Nov. 5, 2021

November 5, 2021

catholicnewsherald.com charlottediocese.org S E RV I N G C H R I ST A N D C O N N EC T I N G C AT H O L I C S I N W E ST E R N N O R T H C A R O L I N A

Enrollment opens at Catholic schools for 2022’23 academic year 14A National Vocation Awareness Week Nov. 7-13 Diocese’s vocations promoter is ‘Father’ to his deacon dad

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INDEX

Contact us...................................4A Español........................................8-9A Events calendar..........................4A Our Faith......................................2A Our Parishes........................... 3-7A Schools...................................... 15A Scripture readings.............. 2A, 9A TV & Movies............................... 14A U.S. news................................... 16A Viewpoints............................18-19A World news............................... 17A

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‘By all your saints still striving’ Faithful celebrate All Saints Day 3A ALSO INSIDE: ‘A Holy Death: Catholic End-of-Life & Funeral Planning’ SPOTLIGHT: BLACK CATHOLIC HISTORY MONTH

African popes, black saints inspire Church today 12-13A

IN HONOR OF VETERANS DAY

‘Leaving no man behind’: Catholic

Charities transforms lives, one veteran at a time WWII vet granted ‘Wish of A Lifetime’

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Our faith 2A

catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Soldier-turned-bishop St. Martin of Tours Pope Francis

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Look in the mirror before correcting others’ mistakes

o believe in Jesus means to follow Him and avoid going “the opposite way,” following one’s own interests and inflating one’s own ego, Pope Francis said. Similarly, when Christians see one of their brothers or sisters has strayed, they must be humble, gentle and compassionate, the pope said Nov. 3 during his weekly general audience in the Paul VI audience hall.

“The supreme rule regarding fraternal correction is love: to want the good of our brothers and sisters” by praying, being patient and accompanying them to help them correct themselves, he said.

However, he added, “this is not easy.

The easier path is tattling, skinning the other alive as if I were perfect.”

The pope continued his series of talks on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians by reflecting on an excerpt from the apostle’s exhortation on the “freedom of service,” that is, how Christians are called to fulfill the law by loving their neighbor and by walking in the Holy Spirit.

“Walking in the spirit” is letting oneself be guided by the Holy Spirit, following the path of Christ, he said. This “stupendous but difficult journey” begins in baptism and lasts an entire lifetime, he said. “We can think of it as a long excursion on the mountain heights: it is breathtaking, the destination is attractive, but it requires a lot of effort and tenaciousness.”

No matter the challenges, difficulties and temptations to sin along the journey, Christians are able to acquire “a positive vision of life” because they know, no matter what, “God is always stronger than our resistance and greater than our sins.”

St. Paul shows what a good disciple does by putting himself at the same “level” as the Galatians and including himself in God’s command that “we” – not just “they” – must all walk according to the Spirit. Everyone in the community must “bear each other’s difficulties,” because all have the same temptations – “jealousies, prejudices, hypocrisies and resentments” and the temptation to seek out “a rigid set of precepts” as the solution, he said.

St. Paul said, “If someone should make a mistake, use gentleness,” and “Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted.”

“How easy it is to criticize others,” the pope said. “There are some people who seem to have a degree in tattling, criticizing others every day. Hey, look in the mirror” and reflect on one’s own weaknesses and fragility. Instead of gossiping or tearing the other down, the Spirit points the way of humility and being gentle with one’s brother or sister in correcting them, but it is also “good to ask ourselves what drives us to correct a brother or a sister, and if we are not in some way co-responsible for their mistake,” he added.

Feast day: Nov. 11

In the meantime, however, Hilary had provoked the anger of the Arians, a group that denied Jesus was God. This resulted in the bishop’s banishment, so that Martin could not return to his diocese as intended. Instead Martin spent some time living a life of severe BENJAMIN MANN asceticism, which almost resulted in his death. The two met up CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY again in 360, when Hilary’s banishment from Poitiers ended.

After their reunion Hilary granted Martin a piece of land to On Nov. 11, the Church honors St. Martin of Tours, who left build what may have been the first monastery in the region of his post in the Roman army to become a “soldier of Christ” as a Gaul. During the resulting decade as a monk, Martin became monk and later bishop. renowned for raising two people from the He was born around 316 in moderndead through his prayers. This evidence day Hungary. His family left for Italy of his holiness led to his appointment as when his father, a military official of the the third Bishop of Tours in the middle of Roman Empire, had to transfer there. present-day France.

Martin’s parents were pagans, but he felt Martin had not wanted to become a an attraction to the Catholic faith which bishop, and had actually been tricked into had become legal throughout the empire leaving his monastery in the first place by in 313. He received religious instruction those who wanted him the lead the local at 10, and even considered becoming a church. Once appointed, he continued hermit in the desert. to live as a monk, dressing plainly and Circumstances, however, forced him owning no personal possessions. In to join the Roman army at age 15, when this same spirit of sacrifice, he traveled he had not even received Baptism. throughout his diocese, from which he is Martin strove to live a humble and said to have driven out pagan practices. upright life in the military, giving Both the Church and the Roman away much of his pay to the poor.

Empire passed through a time of His generosity led to a life-changing upheaval during Martin’s time as bishop. incident, when he encountered a man Priscillianism, a heresy involving freezing without warm clothing near a salvation through a system of secret gate at the city of Amiens in Gaul. knowledge, caused such serious problems As his fellow soldiers passed by the in Spain and Gaul that civil authorities man, Martin stopped and cut his own sentenced the heretics to death. But cloak into two halves with his sword, Martin, along with the Pope and St. giving one half to the freezing beggar.

“St. Martin Sharing the Mantle with a Beggar” (c. 1322Ambrose of Milan, opposed this death That night, the unbaptized soldier saw 1326) by Simone Martini for the chapel of St. Martin sentence for the Priscillianists.

Christ in a dream, wearing the halfin Assisi. “The story of Martin’s conversion is striking Even in old age, Martin continued to cloak he had given to the poor man. for linking two themes, on the one hand an encounter live an austere life focused on the care Jesus declared: “Martin, a catechumen, with Christ hidden in the poor and, on the other, his of souls. His disciple and biographer, has clothed me with this garment.” realization that to follow Christ is to embrace a merciful St. Sulpicius Severus, noted that the Afterward, Martin knew the time for life in which one is obliged to protect the lives of others, bishop helped all manner of people him to join the Church had arrived. even one’s enemies,” Catholic blogger Jim Forest writes. with their moral, intellectual, and He remained in the army for two years spiritual problems. He also helped many after his baptism, but desired to give his laypersons discover their calling to the life to God more fully that the profession would allow. But when consecrated life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. he finally asked for permission to leave the Roman army, during Martin foresaw his own death and told his disciples of it. But an invasion by the Germans, Martin was accused of cowardice. when his last illness came upon him during a pastoral journey, He responded by offering to stand before the enemy forces but the bishop felt uncertain about leaving his people. unarmed. “In the name of the Lord Jesus, and protected not by “Lord, if I am still necessary to thy people, I refuse no labour. Thy a helmet and buckler, but by the sign of the cross, I will thrust holy will be done,” he prayed. He developed a fever, but did not sleep, myself into the thickest squadrons of the enemy without fear.” passing his last several nights in the presence of God in prayer.

But this display of faith became unnecessary when the Germans “Allow me, my brethren, to look rather towards heaven than sought peace instead, and Martin received his discharge. upon the earth, that my soul may be directed to take its flight After living as a Catholic for some time, Martin traveled to to the Lord to whom it is going,” he told his followers shortly meet Bishop Hilary of Poitiers, a skilled theologian and later before he died on Nov. 8, 397. canonized saint. Martin’s dedication to the faith impressed the He is the patron of soldiers, wine growers, innkeepers and tailors. bishop, who asked the former soldier to return to his diocese In a 2007 Angelus address, then Pope Benedict XVI expressed after he had undertaken a journey back to Hungary to visit his hope “that all Christians may be like St. Martin, generous parents. While there, Martin persuaded his mother, though not witnesses of the Gospel of love and tireless builders of jointly his father, to join the Church. responsible sharing.”

Daily Scripture readings NOV. 7-13

Sunday: 1 Kings 17:10-16, Hebrews 9:2428, Mark 12:38-44; Monday: Wisdom 1:1-7, Luke 17:1-6; Tuesday (The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica): Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12, 1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17, John 2:13-22; Wednesday (St. Leo the Great): Wisdom 6:1-11, Luke 17:11-19; Thursday (St. Martin of Tours): Wisdom 7:22b-8:1, Luke 17:20-25; Friday (St. Josaphat): Wisdom 13:1-9, Luke 17:26-37; Saturday (St. Frances Xavier Cabrini): Wisdom 18:14-16, 19:6-9, Luke 18:1-8;

NOV. 14-20

Sunday: Daniel 12:1-3, Hebrews 10:11-14, 18, Mark 13:24-32; Monday (St. Albert the Great): 1 Maccabees 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 6263, Luke 18:35-43; Tuesday (St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Gertrude): 2 Maccabees 6:1831, Luke 19:1-10; Wednesday (St. Elizabeth of Hungary): 2 Maccabees 7:1, 20-31, Luke 19:11-28; Thursday (The Dedication of the Basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul; St. Rose Philippine Duchesne): 1 Maccabees 2:15-29, Luke 19:41-44; Friday: 1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59, 1 Chronicles 29:10-12, Luke 19:45-48; Saturday: 1 Maccabees 6:1-13, Luke 20:27-40

NOV. 21-27

Sunday (Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe): Daniel 7:13-14, Revelation 1:5-8, John 18:33b-37; Monday (St. Cecilia): Daniel 1:1-6, 8-20, Daniel 3:52-56, Luke 21:14; Tuesday (St. Clement I, St. Columban, BI. Miguel Augustin Pro): Daniel 2:31-45, Daniel 3:57-61, Luke 21:5-11; Wednesday (St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions): Daniel 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28, Daniel 3:6267, Luke 21:12-18; Thursday (St. Catherine of Alexandria, Thanksgiving Day): Sirach 50:22-24, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Luke 17:11-19; Friday: Daniel 7:2-14, Daniel 3:75-81, Luke 21:29-33; Saturday: Daniel 7:15-27, Daniel 3:82-87, Luke 21:34-36

Our parishes

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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‘By all your saints still striving’: Faithful celebrate All Saints Day Children at Immaculate Conception Church in Forest City enjoyed the parish’s annual All Saints party after Mass Oct. 31.

Parishioners gathered in the parish hall for refreshments and a costume contest.

Children dressed up as their favorite saint or biblical character.

All children received treats, and prizes were awarded for the best costumes. The festivities were more than about candy and costumes, though. The Church’s tradition of celebrating All Saints Day and All Souls’ Day strives to remind us of the Four Last Things – Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. We are urged to pray for the souls in purgatory, and we are inspired to look to the saints as we seek to grow in holiness.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY AMY BURGER

(Above) A relic of St. John Berchmans, the patron saint of altar boys, was available for veneration on All Saints Day at St. Mark Church. The relic of the 17th century saint joined 38 other relics placed around the altar as part of an All Saints Day relic pilgrimage and veneration at five Charlotte-area churches. (Bottom) Father John Putnam, pastor, celebrated the All Saints Day Mass assisted by Deacons Rich McCarron and Tom McMahon.

GIULIANA POLINARI RILEY | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHURCH

(Above) Parishioners at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte took part in a pilgrimage and veneration of more than 100 saints’ relics over last weekend, in conjunction with Masses for All Saints Day Nov. 1. The impressive collection of relics also visited St. Basil the Great Eastern Catholic Church, St. Patrick Cathedral and St. Ann Church in Charlotte, as well as St. Mark Church in Huntersville. The special evening was an opportunity to learn more about and venerate saints including St. John Vianney, St. John Neumann, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and more.

PAUL DOIZÉ | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Children at Holy Cross Church in Kernersville enjoyed a “Trunk or Treat” with the saints and a “Living Rosary” recited by candlelight Oct. 30.

More online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: See more photos from All Saints and All Souls’ Day celebrations across the Diocese of Charlotte

UPcoming events 4A

catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishop Peter J. Jugis will participate in the following upcoming events: NOV. 5 – 6 P.M. Sacrament of Confirmation St. Vincent de Paul Church, Charlotte

NOV. 10 – 6 P.M. Sacrament of Confirmation St. Francis of Assisi Church, Jefferson

NOV. 9 – 11 A.M. Presbyteral Council Meeting Pastoral Center, Charlotte

NOV. 12 – 6 P.M. Sacrament of Confirmation St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Charlotte

NOV. 15-18 USCCB Fall General Assembly Baltimore, Md.

Diocesan calendar of events November 5, 2021

CONFERENCES & TALKS

Volume 31 • NUMBER 3

‘GROWTH AND EMPOWERING’ PROGRAM: 7-8:30 p.m. the last Monday of the month until March 28, St. Mark Church’s Kerin Center, 14740 Stumptown Road, Huntersville.

This seven-week program for women is presented by the Healed and Restored Ministry.

Through prayer, guided exercises, testimony and professional programming, women will experience the true feminine genius as God intended for each of His beloved daughters.

For details, visit www.healedandrestored.org and click on “Growth and Empowering Walk” to fill out an interest form, or contact Elza Spaedy at info@healedandrestored. org.

1123 S. CHURCH ST. CHARLOTTE, N.C. 28203-4003 catholicnews@charlottediocese.org

704-370-3333 PUBLISHER: The Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis, Bishop of Charlotte

STAFF EDITOR: Patricia L. Guilfoyle 704-370-3334, plguilfoyle@charlottediocese.org ADVERTISING MANAGER: Kevin Eagan 704-370-3332, keeagan@charlottediocese.org SENIOR REPORTER: SueAnn Howell 704-370-3354, sahowell@charlottediocese.org ONLINE REPORTER: Kimberly Bender 704-808-7341, kdbender@charlottediocese.org HISPANIC COMMUNICATIONS REPORTER: Cesar Hurtado, 704-370-3375, rchurtado@charlottediocese.org GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Tim Faragher 704-370-3331, tpfaragher@charlottediocese.org COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT/CIRCULATION: Erika Robinson, 704-370-3333, catholicnews@ charlottediocese.org

THE CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD is published by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte 26 times a year.

NEWS: The Catholic News Herald welcomes your news and photos. Please e-mail information, attaching photos in JPG format with a recommended resolution of 150 dpi or higher, to catholicnews@charlottediocese.org. All submitted items become the property of the Catholic News Herald and are subject to reuse, in whole or in part, in print, electronic formats and archives.

ADVERTISING: Reach 165,000 Catholics across western North Carolina! For advertising rates and information, contact Advertising Manager Kevin Eagan at 704-370-3332 or keeagan@charlottediocese.org. The Catholic News Herald reserves the right to reject or cancel advertising for any reason, and does not recommend or guarantee any product, service or benefit claimed by our advertisers.

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‘FAMILY, A SEEDBED OF VOCATIONS’ – MARRIAGE ENRICHMENT CONFERENCE: Saturday, Nov. 20, at St. Ann Church, 3635 Park Road, Charlotte. The Diocese of Charlotte’s third annual “Together in Holiness” marriage enrichment conference will feature Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, confession and talks. Child care available.

Presented in partnership with the St. John Paul II Foundation. For details and to register, go online to www.togetherinholiness.org or email Sara Dietz , conference coordinator, at TH@forlifeandfamily.org.

CATHOLIC MEDICAL ETHICS ON SEXUALITY AND FERTILITY: Learn about sexuality and fertility in medicine from a Catholic viewpoint, in the upcoming “Converging Roads” set for Saturday, April 2, 2022, at St. Patrick Cathedral, Charlotte. Presenters include: Father Matthew Kauth, “Understanding the Church’s Teaching on Sexuality and Fertility: The ‘Why’ Behind the ‘No’”; Dr. Marguerite Duane, MHA, FAAP, ‘The Menstrual Cycle as a Vital Sign”; Father Philip G. Bochanski, “Gender Identity Discordance: Supporting Patients and Families”; Dr. Teresa Farnan, “The Gift of the Human Person: A Christian Anthropology for Understanding Gender and Sexuality”; and more. Continuing education credits offered for health care professionals. Presented by the St. John Paul II Foundation, the Diocese of Charlotte and Belmont Abbey College. For details, go online to www.forlifeandfamily.org/ converging-roads.

ESPAÑOL VIGILIA DE LOS DOS CORAZONES: Primer viernes y sábado del mes, en la Catedral San Patricio, 1621 Dilworth Road East, Charlotte. Únase cada primer viernes del mes a una vigilia nocturna para honrar los Corazones de Jesús y María, orar por nuestras familias, ofrecer penitencia por nuestros pecados y pedir por la conversión de nuestra nación. Para inscribirse a una hora de Adoración, visite www.ProLifeCharlotte.org/ dos-corazones.

RACHEL’S VINEYARD: Nov. 5-7 ¿Está usted o un ser querido buscando curarse de los efectos de un aborto pasado? Los retiros de fin de semana de Rachel’s Vineyard son ofrecidos por Caridades Católicas para hombres y mujeres de la diócesis. Para más detalles: Jessica Grabowski al 910-585-2460 o jrgrabowski@rcdoc.org, o Lorena Hayes al 828-585-0483.

FUNDRAISER HELP CATHOLIC CAMPUS MINISTRY: Support Catholic Campus Ministry for a chance to win $1,000. Want to win? Buy a raffle ticket in the annual Campus Ministry Raffle. All proceeds go to support the Church’s ministry and outreach to college students across western North Carolina. Individual tickets are $5, or a book of 5 tickets for $20. The drawing for two $1,000 prizes is Thursday, Dec. 16. Tickets must be received by the Diocesan Campus Ministry office by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 15, to be eligible. For details, go online to www.catholiconcampus.com/support/raffle. Questions? Contact Darien Clark, assistant director of Campus Ministry, at dnclark@rcdoc.org.

PRAYER SERVICES & GROUPS WNC REGIONAL RESPECT LIFE MASS: Noon on Saturday, Nov. 13, Immaculate Conception Church, 208 7th Ave. West, Hendersonville. Mass will be offered by

Father Christian Cook, pastor, followed by recitation of the rosary. All are welcome.

Event is sponsored by the Carolina Pro-Life Action Network (C-PLAN) of Western NC, a coalition of area Catholic pro-life leaders. For details, contact Jack Bride at ashevilleprolifecatholics@gmail.com.

MARY’S SONS KNEELERS: Parishioners around the Diocese of Charlotte have the opportunity to pray for our two transitional deacons, Deacon Darren Balkey and Deacon Aaron Huber, on the special Mary’s Sons kneelers that they will receive when ordained on June 18, 2022. For more information about the Mary’s Sons kneelers, go online to www.

MarysSons.org. Here is the schedule for the kneelers as they are moved to parishes around the diocese this fall: NOV. 1-8: St. Lawrence Basilica, Asheville NOV. 8-15: St. Barnabas Church, Arden NOV. 15-22: Sacred Heart Church, Brevard NOV. 22-29: St. Margaret Mary Church, Swannanoa NOV. 29-DEC. 6: Immaculate Conception Church, Forest City DEC. 6-13: St. Michael Church, Gastonia DEC. 13-20: St. Mary Help of Christians Church, Shelby DEC. 20-27: Queen of the Apostles Church, Belmont 33-DAY CONSECRATION TO ST. JOSEPH: Consider making a consecration to St. Joseph using “Consecration to St. Joseph: The Wonders of Our Spiritual Father” by Father Donald Calloway, MIC. Starting the 33-day series of prayers on Wednesday, Nov. 24, would conclude on Sunday, Dec. 26, the feast of the Holy Family. Learn more at www. yearofstjoseph.org.

VIGIL OF THE TWO HEARTS: First Fridays and first Saturdays, St. Patrick Cathedral, 1621 Dilworth Road East, Charlotte. The next vigil will be Nov. 5-6. The celebrant on Friday will be Father Michael Carlson. An overnight vigil is offered twice each month to honor the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and to offer penance and pray for the conversion of our nation. To sign up for Eucharistic Adoration times, go to www.prolifecharlotte.org/ two-hearts.

SAFE ENVIRONMENT TRAINING PROTECTING CHILDREN: “Protecting God’s Children” (“Protegiendo a los Niños de Dios”) workshops educate parish volunteers to recognize and prevent child sexual abuse. For details, contact your parish office. To register for online training, go to www. virtus.org. Upcoming workshops: BREVARD: 6-9 p.m. Monday, Nov. 8; 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9, Sacred Heart Church, 4 Brian Berg Lane

SUPPORT GROUPS RACHEL’S VINEYARD: Nov. 5-7 (Spanish). Are you or a loved one seeking healing from the effects of a past abortion? Rachel’s Vineyard weekend retreats are offered

by Catholic Charities for men and women in the diocese. For details, contact Jessica Grabowski at 910-585-2460 or jrgrabowski@rcdoc.org, or Lorena Hayes at 828-585-0483.

IS YOUR PARISH OR SCHOOL hosting a free event open to the public? Deadline for all submissions is 10 days prior to desired publication date. Submit in writing to catholicnews@charlottediocese.org.

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI 5A

IN HONOR OF VETERANS DAY

‘Leaving no man behind’ Catholic Charities transforms lives, one veteran at a time SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

CHARLOTTE — U.S. Air Force veteran Kevin Somerville finally has his smile back, a stable home and hope for the future thanks to Catholic Charities and its community partner, Veterans Bridge Home.

Looking at him now, you would never know the difficulties Somerville has overcome in the past 18 months since moving to the Queen City and finding a mentor in Shakira Woodberry, a U.S. Army veteran who now serves as the case manager with Catholic Charities’ Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program.

“Since I met her I call her my angel, and she’s not even (an angel) in disguise,” Somerville jokes.

The two met in February 2020 in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Somerville was experiencing homelessness after relocating from Memphis, Tenn. He had called the local Veterans Affairs office from a hotel and they made arrangements for him to be picked up by a ride share service and taken to another extended stay hotel free of charge.

“A day or so later I went to the lobby and I saw Shakira,” he recalls. “I greeted her and she said, ‘My name is Ms. Woodberry, and I work for Catholic Charities. Is there anything you need?’ I said, ‘I’m fine, I had everything I need.’”

Woodberry then shared with him the long list of services and opportunities she could help him with.

“I realized (then) I could use some help,” Somerville says.

Woodberry, a native Charlottean, is deeply committed to assisting her fellow veterans. She says when she came home from serving in the military, returning to civilian life was difficult. The transition was made easier when she became involved with the local Veterans of Foreign Wars, the UNC-Charlotte Veterans Club and the Veterans Service Office.

She has been a local resource person for veterans over

ERIKA ROBINSON | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

U.S. Air Force veteran Kevin Somerville (right) is all smiles thanks to Catholic Charities’ Shakira Woodberry (left) and Veterans Bridge Home, which teamed up to assist him with dental work and housing.

‘There is no way I could even tell you or imagine that I would have been able to picture this outcome.’

Kevin Somerville

the past 10 years, now getting paid by Catholic Charities for what she has been doing as a volunteer for years.

“It’s my responsibility, as the healthcare navigator of the veterans program at Catholic Charities, to care about the medical needs and the wellbeing of all of our veterans,” she explains.

“When I came to Catholic Charities, I called every single veteran (enrolled in our program) – over 100 of them. I asked them about their physical and mental health, dental health, family needs, food needs. … I wanted to reach as many veterans as I could.”

