Sept. 29, 2023

At a glance

September 29, 2023

Volume 32 • NUMBER 26

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

INDEX

Contact us 2

Español 14-17

Our Diocese 4-8

Our Faith 3

Our Schools 9-10

Scripture 3, 17

U.S. news 18-19

Viewpoints 22-23

World news 20

CATHOLIC ALL WEEK

Timely tips for blending faith & life

Between the rustle of leaves and that first crisp, cool breeze, there’s something about fall that lifts our minds and hearts to ethereal realities. In the Church, early autumn is a time to celebrate the feasts of many great saints, including the purely spiritual beings we call angels. Honor our winged protectors this season with these angelic activities.

SEE ARCHANGELS IN THE QUEEN CITY

Sept. 29 is the feast of the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Each makes an appearance in Holy Scripture and is invoked in times of great need. The most famous of these events is in Luke 1:26-38, when the angel Gabriel appears to the Blessed Virgin Mary asking her to bear God’s Son. Visit St. Gabriel Parish in Charlotte to glimpse associated artwork, including colorful statues of the three archangels that were handcarved in Milan and donated by a parish family.

MAKE THE FOOD OF ANGELS

STAFF

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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One of the most comforting teachings of the Catholic faith is that we each have a guardian angel assigned by God to defend us throughout life. Many of the faithful have noted feeling the protection of guardian angels at particularly harrowing moments in their lives. They have a chance to thank them Oct. 2, the feast of guardian angels. Honor yours by making a light and fluffy angel food cake. Use your favorite recipe or add a fall flair with the pumpkin angel food cake at www.julieseatsandtreats.com.

DISCOVER ANGELS IN THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS AT N.C. MUSEUM

Many know of the affinity St. Francis of Assisi had for animals and nature, but did you know he also had a love of spiritual realities? The Portiuncula, the chapel he famously rebuilt, was first constructed in the fourth century in honor of Our Lady of Angels, and St. Francis believed that although the kingdom of heaven is everywhere, the Portiuncula was visited more frequently by heavenly spirits. When St. Francis received the stigmata, a member of the seraphim appeared to him in a vision holding a crucified man between his wings. A depiction of this event from the School of Amiens can be found in the permanent collection at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. It’s worth visiting in honor of St. Francis’ Oct. 4 feast day. Enjoy the rest of the museum’s religious collection, which includes additional paintings of St. Francis, angels, the Holy Family and many saints.

— Annie Ferguson

Diocesan calendar of events

PRAYER SERVICES

13TH ANNUAL DIVINE MERCY DAY ‘A EUCHARISTIC ENCOUNTER

DISCOVER THE REAL PRESENCE’: 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte. Come explore Eucharistic Miracles with Ray Grijalba, host of the YouTube channel The Joy of the Faith and co-producer of the movie The New Manna. Continental breakfast will be served. For details, visit www.stmatthewcatholic.org/divine-mercy-day-2023.

PRAY THE ROSARY: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, Riverside Park, 305 Tappan St., Spruce Pine. Come for a candlelit 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 COAST-TO-COAST: 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8, Holy Family Church, 4820 Kinnamon Road, Winston-Salem. Unite with thousands across our country in praying the Rosary for Life, Truth and Right-Doctrine in our Church, and national and global peace. If unable to attend in person, you are encouraged to pray at home

with your families at 4 p.m. For details, contact Tina Rudge at rudge@salemglencc.net or 814-706-2559.

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 rosary.

DIOCESAN 25TH AND 50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY MASS : 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22, at St. Patrick Cathedral, 1621 Dilworth Road East, Charlotte. If you are celebrating your silver or golden wedding anniversary this year and would like to join the celebration, please RSVP to familylife@rcdoc.org. Reception to follow.

WORKSHOPS

CATHOLIC HEALTH PROFESSIONALS OF CHARLOTTE : 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29, St. Patrick Cathedral, 1621 Dilworth Road East, The discussion, BioTechnology: A Threat to Children’s Rights?, will examine current and emerging biotechnologies and their impact on children. RSVP at catholichealthcharlotte@gmail.com.

Scan the QR code for this week’s recommended recipes, crafts and activities:

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

OCT. 1-6

Diocese of Charlotte Priests’ Retreat

Living Waters Reflection Center, Maggie Valley

Our faith

Archangels Raphael, Michael & Gabriel

Feast day: Sept. 29

Each year as the warm days of summer turn to the coolness and bright colors of autumn, the Church celebrates the work and ministry of angels. We begin this celebration Sept. 29, with the Feast of the Archangels. While scripture tells of seven archangels, only three are named: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Angels are sent to assist in God’s plan and all three of these have important roles in salvation history. They bring messages and accompany the faithful along the path of daily life.

In celebrating the Feast of the Archangels, the Church reminds us of these three special messengers who were sent to accomplish very specific tasks.

ST. RAPHAEL

St. Raphael is one of the seven archangels who stand before the throne of the Lord. He appears, by name, only in the Book of Tobit. Raphael’s name means “God heals.” This identity came about because of the biblical story that claims he “healed” the earth when it was defiled by the sins of the fallen angels in the apocryphal book of Enoch.

Disguised as a human in the Book of Tobit, Raphael refers to himself as “Azarias the son of the great Ananias” and travels alongside Tobit’s son, Tobiah. Once Raphael returns from his journey with Tobiah, he declares to Tobit that he was sent by the Lord to heal his blindness and deliver Sarah, Tobiah’s future wife, from the demon Asmodeus. It is then that his true healing powers are revealed and he makes himself known as “the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord” (Tobit 12:15).

His office is generally accepted by tradition to be that of healing and acts of mercy. Raphael is also identified with the angel in John 5:1-4 who descended upon the pond and bestowed healing powers upon it so that the first to enter it after it moved would be healed of whatever infirmity he was suffering.

ST. MICHAEL

St. Michael is the “Prince of the Heavenly Host,” the leader of all the angels. His name is Hebrew for “Who is like God?” – the battle cry of the good angels against Lucifer and his followers

Daily Scripture readings

OCT. 1-7

Sunday: Ezekiel 18:25-28, Philippians

2:1-11, Matthew 21:28-32; Monday (The Holy Guardian Angels): Zechariah 8:1-8, Matthew 18:1-5, 10; Tuesday: Zechariah 8:20-23, Luke 9:51-56; Wednesday (St. Francis of Assisi): Nehemiah 2:1-8, Luke 9:57-62; Thursday (St. Faustina Kowalska, BI. Francis Xavier Seelos): Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12, Luke 10:1-12; Friday (St. Bruno, BI. Marie Rose Durocher): Baruch 1:15-22, Luke 10:13-16; Saturday (Our Lady of the Rosary): Baruch

4:5-12, 27-29, Luke 10:17-24

when they rebelled against God. He is mentioned four times in the Bible: in Daniel 10 and 12, in the letter of St. Jude, and in Revelation.

Michael was sent to fight God’s battles. The short letter of St. Jude describes Michael in an argument with Satan over the body of Moses. While Michael does not make any pronouncement against the devil, he does say, “May the Lord rebuke you” (Jude 1:9), indicating the false nature of Satan’s argument.

In the apocalyptic Book of Daniel, Michael’s role is much more proactive. He is described as “the great prince, guardian of your people” (Dan 12:1). In his vision, Daniel describes the classic confrontation between good and evil at the end of time. Michael is the great champion of the people. He stands ready to greet those who rise from the dead and experience God’s great victory over evil.

The New Testament continues to reveal Michael’s role as a champion for God.

Michael, whose forces cast down Lucifer and the evil spirits into hell, is invoked for protection against Satan and all evil.

In 1899 Pope Leo XIII – having had a prophetic vision of the evil that would be inflicted upon the Church and the world in the 20th century – instituted a prayer asking for St. Michael’s protection to be said at the end of every Mass.

Christian tradition recognizes four offices of St. Michael: 1) to fight against Satan, 2) to rescue the souls of the faithful from the power of the enemy, especially at the hour of death, 3) to be the champion of God’s people, and 4) to call away souls from earth and bring them to judgment.

ST. GABRIEL

Perhaps the most prominent and best-

known of the archangels is St. Gabriel, the one who delivers special messages to those favored by God. We first hear of Gabriel through St. Luke’s depiction of the Annunciation:

“In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, ‘Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you’” (Luke 1:26-28). Gabriel continued: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:30-33).

Christian tradition suggests that it is he who appeared to St. Joseph and to the shepherds, and also that it was he who “strengthened” Jesus during His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Hope must be restored in communities, young people

Hope and fraternity must be kept alive and coordinated into concrete action so every crisis can be read as an opportunity and dealt with positively, Pope Francis said.

“Hope needs to be restored to our European societies, especially to the new generations,” he told people gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his weekly general audience Sept. 27. “In fact, how can we welcome others if we ourselves do not first have a horizon open to the future?”

The pope spoke about his latest trip to Marseille – an ancient port city on the Mediterranean Sea and France’s secondlargest city – Sept. 22-23 to highlight the challenges and opportunities across the entire Mediterranean region and to focus on the plight of migrants crossing its waters.

“We know the Mediterranean is the cradle of civilization and a cradle is for life! It is not tolerable that it become a tomb, neither should it be a place of conflict,” war and human trafficking, he said, referring to the thousands of men, women and children who fall into the hands of traffickers offering them passage into Europe and to those who die from unsafe conditions on the sea or in detention.

The Mediterranean bridges Africa, Asia and Europe and their people, cultures, philosophies and religions, he said. But a harmonious connection “does not happen magically, neither is it accomplished once and for all. It is the fruit of a journey in which each generation is called to travel.”

The pope explained he went to Marseille to take part in the conclusion of the “Mediterranean Meetings,” which brought together bishops, mayors, young people and others from the Mediterranean area to look toward the future with hope.

OCT. 8-14

Sunday: Isaiah 5:1-7, Philippians 4:6-9, Matthew 21:33-43; Monday (St. Denis and Companions, St. John Leonardi): Jonah 1:1-2:2, 11, Jonah 2:3-5, 8, Luke 10:25-37; Tuesday: Jonah 3:1-10, Luke 10:38-42; Wednesday (St. John XXIII): Jonah 4:1-11, Luke 11:1-4; Thursday: Malachi 3:13-20b, Luke

; Friday: Joel

Luke

OCT. 15-21

Sunday: Isaiah 25:6-10a, Philippians 4:1214, 19-20, Matthew 22:1-14; Monday (St. Hedwig, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque): Romans 1:1-7, Luke 11:29-32; Tuesday (St. Ignatius of Antioch): Romans 1:16-25, Luke 11:37-41; Wednesday (St. Luke): 2 Timothy 4:10-17b, Luke 10:1-9; Thursday (Sts. John de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues and Companions): Romans 3:21-30, Luke 11:4754; Friday (St. Paul of the Cross): Romans

Luke 12:1-7; Saturday: Romans 4:13, 16-18, Luke 12:8-12

“This is the dream, this is the challenge: that the Mediterranean might recover its vocation, that of being a laboratory of civilization and peace,” the pope said. Otherwise, he said, “how can young people, who are poor in hope, closed in on their private lives, worried about managing their own precariousness, open themselves to meeting others and to sharing?” Communities, which are so often “sickened by individualism, by consumerism and by empty escapism, need to open themselves,” he said. “Their souls and spirits need to be oxygenated, and then they will be able to read the crisis as an opportunity and deal with it positively.”

Pope Francis

— Spencer K.M. Brown. Catholic News Agency contributed.

“Three Archangels with Tobias” by Francesco Botticini (1470)

Our diocese

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

Foundation board leader retires after 24 years of service

CHARLOTTE — Ray Paradowski recently retired after 24 years of service as a board member and later chairman of the Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte.

During his last board meeting in August, he was recognized with thanks by Bishop Peter Jugis, the foundation board, and Jim Kelley, foundation president and diocesan development director.

Paradowski joined the foundation board in 1999 and became chairman in 2006. The foundation’s assets and number of endowments have increased significantly under his leadership. In 1999, the foundation held 33 endowments and $3.7 million in assets. Now, it has 349 endowments and over $85 million in assets.

“Ray is an extraordinary leader,” said Kelley. “He has always answered the call to serve – not only working with the foundation, but at his own parish, Sacred Heart in Salisbury, helping to lead six capital campaigns and leading the building committee that helped Sacred Heart move to its current property. Ray has established an endowment for his parish in the foundation. Still leading and giving back at the age of 90, Ray is an inspiration to us all.”

Succeeding Paradowski as chairman is Joe Gigler.

The foundation, established in 1994, is a vehicle for people and organizations to offer direct support to the diocese and its many entities and bolster the long-term financial stability of the diocese as a whole.

Presbyteral Council elects chairman, other officers

CHARLOTTE — Officers for the Diocese of Charlotte’s Presbyteral Council – which advises the bishop in governance of the diocese – were elected earlier this month for 2023-24.

Reelected as chairman is Father Benjamin Roberts, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Monroe; vice chairman is Father Christian Cook, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish in Swannanoa; secretary is Father Matthew Codd, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Charlotte; and treasurer is Father John Putnam, pastor of St. Mark Parish in Huntersville.

