Aug. 2, 2020, ET Catholic, A section

August 2

| 2020

VOL 29 NO 6

IN THIS ISSUE FOR A4 RELAY PRIESTS

East Tennessee faithful part of world rosary

DAY IN HAND B1 ORDINATION B1 DIPLOMA Diocese's newest deacon Graduation really happens for NDHS, KCHS seniors

is ordained at St. John Neumann Church

He dwells among us ......................... A2 Parish news ....................................... B4 Diocesan calendar ............................ B5 Columns ..........................................B8-9 Catholic schools .......................... B8,10 La Cosecha ............................Section C

Diocese of Knoxville schools plan for safe, healthy return to classrooms COVID-19 protocols and procedures are greeting students, faculty at all 10 East Tennessee campuses

By Bill Brewer

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ollowing a summer break of hope amid uncertainty, Diocese of Knoxville schools are welcoming students and faculty back into classrooms for the start of the 2020-21 academic year.

Bishop Richard F. Stika and Dr. Sedonna Prater, superintendent of schools for the diocese, made the announcement to return to in-class learning at all 10 schools in the diocese on July 17.

Classes are in session beginning Monday, Aug. 3.

“We’re excited to begin our school year and open our classrooms to students and faculty,” Bishop Stika said.

“Catholic schools and faith-based education offer families a unique en-

vironment to grow academically and spiritually. Our school leaders have worked hard to make sure that the learning environment is also safe for everyone who attends.”

The diocese’s schools — Notre Dame High School, St. Jude, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Chattanooga; St. Dominic in Kingsport and

School Calendar n Monday, Aug. 3: First day of 2020-21 academic year. n Wednesday, Aug. 19: first at-home learning day. n Wednesday, Sept. 16: second at-home learning day. n Wednesday, Oct. 14: third at-home learning day. n Wednesday, Nov. 11: fourth at-home learning day. n Nov. 25-29: Thanksgiving break. n Nov. 30-Dec. 4: week of at-home learning. n Monday, Dec. 7: Christmas break begins. n Tuesday, Jan. 5: spring semester begins.

Schools continued on page A6

Diocesan Tribunal of Knoxville becomes a reality New ministry based in Chattanooga to handle annulment requests, other canon law cases

DOROTHY CURTIS

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he Diocese of Knoxville now has a fully functioning tribunal, a canon law ministry that will decide annulment cases and other legal matters that are within the specific purview of the Catholic Church and the diocese.

Bishop Richard F. Stika and Father David Carter, a canon lawyer and pastor of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Chattanooga, have led the effort to establish a tribunal dedicated to the Diocese of Knoxville.

Bishop Stika said in 2016 that Knoxville was rare among Catholic dioceses because it did not have its own panel of judges and support staff to rule on requests for declarations of nullity of marriages and other canon law issues unique to the diocese.

Tribunals handle a variety of canonical cases within the Church, but requests for declarations of nullity make up the majority of tribunal cases. The Diocese of Knoxville has paid a fee to the Diocese of Nashville for handling the East Tennessee cases since 1988. ”This is a much-needed step for our diocese. The tribunal was the last vestige that connected us to the Diocese of Nashville. I am grateful for their help over the years. That assistance was necessary at first, but we have grown enough that I am happy to say that we can now fulfill our canonical obligation to provide a tribunal on our own,” Bishop Stika said.

“It has been a priority of mine for a long time to see that we can better serve the faithful in this diocese without the need to entangle ourselves in the extra logistics and expense of doing everything out of Nashville. This is a good and, quite frankly, necessary move for us.”

Effective June 1, Bishop Stika appointed Father Carter judicial vicar of the Diocesan Tribunal of Knoxville. Father Carter is one of three judges on the panel that will decide tribunal cases. The other judges are Sister Catherine Ngozi Okoye, SJGS, and Tyler Ross, both of whom are canon lawyers, too.

The three judges will be based in Chattanooga.

Joining them on the tribunal staff are canon lawyer Janette Buchanan, who will serve the tribunal as defender of the bond and promoter of justice, and tribunal moderator Jenny Morris, who will act as a notary and will also ensure that tribunal acts are properly drawn up and issued, based on the mandate of the judges, and are preserved in the archive according to canon law.

Father Carter has been preparing for a ministry

And justice for all Father David Carter, JCL, and other judges on the new Diocese of Knoxville tribunal will rely on the Code of Canon Law to base their decisions on Church legal issues. such as this since earning his canon law degree in 2010 from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

“Bishop Stika announced this in 2016, so it’s taken us four years. The bishop, by rite, can establish his tribunal. He must get official permission from the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, which functions as the justice department of the Catholic Church,” Father Carter said. “We received our competency to receive and adjudicate cases on July 1.”

Father Bede Aboh, a priest in the diocese who serves as chaplain for the Catholic Center at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, is currently studying for his canon law degree and will

By Bill Brewer

join the tribunal staff once he completes his degree requirements next year.

Father Carter explained that Mr. Ross, Sister Catherine, and Ms. Morris are full-time employees of the diocese who will live and work in Chattanooga. Ms. Buchanan is working out of the Diocese of Nashville as a contract employee. The two priests will include their tribunal work as part of their current priestly responsibilities.

Father Carter, in addition to Bishop Stika, is grateful to the Diocese of Nashville for handling the East Tennessee cases for the past 32 years and for assisting in the creation of the new Diocesan Tribunal of Knoxville.

Father Carter has spent the past two years serving on the Diocese of Nashville’s tribunal as the adjutant judicial vicar as part of the process of transitioning to the new East Tennessee tribunal.

“The Diocese of Nashville has graciously offered to let the Diocese of Knoxville continue to use the Diocese of Nashville tribunal. I was one of the judges for cases that came from the Knoxville territory,” Father Carter said. “Justice is supposed to be local as much as possible. Some dioceses don’t have the resources to make that a reality. We now have our tribunal in house.”

Father Carter explained that each tribunal case will be heard by the three judges. He noted that the tribunal can hear any case the code of canon law entrusts to a tribunal, including the violation of laws of the Church involving priests.

In annulment cases, each person filing for a declaration of nullity is assigned a case sponsor who will assist the parties through the process.

“The case sponsor’s role is one of accompaniment to help navigate the process of making a petition.

They are like paralegals that assist in handling paperwork and are trained by the tribunal to be familiar with procedures and necessary elements to make a successful petition,” Father Carter said.

He further explained that depositions in cases can be taken at the tribunal offices in Chattanooga or with tribunal auditors in Knoxville and the Tri-Cities.

“The parties will appear before tribunal personnel but not necessarily in Chattanooga. We are experimenting with computer meetings but that is complicated because of legal requirements,” Father Carter said, emphasizing that the tribunal wants to be as Tribunal continued on page A10

He dwells among us

by Bishop Richard F. Stika

God’s work and ours We glorify God through the work Christ accomplishes in us and through us in the world about us Father…, I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.

— John 17:4

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hen Christ cried out from the cross, “It is finished!”

(John 19:30), He proclaimed the completion of the supreme work of our salvation. But, though Christ’s work is finished, ours is not. This is a point that Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen stressed—“[Jesus] has finished the sacrifice of Calvary, we must finish the Mass.”

Though the celebration of each Mass concludes within the church, Christ must continue His work in us and through us for the glory of God and the blessing of all His creation.

For the first Adam, of whom it was said, “It is not good for man to be alone,” God formed from his side a bride and “helper” (Genesis 2:18). For the New Adam, Jesus, God would also form for Him, from His pierced side upon the cross, a bride and helper—the Church.

Each of us, by virtue of our baptism, is a bride of Christ in the Church and called to continue His work in communion with Him. And the first and greatest way in which we are Christ’s helpers is in the liturgy.

Liturgy, in its literal translation, means a “public work” or “work for the people.” While some have emphasized it as the “people’s work,” this can and has led to misunderstandings and even errors about the true purpose and meaning of the

Follow Bishop Richard Stika on Twitter @bishopstika and Facebook for news and events from the diocese.

Mass. Correctly understood, though, liturgy is the “work of God” in which the “people of God” participate.

By offering His life for us as a sacrifice of adoration, thanksgiving, atonement, and petition, which is eternally celebrated in the heavenly liturgy, Christ did for us what we could not possibly do for ourselves.

As such, liturgy is not a work we do in addition to what Christ has done, but a fruitful continuation of His work in communion with Him. Here, we must comment briefly on the broader meaning of liturgy, of which the eucharistic sacrifice is “the true center” and “the fount and apex of the whole Christ life.” For properly speaking, liturgy includes the other sacraments as well, through which Jesus communicates His grace for our sanctification.

Moreover, in the “Liturgy of the Hours,” the public prayer of the Church, it is Christ’s prayer to the Father that we join our heart and voice to, which serves “like an extension of the Eucharistic celebration” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1178).

But it is the Eucharist that is “the supreme celebration of the liturgy.”

Since the sacrifice of the Mass, as the Second Vatican Council describes, “is an exercise of the priestly office of Christ,” our active participation requires the exercise of our baptismal priesthood. Because our

In order to better share in Christ’s work as His bride and helper, we must be docile to the indispensable work of the Holy Spirit in our heart and life. baptism incorporates us into His body, the liturgy, which is the work of Christ our “great High Priest” (Hebrews 4:14), is the work of the whole Christ—Head and Mystical Body. So nowhere better do we exercise our baptismal priesthood than in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

To be Jesus’ “co-worker,” though, means we must be His “co-offerer.”

God’s command to the Israelites regarding their worship of Him is still a command we must heed—“[You] shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed, but each with his own gift” (Deuteronomy 16:16-17).

What is our “own gift” that we are to bring to every Mass but the total gift of our self—our heart and all our life with its joys and tears, its blessings and crosses. It is this poor gift of ours that Christ wants to join to His in a sacrifice pleasing and acceptable to the Father.

This is why Christ instituted the Eucharist on Holy Thursday and entrusted the Mass to His Church—so that His sacrifice on Calvary might truly become the sacrifice of the Church! How important, then, is

the gift of our heart and life that we must bring and place upon the altar of every Mass!

In many of the prayers we hear during Mass, the importance of our offering as Christ’s mystical body is beautifully expressed (notice the “we” in which they are voiced): Prayer over the offerings: Accept, O Lord, the offerings we have brought…, so that the oblation of your faithful may be transformed into the sacrifice of Him who willed in His compassion to wash away the sins of the world… (from the Sunday celebrating the Baptism of the Lord).

Eucharistic Prayer: Grant us, O Lord, we pray, that we may participate worthily in these mysteries, for whenever the memorial of this sacrifice is celebrated, the work of our redemption is accomplished (from the Votive Mass, Jesus Christ Eternal High Priest).

In order to better share in Christ’s work as His bride and helper, we must be docile to the indispensable work of the Holy Spirit in our heart and life. For the Holy Spirit is the heart’s teacher and artisan.

So “let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). In doing so, we glorify the Father through the work Christ is accomplishing in us and through us in the world about us. This is what saints do, and more than ever, our world needs the work of Christ in His saints. ■

New safe environment program replaces VIRTUS training August Prayer Intentions “We pray for all those who work and live from the sea, among them sailors, fishermen, and their families.”

–– Pope Francis “This month we celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration, when God revealed the divinity of Jesus to Peter, James, and John.

O God, please hear our prayers for Alex Hernandez and Zach Griffith, who will be ordained priests in the Diocese of Knoxville this month, and also for Deacon Matthew Donahue, who was recently ordained a transitional deacon. May they, and all of our seminarians, bring us closer to the light of Jesus and His promise of everlasting life. Amen.”

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–– Bishop Stika

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he Diocese of Knoxville is introducing a new safe environment program for the protection of children and vulnerable adults that will apply to all diocesan volunteers and employees.

Effective July 1, the diocese has implemented the CMG Connect online platform to administer the safe environment program, which replaces the VIRTUS Protecting God’s Children program that has been in place since 2014.

All diocesan employees were required to complete registration in the new CMG Connect program by July 31.

All volunteers will be required to submit their registration, perform the training exercises, submit to a background check, and receive certification before their volunteer assignments can begin.

In addition to protecting children and vulnerable adults, the training videos include workplace and school safety.

www.di o k no x .o rg

“Since 2002, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has required safe-environment training and background checks among those entrusted with children and vulnerable adults in the name of the Church. Our diocese has maintained its own database for safe-environment records,” said Deacon Sean Smith, chancellor of the Diocese of Knoxville.

“Our new system is designed to centralize that effort and make it easier for parishes and organizations to check whether volunteers are certified in safe-environment training or need recertification and updated background checks. The premise of our new program is to streamline

the safe-environment process and eliminate a lot of paperwork and make everything easier for everyone who must participate. I am quite pleased with the new program,” Deacon Smith added.

CMG Connect is a service of Catholic Mutual Group, the leading provider of insurance to the Catholic Church in North America. Catholic Mutual Group serves more than 125 dioceses and archdioceses, including the Diocese of Knoxville, and 200 Catholic religious orders in the United States and Canada.

CMG Connect is providing the safe environment certification program as part of U.S. dioceses’ and archdioceses’ CMG continued on page A7

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Chattanooga parishes rally behind world rosary Virgin of the Poor Shrine in New Hope is site of global relay to pray for the gift of priesthood

JANICE FRITZ-RYKEN (3)

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tifling heat and rain showers did not diminish the devotions of nearly 50 parishioners from the Diocese of Knoxville who recently made the trek to a small shrine in Marion County to take part in a worldwide event encompassing Catholic churches from around the globe.

East Tennessee’s participation in the 11th annual Global Rosary Relay took place June 19 at the Virgin of the Poor Shrine in New Hope. The picturesque place of prayer is among the few Roman Catholic shrines in the state.

The annual relay was sponsored by the Worldpriest Global Apostolate. According to its website, the apostolate was founded by an Irish woman, Marion Mulhall, in 2003 to “affirm the dignity, beauty, and gift of the priesthood of Jesus Christ to humanity.”

The event was organized locally

by Kelly Rozanski, a member of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in South Pittsburg who was inspired to bring it to East Tennessee after meeting Ms. Mulhall on a pilgrimage to Ireland last year.

Ms. Rozanski said she was happy with the first year of her parish’s involvement and was very glad to have gotten involved.

“I was so moved by Marion’s desire for this worldwide rosary that I wanted to have our area involved to help her out,” said Ms. Rozanski, who hopes more people will attend the event next year. “Anytime people come together to pray the rosary, anything is possible. And with all that’s been happening, it’s needed more than ever before.”

Participants in the relay prayed the rosary at a scheduled time for 30 minutes to thank God for priests and to ask the Blessed Mother’s protection for priests.

As the rally unfolded, a rosary was prayed around the world for a continuous 24-hour period.

Catholics at locations in more than 85 countries prayed during the relay. This year there were more prayer locations than ever before.

And while people attended rosaries at designated shrines and basilicas around the globe, the event also included a gathering of people on the Zoom video conference platform in Rome and at sites around the world who prayed together for Pope Francis’ intentions.

“By the coming of midnight on June 19, 2020, the entire world by then will have been encircled in prayer specifically for our priests on this the annual Rosary Relay Day,” according to a statement from the Worldpriest Global Apostolate website.

The local event drew parishioners from Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Jude, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga, and the Legion of Mary. Participants were ready and waiting for their

Relay team Father Mark Scholz, center, is joined by, from left, Father John Dowling, Deacon Gaspar DeGaetano, and lay participants in the Global Rosary Relay at the Virgin of the Poor Shrine in New Hope.

A place of prayer The Virgin of the Poor Shrine in New Hope, which is southwest of Chattanooga, hosted the Global Rosary Relay on June 19. “leg” of the relay to begin after it was handed off to New Hope by the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of Mary in Managua, Nicaragua.

Ms. Rozanski, who moved to East Tennessee several years ago from Illinois with her husband, Chris, described finding her parish as a God thing.

“We had moved down here from a huge archdiocese filled with thousands of Catholic families, and we worried we might have to drive more than a half hour to find a Catholic church,” Ms. Rozanski said.

“We never expected to find other solid Catholics in our small southern town or to experience the closeness we now have here with our fellow parishioners. We love our family at Our Lady of Lourdes and especially Father (Mark) Scholz. We truly feel it was an unexpected gift, and I was so thrilled that everyone wanted to be a part of this event,” she continued.

Another organizer of the event was Theresa Slaughter, a parishio-

Praying the rosary Faithful taking part in the Global Rosary Relay at the Virgin of the Poor Shrine in New Hope gather on June 19 to pray for priests around the world. ner of St. Jude for nearly 45 years, who echoed Ms. Rozanski’s hope for a larger turnout in 2021.

“I, of course, hope for even more participants next year, but on this first day of summer and after we have all been locked under quarantine for months, I’m just happy to see other parishioners from the diocese,” Ms. Slaughter said, adding she was especially happy to make a trip to the shrine to be a part of such an important event.

“I love this shrine, and many people don’t even know it’s here.

It was so important we do this because our priests really need

By Janice Fritz-Ryken extraordinary grace in this difficult time of shepherding the flock,” Ms. Slaughter explained.

“There’s so much spiritual warfare out there, and we need the intercession of our Mother Mary to protect us all, most especially our priests.”

Hot, muggy weather gave way to gentle rain as praying parishioners walked the grounds of the shrine and prayed the luminous mysteries decade of the rosary.

After their half-hour rosary concluded, a blessing was given

by Father Scholz, Father John Dowling, pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Signal Mountain, and Deacon Gaspar DeGaetano, who serves at the basilica.

The rosary was concluded, and the next leg was passed on to the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil.

