Feb. 26, 2021

February 26, 2021

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Arrest made in Boone tabernacle theft case; tabernacle still missing 3

Catholic Charities meets mental health needs with ‘tele-counseling’ service 7 INDEX

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In demand ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return’ Ash Wednesday liturgies look different during ongoing pandemic

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Las liturgias del Miércoles de Ceniza se ven diferentes durante la pandemia

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Enrollment up at diocesan schools as families seek in-person instruction during pandemic 14 Monroe church unveils Marian mural to celebrate diversity, welcome the marginalized 6 La iglesia de Monroe presenta un mural mariano para celebrar la diversidad y dar la bienvenida a los marginados

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Our faith

catholicnewsherald.com | February 26, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

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Pope Francis

Fight temptation with faith, prayer, penance

An altar server holds a copy of the Roman Missal during Mass at St. Joseph Church in Alexandria, Va., in this 2011 file photo.

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hristians must never engage in dialogue with the devil, but instead must fight against temptations with the same spiritual weapons Jesus used in the desert, Pope Francis said.

The Gospel account of Jesus’ temptation in the desert, read each year at the beginning of Lent, is a reminder that following the Lord’s footsteps “is a battle against the spirit of evil,” the pope said Feb. 21 during his Sunday Angelus address.

“We must be aware of the presence of this astute enemy, who seeks our eternal condemnation, our failure, and prepare to defend ourselves against him and to combat him,” he said. “The grace of God assures us – with faith, prayer and penance – of our victory over the enemy.”

The Gospel says Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the desert, which is an important “natural and symbolic environment” where God “speaks to the heart of the human person,” he said. However, it is also a “place of trial and temptation” where the devil takes advantage of one’s “human frailty and needs” and offers an alternative to God’s voice “that makes you see another road, a road of deception.”

Although Jesus ultimately overcame the devil’s temptations, Pope Francis said His true victory came after His crucifixion and death.

“In reality, death was the last ‘desert’ to cross in order to finally defeat Satan and free us all from his power. And in this way Jesus won in the desert of death, so as to win in the resurrection,” the pope said.

Nevertheless, while faith, prayer and penance are needed to overcome temptation, the pope said it was also important for Christians to imitate Jesus who never entered “into dialogue with the devil; never!”

While it may seem that there is a dialogue in the Gospel, he added, Jesus “does not respond with His words,” but rather with the Word of God. “If we enter into dialogue with the devil, we will be defeated,” the pope said. “Keep this in your head and in your heart: you can never enter into dialogue with the devil, no dialogue is possible. Only the Word of God.” Pope Francis encouraged Christians to “not be afraid of the desert” but instead, to seek moments of more prayer and silence.

“Do not be afraid. We are called to walk in God’s footsteps, renewing our baptismal promises: renouncing Satan, and all his works and all his empty promises,” the pope said. “The enemy is crouching there; beware. But never dialogue with him.”

CNS | NANCY PHELAN WIECHEC

Word change in missal doxology took effect on Ash Wednesday CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE AND CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A correction to the English translation to the concluding doxology of orations in the Roman Missal, from “one God, for ever and ever” to “God, for ever and ever,” took effect on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17.

A Feb. 4 memo to bishops from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship said the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments wrote to the English-speaking bishops’ conferences in May 2020 to point out the current English translation that concludes “in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever” is “incorrect.”

Until now, in the conclusions to collects the Latin words “Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum” had been incorrectly rendered in English as “one God, for ever and ever.”

“There is no mention of ‘one’ in the Latin, and ‘Deus’ in the Latin text refers to Christ. Therefore, the correct translation ... is simply “in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever,” the memo said, adding that the prefect of the congregation “pointed out the importance of affirming this Christological truth amid the religious pluralism of today’s world.”

The most common formula, used when a collect is addressed to the Father, will read: “Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.”

The memo said this correct translation was already reflected in the Roman Missal in other languages.

English translations of the Roman Missal for use by Catholics prior to the Second Vatican Council “reflected the correct translation,” the memo noted. “However, when the postconciliar texts were published in English, the word ‘one’ was added.”

When the translation of the Roman Missal currently in use was underway in the 2000s, the International Commission on English in the Liturgy “pointed out the discrepancy to the congregation

in Rome, but was told to retain the use of ‘one God’ in the new translation,” according to the memo.

After the doctrinal congregation’s directive last May, the USCCB’s Latin-rite bishops voted to amend the concluding doxology of orations, or “collects,” of the Roman Missal to reflect the translation change. The congregation confirmed the decision, as it had for the episcopal conferences of England and Wales, Ireland and Canada.

In an explanatory note to the English and Welsh decree, it was explained that the addition of “one” before “God” “could serve to undermine the statement of the unique dignity of the Son within the Trinity,” or “could be interpreted as saying that Jesus is ‘one God.’” “Either or both of these interpretations is injurious to the faith of the Church.”

Continuing, the note said that “one” “risks suggesting that Jesus became a god independent of the Blessed Trinity and is one god among many ... what we pray needs to express what the Church believes, requiring that, in liturgical formulae, we uphold the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity.”

The Trinitarian doxology that concludes the collects “emphasizes the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, who as the Incarnate Son, intercedes on our behalf to the Father ... thus, the Son’s role of priestly mediation is made clear.”

The translation change applies to other liturgical books, such as the Liturgy of the Hours, the memo said, adding that there is no need to publish new Roman Missals, because “it should not be difficult for the celebrant simply to omit the word ‘one’ when offering the prayer.”

But it added that publishers “are being informed of this change” and reprints or new editions of the Roman Missal will reflect the new translation, as will any worship aids for the faithful and other similar publications.

Daily Scripture readings FEB. 28-MARCH 6

Sunday (Second Sunday of Lent): Genesis 22:1-2, 9a-13, 15-18, Romans 8:31b34, Mark 9:2-10; Monday: Daniel 9:4b-10, Luke 6:36-38; Tuesday: Isaiah 1:10, 16-20, Matthew 23:1-12; Wednesday (St. Katharine Drexel): Jeremiah 18:18-20, Matthew 20:1728; Thursday (St. Casimir): Jeremiah 17:5-10, Luke 16:19-31; Friday: Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a, Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46; Saturday: Micah 7:14-15, 18-20, Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

MARCH 7-13

Sunday (Third Sunday of Lent): Exodus 20:1-17, 1 Corinthians 1:22-25, John 2:13-25; Monday (St. John of God): 2 Kings 5:115ab, Luke 4:24-30; Tuesday (St. Frances of Rome): Daniel 3:25, 34-43, Matthew 18:21-35; Wednesday: Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9, Matthew 5:17-19; Thursday: Jeremiah 7:23-28, Luke 11:14-23; Friday: Hosea 14:2-10, Mark 12:28-34; Saturday: Hosea 6:1-6, Luke 18:9-14

MARCH 14-20

Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent): 2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23, Ephesians 2:4-10, John 3:14-21; Monday: Isaiah 65:17-21, John 4:43-54; Tuesday: Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12, John 5:1-16; Wednesday (St. Patrick): Isaiah 49:815, John 5:17-30; Thursday (St. Cyril of Jerusalem): Exodus 32:7-14, John 5:31-47; Friday (St. Joseph): 2 Samuel 7:4-5a, 1214a, 16, Romans 4:13 16-18, 22, Luke 2:41-51a; Saturday: Jeremiah 11:18-20, John 7:40-53

Our parishes

February 26, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

2021 Eucharistic Congress holy card features two images from the Last Supper CHARLOTTE — An unusual Renaissanceera depiction of the Last Supper will be featured on the holy card for the 2021 Eucharistic Congress.

“The Last Supper” is an oil on canvas painted by Benedetto Caliari in the second half of the 16th century. Now on display at the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, the painting illustrates not one but two moments from when Jesus gathered the apostles for the Passover meal: instituting the Eucharist, portrayed in the foreground, and washing the feet of His disciples, pictured in the background.

The painting directly connects to the theme for this year’s Eucharistic Congress, chosen by Bishop Peter Jugis: “As I Have Loved You,” taken from the Gospel of John 13:34.

In St. John’s Gospel, what’s known as the “Book of Glory” begins with Chapter 13.

In this chapter we are invited to understand the “Washing of the Feet,” the Last Supper/Holy Mass and the “New” Commandment to love with divine love. After having washed their feet, Jesus tells His disciples: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

“In His instruction, Our Lord assures us that it is possible for us to love with divine, supernatural love, His Godly love!” explains Father Roger Arnsparger, vicar of education for catechetical formation and chairman of the Eucharistic Congress planning committee. “This is possible through baptism, the grace of the Mass and the other sacraments. Like St. Peter, we allow Our Lord to serve us with His glory and grace in the Holy Mass, the Holy Eucharist and all the sacraments so that we can love as He loves.”

The artist, Benedetto Caliari (1538-1598), was an Italian painter who was born into a

Outdoor Stations being offered HICKORY — Deacon Scott Gilfillan, director of the Catholic Conference Center in Hickory, is leading outdoor Stations of the Cross at 3:30 p.m. each Friday during Lent, weather permitting. The outdoor Stations provide attendees with a safe, socially distanced experience amid beautiful views of the surrounding foothills, as they contemplate the suffering and death of Jesus. The conference center also has several walking trails available to visitors. Call the center at 828-327-7441 for details and updates.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY DAVID HAINS

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Arrest made in Boone tabernacle theft case; tabernacle still missing KIMBERLY BENDER ONLINE REPORTER

“The Last Supper” by Benedetto Caliari (c. second half of 16th century) family of artists, although his older brother Paolo (known as Veronese) is more famous.

Originally from Verona, the Caliari family set up a successful workshop in Venice where they served a customer base of Church leaders, city officials and wealthy merchants.

Benedetto often collaborated with his brother on major works, but his own works were not as popular. He gained a reputation as an architectural painter, and the prominent architectural columns in this painting are one of his signature features.

The painting hangs in the Chapel of the Rosary in the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, one of the largest churches in Venice.

The minor basilica is dedicated to John and Paul – not the apostles, but two martyrs of the early Church in Rome, whose names were recorded in the fourth century but whose legend is of a later date.

The 17th annual Eucharistic Congress is scheduled for Sept. 17-18 at the Charlotte Convention Center. The popular annual event – an opportunity for people across the Diocese of Charlotte to come together for

Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, educational talks and fellowship – was held virtually last fall because of the pandemic.

— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor

Get updates online

At www.goeucharist.com: Get more information and updates about the 17th annual Eucharistic Congress, set for Sept. 17-18 at the Charlotte Convention Center.

Your DSA contributions at work The diocese’s Eucharistic Congress is funded in part by contributions to the annual Diocesan Support Appeal. Learn more about the DSA and how you can contribute at www.charlottediocese. org/dsa.

BOONE — Police have charged a homeless man in connection with a tabernacle stolen from St. Elizabeth Church last summer.

The brass tabernacle, which was stolen with the Blessed Sacrament inside, has not been located.

Claude William Clark, 54, was arrested Feb. 12 and charged with felony breaking Clark and entering of a place of worship in connection with the June 16, 2020, theft, according to Boone Police. According to the arrest report, Clark has no known residence in Boone.

Clark is suspected to have entered the church, located at 259 Pilgrims Way in Boone, through a window. According to the arrest report, Clark initially denied then confessed to entering the church after police detained him for alleged trespassing at a local store’s parking lot.

The tabernacle, which weighs about 40 pounds, held a ciborium containing multiple consecrated hosts. Nothing else was stolen and no other damage was reported.

“We are praying and waiting for more details,” said Father Brendan Buckler, pastor, after learning of the arrest.

At the time of the theft, Father Buckler appealed to those responsible to return the Blessed Sacrament, if not the tabernacle.

Catholics profess that the consecrated Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ, and stealing it is considered a desecration.

“We pray that your hearts may be moved to please return the tabernacle to us, but most especially the contents,” Father Buckler said.

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of the tabernacle is asked to call High Country Crime Stoppers at 828-268-6959 or 828-737-0125, or the Boone Police Department at 828268-6900.

You may also submit a Crime Stoppers Tip via its website, www. highcountrycrimestoppers.com, or Text “NCTIP plus your tip” to 274637 (CRIMES). All information will be kept confidential.

Online Masses 4

catholicnewsherald.com | February 26, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

February 26, 2021

The following parishes are providing live or recorded Masses each week. An updated schedule is online at www.catholicnewsherald.com, or contact your parish for details.

VOLUME 30 • NUMBER 11

LIVESTREAMED MASSES

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

The following parishes offer Masses live at the following times on their Facebook page or YouTube or Vimeo channel. If no time is listed here, check their parish website for more information:

The following parishes offer Masses recorded on their website, Facebook page, YouTube or Vimeo channel. Search those platforms for the parish’s name to find the latest Mass information:

BELMONT ABBEY MONASTERY: 11 a.m. daily

GOOD SHEPHERD MISSION, KING

DIVINE REDEEMER CHURCH, BOONVILLE: 9 and 11 a.m. Sunday

HOLY CROSS CHURCH, KERNERSVILLE

GOOD SHEPHERD CHURCH, KING: 11 a.m. English; 1:30 p.m. Spanish Sunday

HOLY SPIRIT CHURCH, DENVER

HOLY INFANT CHURCH, REIDSVILLE: 9 a.m. Sunday

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH, FOREST CITY

OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION CHURCH, CHARLOTTE: 10 a.m. Sunday

IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY CHURCH, HIGH POINT

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

OUR LADY OF LOURDES CHURCH, MONROE: 9 a.m. daily

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.

OUR LADY OF GRACE CHURCH, GREENSBORO OUR LADY OF MERCY CHURCH, WINSTON-SALEM

SACRED HEART CHURCH, BREVARD: 12 p.m. daily Mass, 10 a.m. Sunday

SACRED HEART CHURCH, SALISBURY

SACRED HEART CHURCH, SALISBURY: 8 and 10:30 a.m. Sunday, 7 a.m. Monday, Tuesday, Friday, 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, 9 a.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. Saturday

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI CHURCH, LENOIR

ST. ANN CHURCH, CHARLOTTE: 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. (Latin Mass) Sunday

ST. JOAN OF ARC CHURCH, CANDLER

ST. BARNABAS CHURCH, ARDEN: 11 a.m. Bilingual Sunday Mass

ST. JOSEPH CHURCH, ASHEBORO

ST. BASIL THE GREAT EASTERN CATHOLIC CHURCH, CHARLOTTE: 11 a.m. Sunday

ST. GABRIEL CHURCH, CHARLOTTE

ST. LEO THE GREAT CHURCH, WINSTON-SALEM ST. MARGARET MARY CHURCH, SWANNANOA

ST. BENEDICT THE MOOR CHURCH, WINSTON-SALEM: 9 a.m. English; 2 p.m. Spanish

ST. MARK CHURCH, HUNTERSVILLE

ST. DOROTHY CHURCH, LINCOLNTON: 9 a.m. Sunday

ST. MARY MOTHER OF GOD CHURCH, SYLVA

ST. EUGENE CHURCH, ASHEVILLE: 5:30 p.m. Saturday Vigil; 9 a.m. Sunday Mass

ST. MATTHEW CHURCH, CHARLOTTE

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI CHURCH, MOCKSVILLE: 9 a.m. English; 10:30 a.m. Spanish

ST. MICHAEL CHURCH, GASTONIA ST. PATRICK CATHEDRAL, CHARLOTTE ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE CHURCH, GREENSBORO

ST. JAMES CHURCH, CONCORD: English and Spanish

ST. STEPHEN MISSION, ELKIN

ST. JOHN NEUMANN CHURCH, CHARLOTTE : 8, 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday in English and 12 p.m. Sunday in Spanish

ST. STEPHEN MARONITE CHURCH, CHARLOTTE

ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST CHURCH, WAYNESVILLE, AND IMMACULATE CONCEPTION MISSION, CANTON

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL CHURCH, CHARLOTTE

ST. LAWRENCE BASILICA, ASHEVILLE: 7:30 a.m. Monday and Tuesday, 9 a.m. Sunday in English and 5 p.m. in Spanish.