Woodberry recalls that when she met Somerville she asked him if he was a veteran. “Helping (veterans like) Kevin is something that comes naturally to me. In the service we have different values. The strongest one that leads me to do the work that I do is ‘Leave no man behind.’

You don’t leave your buddies behind,” she emphasizes.

When Somerville started missing their appointments and she had difficulty contacting him, Woodberry became concerned. When she did finally get in touch with him, she remembers him telling her that he was having some physical issues.

“Kevin was complaining of migraines, stomach problems, sleep disturbance and had about six missing teeth,” she recalls. “He had lost 20 pounds.”

That type of issue was something Woodberry had not previously encountered, so she went back to her team and consulted with Veterans Bridge Home, a local non-profit community partner.

“Together we found a dentist that could do some work for Kevin, and she offered to provide her services for free.

Catholic Charities and Veterans Bridge Home split the cost of the lab fees for Somerville’s dental work.”

“I would call it a total and full restoration,” Somerville notes, flashing a smile. “It took a lot of time, a lot of support, and a lot of funding and financing; it took several months. Beyond the physical part, being able to eat

Veteran assisted by Catholic Charities

VETERANS, SEE PAGE 20A

WWII vet granted ‘Wish of A Lifetime’ SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

FRANKLIN — Seaman First Class Shirley H. Reagor, 101, returned to her hometown Oct. 17 to be honored for her military service during World War II – as a “Rosie the Riveter” and in the U.S. Coast Guard.

Her long-awaited trip home was sponsored by AARP’s Wish of A Lifetime, which helps older adults have a chance to experience dreams come true.

Raegor, who now lives in Houston, Texas, was recognized during a brick-laying ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park and inducted into the American Legion Post 108 as its oldest living member.

A convert to Catholicism at the age of 95, she was raised as a Southern Baptist in this small town in the mountains but has for most of her life always been deeply involved in the Catholic Church in one way or another.

After the war, Raegor moved to New Orleans, where she met and married her two children’s father, who was Catholic.

She sent both their children to Catholic schools for their spiritual and academic educations. They both became Catholic, and her son went on to become a priest.

“My faith in God has meant everything to me,” Raegor says. “I grew up walking to Cowee Baptist Church with my brothers

and our friends every Sunday. And I remember my mother reading the Bible every night.

“I prayed and trusted God to protect my brothers and myself in the service. In the Coast Guard, I met girls from many different Christian faiths, and I learned to respect them all.”

Raegor says she wanted her children “to have a strong faith like my mother gave us kids. It was quite a surprise when my son shared that he wanted to study to become a Catholic priest. But what a blessing in ways I could never have dreamed of... I’m so proud of him and the work he does.”

In Houston, after the death of her second husband and with her grown children away, Reagor was impressed by the spiritual and emotional support she received from St. Cyril of Alexandria Church and its parish ministries. She entered the Church there in 2015.

Like many parishioners impacted by COVID-19 and concerned with safety, Reagor regularly attends Mass through St. Cyril’s livestream as well other broadcasts.

“My mother is a trailblazer – as a World War II veteran, Rosie the Riveter, a working woman in her civic life and as a centenarian in the aging process,” says Raegor’s daughter, Patricia Samsel.

In addition to her two adult children and other family members, Raegor’s lifelong

PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE FRANKLIN PRESS

World War II veteran Shirley H. Raegor (third from right) was honored at a brick-laying ceremony Oct. 17 at Veterans Memorial Park in Franklin. friend, Hazel McWherter, accompanied her to the ceremony in their hometown Oct. 17.

“She and Hazel were cut from the same cloth that the 20s and 30s pressed forward,” Samsel notes. “They persevered through difficult times with grace, faith and fortitude.”

On being honored with a brick at Veterans Memorial Park, Raegor says, “It seems like a fuss, as I just wanted to serve my country. I guess my life has come full circle. I’m very grateful.”

— The Franklin Press and Texas Catholic contributed.

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 OUR PARISHES

NATIONAL VOCATION AWARENESS WEEK NOV. 7-13

Diocese’s vocations promoter is ‘Father’ to his deacon dad SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

CHARLOTTE — Catholics in the United States will mark National Vocation Awareness Week Nov. 7-13, an annual celebration dedicated to promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life through prayer and education.

For the Becker family, this year’s commemoration of vocations in the Church has special meaning. Their patriarch, Deacon Joseph Becker, is now a permanent deacon at St. Matthew Church in south Charlotte, and the eldest son, Father Brian Becker, is now promoter of vocations for the Diocese of Charlotte.

Father Becker’s dad, Deacon Becker, was ordained Sept. 25 by Bishop Peter Jugis at St. Mark Church in Huntersville, where Father Becker was also ordained and served his first assignment as parochial vicar from July 2017 to February 2020.

“Since Father Becker is my spiritual father, and yet I am his dad, our personal relationship has evolved in wonderful ways since his ordination,” Deacon Becker says. “In our many long discussions, at times I speak from the perspective of a dad; other times he speaks as my spiritual father giving counsel.”

Since their relationship is rooted in Christ, he shares, both roles are very comfortable and make their life so much richer together.

“I admire him a lot and am continually amazed at the priest that he has become,” Deacon Becker adds. “God has formed him

and continues to grow him to be the priest that he was meant to be from birth. Now that I am ordained, I can better appreciate the graces God has given him to do all that he does, as I see those graces at work in my life and my ministry as well.”

Father Becker says it has been a great joy to watch his father’s progress to the permanent diaconate over the past several years.

“When I went through seminary, we would talk often about my discernment, and I think we both learned a great deal from those discussions. It’s been fascinating to see that process now play out in reverse. I know I’ve benefited greatly from the example he’s given me in his process of preparation for the diaconate.

Amid all the good theological discussions we’ve had and all the strong opinions we’ve each formed throughout the process, he’s constantly given me the example of humility. He’s just desired nothing more than to humbly present himself in service to the Church, and for the sole reason that he’s seen that it’s God’s will. Our Lord has been so generous with our family, in bringing us to serve His Church in ways that we don’t deserve.”

Deacon Becker acknowledges that his wife Tammy has been a spiritual leader in their family “and has beautifully lived her vocation as wife, mother and Catholic school teacher.”

He says both his wife and his daughter Deena are living their vocations to married life and motherhood fully and in ways that enrich their loved ones and those around

The Becker family gathered at St. Matthew Church in south Charlotte Sept.

26 for Deacon Joseph Becker’s first Mass after being ordained a permanent deacon for the diocese the day before.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY DEACON JOSEPH BECKER

them. His son Mark, currently serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, is discerning a vocation to the priesthood, with hopes to enroll in seminary next fall.

“With Father Becker’s priesthood, Mark’s planned entry into the seminary and my recent ordination, many of our family conversations revolve around our faith and Church,” Deacon Becker says.

“Our times together are richer as we talk about meaningful issues and questions in our faith. I cherish the depth of our faith sharing as a family.”

As the diocese’s vocations promoter, Father Becker says he “very much enjoys working with our young men and women

who are working through the same process of discernment that I’ve gone through myself. It’s a great joy to be a part of the process of discovering God’s call in a young person’s life, and helping him or her to respond to that call in love.”

Learn more Find out more about National Vocation Awareness Week and check out additional resources online at www.usccb.org/ committees/clergy-consecrated-lifevocations/national-vocation-awareness-week.

Information about vocations in the Diocese of Charlotte is online at www.charlottediocese.org/ vocations.

Students for Life bus tour coming to Charlotte Nov. 13

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Foundation of the Diocese of Charlotte

CHARLOTTE — Students for Life of America’s National “See Me Now Bus Tour” will roll into Charlotte Saturday, Nov. 13, and everyone is invited to come out and show their support.

The bus tour is starting Nov. 6 in Jackson, Miss., and traveling to cities in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia before ending Wednesday, Dec. 1, outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. On that day, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a case stemming from Mississippi passing a law to ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Legal experts believe how the Supreme Court rules on this case will very likely determine if states will be allowed to enforce abortion restrictions before viability for the first time since the Roe v. Wade decision and finally confront its flawed legal framework.

At issue are limits on abortion before a baby can live outside the womb – along with the future of Roe v. Wade itself.

The National “See Me Now Bus Tour” will be a call to action for campuses and communities to wake up and realize that the time is now to see each precious child in the womb as deserving of the full protection of the law.

During its journey through North Carolina, the Students for Life bus will arrive at 1 p.m. at Romare Bearden Park, located at 300 S. Church St. in uptown Charlotte.

At each of the “See Me Now” tour stops, attendees will hear from prominent local voices and legislative leaders along with national leaders, and a live ultrasound will

illustrate the humanity of people not yet born.

“The pro-life generation will make an historic pilgrimage from Jackson, Mississippi, to Washington D.C., where we have marched, prayed, rallied, lobbied and cried out on behalf of mothers and their preborn children for almost 50 years,” said Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins in a statement.

“We will call on our nation’s leaders and citizens to ‘See Me Now,’ all of the beauty of life from conception to natural death.

The Constitution doesn’t have ‘abortion’ written in invisible ink, scratched in the margins. We must end the legal farce that killing 62 million preborn infants is a ‘right’ that must continue rather than the most inhumane loss of life on U.S. soil ever imagined.”

For details, go online to www. studentsforlife.org/blog.

— Catholic News Herald

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI 7A

Coming this month: CCHD second collection, World Day of the Poor CHARLOTTE — The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) is one of the Church’s primary means of fighting poverty at the grassroots level, both here in the Diocese of Charlotte and across the United States.

The annual collection, which will be taken up Nov. 20-21, is a source of both national and local funds to support organizations that address the root causes of poverty in America. Seventy-five percent of the funds collected go to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to support national grant funding, and the other 25 percent remains here in the diocese to fund local antipoverty efforts.

Since 1970, CCHD has funded some 4,000 programs across the United States.

Local CCHD funds are distributed to local non-profit organizations through Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte’s CCHD Program. Grants of up to $5,000 are awarded to non-profit organizations fighting poverty across the diocese.

Morganton-based Material Return is a national CCHD grant recipient. As an employee-owned enterprise, it is playing a key role in reviving the manufacturing sector in the foothills region of North Carolina. It transforms reclaimed textiles for sustainable use and provides waste aggregation services that keep post-production textile remnants out of landfills. It also researches ways to return textile waste back into the supply chain, by helping client businesses create products and fibers from the waste material rather than discarding it. Material Return also manufactures its own brand of circular yarn made from textile waste called ReturnTex™, which is used in products sold by varied manufacturers that are part of the Carolina Textile District.

Applications for the diocese’s 2022 grants are due Feb. 15. Each grant award winner partners in some way with

a parish or entity of the diocese familiar with the work of the non-profit, and the parish provides a letter of endorsement with their grant application.

Supporting the Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection assists enterprises such as Material Return which are “Working on the Margins” to provide innovative, life-improving solutions in their communities.

World Day of the Poor The 2021 World Day of the Poor will be recognized Nov. 14. The theme this year is “The Poor You Will Always Have With You.” Pope Francis established the World Day of the Poor in his apostolic letter “Misericordia et Misera,” issued on Nov. 20, 2016, to celebrate the end of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.

In Pope Francis’ message for this year’s World Day of the Poor, he appeals to us “never to turn our backs on poverty for a series of reasons that are ethical, moral, pastoral, political, economic and social,” says Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

The Holy Father will celebrate Mass for the World Day of the Poor on Nov. 14 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter. Joe Purello contributed.

Learn More At www.ccdoc.org/cchdcrs: Find out more information about the Catholic Charities’ CCHD Local Grants Program.

At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Read the Holy Father’s message for the 2021 World Day of the Poor

Holy Family parishioner given 2021 Bishop Begley Award CLEMMONS — Allie Cavanaugh, 18, a parishioner of Holy Family Church, recently received the 2021 Bishop Michael J. Begley Award. The annual award given out by the Diocese of Charlotte’s Office of Youth Ministry recognizes youth who exemplify Christian service, Catholic leadership and good moral standards.

Cavanaugh cantors and sings with the parish choir and youth band. She volunteers every year at Vacation Bible School as a leader in the presentations to parish youth. She is also an active member of the parish’s LifeTeen group.

Prior to becoming a cantor, Cavanaugh was an altar server. She attended Catholic Heart Work Camp for two years and the Steubenville Youth Conference for two years.

She is active in the National Christian Forensics and Communication Association, a national speech and debate league, and has had much success in the past few years, qualifying to nationals in all her events for her senior season and taking third place overall at a regional debate competition.

The daughter of Bob and Tina Cavanaugh, she is a member of the parish’s American Heritage Girls organization, serving the needs of Holy Family Parish and the community in numerous programs.

Her pastor, Father James Stuhrenburg, presented the diocesan award to Cavanaugh Oct. 17.

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

FACEBOOK.COM/ CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD ESPAÑOL

catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 8A

SEMANA NACIONAL DE CONCIENCIACIÓN VOCACIONAL DEL 7 AL 13 DE NOVIEMBRE

Eduardo Bernal

Las gracias del diaconado permanente

E

l pasado 25 de septiembre de 2021 fui ordenado diácono permanente para la Diócesis de Charlotte junto con otros once hombres de nuestra diócesis. El Obispo Peter Jugis celebró la Misa de ordenación en la parroquia San Marcos en Huntersville.

Desde ese día hasta este momento he podido experimentar gracias del sacramento del orden que me han sorprendido más allá de lo que pudiera haber esperado. Todo cambia y todo parece seguir siendo lo mismo.

Soy el mismo hombre, el mismo esposo, el mismo padre y el mismo amigo que antes. Pero no soy el mismo en mi relación con Dios y mi prójimo.

No soy el mismo ante los ojos de los feligreses de mi comunidad que me han visto hacer este camino de formación durante 4 años hasta el día de mi ordenación. Ahora ellos ven un ministro ordenado, un diácono, antes que ver un esposo, padre u hombre.

Para mi la experiencia de apenas unas cuantas semanas como ministro ordenado ha sido un abrir de ojos a una nueva realidad. Desde el momento de mi ordenación, sin haber pasado una hora, y ya conocidos pidiéndome la bendición fue un momento de gran sorpresa, alegría y ansiedad, pues no estaba seguro de cómo hacerlo, y ese es el punto de este comentario y lo que les deseo compartir.

La gracia de este sacramento es algo que yo no había podido predecir, pues un par de días después de la ordenación había personas conocidas y desconocidas que habrían sus corazones al recién ordenado, como si éste tuviera muchos años de ser diácono.

Desde el 25 de septiembre a la fecha de esta nota, este servidor de Dios ha servido en varias Misas dominicales y de día de semana, ha bautizado 26 niños, celebrado 3 quinceañeras, un funeral, unas cuantas direcciones espirituales y bendecido muchas, muchas cosas.

Algo cambió en mi que yo todavía no logro ver claramente, pero la comunidad si puede verlo. Algo en mi es diferente, que puedo sentirlo sin todavía poderle dar nombre. No tengo miedo o inseguridad de lo que se me pide o espera de mí, no porque me sienta capaz de hacerlo sino que confío plenamente en la gracia del sacramento, esta gracia es lo que la gente percibe y ve. No necesariamente ven al hombre que está frente a ellos, sino la gracia de la presencia del ministro de la iglesia y de Dios.

Espero con el tiempo poder sentirme dentro de mí mismo más cómodo con esta gracia, para así poder ser todavía más sensible a lo que ésta ofrece al pueblo de Dios.

Ahora más que nunca, Cristo esta más presente en mis pensamientos, sentimientos y acciones. Su palabra me llena mucho más, como también así me reta mucho más.

Mi esposa e hija son mis pilares en este llamado del Señor a servir a su pueblo. Les amo ahora más que antes, pues me siento amado por Dios más que antes, y eso me hace querer servir más que antes.

No soy el mismo que antes. Soy diferente, lo puedo sentir en mis entrañas, y me dejo sorprender cada día por las maravillas del Señor, que es bueno y misericordioso.

Pido sus oraciones para que este servidor de Dios y de ustedes pueda cada día crecer un poco más en la fidelidad a su llamado como esposo y ministro ordenado de nuestra Santa Madre Iglesia.

EDUARDO BERNAL es diácono permanente de la Diócesis de Charlotte, asignado a la parroquia Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.

FOTO CORTESÍA DEL DIÁCONO JOSEPH BECKER

La familia Becker se reunió en la iglesia St. Matthew en el sur de Charlotte el 26 de septiembre, para la primera misa del diácono Joseph Becker después de ser ordenado diácono permanente para la diócesis el día anterior.

El promotor de vocaciones de la diócesis es el “padre” de su papá diácono SUEANN HOWELL REPORTERA

CHARLOTTE — Los católicos en los Estados Unidos conmemorarán la Semana Nacional de Concienciación Vocacional del 7 al 13 de noviembre, una celebración anual dedicada a promover las vocaciones al sacerdocio, el diaconado y la vida religiosa a través de la oración y la educación.

Para la familia Becker, la conmemoración de las vocaciones en la Iglesia de este año tiene un significado especial. Su patriarca, el diácono Joseph Becker, es ahora diácono permanente en la iglesia St. Matthew en el sur de Charlotte, y el hijo mayor, el padre Brian Becker, es ahora promotor de vocaciones para la Diócesis de Charlotte.

El papá del padre Becker, el diácono Becker, fue ordenado el 25 de septiembre por el obispo Peter Jugis en la iglesia St. Mark en Huntersville, donde el padre Becker también fue ordenado y cumplió su primera asignación como vicario parroquial desde julio de 2017 hasta febrero de 2020.

“Dado que el padre Becker es mi padre espiritual y, sin embargo, yo soy su papá, nuestra relación personal ha evolucionado de manera maravillosa desde su ordenación”, dice el diácono Becker. “En nuestras largas discusiones, a veces yo hablo desde la perspectiva de un papá; otras veces el habla como mi padre espiritual dando consejo”. Él comparte que dado que su relación está arraigada en Cristo, ambos roles son muy cómodos

y enriquecen mucho su vida juntos.

“Lo admiro mucho y continuamente me asombra el sacerdote en el que se ha convertido”, agrega el diácono Becker. “Dios lo ha formado y continúa haciéndolo crecer para ser el sacerdote que debía ser desde su nacimiento. Ahora que soy ordenado, puedo apreciar mejor las gracias que Dios le ha dado para hacer todo lo que hace, ya que veo esas gracias obrando en mi vida y también en mi ministerio”.

El padre Becker dice que ha sido un gran placer ver el progreso de su papá hacia el diaconado permanente durante los últimos años.

“Estaba muy intrigado al notar que su proceso interno de discernimiento reflejaba muy de cerca el mío”, señala. “Primero, la percepción de un llamado, luego la aceptación de la Iglesia de su entrada en el programa de formación, luego una comprensión cada vez mayor de que esto sí parecía ser la voluntad de Dios, y finalmente una petición de desprendimiento: presentarse al obispo para las órdenes sagradas, pero reconociendo siempre que esto no era un derecho, sino solo un don de Dios a través de Su Iglesia. ¡Y alabado sea Dios que le ha dado a mi papá este gran regalo!”

El diácono Becker reconoce que su esposa Tammy ha sido una líder espiritual en su familia “y ha vivido maravillosamente su vocación como esposa, madre y maestra de escuela católica”.

VOCACIONS, PASA A LA PÁGINA 20A

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

LAWA y Belmont Abbey College se asocian para ayudar a cerrar las brechas de logro académico en latinos BELMONT — LAWA (Latino Americanos Trabajando por el Éxito) y Belmont Abbey College anunciaron una nueva asociación para ayudar a los estudiantes latinos provenientes de familias de bajos a moderados ingresos, al contribuir igualando las becas que se otorgan a los estudiantes de LAWA que asisten a la universidad, duplicando sus adjudicaciones económicas. El nuevo programa reconoce que la situación económica es a menudo una barrera para la educación, por lo que ayuda a las familias latinas en la región de Charlotte a obtener acceso a oportunidades profesionales post secundarias de alta calidad. En asociación con LAWA, Belmont Abbey también organizará un taller dedicado a ayudar a los estudiantes con FAFSA que hará más accesible el ingreso a la universidad. El taller es parte de la serie inaugural de la Escuela Secundaria y se llevará a cabo en el campus de Belmont Abbey el 9 de diciembre.

“Nos sentimos increíblemente agradecidos con Belmont Abbey College por asociarse con nosotros”, dijo la directora ejecutiva de LAWA, Ana S. Rey. “Nuestra alianza permitirá que nuestra organización llegue a más hogares latinos en el condado Gaston”. LAWA es una organización sin fines de lucro dedicada a promover la educación y calidad de vida de la comunidad latina en la región de Charlotte a través de becas y programas de preparación profesional.

Con la colaboración de organizaciones comunitarias, LAWA ofrece programas de becas para jóvenes y talleres de la serie de Escuelas Secundarias para estudiantes latinos de escuelas secundarias en Estados Unidos que quizás no vean la educación universitaria como una posibilidad.

La iniciativa con Belmont Abbey College

tiene como objetivo cerrar las brechas de logro académico de los latinos, mejorar las tasas latinas de graduación de la escuela secundaria y aumentar la cantidad de estudiantes hispanos que realizan y completan estudios post secundarios en el condado Gaston. Estos esfuerzos son cruciales, ya que la mayoría de los becarios de LAWA son estudiantes universitarios de primera generación.

“En Belmont Abbey, estamos entusiasmados con la oportunidad de impactar positivamente a nuestra comunidad latina local brindándole una educación en artes liberales que los prepare mental, corporal y espiritualmente, para buscar el bien para ellos y sus comunidades”, dijo Martin Aucoin, vicerrector y decano de admisiones de Belmont Abbey College. “Damos la bienvenida a los talentos de todos, de cualquier origen y tradición, que están comprometidos a fomentar el desarrollo de la persona en su totalidad y contribuir a la misión de la universidad”. La iniciativa con LAWA se alinea con el objetivo de Belmont Abbey de ofrecer un entorno en el que los estudiantes puedan trabajar para conseguir su máximo potencial.

Sobre LAWA: Es una organización benéfica sin fines de lucro 501©3 que presta servicios en Mecklenburg y otros condados adyacentes. La misión de la organización es promover la educación y la calidad de vida de los latinos en la región de Charlotte a través de becas y programas académicos y culturales.

Más online En www.lawanc.org: Más información sobre LAWA (Latino Americanos Trabajando por el Éxito)

CCDOC.ORG

Coordinador de manejo de casos Caridades Católicas busca un Coordinador de Manejo de Casos bilingüe (Inglés y Español) para brindar servicios en múltiples condados cercanos, con base en Lenoir (condado de Caldwell).

El puesto implica interacciones regulares con parroquias católicas regionales y agencias comunitarias, y el reclutamiento / coordinación de voluntarios.

No haga llamadas telefónicas, por favor.

Posición abierta hasta que se llene.

Vaya a www.ccdoc.org/jobs para obtener más detalles.