Father Scholz, who serves as pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes and Shepherd of the Valley Parish in Dunlap, was not disappointed at the number of faithful taking part in the rosary rally. He said he was happy to see any people willing to travel across the Chattanooga area and from throughout the diocese to pray at the shrine on a Friday afternoon on the first day of summer.

“The rosary is a very powerful weapon, and Our Lady calls us to use this weapon. Seeing how people made time to come here today makes me happy,” said Father Scholz, who reminds people that in times of turbulence, Mother Mary always asks them to pray the rosary. “It is always encouraging to see people take part in this powerful devotion. When people pray together to recognize and bless the work of priests, you can feel it, and I really felt it here today.”

Our Lady of Perpetual Help parishioner Bo Cline was another participant who was happy to attend the rosary relay. A World War II veteran who turned 100 in January, Mr. Cline stood off to the side of the shrine chapel to pray with his wife, Libby, as others walked the grounds, praying the rosary in the rain.

As a centenarian, Mr. Cline still is as spry as those many years his junior. He and his wife are dedicated to praying the rosary, and they spent time enjoying the grounds of the shrine.

When asked the secret to a long life, Mr. Cline said that eating a chocolate covered graham cracker every day keeps him healthy, alert, and happy.

“I eat them every single day of my life,” Mr. Cline said, adding that one more practice helps with longevity. “Oh, yes, and I pray the rosary.” ■

East Tennessee Catholic Magazine

wins Press Association award

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he East Tennessee Catholic Magazine has been recognized by the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada with a first-place award for its coverage of immigration in the Diocese of Knoxville.

The September 2019 issue of the magazine, with its cover story “Understanding the Exodus,” was named Best Special Issue for 2019 by the CPA. In awarding the top honor, judges said the special issue was “excellent work—important coverage of a crucial topic that digs deep to inform its audience.”

The cover story actually was a series of stories that examined how immigration in all its forms affects —and enriches—the diocese.

Contributing to the effort were Bishop Richard F. Stika; Father Steve Pawelk, GHM; the diocesan Office of Communications staff: Bill Brewer, Jim Wogan, Dan McWil-

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liams, and Emily Booker; photographer Stephanie Richer; and FAITH Catholic Publishing and its graphic designer, Jenny Pomicter.

Stories from The East Tennessee Catholic are at https://etcatholic. org/. ■ www.di o k no x .o rg

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

Bishop Fabre: Following Jesus’ example, society can overcome racism Catholic Church and its members, through hard work, prayer, can be a leader in effort

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/BOB ROLLER

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he response of Catholics to racism and racial injustice can lead to a watershed moment “if we put in the work we can do and put in the effort that needs to be undertaken,” said the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism.

Bishop Shelton J. Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux, La., admitted the work of “dismantling personal racism and institutional racism” will be difficult.

But, he explained, through “prayer and action” and following the nonviolent example of Jesus’ life, the beloved community that God envisions for all people can be realized.

“We know that by the work of our hand and by the grace of almighty God we can be a part of advancing the discussion and moving hearts and moving people and moving society to root out racism and intolerance,” he told Catholic News Service on July 23.

“I fully believe an important part of that is our call for each and every person to examine their hearts and their experiences and to encounter those who are on the margins, who are not part of our ordinary circle of friends. When we do that, we can hear the pain and reality of racism,” the bishop said.

Addressing racial injustice means recognizing the human dignity of each person, a basic tenet of the Catholic faith, he said.

“I really believe these encounters with people, once we are able to put a face and a name on it, I think those encounters will lead people to be stronger advocates to work to dismantle racism and to pray and to do all of this as people of faith who are willing to accept the challenge that Jesus Christ calls us to embrace in loving one another.”

Bishop Fabre, who is one of 10 black Catholic bishops in the United States, also called on people of faith to study the history of the Church as a diverse place where all people are welcome.

“Right now in the United States, the Church has always been diverse and is becoming more and more racially diverse. Learning about the richness of that diversity and the many different cultures in the Church can only strengthen who we are as a Church and be the best disciples of Jesus Christ that we can be,” Bishop Fabre said.

He pointed to the resources gathered on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website at www. usccb.org/racism as a place to begin. The site includes educational materials, prayers, and study guides that allow parishioners to begin learning about racism.

Such resources, however, are only a start, he said, encouraging people to learn by reaching out to each other.

The bishop cited the example of two women, one white and one black, who began talking about their teenage sons, who were learning to drive. The white woman told him after Mass that “as mothers, they started talking about providing a car for their

Battling racism Bishop Shelton J. Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux, La., chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, speaks Nov. 13, 2019, during the USCCB’s fall general assembly in Baltimore. children.”

She related to Bishop Fabre how the black woman was “scared about what would happen when the police stop him.”

“And the other woman told me she had to stop and think,” he recalled. “She said, ‘I didn’t know what to say. Here I am ready to provide my son a car. My experience was not hers. I drew deep insight as a mother from what she said.’ You could just see, how she realized ‘OK, I understand now.’”

Such encounters can go a long way in beginning to overcome racism that is inherent in society, he said.

As chairman of the ad hoc committee, Bishop Fabre, 56, shepherded the U.S. bishops’ 2018 pastoral letter on racism to the finish line. The document, titled “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love — A Pastoral Letter Against Racism,” calls on Catholics to root out the sin of racism in their lives, educate themselves about racism, and work to end systemic racism.

The Church, it said, must be as outspoken about racism as it is about abortion, the death penalty, and assisted suicide. Sections examine the history of mistreatment of black Americans and the oppression of Latinos and Native Americans. The letter denounces rising anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim attitudes as well as xenophobia. Segments address police brutality, mass incarceration, and discrimination in education and housing opportunities.

It is the first pastoral letter on the topic since “Brothers and Sisters Unto Us” was adopted in 1979.

By Dennis Sadowski/Catholic News Service Bishop Fabre said parishes, dioceses, and organizations have studied and implemented the pastoral letter in day-to-day life. In response to criticism the 2018 pastoral letter is too timid in its approach, he urged people to “take it and move it forward.”

“I think what the pastoral letter does say and some of the challenges that it issues are not fully appreciated,” he said. “It’s my hope that (people) can begin envisioning a future pastoral letter that will be different because we will have moved it forward.”

Bishop Fabre believes the document can serve as a guide in the Church’s response to the unequal treatment of people of color by police and help people determine how they will respond to the rising nationwide movement to address the country’s racial injustice.

Since the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, a black man who died while pinned to the ground by a white Minneapolis police officer, Bishop Fabre has seen a “deeper desire” among Catholics and his fellow bishops to “assist in dismantling racism” wherever it exists.

“This is also a time,” he continued, “to understand how racism continues to affect us and in a particular way to come to understand how racism acutely affects the lives of black people and how black lives haven’t always been valued.”

Bishop Fabre welcomed the interest of Catholics to join grassroots movements. “People are desiring to do something,” he said.

He also cautioned that prudence be exercised.

“Catholics can work with organizations that embrace the moral and social teaching of the Church,” he said without specifically mentioning the Black Lives Matter movement, which has been the most visible organization leading demonstrations for racial justice. “When organizations take a clear departure from the Gospel vision of the Church ... then involvement becomes problematic.”

It is important to demonstrate that the work of addressing racial injustice comes from the roots of the Catholic faith, the bishop added.

“One of the important things we bring to these discussions is our faith and what our faith calls us to be about. To these questions we bring our great respect for the dignity of human life,” Bishop Fabre said.

Such work also can open clergy in particular to charges of being political or taking sides with a particular partisan point of view, the bishop acknowledged. But, he said, such work “is the right thing to do.”

“We enter into the realm of politics, which is part of our lives, not as politicians but as pastor and disciples of Jesus Christ to bring about just laws.

There’s also the deeper reality of converting hearts so that people understand that we are called to more than just the law. We are called to become this beloved community. We are called to bring the community of God to the earth.” ■

Bishops decry ‘sin of racism’ as country marks 244th anniversary

By Catholic News Service

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

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/BEATRICE NJEMANZE, MISSISSIPPI CATHOLIC

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rawing from the example of the late Sister Thea Bowman, the only African American member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, and the U.S. bishops’ 2018 pastoral letter on racism, the bishops of Mississippi denounced racism as “a plague among us.”

“It is an evil and a force of destruction that eats away at the soul of our nation,” Bishop Louis F. Kihneman III of Biloxi and Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz of Jackson said of racism in a statement released July 4. “Ultimately, it is a moral problem that requires a moral remedy — a transformation of the human heart — and compels us to act.”

The statement was among a series of reflections and comments on racism by bishops, dioceses, and organizations centered on the Independence Day holiday.

The Mississippi bishops said Sister Thea offered a prophetic life of service to overcome racism in their state and took her message nationwide in an effort to “break down racial and cultural barriers.”

The U.S. bishops as a body endorsed the sainthood cause of Sister Thea during the 2018 fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, moments after adopting their pastoral letter on racism, “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love.” Bishop Kihneman and Bishop Kopacz wrote that both acts “combined to show our nation a better way, the path to greater justice and peace, whose beginning and end is the dignity of the human person.”

The bishops decried the “chains of racism” in society and the Catholic Church and called for the Church “to be a leaven in society for solidarity, liberty, and justice for all.”

Their statement closed with a pledge “to recommit ourselves to continue to liberate the Church from the evil of racism that severely compromises our mission to make disciples of all nations in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami said in a homily during a July 5 “Mass for Unity Against Racism” that the “promissory note of liberty and justice for all,” as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. might describe the Declaration of Independence,

“We seek opportunities to dialogue with others whose faith is deep, lively, and inclusive so that true listening can begin.

We affirm this must include an identification and rejection of systemic racism in all its forms.””

— Racial Harmony Commission of the Diocese of Baton Rouge

Prophetic life of service Sister Thea Bowman, pictured in an undated photo, was the granddaughter of slaves and was the only AfricanAmerican member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. She transcended racism to leave a lasting mark on U.S. Catholic life in the late 20th century. “is not yet fully redeemed” for some Americans.

Acknowledging the “festering wounds of racism, the original sin of our founding” as continuing, Archbishop Wenski invoked the words of the civil rights leader, who asked, “Where do we go from here: chaos or community?”

As the United States celebrated the 244th anniversary of its independence, the archbishop said the country faces a “triple crisis,” including a global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, economic upheaval, and ongoing racial unrest in many cities.

He urged the country to overcome its partisan divisions to reach common ground in order to address the challenges. w ww.di o k no x .o rg

“Chaos is not an option if we are to address this triple crisis as well as advancing needed reforms in the area of immigration, health care, education, social and economic inequality as well as fixing what is broken in our system of justice that is still far from being ‘color blind,’” he said.

“America will only be strong when all our institutions promote the common good and work for the advantage of everyone. America will only be at its best when the rights of the weak and vulnerable are protected and not viewed as expended,” he said.

A statement from members of the Racial Harmony Commission of the Diocese of Baton Rouge, La., said July 3 they committed themselves to “reflect, pray, and examine our consciences with respect to the sin of racism.”

“We seek opportunities to dialogue with others whose faith is deep, lively, and inclusive so that true listening can begin. We affirm this must include an identification and rejection of systemic racism in all its forms,” the commission said in rejecting violence in response to any conflict.

The Racial Harmony Commission was formed in 2016 following the killing of Alton Sterling, a black man, by white Baton Rouge police officers and the subsequent shooting deaths of three law enforcement officers.

The commission said the deaths of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis in May, Mr. Sterling, and other African Americans and Hispanics “serve as a constant reminder that in too many cases the law is enforced differently depending upon the color of one’s skin.”

The Racial Harmony Commission statement also called slavery “America’s original sin” and a Bishops continued on page A15 AUGUST 2, 2020 n A5

A6 n AUGUST 2, 2020

PAM RHOADES

Schools continued from page A1

A healthy attitude Orestes Pumariega, dean of students at Knoxville Catholic High School, receives a shipment of thousands of sanitizing wipes for the school ahead of students returning to class on Aug. 3.

BILL BREWER

St. Mary in Johnson City; St. John Neumann in Farragut; St. Mary in Oak Ridge; St. Joseph, Sacred Heart, and Knoxville Catholic High School in Knoxville — were forced to close in March due to public safety concerns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

While hopeful that the March 16 closure would be short lived, it soon became apparent the schools would be closed for the remainder of the school year as the COVID-19 outbreak spread.

Although classrooms were empty, diocesan administrators and faculty quickly shifted to an online learning program where students were able to continue their curriculum from their homes via computer programs.

Using that model, students were able to complete their studies and advance to the next grade level, and high school seniors were able to graduate.

That online learning model still will be offered to students and parents who wish to continue learning from home.

School leaders have developed procedures and protocols that will be enforced for on-campus learning to mitigate the safety risk and maximize the school experience for students’ return to classrooms.

Among the procedures for each school are: n Infection-prevention education; n Hygiene and sanitation, including safe-cleaning and disinfecting protocols at schools; n Adherence to physical and social distancing; n Facial coverings to be worn by students and faculty; n Outdoor classrooms when possible; n Suspension of off-campus field trips; n Extracurricular activities limited to students who attend classes on campus.

The plan includes an option for families to elect online, at-home learning with the flexibility to change to traditional classroom learning for their children at any time during the fall semester.

“We have worked with families to help develop this plan,” Dr. Prater said. “Our parents are the first educators of their children, and we always work in partnership with them. Our school leaders and various task forces have worked diligently to develop operational plans that adhere to the scientific recommendations for the safest possible return of students and faculty to campus.”

Other provisions of the general health and well-being policy require all students to have up-to-date health exams and vaccinations, with schools requiring proof of both in accordance with Tennessee Department of Health regulations; parents of medically vulnerable students are encouraged to consult with their child’s health-care provider concerning his or her physical attendance at school; and an annual influenza vaccination is highly recommended for students, faculty, and staff.

Students’ health information is to be verified at least annually to ensure the information is current.

In addition, parents must notify the school if their child has a communicable disease, at which time the school will notify the parents of children who may have been exposed to a disease. Students’ anonymity will be maintained, and guidelines from the Tennessee Department of Health will be used in conjunction with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Parents also must notify the school if their child has been diagnosed with COVID-19 or has been exposed to someone with the coronavirus and is in quarantine.

All employees, students, and visitors will be screened before entering the school building, including daily temperature screenings. School personnel will be looking for any COVID-19 symptoms, including cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, chills, muscle pain,

Rubbing elbows Bishop Richard F. Stika and a Knoxville Catholic High School senior greet each other by bumping elbows during the KCHS graduation on June 19. Watching are from left, Father David Boettner, rector of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Dr. Sedonna Prater, KCHS academic dean Jane Walker, and KCHS president Dickie Sompayrac.

“While there may still be levels of uneasiness or uncertainty, we can say with great confidence that we will face these challenges as a community of faith. ... Let us all look for moments of grace as we enter this school year. May Our Lady shower her blessings on our school communities.”

— Diocese of Knoxville Office of Catholic Schools headache, sore throat, new loss of taste or smell, diarrhea, abdominal pain, malaise, fatigue, or rash.

Faculty and students will be excused from physical attendance at school if: n They test positive for COVID-19; n They have a fever of 100.4 degrees or higher; n They exhibit two or more symptoms of COVID-19 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; n An employee or student has been asked to quarantine because of exposure to COVID-19; n There is a parental request for athome learning, which is provided by the student’s school; n And there are state or regional mandates to close school for on-site learning, at which time all diocesan schools will shift to the remote learning plan.

If a student is not able to be physically present at school because of COVID-19 symptoms or has tested positive for COVID-19, his or her siblings or other students living in the same household will transition to remote learning and will be asked to self-quarantine until meeting requirements for returning to school.

The school will work with each family privately to create an educational plan for the duration of the self-quarantine.

Any student or staff member who shows symptoms consistent with COVID-19 during the day at school will be moved into a safe, private, isolated space for evaluation and pick-up. Those suspected of illness will be given a face shield in addition to their facial mask when inter-

acting with others and will be sent home as quickly as possible.

Anyone assisting that individual also will wear additional personal protective equipment. The school will keep accurate records of all those in contact with the ill individual, and the isolation room will be disinfected frequently during the day.

The school will ensure the individual is safe and does not need emergency medical attention. If an individual appears seriously ill, the school will call 911 before calling the parents, guardian, or emergency contact.

Students and faculty may return to school once they satisfy any of these guidelines: n A health-care provider confirms the individual’s illness is not due to COVID-19 because another explanation is identified (diagnoses of upper respiratory tract infection, pneumonia, and viral illness do not exclude the diagnosis of COVID-19 and shouldn’t be considered as adequate to return to school); n Individuals are required to remain out of school until they haven’t had a fever for at least 72 hours without fever-reducing medication and respiratory and other symptoms have improved for at least 72 hours (testing for COVID-19 is not a mandatory requirement to return to school); n If a person has been exposed to COVID-19, he or she must adhere to complete isolation for a minimum of 14 calendar days or he or she has been released from a health-care provider to return to school; n And if a person has tested positive or has a pending test for

Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Knoxville prepare SCHOLARS, LEADERS, and SAINTS! S! www.di o k no x .o rg

COVID-19 but are asymptomatic, he or she may return to school after 14 calendar days or when he or she has been released from a health-care provider.

The school will notify parents of students who may have been exposed to the coronavirus. Confidentiality of the individual will be maintained unless there is a need to selectively identify him or her for contact tracing by the health department. The school also will have to assist the local health department in identifying contacts of the infected individual. Contacts will have to self-quarantine for 14 days from their last contact with the infected individual.

And while the confidentiality of the individual will be kept, the school will communicate to the school community at large that there has been a confirmed case of COVID-19 within the school.

