April 5, 2020, ET Catholic, A section

April 5

| 2020

VOL 29 NO 4

IN THIS ISSUE CHAMPS INFLUENCE OF ELECTION B1 STATE A6 IRISH A4 RITE Knoxville Catholic Marvel exec chalks up Bishop Stika welcomes more than 200 into East Tennessee Church

success to Notre Dame High School, OLPH

High School wins first basketball title

He dwells among us ......................... A2 Parish news ....................................... B4 Diocesan calendar ............................ B5 Columns ............................................. B8 Catholic schools ............................. B10 La Cosecha ............................Section C

‘Our Good Friday’

STEPHANIE RICHER (2)

Bishop Stika reassures diocese, takes historic safety action due to coronavirus outbreak; Mass suspended

Praying for healing A lone parishioner prays inside the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on March 19 prior to the last public Mass before diocesan churches suspended Masses and services. Gov. Bill Lee and public health officials have instructed non-essential businesses and churches to close to help stem the spread of coronavirus.

By Bill Brewer

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huttered stores and schools.

Locked restaurants and bars.

Dissipated traffic. Silent theaters. Barren grocery shelves. Empty churches.

The novel coronavirus, a mysterious, communicable illness that first appeared on the other side of the world in late 2019, has spread into East Tennessee and cast a shadow on the way residents live, work, and socialize. As the number of cases has increased across the country, federal, state, and local officials have been forced to take actions not seen since influenza and polio epidemics of the early 20th century.

Following the recommendations of

public health officials to contain the coronavirus, Bishop Richard F. Stika has taken the unprecedented step of suspending all public Masses in the Diocese of Knoxville until further notice.

And as the virus has continued to spread, with a mounting number of cases in Tennessee, Bishop Stika has extended the suspension of services to Holy Week.

He announced that the Chrism Mass, one of the most solemn and important liturgies of the liturgical year that is held on the Tuesday before Easter, will be postponed and rescheduled.

Priests and parishes from across the diocese join together during the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral of the

St. Joseph pray for us Bishop Stika prays during the March 19 Mass.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, where Bishop Stika blesses the oil of the cat-

echumens, the oil of the infirm, and the holy chrism.

Also during the annual Chrism Mass, priests in the diocese renew their promises to the bishop.

Holy Thursday and Good Friday public services also are suspended, but priests will be celebrating Easter Masses privately.

Nearly 400 daily and Sunday Masses are regularly celebrated each week at the 51 churches and one Catholic mission in the diocese.

Bishop Stika addressed the recent fear and uncertainty that has gripped communities during the diocese’s last public Mass amid a government-imposed suspension of all public events of more than 10 people.

Virus continued on page A8

The Church is a lighthouse in the severest of storms —or pandemics

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ardinal Justin Rigali has seen a little of everything in his nearly 59 years as a priest and nearly 85 years of life.

He was on the ground floor as a young priest assisting during the early days of Vatican II. As an older bishop and later as a cardinal, he has lived through the horrible abuse scandals that have rocked the Church.

But nothing, to him, tops what is going on presently, as the coronavirus pandemic has forced the Church to suspend Masses, even those of Holy Week, and halt virtually all other operations.

“The Church has been through a lot of difficult times, but I don’t think anybody can remember anything like this, where it affects

the whole world but it affects the whole Church, and it affects it in a major way,” Cardinal Rigali said. “The Church has been affected now from even how to organize its life, its worship, to organize what the Church must do.

I think it’s very clear that we’ve never been through a situation like this.”

The cardinal believes there is a need for wisdom nowadays as the pandemic has created havoc in all walks of life.

“The Church is constantly facing very difficult problems, and even people of good will can have different opinions on ‘What is it we’re supposed to do?’” he said.

Scripture highlights an impor-

History continued on page A13

By Dan McWilliams

STEPHANIE RICHER

Cardinal Rigali puts the coronavirus in context as he reflects on challenges in Catholic history

Words of wisdom Bishop Stika celebrates Mass on March 19, with Cardinal Justin Rigali, left, concelebrating. Also concelebrating are Father David Boettner, right, Father Martin Gladysz, and Father Arthur Torres.

He dwells among us

by Bishop Richard F. Stika

Make a spiritual Communion Whether we can receive the Eucharist or not, we should always desire to be in union with Christ “Do not fear: I am with you; do not be anxious, I am your God.” — Isaiah 41:10

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ince the first words of fallen Adam: “I was afraid,” the experience of fear has been an inescapable part of human reality.

Like Adam’s experience, fear has a way of stripping us and exposing the nakedness of our vulnerability and mortality.

But no matter how overwhelming the mystery of fear and suffering might be, there exists the infinitely greater mystery of the New Adam—the mystery of faith made present upon the altar in every Mass and reposed within the tabernacle of our Church.

And because “God is love,” it is this mystery of love—Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist—that “casts out all fear” (cf. 1 John 4:18).

Christ is always longing for us to invite Him into our heart, to be in communion with Him spiritually, even when we cannot be united to Him sacramentally.

In this time of pandemic, with its isolating restrictions, we are unable to gather together as we would like for the celebration of Mass and to

Follow Bishop Richard F. Stika on dioknox.org, Twitter @bishopstika and Facebook for news and events from the diocese. receive Jesus in the Eucharist. But it has long been the teaching of the Church that when we are unable, for licit reasons, to attend Mass and to receive Christ sacramentally, we can do so spiritually.

St. Thomas Aquinas describes spiritual Communion as “an ardent desire to receive Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament and lovingly embrace Him.” Spiritual Communion, as such, is not a substitute for sacramental Communion, which is the actual, physical receiving of Holy Communion, but is the heartfelt desire for it.

So whenever it is possible to attend Mass and to receive sacramental Communion, it should always be preceded and accompanied by a spiritual Communion. For the degree we prepare spiritually for sacramental Communion is the degree that we receive the fruits of the grace of this sacrament.

And God, who knows our heart, will not withhold the fruits of the grace of Communion from those

Prayer Intentions “O Mary, you shine continuously on our journey as a sign of salvation and hope.

We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick.

At the foot of the Cross you participated in Jesus’ pain, with steadfast faith.

You, Salvation of the Roman People, know what we need.

We are certain that you will provide, so that, as you did at Cana of Galilee, joy and feasting might return after this moment of trial.

Help us, Mother of Divine Love, to conform ourselves to the Father’s will and to do what Jesus tells us: He who took our sufferings upon Himself, and bore our sorrows to bring us, through the Cross, to the joy of the Resurrection. Amen.

We seek refuge under your protection, O Holy Mother of God. Do not despise our pleas – we who are put to the test – and deliver us from every danger, O glorious and blessed Virgin.”

–– Pope Francis

”Let us continue to pray for those who are sick, and now especially for those who have been impacted by the coronavirus, and for all health-care workers who are risking their personal well-being while standing on the frontlines of this recovery effort. Through the grace of God, we pray for compassion, courage, and our sense of community during this challenging time.”

–– Bishop Stika

A2 n APRIL 5, 2020

who truly long to receive the Eucharist, but are unable through no fault of their own.

The beauty of spiritual Communion is that we can make it as often as we stir our heart with the desire to be in union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Whereas we are limited to the number of times we can receive sacramental Communion in a given day, there is no such limit to the number of spiritual Communions we can make.

The Church distinguishes three ways of “communicating”—of receiving Communion. The first of these are those who receive sacramentally only, that is, without properly preparing themselves spiritually for the Eucharist. St. Paul speaks to the tremendous importance of examining our heart and preparing worthily: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Corinthians 11:27-29).

We should always have recourse to the cleansing power of Christ’s mercy in the confessional!

The second manner of receiving Communion is to do so spiritually, of which we have already spoken some. And the third way, whenever possible, is to receive both spiritually and sacramentally. For by spiritually preparing ourselves, we adorn ourselves with the wedding garment we have been entrusted with at baptism. To do so is to approach the “Sacrament of the Bridegroom and the Bride,” as St. John Paul II calls the Eucharist, with a nuptial heart.

But the Church also reminds us that “those who, having it in their power to receive with fitting preparation the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, and are yet satisfied with a spiritual Communion only, deprive themselves of the greatest and most heavenly advantages” (from the Council of Trent).

So whenever we are able to attend Mass and to receive Christ in the Eucharist, we should make a spiritual Communion as an integral part of our preparation for sacramental Communion. And if we are unable to receive Christ in the Eucharist, due to no fault of our own, we should do so spiritually with an ardent longing of heart.

If able, watch a live streaming of

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the Mass—visit your parish or diocesan webpage, dioknox.org, for times. Though you may be miles away from the church where Mass is being celebrated, with the longing of your heart you will be present at the foot of the altar and you will receive the fruits of the grace of this great sacrament.

How best should one prepare for spiritual Communion? While there are no particular formulas of words that one must pray, we can use the prayer of St. Alphonsus Ligouri: O My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul.

Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already come, and I unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.

It is also an excellent practice to make a morning offering every day, such as the following: O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month.

Amen.

The practice of praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, especially during the three o’clock hour (the Hour of Mercy), is also highly recommended. For the prayer that begins each decade and those that follow are a powerful extension of the holy Mass: Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world—For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Of course, we should also make a regular practice of praying the Stations of the Cross and the rosary.

Frequent spiritual Communion, as the saints attest, is what grows the door of our heart and helps it to remain open always to Our Lord and King, as beautifully expressed in Psalm 24:7: “O gate, lift high your heads; grow higher, ancient doors. Let him enter, the king of glory!” And in receiving Christ spiritually in our heart, we receive the Love that “casts out all fear!” ■

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APRIL 5, 2020 n A3

A study in catechism: from the cavalry to Calvary Tennessee National Guard member is among more than 200 people entering the Catholic Church

BILL BREWER

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Books of the elect RCIA leaders from the Cumberland Mountain and Smoky Mountain deaneries process into the Rite of Election on March 1 at Sacred Heart Cathedral holding their books of the elect for Bishop Richard F. Stika to sign.

DAN MCWILLIAMS

harles Hutson’s faith journey can be measured in miles, all 4,800 of them.

That’s the distance the Tennessee Army National Guard captain has bridged to join the Catholic Church.

Capt. Hutson is among more than 200 catechumens and candidates in the Diocese of Knoxville who will be entering the Church this year.

They were to come into the Church at Easter, as is tradition, but the coronavirus epidemic has caused Bishop Richard F. Stika to delay their entry until the COVID-19 threat subsides.

Capt. Hutson and many of his fellow candidates and catechumens were recognized by Bishop Stika on Feb. 29 and March 1 during Rite of Election services at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

During the service, known formally as the Rite of Election of catechumens (those not baptized) and the call to continuing conversion of candidates (those who have been baptized) who are preparing for confirmation and reception into the full communion of the Catholic Church, Bishop Stika signed books of the elect brought forward by directors of religious education and RCIA leaders at Diocese of Knoxville parishes. The books also contain the signatures of the catechumens, who are preparing for baptism.

According to the diocesan Office of Christian Formation, 55 catechumens and 148 candidates will be coming into the Church in East Tennessee.

Don Shearin of St. Mary Parish in Johnson City is one of those candidates. Joining the Catholic Church has prompted him to become a student of the faith.

“It’s an awesome experience.

It’s hard to explain. I’ve read more being a candidate going through the RCIA process than I think I’ve read all my life. Very thirsty for the knowledge. Just an awesome, overwhelming experience. I feel very blessed,” said Mr. Shearin, who at-

By Bill Brewer

Welcome to our Church Bishop Stika greets a young woman on Feb. 29 during the Rite of Election who is entering the Catholic Church. tended the Feb. 29 service as part of the Five Rivers Deanery.

Mr. Shearin relished the celebra-

tion led by Bishop Stika. “Very cool.

He’s been to our parish in Johnson City before. He brings the humor

Diocesan women gather to cultivate the interior life during St. Thomas retreat

and the warmth.”

Like Mr. Shearin, Gina Eppard of St. Augustine Parish in Signal Mountain has found her faith conversion to be a learning experience.

“It’s very enlightening. I really enjoy it. I’ve enjoyed the learning experience. There’s a lot of reading and a lot of studying to understand,” Ms. Eppard said.

The Chattanooga Deanery candidate, who joined Mr. Shearin for the Feb. 29 Rite of Election, was nervous at first, but Bishop Stika allayed any jitters she may have had.

“I was very nervous, but I really enjoyed it. It’s a beautiful, beautiful cathedral,” she said about the cathedral ceremony and meeting the bishop. “He’s a very nice man. I was kind of worried about it, but I didn’t have anything to worry about.”

While no more important than those of his RCIA peers, Capt. Hut-

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BILL BREWER

P R AY W I T H U S via our televised Mass

Standing room only Sister Anna Marie McGuan, RSM, engages her audience during a Feb. 22 women’s retreat at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish.

By Emily Booker

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re you listening for God’s voice? Would you hear Him if He called?

Women from across East Tennessee gathered at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City on Feb. 22 for the diocesan women’s retreat focused on cultivating the interior life so they may draw closer to God. Sister Anna Marie McGuan, RSM, director of the Office of Christian Formation led the one-day retreat.

The large number of attendees from all across the diocese showed the growing popularity of diocesan conferences focusing on deeper aspects of the faith. The event was originally limited to 200 women, but because of interest, that was expanded to the maximum of 230 and there still was a waiting list.

The day started with Mass celebrated by Father Ray Powell, pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish. The women then gathered in the parish life center for the retreat focusing on the theme “Cultivating the Interior Life.”

What actually is the interior life?

Every person is both body and soul, A4 n APRIL 5, 2020

Sister Anna Marie explained. The material life is what is bound by our sense of the world, our ability to see, touch, hear, smell, taste, observe, and even imagine.

The interior life is the spiritual life, the source of the ordering of our choices.

“Through the ordering of our interior desires, through directing our very self to our proper end, we are brought into alignment, into order, and we thereby make ourselves much more available to the movement and to the work of God,” she said.

She used the parable of the 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom as an example of how we are instructed to always be ready to hear God’s call. “If the Lord told us to keep watch, how am I doing that in my life?” she asked.

“The focus [of this retreat] is on the life of prayer and how to bring a certain stillness, silence, and focus to our prayer,” Sister Anna Marie said. “When we do that, the interior life begins to have a greater, a deeper foundation, a more firm foundation in our lives.”

Prayer and developing constant vigilance over desires is what will bring about a stronger interior life, according

Please see parish Mass livestream links at dioknox.org

Interior continued on page A7

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TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

Diocese of Nashville recovering from deadly tornadoes CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/THERESA LAURENCE

By Theresa Laurence Catholic News Service

The aftermath Nathan Colburn, a parishioner at Holy Name Church in Nashville, patches the roof of his home after a tornado touched down in Nashville on March 3.

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he Diocese of Nashville and the Catholic community are responding to the needs, both immediate and long-term, of those affected by deadly tornadoes that ripped across Middle Tennessee in the early hours of March 3, leaving at least 25 people dead.

At least 18 deaths were reported by officials in Putnam County and its county seat, Cookeville, which is about 80 miles east of Nashville and about 100 miles west of Knoxville along Interstate 40.

Putnam County suffered the greatest loss of life from the tornadoes. As the Nashville and Cookeville areas continued recovery efforts weeks after

the devastating storms, the families in those communities were recovering after holding funerals for loved ones who died.

The National Weather Service reported that one storm spawned at least 10 tornadoes that touched down across the state.

Bishop J. Mark Spalding visited the affected pastors and churches in Nashville and offered prayers of support for all those suffering from the trauma of the disaster.

He has received messages of support from Archbishop José H. Gómez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States. “As the personal representative of the Holy Father in this country, I assure you of

TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

BILL BREWER

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No longer Poles apart Bishop Stika, who is of Polish descent, engaged in a bit of Polish dialogue with Capt. Charles Hutson as RCIA leaders Jim (left) and Susan Conover and sponsor Vic Landa (right) listen.

DAN MCWILLIAMS

son’s path to the Catholic Church may be more unusual in that he went through RCIA at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Harriman while stationed in Poland as part of a deployment of the Tennessee National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment.

It was during that 11-month deployment that Capt. Hutson was introduced to the Catholic Church, and he began strengthening his relationship with Jesus Christ. When he formally enters the Church, he will be a member of St. Ann Parish in Lancing.

His home is in nearby Sunbright.

Sunbright is where Capt. Hutson grew up and formed his faith in a small Missionary Baptist church. He went on to attend the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he earned a degree in agriculture in 2008. He has a farm in Sunbright, where he also sells real estate.

As an adult who began to have questions about his faith formation, Capt. Hutson said a light turned on once he was deployed in the former Communist country steeped in Catholicism.

