center of their concern and ensuring care for the environment and the world’s poorest people. The pope met at the Vatican Aug. 26 with the legislators focusing on what they see as “dehumanizing trends” in politics, economics and technology. A key feature of the trends, which have a “negative impact upon both human and natural ecology alike,” the pope said, is a “subtle seduction of the human spirit, lulling people into misusing their freedom.” He said, “We see this when men and women are encouraged to exercise control over, instead of responsible custodianship of material or economic ‘objects,’ the natural resources of our common home or even one another.”
This time of the year I think of my dad, The Old Man, as he was affectionately known. Dad passed away four years back, but I always think of him especially this time of year because of his love of gardening.
Dad came from a time when folks gardened because they wanted to eat. They grew it and canned it or went without. So dad became an excellent gardener. And what he grew, mom canned. Which they did well into the 1980s.
Dad did love gardening, and he did it as long as he could. There was nothing that man enjoyed more than working in his garden when it was hotter than 10 hells. Then he’d come in the house and drink an entire pot of coffee, made in an old-fashioned percolator that heated it to just this side of liquid asphalt. He claimed it cooled him off.
One year out in that garden, he performed a stunt they still talk about in our part of the country. Now, performing stunts wasn’t anything new to dad. He really didn’t mean to perform them, but he had a lot of unusual ideas. And sometimes he tried to put them into practice. If he’d had money, folks would’ve said he was eccentric. But not having any, most folks just thought he was a kook. And this particular episode stands out as one of his greatest hits.
It seems someone he worked with at Eastern Airlines in Charlotte convinced him that what he needed to do most in life was to go on a salt-free diet. He didn’t have any physical ailments, and he wasn’t overweight. But since all truth and knowledge came from people who threw suitcases in the bottom of airplanes for a living, Dad was determined to do it. And did he ever.
He had mom prepare all our meals without salt. We used a salt shaker, but not him. He even had mom buy him bread that didn’t have salt in it. This foolishness went on until that fateful, hotter-than-10-hells afternoon under a blazing hot sun, when a salt-free Old Man went up to his garden to work – and ultimately collapsed in the middle of the tomato patch from lack of salt! We had to give him water and salt pills just to get him back to the house. And that cured him – at least from salt-free diets.
In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us the Beatitudes. He tells us we must live this Gospel way of life if we are to become His disciples. When we do so, Jesus tells us we become the salt of the earth. Practically speaking, we know the importance of salt in flavoring and preserving our food and for the proper function and survival of our bodies. By calling us salt of the earth, Jesus wants to make sure we understand how vital it is for us to live out the Gospel in our lives. And the dangers associated with failing to do so. What Christ is trying to drive home to us in the Sermon on the Mount is that it’s in how we live our lives – our devotion to God, our relationship with Christ, how we love one another, and how we live out the Gospel – that we become disciples of Christ. And that in this way, through us, the light of the Gospel shines through the darkness of the world to save others. May we live our lives in Christ so that when others see us, all they see is Christ!
One of the most anticipated events in modern Church history – arguably, the most important gathering since Vatican II – is about to unfold this fall: the Synod on Synodality.
After years of planning and preparation, with local meetings held and national reports issued, the Vatican recently named more than 300 delegates who will be taking part – lay men and women, priests and bishops, and religious from all corners of the globe.
Again and again, one of the refrains I’ve been hearing from friends and fellow clergy around the country is: “What? No deacons?”
It’s true. The initial list contained not one participant clearly identified as a deacon.
At first, it seemed a shocking oversight. The diaconate, after all, has shown explosive growth over the past five decades; this third level of holy orders now numbers close to 49,000 members worldwide, almost half of those in the Americas.
And as the numbers have grown, the vocation has shown astonishing diversity. Yes, deacons are husbands and fathers, grandfathers and retired single men. But we are also judges, lawyers and doctors. We serve as parish administrators, diocesan chancellors and as university professors. You even find deacons who are – ahem –journalists.