“This communication will be completed to maintain trust within our communities, as well as to better protect our communities and their extended families,” the diocesan schools office stated.

The 10 diocesan schools are being encouraged to provide outdoor classrooms as much as possible and to use large outdoor spaces for instruction, physical activity, and eating. And standard protocols in place for the school day will also be in place for gatherings, extracurricular activities including athletic events, plays, concerts, and other activities.

Spectators for athletic events will abide by local regulations and the standard protocols in place during the school day.

And families who choose at-home learning for their students instead of the traditional classroom setting will not be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities such as athletics, academic clubs, and performing arts like band, theater, and chorus. This does not apply to students in quarantine. “(The protocols and procedures provide) the framework to plan and implement a safe, efficient, re-entry in our Catholic schools. It is important to realize that it is informed by evidence and global best practices, but it is limited by the boundaries of scientific knowledge about COVID-19 and its impact on our communities. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize that there is insufficient data to make recommendations that entirely remove risk from returning to school. It is also likely that as more information is acquired, plans will evolve,” the diocesan schools office stated.

“Our schools are committed to using all available information to make the best-informed decisions for our students and families regarding safety procedures. Please know that we are committed to monitoring and adjusting these plans accordingly. It is our intent to review protocols every two weeks, and we will inform our communities when any adjustments are made,” it further stated.

While cases of COVID-19 have leveled off and even decreased in parts of the United States that reported high numbers in the spring, case numbers have increased in other parts of the country, including the Southeast. COVID-19 cases in Tennessee have been escalating as medical researchers race to find a vaccine.

The diocese followed publichealth mandates in March by closing churches to public Masses and closing schools, which led to the at-homelearning program. Churches reopened to public Masses on the weekend of Pentecost, May 30-31, and at the time it was hoped schools could reopen with the new academic year.

“While there may still be levels of uneasiness or uncertainty, we can say with great confidence that we will face these challenges as a community of faith. ‘The Holy Spirit upsets us because it moves us, makes us walk, pushes the Church forward,’ Pope Francis said. Let us all look for moments of grace as we enter this school year. May Our Lady shower her blessings on our school communities,” the diocesan schools office stated. ■ TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

Retreating to Rogersville Hawkins County is a welcoming host to Tennessee Knights of Columbus leaders and their strategic planning weekend

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Southern hospitality Left: Tennessee Knights of Columbus leaders gather in the Hale Springs Inn in Rogersville for a strategic planning meeting.

Below: Tennessee Knights of Columbus members, from left, state deputy Michael McCusker, state secretary Fred Laufenberg, state programs director Alan Stanley, state advocate Eric Pelton, state warden David Zwissler, and Gabe Stanley, front, gather at Cor Jesu, the Handmaids of the Precious Blood monastery in New Market.

COURTESY OF THE TENNESSEE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS (2)

ome has an ambassador from Africa in Rogersville and Sneedville, and he is promoting the Catholic faith across the four corners of Hawkins and Hancock counties.

Father Bartholomew Okere is not only spreading the Gospel from St. Henry and St. James the Apostle parishes, where he is pastor, he’s also evangelizing in unique ways that bring the Catholic Church to this very Protestant part of Tennessee.

Father Okere has been active in the Hawkins and Hancock communities, working with other faith leaders in the area on civic projects. He even joined pastors from other denominations in a religious unity service in 2017 to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

And his latest effort brought Tennessee Knights of Columbus leaders to Rogersville for a statewide retreat. In addition to being a faith-filled weekend June 5-7, where the Knights leadership made 2020-21 plans for the Catholic men’s service organization and its 101 councils across the state representing more than 12,000 members, Father Okere inspired a brief economic boon in the county seat.

While it wasn’t a large gathering of Knights, the leadership, spouses, and family members sold out Rogersville’s historic downtown hotel and enjoyed dining in the town’s eateries.

And the Diocese of Knoxville and the Catholic faith, through Father Okere and the Knights of Columbus, were being the face, hands, feet, and heart of Jesus to a community not very familiar with the Catholic Church.

“The fiscal year 2020-21 planning retreat June 5-7 in Rogersville by the state officers and their wives brought a substantial amount of resources to the city, which led the executive director and commissioner for the Rogersville/Hawkins County Chamber of Commerce, Mrs. Nancy Barker, to graciously accord the officers a warm and fraternal welcome,” Father Okere said.

“Rogersville restaurants also benefited from the officers, resources that boosted the city’s revenue. Individuals who greeted our august visitors were like Oliver Twist looking forward to see the Knights come often to their city,” he added. “Rogersville, a historic town, benefited from the presence of nine state officers, plus their wives, who stormed the city stores, bought different kinds of stuff, and visited some of the galleries, especially one of the oldest, historic courthouses in Tennessee, built in 1836. It’s one of the six antebellum courthouses still in use in Tennessee, and it’s the second-oldest courthouse still in use in the state.”

Father Okere described the unique visit by state Catholic officials as a weekend of marathon brainstorming meetings and socialization.

“Rogersville was honored that the Knights of Columbus chose Rogersville’s Hale Springs Inn to host its statewide leadership retreat. ... To have representatives from across the state is a great way to help us tell our story about our beautiful downtown district and encourage visitors to come stay in our community.”

— Nancy Barker Rogersville/Hawkins County Chamber of Commerce Michael McCusker, state deputy of the Knights of Columbus, the highest-ranking Tennessee Knight, spoke highly of the retreat weekend and the resources offered by Rogersville. He has become a fan of the town.

“Rogersville has become one of my favorite places. I was there last August for St. Henry’s mortgage-burning ceremony, and then I was there in October to meet with St. Henry Council 8860 leadership and have dinner with them. And then I was there in January for the feast of Epiphany. Father Bart cooked an authentic Nigerian meal,” said Mr. McCusker, a parishioner of St. Francis of Assisi Church in the Memphis suburb of Cordova who is an assistant district attorney for Shelby County.

He was back in Rogersville on July 17.

“I love the history of the place, and it’s off the beaten path,” he added. “It was wonderful. It was the second time the state officers were able to get together since our virtual state convention (May 2-3). We haven’t had a planning retreat in anyone’s collective memory, and what we have done in the past is to plan during the state convention.”

While in Rogersville for the leadership retreat, the Knights of Columbus leaders, spouses, and family members attended Mass at St. Henry on that Saturday evening, with Father Okere celebrating the Mass. Father Okere is an associate chaplain for the Tennessee Knights of Columbus.

CMG continued from page A2

compliance with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons.

Jennifer Mills, director of human resources for the diocese, explained that there are three elements to the safe environment program that every U.S. diocese adheres to as required by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: an educational piece, a background piece, and a policy piece.

VIRTUS provided the educational piece. As part of that program, employees and volunteers were required to sign up for classes that taught awareness and prevention of abusive and inappropriate behavior toward children and vulnerable adults. The classes were held in parishes and schools throughout the diocese during the year.

The Church and diocese are responsible for the policy piece, and background checks are TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

By Bill Brewer

The Knights stayed at the Hale Springs Inn in Rogersville, which was built in 1824 and has hosted three U.S. presidents.

Hale Springs Inn has nine stately rooms, so the Knights occupied the entire hotel during their leadership retreat.

“The accommodations were just incredible. The room I stayed in was where Andrew Jackson stayed in 1837 on his way home from the presidency. He used the hotel to deliver a speech from the balcony,” the state deputy said.

The other two presidents who stayed at Hale Springs Inn were Andrew Johnson and James K. Polk.

The Rogersville/Hawkins County Chamber of Commerce took note of the Knights of Columbus visit and made sure the Catholic delegation felt welcomed.

“Rogersville was honored that the Knights of Columbus chose Rogersville’s Hale Springs Inn to host its statewide leadership retreat. I was invited to their meetand-greet reception and gifted them with gift bags from the community. I think it was great for our community to host and educate ourselves on the charitable work that they do. I feel it will also help our local chapter of

performed by an independent contractor.

Mrs. Mills said CMG Connect combines all three pieces in a user-friendly, web-based program that removes logistical complexities of the VIRTUS program.

“CMG brings all three elements together. All policies and applications are online, and users are able to provide the background information needed,” Mrs. Mills said.

Selection.com is performing the background checks of all diocesan volunteers and employees for CMG Connect.

Mrs. Mills said an important reason for switching from VIRTUS to CMG Connect was the teaching elements offered by CMG Connect are more up to date. Both programs use videos to teach, but she said CMG Connect’s videos are more updated and user-friendly.

Another advantage to changing is that all elements of the CMG Connect program are online, so users are no longer required to find a location where a VIRTUS class is offered, drive to that site, and complete the tutorial, according to Mrs. Mills. w ww.di o k no x .o rg

the Knights of Columbus become more visible,” said Mrs. Barker, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce.

And not only did the retreat help make the Knights of Columbus and St. Henry Parish more visible in the town, it also helped the town be more visible to some leaders from all over Tennessee.

“To have representatives from across the state is a great way to help us tell our story about our beautiful downtown district and encourage visitors to come stay in our community. The Hale Springs Inn, built in 1824, was a perfect setting for them to experience our southern hospitality and taste the delicious food served at McKinney’s Tavern. Father Bart and I enjoyed hosting them and hope that they will consider returning in the near future,” Mrs. Barker said.

The Knights of Columbus state leaders concluded their retreat with a visit to the Handmaids of the Precious Blood at their Cor Jesu Monastery in New Market. ■

She noted that all VIRTUS classes were indefinitely suspended last winter at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We began the switch to CMG Connect before COVID-19 hit, but now we can continue our program despite COVID,” she said.

According to Mrs. Mills, the process for completing the CMG Connect certification is: Go to www.dioknox.org and click on the Safe Environment tab near the top of the home page; n Click on the CMG Connect Online Safe Environment Training tab; n Register as a new user; n Once registered, users input their basic information; n Then select the job or volunteer role or roles that apply, such as priest, educator, employee, or volunteer; n Select one of four specific employee or volunteer roles that will dictate the background check; n Select the appropriate training exercises; n Submit information to launch the background check; n Await certification by the diocese. ■ AUGUST 2, 2020 n A7

A miracle for Mikey

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ikey Schachle, 5 years old, climbs onto a stump in the yard of his family’s home in Dickson, Tenn. He carefully takes stock of the short distance to the trampoline buried in the ground below him, then slowly steps off the stump into space and falls happily onto the trampoline as some of his 12 brothers and sisters surround him with smiles and hugs.

It’s a scene that would have been impossible for his parents, Dan and Michelle Schachle, to imagine five years ago when they sat in a doctor’s office to hear that their still unborn son had zero chance of living more than a few days or weeks.

It took a miracle to save Mikey.

On May 27, Pope Francis approved the promulgation of a decree recognizing Mikey’s cure from a deadly case of fetal hydrops while still in his mother’s womb as a miracle attributed to the intercession of Venerable Father Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus.

With the approval of the miracle, Father McGivney’s cause for sainthood moves to the next step, beatification, when he will receive the title “Blessed.”

“I think God had a plan for Father McGivney. I think God had a plan for Michael,” Dan Schachle said of his son’s miraculous cure. “You have to be open to God’s grace, you have to be open to God’s plan, because if you’re not open to God’s plan, he can’t use you.”

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/RICK MUSACCHIO-TENNESSEE REGISTER (2)

Diocese of Nashville boy’s cure opens door to Knights of Columbus founder’s beatification

Answered prayers Dan and Michelle Schachle are shown with 12 of their 13 children, including Mikey, center. Pope Francis has approved the recognition of Mikey’s cure of fetal hydrops as a miracle that can be attributed to the intercession of Father Michael J. McGivney.

Yes to God

Late in 2014, Michelle became pregnant with Mikey, their 13th child.

A8 n AUGUST 2, 2020

Throughout their pilgrimage, the Schachles were praying for Father McGivney’s intercession to save their son. Priests offered Masses for them in Rome and back home at their parish in Dickson, St. Christopher.

But it was the Gospel reading while attending a Mass in Fatima on March 16 with the rest of the more than 250 people on the pilgrimage that left the most powerful impression on Dan and Michelle. The reading for the day was from the Gospel of John 4:43-54, the story of the official who asked Jesus to heal his son.

The Gospel reads: “The royal official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my child dies.’ Jesus said to him, ‘You may go; your son will live.’ The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.”

“We both looked at each other with our mouths open,” Dan said. “It was surreal.”

While on the trip, Dan told one of the officials of the Knights insurance program what the family was going through. “He said, ‘You never know.

We’re in Fatima.’”

‘There’s always hope’

Stewards of Fr. McGivney’s vision

The Schachles like to tell people they met in prison. Michelle was a single mother with twin daughters working in the office of the chief of security at South Central Correctional Facility in Clifton, Tenn., and Dan was working as a guard.

Their friendship blossomed into a romance, and they were married on Sept. 20, 1997. Michelle’s daughters were 4 years old. “Dan married the three of us,” she said. After marrying, Dan adopted the two girls.

Michelle converted to Catholicism and entered the Church on their wedding day.

“At first I kind of struggled with Mary, which is funny to me now,” considering her family is consecrated to the Blessed Virgin, Michelle said.

Praying to saints was another feature of the Catholic faith that was difficult for her to accept at first. “It just seemed to be wrong to go through anybody but Jesus,” she said.

One aspect of Catholic teaching that Michelle had no trouble accepting was respect for life. “When I became Catholic, right to life was something I could grab on to,” she said.

With a little time, Michelle began to fully embrace all the teachings and devotions of the Catholic Church, and they became a lifeline when she needed them most.

As their family grew, Dan started looking for a new business opportunity and landed on the possibility of becoming a life insurance agent for the Knights of Columbus, one of the largest Catholic organizations in the world with 2 million members in North and Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Europe.

He had joined the Knights in 1994 and served as the Grand Knight of Council 8083 at his home parish, St. Mary Church in Savannah, Tenn.

“The last thing I ever imagined myself being was a life insurance agent,” said Dan, who is now the general agent for the Knights’ insurance program in Tennessee, Kentucky, and the eastern half of Arkansas, overseeing the work of 16 agents. “But once I read about Father McGivney and why he set us up, it was really eye opening to me.

It was love of women and children that drove him to start the Knights of Columbus.”

“I bought into what he wanted,” he added. “We are the stewards of Father McGivney’s vision. … I see it as a ministry.”

By Andy Telli/Tennessee Register

Sibling togetherness Mikey Schachle, 5, plays with his sister Gianna at the family home in Dickson, Tenn., on June 2.

Dan and Michelle hadn’t planned on having such a big family. “We said yes to God one at a time,” Michelle said.

Michelle’s midwife at the Vanderbilt Women’s Health program in Nashville referred her for an ultrasound. On the last day of 2014, she was undergoing the ultrasound when the doctors found markers indicating the child had Down syndrome, which is caused when a person has an extra chromosome.

“It didn’t matter to us,” Dan said.

“It’s actually a gift to our family.”

“We’ve always thought they were God’s special people,” Dan said of those with intellectual and developmental delays. “That didn’t stop when we had a child with Down syndrome.”

But the doctors saw some other troubling signs and sent Michelle for more tests. On Feb. 25, 2015, the doctors delivered the news the Schachles feared most, that their child might not survive.

The baby had a severe case of fetal hydrops, a life-threatening condition of an abnormal buildup of fluids in the tissue around the lungs, heart or abdomen, or under the skin.

“I had no idea what it was,” Dan said.

He pressed the doctor for a percentage on the chances their son would live. “She finally said, ‘I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve never seen anybody survive,’” he said.

The doctor told them “to have hydrops and a chromosomal diagnosis together, it’s over,” Michelle recalled.

The doctor tried to reassure them.

There was no hope for their child, so they shouldn’t feel guilty about terminating the pregnancy. The Schachles were told they could induce delivery now or “let nature take its course,” Michelle said.

“I didn’t like either one of those decisions,” Dan said. “It made me mad.

My job as a dad is to protect my children, not to kill them.”

The condition was not only a threat to the baby but could also cause serious complications for Michelle, their doctor told them. “If you start getting sick, we’re going to have a very serious talk,” the doctor told Michelle.

For Michelle, the concern was delivering a child stillborn, something

that had happened when she was younger. “I became so afraid of delivering another baby stillborn,” she said.

There was a moment when she asked herself, is it really an abortion if there is no hope. She quickly told herself yes it would be. “It was only a split second, and then it was gone.”

“We can both understand parents falling into that decision,” Dan said.

Turning to Fr. McGivney

Instead, Dan and Michelle turned to Father McGivney for help. The Knights of Columbus have been promoting his sainthood cause since 1997 and the Schachles were members of the Father McGivney Guild, an organization established to support the cause.

As they were alone contemplating the news they had just received, “Dan was quiet for a moment,” Michelle remembered. “He looked at me and said, ‘Father McGivney needs a miracle. I just prayed that if Father McGivney saves him, I’m naming him Michael.’”

Until then, the couple had planned to name the child Ben. “What if God decides not to save him?” Michelle asked her husband.

In his answer he looked to another opportunity coming just around the corner to offer a powerful prayer for Father McGivney to intercede to save their son’s life.

“We’ve got a trip to Fatima in a couple of weeks,” Dan answered.

Normally, the Knights send their top insurance agents and their families to a resort as a reward for their success. “This was the first time ever the Knights sales award trip was a pilgrimage,” Dan said. The trip, from March 12-20 in 2015, included a visit to the Vatican, Madrid, Spain, and the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal.

Before the trip, Dan and Michelle sent out e-mails to as many people as they could, asking them to pray for the intercession of Father McGivney to save their son.