“After I had been in Poland for a couple of months, I began to see things that were a lot different to me. There were cultural differences, but there was something else there.

I really started to explore what was different, why the people were different, why the culture was different.

Everyone is Catholic,” he said.

The more he was exposed to Catholicism in Poland, the more he wanted to learn about the world’s oldest Christian faith. Those he came in contact with in Poland became valuable resources in sharing their Catholicism. But he soon realized he needed assistance from closer to home.

“Because of the differences I saw in the way people acted, I started to look for reasons. I lived and worked just with the Polish; I wasn’t with the American soldiers. I was immersed, so to speak, in the culture, so I got to know the officers with the Polish Army. One of the Polish guys, a corporal, took me to meet their brigade priest, who gave me a rosary and a Polish military prayer book that also was in English. He suggested I begin praying the rosary, and we would go from there,” Capt. Hutson said.

“I started doing that, but I realized I needed another resource. I knew about St. Ann because I grew up down the road from the old St. Ann Church in Deer Lodge, and so I started hunting around on the Internet, and I found a number for Sister Anna Marie (McGuan, RSM). That’s how we got the ball rolling on RCIA,” he added.

Sister Anna Marie is the director of the Office of Christian Formation for the Diocese of Knoxville, overseeing the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults programs for the diocese.

She also is a Scripture scholar and understands the ties that bind Catholicism and Poland.

“The history of Poland is intimately tied to Catholicism, and its monasteries and churches are testaments to the faith of generations of believers.

Being exposed to the beauty of the Catholic faith in Poland, its resilience despite terrible persecution, and its stubborn resistance to contemporary ideology and pressure for the sake of fidelity to the triune God and His revelation is intriguing and is an in-

Making it official Bishop Stika signs a book of the elect on Feb. 29 with the names of catechumens and candidates. Observing are deacons Butch Feldhaus, left, and Erasmo Hernandez. vitation to faith,” Sister Anna Marie said.

“We are all blessed to be a part of Christ’s Church, and I am so pleased that Capt. Charles Hutson found his way home to the Church in the native country of Pope John Paul II. Bishop Stika has a deep devotion to Pope St. John Paul II, one that many of us share. I believe that Pope John Paul II watches over the Diocese of Knoxville in a special way,” she noted.

Capt. Hutson said he was drawn to the Catholic faith for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the way the faith embraces everyone, regardless of ethnicity, race, gender, nationality, or sinfulness. He was grateful for the invitation to worship and learn about Catholicism.

“Everybody is created by God. Everybody has value. Some people are just a little farther off the track.

Everyone was created good,” he said. “The other thing that caught my eye as I began to read about the saints were all these examples of people who moved closer to God. They’re obeying God, and there is fruit from that. There’s progress where they sin less and less in their life. With Catholicism, there’s hope that you can get better and that God will move you along if you’re obedient and faithful.”

And the unity of the Catholic Church also has attracted him.

He was taken by the fact the Masses he attended while in Poland were the same Masses being celebrated in the United States and elsewhere

around the world.

Parishioners in Poland had a profound effect on his conversion.

In citing the cultural differences between the United States and Poland that inspired his faith conversion, Capt. Hutson said Polish residents asked him at Halloween how people in the states marked the occasion. He told them most people took part in trick or treating.

He then discovered most people in Poland observed Halloween differently.

“It will take your breath away.

Every cemetery there is Catholic pretty much. So Halloween is a family event. They all go to the cemetery and light candles and pray the rosary and all these things in remembrance of their loved ones. In this town of 30,000 people I was in, the entire cemetery at midnight was full of families of all ages. People travel from all across the country to make sure they are with their family at the family cemetery. That’s one example.

On Sundays after Mass, the families go to the cemeteries and pray,” he recalled.

Witnessing the closeness of Polish families led Capt. Hutson to remember how much family means to him.

His mother lives in Sunbright, and his sister lives in Knoxville.

Capt. Hutson, who is in his 11th year serving in the military, spending four of those years on active duty, said he is again growing in his faith because of his conversion to Catholicism.

“There has to be growth. And

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his prayers in this difficult situation,” the archbishop’s letter said.

The Diocese of Knoxville designated special collections for the disaster-relief efforts, with Bishop Richard F. Stika also leading prayers for Cookeville and Nashville residents.

Diocesan parishes and schools sprang into action after the storm.

Holy Rosary Church in Donelson served as the site of a Red Cross emergency shelter on March 3, and a number of churches and schools were collecting supplies such as bottled water and baby formula for tornado victims.

The Knights of Columbus have been marshaling members to donate money, materials and manpower to relief efforts.

Relief continued on page A7

there has to be progress. Before, I felt like I wasn’t making any progress.

That’s what I was looking for, a way to make progress, to move closer to God in my walk of faith. That’s how I came to Catholicism. And I feel it’s a way to meet that objective,” said the single, 35-year-old Morgan County native.

The fact that there are more than 2,000 years of Catholic faith in the world has strengthened his resolve to complete the RCIA process.

The Rite of Election ceremony was a key moment in meeting his objective. The next step will be joining in full communion with the Church and then participating in the Sending of the Neophytes service.

And how has RCIA been for the two-continent candidate?

“There has been lots to read. My growth in faith would not be possible without it. That’s why I’m here.

It has been well organized,” he said.

“There’s just so much depth. That’s what I’m getting out of it. RCIA has been very good. There’s plenty to chew on, so to speak.”

He has read the Catechism of the Catholic Church twice and has been reading other material to assist him in learning the faith. And he has joined the Blessed Sacrament RCIA class in person since returning from Poland in February.

Susan Conover, who leads RCIA at Blessed Sacrament with her husband, Jim, said she and her husband are excited to see Capt. Hutson’s faith journey amid geographical challenges.

“It’s very inspiring,” Mrs. Conover said. “Especially within a group setting, with Charles’ feelings, and his comments, and intuitiveness with what the subject is. It prompts other people to respond in kind.”

Mr. Conover said it also has been inspiring to see the work Capt.

Hutson has put into his conversion remotely, only being able to communicate with his RCIA leaders by e-mail and regular mail. And regular mail can take many days to reach its destination.

“We didn’t actually speak until my first RCIA meeting when I got back home,” Capt. Hutson remarked.

“I would send him packages and it would take 10 days for him to get a package. Charles had to drive an hour away once a week to get his mail. His Christmas card took five weeks to get there,” Mrs. Conover said. “We take things for granted here.”

The Conovers and Capt. Hutson joked that their e-mails could be very lengthy.

Capt. Hutson said he was never tempted to give up his RCIA work because of the logistical challenges.

“I was interested, and the Conovers made it as doable as possible for me,” he said.

The Army veteran was always part of the Blessed Sacrament RCIA class, even if it was in spirit and not in person.

“He wasn’t forgotten. The entire faith community at Blessed Sacrament prayed for him. Even though he wasn’t here in body, he was here in spirit, and it was acknowledged all the way throughout the Rite of Acceptance,” Mrs. Conover said.

Mr. Conover noted that Capt.

Hutson persevered in his faith conversion, even though the Masses he attended regularly were celebrated

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The power of Marvel

Catholic values reflected through the work of game giant’s executive, who is a Notre Dame High School grad

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“We believe in putting the human in the superhuman. They may be superheroes, but never forget that they’re human characters.

They have problems, face challenges, and try to overcome them. When we create these fictional stories, my theory is they actually change real lives, and then we creators see what people do and it inspires us and it creates this circle.”

— Bill Rosemann Marvel Games vice president

ALYSSA NEUHOFF

ill Rosemann sat in the teacher’s lounge at Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga on Jan. 31 after speaking to an assembly of students and teachers as well as alumni and other members of the Catholic community and mused about the classic Marvel Comics saying, “with great power there must also come great responsibility.”

Mr. Rosemann expounded that “sometimes people shorten it and say with great power comes great responsibility, which is not true. The lesson is that it’s a choice. When you get power, you must choose to use it wisely.”

The Marvel Games executive and local favorite had just finished an hourlong speech encouraging and inspiring the students to use the excellent Catholic education they are receiving to follow their dreams.

“Go for it; whatever you want to do go for it.

Someone has to do it; why not you? It could be you,” said Mr. Rosemann, who spent the rest of the day interacting with students and teaching creative writing workshops.

Mr. Rosemann is an alumnus of Notre Dame, class of ’89, having gone to Our Lady of Perpetual Help School before that. His time at these schools provided him with a strong support system.

“Going to OLPH and Notre Dame, the teachers, the parents, everyone really cared about the students, and then, as the students, our responsibility was to be good to one another,” he said, noting that he was taught the power and influence that teachers and parents and other students can have. He urged the students to appreciate having that influence.

The religion classes, an added bonus to the usual set of classes, also shaped the critical thinking skills Mr. Rosemann uses now as part of his job: analyzing concepts of sacrifice, redemption,

Distinguished alums Notre Dame High School president George Valadie welcomed fellow alumnus and Marvel Games executive Bill Rosemann back to campus on Jan. 31. forgiveness, and kindness.

“All those very simple but powerful ideas are lessons that stay with you well,” he said. “The other thing I really enjoyed in Catholic school was we were always taught about being inclusive and always remembering that’s the way to be.

You welcome everybody. You don’t judge based on your background, what they look like.”

The lessons Mr. Rosemann learned though his Catholic high school experience influence and ac-

company inclusivity and other important themes that Marvel displays in all of its products.

He credited the “whole Catholic school experience” for providing him with everything he needed in life, both academically and morally.

“I remember sitting out there, in those seats, looking up — we were talking about graduating — wondering what I wanted to do. I eventually realized I wanted to tell stories with the Marvel characters,” Mr. Rosemann told the students.

This revelation came while a fire was burning down the apartment building where he and his mother were living. The last irreplaceable item that Mr. Rosemann saved was the box of comics in his bedroom closet. He described the many ways these comics had impacted his life.

“Wherever we moved as a kid or whatever was happening when I was getting bullied, picked on, going through [my parent’s] divorce, comics were there for me. I would escape the real world and go into this marvel,” he recalled.

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DAN MCWILLIAMS

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Bishop in waiting Samuel Greer of St. Dominic Parish tries on Bishop Stika’s miter during the Rite of Election on Feb. 29 at Sacred Heart Cathedral.

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in Polish. He was able to use a missal in English during those Masses and he had access to other Englishlanguage aids for his study.

Mrs. Conover said the beauty of the Catholic faith makes an impact.

“It makes an impression, a lifelong impression,” she said.

Capt. Hutson found a kindred spirit in Bishop Stika, who greeted the veteran following the March 1 Rite of Election service for the Cumberland Mountain and Smoky Mountain deaneries at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Rite of Election service for the Chattanooga and Five Rivers deaneries was held Feb. 29 at the cathedral.

During a brief conversation following the ceremony, Bishop Stika, who is of Polish descent, and Capt. Hutson exchanged words in Polish.

The Army captain/farm owner/ real-estate agent and former Missionary Baptist could relate to Bishop Stika’s message for the catechumens and candidates.

“It’s all about journey, isn’t it? One of my favorite expressions is ‘If you want to make God laugh, tell Him what your plans are for the rest of your life.’ I started out in pre-med, but I finished with a marketing degree. I figure I’m still in sales today.

You’ve got term life, whole life, and eternal life,” Bishop Stika said, drawing laughs. “Maybe somebody gave all of you that sales pitch.”

“All of you have a journey of life and faith. All of us do. Ask yourself this question. Did you think 10 years ago that you would be sitting in a cathedral of the Catholic Church listening to a guy with a funny hat on? Did you think that would be possible? In reality, you probably didn’t think you were going to be here on this March day.

As for me, I thought I would be in a parish in St. Louis wondering who I could get baseball tickets from for opening day. Here you are. What brought you to this moment when you decided to enter the Catholic Church?” the bishop asked those in attendance.

He reminded the diocese’s 201920 RCIA class that their walk of faith will not always be easy. Temptations abound every step of the way.

Referring to the Gospel readings from Feb. 29-March 1, Bishop Stika recounted the proverbial devil and angel on everyone’s shoulders, with the devil pressing us to do something we shouldn’t while the angel urges us to withstand temptation.

By Alyssa Neuhoff

Welcome to the Church Bishop Stika greets catechumens and candidates from Sacred Heart Cathedral during the Rite of Election on March 1.

“Perhaps you have a conversation with the devil about those things that you want, you desire. What are those things that you desire? Sometimes you’re willing to compromise your principles to possess something, to hold on to it, to hide it,” he said.

“How many of you have ever said, ‘OK, God. If you do this for me, I’ll do this for you.’ Do you ever do this? … Don’t you think in this conversation with God that it is a little unequal? We negotiate with God. Every Friday I buy a lottery ticket. And then I negotiate with God. ‘If you let me win $100 million, I will do great things with it. Unfortunately, He’s not listening to me because I haven’t won yet. Well, I think I won $5 once,” the bishop continued. “We negotiate with God, just like in the Gospel. We’re trying to tempt God when we say, ‘Hey, you help me and I’ll help you.’”

Bishop Stika then pointed to the thieves who were crucified with Jesus. One tried to negotiate with Jesus while on the cross, but the “good thief” had just one simple request: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

“It wasn’t about being fed (desire).

It wasn’t about being powerful. It wasn’t even a negotiation. He didn’t say, ‘Jesus, if you remember me I’ll take care of everything.’ He just said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ It was as simple as that,” the bishop said. “That should give you consolation because there are very few people who have been recorded in the Scriptures with the Son of God saying something like ‘This day you will be with me in paradise.’ The thief.”

Sister Anna Marie echoed the thought that faith journeys can be difficult, marked with obstacles of temptation.

“The world is becoming more turbulent, not less, and people must learn, sometimes in difficult ways, that they are not in control. I believe that being faced with our own limitations and our own inability to save our lives or our families’ can lead many people to deeper questions about the purpose of their existence.

They may begin to question the existence of God, whether they previously believed or not,” she said.

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“The fact is that we are here, and that it is nearly impossible that this happened by chance. Therefore, each person has a purpose and our life is meant for us to find it. As a person of faith, I know that the purpose in life for each person is wrapped up in their relationship with God. I have complete confidence in that, and I believe that people can find profound peace and even joy—despite all their difficult circumstances—in coming to live their lives united with God in faith, hope, and love. Our catechumens and candidates are bearing witness to their faith and the possibility of finding purpose and fulfillment, not in the material goods and pleasant things of the world, but in God alone. I thank God for their witness to all of us,” she added.

Capt. Hutson related to the part of Bishop Stika’s message about learning what makes saints such as Pope John Paul II, who was Polish.

The bishop said saints are people who recognize that they truly are sinners, even working more on their faith the more distant they feel from God. “In your prayer life, if you ever feel distant from God it means that you’re growing closer to God. You know why? Because the closer and closer we get to a relationship with the Lord, the more and more we recognize God, the Creator, the omnipotent One, and the One who loves us despite who we are, or what we do, or how often we give in to that guy on our shoulder who says, ‘go ahead, do it. You’re free,’” Bishop Stika said.

The bishop noted that the catechumens and candidates are entering the Church that, like them, isn’t perfect. But we all follow an imperfect path that leads to God. He urged them to avoid the mindset that once they’ve joined the Church they don’t have to worry about their faith anymore. “(You) might think ‘hey, I made it. I’m a Christian. I’m a Catholic. I made it.’ No, no. You never ‘make it.’ With faith, there’s never a period. There are a lot of colons and semicolons,” Bishop Stika said.

“You’re going to have questions.

I have questions. Because faith is real. There are ways to get answers to those questions. Some people might find their answers right away in the Church. Others might take the rest of their lives in trying to understand God. It’s about the journey. The journey of faith. Faith is a daily movement toward God.” And that’s making progress. Just ask Capt. Hutson. ■ TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

KCHS soccer players respond to Cookeville relief efforts Fighting Irish teammates, fathers rally to aid Putnam County community devastated by March tornadoes

COURTESY OF AUSTIN NAAB

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occer was played after all, just not how the players had envisioned the match. And it was a few days late, too.

However, it was a welcome distraction for Cookeville High School’s boys soccer team, which days earlier had witnessed one of the worst tragedies to hit Tennessee in recent memory.

Priorities changed on a dime for the boys in the early morning hours of March 3 when a series of tornadoes devastated Middle Tennessee, killing 25 people, most of them in Putnam County.

A soccer match between Knoxville Catholic High School and the Cookeville High School Cavaliers was scheduled for the afternoon of March 3. News of the disaster stunned the Fighting Irish players, and in the hours following the scale of the disaster loomed large.