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.

ST. LUKE CHURCH, MINT HILL: 11 a.m. Monday and Thursday, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. Friday, 9 and 11 a.m. Sunday in English; 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday Spanish

SUBSCRIPTIONS: $15 per year for all registered parishioners of the Diocese of Charlotte and $23 per year for all others.

ST. MARY, MOTHER OF GOD CHURCH, SYLVA: Noon Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; 9 a.m. Saturday; 11:30 a.m. Sunday in English and 7 p.m. Saturday in Spanish

ST. MARK CHURCH, HUNTERSVILLE: 7 and 9 a.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday; 7 a.m. Wednesday; 9 a.m. Saturday; 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday in English, and 1 p.m. in Spanish ST. MARY’S CHURCH, GREENSBORO: 8 a.m. Sunday

ST. MATTHEW CHURCH, CHARLOTTE: 8: 15 a.m. Monday-Friday; 9 a.m. Sunday POSTMASTER: Periodicals class postage (USPC 007-393) paid at Charlotte, N.C. Send address corrections to the Catholic News Herald, 1123 S. Church St., Charlotte, N.C. 28203.

OUR LADY OF CONSOLATION CHURCH, CHARLOTTE

QUEEN OF THE APOSTLES CHURCH, BELMONT: 9:15 and 11 a.m. Sunday

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI CHURCH, LENOIR: 10 a.m. Sunday, 12 p.m. Sunday in Spanish THE CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD is published by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte 26 times a year.

RECORDED MASSES

ST. MICHAEL CHURCH, GASTONIA: 9 a.m. Sunday ST. PATRICK CATHEDRAL, CHARLOTTE: 11 p.m. Sunday ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE CHURCH, GREENSBORO: 9 a.m. Monday, Wednesday-Friday; 4:30 p.m. Saturday; 10:30 a.m. Sunday ST. PETER CHURCH, CHARLOTTE: 11:30 a.m. Sunday ST. STEPHEN MISSION, ELKIN: 9 a.m. Sunday ST. THERESE CHURCH, MOORESVILLE: 9 a.m. weekdays, 5 p.m. Saturday; 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and Noon Sunday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Spanish ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHURCH, CHARLOTTE: 8:30 a.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday; 10 a.m. Saturday’ 9:30 a.m., Sunday; ST. VINCENT DE PAUL CHURCH, CHARLOTTE: 9 a.m. daily, 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday, 9 a.m.

Sunday in English and 2 p.m. Sunday in Spanish

ST. THERESE CHURCH, MOORESVILLE

EN ESPAÑOL OUR LADY OF GRACE CHURCH, GREENSBORO OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE CHURCH, CHARLOTTE: 8 a.m. Domingo; 7:30 p.m. martes; 12 p.m. miércoles, jueves y viernes OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION CHURCH, CHARLOTTE OUR LADY OF LOURDES CHURCH, MONROE SACRED HEART CHURCH, SALISBURY: 12:30 p.m. Domingo ST. BENEDICT THE MOOR CHURCH, WINSTON-SALEM: 1:30 p.m. Domingo ST. DOROTHY CHURCH, LINCOLNTON: 12 p.m. Domingo ST. EUGENE CHURCH, ASHEVILLE: 7:30 a.m. Domingo ST. JAMES THE GREATER CHURCH, CONCORD ST. JOAN OF ARC CHURCH, CANDLER ST. JOHN NEUMANN CHURCH, CHARLOTTE: 12 p.m. Domingo ST. JOSEPH CHURCH, ASHEBORO ST. LAWRENCE BASILICA, ASHEVILLE: 5 p.m. Domingo ST. LUKE CHURCH, MINT HILL: 1 p.m. Domingo ST. MARK CHURCH, HUNTERSVILLE: 1 p.m. Domingo ST. MARY’S CHURCH, GREENSBORO: 11 a.m. Domingo ST. MARY, MOTHER OF GOD CHURCH, SYLVA: 7 p.m. Sabado ST. THERESE CHURCH: 2:30 p.m. Domingo VIETNAMESE ST. JOSEPH VIETNAMESE CHURCH, CHARLOTTE: 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. Sunday ST. MARY’S CHURCH, GREENSBORO: 9:30 a.m. Sunday LATIN ST. ANN CHURCH, CHARLOTTE: 12:30 p.m. Sunday OUR LADY OF GRACE CHURCH, GREENSBORO: 1 p.m. Sunday ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHURCH, CHARLOTTE: 12:15 and 7 p.m. Thursday

February 26, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI

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‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return’

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A different kind of Ash Wednesday in 2021

sh Wednesday looked different this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, now entering its second year.

SUEANN HOWELL | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishop Peter Jugis celebrated Mass on Ash Wednesday at St. Patrick Cathedral. The Mass Feb. 17 was livestreamed on the Diocese of Charlotte’s YouTube channel.

Bishop Peter Jugis celebrated a Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte that was streamed live on the Diocese of Charlotte’s YouTube channel Feb. 17 so people homebound during the pandemic could participate remotely. Churches across the diocese also added more Ash Wednesday services to accommodate more worshipers in person while ensuring limited, socially distanced capacities.

Another change was in the distribution of ashes: ashes were sprinkled on the head rather than placed on the forehead in the shape of a cross, following instructions from the Vatican.

During a brief homily before distributing ashes to people as they knelt in the pews, Bishop Jugis

explained the significance of the ashes – no matter which way people received them.

“Ashes are a sign of sorrow for our sins and our wrongdoing. Ashes are a sign of penitence,” he said.

“They are an acknowledgment that we have sinned – and not only that we have sinned, but that we are sorry for our sins and we are begging God for the grace of conversion, to have a change of heart and to receive His grace to be cleansed of our sins.”

“So how do we know what our sins are?” he continued. “Look to the 10 Commandments.

Jesus says, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments.’ Of course we love Jesus – that is why we are here. And because we love Jesus we are sorry for our sins, sorry for any way we have offended Him – and out of love for Him (sorry for how we have) failed in loving others.”

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

Students of Our Lady of Grace School gathered at Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro to attend Ash Wednesday Mass.

Teachers at St. Patrick School in Charlotte sprinkled ashes upon the heads of their students in each of the classrooms as Father Christopher Roux, pastor, led an Ash Wednesday Liturgy of the Word service over the school’s public address system.

PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK

PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK

Father John Putnam, pastor of St. Mark Church and school chaplain, distributes ashes at Christ the King High School in Huntersville.

PHOTO PROVIDED

BY NICOLE SEELING

PHOTO PROVIDED

AMBER MELLON | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Ash Wednesday Mass was celebrated by Father Brendan Buckler, pastor, at St. Elizabeth Church in Boone.

Deacon Matthew Newsome, the Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University and the regional faith formation coordinator for the Smoky Mountain Vicariate, shared this photo on Instagram of burning last year’s dried Palm Sunday palms to become ashes for this year’s Ash Wednesday services.

Father Melchesideck Yumo, parochial vicar, distributes ashes to Colin Riggles and his son Carter at St. Mark Church in Huntersville.

PHOTO PROVIDED

BY AMY BURGER

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catholicnewsherald.com | February 26, 2021 OUR PARISHES

Monroe church unveils Marian mural to celebrate diversity, welcome the marginalized MONROE — “Beautiful!” “Wow!” These were some of the reactions from parishioners as they entered Our Lady of Lourdes Church recently and were greeted by a large new mural that dominates the narthex.

The mural features the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes and St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin – a unique design conceived by Father Benjamin Roberts, pastor, and handcrafted by local artist Lisa Autry.

Father Roberts explains that the image is meant to illustrate the Church’s message of unity amid diversity, as well as the Church’s embrace of all people, particularly the marginalized. It also contains multiple scriptural references to Mary and through her, to Christ.

He describes the depiction of Mary as a unique combination of traditional Marian images: clothed in blue, hands folded in prayer, standing on the world, and crushing the serpent under her feet as foretold in Genesis (Gen. 3:15). The heavens, stars on a deep blue field, form the backdrop as Mary stands over the doorway leading into the church. She is the “Gate of Heaven,” through which Christ entered the world.

She looks straight at people as they come into the church, yet in her attention-getting position “she points us to Jesus,” he says.

Following her lead, people enter into the MURAL, SEE PAGE 24

‘Converging Roads’ a continuing education opportunity for medical professionals CHARLOTTE — In the midst of the ongoing pandemic, medical professionals have the opportunity to receive relevant continuing education through “Converging Roads,” a medical ethics conference that will be offered both in person and online Saturday, March 20.

The St. John Paul II Foundation, in collaboration with the Diocese of Charlotte and Belmont Abbey College, is bringing Converging Roads to Charlotte for the fourth consecutive year. To accommodate the needs of attendees, interested medical professionals and students are able to attend either in person or online.

Converging Roads is an initiative of the St. John Paul II Foundation, a national Catholic apostolate proclaiming the Good News about life and family through education and formation.

At this conference, health care professionals, including chaplains, can receive continuing education credits.

However, all are invited to attend regardless of their profession.

This year’s conference will focus on the topic “Hippocratic Medicine: Do No Harm.” The day-long conference will

provide continuing education deeply rooted in the Hippocratic and Catholic ethical tradition and will feature presentations from Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD, on “Rationing in Times of Crisis”; Claudia R. Sotomayor, MD, DBe, on “The Role of Disability in Determining Proportionate and Disproportionate Means”; Paul Hruz, MD, PhD, on “Gender Dysphoria in Children & Adults: Science, Ideology, and Ethics”; and more.

Continuing education opportunities will be offered for both in-person and online attendees, depending on CME/ CNE inclusion, and the recordings will be made available for 72 hours following the conference for those who are unable to attend the livestream on March 20.

The conference will open with an 8 a.m. White Mass for healthcare professionals. The Mass will be celebrated by Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari of Belmont Abbey at St. Patrick Cathedral, located at 1621 Dilworth Road East in Charlotte.

To register or get more information, visit www.convergingroads.com and click on “Charlotte, NC.” — SueAnn Howell, senior reporter.

Amelia Arth contributed.

Catholic Charities’ Partners in Hope virtual fundraiser to be held March 11 WINSTON-SALEM — Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte of the Piedmont Triad Region invites everyone to attend its “Partners in Hope” virtual fundraising event, set for 6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 11.

The fundraiser – a critical source of support for Catholic Charities in the Triad – is being held online this year due to public health restrictions on in-person gatherings. Through the virtual event, people will be able to gather online to celebrate and support Catholic Charities’ work in Forsyth, Guilford and surrounding counties.

The virtual event will feature speakers including Bishop Peter J. Jugis and Monsignor Patrick J. Winslow, vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of Charlotte.

Partners in Hope participants will also hear from Father Michael Buttner, retired pastor of Holy Family Church in Clemmons; Father John Eckert, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury; Becky DuBois, Winston-Salem’s regional director; and Dr. Gerard Carter, Catholic Charities’ executive director and CEO. People who have participated in Catholic

Charities’ programs will also share how their lives have been changed by the help they have received over the past year, thanks to the generosity of so many supporters and volunteers.

“Over this past year, we’ve witnessed the heavy toll of COVID-19 on the lives of so many people in the Piedmont Triad who come to Catholic Charities for assistance,” Carter said. “Because of the generous benefactors who contribute through Partners in Hope, we’re able to provide help and hope to those who are struggling.”

The March 11 virtual fundraising event aims to bring together parishioners, friends and clergy from across the Triad to raise the funds necessary to provide support and relief to even more people and families continuing to struggle during the pandemic, he said.

“We are so grateful to all of our partners in carrying out the Church’s ministry of charity,” he said.

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

Register now

At ccpartnersinhope.org: Register and get more details about the 2021 Partners in Hope free virtual event

February 26, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com

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Catholic Charities continues to meet mental health needs with ‘tele-counseling’ service KIMBERLY BENDER ONLINE REPORTER

CHARLOTTE — As the pandemic enters a second year, people’s feelings of anxiety, loneliness and depression are continuing, too. Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte’s mental health counseling program is available to help.

The agency has shifted from in-person to “telecounseling” sessions to provide access to counseling services during these uncertain times – no matter where in the diocese people live.

“Few of us have been immune from the increased anxiety and stresses related to this unprecedented time of living under COVID-19,” said Dr. Gerard Carter, Catholic Charities’ executive director and CEO. “One of the things I am particularly proud of has been the incredible ability of our professional staff to pivot services during the past year in providing services using telehealth.”

“Tele-counseling” is offered through an easy-to-use and secure, HIPAA-compliant platform. People use their computer, mobile phone or tablet to have a one-onone, confidential video session with a counselor. Each counseling session is scheduled via an email invitation with instructions on how and when to join.

The online sessions last about an hour and include the same quality and types of services as in-person counseling.

The service means more people across the diocese can access mental health counseling – not just if they live in Charlotte, Asheville or the Triad where Catholic Charities’ four counselors are located.

Counseling is available to individuals and couples, and bilingual counseling sessions are also available.

All mental health counseling staff possess a master’s degree in either psychology, counseling or social work and are licensed to provide behavioral health care in North Carolina.

The counselors meet each person where they are on their personal journey and help them address their challenges on a cognitive, emotional and behavioral level. Operating within the social teachings of the Catholic Church, they consistently provide professional, evidence-based therapeutic interventions that are most effective in treating behavioral health problems – ranging from relationship, stress and adjustment problems to acute and even chronic mental illness.

Services are provided on a sliding fee scale based on income. These fees and health insurance coverage, when possible, help cover program expenses.

“Once it became clear that this pandemic was not going to end within a few weeks, and that restrictions on face-to-face services were going to be a new reality,” Carter said, “our mental health counselors worked closely together with our administrative staff to explore and then adopt innovative ways to provide therapy in a way that permitted us to serve our clients while also affording the same confidentiality protection.”

Even after the pandemic is over, Carter said, the technology will continue enabling Catholic Charities counselors to reach people no matter where they live in the diocese, not just people living in Asheville, Charlotte and the Triad.

“The ability to access mental health services is no longer more difficult because you live in Lenoir, Boone, Murphy or Salisbury,” he said. “Access to a computer is what is needed to receive services from a licensed mental health professional at Catholic Charities.”

‘The ability to access mental health services is no longer more difficult because you live in Lenoir, Boone, Murphy or Salisbury.’

Dr. Gerard Carter

Executive Director/CEO of Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte

Find out more Get more information about “telehealth” counseling offered through Catholic Charities online at www.ccdoc.org (select “Counseling” from the Services menu), or call 828-255-0146 in Asheville, 704-3703227 in Charlotte, or 336-714-3204 in Greensboro or WinstonSalem.

Your DSA contributions at work Some Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte programs are funded in part by contributions from the annual Diocesan Support Appeal.

Learn more about the DSA and how you can contribute at www.charlottediocese.org/dsa.

‘Hearts United’: Four-part speaker series kicks off at St. Michael Church SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

GASTONIA — A new, four-part lecture series entitled “Hearts United” presented

by St. Michael Church and School launched Feb. 18 with “Ever Ancient, Ever New,” a talk by Dr. William Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College.

The lecture series was developed by a group of parishioners, school officials and parents, who together with pastor Father Lucas Rossi wanted to honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary as well as bring together the faithful from both the parish and the school communities for a series of talks to help enrich their faith and grow in fellowship.

The series is being held in person as well as being livestreamed on the parish’s YouTube channel.

Jenny Ryan is one of the series organizers and a parishioner with four children at St. Michael School.