“I prayed, ‘Please Father McGivney, let him be the miracle,’” Michelle said. “I went from ‘How will I take care of a child with Down syndrome?’ to ‘Please God, I want a child with Down syndrome.’ I had hope.”

www.di o k no x .o rg

Four days after the Schachles returned home from the pilgrimage, Michelle went back to the doctor’s office for another ultrasound to check the baby’s fluid levels and the status of the hydrops.

“I was pretty scared,” Michelle said. “The ultrasound technician, she kept looking and looking, she was taking a long time.”

The technician eventually showed Michelle an ultrasound picture of the baby’s face with none of the swelling and fluid buildup that was so apparent on the last ultrasound. “This is the prettiest baby I’ve ever seen,” she told Michelle.

Dr. Mary-Anne Carroll came into the room to talk to Michelle about the ultrasound. Michelle had never met Dr. Carroll before, having dealt with other doctors in the practice.

“She started talking about this and that, about what we’re going to do when the baby is born,” Michelle said. “I said what about the fluid in the lungs. She said, ‘A lot of babies have a little fluid in the lungs. It’s called wet lungs.’ Wait a minute, I was told there’s no hope.”

Dr. Carroll then realized that Michelle and her baby were the patients she had heard about from the other doctors in the practice. “We would meet regularly to review the cases, so it would have been reviewed,” she said.

She consulted with her colleagues who confirmed that the baby was no longer showing any signs of fetal hydrops. “That was a very interesting and potentially unexplained finding,” said Dr. Carroll, who now practices at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas. “It was an unexpected finding.”

Without knowing the history of the case, “I would not have put together that this baby had hydrops,” Dr. Carroll said.

“It was just there and then it was gone,” Michelle said. “Then we were just pregnant with a baby with Down syndrome.”

“There’s a whole host of things that can lead to hydrops,” Dr. Carroll said. “We went looking for the cause of the hydrops.”

The condition can be caused by a virus passed from the mother, it can be genetic, or it can be caused by a problem with the heart that leads to a circulation failure, Dr. Carroll explained. “It can be a cause we never know.”

If the cause of the hydrops is reversible, Dr. Carroll said, doctors can treat the cause in hopes of saving the child. “Michelle had testing to look for some of the reversible causes, which we didn’t identify,” Dr. Carroll said.

“Short of there being hydrops as a result of an identifiable, reversible cause, the classic teaching is that hydrops is irreversible,” Dr. Carroll said.

When she heard that the hydrops Mikey continued on page A13 TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

Wave of Church vandalism strikes East Tennessee

Shepherd Church and prompted Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski to call on law enforcement to investigate the incident as a hate crime.

On July 15, the statue at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Southwest Miami-Dade was found with its head chopped off and knocked from its pedestal.

“It is too soon to arrive to any conclusion, but we have seen other churches vandalized around the country. We totally ‘condemn’ this action. We invite our community to pray for peace,” parish officials said in a statement.

“The statue, located outside the church, was on private and sacred property,” said Mary Ross Agosta, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Miami. She told the local Fox News affiliate Archbishop Wenski requested investigators consider the vandalism “a hate crime.”

The Department of Homeland Security is among the agencies investigating the case.

In recent weeks around the country, angry mobs have toppled statues of figures such as St. Junipero Serra, a Franciscan priest from Spain who founded several missions in California. Statues of historical figures, like Christopher Columbus, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and Frederick Douglass also have been knocked down and heavily damaged.

The wave of recent attacks on Catholic statues includes an unidentified person using red paint to deface a statue of Mary in front of St. Mary’s Cathedral in downtown Colorado Springs, Colo., on July 15.

“It does look like a graffiti tag more than anything else,” Father David Price, the cathedral’s rector, told local reporters. “I’m not sure there was any sense or meaning behind it.”

A statue of Mary was found de-

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/DAVID ZANDMAN VIA REUTERS

PHOTO COURTESY OF ST. STEPHEN PARISH

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/COURTESY OF FLORIDA CATHOLIC

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s increasing incidents of vandalism against Church properties are reported across the country, St. Stephen Parish in Chattanooga has sadly found it was not immune.

A 5-foot-tall outdoor statue of the Blessed Mother was beheaded at St. Stephen sometime over the weekend of July 11-12. The missing head has not been found.

The vandalism was discovered by Father Manuel Pérez, St. Stephen pastor, as he walked the parish grounds before Mass on July 11. No one was injured and no other damage was reported.

The incident was the focus of local and national media coverage due to recent similar incidents of desecrated statues and Catholic church buildings in other parts of the country.

An official from the Department of Homeland Security investigated the incident at St. Stephen on July 16. Homeland Security is investigating a number of similar acts of vandalism across the country that occurred in the same time frame as possible hate crimes.

Bishop Stika informed the diocese of the vandalism on July 13.

“These are indeed strange times in the United States, and so I just urge you to be vigilant. Over the last month, Church properties have been vandalized throughout the country, and this has also occurred at various times in our own diocese,” Bishop Stika said.

In December 2004, vandals attacked a statue of the Blessed Mother with the Christ child in front of the Diocese of Knoxville Chancery.

Mary’s head was defaced and the head and arms of Jesus were severed. In July 2010, vandals painted vulgar graffiti on a statue of the Blessed Mother and damaged other statues at St. Mary Church in Oak Ridge.

“Anytime something like this happens it is disappointing and concerning. We don’t know if this was the targeted desecration of a sacred statue, or some kind of misguided prank, but it hurts,” said Diocese of Knoxville communications director Jim Wogan. “For whatever reason we are living in a very chaotic time, and anger seems to be the default setting for people.

Our bishop has asked that we live by the example set in the Gospel of Matthew, to treat others as we ourselves would want to be treated.”

The beheading of a statue of Christ at a Catholic church in the Miami Archdiocese has saddened the parish community of Good

By The East Tennessee Catholic/Catholic News Service CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/COURTESY OF DIOCESE OF BROOKLYN

Chattanooga parish joins growing list of U.S. church properties damaged by hate acts

Hurtful acts Top left, a statue of the Blessed Mother decapitated at St. Stephen Church in Chattanooga is shown on July 11. Top center, a decapitated statue of Jesus is seen at Good Shepherd Church in Miami on July 15. Top right, a statue of Mary defaced is seen on July 10 on the grounds of Cathedral Prep School and Seminary in the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y. Bottom, a vandalized statue of St. Junipero Serra in San Francisco is seen on June 19. faced July 10 on the grounds of Cathedral Prep School and Seminary in the Diocese of Brooklyn.

Father James Kuroly, Cathedral Prep’s rector and president, called the incident “an act of hatred.”

“Obviously, this tragedy saddens us deeply,” he said in a statement, “but it also renews our hope and faith in the Lord as He has shown His goodness in the many people who have already reached out to us.”

He urged prayers “for those who committed this act of vandalism and hatred toward Our Lady and the Church.”

Police in Boston were likewise investigating a fire that damaged a statue of Mary outside St. Peter Church the evening of July 11. News reports said flowers in Mary’s hands were set on fire, causing damage from her arms up to

her face.

Fire also claimed much of two Catholic churches, one in Florida and one in California.

In the Diocese of Orlando, a man crashed his van through the doors of Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Ocala, Fla., early in the morning July 11. Once inside, he set the interior of the church ablaze.

There were no injuries reported.

Police apprehended the suspect, who had fled. He was charged with several felonies, including attempted second-degree murder, arson to a structure, and felony fleeing or attempting to elude.

And in Los Angeles, fire ravaged Mission San Gabriel Arcangel Church before dawn on July 11.

Investigators have yet to determine what started the blaze that gutted the 230-year-old church. ■

Judges stop ‘heartbeat laws’ in Tennessee, Georgia from taking effect

By Catholic News Service

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he head of a leading national pro-life organization said she was disappointed “the will of the people is being thwarted” in a federal judge’s permanent block to keep Georgia’s “heartbeat bill” from ever taking effect.

It would have banned abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is around six weeks. It had exceptions to save the life of the mother and in the case of rape and incest if a police report is filed. It also makes exceptions to allow abortions when a fetus has serious medical issues.

And in a neighboring state, another federal judge agreed with pro-abortion activists in ruling that a “heartbeat bill” signed into law

by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on July 13 is unconstitutional.

District Judge Steve C. Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled July 13 the state law infringed on constitutional rights, including those set by the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v.

Wade and the 1992 decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

“As this ban directly conflicts with binding Supreme Court precedent (i.e., the core holdings in Roe, Casey, and their progeny) and thereby infringes upon a woman’s

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constitutional right to obtain an abortion prior to viability, the court is left with no other choice but to declare it unconstitutional,” Judge Jones said in his ruling.

“The beating heart of a vulnerable unborn child should awaken the conscience of our nation, and Georgia helped lead the way with the passage of its heartbeat bill,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List in Washington, D.C. “We are disappointed the will of the people is being thwarted with (the) decision striking down this compassionate law. We thank Gov. Brian Kemp for championing this legislation, and we stand with pro-life Georgians in the fight to protect this strong, compassionate pro-life law.”

Last October, Judge Jones temporarily blocked the Georgia law after a suit was filed against it by Planned Parenthood Southeast, Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, Feminist Women’s Health Center, and several patients and doctors.

Of Judge Jones’ July 13 ruling, Gov. Kemp’s office said in a statement: “We will appeal the court’s decision. Georgia values life, and we will keep fighting for the rights of the unborn.”

When it was passed, Republican Rep. Ed Setzler, the bill’s author,

said the legislation was one of “common sense” to “balance the difficult circumstances women find themselves in with the basic right to life of a child.”

In response, Democratic Sen. Jen Jordan said: “There’s nothing balanced about it; it’s an all-out abortion ban.” Current state law allows abortions up to the 20th week of pregnancy.

Gov. Kemp’s signing of the heartbeat bill on May 7, 2019, came after weeks of protests and amid outcry for legal action against it. It was to have gone into effect in January of this year until Judge Jones temporarily blocked it last fall and now has struck it down.

The Georgia measure prompted a response from Hollywood long before it was signed into law.

A group of 50 celebrities, led by activist actress Alyssa Milano, signed a letter in late March 2019 declaring a boycott of the state’s film industry if the bill passed.

Ashley Bratcher, lead actress in the pro-life movie “Unplanned” and a native Georgian, responded in an open letter to Ms. Milano saying: “In Georgia, we care just as much about being pro-life as being pro-film. We don’t believe in putting a price tag on human life.”

In Tennessee, District Judge William L. Campbell struck down the

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state’s “heartbeat” law only 45 minutes after Gov. Lee signed the legislation on July 13.

The Tennessee law would require doctors performing abortions to determine and inform the mother of the gestational age of the fetus; allow the mother to hear the fetal heartbeat and explain the location of the unborn child within the uterus; conduct an ultrasound and display the images of the fetus to the mother; and provide an explanation of the fetus’ dimensions and which external body parts and internal organs are visible.

Tennessee’s “heartbeat” law would also prohibit abortions if the doctor knows the woman is seeking an abortion because of the child’s sex or race; if the doctor knows the woman is seeking an abortion because the child has been diagnosed with Down syndrome; and for juveniles in state custody.

Judge Campbell ruled that the new law could have a significant impact on women seeking abortions and should not take effect until another court hearing on the measure, according to a Nashville Tennessean report.

Gov. Lee broadcast his signature of the law on Facebook on July 13, saying it is “arguably the most conservative, pro-life piece of legislation in the country.” ■ AUGUST 2, 2020 n A9

Chaplain says Nationals’ World Series run is a story of faith

By Maureen Boyle/Catholic News Service

MLB’s first woman coach a ‘go-getter’

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Tribunal continued from page A1

accommodating as possible to those involved in petitions.

He also emphasized that petitions for declarations of nullity can be emotionally charged, and judgments in those cases can trigger strong responses.

“We try to be as pastoral as possible.

We are a pastoral tribunal; we lead people to the truth that will set them free, but the reality is that truth can be difficult to accept or is something that someone does not want to hear,” Father Carter said. “But we try to convey the truth with compassion and evangelical zeal for the salvation of souls. Just like a good shepherd leads the sheep to green pastures, so, too, we are charged with leading souls to live in the truth of God’s will for their life, even if it means carrying the cross of marriage vows that continue to be valid.”

To prepare for this new role in addition to pastoring the basilica, Father Carter was granted a sabbatical by Bishop Stika and spent the first two months of 2020 in the contemplative Monastery of Christ in the Desert in New Mexico, where he was in silence and solitude.

“I was fortified in the spiritual life,” he said.

Sister Catherine is joining the tribunal staff in Chattanooga from Rome, where she has been serving the Catholic Church in the Sisters of Jesus the Good Shepherd.

She received her Licentiate in Canon Law degree from the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome, her Ecclesiastical Jurisprudence degree from Pontifical Urban University in Rome, and her doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. She recently completed an internship with a tribunal for marriage nullity cases in the Diocese of Rome.

Sister Catherine said her natural quest for justice and truth in matters of life, as well as her choice of studies and academic qualifications, gave her hope that she would work in an ecclesiastical tribunal as a minister of justice and truth.

“My goals for the tribunal are that the judiciary power of the tribunal always be exercised in line with the established laws of the Church and the civil law where applicable; that those faithful who seek justice and truth not be disappointed by the tribunal services,” Sister Catherine said. “Tribunal ministry demands team spirit and simplicity for optimal and exemplary performance. It is my earnest prayer that this team spirit be always alive A10 n AUGUST 2, 2020

By Mark Pattison/Catholic News Service

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS (2)

baseball season and team are not often synonymous with religious themes, but for Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, using words such as “miracle,” “grace,” and “faith” are the best ways to describe the 2019 World Series champion Washington Nationals.

“It’s a story of hope. It’s a story of faith. It’s a story of mutual love and friendship,” said the priest, who has served as the Nationals’ priest/chaplain for 10 years. “It’s an inspiring story, a spiritual story, and it felt like a miracle.”

In a talk at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., Monsignor Rossetti shared the Gospel lessons, inspiration, and blessings that continue to resonate from a Nationals’ season that began so bleakly, but against all odds rose to baseball’s highest peak on Oct. 30.

“It was deeply moving for me and everybody. You could feel the electricity, something special was happening, a special spiritual grace happening,” said Monsignor Rossetti, referring to the October playoff start. “The players, coaches, and staff all felt the same.”

During the regular season, Monsignor Rossetti, who also is a licensed psychologist and teaches theology at The Catholic University of America, celebrates Mass at Nationals Park for the players, coaches, staff, stadium crew, and the visiting team before every Sunday home game.

The priest said he offers prayers for a safe, healthy game, but he doesn’t pray specifically for a Nats’ win.

“I think God knows who I’m rooting for,” he joked.

After a nearly four-month delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, the Nationals opened Major

Dugout blessings Monsignor Stephen J. Rossetti blesses bats before a game during the 2019 season.

Another barrier in the sports world was broken July 20 when Alyssa Nakken coached first base in the late innings of an exhibition game between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, thus becoming the first woman to appear in uniform on the field during a Major League Baseball game. The Giants won the game, 6-2.

While Coach Nakken’s appearance in the coach’s box may have surprised some baseball fans, it didn’t really surprise Dan Rascher, director of academics for the master’s degree program in sports management at the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco, and a professor in the program.

“To an extent, it’s surprising: ‘Wow, the first woman to be on a major league baseball staff.’ But it’s not surprising that it would be her,” Mr. Rascher said.

Coach Nakken was “a really strong leader and a very well-grounded student and person.”

Coach Nakken — officially listed as an “assistant coach” on new Giants manager Gabe Kapler’s staff — took Mr. Rascher’s sports economics and finance course at USF. Coach Nakken, now 30, got her master’s degree from USF in 2015. Typically, most students in the program look for jobs or internships with professional teams, sports agents, or stadiums; Mr. Rascher estimates 20 alumni from the program work for the Giants in some capacity. But Nakken landed her job with the club a year before getting her degree.

“Usually by the time they get to me, which is eight months in, they tended to look for jobs or internships in the sports industry. But she was a go-getter, so she was already pretty successful,” Mr. Rascher said. ■

League Baseball’s regular season with a July 23 evening game against the New York Yankees at Nationals Park. Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, no fans were allowed in the stands, but the game was televised on ESPN. Throughout the past decade, Monsignor Rossetti said he has gotten to know many of the Nationals’ front office staff and players. Although a majority of the players are young men between ages 19 and 28, he said they are respectful, mature, and often faith-filled individuals.

“From top to bottom (of the Nats’ organization), they are really nice people,” he said in his July 2 talk at the museum.

Monsignor Rossetti showed photographs of some of his favorite moments of the 2019 season, pointing out ways that remind him of the Gospel message.

He said the team’s motto for the playoffs — “Stay in the Fight” — is a good example of the Christian virtue of hope.

“Don’t give up. ... Hope is important for all our lives,” he said, adding that he told the players: “If you gave up, you wouldn’t be here (in the playoffs.) ... It was inspiring that they never gave up.”

After winning the National League championship, team manager Davey Martinez reflected on the rough start to the season, telling the overjoyed crowd,

“Bumpy roads lead to beautiful places.

And this is a beautiful place!”

Monsignor Rossetti said this is the same notion as the Paschal Mystery.

“We must go through the darkness to get to the Resurrection,” he said. “We all pay our dues. There are no easy lives. The Lord is with us, and walks with us.” ■

among the ministers of the tribunal. That through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, Virgin Mary, the undoer of knots, all who may seek assisSr. Catherine tance of the tribunal in their marriage cases may always find fulfilment with joy.”

Like Father Carter, Sister Catherine, 42, acknowledges that hearing marriage nullity cases can be emotionally trying.