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Lecturas Diarias 7-13 NOVIEMBRE

Domingo: 1 Reyes 17:10-16, Hebreos 9:2428, Marcos 12:38-44; Lunes: Sabiduría 1:1-7, Lucas 17:1-6; Martes (Dedicación Basílica de Letrán): Ezequiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12, 1 Corintios 3:9-11, 16-17, Juan 2:13-22; Miércoles (San León Magno): Sabiduría 6:111, 13-14, Lucas 17:11-19; Jueves (San Martín de Tours): Sabiduría 7:22-8:1, Lucas 17:2025; Viernes (San Josafat): Sabiduría 13:1-9, Lucas 17:26-37; Sábado (Santa Francisca Javier Cabrini): Sabiduría 18:14-16, 19:6-9, Lucas 18:1-8

14-20 NOVIEMBRE

Domingo: Deuteronomio 12:1-3, Hebreos 10:11-14, 18, Marcos 13:24-32; Lunes: 1 Macabeos 1:10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-64, Lucas 18:35-43; Martes: 2 Macabeos 6:18-31, Lucas 19:1-10; Miércoles (Santa Isabel de Hungría): 2 Macabeos 7:1, 20-31, Lucas 19:1128; Jueves: 1 Macabeos 2:15-29, Lucas 19:4144; Viernes: 1 Macabeos 4:36-37, 52-59, Lucas 19:45-48; Sábado: 1 Macabeos 6:1-13, Lucas 20:27-40

21-27 NOVIEMBRE

Domingo (Cristo Rey): Deuteronomio 7:13-14, Apocalipsis 1:5-8, Juan 18:33-37; Lunes (Santa Cecilia): Deuteronomio 1:1-6, 8-20, Lucas 21:1-4, Mateo 5:1-12; Martes: Deuteronomio 2:31-45, Lucas 21:5-11; Miércoles (Santos Andrés Dung Lac y compañeros mártires): Deuteronomio 5:16, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28, Lucas 21:12-19, Jueves: Deuteronomio 6:12-28, Lucas 21:20-28; Viernes: Deuteronomio 7:2-14, Lucas 21:2933; Sábado: Deuteronomio 7:15-27, Lucas 21:34-36

‘La resurrección de Lázaro’, óleo de Juan de Flandes. Países Bajos, 1496 - Palencia, España 1519. Imagen cortesía del Museo del Prado, Madrid.

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Room At The Inn …where Hope is Born Room At The Inn is a unique, comprehensive program helping homeless, single, pregnant women from all areas of North Carolina, not only during their pregnancies but also after the birth of their babies. By providing shelter, food, clothing, case management, inhouse daycare, transportation and life skills education in a structured environment, we help these families have new lives of healthy, hopefilled self sufficiency.

Pratt Proverbs 31 Formation Program: Residents in the maternity home programs are invited to participate in the Pratt Proverbs 31 Formation Program. Participants get involved in the faith community of their choice and/or suitable volunteer programs. Participants are able to grow spiritually and as responsible, caring women. Participation is completely voluntary and no client is denied other services for declining to participate in this program.

Aftercare Program: The graduates of our programs continue to be an important part of our family even after the birth of their children. Quarterly alumni meetings are conducted at the maternity home. Clients are eligible for material assistance for up to five years after the birth of their children.

“The service that this organization provides is exceptional. It is respectful, supportive, continuous and enduring. The outcomes have been very impressive”

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Council on Accreditation Final Accreditation Report

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100 % of graduates 18 years of age or older increased their income 100 % of maternity home graduates transitioned to stable housing

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16 Babies were born 87.5% of babies born had APGAR scores of 8 or more 81.25 % of babies born had birth weights of 5.5 lbs. or greater 100 % of pre-natal appointments were kept

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College Program: Graduates of the maternity home programs who want to enter or return to college are eligible for our Support Community Living Services for Single Mothers Attending College. In addition to housing, we provide case management, child development services, financial/material assistance and tutoring/life skills education.

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100 % of participants are making progress toward completing their degree

The holidays were approching and life was busy. Wanisha was taking care of her one-and-a-half-year daughter, Kendall, working her full-time job at Food Lion and trying to make sure her daughter would have a good Christmas. She had barely begun to process the news that she was pregnant again, when her boyfriend lost his job, and they were suddenly homeless as well. Her boyfriend continued to provide what financial support he could for Kendall, but she was going to have to make the changes she needed to make it by herself. Then she was told about Room At The Inn and in mid-January, she and Kendall were able to move into the maternity home. Because of her good work record at the Food Lion, she was able to transfer right away to the Food Lion near the maternity home. The staff provided transportation for her to get to and from work and childcare staff was able to provide care for Kendall until she was able

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November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.comiii

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to get Kendall into a daycare program close by. Within a few weeks, she was working in her new position, Kendall was thriving and she was catching up. Yet, she was growing in other ways as well. She completed her parenting and life skills education and really started to look at where her life was headed. She was proud of her good start but realized that she needed to continue to work on becoming self sufficient and more responsible. Her boyfriend was supportive of her changes and continued to be there for their family. The staff and classes in self-respect and on building wholesome relationships and families, helped her accept that once her son was born and they all moved out, she needed to take a completely different approach to managing her life. Wanisha started saving as much money as she could. She handled her traffic tickets and fines and had her driver’s license restored. She saved up her funds and was able to get a car by participating in a program offered by local ministry that helps working people purchase restored cars at a reduced price. Life got easier getting back and forth to work on her own.

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Honor cards are now available. Use the envelope in this issue to send us your request by December 17th to ensure processing and delivery by Christmas Eve.

Four months later, Wanisha and her family are thriving, she continues to work hard and the children are doing great. While Wanisha did the hard work in turning her life around, she could not have done it without the staff and volunteers at the home, which was made possible by your financial support. So often, single mothers are stigmatized as only looking for handouts. Wanisha only needed a hand-up. Your involvement with us helped make her journey into a “new life of healthy, hopeful independence” possible.

CONTACT US: Mailing address PO Box 13936 Greensboro, NC 27415 (336) 996-3788 Phone (336) 275-9522 Fax Email: info@RoomInn.org For More Information, visit us at: www.RoomInn.org

Ways YOU can help save lives and provide a future of hope:  Use the envelope in this issue of the Catholic News Herald to send a financial contribution  Give a gift in honor of someone this Christmas with our honor cards  Give in memory of a loved one or in honor of someone’s birthday or other special occasion throughout the year  Spread the word - Like us on facebook and invite your friends to also  Leave a legacy of LIFE - put Room At The Inn in your will  Pray …and if you live close by, you can also:  Volunteer  Participate in our fundraisers  Donate items on our online Wishlist

On behalf of our mothers and children, we pray that you and your families have a Wonderful Thanksgiving, and a Blessed Christmas and New Year!

Thank you… for making “room at the inn”

catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 12A FROM THE COVER

SPOTLIGHT: BLACK CATHOLIC HISTORY MONTH

African popes, black saints inspire Church today

B

lack Catholic history can be traced to the Acts of the Apostles (8:26-40) when St. Philip the Deacon converted the Ethiopian eunuch – one of the first moves the Apostles made to evangelize outside Jerusalem and thus sow the seeds for the universal Church.

Christianity spread throughout North Africa, and the region featured prominently in the early Church as the birthplace of saints, popes and Western monasticism.

Three popes of the early Church were born in north Africa: n Pope St. Victor I (189-198 or 199): He was the first pope to celebrate the liturgy and write Church documents in Latin rather than Greek. He is most famous for decreeing that Easter be universally celebrated on a Sunday, a practice already common in the West, but not so in the East. His feast day is July 28. n Pope St. Miltiades (also called St. Melchiades) (311314): He was pope when Constantine the Great defeated his enemies and assumed control over Rome, paving the way to Pope St. Victor I the end of persecution of Christians. Constantine gave the pope the Lateran palace (now known as the Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran), which became the papal residence and seat of Christian governance. He was the last pope to be buried in a catacomb. His Pope St. Miltiades feast day is Dec. 10. n Pope St. Gelasius I (492496): The first pope to be called the Vicar of Christ, he is most famous for affirming the primacy of the papacy based on Jesus’ command naming Peter the “rock of the Church.” He promoted a type of “separation of Church and State” but Pope St. Gelasius emphasized that Church authority is always superior to civil law.

He also ordered reception of the Eucharist under both species. His feast day is Nov. 21.

THE SCILLITAN MARTYRS The Scillitan Martyrs were the first documented African martyrs. The 12 Christians, seven men and five women, were martyred in 180 in Scillium (in what is present-day Algeria and Tunisia) for refusing to call the Roman emperor their god. Unlike other Christians, they were not tortured but put on trial and offered 30 days to change their minds. When they still refused to recant their faith, they were put to death by the sword.

“The Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs,” a contemporaneous account of their trial and execution, is considered to be among the earliest documents of the Church in Africa and also the earliest example of Christian Latin.

Their feast day is July 17.

superiors dropped the stipulation that “no black person may be received to the holy habit or profession of our order” and Martin was vested in the full habit and professed solemn vows as a Dominican brother. Afterwards, he became more devout and more desirous to be of service, establishing an orphanage and a children’s hospital.

A close friend of St. Rose of Lima, he died on Nov. 3, 1639, and was canonized on May 6, 1962. His feast day is Nov. 3.

ST. CHARLES LWANGA AND COMPANIONS

ST. PERPETUA AND ST. FELICITY Just after the death of Pope St. Victor I, St. Perpetua and St. Felicity underwent their martyrdom in Carthage, around 203.

St. Perpetua was a young, well-educated noblewoman and mother living in Carthage in North Africa. At the age of 22, she was jailed for her faith. While in prison she continued to care for her infant child and put up with tortures designed to make her renounce her faith. St. Perpetua was sacrificed at the games as a public spectacle.

St. Felicity was a pregnant slave girl who was imprisoned with her. Little is known about her life because, unlike Perpetua, she did not keep a diary. Only a few days before her execution, Felicity gave birth to a daughter, who was secretly taken away to be cared for by some of the faithful.

They share the feast day of March 7, and their names are forever mentioned together in the Roman Canon of the Mass.

ST. MOSES THE BLACK St. Moses the Black was a thief, murderer and adulterer who through the grace of conversion was transformed into a pacifist, priest and martyr.

A large, imposing figure, he became the leader of a gang of bandits who roamed the Nile Valley spreading terror and violence.

Attempting to hide from authorities, he took shelter with some monks in the desert near Alexandria. The dedication of their lives, as well as their peace and contentment, deeply influenced him. He gave up his sinful ways and joined the community.

At some point, he was ordained a priest and became the leader of a colony of desert hermits. At about age 75, about the year 407, word came that a group of renegades planned to attack the colony. The brothers

wanted to defend themselves, but Moses forbade it. He told them to retreat, rather than take up weapons. He and seven others remained behind and greeted the invaders with open arms. All eight were martyred by the bandits.

His feast day is Aug. 28.

ST. MARTIN DE PORRES The only black saint from the Western Hemisphere so far, St. Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru, in 1579. His mother was a freed slave from Panama, and his father was a Spanish gentleman who did not want him. Early in his life, he demonstrated humility, charity for the poor and a love for animals, and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the age of 11, he took a job as a servant in the Dominican friary in Lima and performed the work with such devotion that he was called “the saint of the broom.”

He spent the rest of his life in the friary – as a barber, farm laborer, almoner (church worker in charge of distributing money to the poor) and infirmarian (person who nurses the sick in a monastery), among other tasks.

St. Martin’s love was all-embracing, shown equally to humans and to animals, even vermin, and he maintained a shelter for stray dogs and cats.

In recognition of his devotion, his

The Society of Missionaries of Africa (known as the White Fathers) had been in Uganda for only six years but had built up a community of converts who were soon gaining new converts themselves. Many of these converts lived and taught at the royal court, where the violent ruler and pedophile King Mwanga routinely forced himself on the young boys and men who served him as pages and attendants.

After other Christians were martyred by the king, Charles Lwanga took over instructing the young Christian community – and the charge of keeping the boys and men away from the king. When the king learned that another page was being taught the faith, he thrust a spear through the young man’s throat and sealed the royal compound. Knowing what was coming, Lwanga baptized four catechumens that night. The next morning Mwanga separated the Christians from the rest, saying, “Those who do not pray stand by me, those who do pray stand over there.”

He demanded of the 15 boys and young men (all under 25) if they were Christians and intended to remain Christians. When they answered “yes,” he condemned them to death. They were marched 37 miles to Namugongo, where those who were not killed along the way were burned to death on June 3, 1886.

The White Fathers were expelled from Uganda, but when they returned after Mwanga’s death, they found 500 Christians and 1,000 catechumens waiting for them.

St. Charles Lwanga’s feast day is June 3.

ST. JOSEPHINE BAKHITA Josephine Bakhita, born in 1869, was a Sudanese-born former slave who became a Canossian nun in Italy, living and working there for 45 years.

She was known for her smile, gentleness and holiness. She even once said, “If I were to meet the slave-traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, for if that did not happen, I would not be a Christian and Religious today.”

She died in 1947, and in 2000, she was became the first African woman to be canonized in modern times. She is the first person to be canonized from Sudan and is the patron saint of the country.

Her feast day is Feb. 8.

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com

FROM THE COVERI 13A

SPOTLIGHT: BLACK CATHOLIC HISTORY MONTH

S

African American Catholics considered for sainthood

ainthood causes for five AfricanAmerican Catholics are currently open with the Church: Father Augustus Tolton, priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago, declared Venerable by Pope Francis in June 2019; Mother Henriette Delille, foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans, who has been declared Venerable; Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence; Pierre Toussaint, who was brought to New York as a slave and later became a well-known philanthropist, also declared Venerable; and Sister Thea Bowman, a Catholic convert, scholar, singer and advocate for racial integration. n Venerable Father Augustus Tolton, priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago Father Augustus Tolton was born a slave in 1854 on a plantation near Brush Creek, Mo. His father left to try to join the Union Army during the Civil War. In 1862, his mother escaped with her three children by rowing them across the Mississippi River and settling in Quincy, Ill. Young Augustus had to leave one Catholic school because of threats; he found a haven at St. Peter Parish and School, where he learned to read and write and was confirmed at age 16.

He was encouraged to discern his vocation to the priesthood by the Franciscan priests who taught him at St. Francis College, now Quincy University, but could not find a seminary in the United States to accept him. He eventually studied in Rome and was ordained for the Propaganda Fidei Congregation in 1886, expecting to become a missionary in Africa.

Instead, he was sent back to Quincy, where he served for three years before coming to the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1889.

He spearheaded the building of St. Monica Church for black Catholics, dedicated in 1894, and died on July 9, 1897, after suffering heat stroke on a Chicago street.

He was declared Venerable by Pope Francis in June 2019. n Venerable Mother Henriette Delille, foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans A free woman of color living in New Orleans in the 19th century, Delille wanted to be a religious but legal and social restraints 20 years before the abolition of slavery and the Civil War prevented local communities from accepting her.

Therefore, she and two other free women sought to form their own. The Church gave them permission to form a pious society that took no vows and whose members were free to withdraw as they wished. They aided the poor, the sick, the elderly and helpless, the lonely, and the uninstructed who needed care.

Hundreds of more women soon followed them in consecrating themselves to God’s service as Sisters of the Holy Family, and Delille was named their leader. Known as the “Servant of Slaves,” Delille died in 1862.

In 2010 Pope Benedict XVI declared her to be Venerable.

n Servant of God Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence Elizabeth Clarisse Lange’s parents were refugees who fled to Cuba from the revolution taking place in their native Saint Dominque (present-day Haiti). Her father was a gentleman of some financial means and social standing. Her mother was a Creole.

However, in the early 1800s young Elizabeth left Santiago de Cuba to seek peace and security in the United States. Providence directed her to Baltimore, where a great influx of French-speaking Catholic San Dominguios refugees was settling.

She was a courageous, loving and deeply spiritual woman, and a strong, independent thinker and doer. Although she was a refugee, she was well educated and had her own money. It did not take long to recognize that the children of her fellow refugees needed education. She determined to respond to that need in spite of being a black woman in a slave state long before the Emancipation Proclamation. She used her own money and home to provide free education to children of color, and eventually founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first Black Catholic order in the United States.

Lange practiced faith to an extraordinary degree. In fact, it was her deep faith which enabled her to persevere against all odds. To her black brothers and sisters she gave of herself and her material possessions until she was empty of all but Jesus, whom she shared generously with all by being a living witness to His teaching. She died on Feb. 3, 1882.

In 1991, a cause for her canonization was opened by the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

In 2004, documents describing her life were sent to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints which then opened the cause for her sainthood. She has been named a Servant of God, the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. n Venerable Pierre Toussaint, brought to New York as a slave and later became a well-known philanthropist Pierre Toussaint was born into slavery on June 28, 1766, in what is now known as Haiti. Coming to New York in 1787 with his owner, Jean Bérard, he was apprenticed to a New York hairdresser. He became a friend to the city’s aristocracy by dressing the hair of wealthy women, and when Bérard died penniless, Toussaint financially supported Bérard’s wife and nursed her through emotional and physical ailments. She granted him his freedom in 1807.

His stable income allowed him to buy freedom for his sister and his future wife, and to be generous with many individuals and charities, including an orphanage and school for black children. He not only provided money, but manifested genuine care and concern for the afflicted.

He cared for the ill when yellow fever swept the city and opened his home to homeless youth, teaching them violin and paying for their schooling. His wife shared in his philanthropic efforts, and their home became a shelter for orphans, a credit bureau, an employment agency and refuge for priests and poverty-stricken travelers. Proud to be black, Toussaint generously supported the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore.

Toussaint attended daily Mass for 66 years at St. Peter’s in New York. He owned a house

on Franklin Street, where he and his wife sheltered orphans and fostered numerous boys. Toussaint supported them in getting an education and learning a trade, and he sometimes helped them get their first jobs through his connections in the city. The Toussaints also organized a credit bureau, an employment agency, and a refuge for priests and needy travelers.

In his later years, Toussaint still worked to help others. One of his clients advised him, “Toussaint, you are the richest man I know, why not stop working?” He replied, “Then I should not have enough to help others, madam.”

Two years after his wife’s death, he died on June 30, 1853, aged 87.

Toussaint is the first layperson to be buried in the crypt below the main altar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in New York City, generally reserved for bishops of the Archdiocese of New York.

In 1996, he was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II, the second step toward sainthood. n Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman Sister Thea Bowman was born Bertha Bowman in a small Mississippi town in 1937, the granddaughter of a slave. Raised a Methodist, she fell in love with Catholicism from the teachers at her school, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. She converted to Catholicism and at 15 joined the order, taking the name Thea, meaning “of God.” She was sent to La Crosse, Wis., where she studied and taught until 1961, when she returned to her hometown to teach at her alma mater before pursuing doctoral studies at The Catholic University of America. She later taught at Catholic University and at Xavier University in New Orleans.

After 16 years as an educator at the elementary, secondary and university level, she was invited by the bishop of Jackson, Miss., to become a consultant for intercultural awareness. For the rest of her life she dedicated her life to building up the Black Catholic community and sharing the Gospel message through prayer, song, teaching, writing and preaching.

She was instrumental in the creation of many Catholic multicultural and AfricanAmerican projects such as the first edition of “Lead Me, Guide Me,” an African-American Catholic hymnal. She helped found the National Black Sisters Conference in 1966.

In 1984 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but she did not let her declining health slow her down. Confined to a wheelchair, she gave an historic address to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1989, and she continued to inspire others with her love and joy even in the midst of her suffering.

She was posthumously awarded an honorary doctorate in theology from Boston College, the first to any African-American woman.

In May 2018, she was declared a Servant of God, a first step toward sainthood. Bishop Joseph Kopacz of Jackson, Miss., approved the cause of Sister Thea Bowman’s beatification and read his edict on the matter on Nov. 18, 2018. That same month, the U.S. Catholic bishops unanimously agreed to open the cause for her canonization.

— Sources: Catholic News Agency, www.catholiconline.com, www.AmericanCatholic.org, www.catholic.org, EWTN, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Wikipedia

What is Black Catholic History Month?

On July 24, 1990, the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus of the United States designated November as Black Catholic History Month to celebrate the history and heritage of black Catholics. November is significant because two important black saints are commemorated within the month: St. Martin de Porres’ feast day (Nov. 3) and St. Augustine’s birthday (Nov. 13). With All Saints and All Souls’ Day, we also remember the saints and souls of Africa and the African Diaspora.

At www.nbccongress.org: Learn more about the National Black Catholic Congress and its upcoming events, download educational resources and get vocation information

African-American Catholics by the numbers There are 3 million African-American Catholics in the United States.

Of Roman Catholic parishes in the United States, 798 are considered to be predominantly African-American.

Most of those continue to be on the East Coast and in the South. About 76 percent of African-American Catholics are in diverse or shared parishes, and 24 percent are in predominately African-American parishes.

Currently, there are five living African American bishops and one African American cardinal. Two U.S. dioceses and one archdiocese are headed by African American prelates.

— USCCB

What is the diocese’s African American Affairs Ministry?

On May 17, 1985, a group of 10 people calling themselves the Committee for Concerned Black Catholics met to discuss issues and concerns that were particular to black Catholics in the diocese. They urged then Bishop John Donoghue to coordinate efforts of black Catholics in the diocese.

In July 1985, the ministry launched as the Diocesan Committee on Black Catholic Ministry and Evangelization, part of the diocese’s Ministry for Justice and Peace. In 1989 it became a separate office to address and serve the needs of black Catholics in the diocese.

Since then, its goal has been to make visible the work, contributions, traditions and culture of black Catholics to the Church and to society, and to propose adequate diocesan responses to racism and other social injustices.

— www.charlottediocese.org

Your DSA contributions at work The diocese’s African American Affairs Ministry is funded in part by the annual Diocesan Support Appeal. Learn more about the DSA and how to donate online at www.charlottediocese.org/ dsa.

Our schools

catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 14A CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Enrollment opens at Catholic schools for 2022-’23 academic year SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

CHARLOTTE — Enrollment for the 2022-’23 academic year is under way at many Catholic schools across the Diocese of Charlotte.

Bishop McGuinness High School in Kernersville opened enrollment Oct. 1. St. Leo School in Winston-Salem also opened enrollment Oct. 1 for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.

All nine Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools, located in the greater Charlotte area, began accepting applications Nov. 2. The other nine schools around the diocese will begin accepting enrollment applications in the coming months.

Schools officials are reporting that open houses held this fall have been well attended.

Due to a growth in enrollment, St. Pius X School in Greensboro added sections in middle school. Bishop McGuinness High School, Charlotte Catholic High School and Christ the King High School added sections and faculty. Immaculate Heart of Mary School added an additional section in upper elementary, and St. Gabriel School built an additional kindergarten classroom.

All of the diocese’s Catholic schools are accredited through Cognia, a non-profit, non-governmental organization that accredits primary and secondary schools

throughout the U.S. and internationally.

Several schools offer special learning programs to better meet the needs of diverse learners. In many instances, parents can provide their special needs child with a Catholic education from prekindergarten through high school.

MECKLENBURG AREA CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

The nine schools in MACS are: St. Ann School (PK, TK-5), St. Gabriel School (K5), St. Matthew School (TK-5), St. Patrick School (K-5), Our Lady of the Assumption School (PK-8), St. Mark School (K-8), Holy Trinity Middle School (6-8), Charlotte Catholic High School and Christ the King High School. n St. Ann School: 600 Hillside Ave., Charlotte; 704-525-4938; www.stanncatholic. org n St. Gabriel School: 3028 Providence Road, Charlotte; 704-366-2409; www. stgabrielcatholicschool.org n St. Matthew School: 11525 Elm Lane, Charlotte; 704-544-2070; www. stmattwildcats.com n St. Patrick School: 1125 Buchanan St., Charlotte; 704-333-3174; www. saintpatrickschool.org n Our Lady of the Assumption School: 4225 Shamrock Dr., Charlotte; 704-531-0067; www.olacatholic.org n St. Mark School: 14750 Stumptown Road, Huntersville; 704-766-5000;

Your Life’s Journey… how will you be remembered?