Required by Church law, the council represents all priests in the diocese and is “like a senate of the bishop” (Code of Canon Law 495 §1), with about half the members elected by priests and others appointed by the bishop.

— Catholic News Herald

Holy Cross Parish in Kernersville celebrated its 50th anniversary Sept. 14 with Mass, a

Shining Christ’s light for 50 years

Holy Cross Parish celebrates golden anniversary

ANNIE FERGUSON arferguson@charlottediocese.org

KERNERSVILLE — The patronage of a parish has an uncanny way of shaping its development and animating its spirit. Holy Cross in Kernersville is a fine example of the beauty of this gradual blossoming.

Like St. Helena, who found the True Cross and oversaw the construction of basilicas in Jerusalem, the parishioners of Holy Cross have been intimately involved in building their parish since day one, giving sacrificially just as the discoverer of its namesake once did to spread Christianity and build up the Kingdom of God.

Now the parishioners – including some who have been there since the beginning – are celebrating the 50th anniversary year of their church’s dedication.

On Sept. 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the parish held a special anniversary Mass, a procession with a relic of the True Cross, and a reception to celebrate the milestone – and their pastor Father Noah Carter’s birthday, which coincides with the anniversary and feast day. Two days later, they celebrated the anniversary at the parish’s annual festival.

“This year was the best attended September 14th Mass that I’ve experienced since I came here a little over four years ago,” Father Carter says. “Now that we’ve reached a culmination for the 50th, it gives us the opportunity to really look back in the past with great gratitude and celebrate what is happening now in all of

the different programs and departments of the parish.”

Holy Cross began in 1969 as a mission of St. Benedict the Moor in WinstonSalem and was dedicated as a parish in 1973. Parishioner Beverly Everett James remembers that the first Mass as a mission church had an attendance of 69. She says

“How do you say what you love about your parish? It’s like asking what you love about God. It’s everything,” she says. “I was able to grow in this church. I’ve had these models ever since I was a little girl –not just my parents, but the parents who have been here since the beginning. Having that constant example set for me my whole life has been so enriching and just very special.”

A parishioner for 47 years, Al Livelsberger was a founding member of the parish’s Knights of Columbus Council 8509 and served as its first Grand Knight. He also began the Boy Scout Troop 943 in 1980 and served as a catechist for many years. He says his favorite part about Holy Cross is “the love that we share.”

that she has enjoyed the fellowship of being a member of the faith community even before it was dedicated 50 years ago.

“We had a good camaraderie from the start,” she adds.

Maureen Pileggi, another parishioner of 50 years who had Everett James as her First Communion teacher, says Holy Cross has always been an extension of her family and a place full of love.

In the beginning, Mass was held in a variety of locations, including an antique store next to the historic Korner’s Folly house in Kernersville and in other churches, such as Main Street Methodist, until the first church was built and dedicated in 1973. The first pastor was Father Leon Bolick, a member of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. Members of the religious order ministered at the parish from 1973 until 2019, when Father Carter, a diocesan priest, became pastor.

In 1974, the parish purchased 6.5 acres for the site of the future church, and parishioners worked to clear the land themselves. Construction of the first church was complete in October 1978. Migrant workers were part of the

PHOTOS BY STEVEN SHEPPARD AND MAGGIE LOVIN | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

procession with a relic of the True Cross, and a reception celebrating the milestone and their pastor Father Noah Carter’s birthday, which coincided with the anniversary. The annual parish festival followed on Sept. 16.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Hispanic migrant workers were a part of Holy Cross since its mission days. They rode to Mass every Sunday in the truck pictured here in 1969.

Holy Cross Parish celebrated its 50th anniversary with a special Mass on the feast of the Holy Cross, followed by a parish festival and celebration of their pastor’s 35th birthday.

PHOTOS BY STEVEN SHEPPARD AND MAGGIE LOVIN | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Celebrating the potential of every human life Dr. Ben Carson speaks to sold-out crowd at Room At The Inn banquet

ANNIE FERGUSON arferguson@charlottediocese.org

WINSTON-SALEM — Few people can elicit a standing ovation before giving a public speech, but Dr. Ben Carson is one of them. The thunderous applause of nearly 1,000 Room At The Inn banquet attendees greeted the former presidential candidate, renowned pediatric neurosurgeon and advocate for life as he began his keynote address at the agency’s annual fundraiser Sept. 21 at the Benton Convention Center in Winston-Salem.

Besides Carson’s engaging talk, exciting expansion plans for the agency and a poignant moment with one of the speaker’s former patients were highlights of the evening.

This year’s event, “Partners on the Journey,” was the largest to date and raised a record of more than $325,000 for single, pregnant mothers and their children who would have no home and nowhere else to turn if it weren’t for Greensboro’s Room At The Inn (RATI). Its comprehensive care includes shelter, material assistance, meals, case management, transportation, job training, child care and many other life-affirming services.

“It’s been 30 years since the idea for Room At The Inn first formed at St. Benedict Church in Greensboro, and I think it’s fitting to have raised this astonishing amount at

this milestone moment,” said Marianne Donadio, RATI’s associate director of donor relations, in comments after the event. “We are so grateful to our donors as well as Dr. Carson’s fine example of pro-life leadership and his inspiring words that moved people to give so generously.”

Carson is the founder and chairman of the American Cornerstone Institute and most recently served as the 17th secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. For nearly 30 years, he was director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. In 1987, he successfully performed the first separation of craniopagus twins, newborns who were conjoined at the back of their heads. He also performed the first fully successful separation of type-2 vertical craniopagus twins in 1997 in South Africa. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

In his speech, Carson extolled the intellect and faith of the nation’s Founding Fathers, whom he said studied every government that had ever existed before penning the Constitution and establishing the United States as a republic. He also noted that our nation is the only one with “a dream.”

“My American dream was to be a doctor. There was nothing more interesting than medicine. I loved everything that had to do with it. … I even liked going to the doctor,” Carson said, drawing laughter.

He went on to explain his initial struggles in school and growing up poor while his mother raised him and his brother

as a single parent. He credited her for his successes, noting that she had high expectations. Eventually, he began to excel in academics and became a brain surgeon.

“I had exactly the same brain when I was at the bottom of the class that I had when I was at the top of the class. What does that tell you about the human potential and these amazing brains that God has given us?” he said.

Also amazing, Carson noted, is that at fertilization there is a zygote with 46 chromosomes containing the entire blueprint for a new human being, an individual with a distinct genetic identity from the mother or father.

“The baby starts developing extraordinarily rapidly at that point,” he said. “Within a matter of six to eight weeks people already have little eye sockets, little fingers and toes, a heart that’s beating. It’s very hard to say that it isn’t that human being. The brain is developing with hundreds of thousands of neurons every day, and that brain continues to develop even after birth.”

Carson also noted that he has met some of the patients he’s saved after they reach

adulthood. The event in Winston-Salem was no exception.

In a gathering right before the banquet, Charles and Jackie Longino and their son Chase, members of Our Lady of Grace Parish in Greensboro, were reunited with Carson 22 years after he performed a successful surgery repairing Chase’s metopic craniosynostosis and microcephaly, in which his skull was too small for his developing brain.

“Thinking about getting to meet him tonight again after all these years was really emotional for me, but it was absolutely incredible to be able to show him how somebody that he operated on all those years ago is here today living a great life,” Jackie Longino said. “It was such a gift from God that we were put in Dr. Carson’s path and that he was able to fix the problem.”

Now an electrician working on the new surgical tower on the Chapel Hill campus of UNC Hospitals, Chase Longino, 23, said meeting Carson was surreal.

St. Gabriel Parish to hold retreat for couples experiencing infertility

CHARLOTTE — St. Gabriel Catholic Church and Springs in the Desert are partnering to offer Cherished, a daylong retreat for couples experiencing the struggles of infertility. The retreat will be held Saturday, Oct. 21, at the parish Ministry Center. All those interested must register by Saturday, Oct. 7. Participants are invited to join the Springs in the Desert team as they reflect on the emotional, relational and spiritual aspects of the infertility experience. The team will offer practical suggestions for strengthening your relationship with God and your spouse.

Infertility is a heavy burden most couples don’t expect to carry. It can affect your marriage, your relationship with family and friends, and your relationship with God. Come with your spouse or on your own for a time of prayer, healing, and friendship with others on this same path.

The day includes Mass, time for prayer in Eucharistic Adoration, and the opportunity to receive the sacrament of reconciliation. Find details and register online at www. stgabrielchurch.org/cherished.

To learn more about Springs in the Desert ministry, go online to www. springsinthedesert.org.

STEVEN SHEPPARD | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Dr. Ben Carson entertained and inspired Room At The Inn banquet attendees with his wit and wisdom. This year’s banquet raised a record amount of donations to help further their pro-life mission of Room At The Inn.

BANQUET, SEE PAGE 24

Carson

Annual Lord of Miracles procession coming to Charlotte Oct. 14

CÉSAR HURTADO rchurtado@charlottediocese.org

CHARLOTTE — The annual Lord of Miracles procession, a traditional Peruvian feast, will be held Saturday, Oct. 14, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Charlotte.

As in previous years, Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, which displays the sacred image of Lord of the Miracles in the church, will host men and women dressed in purple robes, the traditional color of the brotherhood of Cristo Moreno de Pachacamilla, who with special devotion will process and honor the patron of Peruvian residents and immigrants. The celebration will begin with a 6 p.m. Mass, followed by the procession across parish grounds. For the first time since the pandemic, the brotherhood has invited professional musicians to accompany the processional route.

“Thanks to several sponsors and the generosity of the community that responded to the call for our fundraising activities, we will again have a band of specialized musicians that are coming all the way from Maryland to be a part of the feast,” said Jorge Caldas, foreman of the Brotherhood of the Lord of Miracles.

Music is a special and traditional part of this unique festival.

In a route that is divided into several sections, the processional image, carried on the shoulders of brotherhood members, is adorned with flowers and candles. It is preceded by dozens of sahumadora sisters bearing incense.

In each of the walking sections, the members of the brotherhood are renewed, the flowers on the dais are changed, and children approach to the image to lay flowers and say prayers. After the procession, the

collected flowers are distributed among the attendees who request them.

Caldas invites the entire Catholic community in the Diocese of Charlotte to join in this special feast of the “Purple Christ.”

HISTORY OF DEVOTION

On Nov. 13, 1655, a devastating earthquake shook Lima, leaving thousands dead and villages turned to rubble. In Pachacamilla, a poor neighborhood comprised of Angolan slaves, the image of a brownskinned Christ, painted on a wall in the village, remained perfectly intact. The veneration began during another earthquake in 1687 when, in a series of prayers, the steward of the chapel of Santo Cristo, Don Sebastián de Antuñano, took an oil copy of the original painting of Christ through the devastated streets of Lima, asking for the end of the cataclysm.

In 1746, Lima suffered the most destructive earthquake in its history, and it is said that the faithful processed with a replica of the image through the streets and the earth stopped shaking instantly. With multiple miraculous events surrounding devotion to the image, it became known as “Lord of Miracles.”

Appointed in 1715 as “patron of the City of Lima” and designated by the Vatican in 2005 as the “patron of Peruvian residents and immigrants,” the Lord of Miracles remains one of the largest processions in the world.

This year, the first procession in Lima, capital city of Peru, will leave on Oct. 7 from the Monastery of the Discalced Carmelite Nazarene Mothers. The second, third and fourth route will be on Oct. 18, 19 and 28. The fifth and final tour will take place on Nov. 1. To follow a live broadcast of the processions, go online to www.nazarenas.tv/envivo.

New Courage chapter offers support, understanding

CHRISTINA LEE KNAUSS cknauss@charlottediocese.org

CHARLOTTE — People in the Diocese of Charlotte who experience same-sex attractions and want to cultivate the virtue of chastity can now seek support and spiritual guidance from a new chapter of Courage International.

Courage accompanies those who experience same-sex attractions through a ministry of faith and fellowship without being judged for how they feel.

It illuminates the value of chaste friendships and dedicating one’s life to Christ through service to others, spiritual reading, and prayer – and provides a community so participants are not alone as they seek to align their lives with Church teaching.

“Temptations are all around us – lust, pride, greed, envy – and everyone must navigate these temptations, no matter what your orientation,” said Monsignor Patrick Winslow, vicar general and chancellor of the diocese. “It’s important to provide support for everyone striving to live holy lives, and Courage reaches out to people who may feel particularly marginalized because of who they feel attracted to. This ministry lets them know the Church is here for them.”

The idea for Courage dates back to 1978, when Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York saw the need to serve the spiritual and pastoral needs of his same-sex-attracted flock. In recent years, Courage has seen a rapid expansion of chapters worldwide: in the U.S. alone, Courage sponsors 340 chapters, up from 247 chapters just six years ago.

Father Peter Ascik said the diocese

initiated the local chapter earlier this year after watching the success of a related ministry called EnCourage, which began here in 2022 to support family members and friends of those who identify as LGBTQ.

“As Pope Francis said, the Church is called to be a field hospital, so we’re called to accompany people in all kinds of life situations,” said Father Ascik, director of the diocese’s Office of Family Life.

“Because of increasing attention to this issue,” he said, “there is also an increased need for a ministry that models a truly Catholic response to our brothers and sisters who experience samesex attraction. Courage provides accompaniment and addresses people’s questions and experiences in light of the fullness of truth revealed by Jesus Christ.”