“However, a true judge is not to identify emotionally with any party in the case. The judge is a party to the truth and justice, not the emotional stories of the plaintiff or respondent. As long as I choose to be impartial, being a party to no one, I will hold back the floods of emotions with the dyke of justice and truth,” she said.

“God is the supreme Judge. He entrusted all power to His Son, Jesus Christ, who through Him, according to the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium, the bishops, as vicars and legates of Christ, are invested with the judicial power for judging the subjects entrusted to their care. By virtue of their episcopal office, bishops possess proper, ordinary, and immediate judicial power, which they exercise personally in the name of Christ, though with some degree of supervision of the supreme authority of the Church,” she noted, adding, “the bishops do not always exercise personally the judicial power which is a part of the power of governance. They ordinarily appoint competent clerics, religious, and lay faithful as ecclesiastical judges authorized to assist him and exercise the unreserved judicial power of governance of the bishops.”

“The appointed ecclesiastical judges, by virtue of the vicarious office they enjoy, exercise the judicial ordinary power of governance with a vicarious power, iuxta legem, either individually or collegially in a stable, ecclesiastical tribunal. Through the exercise of the judicial power of governance, designated judges cooperate in the judicial ministry of the Church, whose pastoral character is made manifest in the ultimate goal: the salvation of souls,” Sister Catherine concluded. “In judging cases, therefore, I ensure that to follow the principles and tenets established by

the Church for marriage nullity cases.

This will not only assist me to judge fairly such a spiritual matter but also to save my soul.”

This will Mr. Ross not be the first time Sister Catherine has had the privilege of being part of a new ministry, but she feels East Tennessee is where God is leading her now.

“I am excited and happy to be part of this new ministry in the Diocese of Knoxville. It is indeed my privilege,” she said.

Mr. Ross’ journey to a judicial appointment on the tribunal has been a shorter distance geographically, but more of a longer route academically and spiritually.

He was born and raised in Chattanooga, attending St. Jude Church and St. Jude School as a youth before graduating from Notre Dame High School. He then attended Tennessee Tech, majoring in biology with an eye toward a career in genetics.

But God started tugging at Mr. Ross’ heart, leading him to do a 180-degree shift academically. He transferred to Aquinas College in Nashville, where he changed his field of study to theology and philosophy.

After earning degrees in theology and philosophy, Mr. Ross attended for two years The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he received his Licentiate in Canon Law degree.

“I did the transfer totally on faith,” Mr. Ross said. “Transferring to Aquinas College was a leap of faith.”

And what’s more, he had no idea what path his faith/vocation journey would take going into his senior year of college. But a long-term relationship with Father Carter helped Mr. Ross define his path. Mr. Ross, 26, has known Father Carter since he was in the sixth grade at St. Jude. The diocesan priest has been a mentor to Mr. Ross, who said he spoke at length about his faith journey to Father Carter as he approached college graduation.

It was then that Father Carter mentioned the new tribunal that was being established and suggested a canon law degree as a possibility.

“I said, ‘OK, God, if this is the door you’re opening, then this is the door

I’ll take,’” Mr. Ross recalled. “I’m a product of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Knoxville. The diocese has formed me and given me my faith. So I Ms. Morris am happy to give back in some way.”

Mr. Ross understands how unique it is to start a tribunal. He said the only person in his canon law class who was going to be involved in starting a tribunal was from Papua, New Guinea.

That process ranges from how is the tribunal staff going to help people and assembling a tribunal staff to what the tribunal letterhead will look like.

“Bishop Stika has been very supportive, which I’m very thankful for,” Mr. Ross said. “And the Nashville tribunal has been immensely helpful.”

Mr. Ross, like Sister Catherine, will follow Father Carter’s lead in striking a balance between being pastoral and sensitive and upholding the Church’s teaching on marriage. He acknowledged the potential to find cases emotional, but he’s adamant that a tribunal judge must be impartial and pastoral as well as personable and compassionate.

“It takes a particular kind of person to do this. You feel sympathy for people, but you can’t forsake the laws of God. I hope God will give me the grace to see these cases impartially.

It’s a very delicate balance. God, in His providence, has placed me in this position. The gift of faith helps you value what God has revealed,” Mr. Ross said.

As the tribunal sets its course of action with a new staff and new cases, the judges are looking at ways this new ministry can best serve the diocese, including possibly working with the diocesan Office of Marriage Preparation and Enrichment.

“We want to be a very pastoral tribunal, focused on the well-being of the faithful who are in need. And we want to provide spiritual resources. We want to view this as a ministry in the care of souls rather than a job that’s just concerned about a process,” Mr. Ross said. “We don’t want to be a barrier to faith. We want to be Jesus for people and promote the Church’s understanding of marriage. We pray it’s a healing process that they can learn from.” ■

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PPP loans have had direct benefits for Church communities Recipients say federal program has been instrumental in keeping open programs that aid those in need

STEPHANIE RICHER

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atholic entities that took part in the Paycheck Protection Program said the federal emergency bridge loans translated into rapid assistance for their communities in the early months of the pandemic’s economic impact.

In Nashville, when Mayor John Cooper convened local philanthropic and business leadership to create the city’s COVID-19 Response Fund, one of the first local agencies to join the Nashville effort was a team of staff at Catholic Charities of Tennessee.

Catholic Charities there reassigned some of its staff to the project after ongoing work with refugee resettlement was brought to a halt by the pandemic and the related international border closures and travel stoppage.

Supported in part by the federal loans, Catholic Charities of Tennessee was able to divert some 20 staff who, working remotely, were able to help the COVID-19 Response Fund screen and process local residents who were in need of emergency cash grants for everything from rent assistance to utility and car loan payments.

“The PPP money enabled us to confidently keep our staff in place

Providing free health care in the pandemic Sister Mariana Koonce, RSM, MD, treats a patient inside the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic. The mobile clinic has continued to provide medical care amid the COVID-19 outbreak. and immediately assign them with ad hoc work in our city, and we became an important player in our city,” Judy K. Orr, executive director of Catholic Charities of Tennessee in Nashville, told Catholic News Service.

The region’s expansive tourismrelated economy has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic closures. Ms. Orr noted the COVID-19 pandemic also came on

the heels of a catastrophic tornado event in Nashville that further stretched staffing at the agency in early March.

“I spoke to the mayor’s office about taking my partly idled refugee staff for vetting applicants for the fund, and in 48 hours we were tapped to do that work,” Ms. Orr said. Other partners in Nashville’s COVID-19 Response Fund included United Way of Greater Nash-

By Tom Tracy/Catholic News Service ville and the Frist Foundation.

“It was critical to the city to process these applications for emergency assistance,” Ms. Orr said of the Nashville program. “We normally help about 200 families a year, and instead we helped 500 in one month. Not only did the PPP keep our people working, but we were working harder, working remotely, and really apropos to the times.”

The Paycheck Protection Program — established by the CARES Act — is implemented by the Small Business Administration with support from the Department of the Treasury. This program provides small businesses and other entities with a period of funds for payroll costs including benefits. Funds also were used to pay interest on mortgages, rent, and utilities.

In late April, the Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference had calculated that 8,000 parishes, 1,400 elementary schools, 700 high schools, 104 chanceries, 185 Catholic Charities agencies, and 200 other diocesan organizations in 160 dioceses had applied for assistance at that point.

The conference said that Church Loans continued on page A12

Diocese of Knoxville among organizations receiving PPP loans The East Tennessee Catholic staff

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he Diocese of Knoxville is among thousands of U.S. for-profit and nonprofit organizations that participated in the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that has kept diocesan churches open and vital ministries that assist the pub-

lic operating.

The PPP, as it’s commonly referred to, is a bridge loan program that is part of the CARES Act, which Congress enacted in the spring to keep the U.S. economy going amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES)

Act was passed by Congress with bipartisan support and signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27. It is an economic relief package of more than $2 trillion.

PPP funds are one part of the act and were made available to small businesses and eligible nonprofit organizations. The funds are provided in the form of loans that will

be forgiven when used for payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent, and utilities. Loan forgiveness is based on employers maintaining or rehiring employees and maintaining salary levels.

Loan recipients must use the funds by the end of 2020.

According to federal data, more Diocese continued on page A12

The Catholic Church and the Paycheck Protection Program

By Elizabeth Solsburg and Michael Stechshulte/FAITH Catholic When the COVID-19 crisis abruptly shuttered small businesses across the country, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to provide assistance to individuals and businesses who’d experienced a financial impact. Part of the Act included a paycheck protection program (PPP) designed to help small businesses continue to be able to make payroll. The program, which was managed by the Small Business Administration (SBA), required the money to be used for employee compensation and other restricted uses.

Among the businesses that received aid were a number of nonprofit organizations, such as symphony orchestras, museums, universities, and churches. The majority of Catholic parishes (approximately 13,000 out of 17,000) applied for the government’s payroll protection program, and nearly 10,000 received funds that enabled them to continue to pay employees when limited funds were coming in through donations. n How have PPP funds helped Catholic organizations and parishes?

Without the funding from the PPP, lay employees would have been furloughed, resulting in a loss of services to parishes, schools, and communities. Some organizations may have had to close.

n Why did Catholic Church entities receive government funds?

There have been some comments that the Church should not receive funds from the government since the Church does not pay taxes. While it is true that churches do not pay property taxes, they do pay the same payroll taxes as any other employer.

Church employees, who are primarily lay people who work for fairly small organizations and who depend on their salaries to provide for themselves and their families, pay federal, state, and local income tax.

Had they not had the assistance of PPP loan money, many of those people would have been furloughed and become dependent on other government funds, such as unemployment compensation.

According to Joseph Eisenhauer, Ph.D., dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Detroit Mercy, because the PPP was designed to prevent economic catastrophe, not to promote or endorse any particular organization, religious organizations were eligible to apply for the funding. “The plan was to help employees remain employed by keeping organizations operable. Whether that’s a faith-based or non-faith-based organization, economically it doesn’t matter,” Dr. Eisenhauer said.

n Isn’t the Catholic Church a big, wealthy organization?

People sometimes think the Church is a monolith — something akin to a big corporation with the pope as its CEO. But that is not the reality.

Each parish or school functions as an independent unit. Their expenses must be paid out of donations or tuition they collect. Parishes usually pay some kind of diocesan assessment to their dioceses to provide ministries parishes could not do on their own.

n By the numbers On July 6, the Small Business Administration released data showing which businesses received PPP loans. The SBA set the framework of rules for qualifying for a PPP, but individual lenders made the determinations about who was qualified for a loan.

Here are some of the numbers: 1. 86.5 percent of loans were for less than $150,000 2. 4.9 million loans have been made 3. $521 billion in total loans 4. $107,000 is the average size of a PPP loan 5. 10,000 is the approximate number of Catholic parishes that received PPP loans 6. Restaurants, medical offices, and car dealerships are the top loan recipients.

Photo captions: Top, Catholic Charities of East Tennessee Pregnancy Help Center in Chattanooga; bottom, St. Joseph School at-home learning program in action.

Disclosure: This report was prepared by FAITH Catholic, which received a PPP loan through the CARES Act. ■

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AUGUST 2, 2020 n A11

A plan for renewal A call to renew the Pastoral Plan for the Hispanic community of the Diocese of Knoxville “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us? So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem...” Luke 24:32-33

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he Hispanic community in the Diocese of Knoxville has been walking alongside our shepherds and the Hispanic Catholic community across the country in the national process of the V Encounter of Hispanic/Latino Ministry as part of the 2017-2020 Strategic Plan of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

This four-year process that includes ecclesial reflection and action has invited Catholics to intense missionary activity, consultation, leadership development in our communities, and identification of successful pastoral practices in the spirit of the New Evangelization.

After three years of activity, this fourth and final year of the process leads us to work concretely on an action plan to put into practice the recommendations and conclusions of the V Encounter and the recommended strategies and plans of action that were defined in our Provincial Encounter held in Louisville, Ky., in November.

Twenty-five delegates from the Diocese of Knoxville participated in this event.

By taking advantage of the information

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entities that were not funded in the first round or had applied after the original allocation of federal money was exhausted had already applied or planned to file applications as new monies flowed into the program.

In Portland, Ore., Catholic Charities of Portland was able to acquire a Paycheck Protection Program loan and retain all of its staff while retooling — even expanding — many of its programs for the new unemployment and food insecurity challenges posed by the pandemic, according to Vanessa Briseno, director of the Pope Francis Center in Portland and senior development officer for Catholic Charities of Portland.

As with the nation’s 2007-2008 financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic has been met with an impressive amount of community goodwill and volunteerism, but the current crisis is proving far-reaching and complicated for older and vulnerable populations, Ms. Briseno said.

Catholic Charities of Portland has used the loan to support a food response network, housing transitions programming, an expansion of resident services, and a food pantry program.

“We are very blessed, but what is different is the sheer number of people and the volume of needs; we are seeing a lot of needs we didn’t Diocese continued from page A11

than 93,000 Tennessee businesses were approved for $8.9 billion in PPP loans, and of that number of loan approvals, about 4 percent were nonprofit organizations.

The Diocese of Knoxville followed national public health recommendations and temporarily closed churches and offices to the public on March 20, doing so knowing that revenue to churches and ministries would be significantly curtailed. Diocesan schools continued to operate by switching to a learning-at-home curriculum as classrooms were closed for the rest of the 2019-20 school year.

The temporary shutdown placed Catholic schools, Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, pregnancy help centers, immigration resources, resources for lower-income residents and homeless individuals, and churches where the faithful worship at risk.

But because of the bridge loans, the diocese was able to keep these ministries operating and employees working. The loans ensured that hundreds of diocesan employees were able to keep working.

The Diocese of Knoxville received just over $7.2 million in PPP funding. And of that amount, most is being used to pay employees, according to Shannon Hepp, chief financial officer for the diocese.

A12 n AUGUST 2, 2020

gathered in local consultations and carried out in the peripheries, in small communities, parishes, and at the diocesan level as part of the Encounter process, and in light of the

By Blanca Primm

recommendations mentioned, leaders in the V Encounter program can discern ways in which the Church can better respond to the growing presence of Hispanic/Latino brothers and sisters in the diocese.

They also can empower Hispanic/Latinos to respond as missionary disciples.

It is in view of this reality of the implementation of the V Encounter of Hispanic Ministry in our diocese, of the new situation of the coronavirus pandemic, and given that our current diocesan pastoral plan dates from 1998 that Bishop Richard F. Stika is calling us to renew our Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry.

This process will be coordinated by the diocesan Office of the Hispanic Ministry with the help and guidance of SEPI (Southeast Pastoral Institute and Regional Office of Catholic Bishops of the Southeast).

A Pastoral Plan is an organized action of the Church to extend the Kingdom of God in a concrete reality. It is important that when carrying out our plan we embark on a missionary and evangelizing process where we know our reality, set our general objective and goals, see what resources and means we have to fulfill our objective, and in the end we can make an evaluation during and after this process.

Encounter continued on page A16

see before,” she said. “So many don’t have a sense of timeline when they can go back to work.”

“We weren’t really a provider of food before but now have partnered with the Portland Archdiocese, Blanchet House, and St. Francis Dining Hall to provide 10,000 hot meals a week and with farmworker agencies to provide food boxes for (agricultural) workers,” Ms. Briseno added. Partnerships with local grocery stores have opened up another source of discounted food for needy families.

Marcie Pierce, chief financial officer for Catholic Charities in Portland, said applying for the PPP loans, as they are called, required the agency to affirm it has been negatively impacted by the pandemic, and Catholic Charities of Portland was able to show a related reduction in fundraising.

“Once we were aware of the fact that we were harmed (by the pandemic), we applied for the loan with another agency and we were able to secure a loan — we hope to receive forgiveness,” Ms. Pierce said, indicating she thought by then the PPP loan funding was likely exhausted.

The loan Catholic Charities was able to get from another agency “focused directly on maintaining employment of our social services organization so they can continue doing the good work that they do,”

she added.

The U.S. Senate extended the deadline to apply for the PPP loans to Aug. 8. The Senate’s action June 30 came as over $130 billion allocated to the program actually remained unused.

Catholic schools and parishes also were among the participants of the Paycheck Protection Program.

In Indianapolis, Holy Spirit Parish and School secured the loan funding during a second round of funding. It enabled the parish to offset the reduction in Sunday collections, which support the tuition subsidy there. The result was teachers, child care, summer camp, and other staff were able to keep working through the end of June. The school has a student body of 400, according to Rita Parsons, Holy Spirit principal.

“We would have had to take out a personal loan to cover contracted teachers’ salaries,” Ms. Parsons said, had the PPP loan not come through in May. The school resumed child care and summer camp programming on July 20.

“We completed a survey with all our families, and they were very pleased at how everything turned out, although they would have wanted their children to go back to school earlier — but they understood that we had to deal with (safety measures),” Ms. Parsons said. “We are going to make it, and we are going to start back in August

stronger than ever.”

In Brookline, Mass., Theresa Kirk, principal of St. Mary of the Assumption elementary school, worked with a local bank to secure a PPP loan for the school. The federal program is administered by the SBA, and locally approved lenders provide the money, and in turn the loan kept faculty and staff working remotely without missing a beat, she said.

“It certainly assisted in keeping us going,” Ms. Kirk said of the federal loan program. She explained the school had to break March 13, stopping in-classroom instruction to turn to remote learning. “We pivoted over a weekend at a time when no one (on staff here) had even heard of Zoom.”

Now, the school is conducting an optional summer bridge program through remote learning to offset the “summer slide” impact and to provide additional social and emotional support for students.