Establish a legacy that responds to the many gifts God has given you.

stmarkcatholicschool.net n Holy Trinity Middle School: 3100 Park Road, Charlotte; 704-527-7822; www.htcms.org n Charlotte Catholic High School: 7702 Pineville-Matthews Road, Charlotte; 704543-1127; www.charlottecatholic.org n Christ the King High School: 2011 Crusader Way, Huntersville; 704-799-4400; www.ctkchs.org Visit each school’s website or contact the school directly to schedule a visit.

For more information, including MACS application forms and financial aid opportunities, go online to www. discovermacs.org.

Prospective families may also contact MACS Admissions Director Sissie Kilby at slkilby@rcdoc.org or 704-370-3273.

MACS tuition rates for the 2022-’23 year are expected to be announced early next year.

Last year’s tuition costs for participating Catholic families were: $4,613 for half-day pre-kindergarten or $7,211 for full-day prekindergarten; $7,545 for elementary school (transitional kindergarten through fifth grade); $8,475 for middle school, and $12,087 for high school. (Tuition for community members or non-participating Catholics is higher.)

Additional graduation, technology and activity fees are not included in these costs.

Tuition discounts are provided to participating Catholic parishioners and

for multiple children enrollment. This is diocesan wide.

Financial assistance is also available to qualifying families based on need. This is diocesan wide.

All of the diocesan schools participate in the N.C. Opportunity Scholarship and the N.C. Disability Scholarship Programs.

MACS SPECIAL NEEDS PROGRAMS

MACS also offers special needs programs at various locations, including: PACE (Providing an Appropriate Academic Catholic Education), MAP (Modified Academic Program), MMP (Matthew Morgan Program) and the Options Program, which creates an elementary through 12th-grade path for students in the MAP and Matthew Morgan programs to continue to flourish in our Catholic schools and beyond. It provides a curriculum specifically developed to bring these two programs together and creates a “certificate” path that will allow these students to explore options on college/ university campuses beyond high school.

This program is offered at Charlotte Catholic High School.

Each of these programs offers a specific educational experience for students with special needs.

To learn more about these special ENROLLMENT, SEE PAGE 20A

Tribunal Notary-Secretary The Charlotte Diocesan Tribunal is responsible for processing marriage nullity cases.

Responsibilities: • Full time position • Screens calls, answer routine questions • Enters new cases into data base • Assist with case preparation • Makes copies of cases as needed • Archive management • Attends to financial matters for the Tribunal • Assists Judicial Vicar with special projects Requirements: • High School or Business College graduate or equivalent • Three years of clerical experience with the ability to type 55 WPM accurately • The ability to read, write, and speak English well • Strong verbal, computer, and interpersonal skills • The ability to maintain strict confidentiality • Must be a practicing Catholic • Bi-lingual in Spanish a plus Location: Diocese of Charlotte Pastoral Center, 1123 South Church Street, Charlotte, North Carolina 28203 Time frame and how to submit application: Please submit your resume or CV with a cover letter to Lisa D. Sarvis at ldsarvis@rcdoc.org no later than November 24, 2021

Foundation of the Diocese of Charlotte

For more information on how to leave a legacy for your parish, please contact Gina Rhodes, Director of Planned Giving at 704/370-3364 or gmrhodes@charlottediocese.org.

DIOCESE OF CHARLOTTE

Mix

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

For the latest movie reviews: catholicnewsherald.com

On TV n Saturday, Nov. 6, 2:00 p.m.

(EWTN) “Saint John Neumann.” An EWTN original docu-drama focusing on the life and ministry of St. John Neumann: a bishop, a zealous missionary, and the founder of the United States’ Catholic education.

In theaters

n Saturday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m. (EWTN) “Saint Martin de Porres.” Born out of wedlock to a mixed-race couple, St. Martin de Porres overcame prejudice and gained acceptance throughout his entire life simply by using love and humility. An EWTN original film.

‘Eternals’ Director and co-writer Chloé Zhao’s big but empty Marvel Comics adaptation follows an ensemble of alien superheroes (most prominently Gemma Chan and Richard Madden) dispatched to Earth by a higher power (voice of David Kaye) thousands of years ago to protect humans from marauding monsters. After discovering in the present day that the purpose of their mission is not what they have always believed it to be, they face a moral dilemma based, in part, on the connection they have formed with humanity. Some of this sci-fi adventure’s values are on-target and the banter in the dialogue draws the occasional laugh, but the Mouse House’s insistence on waving the rainbow flag is one factor making this inappropriate for them.

Frequent stylized combat, at least one mild oath, a few crude terms and a single crass expression, CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: PG-13

‘Ron’s Gone Wrong’ Animated comedy in which a socially isolated middle schooler (voice of Jack Dylan Grazer) yearns for the robot toy that has become a status symbol among his classmates. But, when he receives one as a birthday gift from his cashstrapped, widowed dad (voice of Ed Helms) and Bulgarian immigrant grandmother, it turns out to be a damaged model that he initially spurns.

Characters in peril, some mild scatological humor.

CNS: A-I (general patronage); MPAA: PG

‘Dune’ Gripping sci-fi epic, adapted by director and co-writer Denis Villeneuve from the 1965 novel

by Frank Herbert, centers on the heir (Timothée Chalamet) to a powerful dynasty of intergalactic warriors who may also be the messiah figure foretold in various prophecies. As his clan gets caught up in the battle for control of the titular world, a desert planet rich in a highly-prized spice, he seeks to emulate his sage and enlightened father (Oscar Isaac). But his priestess mother (Rebecca Ferguson) steers him toward a more mysterious destiny. Combining elements of a costume drama, an against-the-odds quest and a parable about imperialism, the film features a complex religious mythos requiring careful reflection on the part of viewers. Parents will probably find it acceptable for those older teens capable of sorting through such material. Nonscriptural beliefs, much stylized but sometimes intense violence, cohabitation, a few mild oaths, at least one crude term.

CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: PG-13

Other movies: n ‘Halloween Kills’: CNS: O (morally offensive); MPAA: R n ‘The Last Duel’: CNS: L (limited adult audience); MPAA: R n ‘No Time to Die’: CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: PG-13

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n Sunday, Nov. 7, 6 a.m. (EWTN) “Angelus with Pope Francis.” Pope Francis leads the world in the recitation of The Angelus, live from Rome. n Monday, Nov. 8, 5:30 p.m.

(EWTN) “Light that Never Fades.”

A documentary that explores the Byzantine rite and worship in Eastern Churches that are in communion with Rome.

(Above) A section of the sheet music showing the beginning of the “Sequentia,” based on sections of the Dies Irae, in Mozart’s famed “Requiem in D minor.” (Below) A portrait of Mozart in 1789 by an unknown artist.

Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ A dramatic musical work to appreciate this season CHRISTINA L. REITZ SPECIAL TO THE CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

November is the month the faithful remember and pray for the poor souls in purgatory, particularly on Nov. 2, All Souls’ Day. So it is a fitting time to turn to the requiem, colloquially known as the Mass for the Dead, and more formally referred to as the “Missa Pro Defunctis.”

The traditional Latin Requiem was composed as a poem in the Middle Ages, quoting from the Old Testament Book of Zephaniah 1:15-18. Over the ages it has been set to music by numerous composers, and its popularity has even transcended Catholicism, resulting in works called requiems that do not follow the Roman liturgy.

The most popular of these are Johannes Brahms’ “Ein Deutches Requiem” (“A German Requiem”) and British composer Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem.” The Latin requiem, however, holds a place of primacy in music history because of the works in this genre composed by some of the greats: Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi and Fauré, to name just a few.

The most famous is probably the one penned by Mozart, “Requiem in D minor,” left incomplete at his death in 1791.

At the time of composing it, Mozart had been in Vienna for a decade after leaving his employment at the Archbishop of Salzburg, Hieronymus Colloredo, on poor terms. The composer was quite popular initially in Vienna, but by the end of the 1780s, he was running into financial problems, as witnessed by the heartbreaking correspondences he had with his friends. With his health

n Tuesday, Nov. 9, 9:30 a.m. (EWTN) “Theodore: A Gift from God.” A documentary on the life and heroic death of Blessed Theodore Romzha, a young bishop whose refusal to submit to Soviet authority in the Ukraine led to his assassination by the KGB. n Tuesday, Nov. 9, 5:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Bolivia: In the Heart of Bolivia.”

An important documentary on the history, culture and influences of modern Bolivia, a country of geographic and cultural contrasts where the local Church stands at the side of society’s most marginalized. n Wednesday, Nov. 10, 4 p.m.

(EWTN) “Martin the Cobbler.” Based on the classic children’s tale by the great Russian author Leo Tolstoy, a lonely shoemaker rediscovers his faith in God; narrated by Tolstoy’s daughter Alexandra Tolstoy. n Thursday, Nov. 11, 5 p.m. (EWTN) “Polish Catholic.” For centuries, the Virgin Mary has held a special significance in the hearts of the Polish people. In Part 1, Father Mitch Pacwa travels to Krakow and Czestochowa to explore the historical importance of Our Lady of Poland.

also in decline, Mozart’s final year was surprisingly productive. The requiem was commissioned that same year by Count Franz von Walsegg to commemorate his late wife.

Mozart died midway through the composition, with the opening and the Kyrie completed along with detailed sketches of the “Sequence.” Franz Xaver Süssmayr, a pupil of the great composer, completed the requiem.

The orchestration for the work is basset horns (a member of the clarinet family), bassoons, trumpets, timpani, strings and organ. Three trombones are employed REQUIEM, SEE PAGE 20A

n Friday, Nov. 12, 11:30 a.m. (EWTN) “Natural Family Planning: Embracing the Marital Gift, NFP: Embracing the Marital Gift.” Dr. Janet Smith explores disordered competing views of the modern world that devalues the human being through sex. n Saturday, Nov. 13, 8 p.m. (EWTN) “Mother Cabrini.” An EWTN original movie on the life of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, who founded of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and established missions around the world.

Our nation

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one case in particular for some guidance. Many brought up Ex Parte Young, a 1908 Supreme Court case that said state officials could be sued in federal court to prevent them from trying to enforce unconstitutional laws. Judd Stone II, solicitor general of Texas, said neither the federal government nor the abortion providers had legal grounds to sue Texas in federal court.

Court could be leaning to allow challenges to Texas abortion law

Oklahoma’s first execution since 2015 criticized by Catholic leaders

WASHINGTON, D.C. — During oral arguments just shy of three hours Nov. 1, the Supreme Court closely examined – and seemed to have concerns about – how Texas’ new abortion law was framed and is enforced. The justices specifically considered if the Justice Department and if abortion providers in Texas can challenge this state law in federal court. The law, in effect since Sept. 1, bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and allows individuals to sue anyone involved in helping a woman obtain an abortion. Among the justices who expressed some unease with the law’s framing were Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, which could lead to a narrow ruling to enable the lawsuits against the abortion law to proceed. Such a ruling would not address the broad scope of the law’s constitutionality but would return the cases to lower courts. Many of the justices’ comments acknowledged this is a new challenge to face court but they drew on

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Catholic leaders spoke out against the execution of John Grant Oct. 28 in Oklahoma – the first execution carried out by the state in six years. A reporter’s account of the execution said Grant’s body repeatedly convulsed, and he vomited multiple times before he was declared unconscious at 4:21 p.m.

CT at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

“Oklahoma’s lethal-injection protocol causes immense suffering. This will not be covered up,” tweeted Sister Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph of Medaille, who is a longtime opponent of the death penalty. Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, said: “The excessive pain and suffering experienced by John Grant during his execution last night warrants an immediate halt to the six pending execution dates in Oklahoma through March of next year.” Grant was sentenced to death in 2000 for killing a prison cafeteria worker in 1998 while he was

serving a prison sentence for several armed robberies, according to The Associated Press.

36 Catholic institutions join fossil fuel divestment movement WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ahead of the opening of the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, a group of faith institutions joined the growing movement to divest from fossil fuels. The group includes 72 institutions – 36 of them Catholic – with assets of more than $4.2 billion. Salesian Father Joshtrom Kureethadam, coordinator of Ecology and Creation at the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, welcomed the announcement during an Oct. 26 video conference organized by leading divestment proponents. The Vatican and Pope Francis have become increasingly vocal about shifting investment funds from fossil fuels toward clean energy alternatives. In 2020, as part of the Laudato Si’ Year, the Vatican released guidelines for Catholics to implement integral ecology and other actions outlined in the pope’s encyclical, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.

“In very strong language, divestment was recommended,” Father Kureethadam said.

Biden thanks Pope Francis for fighting climate crisis, speaking up for the poor VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis and U.S. President Joe Biden had an unusually long meeting at the Vatican Oct. 29, talking about the climate crisis and poverty, among other

issues. The Vatican described the president’s meetings with both the pope and with top Vatican diplomats as consisting of “cordial discussions,” with both sides “focused on the joint commitment to the protection and care of the planet, the health care situation and the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.” They also discussed “refugees and assistance to migrants,” the Vatican said, and “reference was also made to the protection of human rights, including freedom of religion and conscience.”

The president later told reporters that the two did not talk about abortion.

Gregory: Rev. King’s legacy should inspire today’s fight against injustice WASHINGTON, D.C. — Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory said marking the 10th anniversary of the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Oct. 21 was an opportunity “to pause and reflect together at this place of tribute to the legacy of a great American. In studying and reflecting on this special place on its 10th anniversary, we are inspired by the life work of Dr. King and confidently recognize ourselves and the work we must still do in gratitude for each of the lessons he shared with us.” The cardinal joined President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, representatives of different faith communities, civil rights activists and others at the memorial to remember the slain civil rights leader and honor his legacy during a special ceremony.

— Catholic News Service

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Leaders raise idea of papal trips to North Korea, India

In Brief Vatican extends traditional All Souls’ Day indulgences VATICAN CITY — With the COVID-19 pandemic still underway and with restrictions on gatherings still in place in some countries, the Vatican has again extended the period of time when people can earn a plenary indulgence for visiting a cemetery and praying for the souls of the faithful in purgatory. The indulgences traditionally obtained during the first week of November can be gained throughout the entire month of November, the Vatican announced Oct. 28. Traditionally, the faithful could receive a full indulgence each day from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8 when they visited a cemetery to pray for the departed and fulfilled other conditions, and, in particular, when they went to a church or an oratory to pray Nov. 2, All Souls’ Day. Because of the pandemic and the popularity in many cultures of visiting cemeteries for All Souls’ Day, some local governments and dioceses closed cemeteries in the first week of November to prevent crowding.

That led the Vatican to issue a decree in 2020 extending the period for the indulgences, and to renew those provisions for 2021.

COP26: Pope, Catholic bishops urge leaders to be courageous in tackling climate change VATICAN CITY — Education, a change in lifestyles and a model of development focused “on fraternity and on the covenant between human beings and the natural environment” are urgently needed to slow climate change and care for its victims, Pope Francis said in a message to world leaders at the COP26 summit.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state and head of the Holy See delegation to the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, read portions of the pope’s message to the assembly Nov. 2. The cardinal was one of more than 50 speakers, most of whom were heads of state or government leaders, delivering threeminute “national statements” during the highlevel segment of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention

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CNS | VATICAN MEDIA

Pope blesses bells that peal proclamation of sacredness of life VATICAN CITY — With the sign of the cross and a tug of a rope, Pope Francis blessed bells for parishes in Ukraine and Ecuador, praying that their peals would proclaim the sacredness of all human life. The one-ton bells – called “the voice of the unborn” – were commissioned by the Polish group “Yes to life,” which is slowly distributing them to parishes beyond the Polish borders. After he blessed the bells Oct. 27, Pope Francis spoke about them at his weekly general audience, saying he hoped they would be “a sign of commitment to the defense of human life from conception until natural death.

May their sound proclaim to the world the ‘Gospel of Life,’ awaken human consciences and recall the unborn,” he said. “I entrust to your prayers every conceived child, whose life is sacred and inviolable.” Among the engravings on the bells are an image of an ultrasound and two hands around a heart with a quote from Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko: “The life of a baby begins under its mother’s heart.” on Climate Change. The high-level segment will resume Nov. 9-10, and negotiations will close Nov. 12. Like other leaders who spoke of the concrete commitments their governments were making, Pope Francis briefly explained the action the Vatican had adopted; the first is to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. But the Holy See, with its influence over parishes, schools and universities around the globe, also is committed, he said, to promoting “education in integral ecology,” meaning a focus on both the needs of the earth and on the needs of the people who inhabit it.

In a statement issued in Washington Oct. 31, the opening day of the conference, U.S. Catholic leaders added that the challenge posed by climate change “demands ongoing effort from

Sunday Mass Accompanist Sacred Heart Retirement Community is a facility of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas in Belmont, NC. We are seeking an accompanist to play for one weekly Sunday mass, as well as for funerals and special feasts. Our worship space includes a 3-manual Moller organ and a baby grand piano. We use OCP Music Issue and GIA Gather Comprehensive hymnals.

Applicants will have a BA in music or equivalent experience and will be proficient in piano or organ. Understanding of and experience with Roman Catholic liturgy is preferred.

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all of us.” The three leaders said the conference “is an opportunity for all nations to protect the environment while at the same time providing reliable, affordable and carbon free energy through innovation and enterprise, ensuring a better future for the entire human family, especially for the working class, the poor and marginalized.” Issuing the joint statement were Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, Ill., chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace; and Sean Callahan, president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency.

VATICAN CITY — In Rome for the G-20 summit, the leaders of South Korea and India also visited Pope Francis, and both of them had ideas for future papal travel. The pope met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in Oct. 29, just before meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden. Moon gave the pope a cross made out of barbed wire that came from the demilitarized zone on the border with North Korea. He accompanied the gift with a letter saying he hoped that cross and others made from the barbed wire would put down roots and peace would flower. “Pope Francis said if he received an invitation, he would gladly visit the North for the sake of helping Koreans and the cause of peace. He went on to say that South and North Koreans are brothers who speak the same language and that he would willingly go.” Pope Francis met privately Oct. 30 with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tweeted after his audience: “Had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis. I had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues with him and also invited him to visit India.” When he went to Bangladesh and Myanmar in 2017, Pope Francis had said he initially hoped to visit India and Bangladesh, but arrangements could not be made at the time.

Vatican: Pope may go to Canada as part of reconciliation process VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is willing to travel to Canada as part of “the long-standing pastoral process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples,” the Vatican press office said. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has invited the pope to visit the country, the press office said Oct. 27, although no date or time frame for the trip was mentioned. A delegation of Indigenous leaders, accompanied by several bishops, is scheduled to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican in December to listen to their experiences of how they and their people have been treated by Catholics in Canada, with special attention to the impact on the Indigenous communities of Canada’s residential schools, many of which were run by Catholic religious orders or dioceses. “Pope Francis will encounter and listen to the Indigenous participants, so as to discern how he can support our common desire to renew relationships and walk together along the path of hope in the coming years,” the bishops’ conference said in a statement.

— Catholic News Service

Please pray for the following priests who died during the month of November: Abbot Oscar Burnett, OSB – 2017 Rev. John P. Bradley – 2003 Rev. Raphael Bridge, OSB – 1996 Rev. Msgr. John P. Manley – 1981 Rev. Bernard A. Manley Jr. – 2016 Rev. Charles T. Reese – 2017 Rev. John A. Regan – 1976 Rev. D. Edward Sullivan – 2009 Rev. Stephen A. Sullivan - 1989

ViewPoints

catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 18A CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Kathryn Evans

Fred Gallagher

Pray for the dead as they experience the cleansing gift of purgatory

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his past year, I’ve been working my way through a reading of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem “The Divine Comedy,” in which the poet narrator travels first through the circles of hell, then climbs the mountain of purgatory, and ultimately reaches the paradise of heaven. As we enter into the month of November, a time the Church has designated especially for praying for the souls of the dead, it is particularly fitting that I am about halfway through my reading of purgatory.

‘The souls of the dead are still members of the Body of Christ, and they can benefit by our prayers in the same way that we pray for each other and ask for prayers in this earthly life.’

One of the things that struck me as I read of the trials of the souls in purgatory, especially compared with the punishments of the souls in hell, is the hope and the knowledge that there will ultimately be joy. The souls in purgatory have already been judged, and heaven awaits them.

The theology surrounding purgatory is not always easy for our minds to grasp. It’s easy for us to naively equate the purifications of purgatory with the punishments of hell, but they are not the same. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of the eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven” (CCC 1030). In C.S. Lewis’ book “Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer,” he puts it this way: “Our souls demand purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, ‘It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into joy.’?

Should we not reply, ‘With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I’d rather be cleaned first.’ ‘It may hurt, you know’ – ‘Even so, sir.’”

There are times in our lives, especially as children, when we may have played a little too hard outdoors, and when it’s time to come inside we are caked with dirt and sweat, perhaps a little blood from scraped knees and elbows, our hair in knots and tangles. Our loved ones do not love us less because of the dirt, just as God does not love us less because of our sins. But we still want to look presentable and attractive to those we love.

So we submit to the bath, perhaps a very hot one, and we scrub the dirt and grime from our skin, perhaps needing enough force to leave us red and chafed at first.

We comb out the tangles and knots. In the end, we might

feel a little raw from all these ministrations, but we will also feel rejuvenated, purified, ready to present our clean, sweet-smelling selves as worthy of the finest of company.

In this same way, purgatory washes and cleanses our souls from the stains of our earthly sins, preparing us to enter heaven and present ourselves before the Lord.

It is a mercy and a kindness He grants us, to allow us to make ourselves presentable for Him – not for His sake, but for ours.

Just as we know ourselves to be sinners, and we know those around us are sinners, it is important that we remember our beloved dead most likely still had sins to atone for, as well. The souls of the dead are still members of the Body of Christ, and they can benefit by our prayers in the same way that we pray for each other and ask for prayers in this earthly life. There are also many souls in purgatory who may have already been forgotten in this world, who have no one to remember to pray for them. The Catechism reminds us, “’In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members, from the earliest days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead; and ‘because it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins,’ she offers her suffrages for them. Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective” (CCC 958).

As souls are being chafed and scrubbed clean in purgatory, our prayers can be a soothing balm and comfort. In Dante’s portrayal, the holy souls in purgatory are continually asking for prayers from those still living on earth. God’s love and mercy is abundant, but it must still be asked for; we must bring Him our petitions. In the Diary of St. Faustina, she records several visions she received of souls in purgatory who were aided by her prayers and those of her community.

Even the smallest prayer benefits those souls, bringing them relief and expediting their path to heaven, as well as allowing them to pray for us in return. The Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints have given us many forms and weapons to use in prayer, some of the most powerful being the rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Even a single Hail Mary offered in earnest can be a gift to a suffering soul.