As calls were put out in Middle Tennessee for volunteers to assist in relief efforts, coaches for the Cavaliers, the Fighting Irish, and three other schools that were supposed to scrimmage at Cookeville High School on March 3 — Hardin Valley, Rhea County, and Warren County — decided to join together and assist in the cleanup.

KCHS soccer coach Gordon Heins said one of the team parents suggested the team lend a hand, so the

Helping hands Knoxville Catholic High School soccer players helped in the cleanup effort following the Cookeville tornadoes. From left are Emmanuel Mata, Lance Duke, Colin Della-Rodolfa, Chris Grill, George McCarty, Parker Knorr, and Austin Naab. Kevin Golec is not pictured. coach reached out to his fellow coach in Cookeville, who was on board.

The response was quick.

Several KCHS players were available, and several dads worked out the logistics.

Austin Naab, a senior captain and goalkeeper for the Fighting Irish, was one of the volunteers, along with his father, Don Naab.

Austin had seen news reports of

the tornadoes, but those didn’t prepare him or his teammates for what they saw firsthand.

“It was a shock, but it didn’t actually hit us until we were there and saw all the damage. It was shocking to see all the catastrophic damage that was there,” Austin said. “There were about eight of us who went over along with family and friends.”

Boys from the teams worked on the

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“In the coming days, we will offer the strength of unity of nearly 12,000 Knights across the state as we go to work to bring relief to this disaster,” State Deputy Michael McCusker wrote in a letter to local Knights.

He called charity “the first and foremost principle” of the fraternal order and said the Tennessee State Council is working in conjunction with the Nashville Diocese “to coordinate a statewide KofC charitable effort.”

The Catholic Pastoral Center in Nashville hosted a Red Cross blood drive on March 9.

The Diocese of Nashville Catholic Schools Office is exploring how it might help Donelson Christian Academy, which was destroyed by the tornado and will be looking to relocate students to finish the school year.

Catholic Charities of Tennessee also is on the front lines of responding to the needs of tornado victims as well as victims of the coronavirus epidemic.

“We have a balance between the work that doesn’t stop and the emergency work,” Judy Orr, the agency’s executive director, told the Tennessee Register, Nashville’s diocesan newspaper.

For example, Wendy Overlock, who oversees the Loaves and Fishes community meal program at Holy Name Church in East Nashville, managed a regularly scheduled March 4 meal service while also serving as the Catholic Charities emergency assistance coordinator, fielding calls from those in need, those who want to help, and communicating with state emergency management officials.

“It’s a lot,” she said. “But we have a lot of helpers.”

The morning of March 4, Ms. Overlock and her team of volunteers made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to hand out to their guests in the hard-hit East Nashville neighborhood where Holy Name is located since the build-

Assessing the damage Bishop J. Mark Spalding of the Diocese of Nashville, center back, listens on March 4 as Father S. Bede Price, pastor at the Church of the Assumption, talks about the damage to the building caused by a tornado that hit Nashville’s historic Germantown neighborhood and crossed the state, killing at least 25 people. The Diocese of Nashville is raising funds for those affected. ing had no power.

“We went back to how we started,” she said, which was the simple act of handing out sandwiches to the homeless 30 years ago.

Meanwhile, at the McGruder Family Resource Center in North Nashville, which is managed by Catholic Charities, volunteers from Gideon’s Army and Metro Nashville Public Schools, among others, showed up in droves to meet the immediate needs of people in the neighborhood.

Observing people who had lost homes or power load up supplies by the garbage bag and wagon load, McGruder director Alisha Haddock noted, “This is what happens when tragedy strikes, we come together.”

Even though the power was out at McGruder, volunteers worked in the kitchen normally used for the Catholic Charities Culinary Training Academy to heat up prepared food to serve anyone in need.

“The community knows they can count on us here,” Ms. Haddock said.

As Catholic Charities’ North Nashville response moved forward, Ms. Haddock said her staff went “out in the community and put hands on the situation. There’s a lot of seniors who are unseen, and we want them to know they are being seen and helped.”

Catholic Charities mapped out a longer-term plan to help those suffering after the storm. With key staff members affected by the tornado themselves, and a long-planned major fundraising event set during the recovery period, Ms. Orr began to formulate the organization’s relief plans. “A thoughtful, organized approach will provide the most relief,” she concluded.

“The work of Catholic Charities is really rebuilding of lives after the emergency,” Ms. Orr said. “We anticipate a lot of people in need of counseling after the trauma of this event, the loss of life and homes, this could be a setInterior continued from page A4

Did you know you can receive weekly cartoons and short reflections and news from the Handmaids of the Precious Blood? Visit their website, nuns for priests.org, and sign up for the FIAT newsletter. You also can learn about praying for priests and adopting them.

TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

to Sister Anna Marie.

She said you can form a life of vigilance through regular prayer, such as the Liturgy of the Hours. The more you pray and learn to conquer distractions and temptations, the more peace and tranquility will enter your life.

“It is not a paranoia. It is not scrupulosity. It is not catastrophizing,” she clarified. “It is a wakefulness in the presence of the Beloved.”

Attendees received a copy of Father Jacques Philippe’s book Interior Freedom.

Father Philippe is a French priest and an internationally renowned best-selling author from the Community of the Beatitudes who writes on prayer, interior freedom, and peace. He spoke in the Diocese of Knoxville in March 2019.

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By Bill Brewer relief project for Samaritan’s Purse, a Boone, N.C.-based nondenominational evangelical Christian organization that provides spiritual and physical assistance to people in distress around the world. Samaritan’s Purse serves Christian churches worldwide to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

According to the organization founded by Franklin Graham, it has helped people impacted by war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine since 1970 with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Austin’s father, Don Naab, helped organize the Fighting Irish relief effort with several other dads. He, too, was taken aback by the devastation.

“We didn’t know what to expect, nor did we know what we’d see when we got there. And once we arrived it was difficult to comprehend what we were seeing. We found ourselves standing in debris-scattered yards where several people died just a short distant away,” Mr. Naab said.

He noted that according to Cookeville High School’s soccer coach, one woman and her husband were carried a quarter-mile away from their house by the storm but survived with injuries. However, the couple’s neighbors on either side of their house did not survive.

“Debris was strewn everywhere

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back from which some people cannot recover.”

Catholic Charities of Tennessee received a $10,000 grant from Catholic Charities USA in the days after the storms, which was used to meet the immediate needs of those affected, such as gift cards for groceries and supplies.

“Our staff members have the protocols in place to assess the needs and connect people with the resources they need,” Ms. Orr said.

Catholic Charities received thousands of dollars in additional donations from those in Tennessee and surrounding states. The Diocese of Nashville has so far received monetary donations of over $24,000 to help parishes and people affected by the tornado.

Donors are encouraged to give online through www.dioceseofnashville. com or www.cctenn.org/donate.cfm.

The grant money, and additional donations, could be used to beef up the Catholic Charities counseling staff, which Ms. Orr anticipated will be greatly needed. “People will have needs beyond ‘I have a hole in my roof’ to ‘I have a hole in my heart,’” she said.

It’s likely that many people in Putnam County, which suffered the greatest loss of life from the tornadoes, will have holes in their hearts for some time to come.

Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said the county has had more than 6,000 volunteers in the area assisting residents with cleanup and recovery.

He said 92 people were treated at Cookeville Regional Medical Center.

He also noted that more than 700 structures in the county had some form of tornado damage: 147 were destroyed, 127 with major damage, 175 with moderate damage, and 262 with minor damage.

And 32 businesses were affected, with eight destroyed, four with major damage, five with moderate damage, and 15 with minor damage. ■ Although the retreat was not focused on Lent, Sister Anna Marie felt that it served as a good kickoff to the Lenten season. Taking place the weekend before Ash Wednesday, the retreat gave women the resources to reflect on stillness, prayer, and ordering desires right before the start of the penitential season.

The retreat concluded with Sister Anna Marie encouraging the women to take time to pray and focus on overcoming the distractions and temptations that keep us from God. “God is always calling us,” she said. “The more at peace we are, the more we are able to respond.”

You can listen to talks from the retreat on Sister Anna Marie’s podcast “Scripture and the Spiritual Life.” ■ APRIL 5, 2020 n A7

Creative Catholicism

Bishop Stika directed priests in the diocese to continue celebrating Mass in churches at irregular times without public participation, but to keep churches open for adoration. Some churches were offering livestreaming of their Masses on Internet video channels for parishioners to follow. Links to the livestreamed Masses and information important to parishioners about the pandemic are available on the Diocese of Knoxville website, dioknox.org.

Bishop Stika and Cardinal Rigali were celebrating Masses from the chapel in the bishop’s residence that were broadcast to parishioners on social media.

The bishop also has communicated regularly with parishioners via video segments posted on dioknox.org with spiritual guidance, uplifting stories of faith, diocesan news, and updates on efforts to contain the coronavirus. He is encouraging the faithful to regularly check dioknox.org for updates as news A8 n APRIL 5, 2020

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As the public celebration of Easter in churches across the diocese was cast into doubt, Bishop Stika called current events caused by the public health crisis “our Good Friday.”

“Today, we enter into Good Friday.

As a Church, as a people of faith. This is our Good Friday,” he said during his homily at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus at noon March 19. “Remember on Holy Thursday we have this glorious celebration of the Eucharist. Then we have a procession.

Then we darken the church, strip the altar, and kind of separate ourselves and pause and reflect. The next day we pray for the world. We hear the story of the passion and the death of Jesus.”

“Today (March 19) will be the last Mass celebrated in this church, this cathedral, for a while. We don’t know how long. This is our Good Friday.

There’s a darkness. There’s something shadowing over the world, something we cannot understand. Just like the Apostles could not understand when Jesus was crucified. The uncertainty. The anxiety. The confusion, even though they listened to Jesus when He talked about what was to come,” the bishop added.

Bishop Stika has issued formal decrees to advise how parishioners are to practice their faith during the pandemic. He said in addition to his own personal discernment, he has sought the advice of health-care professionals, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and clergy who are well-versed in canon law.

The decrees have been repeatedly upgraded to account for developments in the spread of the virus and the respiratory disease it causes, COVID-19.

Mandates of the decrees include: n Suspension of all public Masses, diocesan and parish events, penance services, confirmations, wedding Masses, and funeral Masses until further notice; n Suspension of public Easter Week Masses and services, including Easter Mass and Palm Sunday Mass, with no public gatherings inside or outside churches; n Masses will be celebrated without a congregation by the pastor or parish priest; n Dispensation of the obligation to attend Sunday Mass until further notice; n Until public Masses were suspended, distribution of Communion on the tongue was suspended, with distribution only in the hand; n Until public Masses were suspended, distribution of the Precious Blood of Christ was suspended; n Until public Masses were suspended, the Sign of Peace was omitted, or exchanged without physical contact; n Until public Masses were suspended, Mass participants were to refrain from holding hands during the recitation of the Our Father; n Until public Masses were suspended, ushers were to refrain from passing collection baskets person to person, Churches instead were to use fixed collection locations in appropriate aisles so parishioners can place their donations in them as they process to or from Communion; n All adoration chapels were closed, and instead the holy Eucharist has been exposed in the monstrance in church sanctuaries; n Holy water fonts are to be emptied and kept completely dry.

Lift high the cross Bishop Richard F. Stika delivers the homily on March 19 at Sacred Heart Cathedral and spoke to the darkness of the coronavirus pandemic but also inspired parishioners with hope and the power of prayer. about the virus and its impact on the diocese has been rapidly changing.

He has asked diocesan priests to be creative in maintaining communications with their members who must be absent from Mass and other church activities.

Some priests are e-mailing daily parish newsletters to members and have taken to social media to remain connected, using Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and other platforms to also deliver their messages.

Bishop Stika said he will privately celebrate liturgies throughout Holy Week, and they will be available to watch via livestream, with the links available at dioknox.org.

He will celebrate Palm Sunday Mass on April 5 at 9 a.m., Holy Thursday Mass on April 9 at 7 p.m., and the Good Friday service on April 10 at 3 p.m. He will celebrate Easter Vigil Mass on April 11 at 7 p.m. and then Easter Sunday Mass on April 12 at 9 a.m.

Parishes are turning to Knights of Columbus councils to assist members and neighbors in need, such as seniors and those with health conditions that prevent them from grocery shopping and other necessary activities. Bishop Stika called on all parishioners to reach out to their neighbors, noting that it is these acts of kindness and mercy that spread hope instead of fear.

The bishop emphasized that the suspension of Masses was necessary and will remain in effect until the threat to public health subsides.

As he was instituting extraordinary measures to protect parishioners and still provide for the practice of the faith, the bishop encouraged Catholics in the diocese to take seriously the recommendations made by public health officials to combat the coronavirus.

He especially urged youth and young adults to exercise caution and common sense, pointing out that individuals can still carry the virus and expose others even if they are asymptomatic.

To illustrate the impact the crisis is having on the U.S. Church, more than 160 archdioceses and dioceses across the country have suspended Masses in response to the pandemic, forcing many Catholics to suspend or alter their regular sacramental practices.

“Faith communities are doing their part. All of us have to do our part.

We’re at war. During World War II there were all kinds of restrictions. We do together what we can’t do by ourselves. I ask everybody, if you can, to pray the rosary every day. The rosary reminds us of faith, hope, and charity.

And it reminds me of the Gospel of St. Luke, when Mary was invited by God, through the angel, to be the mother of Jesus,” Bishop Stika said.

He advised priests to continue offering the sacrament of reconciliation on a restricted basis. Priests are to hear confessions only with the screen in place, and they must thoroughly clean the confessionals with disinfectant wipes after each confession. Parishioners should check with their parish office for confession availability.

The restrictive measures come as more states require all residents to shelter in place and remain home from work. In those states, only businesses and employees considered essential have been allowed out. Those include doctors, nurses, pharmacies, and grocery stores, as well as law enforcement and first responders. More than 200 million people in at least 21 states, 47 counties, and 14 cities were under or-

Hear our prayer A young man prays before the last public Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral on March 19 before diocesan churches suspended public Masses because of public health concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

“The less we hang around with each other, even though we like each other, the less we do this the more we can level down the virus. Scientists are working on it. The government is working on it. People are praying. We just have to trust. Working together, we can do what we can’t do by ourselves. I don’t know all the answers, but I trust.”

— Bishop Richard F. Stika ders to remain inside their homes in late March.

In Tennessee, Knox County, Davidson County, Shelby County, and Frankin were under instructions to stay at home. As of March 27, there were more than 85,000 coronavirus cases reported in the United States, with more than 1,000 deaths, and the numbers were increasing rapidly.

As coronavirus cases rise across the state, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has declared a state of emergency to facilitate treatment and containment. A number of cities and counties across the state have followed suit, including Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville, where “Safer At Home” orders advising nonessential businesses to close for 14 days.

Among the activities around the state that Gov. Lee has asked to be curtailed to stem the rapid spread of the disease is church attendance.

Since the first coronavirus case was reported by the Tennessee Department of Health on March 5 the number of cases across the state has jumped to more than 1,000. Three deaths have been reported across the state. And more than 20 of the 36 counties that make up the Diocese of Knoxville have reported coronavirus cases.

The federal government has issued guidelines for the public to follow to slow the spread of the virus, including urging no public gatherings of more than 10 people anywhere in the country. Following its lead, some urban areas in the state, including Knoxville and Knox County, are restricting how customers can dine at restaurants, patronize bars and nightclubs, use gyms, and attend events. For at least two

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weeks, customers have been prohibited from eating inside restaurants. They can receive dinners only by take-out or delivery. Bars and nightclubs are closed as are gyms and event venues.

Schools also are closed, from prekindergarten programs to colleges and universities. The University of Tennessee instructed students to return home for spring semester, where they are to attend class remotely. Spring sports programs are being postponed or canceled, and graduations are in doubt.

Dr. Sedonna Prater, superintendent of the Diocese of Knoxville’s 10 schools, has informed teachers, students, and parents that the schools in Chattanooga, Farragut, Knoxville, Oak Ridge, Kingsport, and Johnson City will be closed indefinitely. Teachers will be offering at-home teaching with virtual instruction, where students are doing their classwork from home.

“Adjusting to this new learning approach may continue to take a little time, but I hope that you will continue to embrace it with an enthusiastic spirit and a charitable heart,” Dr. Prater told faculty members. “Our Catholic teaching encourages us to always remember that we are a community of faithful believers—all one family under God. We are in this together and we are not alone. God will give us all what we need. We have a responsibility to work together to love, respect, and care for others in a way that will improve the well-being of every person in our community and the wider world.”