“The series came about because Father Rossi has a mission to bring the school and the parish together,” Ryan said. “At the heart of it is to bring everyone together so we can move forward as one.”

“We wanted to make sure the talks in the series are applicable to anyone. So no matter where you are, what age, etc., these talks are meant to enrich everyone,” she said.

Mary Thierfelder, the wife of Dr. Thierfelder and mother of 10, among them a seventh-grader at St. Michael School, helped develop the Hearts United series.

“We want to unite the parish and the school, so that whatever we do in the speaker series brings people together. We are looking at it from the standpoint that

as Catholics we are lifelong learners. We thought it was important for Bill to go first to talk about the history of the Church here,” Thierfelder explained.

Dr. Thierfelder’s one-hour talk, “Ever Ancient, Ever New,” focused on the history of Belmont Abbey and St. Michael Church.

It took a closer look at the history of Catholicism in western North Carolina, starting with the Benedictine monks as the first Catholics to settle in the area.

He shared his gratitude for the hard work and perseverance of those Benedictine monks, whose early labors helped plant the Church in western North Carolina.

“In a way, our hearts are united with the hearts of all who came before us, who made it possible for us to be here today, so there is this sense of oneness. We are one Body of Christ,” Thierfelder said.

From his lecture, Thierfelder hopes that Catholics of the diocese appreciate the deep roots of the faith here.

“Christ planted seeds here and the seeds are for all of us. The seeds have grown now in all different ways – all kinds of charisms and apostolates have come from it. They didn’t just come out of the air. They came from those who lived and loved and died for us,” he explained.

Father Rossi noted that, “Of particular importance was showing how St. Michael would not exist as a parish with a school if it wasn’t for the Benedictines, Sisters of Mercy and St. Katherine Drexel, who gave spiritual and financial support.

“In the end, Dr. Thierfelder desired to awaken gratitude in the hearts of all who attended the talk. He achieved it! I left overwhelmed with gratitude, Father Rossi said.

Three more Hearts United lectures are

SUEANN HOWELL | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

(From left) Dr. William Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College, delivered the first lecture in the “Hearts United” speaker series that kicked off Feb. 18 at St. Michael Church in Gastonia. Father Lucas Rossi, pastor, and Michelle Vollman, principal of St. Michael School, hope the speaker series will bring the parish and school communities closer together in faith and fellowship. planned for March 18, April 8 and May 6.

The next talk in the series will be given

by Dr. Joseph Wysocki, dean of the Honors College at Belmont Abbey College. His talk is entitled: “Working out a Picture of Happiness: Liberal Education and Our Children’s Souls.” All are invited to attend the program, which will begin at 7 p.m. at St. Michael Church.

Watch online At www.youtube.com/ StMichaelCatholicChurch: The “Hearts United” lecture series is available on St. Michael Church’s YouTube channel. And check out the parish’s website, stmccg.org, for details about future lectures.

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catholicnewsherald.com | February 26, 2021 OUR PARISHES

FE

FAMILIA

FRATERNIDAD

Caballeros de Colón

Considere unirse a los más de 2 millones de miembros de la organización fraternal católica más grande del mundo y registrándose en línea hoy en: www.kofc.org/es

Por tiempo limitado - Membresía en línea GRATIS Use el código de promoción (MCGIVNEY2020)

PHOTO PROVIDED

Sharon Schur and her husband Jeff Fabri enjoy the St. Valentine’s Eve Banquet at the Catholic Conference Center in Hickory.

Catholic Conference Center makes romantic pivot for Valentine’s Day

Got stock?

Unlock your potential to make a difference.

Giving appreciated stock to your parish, Catholic school, agency, the diocese or the Foundation creates a gift that will benefit your desired beneficiary and provide you tax benefits.

For more information, go to www.charlottediocese.givingplan.net or call Gina Rhodes at 704/370-3364.

Foundation of the Diocese of Charlotte

HICKORY — What do you do when COVID-19 disrupts the old way of doing business? You pivot. That’s exactly what the Catholic Conference Center did over Valentine’s Day weekend.

In mid-January, the weekend of Feb. 13-14 appeared fully booked. Women’s Walk with Christ had reserved the entire center for a national retreat for 80 members.

However, after some thoughtful discussion, the Colorado-based group decided to postpone the retreat until the fall because of concerns about traveling during the pandemic.

With such short notice, it was unlikely any other group would reserve the center, so the center’s staff got creative.

“After a team meeting and some encouragement from our supporters, we decided to host our own St. Valentine’s Eve Banquet,” said Deacon Scott Gilfillan, director.

“Our staff has tremendous depth and talent in culinary, catering and hospitality.

The banquet gave us an opportunity to showcase some of our ‘high-end’ talents,” he said.

Executive Chef Matt Baldwin created a six-course menu with delights like Fiery Tomato Bisque, Ahi Tuna Poke and Duck Leg Confit Cassoulet. For dessert, he hand-made coconut, orange zest and salted caramel truffles.

Hospitality Manager Kris Cordes has served as a caterer and chef for more than 1,000 wedding receptions, so she was well equipped to host a romantic evening. For ambiance, she dove into her “catering closet” at home and supplied centerpieces, dishes and other accessories to set the mood for a five-star banquet. Door prizes were gathered from supporters, and Abundant Life Florist donated table arrangements.

The impromptu event quickly sold out thanks to word of mouth and promotion on Facebook.

Forty people, including couples and families, enjoyed the socially distanced dinner, and comments afterward were positive.

“The meal was outstanding! A wonderful dining experience!” said Dennis and Jane Gillen.

Sharon Schur and her husband opted to spend the night at the center to enjoy more of the facilities. “The opportunity to stay the night in the center after a special dinner with my husband was exactly what we needed after the isolation/restrictions of the COVID 2020-2021 experience,” she said. “We prayed in the chapel, walked the trails, prayed the Stations of the Cross, plus just rested and relaxed by the fire.”

Deacon Gilfillan noted that the St. Valentine’s Eve Banquet was a perfect opportunity to showcase the conference center for new offerings besides its already-popular retreats and meetings.

The renovated building and its expansive grounds offer a safe, socially distanced and comfortable environment for individuals, families, and small or large groups.

The center has already added events including Sunday-Funday Brunch, Date Night with a Saint, Chef’s Table workshops, outdoor Stations of the Cross, and a “Lunch and Learn” series.

Up next at the center is an overnight retreat for Palm Sunday weekend, entitled “Enter the Mystery.”

In April, there will be a hands-on sacred art retreat, “Making Mosaics,” that will include praying and “writing” Pysanky Easter eggs along with assembling a cross from personal mementos and trinkets.

And for Mother’s Day weekend in May, the center will fittingly offer a retreat focused on the Blessed Mother, “The Heart of Mary.”

Get details about these and other upcoming events on the center’s website, www.catholicconference.org.

— Catholic News Herald

February 26, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com

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Father Andrés Gutiérrez, whose parents attend Our Lady of Grace Parish in Greensboro, is a missionary priest in Cusco, Peru. Here he is pictured baptizing a small child.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Called to the periphery Peruvian missionary priest with ties to Greensboro recounts recent work amid pandemic ANNIE FERGUSON CORRESPONDENT

GREENSBORO — Few missionary priests have visited the Diocese of Charlotte over the past year, as travel has been restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So it was a special treat for Our Lady of Grace Parish to recently welcome back Father Andrés Gutiérrez, a missionary priest from Peru and the son of parishioners Fernando and Martha Gutiérrez.

Father Gutiérrez visited the parish last month to see his family and share updates about his work as a missionary priest in Cusco, Peru. It had been a year and a half since he had been able to travel from Cusco, which has been hit hard by the pandemic.

MISSIONARY WORK MORE CRITICAL THAN EVER

Father Gutiérrez serves as pastor of St. Martin de Porres Parish in Cusco. Located in the Andes at an elevation of 11,000 feet, his parish has about 40,000 people who live in the city or scattered among 10 rural mountain communities.

The area has become less isolated over the past few decades, but people still live simply and many are poor.

Father Gutiérrez and two other priests travel regularly to the mountain villages to offer Mass and care for people’s spiritual needs. Personal connection is essential, he says, because the communities are so isolated.

“The archbishop wants the priests to go where the people are because there are difficulties in having the people come to the parish,” he says. “We have parish life and the parish Masses and everything, but then we try to go to where the people live so that they don’t have an excuse to leave their faith. We take turns in the communities with religious education, catechesis, sacraments, Mass.”

Pastoral agents, comprised of missionary families

and local residents, help the priests with faith formation classes and other needs.

Those needs have grown over the past year, as the COVID-19 pandemic has spread. More than 45,000 Peruvians have died of COVID-19 – one of the world’s highest per-capita death tolls – and the number of deaths keeps rising. Tourism, a staple of the economy, has evaporated and people are hurting financially.

In Cusco, a soup kitchen was started at St. Martin de Porres Parish that, during the early days of the pandemic, served 200-300 meals a day. The parish has also been collecting donations of fruits and vegetables from the city markets to pass out to people in need.

“On Sundays, I would go to the rural mountain communities with a pick-up full of these fruits and vegetables, and we would also buy sacks of rice, pasta, sugar, oil – just basics – and we would bring that and share it with the families, all of them very poor, so that each family could take a grocery bag to their homes,” Father Gutiérrez says. “It’s a huge outreach effort and thank God I have a good team of support. We have been able to give witness to the nearness and maternal concern the Church has for her children.”

The Cusco parish is not alone in how the pandemic has made life worse for people already living on the margins.

There has been “incalculable devastation” among other mission communities, reports Father Patrick Cahill, diocesan director for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Church’s world missions program.

“The entire world is struggling with this new reality,” Father Cahill says. Not only is the spiritual work of the Church – providing the sacraments, visiting the sick, burying the dead – more critical than ever, but visits from missionary priests and collections to support their work are way down.

Normally, 40 missionary priests from all over the world visit 50 or 60 North Carolina parishes to make appeals each summer, but last summer’s visits were all postponed until this summer.

In addition, second collections for World Mission Sunday and the Missionary Cooperative Appeal have seen declines over the past year.

“We typically distribute over $600,000 from our diocese to the mission Church,” Father Cahill says, “but last year the number was way less than half of that.”

Yet Father Cahill applauds the people of the diocese for

their long-standing support to people in need around the world, including Peru, Egypt, Haiti and 45 other countries.

“I’m so appreciative of the way the parishes have welcomed the missionaries making appeals,” he says.

“Pope Francis has emphasized that wealthy countries can learn a lot from the mission Church in the developing world. As diocesan director, I thank the pastors and the people for opening themselves to this essential dimension of our Church. Jesus clearly commands us to go to the ends of the earth with His message of reconciliation and peace.”

And these efforts have had profound impacts, Father Cahill says.

“The projects that I have been able to see firsthand literally transform a Christian community. On a visit to see how our funds were being used, I visited a poor village in southern India,” he says. “The people said to me: The funds sent are like God’s grace that have built this parish and school. Seeing you here and touching your hand and having you enjoy our food at the dedication is an incarnation.”

Father Gutiérrez is among those missionary priests who visit parishes in the Charlotte diocese each summer as part of the diocese’s world missions appeal, and local parishes have been integral in supporting his work in Cusco.

“Through those donations, I have been able to carry out many important projects in favor of the poor and the parish,” he says, particularly with remodeling the church and replacing its aging roof.

A MISSIONARY CALLING

How does someone discern a calling as a missionary? For Father Gutiérrez, the call to the priesthood came first.

Seeds of a vocation were planted when he was in college at the University of Florida. His faith life had always been quiet and deep, but a three-week mission trip to Cusco when he was a college sophomore left an indelible mark.

“To see firsthand the type of poverty you would never see here in the States, and to realize that those suffering that poverty are your brothers and sisters in Christ … I couldn’t remain indifferent,” he recalls.

Discernment “was a slow process that developed with time,” he says. After college, he started seeking answers to life’s fundamental questions.

MISSIONARY, SEE PAGE 10

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Let’s keep talking.

catholicnewsherald.com | February 26, 2021 OUR PARISHES

MISSIONARY FROM PAGE 9

PRAYER TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN O Most Beautiful Flower of Mt. Carmel, Fruitful Vine, Splendor of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity. O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein you are my Mother. O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succor me in my necessity (make request.)

There are none that can withstand your power.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee (3 times.)

Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (3 times.)

3 Our Father, 3 Hail Mary, 3 Glory Be Published in gratitude for prayers answered.

Thank you, R.M.

“I was at that time in life when you have to choose a direction. I had finished college with a master’s degree in materials science and engineering, I was working in R&D for Intel Corp. in Arizona, making a very good salary. I had a good, very Catholic girlfriend. It was time to ask the tough questions: Am I going to form a family? Is that what God wants from me? Is all my energy and intellectual potential going to go into making faster Pentium computer chips? Could my capacities and my talents be used for a greater good? Where could I do the most good?

“That’s what inspired me to give it a good try, and it worked out.”

He studied for the priesthood at a seminary in Spain with a group of missionary priests and finished his theology courses in Rome before being ordained for the Archdiocese of Cusco in 2015.

There could be many more people called to missionary work, Father Gutiérrez believes, if they only allow themselves to experience this powerful aspect of sharing the Gospel.

“You can’t love what you don’t know,” he says. “When you think about taking a vacation or traveling, it’s usually not one of the ideas to go have a missionary

(Above) Father Gutiérrez is pictured with some of the pastoral agents who assist in caring for the 40,000 people living in his parish.

(Left) He offers Mass in one of the rural village chapels.

PHOTOS PROVIDED

experience, but that’s something that could help people not only in Cusco but all over the world.”

Mindful of his own life-changing encounter, Father Gutiérrez has welcomed to his Cusco parish other young people who are seeking to know God’s will in their life.

He encourages them to be open and curious about the possibilities.

“I take them out to the communities, and I just carry out my ministry, and they’re like, ‘Wow this is amazing. I never thought of it.’ It opens up that possibility of this, ‘I need to have this component in my life’ realization.”

Missionary life is challenging, but the sacrifices are worth it, Father Gutiérrez says.

“There’s no romanticizing a missionary vocation, but there is an immense joy in seeing and witnessing lives being affected, knowing that God is working through that.”

GRATITUDE FOR MARY’S INTERCESSION

His parents Fernando and Martha Gutiérrez are grateful to God for their son’s vocation.

“We’re really happy to have him as a priest, first of all,” says Fernando, “and then his missionary vocation is something that we cannot give enough thanks to God because we know he prays for us all the time, and we can be present in the missions in a certain way by helping him and supporting him.”

Years ago when they were living in Florida, the Gutiérrezes consecrated their family and their three sons to Jesus

through the Blessed Virgin Mary. Through her protection, intercession and perfect example of holiness, God’s will was made clearer to them, they say.

Now daily Mass goers at Our Lady of Grace, they support their sons’ vocations spiritually through praying the rosary and St. Pio of Pietrelcina’s Efficacious Novena to the Sacred Heart. The couple have also helped their priest-son’s mission financially by setting up The Mary of the Encounter Foundation in Greensboro, where donors can make tax-deductible gifts. Their dedication, together with a small group of volunteers, has helped poor families in manifold ways in Peru.

“When you’re called to be a missionary priest, there’s an added layer of identity for the priest,” says Martha Gutiérrez.

“Missionary work is so different than if you’re able to work in your own city or country. You go so far to do something completely different in an unfamiliar culture.”

Father Gutiérrez credits Mary with his missionary vocation and the fruits it has produced, and he encourages others to put their trust in Jesus through Mary.

“I think about Our Blessed Mother and how she has directed everything, even when we were children, my parents, my family through our daily rosary. It is hugely important for families to realize that if we trust her, she’s going to direct us. She’s going to guide us, she’s going to protect us, and she’s going to bring us to her Son – to where we should be, to doing what we should be doing.”

