April 1, 2011

April 1, 2011

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

‘Do this in memory of Me’

Parish pooches set an example of unconditional love. Pastors and their pups profiled,

Bishop’s 2011

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Lenten Youth Pilgrimage set for April 8-9,

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Hearing the Word of God Deaf-blind Holy Spirit parishioner receives help from new listening device,

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FUNDED by the parishioners of the diocese of charlotte THANK YOU!

Seeing God Dogs Doreen Sugierski | Catholic News Herald

Father Carmen Malacari, pastor of Holy Spirit Church in Denver, with his dog Random.

Calendar 4 Diocese 3-8

FAITH 2

mix 16-17 nation & World 18-21 Schools 14-15

Viewpoints 22-23

Call us: 704-370-3333 E-mail us: catholicnews@charlottediocese.org

Our faith

charlottediocese.org/catholicnews | April 1, 2011 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

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The facts of faith Why are crosses covered during Holy Week?

Pope Benedict XVI

God sent Jesus to quench man’s thirst for eternal life

B

efore the thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Sunday Angelus, Pope Benedict XVI said that God’s allpowerful love respects the freedom of every person and therefore touches man’s heart and “waits patiently for his answer.”

“God the Father sent Christ to satisfy our thirst for eternal life by giving us His love, but Jesus asks of us the gift of our faith,” the pope stated before the Angelus.

He discussed the Gospel reading about Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, explaining that His fatigue is “a sign of his true humanity,” a prelude to His Passion. His encounter with the woman at the well raises the theme of thirst and foreshadows His cry on the cross: “I have thirst.”

While this thirst and fatigue had physical aspects, the pope explained, Jesus “thirsted” for the woman’s faith and for the faith of all mankind.

The water in the Gospel story “clearly” refers to the sacrament of baptism, “the source of new life for the faith in the grace of God.” The water represents the Holy Spirit, the gift “par excellence” that Jesus brings to man from God the Father.

“Each one of us can take the place of the Samaritan woman,” the pope continued. “Jesus waits for us, especially in this time of Lent, to speak with us. Let us pause for a moment in silence in our room, or in a church or in a secluded place. Listen to His voice that tells us, ‘If you knew the gift of God... .’”

— Catholic News Agency

St. Isidore of Seville Feast day: April 4 St. Isidore is the patron saint of the Internet and the author of the first encyclopedia ever written, called “Etymologiae.” In 20 volumes, St. Isidore compiled all of the learning of his day.

Throughout the greater part of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it was the textbook most used in schools.

St. Isidore was born in Cartagena, Spain, around the year 560 and succeeded his older brother as the archbishop of Seville. He was a prolific writer on the Scriptures and theology, as well as on the knowledge of his day in the fields of physics, astronomy, history and geography. He also wrote a dictionary of synonyms.

During his episcopate, the classic learning institutions of the Roman Empire were being destroyed by the barbarous Goths, who were in power in Spain. In an effort to counter this, St. Isidore encouraged education and the study of

A saintly life

law, medicine and the liberal arts. He eradicated Arianism and other heresies and reinforced religious discipline.

At the Second Council of Seville, begun Nov. 13, 619, St. Isidore persuaded all bishops to establish seminaries in cathedral cities, making education an obligation for all bishops.

He also had great admiration for monks and wrote a book called “Regula monachorum” on the monastic life, though he wasn’t a monk himself. In it, he said religious life is proof of true Christian democracy by admitting men of every rank and station of life.

“God has made no difference between the soul of the slave and that of the freedman,” he wrote.

In the monastery, he said, all are equal in the sight of God and of the Church.

St. Isidore was the last of the ancient Christian philosophers and great Latin Fathers.

He died April 4, 636.

— Source: Catholic News Agency

Your daily Scripture readings SCRIPTURE FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 3 - APRIL 9

Sunday, 1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7, 10-13, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41; Monday (St. Isidore), Isaiah 65:17-21, John 4:4354; Tuesday (St. Vincent Ferrer), Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12, John 5:1-16; Wednesday, Isaiah 49:8-15, John 5:17-30; Thursday (St. John Baptist de la Salle), Exodus 32:7-14, John 5:31-47; Friday, Wisdom 2:1, 12-22, John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30; Saturday, Jeremiah 11:18-20, John 7:40-53

SCRIPTURE FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 10 - APRIL 16

Sunday, Ezekiel 37:12-14, Romans 8:8-11, John 11:1-45; Monday (St. Stanislaus), Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 3362, John 8:1-11; Tuesday, Numbers 21:4-9, John 8:21-30; Wednesday (St. Martin I), Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95, Daniel 3:52-56, John 8:31-42; Thursday, Genesis 17:3-9, John 8:51-59; Friday, Jeremiah 20:10-13, John 10:31-42; Saturday, Ezekiel 37:21-28, Jeremiah 31:10-13, John 11:4556

Some historians say there was a practical reason for covering crosses and images early in the Church’s history, because the often-illiterate faithful needed a way to know it was Lent.