As we pray for our most beloved dead, let us do so with hope as we look forward to meeting them again in heaven. Here are the words of the Scottish writer George MacDonald, from a letter he wrote after three of his own children had died in the span of eight years: “Perhaps we may never all meet again together in this world. God knows: but I have all my life been attended… by the feeling of a meeting at hand. It must come one day – the hour when our hearts, all of them, will come together as they have never come before – when, knowing God, we shall know each other in a way infinitely beyond any way we have now. But the new way will fold the old way up in it. The Kingdom of Heaven has come near us that we may enter into it, and be all at home together. Kingdom and home are one.”

KATHRYN EVANS is an author living in Salisbury, where she keeps chickens, experiments with cooking, and reads too many books. Find her work at www.evanswriting.com, including her book, “An Adult-ish Toolkit: 30 Things I Have Learned in 30 Years.”

Look beyond horror to the promise and hope of death

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his is the season that we remember we must die.

Through the ages, this reminder was meant to spur on a desire to do good before it is too late, a desire to make a positive mark on our world, to promulgate virtue, to reach out for the happiness our God allows and for which He has built us.

But in the past few years I have found that death seems to surround us in ways we might never have expected. It fascinates us as a society. On the one hand, we “rage against the dying of the light,” but on the other hand, we live amid a “culture of death.” We see horrendously violent video games and movies with bloodletting extravaganzas and perversions of mind and heart. At the same time, our society condones the elimination of the elderly and sick through assisted suicide and the unborn through abortion.

In popular culture, death has morphed into a kind of wicked obsession with blood and carnage – the more abhorrent the better. But these created horrors mask the reality of death among us, such as the tragedy of the pandemic or abortion.

Of course, these fantasies are at a fever pitch this time of year. Halloween itself is the Christianization of old pagan rituals. For many years, Celts celebrated Nov. 1 as their new year, believing that on the eve of the new year the distinction between the living and the dead was blurred, and ghosts freely roamed the villages and hillsides. Celtic priests, or Druids, built bonfires where people could burn sacrifices. They dressed up in costume, usually the heads and skins of animals. With the Romans these rituals took on different characteristics and honored various deities, such as Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. And so, centuries later, bobbing for apples became part of Halloween night. In 835 Pope Gregory IV formally switched All Hallows Day (All Saints Day), a day to honor all the saints, to Nov. 1.

These days it’s difficult to find a wholesome expression of what death is and how we may look upon it. Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), a long-time journalist who served in British intelligence in World War II and who converted late in life to Catholicism, took on contemporary culture’s distorted view of death in his autobiographical “Confessions of a Twentieth Century Pilgrim.” For much of his life Muggeridge was an atheist, but he slowly came to perceive the presence of God in his life. “Somehow or another,” he said, “we belong to a larger scene than our earthly life provides.” He was greatly influenced by people he came to know, such as Mother Teresa and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

He was impressed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s take on death when, facing Nazi soldiers who were getting ready to cart him off to his execution, said, “For you it is an end, for me a beginning.” Muggeridge, who was 84 when he wrote his “Confessions,” noted, “Now, death seems more alluring than ever, when, in the nature of things, it must come soon, and transmits intimations of its imminence by the aches and pains and breathlessness which accompany old age.”

He came to see, in the Christian economy, not the remnants of pagan sacrifice nor the images of butchery on the modern screen, but rather the gratitude that comes in believing that more awaits us as our earthly bodies fade.

“Indeed, sanely regarded,” he said, “death may be seen as an important factor in making life tolerable; I like very much the answer given by an octogenarian when asked how he accounted for his longevity – ‘Oh, just bad luck!’ No doubt for this reason among others, death has often in the past been celebrated rather than abhorred.” He then quotes the metaphysical poet John Donne, whom he calls the “very laureate of death,” who said, “Sleep, even just for a night, GALLAGHER, SEE PAGE 20A

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Jesuit Father John Michalowski

Jesus urges us to seek true riches, not just money

“

Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money makes the world go round, go round. Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money makes the world go round, go round.” If you have ever seen “Cabaret” and heard this song, then you know how sad and decadent it depicts Nazi Germany in the years just before World War II. In itself, money is indifferent. The two questions that money poses for us are: “How does it affect us?” and “How do we use it?”

‘The true life is one modeled on Jesus, for He is the wisdom of God, the second Adam, who shows us how to be truly human.’

The letter of James tells us: “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice” (James 3:16). In fact, St. Paul in 1 Timothy 6:10-11 says, “The love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains. …

Instead pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and gentleness.” Paul does not condemn the rich. Rather, he warns all of us that the pursuit of wealth can be a source of temptation and lead to greed, envy, anger, stealing, injustice, jealousy or a preoccupation with material things.

St. Paul goes on to encourage Timothy and all preachers: “Tell the rich in the present age not to be proud and not to rely on so uncertain a thing as wealth but rather on God, who richly provides us with all things for our enjoyment.

Tell them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share, thus accumulating as treasure a good foundation for the future, so as to win the life that is true life.” (1 Tim 6:17-19) The true life is one modeled on Jesus, for He is the wisdom of God, the second Adam, who shows us how to be truly human. It is a life lived in the love of God and the love of neighbor.

As St. James tells us, “The wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace. “ (3:1718). In the end, love alone can drive out fear, rivalry and prejudice.

Unfortunately, as the Book of Wisdom and Jesus tell us, there are those who are threatened by the wisdom of God.

They find the Gospel obnoxious for it calls out greed and oppression, condemns licentiousness and jealousy, and calls all to care for those on the margins and those who are virtually voiceless in the halls of power. It was interesting to hear on the radio recently that the pharmaceutical industry and medical insurance corporations have more than 2,000 lobbyists in Washington, D.C. Given that our senators and representatives are that outnumbered, is it any wonder that we pay about twice as much for medicine and medical care than other industrialized nations, and that not all people are covered? How do we care for the common good? Some might say that this sounds like communism, but clearly they neither know what dialectical materialism is (the definition of communism), nor do they realize that Russia today is an oligarchy and the U.S.S.R. had bureaucratic socialism.

Catholic social teaching has for more than 130 years called us all to love our neighbors as ourselves in an interconnected world. Those who say “What does the Church know?” neglect to see how many Nobel prize-winning scientists and economists advise the pope and the Vatican through the various papal academies. The Church is simply adapting the message of the New Testament and the Church Fathers and Doctors to the present age. We are all asked to put aside selfishness and greed in order to respond to others’ needs, and to help all to live dignified lives as children of God and as our brothers and sisters.

Our call is to not fall into the trap that the apostles did before the Passion and Resurrection, when they argued over who was the greatest and who would sit at the right hand of Jesus in His kingdom. No, Jesus called on them and on us to serve one another: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35).

This is Jesus’ way, and it is a challenge to me and to you. We have to keep working on it.

Fortunately, Jesus is very patient and also offers us the grace to continue to grow in His ways. Because neither the Romans nor the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem could accept Jesus’ words and way of living, He was put to death. But as the New Testament tells us, Jesus is risen and, through the Holy Spirit, continues to work on earth through us, His Church, the Body of Christ.

Let us pray: Lord, help us to follow you.

Help us to seek true riches – the riches that come from a life filled with love, a life that seeks to serve, not to be served. We know that we cannot do this alone. That is why you have given us your Spirit and our sisters and brothers in Christ. “Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us. Melt us, mold us, fill us, use us. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us.” Amen.

JESUIT FATHER JOHN MICHALOWSKI is the parochial vicar of St. Peter Church in Charlotte.

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VETERANS

GALLAGHER

VOCACIONS

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anything you want (after 15 years), there is an intangible part. Now not only can I eat a steak, I call my mom and tell her, ‘Guess what I’ve had today?’”

Somerville says along with his dental restoration he has received the gift of confidence. “Now there is an immense and an entirely new level of confidence in the personal arena,” he explains. “Just being able to look at yourself in the mirror and genuinely smile at someone when they make you happy, instead of covering your mouth.”

Woodberry is overjoyed to see the difference something as simple as a new set of teeth has made in Somerville’s life.

“It has helped him gain back the weight he lost. He’s eating better, sleeping better, feeling better, even volunteering in the community. He blossomed. … It’s a whole other level of Kevin now,” she says, beaming.

“There is no way I could even tell you or imagine that I would have been able to picture this outcome,” Somerville says. “I didn’t even have much hope before I met her.”

“Shakira and Catholic Charities have given me what I needed to get back on my feet,” he adds, noting that their client relationship has developed into a friendship. “She has told me even in my new apartment to let her know if there is anything I need.”

Woodberry says her dedication comes down to this: “Veterans take care of veterans. We understand each other. We speak the same lingo. The places he has been, I have been. I want to be able to help people just like I have Kevin. He is my greatest success story.”

Somerville will receive keys to his new rental apartment any day. He has been able to save for and buy a car. He’s even starting his own business to assist others in need, a company he is calling AOG, an acronym for “Attitude Of Gratitude.”

“The whole intent of it is to help people, and the inspiration came from Catholic Charities and Shakira,” he explains. “I have a philosophy of ‘each one reach one.’

If you can help a bunch of people, that’s beautiful. … But there may be one or two, and you help them out if you have it, or you refer them somewhere or guide them, or maybe just encourage (them).”

Somerville says he was surprised at how much a life can be changed by something “that this big organization may say is very small. They might say, ‘We do this every day.’ But I say, ‘My God, you changed my life.’”

wonderfully refreshes us; how much more, then, will sleeping on into eternity be refreshing!” Then Muggeridge refers us to Donne’s famous lines of poetry:

Él dice que tanto su esposa como su hija Deena están viviendo su vocación a la vida matrimonial y la maternidad plenamente y de manera enriquecen a sus seres queridos y a quienes los rodean. Su hijo Mark, que actualmente sirve en la Infantería de Marina de los EE. UU., Está discerniendo una vocación al sacerdocio, con la esperanza de inscribirse en el seminario el próximo otoño.

“Con el sacerdocio del padre Becker, la entrada planeada de Mark en el seminario y mi reciente ordenación, muchas de nuestras conversaciones familiares giran en torno a nuestra fe e Iglesia”, dice el diácono Becker.

“Nuestro tiempo juntos es enriquecido a medida que hablamos de cuestiones

Did you know?

Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program (SSVF) served 200 veterans and their families last year, working with community partners such as Veterans Bridge Home.

Veterans have received services such as housing assistance, food assistance, help with child care expenses, referrals for physical and mental health care, and assistance with obtaining VA and other benefits.

Go online to www.ccdoc.org to find out more about Catholic Charities and how it assists veterans through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program.

“One short sleep past, we wake eternally, “And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.”

Indeed, the Christian message is that death has died with Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. The soul is immortal, and we experience our humanity on a deeper level when we face the separation from a loved one as the body returns to dust.

Of course, great literature can emerge from depictions of the human heart encountering that separation.

‘Our relationships with those in purgatory and heaven are real. Spiritually, we feel their breath upon our cheeks.’

Leo Tolstoy’s famed novella, “The Death of Ivan Illyich,” is a very human exploration of the nuances surrounding the imminent death of a respected citizen.

It examines the tragedy of life lived in the shallows of routine and greed and a preoccupation with the material, to the exclusion of spirituality. At his wake, Ivan Illyich’s so-called friends make sure they will not miss their regular card game later that night. Tolstoy knew that to regret the life one has lived is perhaps one of life’s greatest tragedies.

The American author James Agee won a posthumous Pulitzer prize for his novel “A Death in the Family.” In the autobiographical story, a man is called away after his father suffers a heart attack. On the way home from visiting his sick father, he is killed in a car wreck – something that really happened to the author’s father when Agee was 6 years old. In achingly poetic prose, he describes lost connections, the effects of grief and heartbreaking loss.

Ultimately, when an artist attempts to depict the compositions of the heart reaching out beyond this life, he or she is approaching the Catholic notion of the communion of saints. The Celts considered the line between life and death blurred one day a year. The communion of saints gives us entranceway every day to the realm of those who have passed before us. Once we have reconnected, once we have embraced this communion, all the other canvases of death and dying, gruesome or otherwise, give way to this gem of our sacred religious sensibilities.

Yes, we talk to the dead – nothing Halloween-ish about it. Our relationships with those in purgatory and heaven are real. Spiritually, we feel their breath upon our cheeks. No spectacle for scary movies, only the loving reality of life continued, the place in the heart where “memento mori” becomes a fortifying assurance and All Saints Day and All Souls’ Day become exquisite family reunions.

FRED GALLAGHER is an author and editor-in-chief with Gastonia-based Good Will Publishers Inc.

ENROLLMENT FROM PAGE 14A

programs and tuition rates, go to www. discovermacs.org/speciallearning.

Our Lady of Grace School in Greensboro also offers the PACE and QUEST special needs programs.

DIOCESAN SCHOOLS

Outside the Charlotte area, there are nine parish-based elementary/ middle schools and one diocesan high school, each with their own admissions processes and varying tuition rates and financial aid programs: n Asheville Catholic School: PK-8th grade; 12 Culvern St., Asheville; 828-2527896; www.ashevillecatholic.org n Bishop McGuinness High School: 9-12th grade; 1725 N.C. Hwy. 66 South, Kernersville; 336-564-1010; www.bmhs.us n Immaculata School: PK-8th grade; 711 Buncombe St., Hendersonville; 828693–3277; www.immac.org n Immaculate Heart of Mary School: PK-8th grade; 4145 Johnson St., High Point; 336-887-2613; www.ihm-school.

REQUIEM FROM PAGE 15A

in certain movements, such as the Dies Irae, for dramatic effect.

The Dies Irae in most requiems is the most striking, as composers unleash their full imagination to depict the terror of Judgment Day. Mozart’s work is no exception – the tempo is fast, and the voices join loudly with the full orchestra from the beginning.

The tremolo in the upper strings complements the mood. Toward the end of the movement, Mozart uses subtle text painting, meaning he sets musically what is being described in the text. When the basses sing the phrase “quantus tremor est futurus” (“what trembling there will be”), the pitches repeatedly alternate, as if trembling.

This is interrupted by the upper voices loudly singing “Dies irae, dies illa” (“The day of wrath, that dreadful day”), before all voices join to repeat the trembling motive.

The full English translation of the

importantes en nuestra fe. Aprecio la profundidad de nuestra fe y poder compartir la fe como familia”.

Como promotor de vocaciones de la diócesis, el padre Becker dice que “disfruta mucho trabajar con nuestros hombres y mujeres jóvenes que están atravesando el mismo proceso de discernimiento por el que yo he pasado. Es una gran alegría ser parte del proceso de descubrir el llamado de Dios en la vida de un joven y ayudarlo a responder a ese llamado con amor”.

Aprende más Obtenga más información sobre la Semana Nacional de Concienciación Vocacional y consulte recursos adicionales en línea en www.usccb.org/committees/clergyconsecrated-life-vocations/nationalvocation-awareness-week.

Más información sobre las vocaciones en la Diócesis de Charlotte en línea en www. charlottediocese.org/vocations.

com n Our Lady of Grace School: PK8th grade; 201 South Chapman St., Greensboro; 336-275-1522; www.olgsch. org n Our Lady of Mercy School: PK-8th grade; 1730 Link Road, Winston-Salem; 336-722-7204; www. ourladyofmercyschool.org n Sacred Heart School: PK-8th grade; 385 Lumen Christi Lane, Salisbury; 704633-2841; www.salisburycatholicschool. org n St. Leo School: PK-8th grade; 333 Springdale Ave., Winston-Salem; 336-7488252; www.stleocatholic.com n St. Michael School: PK-8th grade; 704 St. Michael’s Lane, Gastonia; 704865-4382; www.stmichaelcs.com n St. Pius X School: K-8th grade; 2200 North Elm St., Greensboro; 336-273-9865; www.spxschool.com Visit each school’s website or contact the school directly for registration information or to schedule a visit.

More online At www.charlottediocese.org/schoolsoffice: Learn more about the Diocese of Charlotte’s 19 Catholic schools, their mission and their leadership.

movement reads: “Day of wrath, that dreadful day, the world will melt in ashes, as David and the Sibyl foretold.

What trembling there will be, when the judge shall come, dealing strictly with everything.”

While it is comforting to focus on the untold delights of heaven, the powerful music of the requiems by Mozart and others reminds the faithful that the Day of Judgment will likely be far less comforting.

CHRISTINA L. REITZ, Ph.D., serves as a professor of music at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

Watch online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Listen to a full version of Mozart’s “Requiem in D minor, K. 626” and follow along with the sheet music and Latin text

S U P P L E M E N T TO T H E C AT H O L I C N E W S H E R A L D

CATHOLIC END-OF-LIFE & FUNERAL PLANNING

A Holy Death INSIDE: Planning a Catholic funeral, 4-5B, 10-11B Burial vs. cremation? 6-7B Local Catholic cemeteries and columbaria, 6B Why do we pray for the dead? 8-9B Guidance on end-of-life health care 14-17B Planned giving options 19B

November 5, 2021

catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

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White flags representing the number of people in the United States who have died from COVID-19 are seen placed over 20 acres of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Sept. 26. As of Oct. 29, more than 740,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus.

CNS | TYLER ORSBURN

COVID-19, All Souls’ Day and experiencing the grief of Job RENÉE DARLINE RODEN OUR SUNDAY VISITOR

“Why is light given to the toilers, / life to the bitter in spirit? / They wait for death and it does not come; / they search for it more than for hidden treasures.” (Job 3:20-21)

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hat good is hope, Job asks, for those who have been struck by death? What comfort is available to the suffering?

At the beginning of the Book of Job, he mourns the unthinkable devastation that has deprived him of his livelihood – even of his children – and has afflicted him with sores all over his body. Thus begins Job’s story, which poses humanity’s most fundamental religious question: How does a believer reconcile a God who is good with the experience of suffering?

Scholars believe that the Book of Job may be one of the most ancient books of the Hebrew Scriptures. But the question it poses is one we still grapple with today: How can we believe in God’s goodness when we seem to suffer disaster at random?

The answers of the Book of Job are not easy. It’s a book that wrestles honestly with the hard truths of tragedy. The book poses many questions that are unanswerable for human beings.

How can our God be all-powerful, asks Job, when death seems to triumph?

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD I

OUR JOB-LIKE STATE

One month ago, COVID-19 claimed its 700,000th life in the United States. Teresa Sullivan, a Catholic hospital chaplain in St. Louis, has been ministering to family members of those who have COVID-19 and COVID-19 patients for the past year. She says that the pandemic has left us all in a raw state.

A hospital, she says, is always vulnerable, but people are even more vulnerable now – more aware of their mortality. She finds that people are anxious to have someone to share with what’s going on in their heart; they are eager to talk. They often look to chaplains to help find meaning.

But Sullivan believes that words are never as important as presence. “It’s the ability to stay when there are lots of people who can’t do that,” she said.

Día de los Muertos isn’t a day of public mourning – it’s a communal celebration. And its emphasis on community and memory instructs the universal Church on the meaning of All Souls’ Day. In the late 10th century, Odilo, the abbot of the powerful and influential Benedictine abbey in Cluny, France, declared Nov. 2 the feast of All Souls – a day to pray for all the dead in need of Christ’s mercy. By the time the first Spanish soldiers reached Mexico in 1519, All Souls’ Day was a fixture of the liturgical calendar.

The feast originally was a somber one of prayer and penance for the souls in purgatory. It usually featured a solemn requiem Mass. But Pope St. Paul VI felt that the feast’s penitential emphasis on the judgment of God was too stark a contrast

The image of 700,000 deaths from COVID-19 hidden in plain sight captures the way grief often works in the United States. But grief is not something we can or should endure alone.

Deacon Peter Tonon of St. Ann Church in Charlotte leads a prayer service at Belmont Abbey Cemetery in Belmont on the Commemoration of All Souls.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY MIKE FITZGERALD

She was recently orienting a team of deacons to the hospital.

One was concerned that he would say the wrong thing to a patient. Sullivan remembers feeling that when she first started, but she recited a mantra of her chaplain training: “Long before I enter the room, God is there. While I’m present, God is there.

Long after I leave the room, God will still be there.”

The chaplain’s presence doesn’t bring God in, Sullivan says, but simply reminds us of God’s presence already among us.

Sullivan said that if you have not walked through an ICU or have seen the hospital devastation during these waves of COVID-19, it’s hard to imagine the exhaustion and pain of hospital staff and frontline workers. In the same way, she thinks that so much of the pain of the pandemic has been hidden.

And, to Sullivan, it’s this image of 700,000 deaths hidden in plain sight that captures the way grief often works in the United States. “The amount of people who are carrying heavy grief on their hearts is huge,” she said. “There are so many people who are grieving out there – grief is very hidden. We are a very death-fearing society.”

But grief is not something we can or should endure alone, she said.

ALL SOULS’ DAY

On Nov. 2, the universal Church celebrates the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed (All Souls’ Day).

In the United States, the most recognizable celebration of All Souls’ Day is the Latino celebrations of Día de los Muertos. It incorporates symbolism and traditions from deeply Indigenous customs and the Christian celebration of the feast of All Souls.

Families construct “ofrendas” to honor the dead’s memory – small altars decorated with yellow and orange zempasúchitl flowers, paper cutouts, candles, photographs, bread, water and their favorite foods and mementos. In Chicano communities in the United States, there are parades, music and dancing. It’s a day of prayer and memory.

with the celebration of All Saints the day before – a day that proclaimed the victory of Christ over the grave and all the forgotten blesseds who are saved through Christ’s mercy.

In his liturgical reform in the 1960s, Paul VI changed the liturgy of All Souls to emphasize Christ’s resurrection overcoming the sting of death. The liturgy emphasizing the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s gift of love offers hope to all those who have died, even those not yet enjoying the beatitude of heaven.

“May the death and resurrection of Christ, which we celebrate in this Eucharist, bring the departed faithful to the peace of your eternal home,” reads a prayer at Mass.

The “ofrendas” on Día de los Muertos are meant to guide the spirits of loved ones home – to give them rest. On All Souls, Catholics pray for restless souls, souls still undergoing purgation or trial, souls still not finally at rest in the peace of our eternal home of God’s love.

On All Souls, we draw together to remember our loved ones through the lens of the death and resurrection of Christ – God’s gift of self for us, to save us.

The celebrations of Día de los Muertos demonstrate that a loved one, even when lost, can be a source of celebration when remembered in a community gathered to honor and intercede for them.

Día de los Muertos signifies the truth that Paul VI wanted the liturgy of All Souls to proclaim: The love that unites the members of Christ’s mystical body cannot be shaken by death.

IN GOD, LOVE LASTS

This truth – that Christ has triumphed over sin, that there is love on the other side of death – is not an easy truth.

Job doesn’t get easy truths, either. At the end of the Book of Job, God finally speaks. But He doesn’t give Job an answer for his suffering. Rather, God says: “Gird up your loins now, like a man; / I will question you, and you tell me the answers! / Where were you when I founded the earth? / Tell me, if you have understanding. / Who determined its size? Surely you know?”

(38:3-5).

Job, of course, cannot answer, because he does not know.

The ending of the Book of Job gives no answer to suffering, except that God is God and we are human. God is the creator; we are creatures. In a world out of our control, we have no option but to rely upon His mercy.

We, like Job, may feel raw – vulnerable, out of control – to be suffering at the hands of a universe in which God does not always seem so present. We may feel that we have no one to walk with us in this feeling of abandonment. We may feel that our grief is hidden – that God does not see it, and neither can our neighbor.