The Church teaches that sexual activity is reserved between a man and woman in marriage, with openness to children, Father Ascik said. The Church also teaches that people who experience same-sex attraction should be treated with “respect, compassion, and sensitivity” and that they, like all Christians, are called to live chaste lives.

Father Michael Carlson, parochial vicar at St. Mark Parish in Huntersville, agreed to serve as chaplain for the local chapter after recognizing the positive impact Courage can have on people’s lives.

He said he attended a conference in Rome, called “Living the Truth in Love,”

where participants shared that “Courage was helpful in their lives because it helped them to embrace the Church’s teachings.”

Courage is open to men and women 18 and over. It holds monthly meetings at discreet locations to provide privacy.

Father Carlson provides pastoral care, the sacrament of confession, teaching and guidance. He encourages members to “foster and live out” the five goals of Courage, which call for members to strive for chastity, to live “Christ-like lives” through frequent prayer and Mass attendance, and to develop strong, chaste friendships.

“I find that often there is confusion regarding both what the Church teaches as well as the place within the Church for those who experience same-sex attractions,” Father Carlson said. “Courage boldly proclaims the authentic teaching of the Church while pastorally accompanying these sons and daughters of hers.”

Courage doesn’t seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender expression, Father Carlson stressed. Rather, Father Ascik added, participants are asked to strive to conform their lives and their actions to the call of Christ – as all Christians are.

“The deepest level of Christian friendship,” Father Carlson said, “would be two individuals trying to assist each other in their growth and walk with Christ.”

EnCourage provides similar support and resources for Catholic family members and friends of those who identify as

LGBTQ. Deacon Peter Tonon founded the local chapter after hearing requests from parishioners.

“The purpose is to provide a faithful community and a ministry of presence for people who are often going through a deep element of suffering in dealing with their loved one’s experiences,” said Deacon Tonon, who serves as chaplain for EnCourage.

The ministry, he says, helps participants understand and cope spiritually with their loved ones who identify as LGBTQ – and respond to them with compassion and tools to preserve strong relationships without forsaking their own faith.

Both ministries seek to foster hope and provide spiritual uplift.

“When sexual temptations are involved, people tend to be embarrassed and ashamed, whether they are same-sexattracted or not,” Monsignor Winslow said. “They are often left feeling isolated, alone, and afraid to talk about these very real challenges of their Christian journey. Through the Church, Courage reaches out to some of those who are facing such challenges, because no one is meant to walk alone.”

Get involved

To learn more about Courage and EnCourage in the Diocese of Charlotte, email courage@ rcdoc.org or encourage@rcdoc.org.

Ascik

Carlson

Tonon

CÉSAR HURTADO | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Members of the Brotherhood of the Lord of Miracles carry the image of “Cristo Moreno de Pachacamilla” in a procession in 2022.

Hispanic Festival raises record funds for Forest City parish

FOREST CITY — More than 1,000 people attended Immaculate Conception Parish’s annual Hispanic Festival, part of Hispanic Cultural Heritage Month, on Sept. 16. The event featured music, games, traditional foods and dances. This year, the parish made the event open to the public and held guided tours of the beautiful church. The day-long celebration raised more than $11,000 for the parish and its ministries, with $3,000 being donated to a special fund to aid Franciscan Father Santiago Romero in El Salvador.

Parishes to host Blessing of Animals

CHRISTINA LEE KNAUSS clknauss@charlottediocese.org

CHARLOTTE — Pet parents of the furry, hooved, feathery and scaly are invited to bring their beloved animals to receive a special blessing at parishes across the Diocese of Charlotte beginning Sept. 30.

The annual Blessing of the Animals will honor the Oct. 4 feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and ecology. Pet owners know the special role their animals play in their lives as a source of unconditional love and stress relief, and pet blessings are a chance to share the love of God with these special creatures.

“The Blessing of the Animals, which has become associated with our parish patron, St. Francis of Assisi, is one of those beautiful examples of the universality of our faith and of God’s universal call to holiness for all people,” Father Eric Kowalski has said of the Church custom that widely appeals to the larger community.

Father Kowalski is pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Mocksville, one of four among the diocese’s 92 churches and missions named for the beloved saint.

“It is wonderful to see the intersectionality with our Christian brothers and sisters who gather, sometimes at their churches, and even occasionally here in Mocksville for the Blessing of the Animals,” he said last year. “At a time when so many people seem to be emphasizing all the things that divide us, it’s wonderful to see something as simple as a blessing of animals brings people together.”

UPCOMING BLESSINGS OF THE ANIMALS

n St. Francis of Assisi Church, 862 Yadkinville Road, Mocksville. 1 p.m. Sept. 30, on the church grounds. The parish

will also celebrate the feast day with a festival Oct. 1, including a procession and veneration of one of the saint’s relics.

n St. Peter Church, 507 S. Tryon St., Charlotte. 10 a.m. Sept. 30, in the church garden.

n Our Lady of Grace Church, 2203 W. Market St., Greensboro. 10 a.m. Sept. 30, by Mary’s statue.

n St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country Church, 259 Pilgrims Way, Boone. 1 p.m. Oct. 4 in the upper lot on church grounds.

n St. Aloysius Church, 921 2nd St. N.E., Hickory. 5 p.m. Oct. 4 in the main parking lot.

n St. Francis of Assisi Church, 328-B Woodsway Lane N.W., Lenoir. 7 p.m. Oct. 4 followed by a 7:30 p.m. Mass.

n St. John Neumann Church, 8451 Idlewild Road, Charlotte. 10 a.m. Oct. 7, in

the courtyard.

n St. Leo the Great Church, 335 Springdale Ave., Winston-Salem. 9 a.m. Oct. 7, in the courtyard.

n St. Pius X Church, 2210 North Elm St., Greensboro. 9 a.m. Oct. 7.

n St. Mark Church, 14740 Stumptown Road, Huntersville. 9:30 a.m. Oct. 7, outdoors by the fountain.

n St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte. Blessing of the Animals. Noon Oct. 7, in the Pet Memorial Garden.

n St. Gabriel Church, 3016 Providence Road, Charlotte. 10 a.m. Oct. 7, at the Marian grotto.

n Sacred Heart Church, 375 Lumen Christi Lane, Salisbury. 8 a.m. Oct. 9.

WHY IS ST. FRANCIS PATRON OF ANIMALS?

Francis was born into a wealthy family in Assisi, Italy, in 1181. At 21, he went off to war in northern Italy. He returned a changed man and devoted his life to God, saying he was called to live a life of poverty and work to revitalize the Church.

Francis became an itinerant preacher whose words were heard by thousands. He eventually founded the Franciscan religious order. Throughout his life, he was known for having an affinity for animals, with stories told of birds and other creatures surrounding him as he traveled.

Francis is said to have started the custom of blessing animals between 1210 and 1215, and to have started the first outdoor Nativity scene featuring live animals in 1223.

Francis frequently preached on God’s love for all His creatures and the need to show respect and love to all. St. Francis of Assisi died, presumably from a bacterial infection, on Oct. 3, 1226, at 44. He was canonized on July 16, 1228, by Pope Gregory IX.

Join hands and pray for life Oct. 1

CHARLOTTE — Faithful across the Diocese of Charlotte are encouraged to gather Sunday, Oct. 1, to kick off Respect Life Month and form Life Chains as a public witness for the dignity of all human life, from conception to natural death.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade “is, without question, an answer to prayer,” but in a post-Roe world, “Catholics must now work together for another, even deeper paradigm shift,” said the U.S. bishops’ pro-life chairman.

“We must move beyond a paradigm shift in the law in order to help the people of our nation better see who we can be as a nation by truly understanding what we owe to one another as members of the same human family,” said Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-life Activities.

“To build a world in which all are welcome,” he said, Catholics “must heed” the words of St. Teresa of Kolkata “and remember ‘that we belong to one another.’”

Life Chains are being organized in the communities listed below. For details about these and other Life Chain events, go online to www.lifechain.org

BREVARD

Corner of Broad and Main streets, 2-3 p.m.; Janice Castevens, 828-273-0275

BRYSON CITY

Intersection of Main and Everett streets, 2-3 p.m.; Elizabeth Kelly, 828-488-5461

CHARLOTTE

n Corner of Sharon Lane and Providence Road, 2-3 p.m.; James Lashua, 704-366-4362

n Corners of East Boulevard and Scott Avenue,

GIULIANA POLINARI RILEY | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

FILE | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Outside St. Pius X Church in Greensboro, Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, pastor, blesses Brendan Queen’s beagle Stewie. Check your parish website for local blessings.

Our schools

Wake Forest University Campus Ministry joins in Eucharistic Revival

SPENCER K.M. BROWN skmbrown@charlottediocese.org

WINSTON-SALEM — Only a day after thousands of faithful from across the Diocese of Charlotte gathered for the 19th Annual Eucharistic Congress in Charlotte, Father Marcel Amadi, chaplain for Wake Forest University’s Campus Ministry, decided to bring the Real Presence of Our Lord to his students as well.

“Many students are excited about having Adoration on campus now, which we started to coincide with the Eucharistic Congress,” said Father Marcel after the evening Mass on Sept. 10 at Wake Forest’s Davis Chapel. “There has been such a huge response from students, and their testimonies of what it means to them are truly beautiful and inspiring. We plan to keep it going for a long time.”

In union with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ call for a three-year National Eucharistic Revival last year, Father Marcel wished to bring such revival to where students are. The aim is to inspire, educate, and unite the faithful in a more intimate relationship with Jesus in the

Eucharist. With the stresses and pressures of academic life, and the distractions of the modern world, Father Marcel heard students’ desire to grow deeper in their faith, right there on campus.

“Adoration is when I can spend quality time with Our Lord without outside distractions,” said Kristen O’Sullivan, a senior at Wake Forest University. “During the busy, stressful, and often isolating times in college, having this time to spend with Our Lord is priceless. I can cry, smile, and laugh in His presence, knowing and feeling His love for us.”

The U.S. bishops hope to change the lives of Catholics and non-Catholics alike through a series of Eucharistic events and pilgrimages across the nation. Father Marcel hopes to do his part through his ministry, helping students grow in their devotion to Our Lord.

“There are many ways to deepen your relationship with God,” Father Marcel wrote in an invitation email to students, both Catholic and non-Catholic alike. “You can hear the words of the Pope, bishop, priest or deacon at Mass. You can meditate on the Scriptures. Yet the Church offers

us this wonderful opportunity to pray and worship Jesus in a more intimate, present, and real way during Eucharistic Adoration.”

For many students, like sophomore Claire Scarcella, Eucharistic Adoration on campus has been a fruitful blessing.

“In college, finding those moments to spend alone with Jesus can be challenging. Adoration provides my peers and me the time to focus on Jesus without distractions,” Scarcella said. “Having that time of meditation and prayer provides me with the peace and gratitude I need for the weeks of school ahead of me. My faith keeps me grounded and allows me to stay true to who I am.”

For Sophia Damian, a freshman, it has been a vital help in her transition to college life.

“I went to a Catholic high school with an Adoration chapel, so whenever I wanted, I could go and sit with Jesus. Wake Forest is a huge adjustment for me because I’m not used to the completely secular nature of the school. It definitely feels like something’s missing,” Damian said. “I loved the ability to be with Jesus for an

Learn more

At www.eucharisticrevival.org : Find Church resources, videos, educational materials, prayers and more at the National Eucharistic Revival movement’s website – designed to restore understanding and devotion to the Eucharist

hour last Sunday - it felt so normal in the midst of such a big transition in my life, and it was beautiful to have a time where I could pray and listen somewhere other than my dorm room. I hope we can make Adoration more frequent on campus!”

Eucharistic Adoration will now be offered on the Wake Forest campus in Winston-Salem at the Davis Chapel the second and fourth Sundays of the month from 5 to 6 p.m., with the exception of scheduled academic breaks and holidays. Masses and Adoration on campus are open to all who wish to attend.

PHOTOS PROVIDED

Father Marcel Amadi elevates the Blessed Sacrament during adoration at Wake Forest’s Davis Chapel on Sept. 10.

Immaculata School kicks off Hispanic Heritage Month

HENDERSONVILLE — With the start of National Hispanic Heritage Month Sept. 15, students at Immaculata School in Hendersonville are taking the opportunity to celebrate different cultures and deepen their learning about virtues. To celebrate, students made silletas, elaborate flower arrangements that represent the centerpiece of a festival in Colombia. Each of the assignments from Spanish teacher Mariana Angel (at left) represented a specific virtue.

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Call 1-855-930-GIVE today!

Donate Your Car

855.930.GIVE (4483) www.ccdoc.org/CARS

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Venezuelan food, culture on tap at St. Gabriel for Hispanic Heritage Month

CHARLOTTE — St. Gabriel teacher Tracey Noonan’s class had a chance to sample the fare and learn about Venezuela with Lucy Bustos, the parent of a St. Gabriel student. Bustos read a Venezuelan book and gave the students snacks from her home country. The students are celebrating the diversity of the class by learning more about the families who embrace the cultures of their ancestors.