Others, however, maintain that it is a remnant of the ancient practice of public penance in which the penitents were ritually expelled from the Church at the beginning of Lent.

It probably derives from a custom, noted in Germany from the ninth century, of extending a large cloth before the altar from the beginning of Lent. This cloth, called the “Hungertuch” (hunger cloth), hid the altar entirely from the faithful during Lent and was not removed until during the reading of the Passion on Holy Wednesday at the words “the veil of the temple was rent in two.”

The duration of such veiling varies from place to place. The custom in many places is to veil from before first vespers or the vigil Mass of the fifth Sunday of Lent, while others limit this veiling from after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday.

In some places images and statues are actually removed from the church and not simply veiled, especially after Holy Thursday.

Crosses are unveiled after the Good Friday ceremonies.

All other images are unveiled shortly before the Mass of the Easter Vigil.

Neither the Stations of the Cross nor stained glass windows are ever veiled.

The veils are usually made of lightweight purple cloth without any decoration.

— By Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University.

Reprinted courtesy of ewtn.com.

Our parishes

April 1, 2011 | charlottediocese.org/catholicnews

catholic news heraldI

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Campaign sees positive impacts

In Brief

SueAnn Howell Staff writer

‘Quilts of Love’ service project a success CHARLOTTE — Parishioners of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte recently celebrated a successful conclusion to their fourth annual “Quilts of Love” service project.

Twenty-five quilts were crafted and delivered to parishioners in nursing homes, confined to home, in rehabilitation, hospitalized, or otherwise identified by the clergy and parish.

The unique 42-inch lap quilts were made this year by the largest class ever. A group of 21 faith formation students from fourth to 12th grade worked during two Saturdays in February to make their quilts. The quilts were blessed March 13 by Father Mark Lawlor, pastor. Pictured above with their completed quilts are (from left) Hannah Mulready, Nataline Suaris and Katie Beard.

Before they were delivered, the quilts were packaged along with rosaries, St. Vincent de Paul prayer cards, parish bulletins, and a handwritten “Story of the Quilt” written by the student who made the quilt, describing their thoughts in selecting the colors and symbols used in the quilt.

The quilts are routinely made and blessed during the first weeks of Lent with a goal of having them delivered before Easter. More than 90 quilts have been sewn since the program began.

— Peggy Gibbons

Catechist training session held CHARLOTTE — Meredith Magyar, the parish catechetical program leader at St. John Neumann Church in Charlotte, assisted the Diocesan Office of Faith Formation in hosting the Workers in the Vineyard Conference, a catechist certification program combined with Youth Ministry formation and Protecting God’s Children training, March 26.

The following people also gave presentations: Donna Smith, Olga Nunez, Paul Kotlowski, Jorge Gomiz, Caroline Fountain, Peg Ruble and Deacon David Reiser.

Approximately 50 people from various parishes of the Charlotte metropolitan area attended the training sessions.

— Dr. Cris V. Villapando

CHARLOTTE — A diocese-wide effort to encourage lapsed Catholics to return to the Church kicked off last Advent and has already seen a positive response in parishes.

The campaign, a partnership with CatholicsComeHome.org, began Dec. 17 with television and radio ads aired for six weeks across western North Carolina. It continues with sustained outreach and welcoming efforts in parishes, ministries devoted to returning Catholics, and at the Diocese of Charlotte Tribunal. Responses to the $353,000 campaign, funded in part by a diocesan collection, began to be seen immediately.

“On the day that the ads began to air, I had a person stop in the office and state that they wanted to return to the practice of their faith,” said Father Benjamin Roberts, parochial vicar at Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury. “I’ve had many people contact me directly, or through parishioners, who wanted to return to the sacraments. Many had simply stopped going to Mass at some point. Others had doctrinal questions.

“A number of people had questions about their marriage situations. Some of the cases have been easy; others will take a little more

time to bring to conclusion,” Father Roberts added.