But, as Catholics, we are people of memory. Our liturgy has at its heart “anamnesis,” which means a remembering – a making present. We hold on to the memories of what has passed, even what is sorrowful, because it is in our remembering together that we find we are not alone, and neither are those who have gone before us. They are with God – God who loved them long before us, God who loves them still, and God in whom we can love without death ever marking our love’s ending.

— “COVID-19, All Souls Day and experiencing the grief of Job” by Renee Darline Roden from Our Sunday Visitor © Our Sunday Visitor Publishing. 1-800348-2440. www.osv.com Used by permission. No other use of this material is authorized. To subscribe visit osvnews.com.

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Vatican extends traditional All Souls’ Day indulgences CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY — With the COVID-19 pandemic still underway and with restrictions on gatherings still in place in some countries, the Vatican has again extended the period of time when people can earn a plenary indulgence for visiting a cemetery and praying for the souls of the faithful in purgatory.

Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican tribunal dealing with matters of conscience, said the indulgences traditionally obtained during the first week of November can be gained throughout the entire month of November, the Vatican announced Oct. 28.

The cardinal said he was acting in response to “pleas recently received from various sacred pastors of the Church because of the state of the continuing pandemic.”

Traditionally, the faithful could receive a full indulgence each day from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8 when they visited a cemetery to pray for the departed and fulfilled other conditions, and, in particular, when they went to a church or an oratory to pray Nov. 2, All Souls’ Day. Because of the pandemic and the popularity in many cultures of visiting cemeteries for All Souls’ Day, some local governments and dioceses closed cemeteries in the first week of November to prevent crowding. That led Cardinal Piacenza to issue a decree in 2020 extending the period for the indulgences.

The decree for 2021 renews those provisions.

Indulgences are granted when a Catholic visits a cemetery to pray for the dead, goes to confession, attends Mass and receives the Eucharist and prays for the intentions of the pope.

An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment one deserves for one’s sins; people often will seek the indulgence on behalf of a loved one who has died or, especially in early November, for an unknown soul in purgatory.

The Church teaches that prayer – particularly the Mass – and sacrifices may be offered on behalf of the souls in purgatory.

The feast of All Souls differs from the Nov. 1 feast of All Saints precisely because it offers prayers for the eternal peace and heavenly rest of all those who died in a state of grace, but not totally purified.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.”

Did you know?

All Souls’ Day, Nov. 2, commemorates the faithful departed – those who die with God’s grace and friendship.

Not everyone who dies in God’s grace is immediately ready for the goodness of God and heaven, so we must be purified of the temporal effects of sin. The Church calls this purification of the elect “purgatory.” Church teaching on purgatory essentially requires belief in two realities: there will be a purification of believers prior to entering heaven, and the prayers and Masses of the faithful in some way benefit those in the state of purification.

As to the duration, place and exact nature of this purification, the Church has no official dogma, although St. Augustine and others used fire as a way to explain the nature of the purification.

— www.newadvent.org and www.churchyear.net

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Catholic funeral rites explained Editor’s note: St. Mark Church in Huntersville has ‘At the death produced this guide to funeral planning that is applicable for Catholics. While each pastor sets his own guidelines within the Church’s “Order of Christian of a Christian, Funerals,” we offer this guide as a reference for your family to consider and discuss: whose life of faith was begun Introduction Upon the death of a loved one, please contact the funeral home so that they may assist you in in the waters making the necessary funeral arrangements.

We encourage parishioners to do pre-planning of baptism and to make a difficult time easier for your family.

Funeral home services are very willing to help in this process. strengthened at youNormally, the funeral home will contact the parish to secure the date and time of the funeral. the Eucharistic At St. Mark we will do everything we can to accommodate family needs, but please know that a busy parish the church may be in use for table, the Church asother events during the time period first chosen.

Once the date and time have been decided, the family will be contacted by one of the parish intercedes priests or deacons to plan the Mass of Christian Burial and other funeral rites. This involves on behalf of choosing readings, hymnody and discussing how family and friends might be involved in the funeral liturgy. While there is always an the deceased element of the funeral rites that are personalized to reflect the life of the deceased, it should because of its always be remembered that Christians celebrate the funeral rites to offer worship, praise and to God for the gift of a life which confident belief thanksgiving has now been returned to God, the author of life and the hope of the just. The Mass, the memorial of Christ’s death and resurrection, is that death is the principal celebration of the Christian funeral of Christian Funerals,” no. 5). not the end, nor (“Order Catholic funeral rites consist of three principal parts or movements: the vigil or wake, the Mass Christian Burial, and the burial rites. Each of does it break the ofthese is discussed briefly here: bonds forged in The Vigil for the Deceased life.’

that each believer through baptism shares in Christ’s death and resurrection and can look for the day when all the elect will be raised up and united in the kingdom of light and peace (“Order of Christian Funerals,” no. 129).

The funeral Mass includes the reception of the body, the celebration of the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and final commendation and farewell.

Order of Christian Funerals, no. 4

It begins with the greeting of the family, the sprinkling of the coffin with holy water as a reminder of baptism, and the placing of the pall which symbolizes the baptismal garment. If the family so chooses, they may drape the pall over the coffin of the deceased. The entrance procession follows with the ministers leading the coffin and family members into the church.

During the procession an entrance hymn will be sung. The family remains standing with the remainder of the congregation in the pews until the conclusion of the opening prayer. It is our practice at St. Mark to place a crucifix and Bible on the coffin at the conclusion of the entrance procession. These symbols of Christian life are carried in the entrance procession and can be placed on the coffin by family members of the family chooses to do so. Otherwise, they will be placed by one of the ministers.

(sometimes called the Wake)

At www.usccb.org/ prayer-and-worship/ sacraments-andsacramentals/ bereavement-andfunerals: Get more information on Catholic funeral guidelines, prayers, suggested readings at funeral Masses, and more

The Vigil for the Deceased is the principal rite celebrated by the Christian community in the time after death and before the funeral liturgy.

“At the vigil the Christian community keeps watch with the family in prayer to the God of mercy and finds strength in Christ’s presence,” “Order of Christian Funerals,” no. 56.)

The Vigil can be celebrated at the funeral home, the home of the deceased or at the parish church.

During the course of the Vigil service, there will be a brief proclamation of the Word of God, intercessory prayer, and blessing. If someone in the family would like to offer a personal remembrance of the deceased (eulogy) this may be done at the conclusion of the Vigil service.

At www. catholicsensibility. wordpress.com/ funeral-rites: Read the entire Order of Christian Funerals as well as explanations of each section

The Funeral Liturgy/ Mass of Christian Burial

More online

On the cover Detail from a grave at Northlake Memorial Gardens in Huntersville.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY AMY BURGER

The funeral liturgy is the central celebration of the Christian community for the deceased. At the funeral liturgy the community gathers with the family and friends of the deceased to give praise and thanks to God for Christ’s victory over sin and death, to commend the deceased to God’s tender mercy and compassion, and to seek strength in the proclamation of the Paschal Mystery. Through the Holy Spirit the community is joined together in faith as one Body in Christ to reaffirm in sign and symbol, word and gesture

RECEPTION OF THE BODY

The rite of reception takes place at the beginning of the funeral liturgy or Mass.

the funeral Mass, those who read, since they are exercising a ministry of the Church, are to be practicing members of the Catholic Church.

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

At the funeral Mass, the community having been nourished by the Word of God, turns for spiritual nourishment to the Eucharistic sacrifice in which the community with the priest offers to the Father the sacrifice of the New Covenant. The Liturgy of the Eucharist takes place in the usual manner. Members of the family or friends of the deceased should bring the gifts to the altar.

During a Mass of Christian Burial, a pall is draped over the coffin of the deceased to symbolize the baptismal garment, and a crucifix and a Bible – symbols of Christian life – are placed on top.

Before the final commendation, the deceased is sprinkled with holy water and incensed.

The sprinkling is a reminder that through baptism the person was marked for eternal life and incensation signifies respect for the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY AMY BURGER

LITURGY OF THE WORD

After the opening prayer, the Liturgy of the Word begins. The readings include an Old Testament reading (during the Easter season the first reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles or the Book of Revelation), a Responsorial Psalm (sung), a New Testament reading and a Gospel reading.

The Order of Christian Funerals provides a complete listing of the Scripture readings that can be used in the funeral rites, and the family is encouraged to assist in making the selections of readings for the funeral. In addition, members of the family or friends of the deceased are invited to assist by serving as readers. During

FINAL COMMENDATION AND FAREWELL

The final commendation is a final farewell by the members of the community, an act of respect for one of their members, whom they entrust to the tender and merciful embrace of God. During the rite, the body is again sprinkled with holy water and incensed. The sprinkling is a reminder that through baptism the person was marked for eternal life and incensation signifies respect for the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit.

PROCESSION TO THE PLACE OF COMMITTAL

At the conclusion of the funeral liturgy, the procession is formed and the body is accompanied to the place of committal. This final procession of the funeral rite mirrors the journey of human life as a pilgrimage to God’s kingdom of peace and light, the new and eternal Jerusalem.

Rite of Committal The rite of committal, the conclusion of the funeral rites, is the final act of the community of faith in caring for the body of its deceased member. In committing the body to its resting place, the community expresses its hope that, with all who have gone before marked with the sign of faith, the deceased awaits the glory of the resurrection. It normally takes place beside the grave or mausoleum where the remains of the deceased are to be placed.

— “Funeral Planning Guide for the Mass of Christian Burial,” St. Mark Church in Huntersville

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD I

The right to a funeral liturgy Church law stipulates that funeral services are a right, not a privilege, of all members of the Church, both the faithful and the catechumens (Canons 1176; 1183, §1). The Order of Christian Funerals also provides for the celebration of funeral rites for children whose parents intended them to be baptized (Canon 1183, §2).

“Christians celebrate the funeral rites to offer worship, praise, and thanksgiving to God for the gift of a life which has now been returned to God, the author of life and the hope of the just. The Mass, the memorial of Christ’s death and resurrection, is the principal celebration of the Christian funeral.” (“Order of Christian Funerals,” no. 5) “At the funeral liturgy the community gathers with the family and friends of the deceased …

– to give praise and thanks to God for Christ’s victory over sin and death, – to commend the deceased to God’s tender mercy and compassion, – and to seek strength in the proclamation of the paschal mystery.

Through the Holy Spirit the community is joined together in faith as one Body in Christ to reaffirm in sign and symbol, word and gesture that each believer through baptism shares in Christ’s death and resurrection and can look to the day when all the elect will be raised up and united in the kingdom of light and peace.” (“Order of Christian Funerals,” no. 129)

‘As you consider the funeral, try to remember that planning a funeral is not a burden, but a privilege. Think of the funeral as a gift to the person who died as well as his friends and family.

It is a chance for all to think about and express the value of the life that was lived.

It is also a chance to say goodbye.’ “Preparing for Funeral Liturgies,” St. Matthew Church in Charlotte

A mourner has some quiet time at the grave of a loved one at Northlake Memorial Gardens in Huntersville.

Non-practicing Catholics may receive Catholic funerals It is an unfortunate reality that many baptized Catholics no longer practice their faith and may consider themselves to have been away from the Church for too long to be ever welcomed again by the Church.

Such individuals or their families may feel uncomfortable in a church and ultimately decide against having a Catholic funeral.

By our baptism, however, we have been made equal in dignity before the Lord, and the Church, our Mother, bears the suffering of all those who became her sons and daughters through baptism.

Thus, the Church offers funeral rites (including a funeral Mass) even for nonpracticing Catholics and, under certain circumstances, for non-Catholic Christians.

Although the deceased may not have participated fully in the life of the Church on earth, the Church longs for her separated children to share in Christ’s blessings. She desires to pray for them and with their loved ones so that their sins may be forgiven and they may dwell forever in the presence of God in heaven.

— “Catholic Funeral Planning Guide,” Diocese of Portland, Maine; Canon 1183, §3

What about miscarried or stillborn babies?

Depending on the possibility of your collecting the remains, the baby should be named and buried. If you are in a hospital, the remains of the baby will be sent to the pathologist. You should request that you receive the remains. Most hospitals have little caskets which they offer you. If the baby is more developed you may need to obtain a larger casket from a funeral director. You should ask your pastor for a Mass of Christian Burial and bury the baby appropriately and in a marked grave.

— “Catholic Funeral Guide,” St. Michael Church in Gastonia

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PHOTO PROVIDED

BY AMY BURGER

‘Now and at the hour of our death’ We prepare for eternal life by choosing to love and follow God now, in our daily lives and decisions.

For example, through prayer and regular reception of the sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist, we obtain grace to live in ever-deeper communion with God and with one another in lives of faith, charity and justice. We ask for Our Blessed Mother’s help now, and we entrust ourselves to her further as we “surrender ‘the hour of our death’ wholly to her care.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2677) — USCCB

What is the ordinary manner of preparing for death and burial? n Save and/or purchase insurance to properly provide for a casket, funeral services and burial.

sick, and Communion as “Viaticum.” Make sure someone calls the priest. If you are going to have surgery which requires general anesthetic, ask the priest to hear your confession and administer the sacrament of the sick before you go to the hospital.

n Remember that the Church desires the full body to be present for the Mass of Christian Burial and for the body to be buried in a cemetery.

n If you are going to be in the hospital or any nursing care facility, be sure to list the parish priest, deacon and others from the parish whom you wish to visit; otherwise, they will not be able.

n Leave instructions that someone will call the priest when death seems close.

n Make advanced plans with your parish priest for the funeral rites; read the policies of your parish for funerals.

n Ensure that someone will call the priest for the last rites (confession, anointing and Communion) before death.

n Save for the expenses of a proper Catholic funeral; most people have insurance policies for this.

Joseph, Patron of Dying and Solace of the Afflicted

n Ensure that someone will call the priest when death occurs.

n Talk with family members and your attorney. Be sure your legal documents give a Catholic understanding of caring for the sick and dying. Be sure your will provides for food and water to be given until you cannot assimilate it as a part of ordinary care when appropriate.

Appropriate ordinary means of life support should also be given where there is hope of cure. Think of appointing a Health Care Power of Attorney with your instructions to be followed. (Editor’s note: See pages 14-17B for more info.)

What a blessed death to see God before you die and for God Himself to tell you to go. This was Joseph’s gift from his Son, who would hand His father over to His Father. Thus has Christ entrusted Joseph to have particular intercessory power for all those at the moment of death.

More online

n Live a Catholic sacramental life.

n Make provisions for your funeral in your will; remember that your requests must be in agreement with your parish priest and the Church.

n Develop a Catholic understanding of life and death.

n Contact a funeral home to make pre-arrangements.

n Pray to St. Joseph, patron of a happy death.

n Purchase a burial site.

n The Prayers for the Dead are to be prayed. (Editor’s note: See page 9B for more info.) n The body is prepared for burial by the funeral directors. n Arrange for someone to meet with the funeral director to begin preparing for the funeral rites.

How should I prepare for a good death?

n Develop an understanding of the Catholic funeral rites. n Prepare with a good confession, the anointing of the

— “Catholic Funeral Guide,” St. Michael Church in Gastonia

At www.yearofstjoseph.org: Learn more about St. Joseph’s virtues and titles, find intercessory prayers to St. Joseph, and more educational resources from the Diocese of Charlotte’s Year of St. Joseph

6B

catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

BURIAL VS. CREMATION

Catholic cemeteries are important in the life of the Church.

Cemeteries St. James the Greater Church, Concord St. Frances of Rome Mission, Sparta St. Helen Mission, Spencer Mountain (parishioners only) St. Francis of Assisi Church, Jefferson

Cemeteries with columbaria Immaculate Conception Mission, Canton

(Right) St. Aloysius Church in Hickory is one of about two dozen parishes in the diocese with a columbarium. Other parishes have traditional cemeteries, or a combination of both options.

Holy Family Church, Clemmons (parishioners only) Holy Cross Church, Kernersville Sacred Heart Church, Salisbury St. John the Evangelist Church, Waynesville

PHOTO PROVIDED

Cemeteries vs. columbaria in the Diocese of Charlotte?

Did you know?

In general in the United States, burial options include: in-ground burial with monument graves, flush marker graves, lawn crypts or family estate lots; above-ground burial in mausoleums; and cremation with interment in mausoleum niches, columbaria, or in-ground in cremation graves or lawn crypts.

Columbaria only St. Elizabeth Church, Boone Sacred Heart Church, Brevard (full) St. Joan of Arc Church, Candler (full) St. Gabriel Church, Charlotte (full) St. Matthew Church, Charlotte St. Peter Church, Charlotte

Church law (Canon 1240) stipulates, “Where possible, the Church is to have its own cemeteries or at least areas in civil cemeteries that are designated for the deceased members of the faithful and properly blessed.”

Because of limited space at many parishes across the diocese, a cemetery on parish grounds is not always practicable. Identifiably Catholic sections in public cemeteries have become an alternative option, as well as columbaria on parish grounds. But columbaria for cremated remains cannot be the only option provided.

Diocesan policy states: “If a parish wishes to make a columbarium available to the faithful, it will also make available at the same location as the columbarium, spaces for burial of the bodies of the deceased. The number of spaces available for placing cremated remains in a columbarium shall not be more than the number of spaces available for burial of bodies of the deceased.

The expectation is that more spaces will be available for burial of the bodies of the deceased than spaces in a columbarium for the placing of cremated remains, since burial of the body is the norm of Christian burial.”

St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Charlotte St. Vincent de Paul Church, Charlotte (full) Immaculate Heart of Mary Mission, Hayesville St. Aloysius Church, Hickory Christ the King Church, High Point Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, High Point (full) Our Lady of the Mountains Mission, Highlands St. Paul the Apostle Church, Greensboro St. Pius X Church, Greensboro (full, with waiting list) St. Margaret of Scotland Church, Maggie Valley (full) St. Luke Church, Mint Hill (full)

At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Read the Diocese of Charlotte’s full policy on cemeteries and columbaria The grave marker for Bishop William Curlin at Belmont Abbey Cemetery commemorates not only his birth and death dates, but also his dates of ordination as a priest and as a bishop.

SUEANN HOWELL | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

‘The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the deceased be observed; nevertheless, the Church does not prohibit cremation unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine.’

Canon 1176, §3

St. William Church, Murphy St. Margaret Mary Church, Swannanoa St. Leo the Great Church, Winston-Salem (full)

Public cemeteries with Catholic sections Stanly Gardens, Albemarle Sharon Memorial Park, Charlotte Westlawn Cemetery, Clemmons Northlake Memorial Gardens, Huntersville Forest Lawn East Cemetery, Matthews

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD I

7B

BURIAL VS. CREMATION

If cremation is desired for legitimate reasons, the Church prefers that the funeral liturgy occur before cremation. Cremated remains are always to be buried or interred.

‘Although cremation is now permitted by the Church, it does not enjoy the same value as burial of the body.

The Church clearly prefers and urges that the body of the deceased be present for the funeral rites, since the presence of the human body better expresses the values which the Church affirms in those rites.

How should a Catholic plan for cremation?

First , discuss your questions with a knowledgeable pastor or parish staff person.

Second, if your decision is to be cremated, make your wishes known in your will or in documents designed to help plan your funeral and burial. Provide copies of these documents to family members, your pastor, funeral home, or Catholic cemetery.

Lastly, as you plan, keep in mind the therapeutic value to your family of celebrating the full funeral liturgy with the body present.

When should cremation take place?

The Church prefers that cremation take place after the full funeral liturgy with the body. Sometimes, however, it is not possible for the body to be present for the funeral liturgy. When extraordinary circumstances make the cremation of the body the only feasible choice, pastoral sensitivity must be exercised by all who minister to the family of the deceased.

Think of cremation of the body and committal of the remains as the conclusion of a funeral with the body.

What does a Catholic do with the cremated remains after the funeral liturgy is completed?

The Church requires that the cremated remains be either buried in the ground in a cemetery or placed in a mausoleum or columbarium, preferably in a Catholic cemetery.

The Church recommends that the place of burial or entombment be permanently memorialized with a traditional memorial stone, crypt/niche front, or bronze plaque, minimally marking the name and dates of birth and death of the deceased person.

Since the human body was the temple of the Holy Spirit during life, was fed at the Eucharistic table, and will share in the bodily resurrection, contemporary cultural practices like scattering the cremated remains over water or from the air or keeping the cremated remains at home are not considered reverent forms of disposition that the Church requires. Other practices such as commingling cremated remains or dividing up cremated remains among family members or friends are not acceptable for Catholics.

— www.catholic-cemeteries.org

Order of Christian Funerals’ Appendix on Cremation, no. 413 PHOTO PROVIDED BY JOAN GUTHRIE

The entrance to the columbarium at St. Peter Church in Charlotte.

CREMATION: Q&A on the proper handling of ashes CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In 1963, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an instruction permitting cremation as long as it was not done as a sign of denial of the basic Christian belief in the resurrection of the dead.

The permission was incorporated into the Code of Canon Law in 1983 and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches in 1990.

Church law, however, had not specified exactly what should be done with “cremains,” so several bishops’ conferences asked the congregation to provide guidance.

That request led to “Ad resurgendum cum Christo” (“To Rise With Christ”), an instruction “regarding the burial of the deceased and the conservation of the ashes in the case of cremation,” issued Oct. 25, 2016. The document was approved by Pope Francis after consultation with other Vatican offices and with bishops’ conferences and the Eastern Churches’ synods of bishops.

The document has prompted many Catholics to ask whether it changes any regulations about cremation. Catholic News Service provided some of those questions to the staff of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Divine Worship to be answered: Q: The 2016 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith spells out regulations regarding cremation. Does it change anything in how the Church in this country has regulated this issue?

A: No, the document from the CDF doesn’t change anything for us in this country. For example, we already have permission to have a funeral Mass in the presence of cremated remains. What the instruction does do, however, is reiterate the Church’s preference for the burial of the body in normal circumstances, and, when cremation is necessary, its insistence that the remains be properly interred.

Q: If the document says that traditional burial is preferred, does that mean cremation is wrong?

A: If the Church saw cremation as “wrong,” it wouldn’t permit it. Sometimes cremation can truly be necessary. However, the ancient custom and the preference of the Church is to bury the body, whenever possible.

Q: What should I do if I’ve already scattered the ashes?

A: We can’t change the past, of course, and if you truly didn’t realize at that time that it shouldn’t be done, then you shouldn’t burden yourself

with guilt. Remember that what happens to a person’s body after death has no bearing on what happens when that person’s soul meets the Lord on judgment day. However, you might wish to offer extra prayers for the person’s happy repose.

Q: If I plan to donate my body to science, after which it will be cremated, is that OK? What if the laboratory disposes of these ashes?

A: This would seem to be a valid reason for cremation. However, it would be important to make sure that arrangements are made for a funeral Mass, and that a trusted relative or friend is able to receive the remains and see to their proper burial.

Q: How do I convince my dad to let me bury my mother’s ashes, which he now has at home?

A: Only you would know the best way to approach a situation like that, and it would depend a lot on his reasons for keeping the remains and on his own personal faith. Perhaps making him aware of the Church’s preference would be enough to convince him? Or the assurance that his own earthly remains will one day be buried alongside those of his wife? Also, the Vatican’s instruction itself articulates some compelling reasons: “The reservation of the ashes of the departed in a sacred place ensures that they are not excluded from the prayers and remembrance of the Christian community. It prevents the faithful departed from being forgotten, or their remains from being shown a lack of respect…” (5).