February 26, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com

PREPARING TO SERVE OUR DIOCESE

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For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief

Pro-life billboard going up on I-77 North in Charlotte

SUEANN HOWELL | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Deacon Joseph Wasswa distributes Holy Communion during his transitional diaconate ordination Mass July 17, 2020, at St. Mark Church in Huntersville. He is scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood on June 19.

SEMINARIAN SPOTLIGHT: Deacon Joseph Wasswa CHARLOTTE — The Diocese of Charlotte is blessed with 41 men currently studying for the priesthood in four seminaries.

Twenty-seven men are at St. Joseph College Seminary in Belmont. Ten men are studying at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. One man is finishing up his studies at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, and three men are at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Deacon Joseph Wasswa, originally from Uganda, is a parishioner of Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury. He is in the final phase of his studies at the Pontifical College Josephinum.

His ordination to the priesthood is scheduled for June 19 at St. Mark Church in Huntersville.

To help the faithful of the diocese come to know him and how his vocation has unfolded as he has progressed in his discernment, the Catholic News Herald recently asked Deacon Wasswa to talk about his journey to the priesthood: CNH: When did you first hear the call to a vocation to the priesthood?

Deacon Wasswa: When I was in fourth grade, I had the opportunity to attend catechesis classes at my home parish in Matale, Uganda, that lasted for about two years. During this time, I was enrolled in the altar server group for the parish and I developed a deeper love for the Church, especially after learning about the many sacrifices the missionaries made in order to bring the Catholic faith to people in remote areas. While in sixth grade, I received the sacrament of confirmation, and it was at this very moment that I received the vocation to the priesthood.

The atmosphere at the confirmation Mass was overwhelming: the church was packed, everyone in their Sunday best, the bishop and the priests adorned in glorious garments and filled with great joy, and then came that moment when the bishop confirmed us. It occurred to me at that moment that God was calling me.

CNH: Who did you first talk to about your vocation?

Deacon Wasswa: I talked to my parents, my siblings and my friends, then I talked to the priest who was in charge of schools, youth and vocations at St. Joseph Catholic Parish in Matale.

CNH: What type of feedback did you receive?

Deacon Wasswa: I received a very encouraging and supportive response. The priest in charge of schools and vocations at

the parish contacted the seminary in order for us to get the interviews done and other examinations before entering.

CNH: How did you go about discerning where you felt called to explore your possible vocation?

Deacon Wasswa: After the admission interviews and examinations, I entered the minor seminary at Holy Family Bukalasa Minor Seminary in Masaka, Uganda. I learned a lot about discernment from my brother seminarians who were advanced in their seminary training, and from priests’ recreational gatherings with seminarians.

CNH: How and when did you reach out to the vocations office at the diocese?

Deacon Wasswa: At the time I was continuing my discernment at Belmont Abbey when I learned about the Diocese of Charlotte.

I contacted Father Christopher Gober, the diocesan director of vocations, and the whole process started from there.

CNH: When did you enter seminary for the Diocese of Charlotte?

Deacon Wasswa: I entered seminary for the diocese in 2016.

CNH: What have you have been doing throughout your time in seminary as part of discerning your vocation?

Deacon Wasswa: I pray the Liturgy of the Hours daily. I attend Mass every day. I pray the rosary every day. I spend a Holy Hour with the Lord every day. I listen to spiritual music regularly, and I read spiritual books – especially about the lives of the saints.

CNH: What advice do you have for a man discerning a call to the priesthood?

Deacon Wasswa: Fall in love with Jesus and His Church! Start with love, and pour out your heart to Jesus.

CNH: Looking back through your discernment, what has helped you the most to understand God’s will for you?

Deacon Wasswa: First, closeness to Jesus, and complete trust in His love and care for me. Second, the prayers and support from family and friends, and all the people of God across the Diocese of Charlotte. I am very grateful to them.

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

Is God calling you?

If you think God may be calling you to a vocation as a priest or religious, the Diocese of Charlotte has resources to help you! Go online to www.charlottediocese.org/vocations to learn more and connect with someone who can answer your questions and provide discernment guidance.

CHARLOTTE — A pro-life group based out of the Diocese of Biloxi, Miss., has contracted to place a pro-life billboard on Interstate 77 North near Exit 7. Starting March 8, the billboard will be located on the right side of the highway, half a mile before the exit. The billboard is also being displayed in strategic locations near abortion clinics in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Texas, South Carolina and Georgia.

“At this time, we have raised 23 billboards resulting in 7,813,644 total weekly impressions (views),” said Karen Rhodes, president of Diocese of Biloxi Pro Life. “Our mission is to change the minds of women on their way to abortion clinics and with the intercession of Our Blessed Mother, we pray to help them choose life.”

To learn more or donate funds, go to their Facebook page, St. James Pro Life Billboard, or email Rhodes at dioceseofbiloxiprolife@gmail. com.

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

All welcome to attend March 1 Abbey concert, to be dedicated to late Father Kessinger BELMONT — The Bechtler Ensemble is bringing string trios from 20th century Finland, Hungary and France as well as the beloved Austrian composer Schubert to “Arts at the Abbey,” in a special concert March 1 dedicated to Benedictine Father David Kessinger, who died Feb. 7.

The concert will open at 8 p.m. in the Abbey Basilica, with both in-person and livestreaming options available. The live audience will be limited, and masks and social distancing are required. To reserve a seat, call 704-461-6012 or email abbeyarts@bac.edu. The concert will be streamed live at www.belmontabbeycollege. edu/artslive.

Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

Tanja Bechtler is the artistic director of the Bechtler Ensemble that is currently in residency at Queens University and has a music series at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Arts, Central Piedmont Community College, and at Queens University. The ensemble will feature Lenora Cox Leggatt, violin; Vasily Gorkovsky, viola; and Tanja Bechtler, cello.

A person of many talents and interests, Father Kessinger loved the arts, especially classical music, and he was fond of Schubert.

Other composers featured on the program include Kodaly, Sibelius, Cras, and Dohnanyi.

This series is made possible by the Associated Foundation Inc. of Belmont, the Gaston Community Foundation, the Monks of Belmont Abbey, and other private donors.

For more information, contact Karen Hite Jacob at 704-461-6012, or go online to www. bac.edu or Facebook at “Belmont Abbey Arts.”

— Rolando Rivas

FACEBOOK.COM/ CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD ESPAÑOL

catholicnewsherald.com | February 26, 2021 12

Padre Julio Domínguez

La Cuaresma

Q

ueridos hermanos, Hemos empezado este hermoso tiempo de Cuaresma, en el cual, a imitación de nuestro Señor Jesucristo, nos retiramos al desierto para prepararnos a vivir mejor nuestra vida cristiana que consiste siempre en hacer la voluntad del Señor.

La Cuaresma es siempre una buena oportunidad que nos presenta nuestra Santa Madre Iglesia para poder hacer un alto en el camino y reflexionar sobre nuestro diario ascender al cielo.

Es por eso que durante la cuaresma, se nos presenta el tripié espiritual que debemos de practicar y aprovechar al máximo para sacar muchos frutos.

El primero es la oración, que en términos generales es ese deseo de comunicarse con el Padre. En los cuarenta días que Jesús, nuestro Señor, estuvo en el desierto, esa comunicación intensa con el Padre estuvo muy presente, y lo que Jesús más le pedía al Padre es que manifestara plenamente su divina voluntad.

Así, para nosotros, nuestra oración debe de llevarnos a una profunda reflexión sobre nuestra vida y un filial respeto y aceptación de la voluntad de Dios en nuestras vidas.

El segundo pilar de la Cuaresma es el ayuno, lo cual también Nuestro Señor practicó.

Nuestro Señor dejó plasmado en su vivir la importancia de incomodar el cuerpo para dar lugar a las necesidades del alma. Todos los cristianos estamos llamados al ayuno, no tan sólo de comidas sino también de vicios y cosas que nos causan demasiado placer y comodidad.

El ayuno viene a dar una fortaleza increíble al alma para resistir las asechanzas del enemigo y debemos con todo nuestro corazón practicarlo como remedio saludable a nuestra salvación.

Por último, tenemos la limosna o como mejor lo conocemos la caridad con el prójimo.

No me gustaría que nos quedáramos solamente con la idea de que la limosna es darle algo de comer a los más pobres o a aquellos que no tienen casa.

Ciertamente, las obras de misericordia corporales deben de ser practicadas durante este tiempo y siempre, pero también las obras de misericordia espirituales.

El Santo Padre ha enfatizado mucho los pequeños detalles que un humano puede dar al prójimo, como lo sería una buena sonrisa, un decir te quiero, te perdono, un cerrar la boca para no difamar u ofender al prójimo. En pocas palabras, un ser más caritativo con aquellos que nos rodean.

La Cuaresma tiene que ser muy Cristo céntrica, es decir, Cristo está al centro de ella y nosotros tenemos que ir imitando cada vez más a ese Señor que nos invita una y otra vez a la conversión.

Que el espíritu de esta Cuaresma nos ayude a todos a renovarnos y ser mejores cristianos cada día.

EL PADRE JULIO DOMÍNGUEZ es director del Ministerio Hispano de la Diócesis de Charlotte.

El obispo Peter Jugis celebró la misa de miércoles de ceniza en la catedral de San Patricio. La misa se transmitió en vivo en el canal de YouTube de la Diócesis de Charlotte.

SUEANN HOWELL | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

“Recuerda que eres polvo, y al polvo volverás” Las liturgias del Miércoles de Ceniza se ven diferentes durante la pandemia CHARLOTTE — El miércoles de ceniza lució diferente este año debido a la pandemia de COVID-19, que ahora entra en su segundo año.

El obispo Peter Jugis celebró una misa en la catedral de San Patricio que se transmitió en vivo en el canal de YouTube de la Diócesis de Charlotte para que las personas confinadas a sus hogares durante la pandemia pudieran participar de forma remota. Las iglesias de la diócesis también agregaron más servicios del Miércoles de Ceniza para acomodar a más fieles en persona y al mismo tiempo garantizar capacidades limitadas y socialmente distanciadas.

Otro cambio fue en la distribución de las cenizas: las

cenizas se rociaron sobre la cabeza de las personas en lugar de colocarse en la frente en forma de cruz, siguiendo las instrucciones del Vaticano.

Durante una breve homilía antes de distribuir las cenizas a las personas mientras se arrodillaban en los bancos, el obispo Jugis explicó el significado de las cenizas, sin importar de qué manera las recibieran.

“Las cenizas son una señal de dolor por nuestros pecados y nuestras malas acciones. Las cenizas son un signo de penitencia ”, dijo.

“Son un reconocimiento de que hemos pecado, y no solo de que hemos pecado, sino de que nos arrepentimos de nuestros pecados y le rogamos a Dios por la gracia de la conversión, para tener un cambio de corazón y recibir Su gracia para ser limpiado de nuestros pecados “.

“Entonces, ¿cómo sabemos cuáles son nuestros pecados?” él continuó. “Mira los Diez Mandamientos. Jesús dice: “Si me amas, guardarás mis mandamientos”. Por supuesto que amamos a Jesús, por eso estamos aquí. Y debido a que amamos a Jesús, lamentamos nuestros pecados, lamentamos cualquier forma en que lo hemos ofendido, y por amor a Él (lamentamos cómo hemos fallado en amar a los demás) ”.

— SueAnn Howell, reportera mayor

Lecturas Diarias 28 FEB.-6 MARZO

Domingo (segundo domingo de Cuaresma): Génesis 22: 1-2, 9a-13, 15-18, Romanos 8: 31b-34, Marcos 9: 2-10; Lunes: Daniel 9: 4b-10, Lucas 6: 36-38; Martes: Isaías 1:10, 16-20, Mateo 23: 1-12; Miércoles (San Katharine Drexel): Jeremías 18: 18-20, Mateo 20: 17-28; Jueves (San Casimiro): Jeremías 17: 5-10, Lucas 16: 19-31; Viernes: Génesis 37: 3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a, Mateo 21: 33-43, 45-46; Sábado: Miqueas 7: 14-15, 18-20, Lucas 15: 1-3, 11-32

7-13 MARZO

Domingo (tercer domingo de Cuaresma): Éxodo 20: 1-17, 1 Corintios 1: 22-25, Juan 2: 13-25; Lunes (San Juan de Dios): 2 Reyes 5: 1-15ab, Lucas 4: 2430; Martes (Santa Francisca de Roma): Daniel 3:25, 34-43, Mateo 18: 21-35; Miércoles: Deuteronomio 4: 1, 5-9, Mateo 5: 17-19; Jueves: Jeremías 7: 23-28, Lucas 11: 14-23; Viernes: Oseas 14: 2-10, Marcos 12: 28-34; Sábado: Oseas 6: 1-6, Lucas 18: 9-14

14-20 MARZO

Domingo (Cuarto Domingo de Cuaresma): 2 Crónicas 36: 14-16, 19-23, Efesios 2: 4-10, Juan 3: 14-21; Lunes: Isaías 65: 17-21, Juan 4: 43-54; Martes: Ezequiel 47: 1-9, 12, Juan 5: 1-16; Miércoles (San Patricio): Isaías 49: 8-15, Juan 5: 17-30; Jueves (San Cirilo de Jerusalén): Éxodo 32: 7-14, Juan 5: 31-47; Viernes (San José): 2 Samuel 7: 4-5a, 1214a, 16, Romanos 4:13 16-18, 22, Lucas 2: 41-51a; Sábado: Jeremías 11: 18-20, Juan 7: 40-53

February 26, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

13

Diácono Enedino Aquino

En secreto, sin escándalo

M

La iglesia de Monroe presenta un mural mariano para celebrar la diversidad y dar la bienvenida a los marginados MONROE — “¡Hermoso!” “¡Guau!”

Estas fueron algunas de las reacciones de los feligreses cuando ingresaron recientemente a la Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Lourdes y fueron recibidos por un gran mural nuevo que domina el nártex.

El mural presenta a la Santísima Virgen María, Santa Bernadette Soubirous de Lourdes y San Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, un diseño único concebido por el padre Benjamin Roberts, pastor, y elaborado a mano por la artista local Lisa Autry.

El padre Roberts explica que la imagen está destinada a ilustrar el mensaje de unidad de la Iglesia en medio de la diversidad, así como un abrazo de la Iglesia a todas las personas, en particular a los marginados. También contiene múltiples referencias bíblicas a María y, a través de ella, a Cristo.

Describe la representación de María como una combinación única de imágenes marianas tradicionales: vestida de azul, con las manos juntas en oración, de pie sobre el mundo y aplastando a la serpiente bajo sus pies como se predijo en Génesis (Génesis 3:15). Los cielos, estrellas en un campo azul profundo, forman el telón de fondo cuando María se para sobre la puerta que conduce a la iglesia. Ella es la “Puerta del Cielo” por la cual Cristo entró al mundo.

Ella mira directamente a las personas que entran a la iglesia, pero en su posición de llamar la atención “nos señala a Jesús”, dice.

Siguiendo su ejemplo, la gente ingresa a la iglesia para participar de la Eucaristía en la Misa, señala, la Cena del Cordero, una referencia a la Revelación entre muchas que aparecen en las obras de arte en toda la iglesia. Al cruzar la puerta hacia la nave, otro de los murales de Autry que representan al Cordero de Dios es inmediatamente visible sobre el tabernáculo en el santuario.

El nuevo mural del nártex también muestra a dos humildes “marginados” que recibieron la visita de María: Santa Bernardita, que era tan pobre que su

familia vivía en una antigua cárcel; y San Juan Diego, un indígena mexicano. Ambos experimentaron múltiples apariciones de María que fueron fundamentales en la vida de la Iglesia.