PHOTOS BY TROY HULL | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY MATTHEW TANNER

— Catholic News Herald

God’s Country

Amid fall color, churches elevate beauty and spirit

As the annual fall pilgrimage to western North Carolina begins, our churches along some of the state’s most scenic routes serve to amplify the beauty of God’s Country. With striking interiors, stained glass windows and sacred art, these churches invite visitors to stop in and experience the spiritual uplift a moment of reflection can bring. From our newest parish, St. Jude near Gorges State Park in Sapphire, to one of our oldest, St. Lawrence Basilica in Asheville,

these churches will enhance your visit – and your faith. Many also offer historical and architectural significance within proximity of such natural treasures as Grandfather Mountain, Mt. Mitchell, Linville Gorge and Sliding Rock. This year, peak leaf color is expected from early October through early November, depending on elevations. Come see God’s grandeur – inside and out.

Next page: Map out your journey through western North Carolina.

St. Bernadette Church in Linville offers panoramic views of Grandfather Mountain along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

INSIDE OUT:

St. Lawrence Basilica

97 Haywood St., Asheville, N.C. 28801

Dedicated in 1909 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, St. Lawrence Basilica is capped by a spectacular tiled dome. Take a tour to learn about its remarkable architecture, stained glass and religious art.

www.saintlawrencebasilica.org

Immaculate Conception Church

208 Seventh Ave., Hendersonville, N.C. 28791

This church features a beautiful hand-carved white oak crucifix suspended above the altar and set against a backdrop of stacked stone.

www.immaculateconceptionchurch.com

Sacred Heart Church

150 Brian Berg Lane, Brevard, N.C. 28712

Located near Pisgah National Forest in Brevard, this church features colorful stained glass windows and wood-carved Stations of the Cross.

www.sacredheartbrevard.org

St. Jude Church

3011 Hwy. 64 East, Sapphire Valley, N.C. 28774

Formerly a mission of Sacred Heart Parish in Brevard, this octagonal stone church was elevated to a parish in 2022 –making it the newest in the diocese.

www.stjudeofsapphirevalley.org

5

St. Francis of Assisi Church

299 Maple St., Franklin, N.C. 28734

Located hillside in a town within the Nantahala National Forest, visitors can pray at an outdoor St. Joseph Shrine.

www.stfrancisassisifranklin.org

St. William Church

765 Andrews Road, Murphy, N.C. 28906

This westernmost church in the diocese lies in an appealing town flanked by the Hiwassee and Valley rivers, and a stone the Tennessee and Georgia borders. s throw from

www.st-william.net

St. Joseph Church

316 Main St., Bryson City, N.C. 28713

This quaint stone church sits along the recreation-packed Tuckasegee River, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Nantahala National Forest.

www.stjosephbryson.org

St. Mary, Mother of God Church

22 Bartlett St., Sylva, N.C. 28779

s small town located near

www.stmarymotherofgod.com

St. Lawrence Basilica, Asheville

Mt. Mitchell along the Blue Ridge Parkway

St. Margaret of Scotland Church, Maggie Valley

across western North Carolina

St. Margaret Mary Church

102 Andrews Place, Swannanoa, N.C. 28778

This wooden church built in the Gothic style, with splendid exposed rafters, was designed by famed church architect Benedictine Father Michael McInerney of Belmont Abbey in 1936.

www.saintmmc.com

12

St. Lucien Church

695 Summit Ave., Spruce Pine, NC 28777

This striking stone church sits prominently in an area surrounded by national forest and graced by the North Toe River.

www.stlucienbernadette.org

St. Bernadette Church

2085 N.C. Hwy. 105, Linville, N.C. 28646

As featured on page 11, this church offers panoramic views of Grandfather Mountain, as well as an outdoor St. Anthony of Padua Chapel and an Our Lady of Lourdes grotto.

www.stlucienbernadette.org

St. Elizabeth Church

Dating from 1988, the current church is ideally situated in Boone, located near hiking trails, waterfall trails and perfect leaf viewing

St. Francis of Assisi Church

167 St. Francis Pl., Jefferson, N.C. 28640

Come see the 33 beautiful windows designed by Statesville Stained Glass Co. and venerate a first-class relic of St. Francis in the nave of this “mountain Gothic” style church.

www.stfrancisofassisi-jefferson.org

Holy Angels Church

1208 North Main St., Mt. Airy, N.C. 27030

www.stmargaretofscotlandmv.org

234 Church St., Waynesville, NC 28786

Located in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains, visitors to this church enjoy stunning vistas of the Cataloochee Valley. Inside, stained glass windows and sacred art also delight the eye.

www.stjohnrcc.com

Mayberry fame aside, Mount Airy is also known for its white granite, of which Holy Angels Church is built. Also, check out the historic altar, stained glass and statues inside.

www.mountairycatholicsha.com

The Linn Cove Viaduct along the Blue Ridge Parkway

St. John the Evangelist Church

St. Margaret of Scotland Church

Perched above Maggie Valley, this church built by lay missionary-turned-priest, Father Michael Murphy, offers the perfect spot for leaf looking near the Blue Ridge Parkway.

259 Pilgrims Way, Boone, N.C. 28607

César Hurtado

Dar, más que recibir

Este 4 de octubre se celebrará mundialmente el día de los animales. Muchas parroquias invitarán a los feligreses a que lleven a sus mascotas para que reciban una bendición.

En un mundo donde el hambre y las malas condiciones de vida de una importante población es urgente atender, muchos reclaman priorizar el bienestar de los humanos antes que el de los animalitos.

Yo soy una de las personas que piensan así, pero que tampoco olvidan el importante papel que juegan las mascotas en nuestras vidas y las de nuestros amigos y familiares.

Sophie es nuestra perrita de casa. Después de la insistencia de mis dos hijas, ella fue rescatada del centro de control de animales de la Policía de Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

Sophie no era una cachorrita y su comportamiento era extremadamente tranquilo. Se acercaba muy poco y siempre con temor. No ladraba y me tenía pavor. A mí y a la escoba. Cada vez que estaba cerca a ella, o veía que alguien tomaba la escoba, se orinaba de miedo.

Era claro que la pobre perrita había sido abusada y maltratada.

Pero como el tiempo y el amor todo lo curan, poco a poco, en verdad en un proceso muy, pero muy lento, Sophie nos dejó acariciarla y mostró su alegría de estar en un nuevo hogar.

Hasta inesperadamente volvió a ladrar, dejándonos sorprendidos pues habíamos llegado a creer que era muda.

Rápidamente el tiempo pasó, mis hijas tomaron su propio destino y mi esposa y yo nos quedamos solos en casa. Solos, pero con Sophie.

Desde ese entonces la perrita ha sido confidente de nuestras penas. Y su respuesta ha sido siempre estar a nuestro lado y darnos el consuelo de su presencia.

Hasta hoy llena de pelos la sala, el comedor, la cocina y el garaje. Hasta hoy intenta acompañarnos, pero ya no puede caminar más que algunos pocos pasos.

Nos parece que en estos días deambula por la casa sin saber precisamente dónde está. Casi no puede oírnos. Pasa la noche caminando sin poder dormir y el día durmiendo. Ha adelgazado mucho y sus patitas traseras casi no pueden sostenerla.

Pero, pese a todo, sigue buscándonos para regalarnos su cariño. Nos acompaña paso a paso, hasta en ocasiones haciéndonos tropezar con ella. No nos deja solos.

Sophie tiene ya 17 años y sabemos que su presencia, que es una bendición para nosotros, terminará pronto.

Al adoptarla hicimos algo por ella. Sin embargo, creo que ha sido mucho más lo que hemos recibido de su parte que lo que hemos podido darle.

Personalmente, ¡cómo me gustaría que alguien pudiera decir eso de mi cuando muera! Tarea difícil.

CÉSAR HURTADO es gerente de medios hispanos de la Diócesis de Charlotte.

Ministerio Hispano en cita nacional Conferencia reunirá a representantes de todo el país

CÉSAR HURTADO rchurtado@charlottediocese.org

CHARLOTTE — El vicario apostólico del Ministerio Hispano de la Diócesis de Charlotte, Padre Julio César Domínguez, viajará la segunda semana del mes de octubre a Texas, para asistir a la conferencia anual de la Asociación Católica Nacional de Directores Diocesano del Ministerio Hispano (NCADDHM), que se celebrará en la ciudad de Houston del 10 al 13 del próximo mes.

El tema de la cita, ‘Iglesia en Encuentro, oportunidades y desafíos del Plan Nacional para el Ministerio Hispano/ Latino’, dijo el Padre Domínguez, refleja el especial énfasis de los Obispos de Estados Unidos sobre la reciente publicación del Plan Pastoral Nacional, sus guías, consideraciones, prioridades, proyectos e iniciativas a ponerse en práctica.

“He estudiado las prioridades de este plan, que son diez a nivel nacional, y me he dado cuenta que las prioridades de nuestro Obispo están bien ancladas ahí. No son algo diferente, sino que los obispos de otras partes del país enfocan las suyas desde otras perspectivas, desde otros ángulos de la pastoral hispana, que a lo mejor aquí en nuestra diócesis no aplicaría mucho”.

PLAN NACIONAL

El Plan Pastoral Nacional, publicado por la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Estados Unidos (USCCB) en junio pasado, reafirma en su primera página que, tal como lo consideraron anteriormente los obispos americanos, “la presencia de los Hispanos/Latinos entre nosotros es una bendición de Dios para la Iglesia y nuestro país”. Inmediatamente después reconoce que la riqueza de la comunidad Hispana/ Latina ha estado presente en nuestra tierra por más de 500 años, “y tal bendición, tal riqueza, se ha hecho más evidente en las últimas décadas”.

En el documento, los obispos norteamericanos determinaron que las prioridades pastorales nacionales son: evangelización y misión; formación de la fe y catequesis; acompañamiento pastoral de las familias Hispanas/ Latinas; la pastoral juvenil hispana; inmigración y defensa; la formación para el ministerio en una Iglesia culturalmente diversa; el cuidado pastoral de aquellos en la periferia; la liturgia y espiritualidad; la promoción de vocaciones, y finalmente la educación católica.

“No vamos a trabajar como dos Iglesias, cada quien por su lado. No queremos eso, queremos unidad en la adoración a Nuestro Señor respetando nuestras diversidades culturales, dijo el Padre Julio Domínguez, respecto a la inclusión del plan pastoral hispano dentro del plan general de la diócesis.

PRIORIDADES LOCALES

Por su parte, el Obispo Peter Jugis, en una carta leída durante las Misas del 16 de abril, instruyó a los sacerdotes de toda la diócesis para que se unan a él y se comprometan en seis prioridades pastorales, después de reflexionar sobre los testimonios y las necesidades resaltadas durante el sínodo diocesano celebrado conjuntamente con el sínodo mundial convocado por el Papa Francisco.

Más de 7.000 católicos del oeste de Carolina del Norte participaron en el sínodo diocesano de octubre de 2021 a junio de 2022, en oración y conversando sobre el tema “Por una Iglesia sinodal: comunión, participación y misión”. El obispo dijo entonces que todos deben renovar y fijar sus vidas en la Santísima Eucaristía; aprovechar nuestra comunión con Cristo para fortalecer la comunión de la Iglesia y la familia; como familia de fe, inspirar a los jóvenes a encontrar su hogar en la Iglesia; inspirar vidas de santidad que resalten la belleza del amor en castidad; aprender a proclamar la fe en la era digital; y enfrentar los desafíos de una diócesis en constante crecimiento.

CONFERENCIA DE PROVECHO

El Padre Domínguez consideró que la presencia de nuestra diócesis en la conferencia favorecerá a los ministerios hispanos de otras diócesis que podrán conocer nuestro floreciente sistema de trabajo, un caso único en todo Estados Unidos, donde se trabaja con coordinadores en planilla diocesana, “y pueda quizás encender ‘la llama’ de las autoridades de otras diócesis para aplicar el mismo modelo”. Además, consideró que será

beneficioso para nosotros mismos pues “podremos conocer otros planes de trabajo, otras estrategias, otros programas que funcionan bien y que podrían enriquecer nuestra propia experiencia”.

Respecto al establecimiento de un plan pastoral Hispano/Latino diocesano, explicó que trabaja a la par con sacerdotes de toda la diócesis en el establecimiento de un plan general que incluya en él las necesidades específicas y particulares de la comunidad Hispana/Latina. “He estado escuchando a la comunidad y líderes en las visitas apostólicas que he venido realizando a vicariatos y movimientos apostólicos y llevaré mi parte para que sea insertada en el plan diocesano. No vamos a trabajar como dos Iglesias, cada quien por su lado. No queremos eso, queremos unidad en la adoración a Nuestro Señor respetando nuestras diversidades culturales”.

A la cita nacional atenderán como oradores reconocidas personalidades tales como el Cardenal Dinardo, Arzobispo de la Arquidiócesis de Galveston-Houston; el Obispo Óscar Cantu, Obispo de la Diócesis de San José; el Obispo Jaime Soto de la Diócesis de Sacramento; el Obispo Alejandro López, de la Arquidiócesis de Boston; Alejandro Aguilera, secretario de diversidad cultural de la USCCB; Dora Villar; Directora Ejecutiva del Instituto Pastoral del Sureste (SEPI); y muchos más.