Q: Many people die and are never buried properly.

Perhaps they die at sea or in an explosion or whatever.

Why is the Vatican worried about something like this when there are so many other problems in the world?

A: This instruction isn’t concerned with those kinds of situations. Burial at sea is necessary at times, as is cremation. The main purpose for this instruction is to help foster a healthy respect for the human body, even after death, especially in light of the move in recent years away from traditional burial in favor of more expedient and economical means. Where contemporary culture today may well question what difference it makes, the Church is reminding us to recall that the human body is an integral part of the human person deserving of respect even after death. The earliest Christians buried the bodies of their dead, and this set them apart from many of their contemporaries. We bury our dead out of reverence for God our Creator, and as a sign that we look forward to the resurrection on the last day.

‘The cremated remains of a body should be treated with the same respect given to the human body from which they come.

This includes the use of a worthy vessel to contain the ashes, the manner in which they are carried, and the care and attention to appropriate placement and transport, and the final disposition. The cremated remains should be buried in a grave or entombed in a mausoleum or columbarium. The practice of scattering cremated remains on the sea, from the air, or on the ground, or keeping cremated remains at the home of a relative or friend of the deceased are not the reverent disposition that the Church requires.’

Order of Christian Funerals’ Appendix on Cremation, no. 417

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

MEMORIALS

Many parishes have bereavement ministries or grief support groups.

Check your parish’s website or bulletin, or call the parish office.

Offering Masses for the dead The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic Sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God” (1032).

It is normal to have a Mass offered as soon as possible for the deceased. Most people leave provision for this in their wills. When possible the “month’s mind,” a Mass on the one-month anniversary and then on other anniversaries, is a good practice. If Masses are not available on those days in your parish, your parish priest may be able to send them to be offered in the missions.

Arranging a Mass for a deceased loved one is easy. Simply contact a Catholic church in the community where you would like to have the Mass celebrated, or at your own parish if you would like to attend the Mass.

A stipend of usually $5-$20 per Mass is offered for the priest who will offer the Mass. Every parish has a Mass offering book, usually kept at the parish secretary’s desk, so that when you call or stop by the parish it is easy to ask for a Mass intention.

Sometimes you may be able to pick a specific day to have the Mass celebrated in memory of the deceased, but at times you may have to accept whatever date is available.

You will receive a Mass card from the parish with the time, date and church name where the Mass will be offered.

You can give the Mass card to the family of the deceased so they know when the Mass will be offered in their loved one’s honor.

Don’t forget to mark down the details on your own calendar so that you can attend the Mass or remember to offer your prayers on that day.

Why is it important to have a grave?

Our cemeteries are places of great sign value as were the catacombs of old.

The grave and the marker are visible signs that a person did live and that it mattered that he or she lived. Years from now someone will walk by our graves and remember us and that it was important that we lived and died. Cemeteries are places of catechesis about death and they are places of prayer in the context of the communion of saints and our waiting for the final coming of the Lord.

We visit the grave often to pray for the deceased and we decorate the graves regularly, especially on Nov. 2, All Souls’ Day. — “Catholic Funeral Guide,” St. Michael Church in Gastonia

PHOTO PROVIDED BY AMY BURGER

Praying for the dead is a spiritual work of mercy.

Why do we pray for the dead?

CAROL ZIMMERMANN CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Praying for the dead might not make sense to nonbelievers but for Catholics it is part and parcel of the faith tradition, rooted in Old Testament readings and supported by the Catechism and the Church’s funeral liturgy.

“Our faith teaches us to pray for the dead,” said Bishop Edward K. Braxton of Belleville, Ill., in a 2015 All Saints’ Day reflection, stressing that although people hope that those who die are with God and the angels and saints, it is not necessarily a guarantee.

“Scripture teaches that all of the dead shall be raised. However, only the just are destined for the kingdom of God,” the bishop wrote.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the clearest Bible reference about prayers for the dead is from the Second Book of Maccabees.

When soldiers were preparing the bodies of their slain comrades for burial they discovered they were wearing amulets taken from a pagan temple which violated the law of Deuteronomy so they prayed that God would forgive the sin these men had committed.

The New Testament echoes this notion in the second letter of Timothy when Paul prays for someone who died named Onesiphorus, saying: “May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church also has something to say about prayers for the dead, stating: “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven” (1030).

The Roman catacombs where early Christians were buried also were places of prayer.

Today, prayers for the dead begin at the moment of death, often when family members are gathered around the bedside of the person who has died.

Prayers for death and grieving are among the “Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers,” published in 2007 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, that includes prayers immediately after death, prayers for mourners, prayers at the graveside and a more general prayer for the dead.

Of course these prayers continue in the funeral liturgy, which is the “central liturgical celebration of the Christian community for the deceased,” according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’

Did you know?

overview of Catholic funeral rites, online at www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/ The acronym “RIP” or bereavement-and-funerals/overview-ofR.I.P. is an abbreviation catholic-funeral-rites.cfm. of the Latin phrase The funeral liturgy, the website points “requiescat in pace” out, is “an act of worship, and not merely or the English “Rest in an expression of grief.” peace.”

It is a time when the Church gathers with the family and friends of the deceased “to give praise and thanks to God for Christ’s victory over sin and death, to commend the deceased to God’s tender mercy and compassion, and to seek strength in the proclamation of the Paschal Mystery,” it adds.

The prayers in the funeral liturgy express hope that God will free the person who has died from any burden of sin and prepare a place for him or her in heaven.

“The funeral rite is a prayer for the dead, designated by the Church as the liturgy of Christian burial,” wrote Bishop Braxton in his reflection.

He noted that many parishes “regularly disregard” the emphasis of this liturgy by printing funeral programs which say: “the Mass of the Resurrection: A Celebration of Life,’ even though the person has obviously not yet been raised from the dead.”

According to the Catechism, most Catholics who don’t merit hell still need purification before entering heaven and pass through a state when they die that the Church describes as purgatory.

In a question-and-answer page on www.BustedHalo.com, a Paulist-run website, Paulist Father Joe Scott said praying for the dead has “further origins in our belief in the communion of saints.”

The priest, an associate pastor at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Community in Los Angeles, added that living members of this communion can “assist each other in faith by prayers and other forms of spiritual support.”

“Christians who have died continue to be members of the communion of saints,” he wrote. “We believe that we can assist them by our prayers, and they can assist us by theirs.”

Pray regularly for the faithful departed, especially on Nov. 2 (All Souls’ Day).

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD I

9B

MEMORIALS Prayers for the dead The Mass is the highest form of prayer in the Church, and the most effective prayer that could be said on behalf of those who have gone before us. In Masses for the dead, and especially funeral Masses, “the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice of Christ’s Pasch for the dead so that, since all the members of Christ’s Body are in communion with one another, what implores spiritual help for some, may bring comforting hope to others.” (“General Instruction of the Roman Missal,” 379)

PRAYING WITH THE DYING

CNS | GREGORY A. SHEMITZ

Kenny Doyle visits the grave of his uncle, Battalion Chief Orio Palmer of the New York Fire Department, at Holy Rood Cemetery in Westbury, N.Y., Sept. 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Chief Palmer was killed while responding to the attacks at the World Trade Center. Eighty people who were killed on 9/11 in 2001 are interred in the cemetery.

Commemorating death anniversaries can be an important part of the grieving and healing process.

With death anniversaries, many find comfort in rituals time,” it adds.

Many cultures celebrate the death anniversary of loved ones by gathering together as families and sharing special foods.

Catholics often mark the anniversary of a loved one’s death by attending Mass or having a Mass offered for the deceased.

Catholics also celebrate feast days which are the anniversaries of saints’ deaths. The anniversaries of deaths of loved ones will likely not be celebrated in the same manner as they are for major saints: with festivals and parades through streets, but recollections on this day share the same idea: recalling when one’s life on earth ended and eternal life began.

For many people, the idea of being festive on the anniversary of someone’s death is hard to imagine and might never happen, but for those grieving a loss there are signs that healing has begun and that comfort or renewed strength is present.

Father Eamon Tobin, pastor of Ascension Catholic Community in Melbourne, Fla., who wrote a parish column about coping with loss, says signs of healing after grief include:

CAROL ZIMMERMANN CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A tricky thing about grief is that it is not a one-shot deal. Although it is often strongest when it’s first experienced, it can sneak up at any time. It especially reappears on the anniversary of the death of a loved one.

Some have labeled these days as “deathversaries” and even though they are days that can bring up painful memories, they should not be ignored nor do they need to be completely depressing.

The internet, which is not always a place of solace, actually has plenty of advice for coping with anniversaries of a loved one’s death.

Websites including www.modernloss.com or www.whatsyourgrief.com offer the following suggestions: n Take flowers to the gravesite or other place where you remember your loved one. n Look at old photos and home videos or put digital photos into photo album. n Volunteer with a charity or cause your loved one liked, or make a donation to the charity in his or her name. n Host a dinner party and invite those who knew this person best and cook foods they liked or gather at the person’s favorite restaurant. n Do something your loved one would have enjoyed. n Write about your loved one; write them a letter or plant a tree in their name. n Take the day off work. n Ask friends or family members for help.

The Mayo Clinic, based in Rochester, Minn., notes on its website, www.mayoclinic.org, that reawakened grief can occur years after a loss, particularly when people are confronted with reminders of their loved one’s death.

The site advises people to be prepared,

FILE | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Pictured is a statue of St. Joseph at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte. St. Joseph is patron of the dying. especially for anniversary reactions and to plan a distraction for the day or reminisce about the relationship. It reiterates some of the suggestions previously mentioned and also urges people to allow themselves to “feel a range of emotions. It’s OK to be sad and feel a sense of loss, but also allow yourself to experience joy and happiness. As you celebrate special times, you might find yourself both laughing and crying.”

“There’s no time limit for grief, and anniversary reactions can leave you reeling.

Still, the intensity of grief tends to lessen with

n Being able to talk about your loved one in a more comfortable manner. n Realizing that while “life is not the same, it can be good again.” n Grief becomes less engrossing. n New inner resources are developed or strengthened.

“Grief work, though very painful,” he writes, “is good and holy.”

The priest also wrote that “grief is the way God intended for us to deal with loss.”

He said the “world’s way is denial. It tells us to ‘move on’ even before we have started to grieve. Grief work (and it is work) is the only thing that will heal our loss or at least help us to live with it.”

As death approaches, the Church stays close to the one who is dying, to give comfort and support. The family should ask that Communion be brought to the dying (this is called “Viaticum,” Latin for “food for the journey”).

Members of the local church may wish to join the family in a vigil of prayer. After the person’s death, the family is encouraged to continue praying, and to participate in the preparation of the vigil (wake) and funeral liturgies.

The following prayer may be recited with a dying person, alternating with times of silence. The Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be are also appropriate. The dying person may also be signed on the forehead with the cross, as was done at baptism.

Holy Mary, pray for me.

St. Joseph, pray for me.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, assist me in my last agony.

IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH The following prayer may be recited immediately after death and may be repeated in the hours that follow: V. Eternal rest grant unto him (her), O Lord.

R. And let perpetual light shine upon him (her).

V. May he (she) rest in peace.

R. Amen.

V. May his (her) soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

R. Amen.

AT THE GRAVESIDE O God, by whose mercy the faithful departed find rest, send your holy Angel to watch over this grave.

Through Christ our Lord.

R. Amen.

At www.usccb.org/prayers/ prayers-death-and-dying: Find more prayers and Scripture readings for the dying and for the dead At www. catholicnewsagency.com/ resources/prayers: Find more prayers, including a prayer to St. Joseph for a holy death

10B November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com

CATHOLIC NEWS HERA

Funeral pre-planning guide Use this worksheet to plan your funeral service or as a guide to discuss your wishes with your family Preparing and planning now can assure the type of funeral service appropriate for your loved one. Often times pre-planning and even pre-

funding your funeral arrangements can not only provide peace-of-mind to you, but also to those who suffer emotionally at the time of their loss.

Full name: _____________________________________________________________________________ Social Security Number: __________________________________________________________________________ Date of birth: ________________________________________________________ Place of birth: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Father’s name: _________________________________________________________________________ Mother’s maiden name: __________________________________________________________________________ Education: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Marital Status: ____ Married

____ Never Married

____ Widowed

____ Divorced

Married to: _____________________________________________________________

Date: ______________________________

Place: ______________________________________________________

Children: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Places lived: ___________________________________________________________

Employment: __________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Civil, fraternal and other involvement: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ If you are a veteran, complete this information or attach copy of discharge: Veteran of which war? _________________________________________________

Place of Enlistment: _______________________ Date of Enlistment: __________

Service Number: _____________________ VA Claim Number: ______________

Place of Discharge: ________________________________

Branch of Service: ____________________ Rank: __________________________

Date of Discharge/Retirement: __________________________________________ County in which my discharge is on file with Clerk/Registrar of Deeds: ______

People to be notified immediately: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Obituary announcement to be sent to: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS Collect the following important papers and documents, and tell your family where they are kept: * Military discharge * Mortgage(s) and deeds * Will * Birth certificate * Attorney * Bank account information * Insurance policies * Stocks/bonds

* Safe deposit box * Cemetery deed * Living will or advance directive * Durable Power of Attorney

* Health Care Power of Attorney * Computer/website passwords

FUNERAL PRE-PLANNING DETAILS I have a pre-need funeral trust established with: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I have a funeral insurance policy with: __ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I have looked at caskets/urns/burial vaults and would prefer: ___________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ I have considered a marker or monument and would prefer: ___________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Memorials may be made to: ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CEMETERY INFORMATION Cemetery preferred: _________________________________________________________________________

Address: _______________________________________________________________

Phone: _________________________________________________________________ I ____ own ____ prefer Type of burial rights: ____ Ground burial

____ Columbarium

____ Mausoleum

____ Lawn crypt

If owned, name of burial right holder is/are: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Legal description of burial rights: ____ Lot # ____ Section ____ Row ____ Block

Grave number: __________________________________________________________________

CREMATION I would prefer to be cremated.

____ Yes

If cremation, what type of disposition? ____ Burial

____ No ____ Niche

Cremation vault: ____ Yes

____ No

Donation of organs or body? Describe: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Funeral rites planning form FUNERAL HOME: _________________________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________ Phone: _________________________________________________________________________________________

PLACE OF SERVICE: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Church name) (Address)

____ Funeral Mass

____ Memorial Mass

Casket:

____ Open during Wake

____ Church Service

____ Cemetery/Chapel

____ Graveside

____ Closed during Wake

Type of casket:

____ Wood

____ Metal

____ Cremation coffin

____ Other: ______________________________________________

Cremation – Type of urn:

____ Wood

____ Bronze

____ Marble

____ Other: ______________________________________________

Clergy (if preferred): _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Musical selections (in keeping with the liturgy; please consult priest or music minister): ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Liturgy of the Word desired readings (please consult priest or parish office): Old Testament: ______________________________________________________________ Responsorial Psalm: _________________________________________________________ New Testament: _____________________________________________________________ Gospel: _____________________________________________________________________ Will family place a pall on casket?

Use incense?

____ Yes ____ Yes

____ No ____ No

Lector 1: __________________________________________________________________________________ Lector 2: _________________________________________________________________________________ Prayers of the Faithful: _____________________________________________________________________ Offertory Gifts: ____________________________________________________________________________

____ Cross or Bible placed on casket?

WAKE/COMMITTAL SERVICE Wake/Rosary Service: ____ Yes Viewing: ____ Public

____ No

____ Private

Location: _______________________________________ Officiant: _________________________________________________________________________________

____ None

Participating organizations at Wake or Committal Service (military, fraternal, lodge, etc.): ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Flag (Committal Service only): ____ Draped

____ Folded

Clothing preference: ____ From current wardrobe

____ New

Presented to: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____ Other: ___________________________________________________

Description/color: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Personal accessories:

____ Wedding band ____ Eyeglasses ____ Other

____ Stays on ____ Stays on ____ Stays on

____ or Returned to: ___________________________________________ ____ or Returned to: ___________________________________________ ____ or Returned to: ___________________________________________

Pallbearers: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Name) (Relationship) (Phone #) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Name) (Relationship) (Phone #) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Name) (Relationship) (Phone #) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Name) (Relationship) (Phone #) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Name) (Relationship) (Phone #) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Name) (Relationship) (Phone #) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Name) (Relationship) (Phone #) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Name) (Relationship) (Phone #)

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS (Include floral preferences, notes, awards, life achievements, pictures, obituary requests, items to be placed with the remains, etc.) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTE: Share a copy of this funeral Mass plan with your family, your funeral home (if you have a pre-plan), and your parish office.

At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Download a copy of these forms to use with any funeral home or funeral pre-planning guide

catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 12B CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

What is pre-planning?

Pre-planning is making your cemetery and funeral arrangements before your death. This allows your wishes to be known, thus eliminating an incredible burden on your loved ones during the very stressful and painful hours after your death. Pre-planning is a concrete sign of your love for surviving family members.

What are the benefits of pre-planning?

The most obvious benefit is that you will relieve your loved ones of the burden of making your cemetery and funeral arrangements at a time of tremendous grief. Your advance planning will give your family the guidance they need to feel comfortable that they are carrying out the decisions you made.

Pre-planning may prevent disagreement among survivors at an emotionally charged time and can assure that emotional over-spending does not occur. By pre-planning and pre-funding cemetery and funeral arrangements, you might be creating exempt assets should you ever have to go on public assistance.

The costs of cemetery property have been escalating at the rate of 100 percent every 10 years. By purchasing in advance, you are locking in today’s pricing.

At what age should I consider pre-planning cemetery and funeral arrangements?

Adults of any age who make their own decisions should have a plan. Like your will, it can be revised throughout your life as needs change. In general, the earlier you preplan the more options you have. Your cemetery and funeral options

will probably never cost less than they do today. Statistics show that 43 percent of all deaths are unexpected; we are not guaranteed any tomorrows.

In our culture, few families are comfortable discussing death and loss. This is just one of those things that does not get easier as time goes by. Now is the best time for you to get your plan in order.

Why should I choose to be buried in a Catholic cemetery?

First and foremost, Catholic cemeteries are a vital part of our Church’s heritage of caring for and burying the bodies of the dead in blessed ground — one of the corporal works of mercy.

— www.catholic-cemeteries.org

Can I donate my body to a university?

Yes. But you must be sure that the body will be buried properly when the experimentations are completed. In this case a Mass should be offered for the deceased.

Also online At www.ncbfs.org: Learn more about preneed funeral trusts, funeral insurance, cremation vs. burial costs, and how to calculate funeral costs At www.catholicnewsherald.com: See a list of local parishes’ funeral planning guides

‘A person tends to die as he has lived.

If my life has been a journey with the Lord, a journey of trust in His immense mercy, I will be prepared to accept the final moment of my earthly life as the definitive, confident abandonment into His welcoming hands, awaiting the face to face contemplation of His Face. This is the most beautiful thing that can happen to us: to contemplate face to face the marvelous countenance of the Lord, to see Him as He is, beautiful, full of light, full of love, full of tenderness.’

— Pope Francis General Audience of Nov. 27, 2013

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Indian Trail: 704-821-2960 4431 Old Monroe Road, Indian Trail, NC 28079

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For more information on how to leave a legacy for your parish, please contact Gina Rhodes, Director of Planned Giving at 704/370-3364 or gmrhodes@charlottediocese.org.

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November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD I

Estate Planning & Probate

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 14B CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

END-OF-LIFE CARE

Life itself is always a good, and is a quality that can never be lost.

Ordinary/ proportionate vs. extraordinary/ disproportionate means of preserving life Ordinary or proportionate means are those that (in the judgment of the patient assisted by health care professionals) offer a reasonable hope of benefit and do not entail an excessive burden or impose excessive expense on the family or the community. A person has a moral obligation to use ordinary means.

Extraordinary or disproportionate means are those that (in the judgment of the patient assisted by health care professionals) do not offer a reasonable hope of benefit, do entail an excessive burden, or do impose excessive expense on the family or the community.

A person may forgo extraordinary means.

Nutrition and hydration In principle, there is an obligation to provide patients with food and water, including medically assisted nutrition and hydration for those who cannot take food orally.

Medically assisted nutrition and hydration become morally optional when they cannot reasonably be expected to prolong life or when they would be excessively burdensome for the patient or would cause significant physical discomfort.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide Euthanasia is an act or omission that of itself or by intention causes death to alleviate suffering. Catholics may never condone or participate in euthanasia or assisted suicide in any way.

Dying patients who request euthanasia should receive loving care, psychological and spiritual support, and appropriate remedies for pain and other symptoms so that they can live with dignity until the time of natural death.

— National Catholic Bioethics Center. Learn more online at www.ncbcenter.org.

A note on general principles regarding end-of-life care The Church affirms the inviolable dignity of every person, regardless of the duration or extent of the person’s incapacity or dependency.

No summary can substitute for thorough catechesis, but some general principles are clear. We are entrusted by God with the gift of life, and in response, we care for our lives and health in obedience and gratitude to our Creator.

This obliges us to make use of appropriate, effective medical care. However, even effective treatments may at times impose such a great burden that we, in good conscience, may forgo or discontinue them. This applies even to life-sustaining treatments. Of course, nothing should be done or deliberately omitted to hasten death.

The Church affirms the inviolable dignity of every person, regardless of the duration or extent of the person’s incapacity or dependency. Nothing diminishes the unchangeable dignity and sanctity of a person’s life, or the obligation to protect and care for it. In principle, assisted feeding and hydration should be provided unless it cannot sustain life or is unduly burdensome to the patient, or if death is imminent whether it is provided or not.

Moreover, no one should choose suicide, nor counsel or assist another to take his or her own life.

DISCERNING TREATMENT OPTIONS

Judging the effect and burden of treatments can be difficult, especially as death draws near. To understand health facts and treatment options, we need professional medical advice. To understand Catholic moral teaching, we need to consult Church teaching and those who can faithfully explain it.

SPEAKING WITH LOVED ONES

After informing our consciences, we need to inform our families. If we are unable to make decisions, they

most often have legal authority to make surrogate decisions on our behalf. Or we may designate a health care agent by a durable power of attorney.

Though it is often helpful to also have written, signed documentation, no living will “check box” can ever replace clear conversations about our faith-guided principles. The best option is to choose an agent who will make medical decisions on our behalf in accord with our Catholic faith and Church teaching.

We should also inform family of our pastoral care preferences, and make clear that after death, we desire prayer, funeral rites and Christian burial.

ACCOMPANIMENT BEFORE AND AFTER DEATH

Those who are sick should not be alone, as multiple popes have reminded us in messages for the annual World Day of the Sick. Patients who have serious or life-threatening illnesses, as well as their families, can be provided with physical, psychological and spiritual care through team-based palliative care. Hospice care can provide similar integrated care for those nearing death and for their families.

Pastoral care is integral to both palliative and hospice care, and includes making available the sacraments: Eucharist, confession, anointing of the sick and Viaticum. It also includes supportive prayer and support for decision-makers. It may be helpful to familiarize ourselves with local services available in preparation for our own passing or that of loved ones.

Even after death, accompaniment continues. Our prayers can help those who are being purified in purgatory, so it is a spiritual work of mercy to pray for those who have died.