Taking precautions

While the diocese and greater East

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The power of prayer

For the first time in recent memory,

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Marian intercession Bishop Richard F. Stika is encouraging all Catholics to pray the rosary during the coronavirus pandemic that is closing churches to the public, separating people from the sacraments. the Vatican was closed to visitors as Rome and all of Italy were placed on lockdown by executive order.

On March 15, Pope Francis left his Vatican residence to pray for those affected by the coronavirus at a crucifix in the Church of San Marcello in the center of Rome. Faithful believe the crucifix helped save Rome from the plague in 1522.

Bishop Stika said he also continues to pray for an end to the pandemic and all the people it has impacted. He is saddened by those who have fallen ill, the businesses and organizations that have been adversely affected, and the impact on the faithful and their parishes.

But he’s hopeful efforts to eradicate the virus will be successful and an effective treatment will be found. He noted how diligently Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists and their super computers are working to find a drug that kills the virus, as are health-care professionals who are battling its spread.

The bishop thanked the believers and non-believers alike who are helping their neighbors in need, offering hope that has lately been in demand.

Until the spread of the virus is arrested and reversed, uncertainty and fear will be in plentiful supply.

“Uncertainty is filled throughout the Scriptures. The early Church, the Middle Ages. The uncertainty of life has been a part of our Church since the beginning. Since Moses looked at the bush, since the Israelites traveled through the desert. … I bet you have a certain sense of uncertainty. Right?

The uncertainty of the future right now is not defined. Right now is when we live our faith and trust in Jesus.

Our Good Friday is probably going to be extended for a while,” Bishop Stika told the congregation at the last public Mass at the cathedral.

The bishop, who marked the 11th anniversary of his episcopal ordination March 19, invoked the intercession of St. Joseph during the Mass. A statue of St. Joseph stood beside him as he delivered his homily, in which he encouraged the congregation and those watching via livestream to follow his episcopal motto: “Jesus, I trust in you.”

“My sisters and brothers, that’s it.

Jesus, we trust in you because you will not abandon us,” Bishop Stika said. “If there is any caveat that I want you to take with you today during these moments of uncertainty as we enter our

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Tennessee come to terms with school closings, business closings, event cancellations, and sheltering in place, the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic is continuing to treat patients in six mostly rural communities.

Sister Mariana Koonce, RSM, the physician who serves as medical director of the mobile clinic, is asking patients to notify the mobile clinic staff before their appointment if they have a fever, cough, or shortness of breath, which are symptoms of COVID-19.

Sister Mariana said only patients with appointments will be allowed in the clinic, and individuals who aren’t patients are asked to wait in their vehicles. Patients are asked to practice good hygiene by using hand sanitizer when entering the clinic.

“Considering all that is happening in our world related to COVID-19, we wanted to reach out to everyone.

Please know we are committed to the safety of our patients, volunteers, and staff. At this time we are still seeing patients. However, in order to protect everyone, we have made some changes,” Sister Mariana said. “We are eternally grateful for the opportunity to provide care to our patients and to all of our volunteers for their continued support. We will continue to keep everyone updated.”

Sister Mariana also said mobile clinic patients will be asked if they have traveled outside the East Tennessee area.

Since the outbreak began in the United States in January, the federal government has restricted travel, warning people to not go overseas and use caution in going across the country. In addition to China, areas hardest hit by the virus are Italy, South Korea, Spain, Germany, and France.

A number of pilgrimages from the Diocese of Knoxville to sacred sites in different parts of the world are on hold as tour directors await word on when travel can return to normal.

“It has been heartbreaking for so many…the pilgrims, the guides, the bus drivers, the hotels, the list goes on and on and on. But spiritual graces and lives that are forever touched by a pilgrimage to these holy and sacred sites, and the ripple effect that these pilgrims have when they return spreading God’s love and mercy, is perhaps the most heartbreaking. I know it will return and all of us will come out stronger, and I know God has a plan in it all. Prayers for all as our world journeys through this time together,” said Lisa Morris, a Sacred Heart Cathedral parishioner and representative for Select International Tours, which leads many diocesan pilgrimages.

While she said the situation is heartbreaking for pilgrims and those who provide for them, Mrs. Morris is hopeful the pilgrimages will return.

“Yes I am confident the pilgrimages will return. Pilgrimages have been a part of Church history from the very beginning, just as the Church has gone through its peaks and valleys and we as well. Pilgrimages will return because they draw us closer to God and His Church and each other, changing the world for the better. We as God’s children have that desire written in our heart to make journeys of faith with others to the holy places of God and the saints. There’s no doubt in my mind pilgrimages will go on until the end of time,” Mrs. Morris added.

Adored and glorified Father Michael Hendershott, associate pastor at Holy Ghost Church, leads the benediction concluding adoration on Sunday morning, March 22. He was assisted by seminarian Robbie Bauman.

Good Friday, it’s Jesus we trust in you.

If you are a member of the Diocese of Knoxville, the decisions that I am making and bishops are making throughout the United States are not arbitrary, are not made to make your life miserable, are not to add to your uncertainty and anxiety. Believe me, I’ve lost sleep. … Every decision I make, in consultation with the vicars general and senior leadership, just like every bishop throughout the world and even the pope, is based on being a good shepherd who cares for his sheep.”

Bishop Stika said he’s still determining the long-term impact on confirmations, first holy Communions, weddings, Hispanic ceremonies, funerals, and other Masses and events if the country still is practicing isolation measures indefinitely. Now, only burial services can take place with no more than 10 family members and friends attending.

The priestly ordination of two seminarians, Deacon Alexander Hernandez and Deacon Zachary Griffith, has been rescheduled from May to August, and it is hoped that the ordination in Rome of seminarian Matthew Donahue to

the transitional diaconate will still take place in October.

All the suspended activities, the postponements, and cancellations can be overwhelming.

“It’s all based on medical advice from the CDC. I thought that (initial sanitary measures) was going to be enough. But then I began to talk to other bishops, and more dioceses here and archdioceses there were beginning to close, and the medical advice was coming. The best way to confront this virus that we know nothing about is to hammer it down so that even though it might exist, we don’t want it to exist like this because our health-care system will be overwhelmed,” Bishop Stika said.

“The less we hang around with each other, even though we like each other, the less we do this the more we can level down the virus. Scientists are working on it. The government is working on it. People are praying. We just have to trust. Working together, we can do what we can’t do by ourselves. I don’t know all the answers, but I trust,” he concluded. ■

First bishop known to die of coronavirus was an Ethiopia missionary

By Catholic News Agency

T

he Italian bishop of a missionary region of Ethiopia is the first Catholic bishop known to have died of the global coronavirus pandemic. He died March 25.

Bishop Angelo Moreschi, 67, was the leader of Ethiopia’s Apostolic Vicariate of Gambella, a missionary region of 25,000 Catholics in the western part of the country. He died in the Italian city of Brescia, in the Lombardy region that has become the European epicenter of the pandemic.

A member of the Salesians of Don Bosco religious order, Bishop Moreschi had been a missionary in Ethiopia since 1991. He was ordained a bishop in January 2010.

“The Salesian community mourns the death of the Apostolic Vicar of Gambella (Ethiopia), TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

namely Monsignor Angelo Moreschi, SDB, who died today, March 25, in Brescia (Italy) due to the coronavirus,” the Salesians of Don Bosco said in a statement.

The secretary general of Ethiopia’s bishops’ conference announced the news in the country, conveying “deep condolences to the clergy, religious, bereaved family, and the lay faithful in the Apostolic Vicariate of Gambella.”

To the mourning people of the Gambella vicariate, the country’s bishops pledged the “closeness and prayers of members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia and the entire Catholic Church in Ethiopia. May his soul rest in peace.”

Bishop Moreschi was renowned in Ethiopia for his pastoral ministry to the service of young people and the poor. In the local dialect, he was afforded the title “Abba,” meaning “Father.” w ww.di o k no x .o rg

“In his mission as prefect and then as apostolic vicar, he continued to embody the Salesian focus in helping children, accompanying them by his practical spirit and his strong apostolic zeal,” the Salesians of Don Bosco stated.

“In his visits to the villages, they still remember when the Salesian arrived with a battered SUV — or by motorboat in the villages along the Baro river when the roads were flooded and he immediately began to distribute multivitamin biscuits to malnourished children.”

Bishop Moreschi died “after serving the young, the poor, and his flock of souls as a Salesian for 46 years, as a priest for 38, and as a bishop for over 10,” the Salesians said.

More than 60 priests have died in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 21,000 lives globally. A number of bishops have contracted the virus. ■ APRIL 5, 2020 n A9

A closer look at COVID-19: What’s behind the pandemic

By FAITH Catholic

Getting the message across Left: Bishop Richard F. Stika gives a message to Catholics across the diocese with updates on how the Diocese of Knoxville is responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

Bishop Stika has delivered a series of video messages to keep parishioners informed. The messages are recorded in the diocesan studio on the Sacred Heart Cathedral campus by communications director Jim Wogan and are available for viewing on the diocesan website, dioknox.org.

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What are the symptoms of COVID-19?

The CDC website, https://www.cdc. gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index. html, provides extensive information about COVID-19 and the response of health professionals around the world.

Public awareness of the symptoms and how to report suspected cases are essential in mitigating the spread of the virus. COVID-19 can cause mild symptoms in some people but severe illness and death for others.

Symptoms may appear two to 14 days after exposure and include: n Fever; n Cough; n Shortness of breath.

The CDC alert directs people to call their healthcare professional if they develop symptoms, and have been in close contact with a person known to have COVID-19, or if they have recently traveled from an area with widespread or ongoing community spread of COVID-19. Check cdc.gov for a list of areas where the virus is widespread.

How can I protect myself from being infected with COVID-19?

Since a vaccine or drug is not currently available for preventing or treating COVID-19, the CDC recommends that individuals take action to prevent the spread of the disease. Practice everyday preventive actions now.

Remind everyone in your household of the importance of practicing everyday actions that can help prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses.

The CDC offers the following guidance: n Avoid close contact with people who are sick ever; n Stay home when you are sick, except to get medical care; n Cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue; n Clean frequently touched surfaces A10 n APRIL 5, 2020

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/PAUL HARING

and objects daily (e.g., tables, countertops, light switches, doorknobs, and cabinet handles) using a regular household detergent and water. If surfaces are dirty, they should be cleaned using a detergent and water prior to disinfection; n Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing. If soap and water are not readily available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol. Always wash your hands with soap and water if your hands are visibly dirty.

A test tube with a coronavirus label is seen in this Jan. 29 illustration.

Archbishop Gómez responds to COVID-19 outbreak Archbishop José H. Gómez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued the following statement March 13 regarding the coronavirus: “With the worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus, we are confronted once more with the fragility of our lives, and again we are reminded of our common humanity — that the peoples of this world are our brothers and sisters, that we are all one family under God. God does not abandon us, He goes with us even now in this time of trial and testing. In this moment, it is important for us to anchor our hearts in the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Now is the time to intensify our prayers and sacrifices for the love of God and the love of our neighbor. Let us draw closer to one another in our love for him, and rediscover the things that truly matter in our lives.

United with our Holy Father, Pope Francis, let us pray in solidarity for our brothers and sisters here and around the world who are sick.

Let us pray for those who have lost loved ones to this virus.

May God console them and grant them peace.

We pray also for doctors, nurses, and caregivers, for public health officials and all civic leaders. May God grant them courage and prudence as they seek to respond to this emergency with compasCATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/PAUL HARING sion and in service to Protection from the elements Women wearing masks for protection from the coronavirus the common good.

In this time of need, cross St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on March 9, the day Italy’s prime minister imposed a I invite all the faithful national quarantine, restricting the movement of people except for necessary circumstances. to seek together the maternal intercession For those already afflicted, help us always to know the love of your of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and I share we ask you to obtain the grace of healing Son, Jesus. Amen. this prayer with you: and deliverance.

Prayer to St. Roch (patron of contaHear the cries of those who are vulnergious illnesses) Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe able and fearful, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/DADO RUVIC, REUTERS

How does the virus spread?

The virus is thought to spread primarily from person to person, within six feet of proximity. Respiratory droplets are spread when an infected person sneezes or coughs. They land in the mouths or noses of others, and then are inhaled into their lungs. Although not thought to be the primary way, it may be possible to become infected by touching your mouth, nose, or eyes after touching a surface that has the virus.

Currently there is no evidence that the virus is transmitted through food, but the normal safety practice of washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds before handling food should be observed. According to the CDC, coronaviruses generally have poor survivability on surfaces, so there is low risk that the virus will spread from food products or packaging shipped over a period of days or weeks at room temperature or below.

Below: Workers making deliveries for a bank are seen with masks on in their vehicles in Rome on March 10. Italy is in a state of lockdown.

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ccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the novel (new) coronavirus, first detected in China in December, has now been detected in the United States and at least 156 other countries and territories.

On Jan. 20, in collaboration with the CDC, state and local health departments in the United States began identifying and monitoring all people who have had close contact with patients confirmed to have coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, now identified as SARS-CoV-2.

SARS-CoV-2 is a member of a large family of viruses that are common in people and many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats. Though rare, people can become infected with animal coronaviruses and then spread the virus to other people. Like many of these viruses, SARS-CoV-2 originated in bats.

Many of the patients in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak was initially detected, had a common connection with a large seafood and live-animal market.

Subsequent reports of the disease indicate that the virus was then being spread person-to-person in China and then in other countries. The virus from patients in the United States is similar to the one that China initially detected, indicating that it emerged from the same animal reservoir.

Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of the Angels and Mother of the Americas.

We fly to you today as your beloved children.

We ask you to intercede for us with your Son, as you did at the wedding in Cana.

Pray for us, loving Mother, and gain for our nation and world, and for all our families and loved ones, the protection of your holy angels, that we may be spared the worst of this illness.

wipe away their tears and help them to trust.

In this time of trial and testing, teach all of us in the Church to love one another and to be patient and kind.

Help us to bring the peace of Jesus to our land and to our hearts.

We come to you with confidence, knowing that you truly are our compassionate mother, health of the sick and cause of our joy.

Shelter us under the mantle of your protection, keep us in the embrace of your arms,

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O blessed St. Roch, patron of the sick, have pity on those who lie upon a bed of suffering.

Your power was so great when you were in this world, That by the sign of the cross, many were healed of their diseases.

Now that you are in heaven, your power is not less. Offer, then, to God our sighs and tears and obtain for us that health we seek through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

(Repeat the following three times)

COVID-19 continued on page A11 TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

Catholics encouraged to practice spiritual Communion

Pope Francis, bishops are encouraging faithful who are not able to attend Mass to desire a union with Jesus in the Holy Eucharist receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace you as if you were already there and unite myself wholly to you.

Never permit me to be separated from you. Amen.

By FAITH Catholic

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COVID-19 continued from page A10

St. Roch, pray for us, that we may be preserved from all diseases of body and soul.

Prayer for spiritual communion attributed to St. Alphonsus Ligouri

My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament.

I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul.

Since I cannot now receive You

In addition to St. Teresa of Jesus, other saints have encouraged spiritual Communion:

STEPHANIE RICHER

fter the Angelus prayer on March 3, Pope Francis invited the faithful “to rediscover and deepen the value of the Communion that unites all the members of the Church. United to Christ we are never alone, but we form one single Body, of which He is the Head.”

Pope Francis encouraged those unable to attend Church to pray for spiritual Communion, “a practice that is highly recommended when it is not possible to receive the sacrament.”

Archbishops and bishops in the United States join the pope in inviting the faithful to this practice.

In his encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Pope John Paul II explained how the essential role of the Eucharist in uniting us to Christ led to the practice of “spiritual Communion.”

In the Eucharist, “unlike any other sacrament, the mystery [of Communion] is so perfect that it brings us to the heights of every good thing: Here is the ultimate goal of every human desire, because here we attain God and God joins himself to us in the most perfect union.”

Precisely for this reason it is good to cultivate in our hearts a constant desire for the sacrament of the Eucharist. This was the origin of the practice of “spiritual Communion,” which has happily been established in the Church for centuries and recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual life.

A moment of adoration Bishop Richard F. Stika kneels in prayer before the holy Eucharist at Sacred Heart Cathedral on March 19.

“Communion is to the soul like blowing a fire that is beginning to go out, but that still has plenty of hot embers; we blow, and the fire burns again.

After the reception of the Sacraments, when we feel ourselves slacken in the love of God, let us have recourse at once to spiritual communion. When we cannot go to the church, let us turn towards the tabernacle; no wall cannot separate us from the good God.” — St. John Vianney

“When you do not receive communion and you do not attend Mass, you can make a spiritual communion, which is a most beneficial practice; by it the love of God will be greatly impressed on you.”