“Esperamos que los días estén llenos del Espíritu Santo y provean de oportunidades para aprender más sobre el plan y cómo trabajará en nuestros propios ministerios”, dijo Ignacio Rodríguez, presidente de la NCADDHM.

Dominguez

Bendición de animales para honrar a San Francisco

CHRISTINA LEE KNAUSS clknauss@charlottediocese.org

CHARLOTTE — Todos los dueños de mascotas están invitados a llevar a sus queridos animales con pelo, plumas o incluso con escamas, para recibir una bendición especial en las parroquias de toda la diócesis a partir del 30 de septiembre. La bendición especial honrará la fiesta del 4 de octubre de San Francisco de Asís, santo patrón de los animales y la ecología.

Los dueños de mascotas conocen el papel especial que desempeñan los animales en sus vidas, y la bendición de ellas es una oportunidad para compartir el amor de Dios con estas criaturas especiales.

“La Bendición de los Animales, que se ha asociado con nuestro patrón parroquial, San Francisco de Asís, es uno de esos hermosos ejemplos de la universalidad de nuestra fe y del llamado universal de Dios a la santidad para todas las personas”, dijo el Padre Eric Kowalski, párroco de San Francisco de Asís en Mocksville durante la bendición del año pasado.

PRÓXIMAS BENDICIONES DE ANIMALES

n Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, 862 Yadkinville Rd, Mocksville. 1 p.m. sept. 30. La parroquia celebrará la fiesta con un festival el 1 de octubre.

n Iglesia San Pedro, 507 S. Tryon St., Charlotte. 10 a.m. sept. 30.

n Iglesia Ntra. Sra. de Gracia, 2203 W. Market St., Greensboro. 10 a.m. sept. 30.

n Iglesia Sta. Elizabeth de la Montaña, 259 Pilgrims Way, Boone. 1 p.m. oct. 4.

n Iglesia San Luis Gonzaga, 921 2nd St. N.E., Hickory. 5 p.m. oct. 4.

n Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, 328-B Woodsway Lane N.W., Lenoir. 7 p.m. oct. 4.

n Iglesia San John Neumann, 8451 Idlewild Road, Charlotte. 10 a.m. oct. 7.

n Iglesia San Leo el Grande, 335 Springdale Ave., Winston-Salem. 9 a.m. oct. 7.

n Iglesia San Pío X, 2210 North Elm St., Greensboro. 9 a.m. oct. 7.

n Iglesia San Marcos, 14740 Stumptown Road, Huntersville. 9:30 a.m. oct. 7.

n Iglesia San Mateo, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., Charlotte. Noon oct. 7.

n Iglesia San Gabriel, 3016 Providence Road, Charlotte. 10 a.m. oct. 7.

n Iglesia Sagrado Corazón, 375 Lumen Christi Lane, Salisbury. 8 a.m. oct. 9.

SAN FRANCISCO Y LAS MASCOTAS

Nacido en una familia adinerada en Asís, Italia, Francisco vivió una vida cómoda. Cuando tenía 21 años, se convirtió en soldado y fue a la guerra. Al regresar dedicó su vida a Dios, asegurando que Él le dijo que viviera una

vida de pobreza y trabajara para revitalizar la Iglesia. Francisco se convirtió en un predicador escuchado por miles. Luego fundaría la orden religiosa franciscana. Fue conocido por tener una afinidad por los animales, con historias contadas de pájaros y otras criaturas que lo rodeaban mientras viajaba. Una historia afirma que comenzó la costumbre de bendecir animales entre 12101215, y también se dice que comenzó la primera escena de la Navidad al aire libre con animales vivos en 1223.

Francisco predicó sobre el amor de Dios por todas sus criaturas y la necesidad de mostrar respeto y amor a todos, tanto humanos como animales. Uno de sus escritos, el “Cántico de las criaturas”.

Murió el 3 de octubre de 1226. Fue canonizado el 16 de julio de 1228 por el Papa Gregorio IX y nombrado patrón de la ecología por el Papa Juan Pablo II en 1979, quien escribió: “Entre los hombres santos y admirables que han venerado la naturaleza como un maravilloso regalo de Dios a la raza humana, San Francisco de Asís merece una consideración especial”.

Señor de los Milagros saldrá en procesión el 14 de octubre

CÉSAR HURTADO

rchurtado@charlottediocese.org

CHARLOTTE — La sagrada imagen del Señor de los Milagros saldrá en procesión el próximo 14 de octubre, según lo informó el Sr. Jorge Caldas, capataz de la Hermandad del Señor de los Milagros South Charlotte. Al igual que en años anteriores, la parroquia Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, que acoge la imagen en el interior de su templo, se verá repleta de hombres y mujeres vestidos con hábitos morados, color tradicional de la hermandad del Cristo Moreno de Pachacamilla, que con devoción y respeto rendirán honores al patrón de los peruanos residente e inmigrantes. la celebración iniciará con una Misa que será oficiada a las seis de la tarde, para dar luego paso a la procesión que recorrerá la zona de estacionamiento de automóviles de la parroquia.

A diferencia de los años de la pandemia de COVID-19, nuevamente la hermandad ha podido contratar una banda de música

profesional para que acompañe el recorrido procesional. “Gracias a varios auspiciadores y la generosidad de la comunidad que respondió a la convocatoria de nuestras actividades de recaudación de fondos, vamos a contar nuevamente con una banda de músicos especializados que estamos trayendo desde el estado de Maryland”, precisó Caldas.

En los dos últimos años, la procesión solo fue acompañada por un equipo de amplificación colocado bajo las andas que soportan la imágen del Cristo de Pachacamilla.

En su recorrido, dividido en varios trayectos, el anda procesional que llevan en hombros los miembros de la hermandad es adornada con flores y velas, siendo precedida por una nube de incienso que lanzan al cielo decenas de hermanas sahumadoras.

En cada uno de los trayectos se renuevan los cargadores, cambian las flores, y se acercan niños a la imagen. Las flores retiradas son repartidas entre los asistentes

que las solicitan.

Caldas invitó a la comunidad peruana y a los latinos católicos en general a que los acompañen a dar su saludo al Cristo Morado, conozcan la hermosa devoción que los motiva a congregarse y disfruten de algunos platillos peruanos que se pondrán a la venta. También dijo que han cursado invitaciones a los miembros de otras hermandades cercanas y de Carolina del Sur para que se sumen al homenaje.

HISTORIA DE LA DEVOCIÓN

El 13 de noviembre de 1655, un terremoto estremeció Lima dejando miles de fallecidos y damnificados. En Pachacamilla, un barrio de esclavos angoleños, la imagen de un Cristo moreno quedó intacta.

La fiesta tuvo su inicio en 1687, cuando en una procesión de rogativas, el mayordomo de la capilla del Santo Cristo, Don Sebastián de Antuñano, sacó una copia en óleo de la pintura original del Cristo por las calles de la ciudad de Lima, semidestruida por un terremoto de quince minutos de duración,

pidiendo el cese del cataclismo.

En 1746, Lima padeció el terremoto más destructor de su historia y se cuenta que una réplica de la imagen salió en procesión y la tierra dejó de temblar, lo que acrecentó la devoción del pueblo.

Nombrado en 1715 ‘Patrón Jurado de la Ciudad de Lima’ y desde 2005 designado por la Santa Sede como ‘Patrón de los Peruanos Residentes e Inmigrantes’, el Señor de los Milagros es también ‘Patrón del Perú’ desde 2010.

En la ciudad de Lima, capital de Perú, la primera procesión saldrá el 7 de octubre del Monasterio de las Madres Nazarenas Carmelitas Descalzas. El segunto, tercer y cuarto recorrido será el 18, 19 y 28 del mismo mes. Finalmente, el quinto y último recorrido se realizará el 1 de noviembre.

La tradición se repite en muchas ciudades de todo el mundo donde se han asentado hermandades del Cristo moreno.

Si desea seguir las transmisiones de los recorridos “en vivo”, puede hacerlo en www. nazarenas.tv/envivo.

El Diácono Richard McCarron bendice las mascotas en la Iglesia San Marco en Huntersville en 2022.

ARCHIVO | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Domingo Catequético

BOONVILLE — Siguiendo las directivas de la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Estados Unidos (USCCB) por el año de Reavivamiento Eucarístico, el Padre Jean Pierre Swamunu Lhoposo, párroco de la Iglesia Divino Redentor, acompañado del Diácono Michael Langford, reconoció el trabajo de los catequistas al término de la Santa Misa de las 9 de la mañana del pasado domingo 17 de septiembre. Según recordó Sergio López, coordinador del ministerio hispano del vicariato de Winston-Salem, el Domingo Catequético es un llamado de la USCCB para reconocer a todos los catequistas que van a iniciar ciclo. “En Estados Unidos es prácticamente el día oficial del catequista y se celebra cada tercer domingo de septiembre. Tiene un pequeño ritual de envío y los catequistas renuevan sus promesas de servicio”.

Primer retiro de servidores

CHARLOTTE — La actividad del flamante ministerio hispano de la parroquia Santo Tomás de Aquino no se detiene. El sábado 12 de agosto, de 9 de la mañana a 2:30 de la tarde, el Padre Óscar Benavides impartió las charlas del retiro ‘Maestro, ¿dónde vives?’, que incluyó cuatro temas basados en el Evangelio de San Juan 1:38, ¿Qué buscan?, Maestro, ¿Dónde vives?; y fueron, vieron y se quedaron con Él. Asistieron cerca de 60 servidores, la mitad de ellos de diferentes parroquias del área, incluyendo un nuevo coro que se está formando con adolescentes de la parroquia de Santa Dorotea en Lincolton. Se contó con la presencia del actual coordinador del Ministerio Hispano de San Marcos, Emilio Gómez y con la promotora de salud, también de San Marcos, Margarita McGown, quienes compartieron sus testimonios en este caminar como servidores.

CHARLOTTE — El último encuentro Emaús para varones de la Parroquia San Gabriel en Charlotte se realizó del 1 al 3 de septiembre. Aproximadamente cien personas, entre caminantes y servidores, llegaron hasta Bethelwoods Camp, en York, Carolina del Sur, donde se desarrolló el retiro. Según explicó Carlos Almeida, uno de los integrantes del ministerio, se ha cumplido 13 años de actividad ininterrumpida y desarrollado 18 retiros hasta el momento. En diciembre de 2022 se eligió a los nuevos coordinadores, Antonio Andrade, Rafael Alpízar y Miguel Portillo, incluyendo a Salomón Hernández, el nuevo director del ministerio hispano de la parroquia.

Rosario Misionero

HICKORY — Al igual que cada tres meses, el jueves 14 de septiembre, durante la Hora Santa que se celebra en la parroquia San Luis Gonzaga, se llevó a cabo el Rosario Misionero, una jornada de oración especialmente dedicada al bienestar material y espiritual de los habitantes de los cinco continentes. Los Diáconos Francisco Piña y Bill Schreiber condujeron la Hora Santa y el Rosario, siendo acompañados por los miembros de diferentes ministerios y el toda la feligresía.

Fiesta Mexicana

NORTH WILKESBORO — El pasado domingo 17 de septiembre, los parroquianos de la Iglesia San Juan Bautista de la Salle festejaron el Grito de la Independencia de México en el centro de la ciudad de Wilkesboro. Autoridades de la ciudad, junto al Cónsul Mexicano en Raleigh y todos hispanos presentes, recordaron con emoción el Grito de Independencia que lanzó el cura Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla la madrugada del 16 de septiembre de 1810, en la población de Dolores, dando con esta acción inicio al movimiento de Independencia. Se presentó el grupo de danza de folclor mexicano ‘Rosas y claveles’ y el Charro de Toluquilla, quien llegó desde Guadalajara, México, especialmente para cantar en el evento.

SERGIO LÓPEZ | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

IMAGEN CORTESÍA LUIS HERRERA

FOTO CORTESÍA PARROQUIA SANTO TOMÁS DE AQUINO

FOTO CORTESÍA ALEKSANDRA BANASIK

FOTO MINISTERIO EMAÚS SAN GABRIEL Retiro Emaús en San Gabriel

Virgen del Rosario, auxilio de los cristianos

Cada 7 de octubre se celebra a la Virgen del Rosario, advocación que nos recuerda la importancia de dirigirnos afectuosamente a nuestra Madre a través de la oración, en particular del rezo del Santo Rosario.

En el año 1208 la Virgen María se le apareció a Santo Domingo de Guzmán, fundador de los dominicos, y le entregó el Santo Rosario, probablemente en la forma en que hoy lo conocemos. La Virgen le enseñó al santo español cómo rezarlo.

Nuestra Santa Madre le encomendó entonces a Santo Domingo que difundiera esta oración. Así lo hizo el santo, y el Rosario, a lo largo de los siglos siguientes, fue calando cada vez más hondo en el alma de los católicos. Así nació también la devoción a la Virgen del Rosario.

EL NÚCLEO VIVO DEL SANTO ROSARIO

El Rosario es inobjetablemente una oración mariana, ayuda certera para crecer en amor a la Mujer por quien vino la salvación, pero no siempre reparamos en que es, antes que nada, una oración “cristocéntrica”; es decir, una oración centrada en Cristo.