Teachers are expected to reconvene with students on campus for the fall term beginning Sept. 9 with a staggered schedule, moving soon after into a more normal school day as conditions permit.

“We are very lucky in Brookline, and the parents are grateful: our enrollment is actually up for fall.

Some families came back to us who were considering maybe not coming back,” Ms. Kirk said. ■

“At least 60 percent can only be used for payroll costs, which is defined as salary and some specific benefits. Up to the remaining 40 percent can be used for rent, utilities, and mortgage interest. We don’t have mortgage interest since we loan internally to parishes, and we have very little rent other than copier leases really, so we will end up closer to 85 percent to 90 percent used for payroll costs and 10 percent to 15 percent primarily on utilities during the covered period,” Mrs. Hepp said.

According to the diocese, five PPP loans were applied for during the first round of loan applications in April. The diocese received two loans totaling $1,767,453 that went to Notre Dame High School and Knoxville Catholic High School.

In the second round of loan applications in May, the federal government funded the remaining three requests of the initial five loan applications from round one. The three loans awarded totaled $5,464,800.

Diocesan ministries receiving PPP funds were: n Knoxville Catholic High School—$1,076,353; n Notre Dame High School—$691,100; n Diocese of Knoxville—$4,129,600; n Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus—$930,000; n Catholic Charities of East Tennessee—$405,200.

The Diocese of Knoxville includes all parishes and schools other than KCHS, Notre Dame, and Sacred Heart and also includes the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, the Paraclete Catholic Books and Gifts store, and the Chancery. The loans covered 715 diocesan employees.

“I think it’s essential to remember that our diocese is a nonprofit, faith-based organization that offers vital services to Catholics and non-Catholics in our community.

The PPP loans allowed the diocese to keep its staff employed so that they could continue to provide spiritual and practical help to those who need it most. Our more than 700 employees include the staff of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee and its homeless shelters, pregnancy services centers, immigration offices, and counseling resources. It includes the staff of the St. Mary’s Legacy (mobile medical) Clinic, which serves the residents of many rural locations in East Tennessee,” Bishop Richard F. Stika said.

“The loan has allowed the diocese to continue to pay teachers and operational staff at its 10 schools, and it also has allowed its 51 parish churches, which offer spiritual and charitable support in their communities, to remain open by keeping staff there employed.

The PPP and CARES Act was a broad government approach to

keep people employed. But for our diocese, it went beyond that,” he added. “It kept people employed that, through Christian virtue, allowed the Church to continue working in a pastoral and merciful way. The PPP loan allowed us to do all of this despite the fact that diocesan-wide weekly contributions at our parishes have suffered, and are down 15-20 percent due to lower attendance. We are grateful that our diocese has remained open and that no employees have been furloughed. We continue to pray for a resolution to the current health crisis and for its victims, and we also pray for a return to civil discourse in our society.”

Media outlets have been reporting on the businesses and nonprofit organizations that applied for PPP funds and were approved. Some reports have been critical of for-profit and nonprofit organizations for receiving the funds.

“Some media outlets have made an issue of the Church being included in the PPP because we’re tax exempt. The last I looked, most of the 700-plus employees of the Diocese of Knoxville pay the government on their income at the same rate as every other American.

The Church was right to ask to be included in this program,” said Jim Wogan, communications director for the diocese. ■

www.di o k no x .o rg

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

The road to sainthood runs through Tennessee Vatican investigation centered in Diocese of Nashville; Vanderbilt physicians interviewed

RICK MUSACCHIO-TENNESSEE REGISTER

F

ive years ago, Dan and Michelle Schachle prayed to Venerable Father Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, to intercede with God to save their son, still in his mother’s womb, who was given no hope of surviving a life-threatening case of fetal hydrops.

When the condition, which is a dangerous accumulation of fluids throughout the body, disappeared, it triggered a long and complex process of evaluating whether a miracle attributable to Father McGivney’s intercession had occurred.

“It’s a strange thing to investigate whether God has intervened in the world in an extraordinary way,” said Father Dexter Brewer, pastor of Christ the King Church in Nashville and a vicar general of the Diocese of Nashville and former

Theresa Laurence/Tennessee Register

Miracle child Dan and Michelle Schachle hold their son Michael (Mikey) at the family’s home in Dickson. Mikey was named for Father Michael J. McGivney. judicial vicar of the diocese, who oversaw the local tribunal investigating the miracle.

“It’s all very formal, and very intense,” Father Brewer said of the process, which involved dozens of

had disappeared, “Michelle was overwhelmed because she had prayed over this,” Dr. Carroll recalled. “She really felt this was an answer to prayers.”

“Wearing a medical hat, you have to look for other reasons,” Dr. Carroll said. “But I can’t exclude that there was a miracle here because there was grave concern and disappearance of what we consider a terminal or notreversible endpoint.”

But Mikey and Michelle weren’t completely out of the woods. Doctors were worried that the blood flow through the umbilical cord was restricted and the baby was not receiving enough nutrients. When Michelle came to the doctor’s office for another checkup on May 15, 2015, week 31 of her pregnancy, the doctors told her, “There’s an issue. We have to do the Csection today.”

“I felt completely at peace,” Michelle said. “Let’s not forget, (the doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center) saved my child, too.”

Dan was in San Antonio for a business meeting. He caught the first available flight back to Nashville. “He was born when I was between Dallas and Nashville,” Dan said.

Michael McGivney Schachle was born at 2:23 p.m. on May 15, 2015, more than two months premature, weighing 3 pounds 4 ounces.

“Michael was perfect just the way he was,” Michelle said.

Mikey was still facing serious health issues. Like many babies born with Down syndrome, Mikey had a heart condition that required surgery, which was performed seven weeks after he was born. He spent a total of 71 days in the hospital.

At six months of age, he also nearly died because of a respiratory illness that kept him in the hospital for about six weeks more before he recovered.

Today, his health problems are under control and he is an active 5-year-old.

“He’s a healthy little boy,” Dan said.

RICK MUSACCHIO-TENNESSEE REGISTER

Mikey continued from page A8

Brothers being brothers Mikey Schachle, 5, left, plays with family members on a trampoline at home in Dickson, Tenn., on June 2. the doctors to be such a severe case, that they did not expect the child to survive.”

The second hurdle in having Mikey’s cure declared a miracle was determining that the prayers to save his life were specifically directed to Father McGivney, Mr. Caulfield said.

“It was pretty intentional” on the part of the Schachles, Mr. Caulfield said. “Once (Dan) saw the dire prognosis and that a miracle was going to be needed to save this child, he was clear he wanted to pray to Father McGivney.”

On a trip to Tennessee to interview the Schachles, Mr. Caulfield asked them why the child was healed of hydrops but not of Down syndrome.

“We never prayed to have Down syndrome healed. That wasn’t life threatening,” they answered to Mr. Caulfield. “We thought a child with Down syndrome would be a blessing for our family.”

“A tear came to my eye,” Mr. Caulfield said. “I said I feel like I’ve got real people of faith here. To me, that said this is why God has chosen this family.”

Looked pretty promising

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

Never had any doubts

The next step was a tribunal held in the Diocese of Nashville to investigate the case. It was the first time since the diocese was founded in 1837 that a tribunal had been convened to investigate a possible miracle.

The tribunal serves as a fact-

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/RICK MUSACCHIO-TENNESSEE REGISTER

When Dan told folks at the Knights’ Supreme Council in New Haven, Conn., about Mikey’s cure and birth, they asked if they could inform those working on Father McGivney’s sainthood cause. Dan quickly agreed.

Word of Mikey’s birth soon made it to Brian Caulfield, the vice postulator of Father McGivney’s sainthood cause.

Part of his job is to do an initial investigation into possible miracles attributed to Father McGivney’s intercession.

“Basically, a miracle is defined as an extraordinary event that has no current medical or scientific explanation,” Mr. Caulfield said.

Two previous healings had been presented to officials in Rome as possible miracles, but both had been rejected, Mr. Caulfield said. “It shows you the high standard they have” when evaluating whether an event is indeed a miracle, he added.

“It looked pretty promising,” Mr. Caulfield said of Mikey’s cure. “You never know until you start getting medical records and testimony of medical experts.”

“This was such a severe case that it was distinguished from the others,” Mr. Caulfield said of Mikey’s medical prognosis. “This was considered by

gathering body and interviewed the Schachles and all the doctors involved in the case. “It was like being deposed,” Dan said of the process.

Just as Mr. Caulfield had asked, members of the tribunal wanted to know why the Schachles didn’t pray their son would be cured of Down syndrome as well.

“Why would we have asked for that?” Dan told the tribunal. “God made him that way. I’m good with that.”

“To ask for him to not have Down syndrome is to ask that he not be the way God wanted him,” Michelle added.

The tribunal also asked how they knew the cure was the result of Father McGivney’s intercession and not that of Our Lady of Fatima.

The Schachles recounted how they specifically prayed for the intercession of Father McGivney and asked so many others to do the same. At the same time, Knights of Columbus around the world have been offering up prayers for Father McGivney’s canonization, which requires two miracles attributed to his intercession, Dan noted.

“There are so many coincidences, how can you look at this and not know it was Father McGivney,” said Dan as he ticked off a list: Mikey was born on May 15, the same date in 1882 that the first Knights of Columbus council was chartered; Michelle and Father McGivney share a birthday;

Fun with photos Michelle Schachle and son Mikey look at family pictures while Dan Schachle joins in at the family’s home in Dickson, Tenn. www.di o k no x .o rg

interviews, examinations of medical evidence, months of work, and a very specific submission process to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The process begins in the diocese where the miracle occurred, explained Brian Caulfield, the vice postulator of Father McGivney’s cause for sainthood.

The local bishop, in this case the late Bishop David R. Choby, appoints members of a tribunal to gather all the facts of the case.

“They weren’t leaving the question of is this a miracle to us,” Father Brewer said. “We collected the information and passed it along to the Vatican. We didn’t make a recommendation or judgment.”

The investigation began in 2016, and it was the first time in the Diocese of Nashville’s history Investigation continued on page A14

Father McGivney was the oldest of 13 children and Mikey is the youngest of 13.

“I looked at Father McGivney and I looked at what the Knights of Columbus does for special needs children, for the pro-life cause,” Dan said. “If there was ever a baby Father McGivney would want to help, this is who it would be.”

“You couldn’t write with a human brain a more perfect story,” Dan said.

“All these things we thought were coincidences, were not coincidences. It was God writing the story.”

After the diocesan tribunal completed its report, it was sent to the postulator of the sainthood cause in Rome, who had it translated into Italian and submitted it to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints for its review.

A panel of physicians in Rome examined the medical record, and a panel of theologians examined the spiritual record of the case before making a recommendation for the pope’s approval, Mr. Caulfield said.

“We never had any doubts” Mikey’s cure would be declared a miracle, Dan said.

The happy beneficiaries

And on May 27, it was.

“About 6 a.m. our phones started blowing up with text messages,” Dan said.

“Everything that the Knights stand for … all of those things are in our story,” Michelle said. Reflected in Mikey’s miracle are the Knights’ dedication to respecting life in all its stages, the order’s support for people with intellectual and developmental delays, its support for families, and the example of Father McGivney for all parish priests, she said.

When Dr. Carroll, who is Catholic and whose father was a Knight, found out about the Vatican’s decree that Mikey’s cure was a miracle, “I told Michelle I was just in awe and dumbfounded and amazed.”

“We know this isn’t anything we’ve done,” Dan said. “Millions of people have been praying for Father McGivney. We’re the happy beneficiaries.”

“We have Michael,” Michelle said.

“Michael’s life has changed our life.”

“It helped our family not take our faith for granted,” Dan said. “It made me examine myself. I could never deserve what God has done for us.”

“You believe in God, but when He shows up, and it’s undeniable that He’s there, it’s like a big light,” Dan added. “How unworthy I was compared to God’s holiness. We’re completely unworthy.”

“We’re not perfect. All of us have issues; all families do,” Michelle said.

“I’ve seen really holy families, but we’re just normal, I promise you.”

She’s wary of the attention that will be focused on her family now that Mikey’s cure has been declared a miracle. “But his story is so important,” she said of her son’s cure and Father McGivney’s powerful intercession for him, “I want it to get out.”

“We’ve prayed a lot as a family the last month or two … that God keep us focused on the right thing,” said Dan, to remember that it is God’s love and mercy that is responsible for Mikey’s miracle. ■ AUGUST 2, 2020 n A13

Father McGivney was a priest ahead of his time Knights of Columbus founder responded to challenges with energy, foresight, leadership, and devotion

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Investigation continued from page A13

that a miracle had been formally investigated.

“Basically, a miracle is defined as an extraordinary event that has no current medical or scientific explanation,” Mr. Caulfield said.

To verify an event is a miracle, “you have to prove two things,” Mr. Caulfield said. “The first thing is to prove this was a healing that’s not explained by medical science.”

The second is to clearly identify who people were praying to for their intercession, in this case, whether the intercession of Father McGivney was clearly invoked, Mr. Caulfield said.

Before the official investigation opened, Vatican officials visited Nashville to place the members of the tribunal under oath and walk them through the process. At the time, said Dr. Fred Callahan, “it was top secret.”

Dr. Callahan, a neurologist and close friend of Bishop Choby, was asked by the bishop to lead the medical side of the investigation.

Dr. Callahan was personally present for each of the detailed interviews with about 20 different Vanderbilt University Medical Center physicians who cared for Michelle Schachle during her pregnancy and after the birth of her son Michael, as well as other maternalfetal medicine specialists familiar with the case.

Dr. Callahan had learned about hydrops as a medical student, “in the remote past.” He had to re-familiarize himself with the condition “so I could ask the right questions,” he said. “I didn’t want this to fail because of my failures.”

Dr. Callahan, with help from tribunal member Valarie Cooper, had to work diligently for months to schedule and conduct the interviews, navigate HIPAA privacy regulations to assemble medical records and reports, ultrasound imaging, and ultimately compile a full dossier of evidence to send to the Vatican.

Dr. Callahan said he felt the weight of the task, because “the medical portion of the investigation would determine whether it was a miracle.”

Intercession of saints

The other key part of the investiA14 n AUGUST 2, 2020

decades ahead of his time in giving the laity an important role within the Church. Today, his spirit continues to shape the extraordinary charitable work of Knights as they continue to serve those on the margins of society as he served widows and orphans in the 1880s. Father McGivney also remains an important role model for parish priests around the world and left us a transformative legacy of effective cooperation between the laity and clergy.”

An early call to the priesthood

RICK MUSACCHIO-TENNESSEE REGISTER

ather Michael J. McGivney daily looked upon the challenges of his parishioners in the America of the 1870s and 1880s.

Anti-Catholic prejudice was an obstacle in the path of their dreams of advancement in American society. The lures of life in an age of growing industrialization threatened to pull them away from their faith. And most painful of all, families all too often were devastated and left with no income and few prospects after the death of the breadwinner.

Father McGivney responded to all these challenges with his characteristic energy, foresight, leadership, and devotion to the Catholic faith.

His answer was to establish, with a group of Catholic laymen, the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal benefit society with the goals of helping men keep and develop their faith, answer the anti-Catholic sentiment in the country by making the case that one could be a good Catholic and a good American, and provide financial help to keep members’ families together and their faith strong.

Today, with more than 2 million members across the globe, the Knights are one of the largest Catholic organizations in the world.

Father McGivney’s vision, his commitment to charity, and his devotion to his faith has placed him on the path toward sainthood.

He took another step forward on that path on May 27 when Pope Francis approved the promulgation of a decree recognizing the cure of 5-year-old Michael McGivney Schachle of the Tennessee town of Dickson from a deadly case of fetal hydrops while still in his mother’s womb as a miracle attributed to the intercession of Venerable Father McGivney.

With the approval of the miracle, Father McGivney’s cause for sainthood moves to the next step, beatification, when he will receive the title “Blessed.” Plans for the beatification are not yet set, but the Knights hope to schedule it this fall in Connecticut.

“This is an awesome event for the Church,” said Nashville Bishop J. Mark Spalding. “For it to be in the Diocese of Nashville, it’s truly a joy-

By Andy Telli/Tennessee Register

Someone to look up to Mikey Schachle admires a statue of Father Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus. filled moment.”

The miracle shows God is active in our lives, Bishop Spalding said. “With the troubles our world is going through, we can focus on what is dark, what is sinful, what is evil. But in this moment of a recognition of a miracle, we can see God at work with love and compassion.”

“We’ve been praying for years for this to occur, and finally this day has arrived,” Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl Anderson told Catholic News Service.

“Father McGivney has inspired generations of Catholic men to roll up their sleeves and put their faith into action,” Mr. Anderson said in a statement released by the Knights. “He was

gation was whether the miracle is truly attributable to the intercession of Father McGivney. “The Vatican had very precise questions about the timing and the prayers, who prayed when, and to whom,” said Father Brewer.

The tribunal needed “to see if there was a correlation between the prayerful petition and the medical cure,” Dr. Callahan said.

The Schachles were certain their prayers to Father McGivney resulted in God curing their son of the condition that almost certainly would have killed him before he was born or shortly after. They told the interviewers how they specifically prayed for the intercession of Father McGivney and asked so many others to do the same.

Knights of Columbus around the world had simultaneously been offering up prayers for Father McGivney’s canonization, the formal process by which the Church declares a person to be a saint and worthy of universal veneration.

The idea of praying to saints, holy men and women who have died, is a long tradition in the Catholic Church and recognizes the ongoing connection between the living and the dead.

“The early Church always encouraged people to pray for each other,” said Dr. Robert E. Alvis, academic dean and professor of Church History at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad, Ind. “The path of holiness is both individual and communal.”