— St. Teresa of Jesus [The Way of Perfection, Ch. 35.].1.

who have not yet been received into full communion with the Church. St. Thomas Aquinas described it as “an ardent desire to receive Jesus in the most holy sacrament and lovingly embrace him” at a time or in circumstances when we cannot receive him in sacramental Communion.

What is spiritual Communion?

Spiritual Communion is the practice of desiring union with Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. It is used primarily by individuals who cannot receive holy Communion, such as the ill, the divorced and remarried, and those

Act of Spiritual Communion

My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.

I love you above all things, and I desire to receive you into my soul.

Since I cannot at this moment

“What a source of grace there is in spiritual Communion! Practice it frequently and you’ll have more presence of God and closer union with Him in your life.”

— St. Josemaría Escrivá ■

sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.

I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.

the Sick.

At the foot of the cross you participated in Jesus’ pain, with steadfast faith.

You, Salvation of the Roman People, know what we need.

We are certain that you will provide, so that, as you did at Cana of Galilee, joy and feasting might return after this moment of trial.

Help us, Mother of Divine Love,

to conform ourselves to the Father’s will and to do what Jesus tells us: He who took our sufferings upon Himself, and bore our sorrows to bring us, through the Cross, to the joy of the Resurrection. Amen.

We seek refuge under your protection, O Holy Mother of God. Do not despise our pleas — we who are put to the test — and deliver us from every danger, O glorious and blessed Virgin. ■

Pope Francis prayer

O Mary, you shine continuously on our journey as a sign of salvation and hope.

We entrust ourselves to you, Health of

“Spiritual Communion is “an ardent desire to receive Jesus in the Holy Sacrament and a loving embrace as though we had already received Him.” — St. Thomas Aquinas

U.S. dioceses respond to the coronavirus outbreak

By FAITH Catholic

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s the rapid spread of the coronavirus jumps continents and threatens to sweep across the United States, archbishops and bishops have been forced to respond to public health officials’ urgent pleas to drastically limit the number of people who should gather.

To protect their parishioners and the general public, the following archdioceses and dioceses have suspended all public Masses as of March 27: Archdiocese of Anchorage Archdiocese of Atlanta Archdiocese of Baltimore Archdiocese of Boston Archdiocese of Chicago Archdiocese of Cincinnati Archdiocese of Denver Archdiocese of Detroit Archdiocese of Dubuque Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston Archdiocese of Hartford Archdiocese of Indianapolis Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas Archdiocese of Los Angeles Archdiocese of Louisville Archdiocese of Miami Archdiocese of Milwaukee Archdiocese of Mobile Archdiocese of New Orleans Archdiocese of New York Archdiocese of Newark Archdiocese of Oklahoma City Archdiocese of Omaha Archdiocese of Philadelphia Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon Archdiocese of San Antonio Archdiocese of San Francisco Archdiocese of Santa Fe Archdiocese of Seattle Archdiocese of St. Louis Archdiocese of the Military Services Archdiocese of Washington Diocese of Albany Diocese of Alexandria Diocese of Allentown Diocese of Amarillo Diocese of Arlington Diocese of Austin Diocese of Baker Diocese of Baton Rouge TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

Diocese of Biloxi Diocese of Birmingham Diocese of Bismarck Diocese of Boise Diocese of Bridgeport Diocese of Brooklyn Diocese of Buffalo Diocese of Camden Diocese of Charleston Diocese of Cheyenne Diocese of Cleveland Diocese of Colorado Springs Diocese of Columbus Diocese of Covington Diocese of Crookston Diocese of Dallas Diocese of Davenport Diocese of Des Moines Diocese of Dodge City Diocese of Duluth Diocese of Erie Diocese of Evansville Diocese of Fairbanks Diocese of Fall River Diocese of Fargo Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese of Fresno Diocese of Gallup Diocese of Gary Diocese of Gaylord Diocese of Grand Island Diocese of Grand Rapids Diocese of Great Falls-Billings Diocese of Green Bay Diocese of Greensburg Diocese of Harrisburg Diocese of Helena Diocese of Honolulu Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux Diocese of Jackson Diocese of Jefferson City Diocese of Joliet Diocese of Juneau Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph Diocese of Knoxville Diocese of La Crosse Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana Diocese of Lake Charles Diocese of Lansing Diocese of Laredo Diocese of Las Cruces Diocese of Las Vegas Diocese of Lexington

Diocese of Lincoln Diocese of Little Rock Diocese of Madison Diocese of Manchester Diocese of Memphis Diocese of Metuchen Diocese of Nashville Diocese of New Ulm Diocese of Norwich Diocese of Oakland Diocese of Ogdensburg Diocese of Paterson Diocese of Peoria Diocese of Phoenix Diocese of Pittsburgh Diocese of Providence Diocese of Pueblo Diocese of Raleigh Diocese of Rapid City Diocese of Reno Diocese of Richmond Diocese of Rochester Diocese of Rockville Centre Diocese of Saginaw Diocese of Salina Diocese of Salt Lake City Diocese of San Angelo Diocese of San Diego Diocese of San Jose Diocese of Santa Rosa Diocese of Savannah Diocese of Scranton Diocese of Shreveport Diocese of Sioux City Diocese of Sioux Falls Diocese of St. Cloud Diocese of St. Thomas, VI Diocese of Steubenville Diocese of Stockton Diocese of Toledo Diocese of Trenton Diocese of Tucson Diocese of Tyler Diocese of Victoria Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Diocese of Wichita Diocese of Wilmington Diocese of Worcester Diocese of Yakima Diocese of Youngstown Diocese of Owensboro Diocese of Sacramento Diocese of San Bernardino Diocese of Spokane

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Diocese of Springfield in Illinois Diocese of Springfield, Mass.

Diocese of St. Petersburg Diocese of St. Thomas Diocese of Syracuse Diocese of Venice Diocese of Orlando Diocese of St. Augustine Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese of Superior Diocese of Monterey Diocese of Palm Beach Diocese of Burlington Diocese of Belleville Diocese of Rockford Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese of Portland in Maine Diocese of Marquette Diocese of Orange The Diocese of Charlotte has suspended public Masses for groups of more than 10.

The following archdiocese and dioceses have granted a dispensation from attending Sunday Mass to all Catholics: Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown Diocese of Brownsville Diocese of Kalamazoo Diocese of Winona-Rochester Dioceses that have granted conditional dispensations from attending Sunday Mass: The Diocese of Tulsa dispenses Catholics from the Sunday obligation to attend Mass if they are at risk of becoming ill because of a medical condition or if they are a caregiver of someone who is at risk.

The Diocese of Fort Worth grants a dispensation from the Sunday obligation to attend Mass to all who are ill or concerned about becoming ill.

The Dioceses of Lubbock and Beaumont grant a dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass to those over the age of 60, who are ill, or those who have serious concerns about becoming ill.

The Diocese of Corpus Christi is limiting Masses to no more than 250 people.

The Diocese of El Paso is weighing options for celebrating public Masses. ■ APRIL 5, 2020 n A11

Pope prays for people in financial difficulty because of pandemic

P

ope Francis is offering prayers for everyone, particularly families, facing financial difficulties because of the pandemic.

“Let us pray today for people who are beginning to experience economic problems because they cannot work due to the pandemic, and all of this falls on the family,” he said at the start of Mass on March 23.

Nearly 25 million jobs may be lost worldwide due to COVID-19, the International Labor Organization estimated in a preliminary assessment report released March 18.

However, the impact on employment could be lower if there is an internationally coordinated policy response, similar to what happened during the global financial crisis of 2008, it said.

During his livestreamed morning Mass, the pope reflected on what true prayer requires.

Many times prayer can just be a mere habit of reciting a series of words, he said in his homily.

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/VATICAN MEDIA

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

Invoking the Holy Spirit Pope Francis holds the monstrance during eucharistic benediction at the end of his morning Mass March 23 in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae at the Vatican.

But authentic prayer comes from a heart filled with faith, he said.

“Let us be careful during prayer to not fall into a habit without an awareness that the Lord is there, that I am speaking with the Lord, and that he is able to solve the problem,”

the pope said.

The second thing needed is perseverance, he said.

Some people may pray, but the graces are not received because “they don’t have this perseverance, because deep down they are not in

need or they don’t have faith.”

“If you have faith, you are sure that the Lord will give what you ask.

And if the Lord makes you wait, you knock and knock and knock until he grants that grace.”

If God is not answering one’s prayers, there is a reason, according to the pope.

“He is doing it for our own good so that we take it seriously, take prayer seriously” and be more firmly rooted in faith, not just in parroting words, the Holy Father said.

“The third thing God wants in prayer is courage,” he said, the courage to keep praying and sometimes arguing with God, like Moses, who stood up for his people against God’s desire to strike them down for their sins.

“These days, it is necessary to pray, to pray more” and to pray with perseverance, courage, and the faith that the Lord can intervene, he said.

“The Lord does not disappoint,” Pope Francis said. “He makes us wait, He takes His time, but He does not disappoint.” ■

No Mass, no offertory: parish, diocesan, national collections hit hard

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service

A12 n APRIL 5, 2020

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ne byproduct of canceled Masses is no offertory collection. And a byproduct of no offertory collection is puncture wounds in the budgets of parishes, dioceses, and national collections.

“It’s a big hit, and it’s gonna hurt,” said Patrick Markey, executive director of the Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference, based in Phoenix.

Rare is the U.S. diocese that has not canceled public Masses in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Some announced a two-week cancellation in hopes of resuming them for Passion Sunday. Others, following the Vatican’s lead, have opted to call off any public celebrations through Easter. Still others are in an “until further notice” holding pattern.

How long a parish can go without receiving revenue from parishioners is a still-unanswered question.

Another factor is national collections, with one slated for the weekend of March 21-22 in most U.S. parishes.

The Catholic Relief Services collection helps more than CRS, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency. It also provides funding for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Offices of International Justice and Peace, Migration and Refugee Services, and Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees, the Vatican’s own relief work, and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.

CRS’ annual Rice Bowl campaign in U.S. parishes concludes in early April. Also due up: the Pontifical Collection for the Holy Land, traditionally done on Good Friday — April 10 this year — and the Catholic Home Missions Appeal, scheduled for the weekend Masses of April 25-26.

For many national collections, the collection itself is the primary source of funding, said Mary Mencarini Campbell, executive director of the USCCB Office of National Collections. “We literally have all of our eggs in the collection basket,” she added.

“We’ve seen in other downturns, they’ve given immediately to help out,” Mr. Markey said, but “if they’re not in a church to hear that appeal, they’re not going to think about it.

It’s going to have a big impact. I just would urge people to remember the Church, even though they’re not home. Send a check to the parish anyway, just as you would if you were in church. All those parishes rely on those donations to operate.”

He added some U.S. Catholics “may not be receiving their own paycheck” as government-ordered closures have thrown many people out of work. It may become a situation that parishes and dioceses also face.

Dioceses and churches are “trying to make contingency plans,” Mr. Markey said. “They understand from an HR (human resources) perspective how to do it. They’ll want to pay

Gifts of the faithful Ushers at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus collect the offertory during Ash Wednesday Mass on Feb. 26. everybody, but they have to be realistic about that.” He added, “In the short term, they can continue making payroll to all of the employees, but at some point, they’ll have to start looking at other options.”

The main reason for the uncertainty is that no one knows for just how long life on lockdown may last.

“It’s one thing as we watch Mass attendance go down. It’s another when the only situation we have similar to this is when a major blizzard hits early in the year and it really impacts giving in particular regions, but it’s not the entire country,” Campbell said. “This is uncharted waters. “ “Uncharted waters” was a phrase used also by Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle, chairman of the USCCB Committee on National Collections.

“The focus clearly for bishops today is on our people,” he told Catholic News Service. “We are facing a pandemic, and every bishop in this country right now is making many, many, many decisions about keeping our people safe, our parishioners, our workers, our volunteers.”

As archbishop of an area that became an early epicenter of the pandemic, he said: “We’re already working with parishes to get a sense of what their cash reserves are and how long that can carry them, and what we as an archdiocese will hopefully be able to do to help bridge things until normalcy returns again.

“But we’re in uncharted waters now. Right now, people’s health and safety are our primary concern.

But we’re looking at the present reality, and we will start putting in place a plan to help our parishes get back on their feet again — and the archdiocese.”

Archbishop Etienne added, “But we trust always in the goodness of our people. They always step up, and I have trust in God and I have trust in the people of God, and I’m not going to let go of that — either one.”

Mark Melia, CRS executive vice president of charitable giving, said in a March 19 statement: “With the situation in flux and so much uncertainty, we don’t know what the impacts on

giving could be. However, around the world CRS is helping our Church partners to respond to this crisis in creative ways. Given the adverse economic implications, donors likely too will be facing economic challenges themselves.”

There are about 17,000 Catholic parishes in the United States, but a small percentage offer online donation services. One such service, Faith Direct, counts about 900 Catholic clients, less than 5.3 percent of all U.S. parishes.

However, as the number of diocesan Mass cancellations began rising, Faith Direct sales manager Mike Walsh said inquiries have gone “through the roof.”

The intent of online giving is to move away from the offertory envelopes that have been used for

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generations at parishes and toward a “managed giving” system that can provide income to the parish, and for second collections, even when the parishioner isn’t at church on a given Sunday, said Brad Otto, Faith Direct general manager.

“We target 25-30 percent using Faith Direct within the first year, then we look to increase that number by 10 percent annually. Within the first five years of the Faith Direct program, we want to see roughly 60-65 percent of their donors using Faith Direct,” Mr. Otto said. Pastors, he added, are generally happy if they see “well over 50 percent of their donating households, or 50 percent of their offertory, coming through Faith Direct.”

Both Mr. Otto and Mr. Markey, another fan of online giving, said that one obstacle is that the older the giver — who tends to be the parish’s most generous donor — the less inclined they are to switch to online giving.

Regina Haney, executive director of the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators, told CNS parishes are taking varied approaches with their staff without offertory money coming in.

“They’re trying to keep people employed,” she said. “They would cut hours. There would still be income.”

“We’re all going to have to pray more,” Mr. Markey said, “and we should all pray the Our Father,” with special emphasis on the phrase, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

“We’re asking God to help us,” he added. “Rely on God more than ourselves.” ■

TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

Parishioners asked to continue supporting parishes by giving online Online giving helps Diocese of Knoxville churches sustain operations in this uncertain time

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hese are challenging times for so many — filled with confusion and uncertainty.

At this time, so many are in need of our support. Our families, neighbors, community leaders, and health-care workers, or one of countless organizations trying to make it through this uncertain time — all need our help.

In a special way, your parish is among them.

Even though public Masses have been suspended at the present time, parishes continue to operate, serving their communities. They still have facilities to maintain, staff to pay, and ministries to provide. They have mortgages, utility bills, and general operational expenses.

As you might expect, with no public Masses, regular offertory for many parishes has taken a significant hit. With the vitality of the parish depending on its offertory collection, it’s important that we continue to support our parishes now more than ever.

The largest expenses for most parishes are employee-related. As employees who work for the Church are not normally eligible to receive History continued from page A1

tant decision by the early Church that has parallels to today’s situation, Cardinal Rigali said.

“In the Acts of the Apostles we have a very, very important case. It’s the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles where there was a big problem then about how the Church should confront some of the challenges of the first days, and specifically, what were the new Christians obliged to do,” he said. “Did they have to do everything that was done in the old way? Was there circumcision? Were they bound by that? Were they bound by other requirements? Was it limited? All of this came up in the Council of Jerusalem.

“Even there, there were difficulties. There were different opinions. They discussed it. Then the Apostles wrote a letter to the assembly in Antioch. They said, ‘It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities.’ The leaders of the Church had to take a stand. That is what is described in the 15th chapter, the 28th verse, of the Acts of the Apostles.”

The cardinal re-emphasized the difficulty and the need for wisdom.

“But also, it wasn’t also clear that there hadn’t been a doubt raised. So then finally, the Apostles said it has been decided by the Holy Spirit and us. They claimed the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

They made difficult decisions, decisions that weren’t pleasing to everybody. They had the responsibility. I think we see that in the present day here. It’s a very difficult moment. But I know that the Apostles then and the bishops now, nobody claims that the bishops are infallible, but they do claim to have the assistance of the Holy Spirit, in their leadership they are the authentic leaders. It’s a new moment.”

In that new moment, the Church has had to “come together,” Cardinal Rigali said.