— USCCB

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD I

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END-OF-LIFE CARE

Vatican reaffirms, clarifies Church teachings on end-of-life care CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY — With the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia in many countries, and questions concerning what is morally permissible regarding end-of-life care, the Vatican’s doctrinal office last year released a 25-page letter offering “a moral and practical clarification” on the care of vulnerable patients.

“The Church is convinced of the necessity to reaffirm as definitive teaching that euthanasia is a crime against human life because, in this act, one chooses directly to cause the death of another innocent human being,” the document said.

Titled, “‘Samaritanus bonus,’ on the Care of Persons in the Critical and Terminal Phases of Life,” the letter by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was approved by Pope Francis in June, and released to the public Sept. 22, 2020.

This new “systematic pronouncement by the Holy See” was deemed necessary given a growing, global trend in legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide, and changing attitudes and rules that harm the dignity of vulnerable patients, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, congregation prefect, said at a Vatican news conference upon its release.

It was also necessary to reaffirm Church teaching regarding the administration of the sacraments to and pastoral care of patients who expressly request a medical end to their life, he said.

“In order to receive absolution in the sacrament of penance, as well as with the anointing of the sick and the viaticum,” he said, the patients must demonstrate their intention to reverse their decision to end their life and to cancel their registration with any group appointed to grant their desire for euthanasia or assisted suicide.

In the letter’s section on “Pastoral discernment toward those who request euthanasia or assisted suicide,” it said a “priest could administer the sacraments to an unconscious person ‘sub condicione’ if, on the basis of some signal given by the patient beforehand, he can presume his or her repentance.”

The Church’s ministers can still accompany patients who have made these end-of-life directives, it added, by showing “a willingness to listen and to help, together with a deeper explanation of the nature of the sacrament, in order to provide the opportunity to desire and choose the sacrament up to the last moment.”

It is important to carefully look for “adequate signs of conversion, so that the faithful can reasonably ask for the reception of the sacraments. To delay absolution is a medicinal act of the Church, intended not to condemn, but to lead the sinner to conversion,” it said.

Euthanasia is an act of homicide that no end can justify, but patients have the right to decline aggressive medical treatment when approaching the natural end of life.

However, it added, “those who spiritually assist these persons should avoid any gesture, such as remaining until the euthanasia is performed, that could be interpreted as approval of this action.”

Chaplains, too, must show care “in the health care systems where euthanasia is practiced, for they must not give scandal by behaving in a manner that makes them complicit in the termination of human life,” the letter said.

Another warning in the letter regarded medical end-of-life protocols, such as “do not resuscitate orders” or “physician orders for life-sustaining treatment” and any of their variations.

These protocols “were initially thought of as instruments to avoid aggressive medical treatment in the terminal phases of life. Today, these protocols cause serious problems regarding the duty to protect the life of patients in the most critical stages of sickness,” it said.

On the one hand, it said, “medical staff feel increasingly bound by the self-determination expressed in patient declarations that deprive physicians of their freedom and duty to safeguard life even where they could do so.”

“On the other hand, in some health care settings, concerns have recently arisen about the widely reported abuse of such protocols viewed in a euthanistic perspective with the result that neither patients nor families are consulted in final decisions about care,” it said.

“This happens above all in the countries where, with the legalization of euthanasia, wide margins of ambiguity are left open in end-of-life law regarding the meaning of obligations to provide care.”

The Church, however, “is obliged to intervene in order to exclude once again all ambiguity in the teaching of the magisterium concerning euthanasia and assisted suicide, even where these practices have been legalized,” it said.

Euthanasia involves “an action or an omission which of itself or by intention causes death, in order that all pain may in this way be eliminated.”

Its definition depends on “the intention of the will and in the methods used,” it added.

The letter reaffirmed that “any formal or immediate material cooperation in such an act is a grave sin against human life,” making euthanasia “an act of homicide that no end can justify and that does not tolerate any form of complicity or active or passive collaboration.”

For that reason, “those who approve laws of euthanasia and assisted suicide, therefore, become accomplices of a grave sin that others will execute. They are also guilty of scandal because by such laws they contribute to the distortion of conscience, even among the faithful.”

The letter also underlined a patient’s right to decline aggressive medical treatment and “die with the greatest

possible serenity and with one’s proper human and Christian dignity intact” when approaching the natural end of life.

“The renunciation of treatments that would only provide a precarious and painful prolongation of life can also mean respect for the will of the dying person as expressed in advanced directives for treatment, excluding however every act of a euthanistic or suicidal nature,” it said.

However, it also underlined the rights of physicians as never being “a mere executor of the will of patients or their legal representatives, but retains the right and obligation to withdraw at will from any course of action contrary to the moral good discerned by conscience.”

Other aspects of end-of-life care the letter detailed included: the obligation to provide basic care of nutrition and hydration; the need for holistic palliative care; support for families and hospice care; the required accompaniment and care for unborn and newly-born children diagnosed with a terminal disease; the use of “deep palliative sedation”; obligation of care for patients in a “vegetative state” or with minimal consciousness; and conscientious objection by health care workers.

Read ‘Samaritanus bonus’ online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Read the full text of “‘Samaritanus bonus,’ on the Care of Persons in the Critical and Terminal Phases of Life”

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 16B CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

END-OF-LIFE CARE

What kind of legal documents or arrangements about your end-of-life medical care should you have?

The details of a patient’s medical condition at a specific time need to be considered.

More online At www.ncbcenter.org: What are the Church’s teachings on end-of-life decisions and how difficult will it be to follow them?

Must we endure a great deal of pain? What if I am no longer able to make medical decisions for myself? Order or download a copy of “A Catholic Guide to End-of-Life Decisions,” which describes how you might approach end-of-life decisions in light of the teachings of the Church.

An “Advance Medical Directive” and “Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care” (or “Health Care Proxy”) are legal documents that take effect if the patient becomes incompetent. Even though these documents can be written without the assistance of an attorney, some states give them considerable legal weight.

An Advance Medical Directive specifies what medical procedures the patient wishes to receive or to avoid. (An Advance Medical Directive sometimes is called “A Living Will,” but because of its association with the advocacy of euthanasia, we have chosen to avoid this phrase.)

Durable Power of Attorney specifies a particular individual (variously called a “proxy,” “agent,” or “surrogate”) to make medical decisions on behalf of the patient (or the “principal”) when the patient is no longer able to do so.

When neither of these instruments is drawn up, the task of making important medical decisions usually falls to the family.

Most states have laws governing the use and implementation of the Advance Medical Directive and Durable Power of Attorney.

All hospitals and health care facilities are required by law to provide written information to the patient about the right to accept or refuse medical treatment and the right to formulate an Advance Directive and/or designate Durable Power of Attorney. The health care facility must also provide written policies stating how the patient’s Advance Directive or Durable Power of Attorney will be implemented.

People should remember that they do not have to sign any Advance Directive given to them by the hospital.

WHICH ONE SHOULD YOU CHOOSE?

Make certain that your Advance Directive forbids any action that the Catholic faith considers to be immoral, such as

euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide.

(A Catholic hospital, in any case, will not follow a directive that conflicts with Church teaching.)

Once a directive is made, copies should be distributed to the agent and anyone else the patient deems appropriate. One should periodically review the provisions of an Advance Directive and, when there is a revision, all previous copies should be destroyed.

The usefulness of an Advance Directive, which gives specific instructions for care, is limited because of its inflexibility.

If circumstances change significantly between writing the Advance Directive and its implementation, the instructions may be of little value to those acting on a patient’s behalf, or may even hinder their freedom to make good decisions. There may also be a problem of interpreting the document when it is not clearly written.

An Advance Directive oftentimes does not allow for adequate informed consent because one must make a decision about a future medical condition which cannot be known in advance.

When drawing up an Advance Directive, therefore, one should focus on general goals rather than on specific medical procedures.

Assigning Durable Power of Attorney is preferable to an Advance Directive because it leaves decisions in the hands of someone whom the patient has personally chosen.

A proxy agent also can be more sensitive and responsive to the decision-making that is necessary for a given case. When assigning Durable Power of Attorney one should choose an agent of good moral character – someone who is known to be capable of making sound decisions under stressful circumstances. The agent should know the teachings of the Church and possess the practical wisdom to apply them to changing circumstances.

An agent, of course, must also survive the patient. One may designate alternate agents in case one’s first choice, for some reason, is unable to act.

A good agent makes decisions for the patient in light of what the patient would choose if able to do so. The proxy, therefore, should be very familiar with your moral convictions and wishes. When there is an Advance Directive from you, this should be the guide. When there is not, the agent must act on the oral instruction that has been given. Sometimes, however, acting in your best interests means ignoring instructions that are obviously unwarranted or clearly immoral. No agent is bound to carry out actions that conflict with morality and the faith.

ALSO NOTE

When formulating any Advance Directive and discussing end-of-life issues, avoid using the expression “quality of life” because it is used by advocates of euthanasia to suggest that some lives are not worth living.

While illness and other circumstances can make life very difficult, they cannot diminish the inestimable worth of each human life created by God. Life itself is always a good, and is a quality that can never be lost. Still, we need not cling to this life at all costs (what’s called “therapeutic obstinacy”), since the life to which we have been called in Christ is incomparably better.

Euthanasia has been defined by St. John Paul II in “The Gospel of Life” as “an action or omission which of itself and by intention causes death, with the purpose of eliminating all suffering.” The Church holds that “euthanasia is a grave violation of the law of God, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person.”

— National Catholic Bioethics Center

Watch and learn more online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Find links to a series of USCCB videos featuring stories of people who have faced difficult life issues:

Luke’s Story: Every Suicide is Tragic

John’s Story: Beyond Independence

Jeanette’s Story: 15 Years Later

The Alvarez Family Story: Fighting Against Assisted Suicide

You don’t discourage suicide by assisting suicide. “Every suicide is tragic – whether you’re old or young, healthy or sick, your life is worth living,” says Luke Maxwell, 19, who survived an attempt to take his own life.

Born without arms, John Foppe speaks to a way of life beyond independence – namely, interdependence: Together we are more. Assisted suicide sells everyone short, so in times of illness or disability, he encourages us to “step into life!”

When Jeanette Hall had less than a year to live, she asked her doctor for the pills to commit suicide. Dr. Kenneth Stevens got to know her better, inspiring her to have treatment instead.

Now 15 years later, Jeanette says: “It’s great to be alive!”

Sylvia and Serena Alvarez share the inspiring story of Deacon Sal Alvarez – how he fought for justice throughout his life, working for farmers’ rights, advocating for access to health care for Latinos, and, near the end of his life, fighting against assisted suicide.

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD I

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END-OF-LIFE CARE

Frequently Asked Questions What is the difference between foreseeing death and intending death?

The difference ultimately lies in the intentionality of the patient or health care professional. A person should never intend in any way the death of a patient or the hastening of a patient’s death. Sometimes it is difficult to determine whether a medical decision made during end-of-life care includes such an intention. Certain means can be used to alleviate a patient’s pain, for example, by a physician who foresees that the patient’s life may be shortened as a result (as an indirect, non-intended but tolerated effect of the therapy), but similar means could be used to intentionally shorten a patient’s life.

Are proportionate or ordinary means the same for everyone?

Basic care (such as nutrition and hydration, pain relief, antibiotic treatment, and postural change) is generally the same for all patients and should always be provided. The evaluation of proportionate or disproportionate means, however, is based on objective and subjective factors for an individual patient.

For example, total parenteral nutrition may be a proportionate means in an industrialized country but a disproportionate means in a developing country, where it is not affordable or is technically too difficult to administer.

A treatment may also be disproportionate because it is futile or because it causes complications that are too hard for the patient or the patient’s family to bear.

Advance directives are often difficult to interpret and apply in the actual circumstances encountered by health care professionals, relatives and proxies.

Advance directives that do not differentiate between proportionate and disproportionate treatments may be promoted by pro-euthanasia associations as a first step toward acceptance of euthanasia.

What is a Provider Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST)?

A Provider Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) is a medical order specifying whether life-sustaining treatment is to be used or withheld for a specific patient in various circumstances. It carries the signatures of the health care provider and sometimes the patient.

It differs from a do-not-resuscitate order and a traditional advance directive in that it is actionable from the moment it is signed by the health care provider, even if the patient is still competent and is not terminally ill.

One reason given for use of a POLST and similar instruments is the avoidance of futile or unwanted treatment. Even without a POLST, however, patients are never obligated to submit to health care procedures whose burdens outweigh therapeutic benefits.

Decisions about forgoing life-sustaining treatment should be made at the time and in the circumstances in which the decisions are needed (not years ahead), and they should be

made by the patient or the patient’s surrogate in consultation with the patient’s attending physician, in line with the patient’s known wishes and best interest (not by health care workers who are strangers to the patient but have access to his POLST).

The details of a patient’s medical condition at a specific time need to be considered when such decisions are made, including the imminence of anticipated death, the likely risks and side effects of treatment, the suffering treatment is likely to cause, and the expense to the patient’s family and community.

An optimal advance directive is written in very general terms. Instead of specifying treatment, it designates a health care proxy or surrogate who will make decisions if the patient is incompetent, someone who knows the will of the patient and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

What is the difference between an advance directive and a POLST? An advance directive is a legal document that allows a person to identify a proxy or surrogate decision maker and express his wishes about receiving or forgoing health care, including life-sustaining treatment, in the event that he is no longer able to communicate such wishes.

An optimal advance directive is written in general terms that identify principles on which a surrogate is to base decisions, made with the assistance of a physician, in the specific health care situation encountered by the patient.

A POLST is a medical order about receiving or forgoing life-sustaining treatment that takes effect from the moment the health care provider signs it, even if the patient is competent and not terminally ill.

Why is the designation of a health care proxy or surrogate morally preferable to use of a POLST? Unless death is imminent, it is virtually impossible to compare the benefits and burdens of treatment before a patient has encountered a specific health care situation. Thus, pre-signed checklists of treatments to be received or withheld are not helpful for making decisions based on the best interest of the patient and consistent with the patient’s wishes.

A well-informed proxy who knows the patient, understands the values held by the patient, and respects the natural moral law can provide a far better understanding of how the patient’s wishes are to be respected than can a general checklist that is not tied to any specific patient care situation.

— National Catholic Bioethics Center

More online At www.ncbcenter.org: Find more resources and helpful guidelines on end-of-life care

What ethical problems are there with advance directives?

The right of patients to self-determination can lead them to include morally illicit requests in advance directives, such as requests to have ordinary care withdrawn.

An effective therapeutic alliance between a physician, a patient and the patient’s proxy is the best way to address end-of-life issues.

Requests made by a patient in an advance directive may preclude therapeutic dialogue, preventing such an alliance.

A patient may react to an illness or a specific therapy differently than expected, or medical advances occurring after a directive was written may change the patient’s treatment options in unexpected ways. In such situations, an advance directive may prevent objective moral analysis.

Grieving Loved Ones Are Not Alone “Get your ducks in a row!”

Last year, Catholic Charities provided 112 individuals with a dignified burial. The service is designed to help families who do not have the means to provide a compassionate and dignified burial for their loved ones.

Without this service, some families would have no option but to leave the body of their loved ones unclaimed at the morgue.

Burial assistance helps families that have no insurance or finances to pay the costs associated with death expenses.

For assistance, please call the Catholic Charities office nearest you: Asheville: 828.255.0146 Charlotte: 704.370.3262 Winston-Salem: 336.727.0705

Estate Planning | Probate

community supporters. To donate, please visit ccdoc.org.

WAITING COULD DEVASTATE YOUR FAMILY St. Matthew’s Parishioner

704.843.1446 | www.ncestateplanninginfo.com

6406 Carmel Road, Suite 301 | Charlotte, North Carolina 28226

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catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 18B CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Catholic Charities’ Burial Assistance Program meets critical need in burying loved ones SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

CHARLOTTE — “It was a tragic day, a very tragic day.

I lost someone who I cared dearly for, who I loved with all my heart.”

That is how Joe, a Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte client, remembers the day in 2014 when his wife Lisa suddenly died. That morning, Lisa got dressed as usual, told Joe that she loved him, and headed off to work.

Fifteen minutes later, she was hit and killed by a car.

The shock of her death was followed by the nearly overwhelming details of what came next: burial.

For many families, the cost of burying a loved one is a substantial financial challenge. The average cost of a funeral ranges from $7,000 to $10,000 – a major obstacle for many people struggling just to make ends meet. The unexpected expense compounds the burden they already face in grieving for their loved one.

Our Catholic faith teaches us that it is an important corporal work of mercy to bury the dead.

Catholic Charities’ Burial Assistance Program is a tangible way in which Catholics across the Diocese of Charlotte are helping families without the means to bury their dead with dignity.

The program’s roots date back to 1994, when Mecklenburg County stopped paying to bury the poor.

Catholic Charities teamed up with concerned citizens, social workers, funeral home directors and the City of Charlotte’s cemetery director to set up a burial plan for needy county residents. They agreed to work together to provide funeral and burial or cremation services to indigent families.

The program has since grown to encompass all of western North Carolina and is now providing this service throughout the entire diocese.

The program serves families who have no insurance, are

In 2020, Catholic Charities helped to bury 114 people, and so far in 2021, 83 additional people. unable to negotiate financial arrangements with a funeral home, or cannot pay the costs associated with traditional death expenses.

In 2020 Catholic Charities assisted with 114 burials across the diocese. In the first nine months of 2021, Catholic Charities helped to bury 83 people.

Sylvia Sekle, direct assistance coordinator for Catholic Charities in the Charlotte Regional Office, shares, “While it can be very hard emotionally to help families navigate this time of grief in their life, it does give me peace knowing we are making it just a little bit easier.”

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Catholic Charities is seeing a greater need, Sekle says, “and we believe that is due to COVID-19. Not just as a cause of their loved one passing, but also the financial impact of COVID on their finances and their ability to be able to provide a burial for their loved one.”

She notes that, “While no one is ever prepared for death, I am grateful that we are able to offer them some sort of peace and ease their financial burden.”

Recalls Joe, “I didn’t know where to turn. I didn’t know what to do. I went to Grier’s Funeral Home, and he told me about Catholic Charities.

“The young lady at Catholic Charities was outstanding.

She was nice, kind, considerate – like people should be. She didn’t treat me like I was a nobody. She treated me like I was a man.”

Catholic Charities provides the social service support and eligibility verification for the program at no cost.

Financial assistance is provided through charitable contributions from individuals, churches and other civic organizations when families are unable to cover the cost. In addition, local funeral homes play a key role in partnering with Catholic Charities in providing dignified burials.

Catholic Charities’ CEO Dr. Gerard A. Carter is grateful for the generous support. “Donors provide us with the funds needed to provide this ministry to those who mourn the loss of a loved one and the funeral homes are key partners. In the name of the Church – and because of the support of people of goodwill – together we can carry out this important work of compassion to families who are grieving the loss of their loved one.”

Joe still gets emotional when he talks about his love for Lisa and the help he received. He says Catholic Charities helped him through his grief and reassured him that Lisa would be laid to rest with dignity.

“They gave me the feeling of hope that everything was going to be OK, and it was.”

November 5, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD I

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Opportunities for giving Everything we have, everything we are, and everything we will become is a gift from God. As stewards of those gifts, we are called to return a portion of our time, talent and treasure in gratitude for God’s great bounty. The Diocese of Charlotte – with its parishes, offices, agencies, schools and outreach ministries – has many ways for you to give back in gratitude to God:

Donate online Secure donations can be made online via credit card or direct debit at www. charlottediocese.org/donations for: Catholic Charities Catholic Conference Center Catholic Schools Catholic Campus Ministry Charlotte Catholic High School Capital Campaign Christ the King High School Capital Campaign Diocesan Support Appeal (DSA) Eucharistic Congress Priests’ Retirement & Benefits Collection Seminarian Education Campaign

Donate by mail Donations in any amount may be made via mail directly to the Diocese of Charlotte, or to any of the ministries mentioned at left. Checks should be made payable to the particular program (as listed above), except for Campus Ministry, which should be made payable to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte.

Please designate in the memo section of your check where your gift should be directed. Please send donations to: Diocese of Charlotte Attn: Finance Office 1123 South Church St. Charlotte, NC 28203-4003

Securities (stocks, bonds, mutual funds) Gifts of stock may be made via electronic transfer or by physical certificate. The Diocese of Charlotte maintains a brokerage account with

Wells Fargo Advisors for the purpose of processing electronic transfers to the diocese for the benefit of the diocese or any of its parishes, schools or agencies.

Refer to the Stock Donations Form section at www.charlottediocese.org/ documents/stock-donation-form for detailed guidance on initiating a transfer of stock.

Planned giving and endowments Many people choose to contribute to the future of the Church in western North Carolina through planned gifts, including real estate, life estate, retirement account plans, life insurance policies, charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, and gifts made through a will or living trust.

The Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte aims to provide longterm financial stability for the diocese and its parishes, schools, ministries and agencies. Through endowments and other

planned gifts, it provides a means to generate income to help sustain the longterm strength and viability of Catholic institutions in western North Carolina.

The foundation currently has over 300 endowments.

Making a gift in your will To leave a bequest to the Church in your will, use the following language: n For a parish, Catholic school or Catholic agency, the listing should be: “Peter J. Jugis, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, or his Successors in Office for the (name and city of parish, school or agency).” n For the diocese, the listing should be: “Peter J. Jugis, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, or his Successors in Office.” n For the Diocese of Charlotte Foundation, the listing should be: “Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte to be added to or establish the (name) endowment fund.”

Who to contact For details about any of these planned giving opportunities, contact: Gina Rhodes: gmrhodes@rcdoc. org, 704-370-3364 Heidi Kelley: hmkelley@rcdoc. org, 704-370-3348

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY CATHOLIC CHARITIES DIOCESE OF CHARLOTTE

Help a neighbor in need: Help Catholic Charities Make a donation today to Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte that will transform lives by strengthening families, building communities, and reducing poverty in your local neighborhoods.

It’s easy to help a neighbor in need:

Donate online Donate securely online at www.ccdoc. org/online/donate, using a credit or debit card or EFT/ACH.

Donate by mail Donations may be mailed to: Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte Attn: Central Processing Office 1123 South Church St. Charlotte, NC 28203-4003 Checks should be made payable to Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte.

(Please include your address, daytime phone

number and parish.)

Double the impact of your donation with your employer’s matching gift. Visit www. ccdoc.org/donate/company-matching-gift to learn more.

If you would like to donate via stock, IRA contribution, family foundation or charitable gift fund, call 704-370-3349.

Vehicle donations Catholic Charities also has opportunities for you to donate your car, truck, RV, boat, motorcycle or other vehicle. For details, visit www.ccdoc.org/donate/donate-carsvehicles, or call (toll-free) 855-930-GIVE or 855-930-4483 to speak with Catholic

Charities’ partner, Charitable Auto Resources.

Food donations Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte’s food pantries in Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Asheville rely heavily on donated food and non-food items for weekly distribution to clients.

For food pantry locations and drop-off times, visit www.ccdoc.org/donate/donategrocery-items.

Furniture, household items (Charlotte area only) Refugees often arrive in this country with few material possessions. Their initial needs are many. Catholic Charities depends on donations of gently used furniture and household items to prepare a comfortable, welcoming home for newly arriving refugee families in the Charlotte area. Donated items must be clean and in good repair.

Contact Jaimie Fore at 704-370-3283 or JMFore@ccdoc.org with any questions or to arrange a pick-up.

catholicnewsherald.com | November 5, 2021 20B CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

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