Joy Barnes, tribunal advocate for the Diocese of Charlotte, has seen an increase in the number of cases coming to the tribunal since the campaign began, as Catholics seek resolution with the Church over divorces or second marriages.

“I am overwhelmed with new cases and the other advocates report a similar surge in cases,” Barnes said. “We normally do about 280-290 cases in a year. This year we have already opened 115, and I have at least 25 cases of my own waiting to open. A pastor just sent me three more people to contact.”

Father John Putnam is head of the tribunal and coordinator of the Catholics Come Home Campaign, as well as pastor of Sacred Heart Church. He said he has felt the impact of the campaign in each of the roles

he plays in bringing Catholics back to the faith.

He said attendance at Saturday evening Mass is up in his parish, and as Barnes mentioned, the number of annulment cases has increased in the tribunal. More people are coming back to the confessional, as well.

Father Roberts said he also notices more people seeking reconciliation – “some having been away for 15, 30 and more than 50 years.”

“It has been one of my greatest joys as a priest to assist in this ministry of reconciliation, declaring to people that not only were their sins forgiven, but that they were restored to full communion with the Church, and could now receive the Lord’s precious Body and Blood in Holy Communion, the hunger for which drew them to come home,” he said.

Said Father Putnam, “Our mission as Church is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and build up His body. Whenever someone ceases the practice of the faith or leaves the Church, the whole body suffers.

Evangelizing, reaching out and inviting are all aspects of ‘Catholics Come Home’ that provide us with opportunities to heal the Body of Christ and bring the life-giving Gospel message to those who do not know Christ and His Church.”

Bishop’s Lenten Youth Pilgrimage set for April 8-9 Christopher Lux Intern

BELMONT — Belmont Abbey College will again be the setting of the Bishop’s Lenten Youth Pilgrimage on April 8 and 9. The youth pilgrimage is a two-part event: Friday night’s activities will be geared toward college students and young adults, while Saturday’s activities will be focused on middle and high school youths.

Friday night’s events will kick off at 5 p.m. with a Mass in the Abbey basilica, followed by a fish fry and concert on the basilica lawn. The college students and young adults will then join the Belmont Abbey monks at 7 p.m. for vespers (evening prayer). After a talk by Jim Burnham, the director of the New Mexico Roman Catholic apologetics group, there will be Exposition and Adoration of the Blessed Celebration Sacrament in the basilica. The pilgrims will of Blessed Pier then have the opportunity to receive the Giorgio Frassati’s sacrament of penance. birthday April On Saturday, Middle and High School 6 planned in Youth Day will begin with a Mass celebrated diocesan schools,

by Bishop Peter J. Jugis. After lunch and 14 live music, the youth will hear talks given by various speakers, including Christina Condit.

Condit began giving talks to high school students in 2004 about her commitment to chastity and her trust in God. She will discuss the beauty of the gift of sexuality and the importance of chastity until marriage.

A talk about “The Interior Life” by Father Richard Sutter is also scheduled. After pizza and a concert featuring three bands, there will be a eucharistic procession and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Related news

sueann howell | catholic news herald

Middle school and high school youth from around the diocese kneel in Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament during the Bishop’s Lenten Youth Retreat in 2010.

The Bishop’s Lenten Youth Pilgrimage is sponsored by the diocesan Eucharistic Congress Office, Belmont Abbey, Belmont Abbey College and the Envoy Institute. For details, turn to page 24.

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charlottediocese.org/catholicnews | April 1, 2011 OUR PARISHES

Diocesan calendar BELMONT

ST. pATRICK CATHEDRAL, 1621 DILWORTH ROAD E.

QUEEN OF THE APOSTLES CHURCH, 503 N. MAIN ST.

Bishop Peter J. Jugis Bishop Peter J. Jugis will participate in the following events over the next week: April 4 – 9 a.m.

Mass for Charlotte Catholic Women’s Group St. Patrick Cathedral, Charlotte April 4 – 10:30 a.m.

Charlotte Catholic Women’s Group Spring Luncheon St. Patrick Cathedral Family Life Center, Charlotte April 4 – 7 p.m.

Sacrament of Confirmation St. Benedict the Moor Church, Winston-Salem April 5 – 6 p.m.