La enunciación de los misterios y las avemarías que se suceden nos ayudan a contemplar y meditar la vida de Nuestro Salvador, Jesucristo; y a hacerlo en compañía de María, siempre cercana al Hijo.

Ella nos enseña a acercarnos a los misterios de Jesús a través de su mirada maternal, porque todo en Maria es una invitación a amar a su Hijo.

Esta es la “escuela de oración” de la Virgen, la del Rosario. A su lado aprendemos a escuchar a Jesús con reverencia.

FECHA IMPORTANTE

Uno de los episodios que ha sido determinante en la historia de la difusión del Rosario fue un hecho de guerra de extraordinario simbolismo: la Batalla de Lepanto, ocurrida el 7 de octubre de 1571, donde una coalición de tropas y fuerzas navales cristianas se enfrentaron a la armada del imperio Otomano, de raigambre islámica, con el propósito de detener sus ambiciones expansionistas en Occidente y recuperar la soberanía sobre el Mediterráneo.

Los cristianos, antes de la batalla, se encomendaron a la Virgen y rezaron el Santo Rosario. La victoria contundente que se produjo posteriormente fue atribuida por los ejércitos cristianos a la intercesión de la Madre de Dios. El Papa San Pío V, en agradecimiento a la Virgen

Lecturas Diarias

OCTUBRE 1-7

Domingo: Ezequiel 18:25-28, Filipenses 2:111, Mateo 21:28-32; Lunes (Memoria de los Santos Ángeles Custodios): Zacarías 8:1-8, Mateo 18:1-5, 10; Martes: Zacarías 8:20-23, Lucas 9:51-56; Miércoles (San Francisco de Asís): Nehemías 2:1-8, Lucas 9:57-62; Jueves (Beato Francisco Javier Seelos y Santa Faustina Kowalska): Nehemías 8:1-4, 5-6, 8-12, Lucas 10:1-12; Viernes (San Bruno, Beata María Rosa Durocher): Baruch 1:1522, Lucas 10:13-16; Sábado (Nuestra Señora del Rosario): Baruch 4:5-12, 27-29, Lucas 10:17-24

María, instituyó la Fiesta de la ‘Virgen de las Victorias’, a celebrarse el primer domingo de octubre. Además, para que la fecha sea recordada en la liturgia, añadió el título de ‘Auxilio de los Cristianos’ a las letanías dedicadas a la Virgen.

Más adelante, el Papa Gregorio XIII cambió el nombre de la fiesta por el de ‘Nuestra Señora del Rosario’; y Clemente XI extendió la celebración a toda la Iglesia de Occidente. Posteriormente, San Pío X fijó definitivamente el 7 de octubre como el día oficial para la Fiesta e inmortalizó estas palabras: “Denme un ejército que rece el Rosario y este vencerá al mundo”.

LA VIRGEN DEL ROSARIO Y LOS SUCESORES DE PEDRO

Rosario significa ‘corona de rosas’ y, tal como lo definió el propio San Pío V, “es un modo piadosisimo de oración, al alcance de todos, que consiste en ir repitiendo el saludo que el ángel le dio a María; interponiendo un padrenuestro entre cada diez avemarías y tratando de ir meditando mientras tanto en la vida de Nuestro Señor”.

San Juan Pablo II, quien añadió los ‘misterios luminosos’ al rezo del Santo Rosario, señalaba en su carta apostólica “Rosarium Virginis Mariae” que esta oración mariana “en su sencillez y profundidad, sigue siendo también en este tercer milenio apenas iniciado una oración de gran significado, destinada a producir frutos de santidad”.

El Papa Peregrino concluyó aquel documento con esta hermosa oración compuesta por el Beato Bartolomé Longo, ‘Apóstol del Rosario’: Oh Rosario bendito de María, dulce cadena que nos une con Dios, vínculo de amor que nos une a los Ángeles, torre de salvación contra los asaltos del infierno, puerto seguro en el común naufragio, no te dejaremos jamás. Tú serás nuestro consuelo en la hora de la agonía. Para ti el último beso de la vida que se apaga. Y el último susurro de nuestros labios será tu suave nombre, oh Reina del Rosario de Pompeya, oh Madre nuestra querida, oh Refugio de los pecadores, oh Soberana consoladora de los tristes. Que seas bendita por doquier, hoy y siempre, en la tierra y en el cielo. Amén.

OCTUBRE 8-14

Domingo: Isaías 5:1-7, Filipenses 4:6-9, Mateo 21:33-43; Lunes (Santos Dionisio y San Juan Leonardi): Jonás 1:1–2:1, 11, Lucas 10:2537; Martes: Jonás 3:1-10, Lucas 10:38-42; Miércoles: Jonás 4:1-11, Lucas 11:1-4; Jueves:

Malaquías 3:13-20, Lucas 11:5-13; Viernes: Joel

1:13-15; 2:1-2, Lucas 11:15-26; Sábado: Joel 4:1221, Lucas 11:27-28

OCTUBRE 15-21

Domingo: Isaías 55:6-9, Filipenses 1:20-24, 27, Mateo 20:1-16; Lunes: Esdras 1:1-6, Lucas 8:16-18; Martes (Santos Cosme y Damián, mártires): Esdras 6:7-8. 12, 14-20, Lucas 8:19-21; Miércoles (San Vicente de Paúl, presbítero): Esdras 9:5-9, Lucas 9:1-6; Jueves (Santos Wenceslao y Lorenzo Ruiz): Hageo 1:1-8, Lucas 9:7-9; Viernes (Fiesta de los santos Arcángeles Miguel, Gabriel y Rafael): Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14, Juan 1:47-51; Sábado (San Jerónimo, presbítero): Zacarías 2:5-9, 14-15, Lucas 9:43-45

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Our nation

North Carolina passes universal school choice

JONAH MCKEOWN Catholic News Agency

RALEIGH — North Carolina

became the 10th U.S. state to enact “universal” school choice by removing barriers to a state program that provides tuition assistance for students attending private schools.

North Carolina’s General Assembly gave final approval Sept. 22 to a new state budget that aims to triple funding for the state’s Opportunity Scholarship program and end income restrictions for getting a private school voucher, the Charlotte News & Observer reported. Every North Carolina family will be able to apply for tuition assistance to attend a K-12 private school beginning in 20242025.

Since 2013, the state has offered the North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship Program, an initiative that previously provided funding of up to $5,928 per year for eligible children who choose to attend a participating nonpublic school, a figure that rose to $6,492 for the 20232024 school year.

That program provided assistance to nearly 25,600 students during the 2022-2023 school year, according to the program’s self-reported data. Of the 544 nonpublic schools participating in the program, the top 71 grantees by dollars given were all religious, according to the data.

Under the previous program guidelines – among other requirements – families of four making less than $111,000 would

have met the eligibility criteria for the voucher. The new budget eliminates the income requirement and also eliminates a requirement related to prior enrollment in a public school. The budget also gives the state education superintendent authority

to recommend a nationally recognized standardized test for voucher recipients.

To pay for the program, the North Carolina budget calls for the Opportunity Scholarship program’s funding to nearly triple in the coming decade to more than half a billion dollars in the 2032-2033 fiscal year.

The individual voucher amount will vary by the family’s income level, the News & Observer reported. The state’s wealthiest families would get 45% of the amount the state spends per public school student, while the lowest-income families would get the full $6,492.

Jennifer Feldhaus, principal of Infant of Prague Catholic School in Jacksonville, North Carolina, told CNA late last year her school has benefited greatly from the Opportunity Scholarship program and estimated that approximately 42% of the school’s students were making use of the scholarship at that time.

“It’s been a tremendous program for Catholic schools because what was considered before unreachable, whether on income or location, is now an option for families,” she told CNA at the time.

‘IT’S JUSTICE’

Early 2023 data from the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) showed that nationwide, 10.5% of Catholic school students use a parental choice program and 27.6% of Catholic schools enrolled students using parental choice programs. In some states, such as Arizona and Indiana, nearly all of the state’s Catholic schools take part in school choice programs.

The NCEA works with the U.S. bishops and other groups to support school choice, the group’s president and CEO Lincoln Snyder told CNA last spring.

“The Church believes very strongly that

parents should have the ability to select the best education for their child as their primary educators. Obviously, choice programs are starting to make a huge difference for Catholic schools in enrollment,” Snyder said.

“[W]ithout these programs, it would be a far greater challenge for our communities to make Catholic education affordable. So we strongly advocate for seeing a growth in choice programs as a Church, no doubt, but it’s not our only strategy. We still also look to communities and philanthropists to help make schools affordable for families as well.”

Seven states “went universal” with their school choice programs during 2023 alone, according to the advocacy group EdChoice. Nearly 1 in 5 students now lives in a state with universal or near-universal school choice, the group says.

Sister Dale McDonald, PBVM, NCEA’s vice president of public policy, told CNA on Monday that she hopes North Carolina schools will encourage parents to apply for the voucher. Public dollars are generated by everyone, including parents and teachers at private schools, and private school students are “entitled a share,” she said.

“It’s fair, it’s justice, to give our kids a share of the money that their parents’ taxes generate,” she said, noting that in North Carolina, the state has only about 18,000 Catholic school students, a relatively small portion of the overall student population. The Diocese of Charlotte’s Catholic school enrollment has topped 8,000 students – a record for the 51-year-old diocese.

Universal school choice has, for the most part, only gained traction in Republicanled states. In North Carolina, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper allowed the budget to become law without his signature, despite decrying it as “a bad budget that seriously shortchanges our [public] schools.”

McDonald said making school choice a “bipartisan issue” is “the big challenge right now.”

“Supporting kids should not be political,” she commented, saying school choice programs are about “respecting the needs of kids, not systems.”

WHAT SHOULD CATHOLICS THINK ABOUT SCHOOL CHOICE?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms that parents have “the first responsibility for the education of their children” (CCC 2223). Mothers and fathers, the Catechism says, retain the right to both teach their children the morals imparted by the Church and “to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions” (CCC 2229).

Polling by CNA’s parent organization, EWTN, released late last year found that U.S. Catholic parents broadly back initiatives to support school choice, with two-thirds saying they support a policy that allows students to make use of public education funds for the schools or services that best fit their needs.

WIKICOMMONS

Every North Carolina family will be able to apply for tuition assistance to attend a K-12 private school beginning in 2024-25.

‘Heartbeat law’ ruling breathes new life into South Carolina’s pro-life movement

CHARLESTON, S.C. — When the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld life-affirming legislation Aug. 23 with a 4-1 decision declaring as constitutional the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act, it breathed new life into the pro-life movement in the Palmetto State. Proponents of the heartbeat law, which bans abortion after six-weeks gestation with some exceptions, believe it has the potential to save thousands of unborn lives each year. In 2022, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control reported that nearly half of the 7,276 abortions performed in the state – 3,530 or 48.5% – were after six-weeks gestation. Reinvigorated by this victory, the Diocese of Charleston and state pro-life advocates are even more determined to accompany pregnant women, especially those facing unplanned or crisis pregnancies, by putting faith into action with a multipronged approach of advocacy and outreach. The diocese is exploring the possibility of constructing in other parts of the state more St. Clare’s homes, which serve women in crisis pregnancy situations experiencing homelessness, and encouraging the Catholic faithful to maintain their support through baby showers, collecting baby items, as well as providing housing, food and other

resources to help mothers in need take care of their children.

New American Climate Corps aims to boost clean energy, jobs for young people

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration has made a bid to support both clean energy and jobs for young people with the creation of the American Climate Corps – a new plan the White House described Sept. 20 as a “workforce training and service initiative that will ensure more young people have access to the skills-based training necessary for good-paying careers in the clean energy and climate resilience economy.” The announcement follows weeks after the U.S. bishops released a Sept. 1 statement for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, calling for “ecological conversion of hearts” and “rapid decarbonization to seriously address climate change.” Reminiscent of the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps – New Deal employment and infrastructure programs that put millions of people to work in public projects from 1933-1943 – the American Climate Corps promises to initially mobilize more than 20,000 citizens. The White House said Corps members, upon completion of a paid training program, will be tasked with “conserving and restoring our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, deploying clean energy, implementing energy efficient technologies, and advancing environmental justice” in both private and public sector positions.

Farm bill key to food security in U.S., Catholic activists say

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The 2023 Farm Bill

should prioritize food security measures both in the United States and abroad, Catholic activists said. Originally part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the first farm bill granted economic relief to farmers during the Great Depression, sought to set fair food prices for both farmers and consumers, maintain an adequate food supply and protect natural resources. Nearly a century later, the measure has grown to a package of legislation, passed about once every five years since the 1930s, to fund and set policy for nutritional, agricultural and forestry initiatives. The previous 2018 Farm Bill is set to expire this year. At a Sept. 21 virtual panel hosted by Catholic Rural Life, speakers argued lawmakers should prioritize the legislation and its nutritional and environmental components. Ricardo Simmonds, environmental policy adviser at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, “It’s obvious (the) importance that farmers have, even small farms, in protecting the environment and also improving their communities. So this is really important legislation.” Lawmakers have indicated the nation’s largest farm spending package will likely be considered for renewal in December.