“We pray for our own dead, we pray to the holy dead, we pray for their intercession,” Dr. Alvis said, with the idea that “God bends his ear with special attentiveness to those who lived a life of holiness,” especially on behalf of the most vulnerable.

“Catholics, Christians, have always been encouraged to pray to God directly, to the saints, and for each other,” Dr. Alvis said. “People may be more comfortable turning to an intercessor because they’re more relatable. … Often, we turn to a person who once lived, one with whom we have a personal connection,” such as the Schachles did with Father McGivney, because of their shared connection to the Knights of Columbus and care for children with special needs.

Father McGivney was born in 1852 in Waterbury, Conn., the firstborn of Patrick and Mary Lynch McGivney, two immigrants from Ireland who met and married in the United States. His mother would give birth to 12 more children, six of whom would die young.

Father McGivney was a devout youngster who felt a call to the priesthood early in life. After graduating from high school at age 13, three years early, he worked in a factory for three years before finally pursuing his dream of becoming a priest.

He attended several seminaries during his studies, including in Canada, upstate New York, and Baltimore before his ordination in December 1877.

Father McGivney dove into his first assignment as the assistant pastor at St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Conn., with his characteristic zeal, celebrating the sacraments for his parishioners, leading Sunday school classes, working with the teens and young adults of the parish, offering instruction to converts to the Church, and organizing plays and parish fairs, always trying to keep his people close to their faith.

He was worried about the young men who were being pulled away from their faith when they joined secret societies, or lodges, such as the Forresters and the Elks and Moose, to find a sense of brotherhood they weren’t finding in their parish.

“Father McGivney did not want religion to be a banished subject from any part of the lives of

“Holy people in heaven are in greater proximity to God; there’s a sense they have a greater persuasiveness before God,” Dr. Alvis continued. “When God responds to the petition of a saint, he honors that saint in some way.”

“Saints can, through their intercession, prompt God to cause a miracle,” he added. “God does act in this world; miracles do happen.”

Transformed by the outcome

Beyond witnessing the faith of the Schachle family, one of the most rewarding experiences of serving on the committee, Dr. Callahan said, was seeing how the medical team members who cared for Michelle and Michael Schachle “had been transformed by the outcome” of the case.

“From a medical perspective, there were things that happened that were not expected, and occurred outside of current medical knowledge,” Dr. Callahan said.

Multiple physicians recommended that Michelle Schachle terminate her pregnancy because the diagnosis was so bleak. “Our society has a lot of judgments about the value of life, and the disposable nature of life,” Dr. Callahan said.

Maybe after their experience with the Schachles, some of those physicians won’t be so quick to make that judgment, Dr. Callahan said.

After talking with the doctors, Dr. Callahan said, he could tell that this case “appropriately tickled their intellect, but even bigger, it changed their hearts.”

A gratifying ‘yes’

After the Nashville tribunal compiled all of its findings, sealed and tied in red ribbon, and sent them off to Rome, it was up to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to review the information and make a recommendation to Pope Francis whether the case was indeed a miracle.

The tribunal’s findings first went to the postulator of Father McGivney’s sainthood cause, Andrea Ambrosi, a civil and canon lawyer in Rome, Mr. Caulfield said.

He had the findings translated into Italian and then presented them to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The postulator, who must be certi-

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Sainthood continued on page A15

fied to present cases before the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, “puts together the strongest possible case, as any lawyer would, taking the facts and presenting them in the most convincing way,” Mr. Caulfield said.

After assuring that the record is in the proper canonical form, it is reviewed by a panel of medical experts, practicing physicians, and medical professors in Rome, who aren’t necessarily religious, Mr. Caulfield said. With their review complete, “One day in Rome, they get together and cast their votes. Is this a miracle or not, can we explain this or not,” Caulfield said.

“It went through the medical commission pretty easily,” Mr. Caulfield said of the Schachle case.

“That’s the huge hurdle.”

Next the case is reviewed by a theological commission that examines the question of whether the cure can be attributed to Father McGivney’s intercession, Mr. Caulfield said.

“They came down yes, there was more than ample evidence that Father McGivney was invoked exclusively,” Mr. Caulfield said.

Having cleared those hurdles, the case next moves to the pope for his final approval that a miracle had occurred that was attributable to Father McGivney’s intercession. Pope Francis issued that decree on May 27.

A formal beatification when Father McGivney will be bestowed with the title Blessed will be scheduled in the fall in the Archdiocese of Hartford in Connecticut, where his sainthood cause was initiated in 1997.

A second miracle after the beatification must be confirmed before Father McGivney can be canonized as a saint.

Members of the diocese who served on the tribunal didn’t hear anything about the case for years.

Mr. Callahan learned that Pope Francis had approved the miracle by reading a short piece about it in The New York Times. The article didn’t mention the name of the family, but he knew it was the Schachles.

“It’s gratifying that the Vatican said ‘yes,’” this is a miracle, Dr. Callahan said. “I think they got it right.” ■ Andy Telli contributed to this report.

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

U.S. bishops welcome Supreme Court ruling on Catholic teachers

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.S. bishops say they welcome the Supreme Court’s 7-2 ruling on July 8 that said California Catholic schools could not be sued for job discrimination in firing teachers.

The bishops said the decision “rightly acknowledged” the limit on state authority.

The legal decision, written by Justice Samuel Alito, said: “What matters, at bottom, is what an employee does.”

He said that even though the elementary school teachers “were not given the title of ‘minister’ and have less religious training” than the teacher in the previous court case involving the ministerial exception, the court holds that the same rule applies.

“The religious education and formation of students is the very reason for the existence of most private religious schools, and therefore the selection and supervision of the teachers upon whom the schools rely to do this work lie at the core of

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/JONATHAN ERNST, REUTERS

By Carol Zimmerman Catholic News Service

In favor of Catholic School teachers Demonstrators in Washington, D.C., hold a large cross outside the U.S. Supreme Court on July 8. In a 7-2 ruling, the high court said California Catholic schools sued for job discrimination for firing teachers had acted within their rights in the recent firings. their mission,” Justice Alito wrote.

Dissenting votes were by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor.

“Education is a central aspect of the Church’s mission,” the bishops said. “As “institutions carrying out

a ministry of the Church, Catholic schools have a right, recognized by the Constitution, to select people who will perform ministry. The government has no authority to secondguess those ministerial decisions.”

The statement was issued by Mi-

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Catholic men, least of all something as crucial to them as their fraternal societies,” Douglas Brinkley and Julie Fenster wrote in their biography of Father McGivney, Parish Priest.

He was also haunted by the families who came to him for help after the death of a loved one left them vulnerable.

“Even though he was only a young man, he was filled with a lifetime of anger and frustration at the sense of doom that settled over nearly every family that lost its wage earner,” Mr. Brinkley and Ms. Fenster wrote. “Long before, he had watched firsthand, when it fell over his own family.”

Father McGivney’s seminary studies were interrupted when he returned home to help his mother care for the family after his father died. The bishop of Hartford was able to provide some assistance that allowed Father McGivney to return to the seminary and complete his formation.

In the faces and lives of his mostly Irish, working-class parishioners, he saw his own experience and set out to find a way help them.

“The special strengths of Catholicism could be planted in men, he thought, especially husbands and fathers, to grow with them through their lives. And beyond, as well, with widows having a place to turn and children keeping hold of the future that their fathers intended,” Mr. Brinkley and Ms. Fenster wrote. “Michael McGivney had an understanding of them TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

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“sin against humanity.”

“The damage that this sin has inflicted and systemic injustice that it has spawned have affected every aspect of American life over the last four centuries. We must truthfully acknowledge and address this stain on our heritage or our community and our nation will remain broken,” the commission said.

Meanwhile, the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests said its members were “embarrassed, appalled, and disgusted” about comments by an Indiana priest who referred to Black Lives Matters protesters as “maggots and parasites.”

“Without acknowledging or judging what is in the pastor’s heart, publishing such words is a sinful act of racism, according to the U.S. bishops’ pastoral letter, Open Wide Our Hearts,” the AUSCP said in a July 2 statement.

The priest was suspended July 1 from his duties as pastor of an Indiana parish by his bishop after the comments appeared in the parish bulletin June 28 and on the parish website.

The priest is not a member of the priests association.

The association welcomed the bishop’s “timely” disciplinary ac-

Everyone join in Darcel Whitten-Wilamowski directs the Sister Thea Bowman, Servant of God, Mass Choir during a Black History Month Mass of thanksgiving Feb. 16, 2020, at the Immaculate Conception Center in Douglaston, N.Y. The annual liturgy is co-sponsored by the Vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns of the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., and the Office of Multicultural Diversity of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y. tion, but expressed caution that the “published words have spread far beyond the borders of the diocese to the nation and the world.”

“We hope the bishop and his priests will go beyond the scandalizing words of one priest on one weekend, and attack the systemic racism that allowed one priest to think such words were acceptable. All of us in

the Church need to do the same,” the association said.

During a Mass in Louisville, Ky., marking Juneteenth, the date that honors the end to slavery in the United States, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz prayed for justice, peace, and healing from the “sin of racism.”

The archbishop, who formerly was the second bishop of the Diocese

all: the fathers, the mothers, the children, an everyday trinity more fragile in modern life than anyone else seemed to realize.”

Early in 1882, Father McGivney invited the leading Catholic men of New Haven to a meeting in the basement of St. Mary’s to discuss the formation of a Catholic fraternal society. In short order, the Knights of Columbus was founded.

“The Knights of Columbus could not be expected to remedy every case, but the organization was Father McGivney’s best response to the scenes he witnessed every day,” Mr. Brinkley and Ms. Fenster wrote.

“It would be his weapon against the threat of sudden poverty for families already bereaved.”

After a slow start, the order began to spread beyond St. Mary’s and New Haven, bringing to fruition Father McGivney’s vision of a society of Catholic men supporting their Church, their families, and their communities.

Father McGivney left St. Mary’s in November 1884 when he was named pastor of St. Thomas Church in Thomaston, Conn., a factory town more than 30 miles from New Haven. There he continued to build strong relationships with his parishioners tending to their spiritual, social, and material needs.

Father McGivney fell ill during the Russian flu pandemic of 189890, and contracted a severe case of pneumonia in January 1890 that left him so weak that he eventually was confined to his bed in the rectory.

He died on Aug. 14, 1890, just two days past his 38th birthday.

“He basically worked himself to death by 38 years old trying to take care of Catholic families,” said Dan Schachle, whose son Michael experienced the miracle cure that was attributed to Father McGivney’s intercession.

At Father McGivney’s funeral Mass, mourners filled St. Thomas Church and spilled out into the street. The funeral procession in his hometown of Waterbury included Catholics from across Connecticut, the bishop of Hartford, more than 70 fellow priests, and a host of civic leaders.

Involved in the world

“Throughout his life he was known as a holy priest. But just not holy as in removed from the world. He was a man very involved in the world,” said Brian Caulfield of the Knights’ Supreme Council staff in New Haven and the vice postulator of Father McGivney’s cause for sainthood.

The Knights, with the approval of the Archbishop of Hartford, launched the sainthood cause for Father McGivney in 1997.

“Since he was a simple parish priest, and since most of the priests we know are simple parish priests, he seems accessible,” said Mr. Caulfield, who has served as vice postulator since 2011. “Father McGivney is so close in a way. The next Father McGivney could be my pastor today.”

Mr. Caulfield has always had a devotion to Father McGivney, but since becoming vice postulator, “I feel like he’s a friend. I feel Father

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ami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Michael C. Barber, of Oakland, Calif., chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Catholic Education.

The decision is among four rulings the Supreme Court delivered this summer that impact the Catholic Church. On June 29, the justices struck down a Louisiana law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital. Then in a June 30 ruling, the high court said the exclusion by some states of religious schools from receiving public funds violates the U.S. Constitution. And also on July 8, the court ruled in favor of Trump administration rules giving employers more ability to opt out of providing contraception coverage in their health plans.

“In both of these rulings (teachers and contraception), I am pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court has come down on the side of the First Amendment and its guarantee of religious freedom. Our Catholic Teachers continued on page A16

of Knoxville, told the congregation at Holy Family Church who had gathered for the Mass to mark the recent deaths of four African Americans through violence committed by white people that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a gift and that devotion to the Sacred Heart started at the cross where Christ “shed his body and blood for our salvation.”

Delving into the Sacred Heart of Jesus can lead to much needed changes in society, he said.

“We know that for any meaningful change within our nation and in our Church there must be a change of heart in each one of us,” he said.

Archbishop Kurtz noted that the celebration of Juneteenth leads people to recognize that the sin of racism has not yet been eradicated.

He urged the congregation to take personal responsibility to rid themselves and society of racism.

“You and I each share the responsibility when anyone of us commits a sin,” Archbishop Kurtz said. “You and I share the responsibility to bring that sin to Christ for forgiveness and redemption.” ■ Contributing to this story was Ruby Thomas, a staff writer at The Record, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Louisville.

McGivney is walking with me.”

Mr. Schachle, who is the general agent for the Knights of Columbus insurance program in Tennessee, Kentucky, the eastern half of Arkansas and a small sliver of Virginia, overseeing the work of 16 agents, and his family, have long had a devotion to Father McGivney.

“What’s a better way to spend my life, supporting my family, than taking care of widows and orphans,” who benefit from the life insurance available to Knights of Columbus. “I latched onto that aspect of Father McGivney,” he said.

With the approval of the miracle, Mr. Schachle is hopeful more Catholic men will follow the example of Father McGivney.

“The family is under attack.

Masculinity under attack. Father McGivney speaks to all of that,” Mr. Schachle said. “We’ve got to step up to the plate as men to take care of our families.”

Father McGivney will join two other American priests who have been beatified, Father Solanus Casey, OFM, a mystic and miracle worker, and Father Stanley Rother, a missionary in Guatemala who was martyred. Father McGivney would be the first to be beatified who spent his whole priesthood as a parish priest, Mr. Caulfield noted.

The beatification of Father McGivney “will be a huge boost in the morale and spirituality of the priesthood in America,” Mr. Caulfield said. “I’m already hearing that from priests I know.” ■ AUGUST 2, 2020 n A15

By Ian Alvano Catholic News Service

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any of the country’s leading pro-life advocates said the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 29 ruling striking down a Louisiana abortion law puts women’s health in danger, allows subpar care of women, and gives abortion clinics a pass on “commonsense regulations” for “the sake of profit.”

“Women were dealt a huge blow in (the) ruling from the Supreme Court,” said Abby Johnson, who used to be the director of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Texas and currently leads the group And Then There Were None, which she founded.

“By deciding that abortion doctors and clinics need to follow a separate, less stringent set of rules than every other medical facility leaves women open to the consequences of an industry that has mastered cutting corners on health care,” said Ms. Johnson, whose organization as-

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schools and other entities have the right to employ individuals, including teachers, who exemplify and abide by our faith-based beliefs.

I am relieved that the court also recognizes the right of religious organizations to be exempt when it comes to providing so-called health-care procedures that we have long believed to be immoral and unnecessary. I think it’s significant and welcome that the court has voted by overwhelming margins and across ideological lines to protect our faith from further government interference and oppression,” said Bishop Richard F. Stika of the Diocese of Knoxville.

Adrian Alarcon, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Catholic Schools, similarly pointed out that “religious schools play an integral role in passing the faith to the next generation of believers” and that the archdiocesan Catholic schools are “grateful that the Supreme Court recognized faith groups must be free to make their own decisions about who should be entrusted with these essential duties.”

In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor said the court’s ruling is “not only wrong on the facts, but its error also risks upending anti-discrimination protections for many employees of religious entities.”

She noted that the court has “recently lamented a perceived ‘discrimination against religion.’”

Yet in this case, she said, the court “swings the pendulum in the extreme opposite direction, permitting religious entities to discriminate widely and with impunity for

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/CARLOS BARRIA, REUTERS

Pro-life groups: Ruling puts clinic profits over women’s health

Patients vs. profits A child is led up the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on June 29, when the court struck down a Louisiana abortion law. sists abortion workers in leaving the abortion industry.

“Women will continue to get subpar care at abortion clinics because of this Supreme Court ruling,” Ms. Johnson said in a statement. “It’s not a victory for women, for access, for

“I am pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court has come down on the side of the First Amendment and its guarantee of religious freedom. Our Catholic schools and other entities have the right to employ individuals, including teachers, who exemplify and abide by our faith-based beliefs.”

— Bishop Richard F. Stika reasons wholly divorced from religious beliefs,” something she said will be “impossible to ignore for long, particularly in a pluralistic society.”

This case examined if courts can hear employment discrimination claims brought by teachers at Catholic elementary schools. It involved California Catholic school teachers who claimed they had been victims of job discrimination and the schools who fired them who said they were exempt from anti-discrimination laws due to ministerial exception spelled out in a previous Supreme Court case about a fired teacher at a Lutheran school.

The cases before the court were a combination of two cases, St. James School v. Biel and Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, both schools in the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

At St. James School in Torrance, Calif., former fifth-grade teacher Kristen Biel said she was fired after informing school administrators that she had breast cancer and would have to take time off for surgery and chemotherapy. She sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Ms. Biel died last summer, but her husband is seeking damages. Becket, the nonprofit religious liberty law firm represent-

Caroline Carlin named principal of Our Lady of Perpetual Help School

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ur Lady of Perpetual Help School in Chattanooga had to look no farther than its faculty to find its next principal.

Caroline Carlin, who joined the OLPH faculty in the summer of 2019 as academic dean, was named principal to begin the 2020-21 academic year.