Friend to Seminarians Dinner Graylyn International Conference Center, Winston-Salem April 8-9 Bishop’s Lenten Youth PilgrimaGE Belmont Abbey College, Belmont

— “Lenten Learning,” with Father Christopher Kirchgessner, O.S.B., Family Life Center, 7:15 p.m. April 5

CHARLOTTE ST. GABRIEL CHURCH, 3016 providence road — Letting Go of a Grudge- “The Big Question: A Film About Forgiveness,” 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. April 4; “The Five Steps of Letting Go,” 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. April 5; and “The Healing Result,” 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. April 6, with Paulist Father Frank Desiderio. Childcare available for evening sessions with prior reservation. Contact Susan Krasniewski at 704-362-5047 ext. 210. Visit stgabrielchurch.org.

ST. MATTHEW CHURCH, 8015 Ballantyne Commons pkwy.

— End of Life Issues Seminar, NLC Banquet Room, 2-4 p.m.

April 3. Contact Rita at 704-543-7677 ext. 1007.

— Teaching Children With Autism, presented by Special Religious Development Program (SPRED), NLC Banquet Room, 7-9 p.m. April 6. RSVP to Jan Clemens at 704-2467102.

— Back to Basics Catholicism 101: The Mass, NLC Room 203, 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. April 6 and 13

IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY CHURCH, 4145 JOHNSON ST., HIGH POINT, 7 p.m. April 7 our lady of the assumption church, 4207 SHAMROCK DRIVE, CHARLOTTE, 6-7 p.m. April 7 (Spanish), 6-7 p.m. April 9 (Spanish) and 3:30-5 p.m. April 16 (English) our lady of grace church, 2205 W. MARKET ST., GREENSBORO, 7 p.m. April 11

April 1, 2011 1123 S. Church St. Charlotte, N.C. 28203-4003 catholicnews@charlottediocese.org 704-370-3333 PUBLISHER: The Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis, Bishop of Charlotte

ST. peter CHURCH, 507 s. tryon st.

— Lenten Retreat Closing Session, Biss Hall, 8:30 a.m. April 16. Contact parish office at 704-332-2901.

ST. THOMAS aquinas CHURCH, 1400 suther road — “I Thirst- The Crucifixion Story,” musical portrayal of our Lord’s Passion performed by musician and songwriter Tatiana Cameron, 7 p.m. April 13. Childcare will be available in the nursery. Visit idobelieve.com.

— Call to Prayer at abortion facility located at 201 Pomona Dr., 7:45 a.m. May 14. RSVP to Meg Foppe at 336-510-4218.

MURPHY ST. WILLIAM CHurch, 765 ANDREWS ROAD — Ecumenical Lenten Worship Service, noon-12:30 Wednesdays. Soup and sandwiches will be served following the service.

SALISBURY sacred heart church, 375 lumen christi lane — Lenten Series: Getting more out of Mass and a look at the New Translation,” Brincefield Hall, 5:45-6:45 p.m.

Tuesdays through April 12

FORT MILL, S.C.

SYLVA

ST. PHILIP NERI CHURCH, 292 MUNN ROAD — Lenten Passion Concert, 2 p.m. April 3. Contact Jayne Adams at jayneadams@comporium.net or 803-548-0273.

ST. MARY, MOTHER OF GOD church, 22 BARTLETT ST. — Bereavement Support Group, 6:30-8 p.m. Mondays through April 18. Contact Colleen Hayes at chayes06@gmail.com or 828-586-0217.

GREENSBORO our lady of grace CHURCH, 2205 w. market st.

— “Straight Talk ...For Men,” Our Lady’s Cottage, 6:30-8 p.m.

April 18 and May 16. Contact John Endredy at jendredy@ gmail.com or 336-202-9635.

WINSTON-SALEM st. benedict the MOOR CHURCH, 1625 E. 12th St. — “I Am Somebody,” Franciscan Center, retreat for youth ages 12-18 years, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. April 9

This week’s spotlight: Lenten Reconciliation Services IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH, 208 SEVENTH AVE. W., HENDERSONVILLE, 7 p.m. April 4

Volume 20 • Number 18

— Solemn Vespers and Reflections on the Seven Sorrows of Mary: “The Meeting of Jesus and Mary on the Way of the Cross,” with a reflection by Father John Putnam 6 p.m.

April 3; and “The Crucifixion,” with a reflection by Father Roger Arnsparger 6 p.m. April 10.