Florida inmate’s lawyers, bishops, advocates urge stay on Oct. 3 execution

ORLANDO — On Oct. 3, Florida is scheduled to carry out its sixth execution of the year. The condemned inmate is Michael Duane Zack, whose lawyers and death penalty foes say has suffered from intellectual disabilities and carries a deep sense of remorse. He was sentenced to death for killing two women in 1996 during a nine-day crime spree near Tallahassee. Gov. Ron Desantis, on behalf of Florida’s citizens, has signed six warrants for execution since Jan. 24. Five men have died at the hands of the state since then. Less

than two weeks before his execution, Zack’s lawyers have asked a federal appeals court for a stay of execution because they say he was “shut out” of a clemency process that could help spare him. Zack’s attorneys filed a 26-page emergency motion Sept. 19, after U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle a week before rejected the clemency arguments. On Sept. 21, the Florida Supreme Court in a unanimous ruling also refused to block his execution. In a Sept. 11 letter to DeSantis on behalf of the bishops of Florida, Michael Sheedy, executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, recognized that Zack’s “heinous and horrific crimes” have caused “untold suffering” to his victims’ families but urged DeSantis to commute his sentence to life without parole.

On mission to Maui, priests and deacons provide spiritual comfort to fire victims

LAHAINA, Hawaii — A steady stream of priests and deacons from across the Honolulu Diocese has been making its way to west Maui to provide spiritual support for the victims of the Lahaina wildfires Aug. 8-9. Called the Maui Mercy Mission, it was initiated 10 days after the catastrophe with a letter from Bishop Larry Silva to Hawaii’s clergy. “Many of those affected by the fire simply need someone to talk to, to pray with them, and to comfort them,” he wrote. “I am asking all the priests and deacons, whether on Maui or on other islands, to consider lending spiritual support by going to Maui for a day or two to be present to those in need and to offer prayer, spiritual counsel, and your presence,” said the bishop, who has since been on one of these mission trips himself.

If you were married during 1973 or 1998, you and your family are invited to attend the annual Diocesan Anniversary Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Charlotte on Sunday, October 22nd, 2023.

Mass begins at 3:00 p.m. and will be followed by a reception.

To attend, please register for FREE at: https://charlottediocese.org/office-of-family-life/ or email FamilyLife@rcdoc.org.

Sponsored by the Office of Family Life of the Diocese of Charlotte

Our world

In Brief

Nigerian priest, kidnapped on the way to his parish church, has been freed

ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigerian priest Father Marcellinus Obioma Okide, who was kidnapped Sept. 17 has been freed, his diocese announced. He regained his freedom Sept. 21, according to the Catholic Broadcast Commission of Nigeria. The Diocese of Enugu confirmed the release, saying in a statement cited by Sahara Reporters it was glad that the priest had been released unharmed. “We are glad to inform you that our brother and priest, Father Marcellinus Obioma Okide, has been released from the den of the kidnappers,” diocesan chancellor Father Wilfred Chidi Agubuchie said. “The Catholic Diocese of Enugu is grateful to the Almighty God for His protection over Father Okide, and thanks you for your prayers and Masses throughout this difficult period. The priest was reportedly abducted on his way to St. Mary Amofia-Agu Affa Parish, where he serves as parish priest. Six other people who were traveling with him also were kidnapped. According to a January report, no fewer than 39 Catholic priests were killed by gunmen in 2022, while 30 others were abducted.

Arrests increase at U.S. border; situation of migrants worsens

MEXICO CITY — A surge in migration through Mexico during the month of September has provoked a “migratory crisis,” according to Catholics who are

Saint Matthew Catholic Church presents 13th Annual Divine Mercy Day

Saturday, October 7, 2023

9 am to 1 pm

A Eucharistic Encounter: Discover the Real Presence

With guest speaker Ray Grijalba, writer of the upcoming film, The New Manna

working with migrants, as shelters strain to handle increasing flows of people heading for the U.S. border – with even more continuing to pour into the country from points south. “We’re experiencing a new migration crisis, a new humanitarian crisis,” Scalabrinian Father Julio López, executive secretary of the Mexican bishops’ human mobility ministry said. “The southern border is saturated. The north is saturated. Mexico City is saturated. The spaces that most welcome migrants are the Catholic Church’s spaces, and we’re overwhelmed.” In a Sept. 24 letter, Bishop Guadalupe Torres Campos stated: “Our priority, as the Church, is preserving and defending human rights, and always being willing to welcome, protect, promote and integrate all persons, migrants and refugees, without distinction and without leaving anyone on the outside.”

Synod is an ‘exchange of gifts,’ says Vatican undersecretary

ROME — The October world Synod of Bishops on Synodality is a lesson on the “exchange of gifts,” said Sister Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops office and one of the highest ranking women in the Vatican. On Sept. 30 Pope Francis will preside at an ecumenical prayer service attended by leaders from different Christian denominations joining him in prayer “in order to entrust together to the Holy Spirit the work of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of the Catholic Church.” The service will be in St. Peter’s Square with thousands of other Christians. Sister Nathalie said the synod is “really that we listen to the Holy Spirit, we discern together and we learn more and more as a Church, really to be a church of brothers and sisters in Christ,” all through the reception of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis named the 54-year-old French sister of the Congregation of Xavières the first female undersecretary in the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops office in 2021.

— OSV News

Pope’s new ecology document to be released Oct. 4

THE EDITORS

OSV News

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis said the title of his new letter on the environment will be “Laudate Deum,” (Praise God), a frequent refrain in several psalms, including Psalm 148, which tells the heavens and the angels and the sun and moon to praise the Lord.

The new document, expected to be released Oct. 4, is what the pope has described as a follow-up to his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home.”

Pope Francis revealed the title of the new document during a meeting Sept. 21 at the Vatican with rectors of Catholic and public universities from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. He did not have a prepared text for the audience, but instead responded to questions. Vatican News in Spanish published a summary of his responses late Sept. 25.

The new document, he said, is “a look at what has happened” since 2015 and a look at what still “needs to be done.”

The world is facing “a process of environmental degradation,” he said, but it is a problem that

impacts much more than nature. It “leads down to the bottom of the ravine: Degradation of living conditions, degradation of the values that justify these living conditions, because they go together,” with some people believing they are entitled to exploit natural resources and completely ignore the impact on the poor and Indigenous people. The extraction industry, for example, has players who have moved into “extractivism,” that is, the hoarding of natural resources. But it is never just a “geological extractivist model,” he said. Those who think they have a right to remove whatever they find in the ground also follow a “human extractivist model” where the dignity of the local people “is extracted, they are slaves.”

The “throwaway culture” and the “culture of abandonment” are tied, he said. “The discarded, the outcasts, are men and women, whole peoples who we leave on the street like garbage, are they not? We have to be aware that we use the wealth of nature only for small groups through socio-economic theories that do not integrate nature, the discarded.”

Youth Ministry and Young Adult Ministry Coordinator

A Eucharistic Miracles Exhibit, on loan from St. Eugene Catholic Church in Asheville, NC will also be available. This exhibit and a resource table will be available during breaks and until 2 pm, after the event.

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This full-time (40 hours) ministry position carries out evangelization and catechesis through the coordination of ministry to youth and young adults by mentoring them on their faith journey as disciples of Jesus Christ. The coordinator collaborates as a team player as part of the Faith formation team.

BRIEFS

St. Matthew Parish hosts conversation on fentanyl crisis

CHARLOTTE – Police, prosecutors, treatment professionals, and people who have been touched by the nation’s fentanyl crisis turned out at St. Matthew Sept. 21 for a community conversation about the devastating impact the drug is having across the Charlotte region.

“If you don’t think this can walk in and sit down at your kitchen table – you’re crazy,” Union County District Attorney Trey Robison told more than 50 parents, grandparents and young people gathered at the church. “This is a public health crisis on a massive scale…It can reach anybody.”

To amplify the point, a 19-year-old man –two years sober now – told his story of how experimentation with marijuana in fifth grade led to drinking, drugs and addiction to fentanyl in high school. That is, until he ended up on the bathroom floor of a gas station popping pills, vomiting, crying – and deciding to get help. Together, this persuasive panel of speakers painted the picture of an underappreciated epidemic that can kill an unsuspecting user the first time – or any time thereafter.

Suspected fentanyl deaths in Mecklenburg County have approached or surpassed 200 every year since 2020, with numbers rising in 2023, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg

police statistics.

“It’s really out of hand now,” said CMPD officer L. Donahue. “Fentanyl does not discriminate. We’ve had deaths of people from 11 to 69,” including all socioeconomic, racial and ethnic groups.

Some takeaways:

n Pharmaceutical fentanyl is a synthetic opioid approved for treating severe pain, typically advanced cancer pain. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

n Because it’s cheap and highly addictive, drug dealers make fake prescription pills laced with fentanyl to drive profits and demand.

n Laced pills look identical to such drugs as OxyContin, Percocet and Xanax that users seek, and are often deadly. The only safe prescription pills are those that come from a doctor or pharmacy.

n Even marijuana can be laced with fentanyl to intensify the effect and create addiction.

n Six out of 10 fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills analyzed in 2022 contained a lethal dose of fentanyl, according to a federal alert.

Medical professionals offered some hope during the conversation, saying even fentanyl addiction can be treated – as it was for the nowsober young man who spoke eloquently to the crowd. He cited his family’s unconditional love and support, and effective treatment from his counselors.

Father John Allen said St. Matthew hosted the event to help raise awareness and connect people with resources.

“We opened this event up to the community because people are dying from this epidemic, most of them unaware of the dangers of fentanyl,” said Father Allen, administrator of St. Matthew Parish. “My hope is we saved at least one life tonight and opened people’s eyes – and it’s important to remember that God offers hope and refuge no matter what the circumstances.”

— Catholic News Herald

Allen

ViewPoints

Jesuit Father John Michalowski

Pull your weeds on the path to saintliness

Those of you who have a garden, whether vegetables or flowers, know what weeds are. I spend some time every week pulling vines out of our hydrangeas, hedges and other plants. Weeds are pesky and almost unrelenting. But it’s better that I pull out the weeds than put herbicides into the ground to kill them off – at the same time killing bees and other pollinators and slowly poisoning the ground.

Coming from Nazareth, Jesus would know about gardening, for most families then would have had a vegetable garden. Thus, he told parables like The Weeds among the Wheat. Of course, the weeds that Jesus is talking about in the parable are not the ones in the ground, but the ones that infect us and our society. As far as I know, the only sinless ones were Jesus and his Mother Mary. I am certainly not in that league. As St. Paul says, we all have our weaknesses. We may have to deal with anger or judging others, we may eat or drink too much, we may be selfish or prideful, we may be greedy or lustful, we may be slothful or waste time, we may neglect to pray while having plenty of time for social media. There are often a number of weeds in our lives.

As Paul says elsewhere, there are three sources of temptations and sin: the world (i.e., our culture), the flesh, and the devil. Each one can play on our weaknesses – whether for acceptance, for pleasure, for a temporary good feeling, or for getting ahead of others. Often, we don’t recognize what is happening until the sinful weakness becomes a real problem in our lives or in the way that we treat others.

As I like to say, thank God for God, for as the Psalm says, “Lord, you are good and forgiving, … merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity” (Ps. 86:5). Since I and many of you have weeds among our wheat, I thank God that he accompanies us through prayer, the sacraments – especially Reconciliation – and the encouragement of good people to do some weeding in our lives, to begin to root out those things that separate us from God, others, and ourselves. It is seldom a matter of days, but of years. But Jesus walks patiently alongside of us, just as he did the disciples.

As the Book of Wisdoms says, “You judge with clemency, … and you give your children [us] good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins” (12:18-19). This is why you and I need to pray to the Holy Spirit to help us first to come to see our failings, then to help us overcome our weaknesses, and through prayer and the works of charity begin to grow after the pattern of Christ. The Spirit gives us grace – the mustard seed – that continues to grow in us, helping us to see, to weed, and to grow until we put ourselves aside and come to lift up others through our love and good works.

So many of the saints, such as Peter, Paul, Augustine, Ignatius, Francis of Assisi, Mary Magdalene, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, and more recent holy persons such as Dorothy Day, needed weeding from various sins and failings, but God is patient and works to bring about a harvest in us. Let us pray with them, for they give us hope that God’s grace will transform us, too, into saints. Perhaps not ones who have a day set aside for us, except for All Saints Day – but little saints, friends of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus who learned to follow his ways and who, relying on prayer and the Holy Spirit, slowly weeded out the worst of our sins and learned compassion for others.

Lord Jesus, here we are, your family, the ones you came to show the way. We thank you for your patience with us. We thank you for your mercy and love. With the help of your grace, may the mustard seed of our faith, hope and love grow ever greater. May we rely on your mercy and forgiveness to weed away our sins and failings. May we grow in trust and love of you and of all our brothers and sisters, so that we might be leaven in our families, in our communities, and in our world. We ask this of the Father, in your name, Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Digital dignity: Bring faith values into teaching kids online safety

Because kids today have grown up with digital all around them, they think differently than adults do about technology and media. Scrolling through social media and texting – even texting friends next door – constitutes authentic connection with their friends. Those of us who grew up when “connection” meant talking on a phone attached to a wall may scoff, but these are the times in which we live.