The initial news that there would be no deacons at the synod seemed just plain wrong. It was later reported that there would in fact be two deacons in attendance. Just two. But neither would come from the one place where the diaconate has grown and flourished the most dramatically: the United States.
I’ve been a deacon for the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., for 16 years and I have to say this still seems like a glaring omission that needs to be corrected.
The breadth and depth of diaconate ministry in the United States and around the world cannot be underestimated. Some observers have quite accurately described deacons as embodying a “vocation of the threshold,” living as a bridge between the clergy and the laity – standing metaphorical watch at the doorway of the Church, to lend a hand or extend a welcome or make a connection to the faithful who hunger for help or hope or some small act of grace.
The deacon’s charism is service, so we deacons serve at shelters, soup kitchens and within charities of all kinds. But that’s just the beginning.
From my experience, many people in parishes see deacons not just as men at the threshold, but as men
actually holding open the door. They see us as a way in. “Deacon, can I talk to you about something,” someone will ask. “I have a problem and I don’t really feel comfortable talking to a priest about it.”
We are out there in the world, and that’s important; it helps people to see us as “relatable clergy.” And that gives deacons a most unique perspective within the Catholic Church.
We are the only religious vocation (and the only clergy) called to live and work among the people – not in a convent or a cloister or a rectory. People see us as part of the neighborhood, because that’s what we are. We shop with them, bank with them, commute with them. We see parishioners at soccer practices and school board meetings, at bus stops and train stations.
Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, Conn. – the man who launched my own formation – once told a convocation of deacons that he believes the great gift of the diaconate is “the gift of presence.”
“You are there with the people in a unique, visible way,” he told them. And he also offered this confession: “I’m a better priest,” he admitted, “because of the work I did with deacons.”
Pope Francis has repeatedly called for a “listening” Church. Isn’t it time for this Church to listen to those members of the clergy who spend so much of their lives listening to (and hearing, and responding to) the daily, human concerns of the Body of Christ?
Isn’t it time to listen to what deacons might have to say?
I think so.
And there is this: If one of the items on the synod agenda is a discussion about the possibility of ordaining women deacons, it might be prudent to hear what deacons themselves have to say on the subject. The Vatican might want to give some attention to how the diaconate is lived around the world, especially in the United States, where it is becoming a powerful and upholding force in so many parishes and communities.
If the Church chooses, the upcoming synod can be a historic moment that will be remembered for the voices it included, not the ones it forgot about.
It can be remembered for bringing the “gift of presence” to the table – and listening to what all the members of the Body of Christ have to say.
Synod on Synodality needs the perspectives of the ‘relatable clergy’DEACON GREG KANDRA, an award-winning author and journalist, is creator of the blog “The Deacon’s Bench” and serves as a deacon in the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y. Deacon Greg Kandra
‘From my experience, many people in parishes see deacons not just as men at the threshold, but as men actually holding open the door. They see us as a way in.’
“For love of the house of the Lord, I will ask for your good.” – Psalm 122:9
Sometimes Jesus’ words are so familiar to us we stop noticing the whole of what He is saying.
“Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” from Matthew 5:44 is pretty interesting. For one thing, this rabbi who demonstrated the fullness of unconditional love with His death on the cross is saying something that, on its surface, seems shockingly out of sync with the notion of Christian love: People will have enemies.
them, I was doing all right.
But a passive “hope you don’t get leprosy” is not the sort of “loving” that Jesus is commanding.
When I can, I like to run in the deep end of a pool for an hour or so. It sounds boring, but in summer that’s where I do my best praying. My intercessory prayer list is long, full of family, friends, coworkers and some people I pray for simply because I know no one else is doing so. I jump off the Divine Mercy Chaplet to pray for everyone on my list (and sometimes, anyone who just pops into my head, because maybe the Holy Spirit is nudging prayers on their behalf).
I run and I pray, until it all becomes a kind of rhythmic supplication before God: “For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on (name), and on the whole world,” I pray, moving from name to name.
Strangely, the more I pray, the more names occur to me –priests and bishops, people in the news who seem troubled or half-mad. The five-decade prayer climbs into seven or eight, every time.