ST. ANN CHURCH, 3635 PARK ROAD, CHARLOTTE, 4 p.m. April 3

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI CHURCH, FRANKLIN, 6 p.m. April 7

ST. BARNABAS CHURCH, 109 CRESCENT HILL DR., ARDEN, 7 p.m. April 11

ST. GABRIEL CHURCH, 3016 PROVIDENCE ROAD, CHARLOTTE, 7 p.m. April 12

st. benedict the MOOR CHURCH, 1625 E 12TH ST., WINSTON-SALEM, 6:30 p.m. April 11

st. joan of ARC CHURCH, 768 ASBURY ROAD, CANDLER, 7 p.m. April 7

ST. DOROTHY CHURCH, 148 ST. DOROTHY’S LANE, LINCOLNTON, throughout Lent- 5-5:45 p.m.

Wednesdays, 6-6:45 p.m. Thursdays, 4-4:45 p.m. Saturdays and 10:3011:30 a.m. Sundays

ST. LUKE CHURCH, 13700 LAWYERS ROAD, CHARLOTTE, 7 p.m. April 5 st. mary, mother of god church, SYLVA, following 9 a.m. Mass Fridays

GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Tim Faragher 704-370-3331, tpfaragher@charlottediocese.org

COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT/CIRCULATION: Denise Onativia 704-370-3333, catholicnews@charlottediocese.org

The Catholic News Herald is published by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte 35 times a year.

ADVERTISING MANAGER: Cindi Feerick 704-370-3332, ckfeerick@charlottediocese.org

NEWS: The Catholic News Herald welcomes your news and photographs for publication in our print and online PDF editions.

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.

HISPANIC COMMUNICATIONS: Carlos Castañeda 704-370-3375, cmcastaneda@charlottediocese.org

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHURCH, 1400 SUTHER ROAD, CHARLOTTE, 7 p.m. April 11 ST. VINCENT DE PAUL CHURCH, 6828 OLD REID ROAD, CHARLOTTE, 7 p.m.

April 6 Note: This is only a partial list – for additional information, contact your parish’s office.

ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE CHURCH, 2715 HORSE PEN CREEK ROAD, GREENSBORO, Wednesdays throughout Lent 5:30 p.m.

EDITOR: Patricia L. Guilfoyle 704-370-3334, plguilfoyle@charlottediocese.org

STAFF WRITER: SueAnn Howell 704-370-3354, sahowell@charlottediocese.org

ST. PIUS THE TENTH CHURCH, 2210 N. ELM ST., 4-5 p.m. or 6-6:30 p.m. April 1, 8, 11 and 15

ADVERTISING: For advertising rates and information, contact Advertising Manager Cindi Feerick at 704-370-3332 or ckfeerick@ 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.

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

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April 1, 2011 | charlottediocese.org/catholicnews

Immigration conference ​ held in Charlotte

In Brief

Carlos CastaÑeda Hispanic Communications coordinator

CSS hosts Gala for Hope ASHEVILLE — Catholic Social Services held its annual Gala for Hope fundraiser in Asheville March 5. The evening of dinner, dancing and auctions raised more than $39,000 to provide food, emergency assistance, counseling, pregnancy support and immigration services for people in western North Carolina. Event coordinators and supporters pictured above are: (from left) Courtney Sheiderich, auction coordinator; Jane McNeil, co-chair with Renee Cassano Lampila (not pictured); Jill and Dennis Hulsing, event sponsors; and Michele Sheppard, regional office director. Annually, the CSS Western Regional Office serves approximately 5,776 people.

The next fundraising event of Catholic Social Services is a golf tournament at the Palisades Country Club in Charlotte April 11.

For details, call 704-370-3232.

— Ann Kilkelly

CHARLOTTE -- An estimated 200 people gathered March 26 at St. Peter Church in Charlotte for a Conference on Immigration.

The gathering brought together important community services organizations such as the Latin American Coalition, Unisal (Union for Salvadoreans), the Diocese of Charlotte, Immigrants Solidarity Committee and Presbytery of Charlotte, to talk about the latest information on immigration policy and procedures.

The bilingual workshops covered several topics related to Immigration procedures, such as Humanitarian Processes, Labor Petitions, Family Petitions, Immigration Assistance for victims of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking. Nearly all of the speakers were attorneys who practice immigration law.

The sponsoring organizations created the event two years ago to communicate a free, high-quality and professional perspective to immigration stakeholders.

Adriana Galvez Taylor, director of Immigrants Rights Program of the Latin American Coalition, was one of the speakers. “There is a growing need

for information in our community. Our offices provide free legal consultation through professionals who voluntarily donate their time to provide services to those who cannot afford it – but the need is bigger than what we can offer. We have appointments for months scheduled in advance,” Taylor said.