Lo que une a los dos santos, y a nosotros, es María, nuestra madre, dice el padre Roberts. “Somos hijos de la misma madre e hijos del mismo Padre”. Él dice, “En el corazón de la espiritualidad de esta parroquia hay dos visionarios: Santa Bernadette y San Juan Diego. Colocados a ambos lados de María, la miran y hay suficiente espacio entre ellos para que cualquiera que mire el mural se sienta parte del grupo”.

El mural también habla de la creciente diversidad de la Iglesia en el oeste de Carolina del Norte durante las últimas dos décadas, particularmente en la parroquia de Monroe. La membresía ha aumentado para incluir una gran cantidad de familias latinas, así como miembros caucásicos mayores, varios miles de feligreses en total.

Unir a estas dos comunidades, a pesar de sus diferencias de edad, cultura e idioma, ha sido la misión del padre Roberts como pastor.

El mural pretende dar la bienvenida a todos los pueblos y culturas, y especialmente a los marginados, dice el padre Roberts. Le gusta pensar en la imagen mariana como “Nuestra Señora de la Periferia” o “Nuestra Señora de los Desterrados”.

El mural remata una extensa serie de proyectos de arte en los últimos años en la iglesia de Monroe, incluyendo murales del piso al techo dentro de la iglesia, vidrieras y una gruta mariana, todos financiados por feligreses y diseñados por el padre Roberts y Autry.

— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editora

Màs online

En www.catholicnewsherald.com: Vea los videos destacados y lea más sobre los otros murales en la Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Lourdes en Monroe

is queridos hermanos en Cristo, Un gran saludo y un fuerte abrazo en la distancia.

Quisiera compartir con Ustedes el tiempo que estamos viviendo: una Cuaresma en tiempo de pandemia.

El 17 de febrero iniciamos este tiempo con el Miércoles de Ceniza. En este día se nos da la pauta o el tono para vivir mejor este tiempo. Siempre que iniciamos las lecturas el miércoles de ceniza, el profeta Joel hace su aparición con un tono de arrepentimiento y una invitación de volvernos a Dios con todo nuestro corazón.

Y en el Evangelio se nos da la manera, o las prácticas cuaresmales, o como dice Jesús las obras de piedad: la limosna, oración y ayuno; la manera de volverse a Dios o dirigir nuestra vida hacia Él .

Jesús menciona las palabras ‘hipócrita’ y ‘en secreto’, afirmando que “habrá una recompensa”. Pienso que esa recompensa es de llegar a la celebración del tiempo pascual a vivir con alegría la Resurrección de nuestro Señor con un corazón lleno de gozo, quitando nuestras máscaras y siendo como Dios quiere que seamos, auténticos cristianos, no hipócritas.

En estos días de Cuaresma quiero entrar en detalles.

Primero, no es necesario que hagamos tanto escándalo y que nos vean por todas partes, ni que se hable de nosotros.

Allá donde Dios nos haya situado, en nuestro hogar, entre los múltiples trabajos cotidianos, en nuestro despacho, en el trabajo, en la cocina, en la “oscuridad” de nuestras jornadas, en “lo secreto”, como ya hemos escrito, podemos glorificar a Dios y servir a nuestros hermanos, lo que es vivir como cristianos.

El Evangelio nos dice: “cuando des limosna, que no sepa tu izquierda lo que hace tu derecha” (Mt. 6:2,3). La limosna designa un sentimiento de compasión y la fuerza que nos lleva a aliviar a todo aquel que tiene una pena. Recuerdo la parábola del buen samaritano, un discípulo de Cristo no puede pasar indiferente al lado de un hombre que sufre.

La caridad limosnera no consiste sólo en aliviar la desgracia ajena sino, ante todo, en compartir su sufrimiento para el cristiano. La caridad comienza a partir del momento en que se priva o se empobrece por los demás.

Por eso, el Padre celestial es el único que lo ve, allá en lo secreto y a los ojos de Dios.

El valor de la oración, como el de la limosna, depende ante todo de su espontaneidad. No se ora en cumplimiento de órdenes, porque sea la hora, se ora porque se ama, para encontrar a Dios, que es Amor. (Mateo 6,6).

Nosotros no debemos orar sólo para llamar a Dios en nuestro auxilio, sino que, ante todo, tenemos necesidad de expresar a Dios nuestra alabanza, nuestra admiración, nuestro reconocimiento, de actualizar nuestro orgullo y nuestra alegría, de estar unidos a Él. Y así nace el querer orar con la mayor frecuencia posible en medio de nuestras ocupaciones.

“Cuando ayunen no pongan la cara triste” (Mt. 6, 16). El Maestro quiere que la vida de sus discípulos esté centrada sobre Dios solo, en el secreto de su alma, sin otra intención que la de glorificarlo por su obediencia. El Padre, que ve en lo secreto, ha de ser el único testigo de sus renuncias y Jesús toma como ejemplo el ejercicio del ayuno.

A diferencia de la oración, el ayuno no es un fin en sí, sino tan solo un medio. El valor de las privaciones corporales depende de esa penitencia interior, de la cual son la expresión y que sólo Dios conoce.

El ayuno y la mortificación puede aparecer a una mirada superficial como una medida relativa, como un esfuerzo inútil; pero en realidad contribuye al mejoramiento de nuestra vida espiritual.

Todo lo anterior lo encierro en esto: volverse más dóciles a la acción del Espíritu Santo y vivir una Pascua con alegría en medio de esta pandemia.

Dios es bueno todo el tiempo, y todo el tiempo Dios es bueno.

EL DIÁCONO ENEDINO AQUINO es coordinador del Ministerio Hispano del Vicariato de Greensboro.

Schools 14

catholicnewsherald.com | February 26, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

St. Gabriel School adds kindergarten class in response to waiting list KIMBERLY BENDER ONLINE REPORTER

CHARLOTTE — St. Gabriel School has added a fifth kindergarten class this year to meet overwhelming interest in the school.

It’s the first time the school has had five kindergarten classes.

The new kindergarten students started Feb. 2, said Principal Michele Snoke. The class is taught

by Nicole Caprio, a board-certified kindergarten teacher who had been teaching the school’s STEM program for kindergarten to fifth grades.

Creating a new kindergarten section was planned by Superintendent Dr. Greg Monroe, Father Richard Sutter, pastor of St. Gabriel Church, and Snoke.

“We added the class in the middle of the school year because the need and opportunity was there,” Snoke said. “The timing was right. Our mission is to provide a Catholic education for all children. We had the ability to serve the children in our community.”

The new class was added to accommodate a waiting list that dates back a year, Snoke said, as well as increased enrollment interest prompted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The school has four other full kindergarten classes with 25 students in each.

“All the pieces fell into place,” Snoke said.

The new kindergarten class was quickly filled, she said. The admissions office for Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools contacted the families on the kindergarten waiting list, and most families expressed interest in starting kindergarten at St. Gabriel as soon as possible.

This change won’t affect class sizes in the future, Snoke said. Next year, the school will have five firstgrade classes.

Total enrollment at the school is now 612 students.

To accommodate the growing number of classes, school leaders are working on a plan to renovate and add classroom space.

The school’s current students were not affected by this change, and none of the previous kindergartners were moved to the new class.

The new class is being taught in the room planned for the STEM classes this year, Snoke said.

Replacing Caprio as STEM teacher is Carolyn Lux. STEM was taught remotely during the first half of the year, and moving forward some classes are being held in individual classrooms as well as in space available adjacent to the music room.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY TRAVIS BURTON

Colin McLaren, librarian at St. Matthew School in Charlotte, guides first-grade students during their visit to the school library as part of their research for a class project.

In demand Enrollment up at diocesan schools as families seek in-person instruction during pandemic SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

CHARLOTTE — With public schools closed to in-person learning for most of the past year, the Douglass family has turned to Catholic schools to keep their children’s education on track and in-person during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hundreds of families across the diocese, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, have made the same choice – boosting enrollment in diocesan schools by 4.4 percent this year and increasing the demand for next school year.

Some schools already have waiting lists and are evaluating whether and how many classes they can add.

“We’re doing everything we can to accommodate the demand and still keep our class sizes capped at an appropriate number of students to ensure the best possible learning environment,” says Superintendent Dr. Greg Monroe.

“Although most of our schools offer online instruction for those who prefer that, we

have prioritized in-person instruction since last August and parents are making clear that’s what they want for their children.”

Like many parents, Anne and Scott Douglass struggled to decide what was best for their children when the school year began last fall. Their youngest daughter, a third-grader, had previously been enrolled – and was doing well – in a special needs program at Our Lady of Grace School in Greensboro, which offered in-person instruction. But with three daughters in public school, the Douglasses had to rely on remote learning for them and found it less effective than they’d hoped for. So the family, which is Methodist, moved one daughter to OLG in November, and another starts in March. Their eldest, a high schooler, will remain in public school.

“Both Lucy and Elizabeth have adapted well to OLG,” says Anne Douglass. “They wake up ready to put on their uniforms, and come home with smiles and stories from the day. Most importantly, I can see how a positive learning environment that

also focuses on character development and community engagement encourages their love for the school.”

Enrollment overall is the highest it’s been in five years, with more than 7,200 students – up from 6,896 students last school year. Thirteen out of 19 schools are seeing increases year over year.

According to the National Catholic Educational Association, out of 174 dioceses nationally, the Diocese of Charlotte is one of only eight seeing an increase in enrollment this year.

St. Gabriel School in Charlotte even took the step of adding an extra kindergarten class to accommodate demand – the first time the school has offered five kindergarten classes.

Principals including Asheville Catholic School’s Mike Miller have been receiving more inquiries and interest as word has spread about the successful in-person learning environment.

DEMAND, SEE PAGE 15

Let’s keep talking.

February 26, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

15

Let’s keep talking.

Southern Homes of the Carolinas David Fuller REALTOR / Broker

“Working For You is What I Do” davidfuller.broker@gmail.com 704-530-2632

PHOTO PROVIDED BY TRAVIS BURTON

Crystal Carney, a learning support teacher at St. Mark School in Huntersville, creatively engages with secondgrade students in a small group literacy session.

Joseph Garavaglia George McMahon J. Daniel Carl Louis Rinkus Nicholas Fadero Franklin Manning John Burke Michael LeVon Stout Charles Brantley

DEMAND FROM PAGE 14

“Parents have held out as long as they can…but they’ve got to get back to a more standard working schedule – and schools are crucial to that effort,” Miller says. “With our schools being open for all students, Monday through Friday, we provide for that need.”

Despite increasing demand, class sizes at all schools in the diocese remain capped to keep student-teacher ratios low. School officials in April will decide whether and how many additional sections of highdemand grades to open at particular schools to accommodate the influx of students.

And as with the Douglass family, more non-Catholic students are enrolling in the diocese’s schools. Typically, non-Catholics account for 15 to 20 percent of enrollment, but this year school officials say that number is up to 25 to 30 percent.

“Rarely a week goes by where we do not greet a new student to our campus,” says St. Matthew School’s principal, Kevin O’Herron. “Families have not left us as the public schools have opened for face-to-face instruction. We are getting close to our capacity because of this.”

O’Herron says interest for next school year is high and their tour schedule remains full.

“The consensus from our new families is that they plan to return next year,” he says. “Many of them came to avoid remote instruction. They are choosing to stay because of the positive impact St. Matthew School has had on their family.”

Monroe notes retention is “excellent” in the diocese’s schools. “If families come to us, they tend to stay. Parents like what they are building in partnership with us.

Whether they’re Catholic or not, they recognize the quality of our faith-based education and the values, discipline and virtues we help instill in their children.”

Miller has an eternal perspective on the increase in enrollment, believing that God, “as He always does, will take something as awful as this pandemic and use it for the ultimate good of our world. I have faith that part of that good is increasing the number of souls that our Catholic schools can bring closer to Him.” The Douglasses are relieved with their school choice and they more fully appreciate the value of in-person

Please pray for the following deacons who died during the month of February: 2/25/2002 2/15/2007 2/12/2010 2/17/2010 2/10/2011 2/13/2011 2/29/2012 2/4/2020 2/27/2020

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ANNE DOUGLASS

Scott and Anne Douglass are pictured with their four daughters: Sarah, Katherine, Elizabeth and Lucy. The family has chosen to send the three younger girls to Our Lady of Grace School because the quality inperson learning meets their needs.

‘Rarely a week goes by where we do not greet a new student to our campus.’

Kevin O’Herron

Principal of St. Matthew School instruction. They say communication and management of COVID-19 protocols have been excellent at OLG, and they expect all three daughters to return next year.

“Pre-COVID,” says Anne Douglass, “we did not realize how these simple daily experiences impacted the overall wellbeing of our children.”

Friday, February 26th, 2021 @ 8:30am & 2:00pm

Fall enrollment underway

What is the Catholic Liberal Arts Curriculum?

All 19 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Charlotte are accepting applications for the 2021-’22 year. Deadlines vary. The nine Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools have a March 31 deadline. Applications received after March 31 will be reviewed on a rolling basis. For enrollment information and to find a school near you, go online to www.charlottediocese.org/ schools-office. Questions? Contact the Catholic Schools Office at 704-370-3271.

Faith Life in Our Catholic Schools Friday, March 19th, 2021 @ 8:30am & 2:00pm

Friday, April 16th, 2021 @ 8:30am & 2:00pm Why Choose St. Michael Catholic School?

Mix 16

catholicnewsherald.com | February 26, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

For the latest movie reviews: catholicnewsherald.com

In theaters

Theresa Payton, cybersecurity expert and founder of Fortalice Solutions in Charlotte, has her third book out entitled, “Manipulated: Inside the Cyberwar to Hijack Elections and Distort the Truth.”

‘Nomadland’ A sense of loneliness pervades this poignant drama in which Frances McDormand gives a bravura performance as a working-class widow from a failed factory town who takes to the road in search of seasonal employment, becoming part of a subculture of marginalized nomads who move from one trailer park to the next in their struggle to evade economic ruin.

Though she forms friendships along the way, including with a few real-life sojourners playing themselves, she resists possible romance with another fellow migrant (David Strathairn) and a couple of opportunities to abandon her travels and settle down in one place. Drawing on journalist Jessica Bruder’s 2017 book, writerdirector Chloe Zhao highlights how momentary encounters and emotional connection help to relieve the cycle of menial labor and anxiety for the future her vulnerable but resilient protagonist endures. She also emphasizes the spiritual lineage all her travelers share with the pioneers of old. Parents will have to weigh whether delicately handled elements that would normally bar younger viewership should be overlooked in the case of mature teens. Mature themes, including suicide and euthanasia, fleeting scatological materials.

CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: R

‘Land’ Actress Robin Wright’s feature debut as a director, she also plays a woman so paralyzed by grief over the loss of her husband and young son that she leaves the world behind to become a hermit in a small, isolated cabin amid the mountains of Wyoming. Having deprived herself of a car or any other form of transport, she must hunt and fish to survive but quickly discovers just how poorly prepared she is for the rigors of life in the wilderness. After a severe crisis, she gains the help and instruction of a local man (Demian Bichir) with whom she gradually forms a healing bond of friendship.

Wright’s meditative drama features long silences and sweeping views of a magnificent, unspoiled landscape. Yet witnessing the physical and spiritual purgation her character undergoes, while a valuable experience, is not an easy one. Authentic emotions and humane values in a film of serious intent. Probably acceptable for mature adolescents. Nongraphic marital sensuality, animal gore, a few milder oaths.

CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: PG-13 MOVIES, SEE PAGE 17

PHOTO PROVIDED BY THERESA PAYTON

‘It’s a God thing’ Cybersecurity, faith go hand in hand for local tech expert SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

CHARLOTTE — Theresa Payton, a longtime parishioner of St. Peter Church, is an author and national media expert on cybersecurity. In her latest book, “Manipulated: Inside the Cyberwar to Hijack Elections and Distort the Truth,” Payton breaks down misinformation campaigns and empowers people to understand how they are being manipulated online.

This is Payton’s third book, and although she wrote it in the aftermath of the contentious 2016 election, the lessons she imparts are even more relevant today.

Her inspiration came from her work through the technology company she founded, Fortalice Solutions.

“We do work on behalf of the U.S. government and our allies, as well as private-sector companies and individuals. In the 2015’16 timeframe, I was observing more companies and individuals experiencing different digital events that were impacting their brand and their psyche, how they consumed facts versus fiction and how they consumed information,” she explains.

“Across the board, I saw misinformation and manipulation campaigns amping up – not even just about politics. I was seeing unscrupulous business competitors saying something terrible about a company or an industry, trying to put them out of business. I was tracking those misinformation campaigns, advising individuals and businesses… And in the 2016 elections and the months that followed, we learned about the misinformation campaigns conducted by Russia.”

But “Manipulated” is not just a story about election interference, she says. “It’s more of a global book centered around all social issues – everything from fracking versus no fracking, vaccinations versus no vaccinations – it’s all of the social issues in which people normally have different feelings on a spectrum, then find some common ground and push ahead.”

Payton has a long and illustrious career in cybersecurity – including serving as chief information officer for President George W. Bush, the first woman in this key national security role.

Her career is more of a calling and she leans heavily on her Catholic faith, she says. “I truly believe it’s a God thing, that I have been led to do this kind of work.”

As she was leaving her position at the White House, she asked God where He was calling her to focus her skills. “I really got this strong message that it was fighting cybercrime – taking my faith and my training over the years at work to help people understand the dangers of the digital age.”

Now during the pandemic, when people are physically distant but virtually connected, Payton is focused even more intensely on protecting and educating people.

“Unfortunately, while we are looking for a deeper attachment to each other and it is necessarily through digital means, it can take us off our path,” she says. “Focusing on protecting people as they live and work in the digital realm is where I feel uniquely called and led to help people.”

Manipulators of information have a limitless supply of opportunities but similar motivations, she points out – including controlling people and conversations, inciting people to argue with each other instead of seeking common ground, and making money off people using “click-bait” headlines.

“The other reason why I wrote the book is that government, big tech and social media companies can’t move fast enough to protect us,” Payton explains. “Superman is not coming to save us.”

Payton has fictional vignettes in the book to illustrate what can happen if we don’t take personal responsibility for our online behavior. She also shares telltale signs to help people understand how they are being manipulated, how to fact check information, and how to have a conversation with others and point them to reliable resources.

“We have to educate the whole community,” she says.

Her work is monumental and never-ending, so Payton makes sure to pray every morning. “I say to God, ‘This your mission, let me be Your hands and feet today.’ And I ask Him, ‘Where can I shine Your light today in what can be this dark world?”

Learn more “Manipulated: Inside the Cyberwar to Hijack Elections and Distort the Truth” by Theresa Payton is available online at www.amazon.com and www.walmart.com. Follow Payton on Twitter @trackerpayton or check out Fortalice Solutions on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

February 26, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

On TV n Friday, Feb. 26, 11:30 a.m. (EWTN) “John Paul II: The Man, the Pope and His Message.” An insider’s view of the life of St. John Paul II. Andre Frossard, a journalist who chronicled many events of the pope’s tenure, provides personal reflections on the early years of his pontificate. n Saturday, Feb. 27, 8 p.m. (EWTN) “The Passion of Bernadette.” Sequel to the acclaimed film, “Bernadette: Her Vision Became A Legend,” explores St. Bernadette’s life with the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. n Tuesday, March 2, 11:30 a.m. (EWTN) “Padre Pio, The Priest Who Bore the Wounds of Christ.” Recounts how the humble Italian friar received the wounds of Christ, and explains what the stigmata is physically and mystically.

The program also draws a comparison with St. Francis of Assisi’s stigmata. n Friday, March 5, 5:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Tokimane.” A documentary profiling the

MOVIES FROM PAGE 16

‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ Compelling fact-based drama, set in the late 1960s, in which a Chicago car thief (LaKeith Stanfield) facing a long prison term agrees to infiltrate the local chapter of the Black Panther Party and supply information to an FBI agent (Jesse Plemons) about the activities of its charismatic chairman, Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). As he tries to evade detection as an informer, he becomes increasingly reluctant to support the law-flouting tactics of the bureau whose racist director, J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen), views the Panthers as a grave threat to national security. Debuting director Shaka King skillfully maintains interest in this personality-rich study of conflicted loyalties and in the budding romance between Hampton and one of his followers (Dominique Fishback).

But the concerns raised by the use of force in response to violent police misconduct toward minority communities as well as the avowedly Marxist ideology underpinning the Panthers’ outlook require careful discernment by mature viewers. They’ll also need to withstand a torrent of vulgar dialogue. Considerable violence with some gore, profanity, pervasive crude language.

CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: R

efforts and remarkable people of the Diocese of Tshumbe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, who are working to rebuild their community in the wake of a catastrophic war. n Saturday, March 6, 8 p.m. (EWTN) “Ignatius of Loyola: Soldier, Sinner, Saint.” This very human account of “The Saint of Second Chances” follows St. Ignatius of Loyola’s journey from selfabsorbed sinner to loyal soldier of Christ and founder of the Jesuit order. n Sunday, March 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, March 8, 11:30 a.m. (EWTN) “They Might be Saints: Sister Marie De MandatGrancey. The fascinating story of a sister’s extraordinary efforts to locate the house of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as she travels to Ephesus, Turkey, to bring this treasure to the Catholic Church.

charting the struggles and triumphs of family life. An aspiring produce farmer (Steven Yeun), his wife (Yeri Han) and their two children (Alan Kim and Noel Kate Cho) move from California to rural Arkansas where the tedious nature of the couple’s work in a chicken hatchery, together with the outlay of money Dad dedicates to his dream, inspires constant bickering. The film’s strength lies in its understated presentation of universal themes concerning marriage, parenting, and familial bonds in general.

Probably acceptable for mature adolescents.

Fleeting crude language, a suicide reference.

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

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‘The House That Rob Built’ Filmmakers Jonathan Cipiti and Megan Harrington’s inspirational hourlong documentary profiles longtime University of Montana women’s basketball coach Robin Selvig. A former college player kept from becoming a professional by a knee injury, Selvig began coaching the Grizzlies, affectionately known as the Lady Griz, in 1978 at a time when such squads weren’t even recognized by the NCAA. Over the four decades that followed, he not only amassed a record of 865 wins to 286 losses but, more significantly, wielded a positive influence over the lives of many students, both on and off the court. Former players movingly recall his impact, making this an upbeat biography that’s also suitable for family viewing.

CNS: A-I (general patronage). MPAA: Not rated

Save the Date

‘Minari’ Set in the 1980s, and loosely based on the childhood experiences of writer-director Lee Isaac Chung, this gentle mix of drama and comedy explores the immigrant experience from a Korean-American perspective while also

PRAYER TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN O Most Beautiful Flower of Mt. Carmel, Fruitful Vine, Splendor of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity. O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein you are my Mother. O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succor me in my necessity (make request.)

There are none that can withstand your power.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee (3 times.)

Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (3 times.)

3 Our Father, 3 Hail Mary, 3 Glory Be Published in gratitude for prayers answered.

Thank you, K.B.

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catholicnewsherald.com | February 26, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Catholic Extension initiative aims to help 1,000 poorest parishes in U.S. CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

CHICAGO — Catholic Extension has launched a new effort to help the nation’s poorest parishes and poor faith communities hit hard by COVID-19.

It’s the Catholic Kinship Initiative – Parishes United Across America, and it’s designed to match financially stable parishes with a poor parish in another part of the country.

The initiative is seeking 1,000 faith communities to raise a minimum of $1,000 each during the Lenten season and beyond to help the 1,000 poorest parishes in the country that are serving the poor.

Details about the program can be found online at www.catholicextension.org/alms.

The initiative is “something we’re very excited about,” said Joe Boland, Extension’s vice president of mission. He called it “a theological response, not only to this season of almsgiving, but gives us an opportunity to do something spiritually for ourselves, (is) something we can do to express the universality of the church in this year of St. Joseph but also something we can do in this very difficult year in which we’ve lived.”

“We know this pandemic and this economic downturn has impacted everybody, but it’s also impacted people in different ways,” he said. “And we’re particularly mindful of the poor and our poor parishes in this country who are serving the poor, so that’s what this Catholic Kinship Initiative is designed to do.”

The gift of $1,000 can make a significant impact to parishes whose collections have dwindled to almost nothing since the onset of the pandemic, said a Feb. 8 Catholic Extension news release announcing the initiative.

In his interview, Boland gave examples of parishes in need of a lot of help, like in the Diocese of Ponce Puerto Rico. A year ago they were trying to deal with the earthquake that had just happened and “leveled some of their churches to piles of rubble,” he noted.

“By way, they’re still piles of rubble, we’re working on that problem,” he said.

But the more immediate need is helping the parishes “doing the basic work of the Church in serving these poor communities which have been under even greater duress this past year” because of the pandemic.

The initiative also will help support other parishes like those in the Appalachian Mountains, he said.

This year especially Boland said is an opportunity to find ways to “help us realize that we are part of a larger body of believers and to help express that unity we share with others us,” whether it is through the Catholic Kinship Initiative or some other effort.

Catholic Extension has been supporting the work and ministries of the nation’s mission dioceses since its founding in 1905.

It raises funds to help build up faith communities and construct churches in these dioceses, which are rural, cover a large geographic area, and have limited personnel and pastoral resources.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris stand with their spouses at the White House in Washington Feb. 22, during a candlelit ceremony to commemorate the grim milestone of over 500,000 U.S. deaths from the coronavirus.

CNS | JONATHAN ERNST, REUTERS

Biden leads nation in mourning its 500,000 COVID-19 deaths CAROL ZIMMERMANN CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden addressed the nation in a speech from the White House Feb. 22, the day the nation reached, and then passed, what he called the “truly grim, heartbreaking milestone” of 500,000 U.S. deaths from COVID-19.

He urged Americans to “resist becoming numb to the sorrow” brought on by the hundreds of thousands who died this past year, a number which he said is more than the Americans who died in the two world wars and the Vietnam War. “We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blur or on the news. And we must do so to honor the dead,” he said, but also to “care for the living and those left behind.”

The president’s address was prior to a moment of silence outside the White House, where he was joined by first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Alongside them were 500 lit candles symbolizing the 500,000 deaths. The Marine Corps band played “Amazing Grace,” and when the song ended, the president made the sign of the cross and the two couples went back inside.

In his 10-minute remarks before this moment of silence just after sundown,

the president urged the nation not just to remember the dead, whom he described as “extraordinary Americans” from all walks of life, but to also fight against the virus that has impacted so many.

“We have to fight this together, as one people, as the United States of America.

That’s the only way we’re going to beat this virus, I promise you,” he said, urging Americans not to let these milestones of numbers of deaths continue to “mark our national mourning.”

“Let this not be a story of how far we fell, but of how far we climbed back up.

We can do this,” he said, speaking as one who knows the impact of grief firsthand from the deaths of his first wife and young daughter almost 50 years ago in a car crash and his son Beau’s death from cancer just over five years ago.

The president personally addressed those who have lost loved ones through COVID-19.

“For the loved ones left behind, I know all too well. I know what it’s like to not be there when it happens. I know what it’s like when you are there, holding their hands. There’s a look in your eye, and they slip away. That black hole in your chest – you feel like you’re being sucked into it, the survivor’s remorse, the anger, the questions of faith in your soul.”

He said for some in the nation, these deaths were a year ago, or a month, a week,

a day or even an hour, but “when you stare at that empty chair around the kitchen table, it brings it all back, no matter how long ago it happened, as if it just happened that moment you looked at that empty chair. The birthdays, the anniversaries, the holidays without them. And the everyday things – the small things, the tiny things – that you miss the most.”

He also acknowledged the lack of normal rituals to help people cope with loss and honor the dead.

The president said he received a letter from a daughter whose father died of COVID-19 last Easter and said she wondered about the significance of her own loss up against so many other losses. He said she and her family enter this Lent, “a season of reflection and renewal, with heavy hearts” since they were unable to properly mourn.

Although he spoke solemnly of the innumerable losses America has experienced, he also gave the nation a collective “there, there” pat on the back, urging its citizens to keep going and not to let the pandemic have the last word.

Echoing his message at the COVID-19 memorial the day before his inauguration, he said: “To heal, we must remember. I know it’s hard. I promise you; I know it’s hard,” but he also stressed that one day it would get easier and said one way to help DEATHS, SEE PAGE 19

February 26, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

DEATHS

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FROM PAGE 18

this happen is to find purpose.

To that end, he advised Americans to “remain vigilant, to stay socially distanced, to mask up, get vaccinated when it’s your turn.” He also pleaded for an end to the “politics and misinformation that has divided families, communities, and the country, and has cost too many lives already.”

“It’s not Democrats and Republicans who are dying from the virus,” he stressed. “It’s our fellow Americans.

It’s our neighbors and our friends, our mothers, our fathers, our sons, our daughters, husbands, wives.”

Biden, who has been president just over one month, said that in this year of loss, Americans also have displayed profound courage on the front lines.

“I know the stress, the trauma, the grief you carry. But you give us hope.

You keep us going,” he said directly to those who have been on the front lines throughout the pandemic.

He told them they remind the nation to take care of our own and to leave nobody behind.

“While we have been humbled, we have never given up,” the president said. “We are America. We can and will do this.”

In Brief Bishops: If passed, Equality Act will ‘discriminate against people of faith’ WASHINGTON, D.C. — If the House of Representatives passes the Equality Act, its mandates will “discriminate against people of faith” by adversely affecting charities and their beneficiaries, conscience rights, women’s sports, “and sex-specific facilities,” said the chairmen of five U.S. bishops’ committees. The bill, known as H.R. 5 and recently reintroduced in the House and supported by President Joe Biden, will also provide for taxpayer funding of abortion and put limits on freedom of speech, the chairmen said in a Feb. 23 letter to Congress. H.R. 5 would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, public education, federal funding, credit and jury duty. The House was expected to vote on the measure before Feb. 26.

“Human dignity is central to what Catholics believe,” they said, and the Church serves “all people, without regard to race, religion or any other characteristic.”

“Rather than affirm human dignity in ways that meaningfully exceed existing practical protections, the Equality Act would discriminate against people of faith,” they said. “It would also inflict numerous legal and social harms on Americans of any faith or none.”

are there?” McMaster said.

The state House passed the bill 79-35 Feb. 17. News reports said the House passed the bill after nearly all Democratic members walked out in protest. The Senate passed the measure by a 30-13 vote Jan. 28.

S.C. governor signs abortion bill: right to life is ‘fundamental’

Va. governor expected to OK death penalty ban, abortion funding bill

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Saying “there are a lot of happy hearts beating right now,” Republican Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina signed a bill into law Feb. 18 prohibiting most abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected. The South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection From Abortion Act requires a doctor to test for a detectable fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed on a pregnant woman and prohibits the performance of an abortion “if a fetal heartbeat is detected,” except in the case of a medical emergency, rape or incest, or the presence of “a fetal anomaly.” The law also says if an abortion provider is found guilty of not following the law, the person could receive a prison sentence of up to two years and/or be fined $10,000. A woman who receives an abortion in violation of the law could sue for $10,000 in damages.