On June 22, Pope Francis declared Fatima’s Sister Lucia “venerable.” She now needs a confirmed miracle to become beatified, and a second confirmed miracle to be canonized.
and consecrate ourselves and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“What are you doing?”
The Virgin Mary would later visit the three seers six times in six months beginning May 13, 1917.
It is a message for the three little seers of Fatima. And it is a message for us.
We’re advised not to, of course. Elsewhere in Scripture, Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Mt 22:37-40).
But what if our neighbor is an “enemy” as well – someone we have learned to distrust and are happy to dislike because it feels so righteous to do so?
Complicating things further, what if we don’t really love ourselves all that much? We all have moments – or years – when we’ve cast ourselves into such a hellscape of self-loathing that we’ve become our own enemy. In which case, loving our neighbors as we love ourselves sounds downright harrowing.
Or what if we really do love someone, but they’ve hurt us and we’ve distanced ourselves from them while stewing over our hurt feelings – revisiting every perceived slight the way one irresistibly revisits a canker sore with a tooth, only to wince each time we do it? Sometimes we Christians do have legitimate enemies – Jesus acknowledged it – that we’ve learned to give a wide berth to for our own physical, mental or spiritual safety. Jesus says we have to love them, but how do we do that without setting ourselves up for more pain?
Happily, the Master doesn’t make us wait for an answer. He cuts directly to the chase, saying, “Pray for them.”
I used to think that “loving an enemy” meant nothing more than wishing no ill toward them – that as long as I sought no vengeance or resisted wishing harm upon
Lately, the prayer has included those I’ve pulled away from – “enemies” I never wanted. “For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on (name, who hurt me).”
Two things have come from my prayers:
First, I’ve seen where I’ve probably hurt these folks, myself – usually through oblivious self-interest, which makes others feel unseen or unheard, stinging aplenty. Seeing that our slights have gone both ways somehow softens all the woeis-me.
Second, one day while praying I realized that all my resentments had seemed to melt away.
Jesus nailed it: It’s nearly impossible to feel bitter toward someone when you’re praying for their good – and praying “mercy” for anyone is an unqualified good.
I recently bumped into someone I’d been praying for after first muttering to myself about her for months. As we caught up, I discovered once again that I really liked her, and that we’d both hoed some hard rows over the past few years, leaving us humbled but also stronger and wiser –and perhaps a bit more willing to assume the best, not the worst of others. Or even ourselves.
I continue to pray for her each time I run, because prayer is good. But now the supplication is joined to thanksgiving, because praying for the good of my “enemy” – for the love of God – had cleansed away all the ache. ELIZABETH
“What are you doing?” These are the words the Angel of Peace asked the venerable Lucia, St. Jacinta and St. Francisco when he visited them a second time in August 1916. Earlier that year, in the spring of 1916, the Angel of Peace had visited the three children of Fatima for the first time and had taught them a prayer: “My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, I love thee. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, nor adore, nor hope, nor love thee.”
Now, just three months later, the Angel of Peace had found them not following his instructions.
Where are we in offering sacrifices and praying for the conversion of sinners?
The message of Fatima is as relevant today as it was over 100 years ago: Pray the rosary, offer penance, offer sacrifices, pray for the conversion of sinners, go to Mass, attend Eucharistic Adoration,
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JON GAUTHIER is a member of St. Matthew Parish in Charlotte and author of “Embracing Goodness: How Life Works.”
Rather than reading about flatulent cows or ebikes that may burn down our homes, it was refreshing to read Effie Caldarola’s column in the July 7 Catholic News Herald, “ ‘Trashion’: How our spiritual emptiness harms the environment,” about a simple way to help the environment and save money: Refrain from buying newly manufactured “plastic clothes.”
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‘I used to think that “loving an enemy” meant nothing more than wishing no ill toward them – that as long as I sought no vengeance or resisted wishing harm upon them, I was doing all right.’SYLVIA NANCE is a member of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Charlotte. Elizabeth Scalia