Jesuit Brother Ricardo Greeley of Albemarle explained how and why the diocese got involved in this effort.

“The Church has a long-time legacy on social teaching, celebrating and defending life and dignity. Many documents and encyclicals teach us that the dignity of the human being is a reality that goes beyond any other reality or circumstance, beyond the reality of work or capital, for example,” he said.

Greeley recalled how the initiative started a few years ago, when both the Presbytery of Charlotte (Presbyterian Church of Charlotte) and the Diocese of Charlotte got together for this event.

“We wanted to keep our community well informed, about their rights and how they can exercise them – that is our primary goal. Many times, there are several benefits and opportunities on immigration procedures the community loses, sometimes only because of a lack of information,” Brother Greeley said.

Two Carmelites invested with brown scapular CHARLOTTE — Two members of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites were invested with the brown scapular at a special clothing ceremony at St. Ann Church in Charlotte Feb. 19.

Pictured (from left) are Virginia Nash; Father Timothy Reid, pastor of St. Ann in Charlotte and spiritual advisor for the Carmelites; Michael Kitson, altar server; Nancy Kitson; and Frances Martini, director of formation for the Charlotte Carmelite group.

— SueAnn Howell

Your old furniture could help a new family CHARLOTTE — The Refugee Resettlement Office of Catholic Social Services is in critical need of couches, loveseats, chairs, tables, dining tables, and lamps to furnish apartments for arriving refugees. Call Mary Jane Bruton at 704-370-3283 and leave a message listing the items to donate, your complete address and telephone number, or e-mail maryjane.bruton@ gmail.com. Pickup is available for large items.

Photo provided by Lee Luebbe

Immigration presentation given An estimated 200 people crowded the gym at Immaculata School in Hendersonville March 26 to hear a talk about immigration. The presentation, which was designed by the League of Women Voters and translated into Spanish, has previously been given to audiences in English. The program gives the immigrant populations an understanding of the history of immigration in the U.S. and also emphasizes the message that many people are working for comprehensive immigration reform.

With the assistance of parishioners and the Justice for Immigrants Ministry at Immaculate Conception Church in Hendersonville, the English version was translated into Spanish and presented by Alma Rodriguez Jones, Spanish instructor at Blue Ridge Community College. Four interpreters from Blue Ridge Community College also assisted.

The presentation is available to anyone interested in learning more about immigration. Contact Lee Luebbe at lluebbe2@morrisbb.net.

OUR PARISHESI

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Foundation surpasses $3.2 million in funds distribution SueAnn Howell Staff writer

CHARLOTTE — The Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte has reached a milestone: distributing more than $3.2 million to parishes, schools, ministries and charities since it was created in 1994.

The foundation was established to provide for the future of the diocese and its parishes, schools and agencies. Its mission is to manage and distribute income from endowment funds.

It currently consists of 193 endowments.

In the foundation’s 2009-2010 annual report, Bishop Peter J. Jugis expressed his gratitude to donors. “With each passing year I am more grateful for the faithful men and women who have gone before us, leaving behind gifts that continue to make a critical difference in the lives of others” he stated.

Immaculate Conception Church in Forest City is one of the parishes benefitting directly from an endowment fund with the foundation.

The Immaculate Conception Endowment Fund was set up in 1994 by the Regan family. Over the years funds have been used to provide needed maintenance on the church and purchase church property.

More than $200,000 was used recently to purchase property adjacent to the old church where a larger church was built for the growing parish. The new church, which commands spectacular views from its hilltop location and can been seen for miles, was dedicated last October.

“The family blessed us greatly with a gift that keeps on giving,” said Father Herbert Burke, pastor of Immaculate Conception.

“The money (also) helped us with a lot of facility maintenance over the years,” he added.

St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte has received $160,000 from the Ella Bickel Endowment Fund For The Poor over the past seven years. It was set up to assist with the educational, medical, housing and transportation needs of registered parishioners.

“Interest from the endowment has helped parishioners with tuition expenses for preschool through college,” said Father Mark Lawlor, pastor. “It has also reimbursed our St. Vincent de Paul Society for emergency assistance to parishioners over the years. This has been helpful as our St. Vincent de Paul Society has received additional requests for help since the beginning of the recession.”

“Our endowment will eventually distribute many times the amount of the initial investment of $600,000. This will be a major help for the poor of the parish of St. Vincent de Paul,” he added.