“If there’s not a right to life, then what rights

FAITH

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Virginia General Assembly passed a final version of a bill that will abolish the death penalty in the state Feb. 22. There is expected to be a public signing ceremony with Gov. Ralph Northam in April.

In a joint statement, Virginia Bishops Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington and Barry C. Knestout of Richmond praised the lawmakers’ decision to abolish the death penalty.

Legislation that would expand abortion coverage in Virginia’s health exchange also is likely to be signed by Northam, who supports legal abortion. The state house passed the bill allowing tax-funded abortion for any reason in Virginia’s health exchange Jan. 26. The Senate OK’d the measure Jan. 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

— Catholic News Service

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catholicnewsherald.com | February 26, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Pope: For Lent, ask if one’s life is centered on God or oneself

Father Emanuel Youkhana, an archimandrite of the Assyrian Church of the East, looks through the rubble of a Syriac Catholic Church in Qaraqosh, Iraq, Jan. 27, 2017.

The mannequin and poster were used as target practice

by Islamic State militants. Security and COVID-19 are two of the challenges to Pope Francis’ March 5-8 visit to Iraq.

CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY — Lent is a time to reconsider the path one is taking in life and to finally answer God’s invitation to return to Him with one’s whole heart, Pope Francis said.

“Lent is not just about the little sacrifices we make, but about discerning where our hearts are directed,” he said, “toward God or toward myself ?”

The pope’s remarks came in his homily at Mass Feb. 17 for Ash Wednesday, which included the blessing and distribution ashes, marking the beginning of Lent for Latin-rite Catholics.

Because of ongoing measures in place to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, the Mass and distribution of ashes took place with a congregation of little more than 100 people at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Pope Francis did not do the traditional walk from the Church of St. Anselm to the Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome’s Aventine Hill to prevent large crowds of people from gathering along the route.

In St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope received ashes on his head from Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of the basilica, and he distributed ashes to about three dozen cardinals, as well as the priests and deacons assisting him at the Mass.

In his homily, the pope said one must bow to receive ashes sprinkled on the crown of the head, which reflects the “humble descent” one makes in reflecting on one’s life, sins and relationship with God. “Lent is a journey of return to God,” especially when most people live each day ignoring or delaying their response to God’s invitation to pray and do something for others.

“It is a time to reconsider the path we are taking, to find the route that leads us home and to rediscover our profound relationship with God, on whom everything depends,” he said.

“The journey of Lent is an exodus from slavery to freedom,” he said, noting the easy temptations along that journey, including yearning for the past, or hindered by “unhealthy attachments, held back by the seductive snares of our sins, by the false security of money and appearances, by the paralysis of our discontents. To embark on this journey, we have to unmask these illusions.”

The way back to God, he said, starts with understanding, like the prodigal son, how “we have ended up with empty hands and an unhappy heart” after squandering God’s gifts “on paltry things, and then with seeking God’s forgiveness through confession.

The pope again reminded confessors that they must be like the father in the story of the prodigal son and not use “a whip,” but open their arms in a welcoming embrace.

“The journey is not based on our own strength. Heartfelt conversion, with the deeds and practices that express it, is possible only if it begins with the primacy of God’s work” and through His grace, the pope said.

CNS | PAUL JEFFREY

Honoring suffering, building bridges: Papal trip to Iraq has dual focus CINDY WOODEN CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY — Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing security concerns, Pope Francis is determined to visit Iraq to pay homage to Christian and other minorities persecuted for their faith and to strengthen the commitment of the overwhelming majority of Iraqi Muslims to creating a future of peace and harmony.

As a pilgrim March 5-8, he will visit churches destroyed by militants of the Islamic State group, and as a global religious leader, he will hold an interreligious meeting near the ancient city of Ur, birthplace of Abraham.

“Pope Francis is truly a father because he really wants all human beings to be united – not only Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants – but he is broadening his embrace to include the Islamic world,” said Shahrzad Houshmand Zadeh, a Shiite Muslim theologian who has taught at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Holding an interreligious meeting at the birthplace of Abraham, recognized as the patriarch of monotheistic faith by Jews, Christians and Muslims, “can shake people’s consciences to remind us of our common origin,” she said. “It’s like going home and finding our brothers and sisters again.”

Jesuit Father Joseph Cassar, the Irbil-based country director for Jesuit Refugee Service, noted that the theme of Pope Francis’ visit is “You are all brothers.”

“That message really needs to be heard loud and clear and taken to heart by everyone, Christians included,” he said. “Years, decades, of conflict and sectarian division have really wreaked havoc on Iraq,” destroying whole villages, but even more, tearing the social fabric “to shreds.”

“Christians look forward to the pope’s visit to be acknowledged,” he said. But “across the board, all people of goodwill await this message of hope, of fraternity from the pope, and they long for a change in Iraq.”

The fact that rockets were launched into Irbil Feb. 15 creates additional concern, Father Cassar said. It doesn’t happen often, “especially in the Kurdistan region, which is really regarded as a safe haven. This of course bursts the bubble a bit and I think it was an intentional message to the coalition forces and the U.S. forces and the new (Biden) administration to say, ‘Hey, we can get you anywhere.’”

“The whole of Iraq is in a fragile situation and the outlook continues to be uncertain, but one must never lose hope,” he said. COVID-19, political tensions, economic difficulties and “ongoing, low-level attacks by ISIS,” including suicide bombings in Baghdad in January, increase insecurity.

The fact that the pope is going “at a time when it really is not easy because of COVID is a very strong statement,” said Regina

Lynch, director of projects for the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. “This visit of the Holy Father also is a sign that the Catholic Church is an artisan of peace, of reconciliation and development.”

While the events on Pope Francis’ schedule include meetings with top government leaders and leaders of other faiths, meetings with the country’s Christians are at the heart of the visit.

Michael La Civita, director of communications for the New York-based Catholic Near East Welfare Association, said the trip tells Iraqi Christians “that despite their ever declining numbers, someone on the outside cares and that someone happens to be the bishop of Rome,” the pope; about 80 percent of the Christians in Iraq are Eastern Catholics, belonging to either the Chaldean, Syriac or Armenian Catholic churches.

“He will be there to witness, to be in solidarity with this Church of the martyrs,” he said. Iraqi Christians “very much understand that because of their identity, which is both ethnic and faith-based, they are at any given time subject to martyrdom because of their identity as followers of Jesus.”

In the past 30 or 40 years, the Eastern Catholics as well as members of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Assyrian Church of the East have given witness to the “ecumenism of blood,” their unity in martyrdom, La Civita said. “These Churches are steeped in the blood of their martyrs.”

“I think they are getting tired of being called resilient” after suffering through so many waves of persecution, he said, “but it is remarkable how resilient they are. But they are not ‘they,’ they’re ‘we,’ our brothers and sisters.”

Lynch agreed, saying the pope’s planned visit “really shows them that they are part of the universal Church, that they are united with us and we are united with them.”

“It’s easier for people who have not suffered the way the (Iraqi) Christians have to say, ‘We must have reconciliation.

We must live together.’ But we mustn’t forget that this is what the Christians have done there for so long,” she said. “They’ve always been a minority in the last centuries and yet they are a bridge between different groups, different Islamic groups as well.”

Lynch was in Irbil in 2014 a week after waves of displaced Christians arrived in the city fleeing Islamic State militants. “I remember one or two people recounting how, when they were leaving their homes with the bare necessities because they had to leave really quickly, some of them were hurt – maybe even bitter – because they saw their former neighbors going into their houses and ransacking them.”

One of ACN’s big programs was to assist Christians who wanted to return to their villages and homes. The charity helped IRAQ, SEE PAGE 24

February 26, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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In Brief Pope advances more sainthood causes VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis advanced the sainthood cause of one of Princes William and Harry’s 19th-century ancestors as well as the causes of three Italian nuns who died from the Ebola virus while ministering to patients in Congo. The pope signed the decrees Feb. 20 during a meeting with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes. The Vatican published the decrees the same day.

Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtues of Passionist Father Ignatius Spencer, the greatgreat-great uncle of the late-Princess Diana, mother to Prince William, the second in the line of succession to Britain’s throne. Father Spencer had planned a career as an Anglican priest but became a Catholic shortly after practicing the faith was legalized in Britain in 1829. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1832 and died in Scotland in 1864.

The pope also recognized the heroic virtues of three members of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Poor: Sister Floralba Rondi, born in the province of Bergamo, Italy, in 1924; Sister Clarangela Ghilardi, born in 1931 also in the province of Bergamo; and Sister Dinarosa Belleri, born in the province of Brescia, Italy, in 1936. The sisters were nurses at a hospital in Kikwit in then-Zaire when an Ebola virus outbreak hit the city. A total of six Italian nuns were among more than 250 victims of the 1995 outbreak.

Cardinals Sarah, Comastri retire from Vatican posts VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis accepted the resignations of 75-year-old Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, and 77-year-old Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica and vicar for Vatican City State.

While a new prefect of the worship congregation was not announced when news of the retirements was made public Feb. 20, the pope did name Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, 55, to be the new archpriest of the basilica and his vicar for Vatican City. Cardinal Gambetti, whom the pope elevated to the College of Cardinals in November, is a Conventual Franciscan who had served as general minister and custos of the Sacred Convent of St. Francis of Assisi since 2013. He had also been episcopal vicar for the pastoral care of the Basilica of St. Francis and other places of worship overseen by the Conventual Franciscans in the diocese. He has degrees in mechanical engineering, theology and theological anthropology and is among the youngest of the cardinals.

Like bishops, cardinals are required to offer the pope their resignations when they turn 75.

Cardinals can still vote in a conclave until they are 80.

Pope marks 90th anniversary of Divine Mercy apparition VATICAN CITY — Marking the 90th anniversary of the apparition of Jesus to St. Faustina Kowalska, Pope Francis wrote a letter to Catholics in Poland expressing his hope that Christ’s message of divine mercy would remain “alive in the hearts of the faithful.”

According to a statement released by the Polish bishops’ conference Feb. 22, the anniversary of the apparition, the pope said he

was united in prayer with those commemorating the anniversary at the Divine Mercy Shrine in Krakow and encouraged them ask Jesus “for the gift of mercy. Let us have the courage to come back to Jesus to meet His love and mercy in the sacraments,” he said. “Let us feel His closeness and tenderness, and then we will also be more capable of mercy, patience, forgiveness and love.”

In her diary, St. Faustina wrote that she had witnessed a vision of Jesus on Feb. 22, 1931, while she was living at a convent in Plock, Poland. Christ, she wrote, had one hand raised in benediction and the other resting on his breast, from which emanated two rays of light.

She said Christ demanded to have this image painted – along with the words “Jesus, I trust in you” – and venerated.

Vatican expects budget deficit for 2021 VATICAN CITY — In the wake of the economic fallout due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy said it expects a multimillion-dollar deficit in its budget for 2021. In a Feb. 19 statement, the Vatican said Pope Francis signed off on the Holy See’s 2021 budget, which was proposed by the secretariat and approved by the Council for the Economy, the Vatican board charged with overseeing the financial operations of all offices and entities.

“With total revenues of 260.4 million euros (US$316 million) and expenses of 310.1 million euros ($376.3 million), the Holy See expects a deficit of 49.7 million euros ($60.3 million) in

2021, heavily impacted by the economic crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the secretariat said.

— Catholic News Service

PRAYER TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN O Most Beautiful Flower of Mt. Carmel, Fruitful Vine, Splendor of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity. O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein you are my Mother. O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succor me in my necessity (make request.)

There are none that can withstand your power.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee (3 times.)

Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (3 times.)

3 Our Father, 3 Hail Mary, 3 Glory Be Published in gratitude for prayers answered.

Thank you, D.C.

Just Say No:

Naysayers in the Bible’s Wisdom Books

March 5-8, 2021 Presented by: Alice Camille

Is it possible to say a small No to arrive at a big Yes? Is there room in the life of faith for doubt and disagreement? The Bible contains many examples of how “no” can become the ultimate “yes” in the life of believers. Disagreeable folks are welcome to participate!

This program will be a combination of pre-recorded presentations and live Zoom sessions on March 5th and 8th. Links for these will be sent, so pre-registration is required.

External Engagement Director Charlotte

Do you strongly believe it’s possible to disrupt the cycle of poverty?

Do you want a faith-based mission-driven job that impacts the lives of thousands of North Carolinians, most of whom live at or near the federal poverty level?

ROCK HILL ORATORY Center for Spirituality LEARN, PRAY, GROW For more information about our current programs and events go to – www.rockhilloratory.org If you have questions or would like more details please contact us – oratorycenter@gmail.com

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We are seeking a candidate deeply committed to the organized work of charity, highly skilled, and very energetic for this external-facing position which is responsible for expanding the strategic engagement between Catholic Charities and a number of critical constituencies – Catholic clergy, parishioners, volunteers, donors/benefactors, corporations, foundations, funders, people of goodwill, and the public at large.

For a complete job description visit: ccdoc.org/jobs.

Cover letter and resume (2-page maximum) must be submitted electronically to: dbfebles@charlottediocese.org.

No phone calls, please. Position open until filled.

ccdoc.org

ViewPoints 22

catholicnewsherald.com | February 26, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Jesuit Father John Michalowski

E

Who is unclean?

very year we enter into Lent and are called to prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We hear the words, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

We are called to conversion, to turn our lives more and more to Christ and to others, for all are children of God. But do we really believe that? Is this an area where many of us need continuing conversion?

Jesus often reached out to those who were rejected by others, those who were on the margins, those who were looked on with fear and suspicion.

Perhaps the most rejected were those who suffered from leprosy.

What we call Hanson’s Disease today is true leprosy, a condition that not only disfigures a person but kills the nerve endings. Because of this a person may get cuts and feel nothing. Infection then sets in and the person often loses part or all of their toes, fingers and even limbs.

Is it any wonder that people were afraid of lepers?

In Jesus’ time, there were other skin diseases that people feared were leprosy. This made people “untouchable” and they had to leave the community, live outside of town and cry out, “Unclean, unclean,” if anyone approached them. Sometimes those conditions would clear up and the person would go to the priest to verify their healing before being readmitted to the community. Many remained unclean and they died, alone and rejected.

What would it be like to be rejected in this way? What is it to be looked on with fear and suspicion?

Unfortunately, we can easily fall into the trap of looking on others with fear and suspicion. I live in the Dilworth neighborhood in Charlotte, and most of my neighbors are Caucasian. When I see an AfricanAmerican who is not cutting the lawn, delivering a package or involved in some service activity, I wonder if the person might actually live in the neighborhood. If it is a young man wearing a hoodie, I have to stop myself from wondering about him.

How incredibly different this is from Jesus’ attitude in the Gospel. He is not afraid of a leper, a Samaritan, or even the Gerasene demoniac. In fact, Jesus does what is unthinkable in His society: He reaches out and touches the leper, and “the leprosy left him immediately.”

Obviously, I cannot cure a person of disease. However, I can treat each

person with openness and respect.

I can contrast my present experience in my neighborhood with my experience working in an African-American parish in Chicago when I was in theology, or with my experiences in India or Palestine.

In those places I was shown an openness toward me as a stranger, an openness that I don’t always have toward others. It is an area in which I need further conversion.

The only time I felt that I was a stranger was not a matter of rejection or suspicion, but of being an oddity. In India’s Bihar Province, in an agricultural area, I went to the Patna Zoo to see the white tigers. As I was looking at the rare tigers, some local children standing nearby were more intrigued by my blond hair and blue eyes. Clearly, I was the oddity.

To them, white tigers were old hat.

What is so important is to get to know one another and to come to appreciate the differences that make up the human family – in all of its diversity. In fact, we can come to be so comfortable with differences that we miss them when they are no longer present.