“This is another aspect of a very difficult question: how do we confront this? In confronting it, we have other difficult questions, so the bishops, they have to realize that they’re responsible; they have to be responsible for the people whom they serve and lead. It is obvious that from all the opinions that are given on how this (coronavirus) spreads, the spiritual leaders have to take this into account. They can’t say they’re not going to follow very important recommendations. We’re very, very sorry to see this, about the elimination of Mass now in public, etc. But at once the only possibility we have is to come together as leaders in the Church, take a

TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

“You can make a commitment to your parish at the diocesan website, https://dioknox.org/parish-offertory.

It takes only a few minutes to make a one-time gift or set up a regular ongoing donation. In either case, rest assured that all proceeds will go directly to your parish just as your regular offertory envelope or a gift in the offertory basket would.”

— John Deinhart Diocese of Knoxville director of Stewardship and Strategic Planning government-sponsored unemployment compensation, Bishop Richard F. Stika has asked parishes to commit to retaining current staff and not make any staffing changes despite any declines in offertory. In a time where many employees find themselves out of work or have had hours and pay significantly limited, supporting those who work in our parishes is not only vital to continuing our operations, it’s also an issue of justice.

At my parish, St. Thomas the Apostle in Lenoir City, I know all of our staff members and their families by name; I expect most of you know your parish staff as well. I know how important Lupe and Kevin and Jill and Joe are to my family and all

those who call St. Thomas their parish home. I know I can always turn to them and they will be there for my family and me. At this time, they need to know of our continued support for them.

One way we’ve done that is to continue our offertory support by moving to online giving. It’s simple, safe, and convenient. (Trust me, it really is easy. Even my dad, a self-proclaimed “techno-phobe” in his 80s, appreciates the ease and convenience of giving to his parish online.)

Online giving allows us to continue to support our parish each week and each month, regardless of if we’ve been able to participate in person at the parish on any given

“The Church has been through a lot of difficult times, but I don’t think anybody can remember anything like this, where it affects the whole world but it affects the whole Church, and it affects it in a major way.”

— Cardinal Justin Rigali stand, and just do the best we possibly can.”

The leaders in the Church “are responsible,” the cardinal said, “and we have to do the very best we can in making sure that people understand that we’re not in any way saying that the eucharistic worship is not important or that it can be set aside for any reason whatsoever, no, but this is an extraordinary thing. There has to be somebody to make the decision.

The Apostles said, ‘It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to decide these things.’ We think that the Lord wants us to take these measures, even though they’re very drastic measures.”

Cardinal Rigali called the suspension of Holy Week services “a tremendous loss.”

“However, once again this is done for a specific purpose, and it is done in the way in which it is supposed to be done by the people who have the authority to do it,” he said. “At the same time it’s not that we are neglecting Holy Week.

We’re doing the best we can this year where we realize that Holy Week is a very special celebration of the Paschal Mystery of the Lord. It’s not been done to my knowledge before, and it would never be done except for a very difficult situation that the world is confronting. However, the people will have to pray.

“Even if they’re not able to have a celebration in the community, which is extremely important, it would take an extraordinary reason to prevent such a thing. But it’s been judged that we have that.

I hope that this will end and that we will have Masses. Every Mass is a celebration of the Paschal Mystery. Holy Week is very special, but so are the Masses that we celebrate every single day.

“At this moment in the life of the Church we also have such wonderful things as technology that is able to bring us so much by way of television, etc. This gives us other opportunities to participate. It’s not the same thing—no, not at all, but it’s the best we can do. It can increase our devotion because we know that we have to unite ourselves spiritually with the Lord.”

To put today’s situation in the perspective of Church teaching, the cardinal again hearkened back to Acts 15:28.

“It shows how beautifully established the Church was and how Jesus had given the Apostles

the authority to teach and the authority to make decisions and the authority to judge, even when it was difficult,” he said. “We see in the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles how the Apostles exercised this in the face of a very big question, a very big and troublesome question about various things; circumcision was one of them. How was the Church supposed to react, because it wasn’t the synagogue anymore; it was the

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By John Deinhart

week. With an ongoing monthly commitment to the parish, our financial support continues at St. Thomas even when we are out of town, at another church, or unable to attend Mass during this extraordinary time.

Please consider supporting your parish online by accessing your parish’s website directly or connecting through a secure link provided by the Diocese of Knoxville.

You can make a commitment to your parish at the diocesan website, https://dioknox.org/parish-offertory.

It takes only a few minutes to make a one-time gift or set up a regular, ongoing donation. In either case, rest assured that all proceeds will go directly to your parish just as your regular offertory envelope or a gift in the offertory basket would.

Our priests and parishes have always been here for us and will continue to be here for us now and in the future. Please continue to provide support to your parish during this time so it can continue in its vital ministry.

Lastly, but importantly, please keep our priests and parish staff in your prayers. I know they are praying for all of us. ■ Church. That’s when we have the teaching of the Apostles, how important it was that they follow the teaching of Jesus.

“In the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, in the 28th verse, it says, ‘It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities.’ And then they enumerate the necessities: namely, to abstain from meat sacrifice to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right, and then they say farewell.”

Challenges for the Church did not stop there, in those early days, Cardinal Rigali said.

History continued on page A18

Your parish brings you the light of Christ.

Please continue to support your parish offertory at this important time. Give online at dioknox.org/ parish-offertory APRIL 5, 2020 n A13

an inadequate immune system or existing chronic conditions) — may experience more severe symptoms, such as pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure or even death.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause illness in animals and people. Those infecting animals may evolve into newer, disease-causing human coronaviruses. Two more recent and past Coronaviruses are severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

CONTINUED

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19): What you need to know.

How does the COVID-19 spread?

COVID-19 is believed to be linked to an animal reservoir as the original source of the virus. Since then, there has been some person-to-person transmission in China and limited confirmed cases outside of China.

This is an emerging virus, so there are still many unknowns. At this time, it is unclear how easily or effectively the COVID-19 virus is spreading between people. As with all respiratory viruses, it is advisable to limit close contact (within six feet) with an infected person. It also appears that COVID-19 may spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or by touching an infected surface or object and then touching your own mouth, nose or eyes.

Both the CDC and the WHO believe that the risk of contracting the virus is relatively low.

UnitedHealth Group is actively monitoring these sites and other public health resources to ensure we respond appropriately to the needs of our employees, customers and members.

What are the symptoms of the COVID-19?

Symptoms are similar to a respiratory infection and may include: • Fever • Cough • Shortness of breath Some people — usually the elderly, the young or the immunocompromised (those with an inadequate immune system or existing chronic conditions) — may experience more severe symptoms, such as pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure or even death.

Will wearing a mask prevent me from getting the COVID-19?

What if I think I was exposed to the COVID-19?

If you believe you may have been exposed to COVID-19, it CONTINUED is recommended you avoid public places, including public transportation. Call your primary care provider (or local public health agency) immediately to ask for guidance.

Is there a treatment for COVID-19?

At present, there is no specific treatment or vaccine for COVID-19 and diagnostic testing for the virus is currently being conducted only at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) labs.

Please speak to your provider about whether or not you need testing. Supportive care for affected individuals may include hydration, supplemental oxygen or mechanical ventilation for severe illness.

Will this be covered under my health benefit plan?

If you believe you may have been exposed to COVID-19, please contact your primary care provider immediately for guidance.

Diagnostic testing and supportive care will be covered under your health plan benefits.

How can I protect myself from COVID-19?

Until there are more answers, you are advised to follow good prevention practices, including:

No, surgical masks do not protect people from COVID-19, as it’s the type of virus that can enter through the mask or along the edges where there are gaps. Surgical masks are most effective at controlling the spread of the virus from a source or infected person. Surgical masks should not be used by healthy people for “protection” from coronavirus — it will not provide protection and will deplete the limited stock needed for use by sick individuals.

Is there guidance related to international travel?

At present, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to China.

Additional restrictions and cancellations of events may occur.

This situation is evolving, so please visit the CDC Information for Travelers for the latest guidance.

The Federal Government has imposed additional restrictions on individuals traveling to or returning from China. Those individuals will be required to follow all U.S. Health and Human Services and U.S. State Department requirements, including required quarantine or health check regimens prescribed by federal and/or state public health agencies upon re-entry to the United States. Please go to the CDC Travel Guidance site to understand more about these additional requirements for COVID-19.

Where can I find more information about COVID-19?

• Washing your hands frequently with soap and water for 20 seconds or using alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available.

For updated information, guidance and travel alerts about the COVID-19, visit the CDC’s 2019-nCoV homepage and the World Health Organization (WHO).

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.

Both the CDC and the WHO believe that the risk of contracting the virus is relatively low.

• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

• Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces, like your phone or computer.

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze then throw the tissue in the trash.

For additional information, visit cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index or who.int. n This information is accurate as of March 24, 2020. Check the above resource links for the latest information.

Administrative services provided by United HealthCare Services, Inc. or their affiliates.

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In high school, he “did the whole nine yards.” This included writing for the school newspaper, acting in plays, having a role in student government, and playing football, as well as being an altar server and going on Catholic retreats like Search.

“I was able to do all these things and do well academically. I always felt those things shouldn’t be separated,” he said, explaining that being successful in both areas ultimately aided him in his acceptance to the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in English literature.

He continued to write and be published at Notre Dame University, even creating the first student-produced comic book at the university.

During spring break one year, he submitted his resume to an assistant editor at Marvel. He was offered an opportunity to do some freelance writing for Marvel Age magazine.

Mr. Rosemann has now worked at Marvel for 21 years, filling positions like editor and public relations positions, and is now vice president and head of creative at Marvel Games.

He brings together all the studios to ensure that the story they’re telling is interesting, new, and has a valuable message behind it. The team also decides on characters, costumes, themes, and storylines, or as he put it, “how to celebrate each character.”

Mr. Rosemann ensures that every game is “authentically Marvel,” or in other words he makes sure all the pieces of the final product fit together and tell a story.

He remembers his old friend’s insight when creating media.

“Stan Lee always said every comic could be someone’s first comic.

We apply that to everything. Every game we make we pretend it’s someone’s first and they don’t know who the character is. Does everything make sense? We always say there should be mystery but there shouldn’t be confusion,” Mr. Rosemann said, referring to Mr. Lee, the legendary creator of some of Marvel’s most popular superheroes, like Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Black Widow, the Fantastic Four, and Black Panther.

“We believe in putting the human in the superhuman,” Mr. Rosemann mused.

The backstory is very important at Marvel, according to Mr. Rosemann.

It’s aim is to answer questions to give their characters a sense of realness: who were the heroes and villains before, when they were only civilians? What motivates the characters? How do they handle their special powers now?

“They may be superheroes, but never forget that they’re human characters. They have problems, face challenges, and try to overcome them,” Mr. Rosemann said of the Marvel characters. “When we create these fictional stories, my theory is

they actually change real lives and then we creators see what people do and it inspires us and it creates this circle.”

Mr. Rosemann’s favorite character, Spider-Man, embodies this and originally inspired his love of comics.

“In kindergarten, I saw a Spider-Man cartoon, and in the cartoon he waved to the camera and it felt like he was waving to me. He was young, he was kind of like me, and he was not perfect. He wasn’t a rich billionaire; he wasn’t an alien from another world; he was a kid from Queens. He was struggling with his studies, with fitting in, with his job, and then trying to be a superhero on top of that. That was very revolutionary for superheroes at the time,” the NDHS alum observed.

These character flaws are what creates a connection between the audience and the character. Mr. Rosemann shared that while these characteristics are now expected and necessary, they were not used at the time. Marvel changed the way stories were told in that sense.

Another revolution in media that Marvel displays is the diverse and inclusive nature of their comics, films, and games.

“Marvel reflects the world around us and then put on that layer of sci-fi. Representation is so important. People should be able to see themselves in the pop culture that they consume. That makes people feel validated. It inspires them,” Mr. Rosemann explained. “We need all sorts of stories with all sorts of heroes that look like us, that act like us, that have our background, who feel different like us; we need heroes like that.”

The impact of successful representation can be seen in the heartwarming story of Mr. Rosemann’s interaction with the mother of a young boy who had a hearing disability. Mr. Rosemann created Blue Ear and Sapheara, two hearingimpaired heroes alongside an older favorite, Hawkeye, who wore Stark Industries hearing aids in a comic.

By creating these characters, he was able to validate that anyone can be a hero and celebrate all ways of living.

“We don’t focus on our differences; we focus on what unites us,” he said.

Mr. Rosemann is living his dream

Student superheroes Left: Bill Rosemann is partnered with Notre Dame High School junior Kaitlyn Leath, who is portraying one of the many Marvel superheroes. Mr. Rosemann spoke to students about his time at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School and Notre Dame.

COURTESY OF LAURA GOODHARD/NOTRE DAME HIGH SCHOOL (3)

Marvel continued from page A6

job and now enjoys inspiring young people to work toward their own dreams. His vibrant energy and enthusiasm for the job is evident in all that he says.

His speeches also promote inclusion, kindness, and acting morally.

Part of Mr. Rosemann’s message stressed that not everyone has to be the lead actor, the director, or the

Below: A packed assembly of Catholic students at Notre Dame High School are all ears as they listen to Marvel Games executive Bill Rosemann’s address.

Mr. Rosemann is shown with Notre Dame junior Drew Beach and the Iron Man stool Drew painted for the art room.

writer. He noted the many other roles that are equally important in creating successful media masterpieces like Marvel does.

He encouraged students to “take advantage of the school you go to.

Take advantage of technology. Figure out what’s out there. Try really hard.

You have to take advantage of those experiences.”

Mr. Rosemann wanted to create more of the stories and art that had impacted his life in order that “kids, when they find those stories, they’re inspired to take the lessons and apply them to their real, everyday lives.”

Just like the Marvel characters, “you don’t always feel OK. “It’s OK to not feel OK. It’s OK to have challenges. It’s OK to have secrets. It’s OK to feel guilty. Be the authentic you. Be proud that you like what you like. Embrace what’s important to you. Be good to one another. That’s how you can be a hero,” he told the assembly at Notre Dame. “That’s the power of Marvel; it brings us all together.” ■

Richmond Diocese, among oldest in U.S., marks 200th anniversary with celebration Catholic News Service

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he first Catholics of Virginia 200 years ago were “a few shining stars” who eventually burst forth “into greater constellations of communities” bringing the light of Christ to all whom they encountered, said Bishop Barry C. Knestout in opening the Diocese of Richmond’s bicentennial celebration.

Along with 600 people at Sacred Heart Parish in Norfolk, Va., for a Mass Jan. 18 marking the start of the yearlong observance, Bishop Knestout and 42 concelebrating priests commemorated the 1820 arrival in Virginia of Bishop Patrick Kelly, the diocese’s first bishop.

The Richmond Diocese, which includes St. Anne Parish in Bristol, Va., is among the seven oldest U.S. Catholic dioceses.

In his homily, Bishop Knestout focused on the jubilee theme “Shine like stars in the world as you hold fast to the word of life” from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

The bishop said the “manifestation of faith” was accompanied by awe, wonder, and acts of charity.

“Given the smallness of the Catholic community in Virginia, how few TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

Catholics there were and still are in comparison to the rest of the population, I have seen how ‘holding fast to the word’ results in a devotion and generous engagement of the faithful in parish life, where works of charity and justice grow and thrive,” he said.

Linking the present to the past, Bishop Knestout, the 13th bishop of the diocese, used the crosier that belonged to Bishop Walter F. Sullivan, who served as bishop of Richmond from 1974 to 2003, and the chalice that belonged to Bishop Augustine van de Vyer, who led the diocese from 1889 to 1911.

The inauguration of the bicentennial was evident throughout the diocese the weekend of Jan. 18-19 as parishes celebrated the Mass for the Particular Church, proclaiming the same Scripture readings that were used during the Mass in Norfolk.

As part of the celebration, Bishop Knestout plans to lead a pilgrimage to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore on May 9. The Richmond Diocese was erected from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The diocese plans to celebrate its first eucharistic congress Nov. 6-7 in the Greater Richmond Convention Center. ■ www.di o k no x .o rg

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Relief effort Left: Lance Duke surveys the tornado damage in Cookeville.

KCHS continued from page A7

... there was sheet metal, shower curtains, baby blankets stuck in trees 40 feet up in the air ... and pieces of insulation, siding, ceramic tiles, shingles, kitchen utensils, and other personal effects were everywhere,” Mr. Naab said. “While we (and hundreds of other community volunteers) were helping to clean up, a man and his wife were foraging through the remains of their destroyed house.

Initially, I didn’t even recognize it as a house because there wasn’t a roof or any shingles anywhere ... it was completely gone.”

He said that couple was collecting cushions, pans, clothes, dolls, and other items they could find buried under the collapsed floor, any semblance of the home that had been there.