What are parents to do in the face of the neargravitational pull of digital media kids crave?

lives reflect the character they’ve witnessed in their parents.

CREATE HABITUAL VIRTUES

Character is a great place to start, but for the believer, it doesn’t end there. Faith in Christ means that we work to make these “pillars of character” habitual in our lives, transforming them into habitual virtues.

Back in the 1990s, we wore “WWJD” bracelets, which reminded us to ask “What would Jesus do?” as we faced life’s challenges. It’s still a good question, one asked not because we think Jesus is watching and waiting for us to fail, but for discernment – for

Perhaps one answer is to help them develop a mindset of Christian values and an appreciation of their own worth – worth built upon the knowledge that they may freely ask parents questions about their digital interactions. Opportunities to bring their faith values into such conversations may abound and be constructive.

Online safety is tremendously important, but even more vital is parenting children toward a vibrant and life-giving relationship with Jesus Christ, one that teaches how valuable they are, not just to parents, family and friends, but to the Lord.

RULES MUST APPLY TO ALL

Parenting is hard work. It requires a level of authenticity that is challenging for anyone, because – whether mindful of it or not – parents model the behavior their children learn.

If we want kids to act responsibly with their devices, then we must do so as well. If we want to limit screen time for them, then we must limit our own. If we want tech-free zones in our homes, then those zones must apply to the whole family. Of course, when implementing rules, it’s always necessary to talk together about the why behind the what.

According to the Character Counts! curriculum, the six pillars of character are trustworthiness, respect, caring, responsibility, fairness, and citizenship. If we apply these values to our digital interactions and we teach kids the same, then we’re on the path to doing all we can to ensure kids are safe online and – more importantly – that their online

considering how God is calling us to put virtue into practice.

We teach kids to be responsible, caring, respectful, fair and trustworthy online – not just because it’s the right thing to do but because God loves every other person we meet and interact with, and that makes them worthy of our care and respect.

DON’T JUST BLOCK: EXPLAIN

Imagine this: Your child stumbles on digital pornography or sexting creeps – unfortunately, all too common events. Online safety would dictate that parents use blocking software or settings and make sure their kids know it is safe to bring these things to their parents.

Virtuous media living would have parents and children sit down and talk about this disturbing reality, explaining why such pictures or videos (and conversations) are problematic, especially from the perspective of faith.

Each human being, created in the image and likeness of God, has dignity and deserves respect. Ultimately, porn breeds disrespect and selfishness.

Real love fosters respect and self-giving love, the kind that Jesus showed on the cross. That must always be the takeaway message when discussing digital safety.

Let us do all we can to make sure our children have the skills they need to be safe online, and the understanding that their innate dignity means they deserve the best, not the worst, of what the digital world has to offer.

SISTER HOSEA RUPPRECHT a Daughter of St. Paul, is the associate director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies.

JESUIT FATHER JOHN MICHALOWSKI is the parochial vicar at St. Peter Parish in Charlotte, where he delivered this homily.

‘If we want kids to act responsibly with their devices, then we must do so as well.‘

Sister Hosea Rupprecht

Letter to the editor

Elizabeth Scalia

Jimmy Buffett, raised Catholic, reminded us there’s a time to relax

Too often lately, it feels like the offices from which we’ve historically taken our cues – our political and community leadership, the punditry, local authorities, and even some Church groups – are populated with unserious people who can’t rise to the moment. Those who aren’t peddling pure boilerplate and calling it constructive thought are offering endless scolds about how we should live, think and speak, and how, if things aren’t getting better, it’s because we’re not doing enough of the right things. We should constantly be doing ever more of all these right things, it seems, until the world is saved and humanity perfected and then, finally, we may rest.

Buffett’s biggest hit, “Margaritaville,” celebrates a life lived in meandering dissipation. Its plaintive chorus sounds only mildly regretful as the narrator wonders who is to blame for his under-achieving days until, in the final refrain he comes clean:

“Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame

But I know it’s my own damn fault.”

If you didn’t know that Buffett was raised Catholic, the last line is a dead giveaway. That nearly everything in our lives will eventually reveal a component of selfaccountability at its core is something every Catholic can identify with. Such recognition is a gift that comes to us not from so-called “Catholic guilt,” but from a formed Catholic conscience.

Buffett, like so many, journeyed away from his childhood Catholicism, although he still sang of belief and of prayer. But the Church stays with you. Even after walking away, the potency of its sacramental graces – starting with baptism, wherein we are claimed for Christ – means the conscience is always nudged to wakefulness, and then to action, even if we’d prefer the sleep of oblivion.

The sociologist and columnist Father Andrew Greeley often remarked that the successes of immigrant families in the 20th century were due to the many free Catholic elementary schools. They educated the children from Italy, Poland, Ireland, Germany and other European nations. Many of these children are today among American leaders in government, industry and the sciences.

The Catholic population in western North Carolina includes a significant share of immigrants from Mexico and many South American countries who are in need of basic education in order to

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flourish in the United States.

The Church in our diocese and elsewhere has the resources to accomplish for this generation the kind of educational assistance that made our generation thrive.

Let’s begin with English as a Second Language courses for adults and children, and move on to elementary schools.

We are one Church, part of one America, and we can thrive together.

DAVID GALUSHA is a member of St. Luke Parish in Mint Hill.

Pope Francis

From online story: “God has the same love for all, pope says at Angelus”

The Catholic News Herald reached the Facebook and Instagram feeds of more than 265,000 people in English and Spanish last month. The most talked about post? Coverage of the Eucharistic Congress procession. Join the conversation: www.facebook. com/CatholicNewsHerald

These exhausting harangues have become as penetrating (and authentic) as prop knives. They fall upon our ears like an approaching storm we’ve heard for too long – an over-familiar sound and fury, often signifying nothing.

Which is why the Jimmy Buffetts of the world are important to have around, and why it is worth a respectful pause and some consideration when they pass.

There was something poignant in Buffett’s passing at the start of Labor Day weekend, when the days are growing shorter and the flip flops and Hawaiian shirts must be put away along with our fantasies of living on a beach, responsible for nothing beyond bringing dessert to the next get-together. Sweaters come out in the evening, and time seems suddenly too valuable to waste away searching for misplaced meaning, too fleeting to reclaim the misspent days which, valued too late, are forever lost.

Some dismiss the laid-back islandescapism of Jimmy Buffett as being something hedonistic or uncaring. The world is heavy with material and spiritual misery on every continent – we see it daily in the headlines – and from that perspective he might seem to have been just another fizzy artist: part beach bum, part vagabond, rolling easily between a beer keg and a few cocktails capped with frivolous little umbrellas while singing of hazy nights and strange tattoos (how it got there, he hadn’t a clue!).

Buffett was stirred to action after Hurricane Katrina, according to one man. “I worked at the New Orleans Margaritaville (while) in college,” tweeted John Veron. “I ended up in Austin TX with the clothes on my back and little else. … Margaritaville cut us all $3,000 checks immediately after the storm, no questions asked. … They also let employees know that if any of us could get to ANY other Margaritaville, there was a job waiting for us.”

Employees who ended up in Orlando were “set up with clothes, jobs and housing,” Veron continued. “Jimmy Buffett showed up for us when we needed it. He took care of me and my friends. I’ll always be grateful.”

Anyone surprised by the story would do well to remember what St. Teresa of Avila said when a critic disapproved of her unedifying enjoyment of a roasted partridge at dinner. “There is a time for partridge and a time for penance,” the great reformer rightly replied.

Knowing how to strike a balance between rest and action is a very Catholic thing, for we are a both/and Church, part Mary and part Martha. Jimmy Buffett knew how to recognize when to take action and when to relax and enjoy the life he’d been given. This speaks to the value of a conscience formed and sustained by sacramental graces, whose effects the Holy Spirit tends.

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose unto heaven” (Eccl 3:1). There is a time to work hard for a weary world, but also a time to kick off the shoes, settle back and take our cues from Teresa, or from Jimmy Buffett. It is good, and perhaps the better part of wisdom, to riff off of the prayer St. John XXIII was said to have prayed each night: “It’s your (world), O Lord. I’m going to bed.”

ELIZABETH SCALIA is culture editor for OSV News. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @theanchoress.

On YouTube in September so far, videos produced by the Catholic News Herald have been viewed more than 12,000 times. The most popular video? Highlights of the Eucharistic Congress procession.

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‘He is always looking for us and waiting for us. Let us not forget this: the Lord always seeks us and awaits us, always!’

‘We are one Church, part of one America’

“I never expected to meet the man,” he said. “I’ve heard about Dr. Carson my entire life, and I’ve seen his books. It really hit me today when I woke up and realized I was going to meet him. He was incredible. He was so nice and relaxed and such a genuinely kind person. It was amazing.”

Once the banquet began, Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, pastor of St. Pius X Parish in Greensboro, presided over the invocation and blessing of the food, and Monsignor Patrick Winslow, vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of Charlotte, offered the benediction at the end of the evening.

After Carson’s presentation, Father Noah Carter – chairman of RATI’s board of trustees and pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Kernersville – presented two awards. The first was the Father Conrad Lewis Kimbrough Pro-life Leadership Award, given to the North Carolina Knights of Columbus State Council. Father Kimbrough was one of the founders of RATI, along with its president, Albert Hodges. Next was the Jim and Elizabeth

Hedgecock Volunteer Award, which was given to Melanie Feeney-Lewis, a longtime behind-the-scenes supporter of the women and children of Room At The Inn.

Plans for expansion were also announced. RATI’s The Promise Center will grow the agency’s services to include single mothers who may not have been through any of its residential programs. The center will provide housing, transportation, child care and job training. A capital campaign called “Partners on the Journey” will fund the center, to be built in Kernersville.

RATI leadership also announced that since the 2022 banquet, 16 babies were born to mothers at Room At The Inn, thanks to the generosity of donors.

“What I’ve seen serving on the board of trustees over the past eight years of my priesthood is true change in the moms and the children,” Father Carter said. “It’s more than just finding them a home. It’s more than just finding them food. It’s more than just assuring them of some sense of support afterwards.”

“In these women who are in crisis situations and in their children,” he said, “it restores their faith in their fellow man, a faith that someone is out there who desires what is good for them, someone who truly loves them, and people who truly want to see them succeed in life.”

parish since its earliest days, and what had begun as a seasonal Spanish Mass during the growing season became weekly in 1981. The parish began an immigration clinic in the mid-1980s that has been a major component of its work with its large Hispanic community. Father Carter says the community members find welcome at Holy Cross through the Christ-centered immigration work of the dedicated attorneys and staff.

A variety of other ministries sprouted, and growth at the parish overall continued, requiring a larger church, which was built and dedicated in 2003.

“Holy Cross was the vision of seven families that founded the parish, and now

we have over 2,000 families in the span of 50 years,” Father Carter notes. “We certainly have outgrown our facilities, and so our 50th anniversary gives us the opportunity to really consider what Holy Cross will look like in 15 years. Even if I’m not here then, I can at least start thinking about what’s best for my parish family.”

One upcoming addition is a new outdoor pavilion, which is an anniversary gift from the parishioners to their parish. The pavilion, designed to reflect the architecture of the church with its Gothic wooden arches, will be a place to meet outside to start processions and gather for events in good weather.

“We have to look at the facilities we have and look at the opportunities for evangelization,” Father Carter adds. “We want to be, more and more, an authentic presence in the community of Christ’s light to the world.”

GREENSBORO

Battleground Avenue, 2:30-3:30 p.m.; Mark Shelly, 336-312-4810

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Foundation of the Diocese of Charlotte

2-3 p.m. n 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pwky., 2-3 p.m.

CHARLOTTE/MINT HILL

13700 Lawyers Road at I-485, 12:15-1:15 p.m.; Bob Hayes, 384-478-9137

CONCORD

South Union Street in front of Food Lion, 2-3 p.m.; Joe Andruzzi, 704-796-0075

DENVER

537 North Hwy. 16, 12:30-1:30 p.m.; Cindee Brewer, 703-217-7561

FRANKLIN

299 Maple St. at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 3-4 p.m.; Julie Tastinger, 828-421-2473

GASTONIA

Ozark Avenue at Flint Groves Baptist Church, 2-3 p.m.; Rev. Danny Reece, 704-648-2842

The sidewalk in front of St. Mark Church, Stumptown Road, 2-3 p.m.; Mike FitzGerald, 704-313-8414

MOCKSVILLE Hwy. 601/Valley Road at Yadkinville Road, 2-3 p.m.; David Taylor, 336-406-1089

MOORESVILLE Hwy. 150 at Williamson Road, 2-3:30 p.m.; Angela Harrigan, 704-975-1239

SPARTA

Main Street, 2:15-3:30 p.m., Mary Sue Boyette, 336-657-1230

WAYNESVILLE/HAYWOOD COUNTY

Walnut Street at Russ Avenue, 2-3 p.m.; Chris Ryan, 828-400-2922

WINSTON-SALEM

Hanes Mall Boulevard west of Stratford Road, 2-3 p.m.; Sandy Herman, 336-399-6434

STEVEN SHEPPARD | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

The Longino family reunited with Dr. Ben Carson, who performed a life-saving operation in 2001, when Chase Longino was 15 months old.