After I finished my Master of Divinity in Chicago, I went to Cambridge, Mass., to earn a Master of Theology. I lived on Lexington Avenue on the western end of town.

I felt uncomfortable yet didn’t know what was wrong. About two weeks later, I walked into the center of Cambridge, and all of a sudden, I realized why I had been so unsettled.

I hadn’t seen any African-Americans in the neighborhood. I was so used to being either in the integrated neighborhood of Hyde Park or in the African-American neighborhood of Englewood in Chicago, that seeing only Caucasians around me felt very strange.

Thank God for the greater diversity in Charlotte, but too often we are separated by neighborhood, by job, and by social status.

As we enter into Lent, perhaps we can examine our consciences to see if we have any “lepers” in our lives – any persons, who by race, language, disability, social status, sickness or mental struggle, make us uncomfortable, fearful or rejecting. Lent is a good time to talk to God about it and ask Him for the healing of our own hearts. We need conversion. Then when we get to Easter, may we hear Jesus say to us, “I do will it. Be healed.”

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

Fred Gallagher

In remembrance…

A

fter a particularly enjoyable lunch round of reminiscing with one of my brothers the other day, he noted that we are of the age now that we talk about the past a whole lot more than we do the future. And he’s right.

Time itself lets us know there is a whole lot more of the past to be talked about. And the future, when you come right down to it, is mostly speculation, isn’t it?

Not so, the past. Oh, we may have different views of it. but we do know something real happened and we recall some of what we felt about it at the time and how we feel about it now in retrospect. And, of course, without having been significantly affected by indelible, even haunting, bygone impressions, there can be no reminiscence.

Usually, the way into a grove of memory is through seemingly insignificant details, appurtenant scenes and settings, or even a mosaic of images having risen up from the blurry depths of the soul. An intimately personal understanding of the past may also manifest itself in the practicing of and the honor we pay to tradition. G.K. Chesterton famously referred to tradition as the “democracy of the dead.”

And so, as my brother and I kept on with our stories, most of which each of us had either told or heard a hundred times. Amid the headshaking laughter, the good-natured ribbing, the still, sad recognitions, and the deep appreciations, we came to realize that so many of the characters, stars or supporting actors of our tales, are no longer on the planet.

Perhaps the sign of a good life is how many people we really miss. Gabriel Marcel once said, “You know you have loved someone when you have glimpsed in them that which is too beautiful to die.” People really do live on in our hearts. And my brother and I spoke of them.

I sometimes wonder just how important my children’s memories will be to them. How much of what Mom and Dad laid before them in their childhoods or who we were to them and with them will re-enter their minds and, hopefully, bolster them when they need it? Will the casual intimacies of family life bear fruit?

Will devout practice of the faith reawaken a hunger in their souls? Will old photographs on the top of the piano or sonnets left to them or songs my wife and I sang cause them to reminisce with each other and hunger for God? I certainly hope so.

What about our faith in these godless times? When even our own Catholic laity and clergy, too, can publicly thwart and privately circumvent basic tenets of the faith with no ecclesial (or earthly) repercussions, what are we to do? Will the truths we know, written in the human heart and sanctioned by Holy Mother Church, inhabit our children and reappear to guide their thoughts and actions and to matter in their lives? Will First Communions come to mind?

What of catechisms in the stained glass, Advent wreaths, Good Fridays, midnight Masses, rosaries prayed in living rooms, silent penances, Adoration of the Blessed

Sacrament? Will the patrons and patronesses of our children rise up in them like incense to protect them from a world where religious observance and devotion is quickly becoming passe?

We know how destructive bad memories can be. I hope good memories can counterbalance the spirits of my offspring in such a way as to bring them and our other loved ones a measure of harmony and peace.

A friend once told me it was OK to look back, but not to stare. Our memories should have a purpose in our present lives. If I recall having been forgiven for missteps in my past, chances are it will be much easier for me to forgive someone else if I am wronged.

Many of the traditional values we believe in are mocked, ignored or suppressed by the culture. And yet, like Christ’s disciples pulling in their nets from the sea, we haul around with us our cherished memories that sustain us.

Faith itself is remembrance, and it does not exist in a vacuum. We don’t just have faith; we have faith in something and Someone. A Christian has faith in the Person of Jesus Christ, in all He taught and in His ultimate sacrifice on the cross. His birth, life, death and resurrection are recollections we as Christians contemplate daily in word and deed.

Especially as Catholics, we know the Last Supper to be the largest collective memory humankind has ever known. Jesus broke bread and offered wine and said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” And in this very second, somewhere on the planet, in a basilica or a hut, a priest en persona Christi is saying the words and the Host and Chalice are being held up to heaven. The theological term “anamnesis” represents this sacred remembering. In the Eucharist, in the Body He walked around in, in the voice He instructed with, in the hands He healed with and in the tears He cried, the past, miraculously and intimately, becomes present.

The sanctified memory, the re-presentation, is who Our Savior is and, therefore, who we aspire to be.

It is our blessed lot to remember. I imagine my great-great-grandfather, in County Donegal, slipping a rosary into a vest pocket, his clothes in a tablecloth tied to a hazel stick, kissing his mother goodbye as he left the land he loved. A memory of the figure upon that pocketed cross squeezed tightly by a hand in a determined fist, re-presented at every Mass ever, was passed to his son and his son and his son and me.

Sometimes we remember way beyond what our minds can grasp. We go to some place other than the past. My brother and I recalled our schoolboy mischief, bicycles and basketball; first kisses and first loves; protectors and storytellers; our post-war parents and Benedictine pastors and long-gone best friends. And, too, Christ among us, all the while, remembered and remembering – too beautiful to die.

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

February 26, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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Dr. Holly Ordway

Why Christina Rossetti’s ‘A Better Resurrection’ is Lenten food for 2021

O

ne of the counter-intuitive blessings of Lent is that it is long enough to be tedious. It’s simply not possible (at least in my experience) to keep up a state of intense spiritual activity for the whole forty days (or forty-six, if we count the Sundays of Lent). Forty days is time enough to start out feeling very highminded about what one has chosen to give up as a penance or take on as a devotional practice, and to come down to earth with the humbling recognition that we’re not quite at the level of holiness we thought we were.

And if Lent is tough in ordinary years, 2021 is well placed to be even more of a slog than it usually is. After a year living in a pandemic, many of us are feeling rather ground down already. How can we approach this penitential season in a way that will help us grow, rather than depress us even more?

What we need, I will venture to say, is not to make heroic efforts to raise our spiritual level. Rather, we might do well simply to own up to where we are spiritually, to face the weakness, fatigue, frustration and spiritual dullness that we feel, and to invite God to enter in right there.

Christina Rossetti’s poem “A Better Resurrection” is worth reflecting on in this context. A devout Anglican, Rossetti invites us to look squarely at a state of spiritual grayness and depression that we often find difficult to name – and she helps us pray through it.

Let’s spend a little time considering what we can learn from this poem:

‘A Better Resurrection’

by Christina Rossetti I have no wit, no words, no tears; My heart within me like a stone Is numb’d too much for hopes or fears; Look right, look left, I dwell alone; I lift mine eyes, but dimm’d with grief No everlasting hills I see; My life is in the falling leaf: O Jesus, quicken me.

My life is like a faded leaf, My harvest dwindled to a husk: Truly my life is void and brief And tedious in the barren dusk; My life is like a frozen thing, No bud nor greenness can I see: Yet rise it shall – the sap of Spring; O Jesus, rise in me.

My life is like a broken bowl, A broken bowl that cannot hold One drop of water for my soul Or cordial in the searching cold; Cast in the fire the perish’d thing; Melt and remould it, till it be A royal cup for Him, my King: O Jesus, drink of me.

Intense grief is sometimes easier to understand (in ourselves and in others)

Letter to the Editor

Abortion is a spiritual battle we must fight

Christina Rossetti, by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti than the helplessness of weariness and depression. To have “no wit, no words, no tears,” to feel like “stone,” can be frightening; we suffer more because we feel helpless even to articulate what’s wrong.

Our Lenten prayer, then, can include what Rossetti gives here: “O Jesus, quicken me.”

While we are in this spiritual shadow, it can be difficult to grasp the truths that we affirm, week by week, in the Creed. We can say that we “look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come,” and indeed believe it wholeheartedly – but nonetheless resonate with Rossetti’s feeling that “life is void and brief / And tedious in the barren dusk.” It’s possible to know that Easter will come and still have it feel very far away, very dry and abstract: “No bud or greenness can I see.”

Such an experience of spiritual dryness can be all the more dismaying if it’s interpreted as evidence of a loss of faith – which can lead to dangerously counterproductive attempts to stir up pious feelings in oneself, mistaking one’s emotional reactions for faith itself.

Rossetti’s poem offers a wiser course. Into even the most “barren” and “frozen” state, she recognizes that the life of Christ will rise, like sap in a tree as spring arrives. It is, then, a profound and genuine act of faith to pray in the midst of dryness, “O Jesus, rise in me.”

Rossetti’s third stanza is particularly apt as we start our Lenten journey, with the Ash Wednesday fast reminding us of our bodily weakness, as well as our spiritual weakness. We are fallen creatures, “broken bowls.” By our own power, we can’t hold even “one drop of water” for our parched, thirsty souls. Here, in recognizing our total ROSSETTI, SEE PAGE 24

truth in determining right and wrong.

Indeed, just as with original sin, abortion ends with death.

We must pray and work fervently for the conversion and healing of all who promote and protect, pursue and provide the killing of the innocent unborn. A society that kills its own children is self-destructive and has no future. All Catholics, clergy as well as laity, must stand strong and united in this most consequential fight.

In this age when abortion is legal, funded, promoted, and even celebrated, we need to recognize the true and fierce spiritual battle it entails.

Abortion is the attempt to destroy and to remake human nature in our own image, instead of God’s image. It is to compel everyone to place themselves as creatures sharply and foolishly above the authority of the holy, almighty and merciful God and His revealed eternal

MICHAEL COYLE lives in Charlotte.

Most-read stories on the web

‘Let us feel His closeness and tenderness, and then we will also be more capable of mercy, patience, forgiveness and love.’

Pope Francis

From online story: “Pope marks 90th anniversary of Divine Mercy apparition” Through press time on Feb. 24, 21,310 visitors to www.catholicnewsherald.com have viewed a total of 31,549 pages. The top 10 headlines in February have been: n Black Catholic popes, saints and leaders.........................................................................................1,743 n Where to watch Mass online............................................................................................................... 1,695 n 33-day consecration to St. Joseph starts Feb. 15.......................................................................... 864 n Patience a key virtue in religious life, pope says.............................................................................756 n Bishop Jugis announces ‘Year of St. Joseph’...................................................................................708 n Father Peter Ascik: An example of Catholic integrity in public life.............................................491 n A different Ash Wednesday.....................................................................................................................481 n View the current print edition of the Catholic News Herald.........................................................399 n Arrest made in Boone tabernacle theft case; tabernacle still missing.....................................398 n Almsgiving: Lenten practice gives chance to ‘be generous with the poor’.............................278

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catholicnewsherald.com | February 26, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

MURAL FROM PAGE 6

church to partake of the Eucharist at Mass, he notes – the Supper of the Lamb, one of many references to the Book of Revelation featured in the artwork throughout the church. Walking through the door into the nave, another of Autry’s murals depicting the Lamb of God is immediately visible over the tabernacle in the sanctuary.

The new narthex mural also depicts two humble “outcasts” who received visits from Mary: St. Bernadette, who was so poor her family lived in a former jail; and St. Juan Diego, an indigenous Mexican. They both experienced multiple apparitions of Mary that were pivotal in the life of the Church.

The two saints come from different eras,

IRAQ FROM PAGE 20

rebuild their houses and, as a gift, gave each family an olive tree – a plant that provides fruit and oil, but also is a symbol of life and of peace.

Now, she said, ACN is helping to restore Catholic and Orthodox churches and convents, but also kindergartens and community halls, both of which are important gathering places for Christians and Muslims. The pope is scheduled to visit the Syriac Catholic community’s Al-Tahera Church in Qaraqosh, a church ACN helped restore.

continents and cultures, yet what unites them – and us – is Mary our mother, Father Roberts says. “We are children of the same mother, and children of the same Father.”

He notes, “At the heart of the spirituality of this parish are two visionaries: St. Bernadette and St. Juan Diego. Placed on either side of Mary, they look up at her, and there is enough space between them that anyone looking at the mural feels a part of the group.”

The mural also speaks to the growing diversity of the Church in western North Carolina over the past couple of decades, particularly evidenced at the Monroe parish. Membership has increased to include a large number of Latino families as well as older Caucasian members, several thousand parishioners in all.

Bringing together these two communities – despite their age, cultural and language differences – has been Father Roberts’

mission as pastor.

The mural is meant as a welcome to all peoples and all cultures, and especially the outcast and marginalized, he says. He likes to think of the Marian image as “Our Lady of the Periphery” or “Our Lady of the Outcasts.”

The mural caps an extensive series of art projects over the past few years at the Monroe church, including floor-to-ceiling murals inside the church, stained-glass windows, and a Marian grotto – all funded by parishioners and designed by Father Roberts and Autry.

— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor

One of the most anticipated events on the pope’s calendar is a private meeting planned for March 8 with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of Shiite Islam’s most authoritative figures. The meeting will be held in Najaf, a city special to Muslims, especially Shiites, because it is the burial place of Muhammad’s son-in-law, Ali. Houshmand Zadeh said the designation “ayatollah” among Shiites would be similar to a cardinal among Catholics, a recognized leader, but al-Sistani is a “grand ayatollah,” an expert in Islamic law, theology and spirituality, who is esteemed not only in Iraq, but by many Shiite Muslims around the world.

“This is the first time a pope has gone to a country with a Shiite majority,” she said, and to meet with al-Sistani and to do so in

Najaf “is very, very important.”

“If religious leaders cannot cooperate for the common good of humanity, they are not authentic or credible,” she said.

Father Cassar also welcomed news of the meeting, saying “it is of huge importance, also because it sends out the message that the pope’s visit is not only for Christians.

The pope’s visit is intended to build bridges,” something which also tells the country’s Christians that that is their mission, too.

Christians in Iraq, he said, are not supposed to be a “pre-Pentecost” Christian community, referring to the disciples and Mary closed in the Upper Room before the descent of the Holy Spirit. Instead, they are supposed to go out and be the leaven of a new society.

Also online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: See video highlights and read more about the other murals at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Monroe

ROSSETTI FROM PAGE 23

helplessness, we can face up to our need to be re-made.

Re-made – but how, and for what end?

Rossetti offers up a prayer to “cast in the fire” her whole life, her soul, which she calls a “perished thing,” and rightly so. We come from dust, and to dust we shall return. But in the crucible of God’s grace, his refiner’s fire purges the dross, melts and re-forms the gold, so that we can be made into “a royal cup” for our King. And so Rossetti’s final prayer is a hopeful, even daring one: “O Jesus, drink of me.” Let me be a beautiful vessel, suitable for the use of a King: let me be of service to the Lord.

Let my whole self, body and soul, be a worthy chalice to receive our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. And let our Lord drink of me, that I may be drawn into His Mystical Body, that I may abide in Him, and He in me.

The experience of spiritual weariness and weakness is inevitable in the Christian life. It’s not a question of whether we will find ourselves struggling, but when. In the Church’s wisdom, our annual journey through the dry lands of Lent gives us a chance to face up to that weakness and not to fear it, to pray for the graces we need to grow in holiness, and to offer up our weariness as part of our prayer, itself, on the way of the Cross.

DR. HOLLY ORDWAY is the Fellow of Faith & Culture at the Word on Fire Institute. She is a visiting professor at Houston Baptist University, author and poet.

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

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

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.