“Whatever didn’t get buried in the rubble got blown away ... perhaps miles away. Most of us spent the day picking up debris that got caught in what used to be a tree-line between the neighborhoods. Austin found a note from a daughter to her daddy thanking him for some gifts,” Mr. Naab said.

Austin said he will never forget the tornado-ravaged site or the experience of helping with the relief effort.

In addition to the note he found, teammates also recovered household items that intensely personalized the work they were doing.

“We went to a family home to help pick up debris on the property from the storm. The house was in a neighborhood and it was still standing. But homes surrounding this house were leveled,” Austin said. “One of my teammates picked up some family photos, and that was definitely emotional.”

George McCarty, a junior captain on the KCHS soccer team who plays center back, had been looking forward to the road trip to Cookeville to play rival Hardin Valley and the Middle Tennessee competition.

When Coach Heins announced he was organizing the relief project, George and his father, Phillip McCarty, wanted to join.

“We thought it would be a good idea to go,” George said. “I was completely blown away. It opened my eyes to how close Cookeville is to Knoxville and how much destruction a tornado can do.”

George joined his teammates in picking up debris and clearing away downed trees.

They spent much of that Saturday, March 7, working in the Cookeville neighborhood.

And like Austin, the sight of such devastation left an imprint on George.

“My teammates were as surprised as I was. We had our minds blown by the pure awesomeness of what those storms can do.”

KCHS president Dickie Sompayrac spoke with pride and gratitude at how the KCHS soccer community stepped up to assist neighbors in need. He was especially proud of how the players set aside their competitive spirit and picked up their volunteer spirit.

“I talked with Don Naab, whose son Austin is a senior soccer player for KCHS. He said the trip was incredible. They had no idea what they were going to witness, and it was far more devastating than they could have imagined. Homes completely destroyed, and folks walking around trying to salvage any valuables they could. There were teams scheduled to come to the scrimmage, and they all sent players to help the community,” Mr. Sompayrac said.

“I was just really proud of all our players and parents who took time to help a community that was going through such devastation from the tornadoes. Events like these can really remind our students what is truly important in life,” Mr Sompayrac added.

When Coach Heins and Cookeville’s coach communicated, the Cookeville coach was concerned about having to cancel the scrimmage.

“I texted the coach and he said they were fine, but some of his players had lost their homes in the storm,” Coach Heins said, adding that the thought of what those Cookeville players were experiencing put the situation into perspective.

Mr. Heins, who is a volunteer coach at KCHS, was unable to go to Cookeville with the players because on that Saturday he had to manage his family business, longtime Knoxville building materials supplier A.G. Heins Co. “The work that the players did in Cookeville means so much more than the game itself. Our young men got to know those players, coaches, and the community. We made lifelong friends, which is so much more important than playing the game of soccer,” Coach Heins said. “I learn so much more from the players than they ever learn from me.”

Once their work was done, the boys had enough energy left to satisfy some pent-up competitive fire.

While their soccer scrimmage had to be called off, they found time to play against their peers from Hardin Valley and Middle Tennessee who also were on hand to help in the storm’s aftermath.

“After we finished our cleanup, we went back to Cookeville High School and played soccer.

It brought us together and showed that what we were doing was more important than just a game,” Austin said. ■

Below: Colin Della-Rodolfa and Claus Grill pick up debris left by the storms.

A trail of devastation is all that remains after the March 3 storms blew through Cookeville.

COURTESY OF AUSTIN NAAB (5)

Chris Duke, Lance Duke, Austin Naab, and George McCarty lend helping hands.

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The KCHS team included, from left, Don Naab, Chris Duke, Emmanuel Mata, Lance Duke, Colin Della-Rodolfa, Chris Grill, George McCarty, Parker Knorr, Austin Naab, Phillip McCarty, and Claus Grill.

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‘God’s dwelling place’ Our Lady of Fatima Parish marks the 20th year since its ‘new’ church was dedicated in Blount County

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BILL BREWER (3)

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special Mass celebrated March 11 to mark the 20th anniversary of the dedication of Our Lady of Fatima’s present church, parish hall, and offices, was as much a testament to the future as it was an homage to the past.

Father Peter Iorio, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima, welcomed Diocese of Knoxville priests who previously served at the Alcoa parish. Father Joe Brando, Father Patrick Resen, Father John O’Neill, and Father Bill McNeeley concelebrated the Mass, held 20 years to the day since the church’s dedication. Also concelebrating was Father Andrés Cano, associate pastor of Our Lady of Fatima.

Deacon Bill Jacobs served as deacon of the Word, and Deacon Scott Maentz served as deacon of the Eucharist.

For the Mass readings, Father Iorio selected the same readings from the dedication Mass held on March 11, 2000: Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 8-10 and 1 Corinthians 3:9-13, 1617. Our Lady of Fatima’s full choir provided the music liturgy, and parish youth also participated in the celebration.

Father Iorio also had Fathers McNeeley, O’Neill, Brando, and Waraksa light candles on the walls of the nave where then-Bishop Joseph E. Kurtz consecrated the walls during the 2000 dedication.

In his homily, Father Waraksa recalled his first visit to the newer church just before its dedication, pointing out that soon after the visit he would become pastor. In describing the then-recently developed campus, he reminded the congregation that Christ is the foundation of Our Lady of Fatima, just as He is the foundation of every Christian church.

“Christ wasn’t here when this church was built, or when most churches were built. In fact, there weren’t any churches built at the time of Christ. The Last Supper was not even in a church. It was in the Upper Room. Christ had all the Church buildings to be built so that they could be places of community and places of worship. Churches are very different when you come in when they’re empty versus when they’re full, when nothing is happening versus when all are praying, when all are worshiping, or when all are singing,” Father Waraksa said.

He said his first time in the new church building was during a Cursillo retreat prior to the dedication. He said Father Brando let Cursillo attendees in to pray.

“It was a very quiet place of prayer, a very personal place of prayer on those evenings when we would come in,” Father Waraksa said. “Then I would be here for the dedication, little knowing that a few months later I would be here as pastor. But my first experience here was as a place of prayer, always a place of prayer.”

Father Waraksa, who now serves as an assisting priest and coordinator of Hispanic ministry for the Five Rivers Deanery, reminded the congregation that just like their church, they are places where Jesus lives.

“I’ve said this a lot at the places I’ve been, whether as a priest or pastor, that I always feel more comfortable at the altar in a church than I feel comfortable in the rectory. The rectory is a place where you sleep and eat, and as a priest you don’t spend much time there. But to spend time with the Lord at the altar, that is where we ought to feel most comfortable,” he said.

“Hopefully we are comfortable because we come here to meet God, and our Church tells us in our faith that every time we celebrate the Mass Christ is present. He comes to us. He humbles himself again. He lets himself be received into our body. He lets the bread we broke be a sign that he was broken on the cross. His human body was broken to heal us and to ask us at times to be broken … and to help others who are broken with charity and compassion and mercy. Or that we let our lives be sacrificed in other ways. We celebrate here that God has chosen us, He forms us, He sends us.

When we receive Him, He is present in us. You are God’s dwelling place,” he

By Bill Brewer

Spiritual reunion Father Peter Iorio incenses the altar at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Alcoa on March 11.

The special Mass marking the 20th anniversary of the church building was attended by former OLOF priests.

“There are many places where we can listen to words today. There are podcasts and videos all over the Internet. Where do we choose to go and what do we choose to listen to? One of the temptations that happens today is that we listen to other things much more than the Word of God.” — Father Alex Waraksa added.

Father Waraksa acknowledged the demands on Catholics’ time and attention amid the current media landscape, and he warned parishioners against letting the noise drown out the Word of God. He encouraged them to filter out the noise by seeking God’s Word in God’s House.

“There are many places where we can listen to words today. There are podcasts and videos all over the Internet. Where do we choose to go and what do we choose to listen to? One of the temptations that happens today is that we listen to other things much more than the Word of God. The temptation is to judge the Word of God according to what we hear apart from the Word of God rather than judging what we hear in the world according to the Word of God. We must be very careful that we don’t let that happen. But that is what happens often,” he said.

“Sometimes we don’t realize that the Word of God needs to be read over and over again because God’s Word continues to inspire and teach us. …

Sometimes the Word of God needs to be doctrinal, other times it needs to be spiritual, other times it needs to direct us in prayer. Sometimes it needs to convict us; it needs to help us prepare to examine our conscience. So when we come here we come to listen to the Word of God, and sometimes to be challenged, not just as we often choose things according to our likes in the world. Some people choose to listen according to what they want to hear, or what they agree with, or what they believe rather than what God wants to teach them,” he added.

Father Waraksa urged the congregation to remember that the church is a house of prayer, a place for sacraments, a place where we ask for things from God, a place where we confess our sins, where we celebrate marriages before the altar, where there are parish missions and retreats that will hopefully continue in the not too distant future. Church also is a place for spiritual music.

“All are different forms to teach about God and to help people offer themselves back to God. The Word of God is about … accepting everything that we might see in the world, to see things as God sees them or asks us to see them. The Word of God inspires us, sometimes drawing us beyond what we think we can be ourselves.

The Word of God comforts us, especially when we hear about God’s mercy in the Lenten season. The Word of God, we know, heals because we know God says He forgives. Jesus forgave people,” he noted.

Lighting the way Father Joe Brando lights a candle where the wall was anointed when Our Lady of Fatima’s church was built. Joining him is Father Bill McNeeley. Both priests served at Our Lady of Fatima.

Just like old times Father Peter Iorio, center, is joined by, from left, Fathers Bill McNeeley, Alex Waraksa, Andrés Cano, Joe Brando, and John O’Neill. The priests either are serving or previously served at Our Lady of Fatima. On the back row are, from right, deacons Scott Maentz and Bill Jacobs, and altar server Joshua Cruice.

Blount County Catholics wanted a dwelling place for God large enough to accommodate their bulging membership roll. A site was located on Louisville Road in Alcoa near the busy intersection with Highway 129.

The parish purchased an initial 7.5 acres of the 11.2-acre tract in 1995 from AT&T. A parishioner then bequeathed funds used to purchase an additional 3.7 acres for the 12,000-square-foot church building connected to a 5,000-square-foot parish hall.

The parish, named for the Blessed Mother who brings believers to Christ, was formed in 1950 with about 50 families who gathered in a Maryville house that was remodeled into a church. The parish then relocated to a church building at the intersection of Hunt and Wright roads in Alcoa that was dedicated in 1952 by Bishop William Adrian.

Ground was broken for the newer church and parish hall in May 1998, with construction completed in 2000.

Longtime Our Lady of Fatima parishioners Angie Feltz, Norma Reigle, and Dave Prugh said the size of the parish has increased greatly since those early days to more than 1,200

www.di o k no x .o rg

families currently.

They remarked that the parish has changed in significant ways in the past 20 years in addition to the membership. Among the ways are centrally located parish offices, improved adult education, with more Bible studies, book discussions, and other educational opportunities, growth in the choir and music liturgy that now reaches all ages, and improvement in the spirituality of parishioners.

“We began perpetual eucharistic adoration in 2001 when Father Waraksa was pastor. This has allowed for our parishioners to develop a deeper prayer life and a more personal relationship in our lives with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, something that is so needed in our world today with the current health scare,” they said.

“Parish facilities have been instrumental to the life of the parish and continue to evolve as needs arise.

We have been able to meet in larger groups with the updated facilities,” the parishioners agreed. “Father Brando wanted our parish to be a beacon of light to the entire community and to share our vision with all of Blount County.” ■ APRIL 5, 2020 n A17

Bishop Stika adjusts schedule in response to public health warnings

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ublic health warnings from the coronavirus epidemic have led Bishop Richard F. Stika to alter his schedule of upcoming public appointments.

Continuing concerns arising from the coronavirus and its impact on the Diocese of Knoxville and East Tennes-

see have forced the bishop to suspend Masses, confirmations, and many appointments.

During this difficult time, Bishop Stika requests your prayers and said he is praying for everyone in East Tennessee, and the Catholic community of East Tennessee in particular. ■

Virtus training sessions temporarily suspended due to coronavirus

T

he Diocese of Knoxville’s program for the protection of children, youth, and vulnerable adults is offered in parishes and schools around the diocese.

The seminars are required for parish and school employees and regular volunteers who are in

contact with children and vulnerable adults.

Training sessions are temporarily suspended because of public health warnings from the coronavirus epidemic. The sessions will resume once public health officials say it is safe to resume normal activities. ■

USCCB website is offering resources for Catholics amid the COVID-19 pandemic

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he website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has created a special link on its website to a page offering various resources for the nation’s Catholics as they weather the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Under the heading “Together in Christ: Responding to Coronavirus,” the usccb.org/coronavirus page also provided a link for all Catholics and other Christians who participated in Pope Francis’ special urbi et orbi (to the city and the world) blessing in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It took place on March 27.

The formal blessing — usually given only immediately after a new pope’s election and on Christmas and Easter — carried with it a plenary indulgence for all who followed by television,

Internet, or radio, are sorry for their sins, recited a few prescribed prayers, and promised to go to confession and to receive the Eucharist as soon as possible.

Among the many resources on the USCCB page are lists of websites for Mass being livestreamed by various outlets, such as Catholic TV and EWTN, on various Internet platforms; links to prayers for an end to COVID-19, including from the pope and Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, who is the USCCB president; and daily reflections “to help us all during this trying time.”

There also are Eastern Catholic Church resources, including links to the Romanian Catholic Eparchy of St. George in Canton, Ohio, the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral also in Brooklyn. ■

History continued from page A13

serve many things in the Old Testament, many things of prayer, etc., but it was a new time. Jesus Christ had come upon the scene.

Jesus Christ had established a new covenant. The Lord Jesus was the high priest of the new covenant.”

The cardinal is certainly in support of his friend and fellow housemate, Bishop Richard F. Stika, in the tough decisions the bishop has had to make as the Diocese of Knoxville’s shepherd in recent days.

“I certainly do support him. It is a very, very difficult [time] . . .

The bishops also have other bishops who are helping them to see clearly the issues and make sure they don’t overlook something.” ■

“Now, other problems, serious problems, some of them maybe more important than these, have come up over the centuries,” he said. “The Church, with the authority given to her and with the grace of the Holy Spirit, has been able to face these and been able say, ‘Yes, we must do these things’ or ‘No, this is not necessary.’ As a result of this particular case, the new Christians were not obliged to do everything that was done in the Old Testament. No, no, no, no. It was a new moment, and the Apostles emphasized how much the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ was important.

“By all means they would ob-

Boy, I wish our Church wasn’t growing so fast...

How will we afford it?

Memorial Mass celebrated for Sister Celia Sánchez, MAG

A memorial Mass for Sister Celia Martina Sánchez Coatl, MAG, was celebrated on March 16 at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Sister Celia, who served in the Diocese of Knoxville for 20 years, died on March 8.

The Missionary Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus “Ad Gentes” was born on Oct. 21, 1959, in San Bernardino Tlaxcalanzingo, Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. Her parents were Feliciano Sánchez Rodríguez and Francisca Coatl.

At an early age she entered the Congregation of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus “Ad Gentes,” hoping to meet the age required by the institute to be admitted as a religious sister.

Sister Celia In 1975 she took the religious habit, and on July 28, 1977, she made her first profession of vows.

She studied at the Normal Quevedo Institute, focusing on spirituality and missionary animation in Mexico City at CLAEM; she studied foreign language at the State of Puebla college.

In September 1982 she was named local superior and director of Miguel Hidalgo Elementary School in Ixtenco, Tlaxcala, Mexico, and from September 1985 to August 1988 she worked as coordinator and groups teacher of the middle school of the Normal Quevedo Institute.

She was a member of the mission team in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico. And on Aug. 29, 1988, she was part of the team to make the foundation of the Durango’s convent house and then directed several ecclesial groups in Mexico and the United States.

After serving in the Diocese of Knoxville for two decades, she was transferred to the Diocese of Owensboro in Kentucky until December.

She also served as the regional delegate for these areas.

Seminarians receive ministry of lector at St. Meinrad Diocese of Knoxville seminarians Joseph Austin, Neil Blatchford, and Andrew Crabtree have received the ministry of lector at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad, Ind. The ministry of lector is conferred upon seminarians who prepare and proclaim readings from Scripture at Mass and other liturgical celebrations. A lector also may recite psalms between the readings and present the intentions for the general intercessions.

The seminarians received this ministry on Feb. 13 in the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel at St. Meinrad. Archbishop Charles Thompson of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis installed the lectors.

Mr. Austin, Mr. Blatchford, and Mr. Crabtree are among 13 Diocese of Knoxville men currently in seminary. Deacons Alexander Hernandez and Zachary Griffith, who are studying at Kenrick School of Theology in St. Louis, are scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood later this year.