Seventy-two of the 193 endowment holders have taken out distributions to date. “Those distributions have impacted the parishes, schools and agencies in some significant ways,” said Jim Kelley, diocesan director of development.

For more information about the foundation or how to create an endowment fund, contact Judy Smith, diocesan director of planned giving, at 704-370-3320 or jmsmith@charlottediocese.org.

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charlottediocese.org/catholicnews | April 1, 2011 OUR PARISHES

PROFILE OF LIFE During 40 Days for Life, the Catholic News Herald is featuring people across our diocese involved in the pro-life movement who serve as examples for what we can all do to help protect the rights of the unborn.

Protecting the unborn in Asheville: Praying that the battle ends soon WENDY E. MURRAY CORRESPONDENT

Wendy Murray | Catholic News Herald

Pat Glass of Asheville teaches a class on Theology of the Body to teenagers at the Basilica of St. Lawrence March 28.

ASHEVILLE — Like lionesses protecting their cubs, Pat Glass and Helen Gordon possess tenacity and unrelenting resolve for pro-life activities in the Asheville area. The two have coordinated the Respect Life Committee at the Basilica of St. Lawrence for many years and have dedicated their lives to the pro-life movement.

Thanks to Kathy Mcelwee, her unforgettable friend and champion for life, Glass became involved in pro-life prayer and education activities. She started as a Birthright volunteer in the early 1980s. Glass met Helen Gordon while teaching at Asheville Catholic School. They joined others to start “Guadalupe: Catholics for Life” in 1990. From there, the pair stepped up efforts with prayer vigils outside Asheville abortion facilities.

Glass and Gordon see many opportunities for people to participate in this ministry in the Asheville area. Their parish has sponsored “spiritual adoptions” of unborn babies.

In these programs, attendees provide baby gifts, pick baby names, and pray for the parents and grandparents that they will choose life. Parish children make bracelets for the unborn children, and celebrate life with birthday cakes and candles.

Glass and her husband Dennis pray the Divine Mercy chaplet every day at 3 p.m., in solidarity with others around the globe. As a former Madison County English and Spanish teacher, Pat leads teenagers through the Theology of the Body series, a course designed to encourage true reverence for the gift of sexuality, while living it in a way worthy of

great dignity as human beings.

Gordon believes the greatest need is for sidewalk counseling outside an abortion facility.

“There is a 30-second opportunity,” she says. “My focus is on winning the mother’s heart. ‘Take my hand. Don’t do this.

Let’s see what God has in mind for you.’”

Each volunteer who participates with Glass and Gordon in prayer vigils outside abortion facilities carries a sign that states “Let your baby live. We will help.”

As a result of their prayers, she has witnessed times when “quite a few mothers have turned around.”

Prayer and action are ways we can prevent this slaughter, she says, pointing to a quote from Blessed Teresa: “There are two victims in every abortion: a dead baby and a dead conscience.”

“Trying to protect God’s children is the essence of our humanity,” she says.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to this. We are putting those mothers to death. We are putting those babies to death. God meant goodness and beauty for them. It is impossible to allow the slaughter of infants.”

Glass feels that as a Catholic wife, mother and teacher, she has found herself in the middle of a great war, just like one of those little hobbits in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.”

“As wounded as my Church is, I know that my Church has the answers to these huge cultural issues of the day,” she says. “Now, I am fighting for my grandchildren.”

A bumper sticker on her truck quotes Pope John Paul II: “A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope.”

Glass and Gordon both pray that the battle will end soon.

SIGNS OF LIFE

Winston-Salem vigil sees success National 40 Days campaign director coming April 5 Georgianna Penn Correspondent

WINSTON-SALEM — At least one baby was saved last week during the 40 Days for Life campaign in Winston-Salem, where a prayer vigil continues outside an abortion facility to pray for pregnant women and their babies.

From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. outside an abortion facility on the corner of Maplewood and Bethesda streets, volunteers gather to pray, offer help and explain alternative options to women coming there seeking abortions.

These volunteers are part of the national 40

Days for Life campaign that through prayer, fasting and peaceful activism seeks to inspire a culture of life and an end to abortion in the U.S. North Carolina hosts five vigils: Charlotte, Chapel Hill, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville and Wilmington.

Toni Buckler, coordinator of the 40 Days campaign in Winston-Salem, said a new volunteer to the campaign experienced a miracle recently, when an expectant mother pulled up to the facility in her car. Crying and thanking the volunteer for saving her baby from the horrors of abortion, the woman said that seeing the volunteer’s sign that stated “I regret my abortion” prompted her to cancel her abortion appointment.