She succeeds Paul Jette, who served as OLPH principal for a year after coming out of retirement.

According to OLPH, Ms. Carlin has had a plan to promote educational excellence since arriving at the school.

“When working with students and parents, Caroline displays an absolute commitment to and practice of ethical action. At the core of everything she does is respect for her fellow teachers and students and a fierce sense of the value of the individual,” the school said in a statement announcing her appointment.

Ms. Carlin, who is completing her doctorate degree, believes it is critical to not only tell students they are supported and cared about, but to show them.

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equality, like the abortion industry will say. The back-alley abortions that the industry thinks will happen if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned may very well become commonplace inside abortion clinics due to the lack of commonsense regulations

the single most transformative experience in my life,” she said. “During this challenging time, I rely on the principles and values Ms. Carlin instilled in me by my teachers in Catholic school, such as perseverance, compassion, and an unwavering drive to help others. As educators, in order to help our students to reach their highest potential, we must seek to imbed opportunities to know them more deeply both in our curriculum as well as to seize opportunities to support our students in their extracurricular endeavors. It is not enough to tell our students we support them and care about them; we must show them. It is our duty to ‘love not with words or speech but in action and truth.’”

OLPH School is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and has grown from 60 students in 1937 to more than 250 in 2020. ■

ing the schools, said that in 2015, the school chose not to renew Ms. Biel’s one-year contract based on classroom performance.

Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Hermosa Beach, Calif., did not renew the contract in 2013 for Agnes Morrissey-Berru, who had taught fifth and sixth grades since 1999, saying she had a problem keeping order in her classroom and meeting expectations under a new reading program. Ms. Morrissey-Berru sued, alleging age bias under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.

In both cases, federal district courts ruled in favor of the schools, citing ministerial exception. But two separate panels of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed these decisions, saying the limited extent of the employee’s religious duties were insufficient to qualify for a ministerial exception that was more often applied to those with roles of religious leadership.

The 2012 decision these schools were standing on is Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where a teacher at a Lutheran school in Michigan said she was fired for pursuing an employment discrimination claim Encounter continued from page A12

It is our desire that the work to renew our Pastoral Plan reflects a “Pastoral de Conjunto” (ministry in communion), where the participation of lay people, clergy, and religious, as well as representatives of notable groups and movements is present in our virtual working groups, and in our next virtual Diocesan Encounter to be held in October as part of this process.

On this occasion, we will listen to Bishop Stika and also apply the

Sr. Regina

that this case just dismantled.”

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional Louisiana’s 2014 Unsafe Abortion Protection Act requiring that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

Justice Stephen Breyer, who wrote the majority opinion in the case, June Medical Services v. Russo, said the law posed a “substantial obstacle” for women seeking abortions while providing “no significant health-related benefits.”

Justice Breyer was joined in the opinion by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. Chief Justice John Roberts filed an opinion concurring in the judgment of the four justices. In his dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court’s decision “perpetuates its ill-founded abortion jurisprudence by enjoining a perfectly legitimate state law and doing so without jurisdiction.”

As a result of the ruling, pro-life Abortion continued on page A18

based on a disability.

In that ruling, the court said the ministerial exception to antidiscrimination laws meant that religious organizations couldn’t be sued for firing an employee classified as a minister.

Briefs filed by both schools point out that the “scope of the ministerial exception is a vital and recurring question of nationwide importance for thousands of religious organizations and individuals.”

The National Catholic Educational Association, in a friend-of-thecourt brief in support of St. James School, stressed instead that Ms. Biel, as the school’s only fifth grade teacher, “bore particular responsibility for effectuating — and embodying — the integral formation that is distinct to Catholic schools.”

Richard Garnett, law professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School and director of the university’s Program on Church, State, and Society, said at the time of the oral arguments that even though these teachers were not giving theology instruction and were not ordained clergy “their role is, and is understood as, a ministerial one, and secular courts are not in a good position to second-guess or override religious institutions’ decisions about their ministerial employees’ role.”

He said the cases were not, “as some have complained, about a supposed right of churches to ‘ignore’ civil-rights laws. Quite the contrary. These cases are about protecting the civil and constitutional rights of religious institutions to decide religious questions for themselves.” ■ see-judge-act method.

This method entails viewing God with the eyes of faith through His revealed Word and life-giving contact with the sacraments, so that in everyday life we may see the reality around us in the light of His providence, judge it according to Jesus Christ, the Way, Truth and Life, and act from the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ and universal sacrament of salvation, in spreading the Kingdom of God, which is sown on this earth and fully bears fruit in Heaven. ■ © 2019 Handmaids of the Precious Blood

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.

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

Bishop Edward U. Kmiec, former shepherd of Buffalo, Nashville dies

In Brief Sacred Heart Cathedral member appointed by Gov. Lee to Tennessee Court of Appeals

By Catholic News Service

Gov. Bill Lee announced on May 28 the appointment of Kristi M. Davis to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, Eastern Grand Division, to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Judge Charles D. Susano Jr. Judge Davis and Judge Susano are members of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Judge Susano retired from the Court of Appeals on April 30 after serving more than 25 years.

“Kristi Davis has an extensive background in civil cases as both an attorney and judge, and she will be an exceptional addition to the Court of Appeals,” Gov. Lee said. “I’m grateful for her willingness to serve and am Judge Davis proud to appoint her to this important position.”

In a rare exception, Judge Davis took her new seat on the appeals court without confirmation by the state legislature. The confirmation process was waived because of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the legislature.

Judge Davis has served as Knox County Circuit Court judge since 2014 and served as presiding judge for the Sixth Judicial District in 2018-19.

Judge Davis resigned from her position as Knox County Circuit Court judge on July 31. Gov. Lee is appointing her successor.

Prior to her serving as a judge, she served as an attorney for the Knoxville law firm Hodges, Doughty & Carson.

St. John Paul II Catholic Mission names pastoral associate Father Neil Pezzulo, GHM, pastor of St. John Paul II Catholic Mission in Rutledge has announced the hiring of a new pastoral associate, Clarisa Chavarria.

Ms. Chavarria will assist the parish in serving the local Catholic minority, fostering cooperation with other local churches, evangelization, social outreach, and social justice efforts, particularly as it pertains to issues with the poor and marginalized.

“Essentially, Clarisa will be the face of the Catholic Church in Rutledge and in Grainger County,” Father Pezzulo said. “This will be done by being present to the community.”

Ms. Chavarria Before coming to St. John Paul II, Ms. Chavarria was a theology teacher at Monsignor Kelly High School in Beaumont, Texas.

St. John Paul II Catholic Mission is operated by the Glenmary Home Missioners. Glenmary is a Cincinnati-based Catholic society of priests, brothers, and lay coworkers dedicated to serving the spiritual and material needs of people living in mission counties throughout Appalachia and the South. Learn more at Glenmary.org.

St. Michael the Archangel gets transitional deacon Bishop Richard F. Stika has assigned Deacon Kenneth Ouma Wandera to support Glenmary Father Tom Charters at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Erwin.

Father Charters is the pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish.

Deacon Wandera took his final vows with the Glenmary Home Missioners on June 26 and was ordained to the transitional diaconate in Lafayette, Tenn., on June 27.

He is one of 13 men in formation for the priestDeacon Wandera hood with the Glenmary Home Missioners, which also serves St. Teresa of Kolkata Parish in Maynardville and St. John Paul II Catholic Mission in Rutledge.

Holy Ghost Parish seeks organist for Sunday Masses Holy Ghost Parish is seeking an organist for Sunday services and holy days of obligation.

Two Sunday Masses at 8 and 10 a.m. and an additional Latin Mass at noon are required, plus two choir practices weekly.

Familiarity with Catholic liturgy is required. The position also includes all Christmas, Holy Week, and Easter liturgies, and major holy days of obligation.

Additional compensation can be earned by playing weddings and funerals. The organist will assist the parish director of sacred music with various duties.

The organist’s duties are approximately eight to 10 hours per week, in addition to holy days of obligation.

Send your resume to hgchurch@bellsouth.net. No phone calls. ■

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

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etired Bishop Edward U. Kmiec of Buffalo, the diocese’s 13th bishop, died peacefully July 11 following a brief illness. He was 84.

Bishop Kmiec had been in declining health during the past several months, the diocese said in a July 12 statement.

“We commend to our loving and merciful Lord the devoted soul of our brother, Bishop Edward Kmiec,” said Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger of Albany, N.Y., who is apostolic administrator of the Buffalo Diocese.

“He served long and faithfully the Church, which he loved greatly as a priest and bishop, and as one whose kindness, warm, and pastoral spirit guided, comforted, and revealed Christ to so many throughout his nearly 60 years of priesthood,” Bishop Scharfenberger said.

“We mourn his passing, but are also joyous in the sure knowledge that he is now with the One who motivated his life’s purpose and who has called this good and faithful servant home,” he added.

Bishop Kmiec’s body lay in repose on July 16 in the main sanctuary of the Cathedral of St. Joseph.

A funeral Mass followed on July 17 at the cathedral, with attendance restricted to Bishop Kmiec’s immediate family and diocesan representatives.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York presided at the Mass, with Bishop Scharfenberger as the principal celebrant. Other bishops from the New York region attended. Entombment followed in the

Bishop Kmiec

Bishops Crypt, directly behind the tabernacle in the cathedral.

Bishop Kmiec headed the Buffalo Diocese from 2004 until his retirement in 2012. Before that, he was bishop of Nashville from 1992 until his appointment to Buffalo.

He was an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Trenton, N.J., from 1982 to 1992.

His tenure as Nashville’s bishop “was a time of growth of the Catholic community in Middle Tennessee,” the Nashville Diocese said in a July 12 statement.

There was “not only an increase in the Catholic population, but the establishment of new parishes and schools, including Pope John Paul II High School in Hendersonville,” the diocese said. “He is remembered fondly as a shepherd and friend by many in the Diocese of Nashville. Bishop J. Mark Spalding requested prayers for the repose of his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed. May he rest in peace.” ■

Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb, retired leader of Mobile, dies after lengthy illness

By Catholic News Service

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etired Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb, who was ordained the first archbishop of Mobile, died the morning of July 15 at the Little Sisters of the Poor residence in Mobile after a lengthy period of physical decline. He was 88.

Due to the coronavirus, his funeral Mass was private. It was celebrated July 21 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile. Entombment followed in the crypt at the cathedral.

Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi of Mobile was the celebrant of the Mass, and Monsignor Michael Farmer, former vicar general of the archdiocese and current pastor at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Auburn, Ala., was the homilist. The Mass was livestreamed.

Archbishop Lipscomb was a Mobile native and served all of his priestly ministry in Mobile, including 28 years as archbishop. He was ordained the first archbishop of Mobile in 1980 after the Vatican established the Province of Mobile and raised the diocese to the Archdiocese of Mobile.

“Archbishop Lipscomb loved Mobile and its people,” Archbishop Rodi said. “As a native of the city, he devoted his life to bringing God’s love to many. He made an indelible mark in our archdiocese as a man of God, a good priest, and a good bishop.”

During his tenure as archbishop, Archbishop Lipscomb served on various committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, numerous college and seminary boards, and the board of directors of the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

He also served on national and international Catholic committees, including the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, the Catholic Health Association Committee on Ethics and Values, the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, the Southeast Regional Office for Hispanic Affairs, and Vox Clara, the committee that advises the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments on liturgical translations in English.

Cardinal Justin Rigali, archbishop

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Archbishop Lipscomb

emeritus of Philadelphia and a longtime friend and colleague of Archbishop Lipscomb, shared with the Archdiocese of Mobile his message of solidarity and condolences on the death of Archbishop Lipscomb.

“I was privileged to know Archbishop Lipscomb as a friend and to work closely with him for a number of years on the Vox Clara Committee of the Conference of Bishops. I admired his great pastoral zeal and his ability to present so clearly the teachings of the Church, for which he had such a great love. May the Lord Jesus grant him now eternal rest and may his legacy be lasting in the Archdiocese of Mobile and throughout the Church,” Cardinal Rigali said.

Oscar Hugh Lipscomb was born Sept. 21, 1931, to Oscar H. Lipscomb Sr. and Margaret Antoinette Saunders Lipscomb. He attended St. Patrick Parochial School and McGill Institute in Mobile before studying at St. Bernard College in Cullman, Ala., and the Pontifical North American College and Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood July 15, 1956, in Rome for what was then the Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham.

Upon returning to Mobile, he served at St. Mary Parish and taught at McGill Institute and Spring Hill College. He was appointed vice chancellor of the diocese in 1963 and chancellor in 1966.

After 28 years of ministry as the archbishop of Mobile, at age 76, Archbishop Lipscomb’s request for retirement was accepted by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008. ■ AUGUST 2, 2020 n A17

High court: Tax credit program can’t exclude religious schools

By Carol Zimmerman Catholic News Service

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n a 5-4 ruling June 30, the Supreme Court said the exclusion of religious schools in Montana’s state scholarship aid program violated the federal Constitution.

In the opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court ruled that if a state offers financial assistance to private schools, it has to allow religious schools to also take part. Separate dissents were written by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor.

Justice Roberts said the decision by the Montana Supreme Court to invalidate the school scholarship program because it would provide funding to both religious schools and secular schools “bars religious schools from public benefits solely because of the religious character of the schools.”

“The provision also bars parents who wish to send their children to a religious school from those same benefits, again solely because of the religious character of the school,” he wrote.

Sister Dale McDonald, a Sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the director of public policy and educational research for the National Catholic Educational Association, said she was happy with the decision, mainly because “it puts faithbased organizations on a level playing field” to be able to also take part in other opportunities.

And for the court to say these scholarship programs have to be inclusive, “that is a big victory,” she said.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the court “rightly ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not permit states to discriminate against religion. This decision means that religious persons and organizations can, like ev-

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advocates believe abortion clinics around the country will continue to cut corners on health care for women, which was the concern that led Louisiana state Sen. Katrina Jackson, a pro-life Democrat, to write the bill when she was a state representative.

Sen. Jackson said in a statement after the Supreme Court issued its ruling that one of the reasons she wrote the measure was the fact that in Louisiana, when a man chooses to go to an outpatient surgical center or an ambulatory surgical center and have a vasectomy, that physician is required to have admitting privileges. But not so for abortion clinics. The law passed with a bipartisan vote.

“As you know, in Louisiana, radiologists and ophthalmologists have performed abortions,” Sen. Jackson said.

“The March for Life is appalled by the Supreme Court’s decision, which failed to hold Louisiana abortion facilities accountable for their numerous health and safety violations,” Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, said in a June 29 statement. “The legislation

Legislating for life Louisiana lawmaker Katrina Jackson speaks in 2019 during the annual March for Life rally in Washington, D.C. Sen. Jackson, who was elected to the Louisiana Senate in 2020, was a Louisiana state representative when she wrote an abortion bill the Supreme Court struck down June 29. at issue in June Medical Services v.

Russo was designed to safeguard women’s health and safety, which the abortion business in Louisiana

eryone else, participate in government programs that are open to all.”

The statement from Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Michael C. Barber, of Oakland, Calif., chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Catholic Education, also said the decision was “good news, not only for people of faith, but for our country.”

The case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, was brought by three Montana mothers who had been sending their children to Stillwater Christian School in Kalispell with the help of a state scholarship program.

The program, created in 2015, was meant to provide $3 million a year for tax credits for individuals and business taxpayers who donated up to $150 to the program. It was helping about 45 students and just months after it got started, the Montana Department of

Revenue issued an administrative rule saying the tax credit donations could only go toward nonreligious, private schools, explaining the use of tax credits for religious schools violated the state’s constitution.

In 2015, these mothers sued the state saying that barring religious schools from the scholarship program violated the federal Constitution. The trial court agreed with them, but the Montana Supreme Court reversed this decision.

The court based its decision on the state constitution’s ban on funding religious organizations, called the Blaine Amendment. Thirty-seven states have Blaine amendments, which prohibit spending public funds on religious education.

In oral arguments, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the amendments reflected “grotesque religious bigotry” against Catholics. ■

egregiously sidelined for the sake of profit.”

“No abortion facility should receive a free pass to provide substandard care,” she added. “This decision underscores the importance of nominating and confirming judges who refrain from legislating from the bench, something pro-life voters will certainly remember come November.”

The Supreme Court failed to identify the main concern, which is the health of women, said Kristan Hawkins, Students for Life of America president. The ruling “prioritizes ending preborn life over saving a mother’s life” and only provides safety for the people in the abortion industry, she said.

Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, said the Supreme Court’s narrow ruling in the Louisiana case “is a stark reminder that the pro-life movement must continue to follow a twofold strategy.”

“Our fight to defend the lives of unborn children and protect women from the dangerous and unregulated abortion industry must continue in our nation’s statehouses

and courts,” Mr. Scheidler said in a statement. “But at the same time, we must work harder in the public square to educate our fellow Americans about abortion and offer women alternatives to abortion.”

“To all those disappointed by (this) ruling, I say, join us on the front lines,” Mr. Scheidler added.

“Don’t wait for the next big court case. Speak out against abortion today. Because for every child we save from abortion through direct action, Roe v. Wade has already been overturned.”

The Justice Foundation’s president, Allan Parker, said the Supreme Court’s ruling went against the desires of the state of Louisiana. “(The) decision by the court is extremely disappointing to thousands who want to ensure protections for women,” Mr. Parker said. “While the justices ended up siding against the state of Louisiana, this case exposed the malfeasance, malpractice, and misrepresentation of the abortion industry.”

“The state of Louisiana,” he added, “should be commended for fighting to protect women from being hurt by abortion.” ■

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