Diocese of Knoxville deacons announce retirements Deacon Bob Smearing, who serves at St. Albert the Great Parish in Knoxville, and Deacon Don Amelse, who serves at St. John Neumann Parish in Farragut, are retiring from the permanent diaconate.

The deacons submitted letters requesting retirement in January, and Bishop Richard F. Stika granted their requests in February.

The retirements for both deacons will be effective April 26.

In granting them permission to retire from active diaconal ministry, Bishop Stika informed the deacons that their obligation to pray the Liturgy of the Hours remains and the bishop hopes they continue to attend the annual retreats and continuing deacon formation programs as they are able. The bishop also granted them the ability to exercise their diaconal faculties as they are able.

Deacon Amelse has served in the Diocese of Knoxville’s permanent diaconate for 34 years, and Deacon Smearing has served for 12 years.

Funeral Mass celebrated for artisan Robert Curtis Bishop Richard F. Stika served as celebrant on Feb. 18 at the funeral Mass for Robert Curtis, who passed away on Feb. 5 at his home after a long illness.

Mr. Curtis is survived by his beloved wife of 36 years, Dorothy Curtis, who serves on the staff of The Diocese of Knoxville’s Chancery and is a sacristan at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Mr. Curtis was an accomplished musician who performed earlier in his music career with his wife for audiences in Gatlinburg. In addition to Mr. Curtis playing his guitars and listening to music, Mr. Curtis was a skilled woodworker and avid reader.

Following his funeral Mass, Mr. Curtis was buried at Edgewood Cemetery in Knoxville.

Funeral Mass celebrated for Helen Waraksa of St. Mary Parish in Oak Ridge, mother of Father Alex Waraksa

Good thing we have the Catholic Foundation!

The

Catholic Foundation of East Tennessee invests in two essential needs for the Diocese of Knoxville

Seminarian Education and Land for New Churches Helping to provide for a growing Church for 30 years!

Learn more @ GiveCFET.org or call John Deinhart @ (865) 584-3307

A18 n APRIL 5, 2020

East Tennessee Catholic Briefs

A funeral Mass was celebrated Jan. 31 at St. Mary Church in Oak Ridge for Helen Louise Dardis Waraksa, who passed away Jan. 26.

Mrs. Waraksa, 86, was a longtime member of St. Mary Church and was the mother of Father Alex Waraksa, diocesan assisting priest for Hispanic Ministry.

Mrs. Waraksa, 86, was born in Cambridge, Mass., on March 16, 1933, and was preceded in death by her husband, Alexander Joseph Waraksa Jr., in 1980.

He worked at the federal Y-12 facilities after moving to Oak Ridge from Florida in 1969. Mrs. Waraksa moved to Florida when she was 14 and finished high school there before graduating from Florida Mrs. Waraksa State University. She taught at St. Mary School for more than 20 years and was active in the parish.

She also was preceded in death by her parents, John Francis and Mary Eleanor Dardis, sister, Jane Dardis Schultz, and brother, Paul John Dardis. Mrs. Waraksa is survived by her five children: sons Peter, Michael, and Father Waraksa; and daughters Dorothy W. “Doss” McConnell, and Ann W. Smith, all living in the Oak Ridge area. Her children were born in Florida and raised in Oak Ridge, attending St. Mary School and Oak Ridge High School. Mrs. Waraksa also is survived by two beloved sisters, Clare Dardis Luther (Jerald Conrad Luther), and Marybeth Dardis Parsons (James Guy Parsons); and extended family.

Father Waraksa celebrated the funeral Mass followed by the burial at Oak Ridge Memorial Park. The family asked that any donations in Mrs. Waraksa’s name be made to St. Mary School, 323 Vermont Ave., Oak Ridge, TN 37830. ■

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TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

Catholic Charities of East Tennessee honors those who serve Annual event raises funds for operations throughout the Diocese of Knoxville; Chattanooga dinner postponed

KATHY RANKIN (2)

I

t was an evening of hope and celebration at the Catholic Charities of East Tennessee’s annual “Sapphire Soiree” dinner on March 5 at Rothchild Conference Center in Knoxville.

Hundreds attended for an evening that honored those who serve their community in love and charity.

Bo Williams, news anchor for WATE-TV, emceed the event, and Lisa Healy, executive director of Catholic Charities, welcomed those in attendance. Father David Boettner, rector of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, gave the opening prayer.

“You have joined us tonight because you believe that acts of kindness, generosity, and prayer truly make a difference. … Tonight we will share with you many of the good works in our community and award the Pope Francis Service to the Poor Award in celebration of living out our call of faith and love,” Mrs. Healy said.

The evening included a cocktail hour, a silent auction, live music, dinner, and a live auction. Jim Wogan, Diocese of Knoxville communications director, served as auctioneer.

Money raised from the auctions went to support the programs of Catholic Charities.

Bishop Richard F. Stika closed the evening with prayer.

But the highlight of the evening was the awarding of the Pope Francis Service to the Poor Award, which honors an individual or group who gives exemplary service of charity.

Catholic Charities’ board of trustees votes on candidates who are nominated by their community. A video highlighted the missions of the three finalists: Jim and Connie Brace of All Saints Parish in Knoxville; Michael Wrinkle of Holy Ghost Parish in Knoxville; and Community Services of Cumberland County, which is supported by St. Alphonsus Parish in Crossville and St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Fairfield Glade.

Mrs. Healy announced Michael Wrinkle as this year’s Knoxville recipient.

“I’m not much for awards or plaques, but if it brings attention to any type of cause or need, then I’m all for it,” Mr. Wrinkle said.

Mr. Wrinkle is the Grand Knight of Knights of Columbus Council 16523 at Holy Ghost Parish and has led the parish in serving Knoxville’s homeless population in several ways.

He has long had a heart for serving the homeless and getting to know them as individuals.

“I’ve always been somebody that instead of going to the normal areas, to feed or clothe or take care of, I pretty much go in the trenches,” he said.

“When I came to Holy Ghost, the priest

Celebrating faith and love Above, Lisa Healy, executive director of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, presents Michael Wrinkle with the organization’s Pope Francis Service to the Poor Award. Above right, Mr. Wrinkle lets guests at Catholic Charities’ annual dinner know about his service to the homeless community in Knoxville. that was here, Father John Dowling, and I were talking, and he knew that I was passionate about this, and we talked about it. I said, ‘We’re at ground zero, Father.’ I said, ‘They’re coming in asking for food when we’re doing breakfast or any type of food events, and I’d like to get the parish rallied behind this.’ And Father said it perfect. He said, ‘the parish is hungry. They’re hungry for something like this,’” he added.

So Mr. Wrinkle spearheaded the parish effort to provide hundreds of meals to the homeless on Christmas Day. “They started showing up with vehicles full of presents and personal-care items and clothing and gloves and hats. By the time we got the trucks loaded, it was amazing,” he recalled. “And we went out there and stood out in the parking lot. It warmed up to 13 degrees that day. What hit me was these people are freezing, and it was Christ’s birthday. The cold did not impact them that much; they were happy and joyful that somebody had remembered them on Christmas.”

From there the mission grew, providing more meals throughout the year and working with other groups to provide clothes, showers, haircuts, and resources for this population.

By Emily Booker

“What we’ve learned over the years is it’s about dignity. It’s not just about feeding.

With dignity and showing them you care, they seem to come around, and they start talking to you. ... In the needy people’s eyes, I see Christ’s eyes every time….That’s what Christ taught us to do, and that’s why we’re on this mission.”

— Michael Wrinkle Pope Francis Service to the Poor Award recipient Mr. Wrinkle said he has seen people transform when they are treated with a little respect and dignity.

“What we’ve learned over the years is it’s about dignity. It’s not just about feeding. With dignity and showing them you care, they seem to come around, and they start talking to you. …They start telling you their problems and their needs, and their hopes, and their dreams,” he said. “In the needy people’s eyes, I see Christ’s eyes every time….That’s what Christ taught us to do, and that’s why we’re on this mission.”

Catholic Charities’ annual dinner in Chattanooga, scheduled for March 12, had to be postponed due to precautions over the coronavirus epidemic.

In a statement announcing the postponement, Catholic Charities said it is making this decision based on the love and concern for all of its supporters who were planning to attend the event.

Catholic Charities said it will continue to follow guidelines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, and it hopes to reschedule the dinner for a time in the future that will be appropriate.

“We pray for all of those affected by the virus,” the nonprofit service agency said in a statement. ■

St. Corona: Recent events cast spotlight on nearly forgotten martyr

S

he had become nearly forgotten. Little is known about the young woman who was killed for her Christian faith, presumably in the second century A.D. But now, a pandemic is shedding light on her: St. Corona.

The German Catholic news agency KNA reports the Church’s martyr records put the year of her death at 177 A.D. It is not certain where she lived. A Greek account put it in Syria, while a Latin one said it was Marseilles, France, and Sicily. What is proven is that she began to be honored starting in the sixth century in northern and central Italy. All the rest is the stuff of legend — propagated above all by monks in the Alpine region.

“This has nothing to do with the real history of Corona, but instead with stories aimed at deepening the faith,” said Manfred BeckerHuberti, a German theologian known in the Rhineland as an expert on folklore and customs.

The St. Corona legends are bloody. One account is that, as a 16-year-old, she was forced to watch her husband, St. Victor, being murdered because of his faith.

She died in a gruesome manner: Her persecutors tied her between two palm trees that had been bent

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/THILO SCHMUELGEN, REUTERS

By Catholic News Service

Remembering St. Corona Restorer Luke Jonathan Koeppe and Birgitta Falk, an official of the cathedral in Aachen, Germany, assemble the shrine with the relics of St. Corona on March 25. to the ground. Her body was then torn apart when the trees were set loose to snap back into standing position.

She is above all revered in Germany’s southern state of Bavaria and in Austria, KNA reports.

A chapel is dedicated to her in Sauerlach, near Munich. In the Bavarian Diocese of Passau, two churches recall her name, while in the province of Lower Austria and outside of Vienna there are two towns named “Sankt Corona.” In the cathedral of Munster in north-

western Germany, there is a St. Corona statue, currently decorated with flowers placed at its base.

Some relics of the martyr were taken to the Prague cathedral in the 14th century.

As early as the 10th century, under Holy Roman Emperor Otto III, St. Corona relics were taken to Aachen. In 1910, during excavation work at the cathedral there, archaeologists came across the relics, which were removed from a crypt and placed in a shrine. This three-foot-tall, 220-pound relic has,

until recently, been kept in storage in the Aachen cathedral treasure vault. With the coronavirus pandemic, experts have taken it out to dust it off and conserve it.

St. Corona is not the namesake for the virus. The Latin word “corona” means “crown,” an indication that the young saint had achieved the “crown of eternal life” because of the steadfastness of her faith. The connection with the coronaviruses, named because of their crown-like structure, is just a coincidence.

Over the centuries, St. Corona was often prayed to by people seeking her help in times of trouble, be it heavy storms or livestock diseases.

People believed she had a positive influence regarding money matters, with “coronae” (crowns) being the name given to coins.

As a result, treasure-hunters often invoked her name. In view of how COVID-19 has triggered an economic crisis, with many people fearful about money matters looming ahead, it might not be at all far-fetched for them to call on the saint for support.

In the Catholic Church’s calendar of saints, her holiday is May 14. KNA reports some experts say it just might be by then that the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel will be in sight. ■

ST. CORONA AT A GLANCE PATRON: St. Corona has often been prayed to by people in times of trouble. Some have said she is the patron against pandemics, but others debate that.

TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

HISTORY: St. Corona’s death is put at 177 A.D. She began to be honored in the sixth century in northern and central Italy, which are epicenters for the coronavirus pandemic.

DEVOTION: St. Corona is revered in Germany and Austria. Towns, churches, and chapels there are named for her. And there are relics of her enshrined. www.di o k no x .o rg

LEGEND: The coronavirus is not named for St. Corona. Treasure-hunters have appealed to her because some have said she has a positive effect on money matters. More people may invoke her name now given current events.

APRIL 5, 2020 n A19

2020 census counting on religious leaders to promote participation

By Carol Zimmerman Catholic News Service

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/COURTESY OF U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

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ealizing that many people are hesitant to fill out the current census, the U.S. Census Bureau is calling on religious leaders to help promote it.

“You are your community’s most trusted voice,” Steven Dillingham, Census Bureau director, told a group of interfaith leaders at the Washington National Cathedral Feb. 18, saying his agency depends on them “to tell your people this is their census” and that an accurate count will provide them with critical public services.

Census forms were to be mailed in late March, with the count officially beginning April 1. Respondents can call, e-mail, or mail their responses.

Mr. Dillingham was essentially preaching to the choir of panelists at the “2020 Census Interfaith Summit” in the cathedral’s auditorium. Members of this diverse group emphasized individual dignity and also the need to be responsible neighbors looking out for their communities through taking part in the census.

Sister Judith Ann Karam, a Sister of Charity of St. Augustine, who is immediate past president and CEO of the Sisters of Charity Health System, based in Cleveland, said census participation reflected “that every person has the utmost dignity and respect” not just in Christianity but in other faith traditions.

She said an accurate count is not only necessary for communities’ federal and state funding and congressional representation, but it also will directly impact health care by determining Medicaid funds.

Other panelists spoke of how they have talked up the census with members of their faith groups and tried to calm potential fears about it.

Rabbi Menachem Creditor, a scholar in residence with the United Jewish Appeal Federation, said some in the Hasidic Jewish community are resisting the use of technology and therefore hesitant to fill out the forms.

“For many, it’s hard to feel safe,” he said, which he counters by telling them they won’t receive support if they don’t step forward. “It’s in your self-interest to be brave,” he has said.

The Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president and founder of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, said even though the census does not have a citizenship question included — something

Counting on the public Leading up to the 2020 census, which was to have begun April 1, the U.S. Census Bureau was calling on religious leaders to encourage their congregations to participate in the count that occurs every 10 years. “You are your community’s most trusted voice,” Steven Dillingham, Census Bureau director, told a group of interfaith leaders at the Washington National Cathedral on Feb. 18. advocated by Trump administration officials and blocked by the Supreme Court — many Latinos who are not U.S. citizens fear their participation in the census could cause them to be deported.

“We need to assure people it’s OK, “ he said, stressing the count will ultimately benefit them.

Hurunnessa Fariad, head of outreach and interfaith at All Dulles Area Muslim Society in Virginia, said she has similarly answered fears from Muslims and has tried to assure them that their information will be safe

and protected and “will help us all.”

Vikshu Kumar Gurung, founder of the Buddhist Society of Nebraska, is so convinced about the importance of the census that he has taken his advocacy about it to social media with YouTube videos. Bishop Reginald Jackson, from the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia, said he plans to speak about the census from the pulpit, telling those in his congregation the count is not just about individuals but the community.

We have to take pride in ourselves is his message.

“If you’re not counted, all of us aren’t counted.”

A question-and-answer session at the end of the panel discussion indicated that religious leaders will have their work cut out for them in assuaging census concerns since some in the audience said their communities are highly suspicious of government intrusion and do not trust what the government might do with the information it collects.

Mr. Dillingham got up from his seat among the audience members to respond, saying the Census Bureau was bound by Title 13 of the U.S. Code to keep census information confidential.

“I can assure you,” he told the gathering of about 100 religious leaders, “the law requires us to do our job and to provide confidentiality.”

“We appreciated your message,” he added.

“Working together we can build trust.”

This gathering was hardly the first effort to reach out to religious leaders. The Census Bureau published a 12-page guide for faith leaders to both promote and answer questions about the decennial survey. It also posted a video on its website of religious leaders discussing the significance of the census that features Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas.

In the video, Bishop Vasquez said the census is “safe, secure, and confidential. The information cannot be used against someone; it’s to benefit our communities.”

Chicago Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, posted similar remarks on a video posted on the Chicago archdiocesan website in which he said he had recently signed a proclamation of support for the census because the count will help with the allocation of federal and state funds for underserved neighborhoods. He stressed the census is for “citizens and noncitizens alike” and the information collected will not be shared.

“We all benefit” from an accurate count, he added. ■

CENSUS AT A GLANCE TIMETABLE: March: Residents began receiving census mail.

May-July: Census takers begin visiting U.S. homes.

December: Census Bureau delivers counts to Congress.

A20 n APRIL 5, 2020

MISSION: Provide Congress and the president data that determines number of seats in House, federal funding for projects around the country. It also is required by the Constitution.

GOAL: To count every person in the United States and five U.S. territories.

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SCOPE: Census Bureau aims to hire nearly 500,000 office and field staff to cover entire U.S. population in 50 states and U.S. territories, counting every person by next fall.

TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C