“I am so excited for the miracle God performed in this woman’s heart today,” praised the volunteer in an e-mail to Buckler.

“I am praying that He will provide for her in ways she has never thought of… .”

Volunteers at the 40 Days prayer vigil take part in whatever way they can – some come for an hour, some come every day.

“One Baptist pastor participates almost every day during his lunch hour,” Buckler said. And St. Leo parishioner John Andrysick takes part every day, holding signs that read, “Take my hand, not my life.”

“He holds up two large signs by leaning on them like a human cross,” she said.

The volunteers are well equipped with resources about Room at the Inn and crisis pregnancy centers, should someone approach them seeking help.

Buckler said she thanks the volunteers and co-coordinator Brenda Forester for their efforts so far in the campaign.

As of March 28, the mid-point of the 40-day campaign, national organizers had reported 178 babies saved.

Buckler said she is sure many more lives have been saved because of prayer, and she reminds everyone to keep praying. The campaign will continue until April 17.

For more information, contact Toni Buckler in Winston-Salem at 336-782-6062 or visit 40daysforlife.com.

CARNEY COMING TO TOWN Shawn Carney, board treasurer for the national 40 Days for Life organization and this year’s campaign director, is coming to WinstonSalem Tuesday, April 5. Carney is executive director of the Coalition for Life, a pro-life organization consisting of 60 churches and thousands of people. His Carney leadership contributed to a dramatic drop in abortions in his town, and he is a regular media spokesperson on pro-life issues. He is a popular speaker, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for pro-life work. He also is executive producer and host of the EWTN series, “Being HUMAN.”

April 1, 2011 | charlottediocese.org/catholicnews

OUR PARISHESI

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In Brief Sierra, 16, her 3-year-old daughter Jordyn, and her mother Angela sing the praises of the Hand to Hand program in WinstonSalem, a program that assists teenage mothers and is partly funded through the annual Diocesan Support Appeal.

Parish has stewardship festival LINVILLE — St. Bernadette Church in Linville recently held a stewardship festival in their parish center, presenting the 21 ministries offered to parishioners. Many new volunteers signed up for service as well as enjoyed a time of fellowship after Mass. The festival will be repeated in June to include the summer residents, when the church’s population more than doubles.

— Jo-Anne Allison

Tax earns Eagle Scout rank ASHEVILLE — Willem Christian Tax, the son of Penelope and Paul Tax of Asheville, recently earned the rank of Eagle Scout, Boy Scouting’s highest honor.

Nationally, only about 4 percent of Boy Scouts achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, which is earned by completing a community service project. Tax excavated and constructed a brick patio and steps for the Dr. William Callison Memorial Garden located on the Tax West Asheville property of Sisters of Mercy Urgent Care.

He is a member of Boy Scout Troop 77 and a parishioner at the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Asheville, where he also serves as assistant head altar server. He is a senior at Asheville High School, where he is a member of the National Honor Society, is active in student government, and tutors through the Asheville City Schools Foundation program and Delta House.

We welcome your parish’s news. E-mail items to Editor Patricia Guilfoyle at plguilfoyle@ charlottediocese.org.

Mollie Gordon | Catholic News Herald

Hand to Hand helps teen moms MOLLIE GORDON CORRESPONDENT

WINSTON-SALEM — Do you ever wonder where your Diocesan Support Appeal donations go? Are you ever curious to know a few details about a real-life success story as a result of the work done in our diocese?

The Hand to Hand program at Catholic Social Services in Winston-Salem offers mentoring and support services to first-time teenage mothers and fathers.

Sierra, the 16-year old mother to 3-yearold Jordyn, has participated in the program since her daughter was 1. She and her mother Angela first heard of the program through the Forsyth County office assigned to monitor teenage pregnancies. They have been very active participants. Sierra has recently presented a talk to her peer group and she lights up when she speaks about the annual sleep-over and weekly meetings: “Our meetings are like our Friday night football games. It’s my ‘me time.’”

Perhaps the most exciting aspect about Sierra’s story isn’t her activity in the program, the health of her daughter, or the support she gets from her mother, but is instead the fact that she’s working hard on her education. Sierra attends Middle College, where she obtains college credits while also completing her high school education

requirements. When she graduates from high school in another year, she will also graduate with her Associate of Arts degree from Forsyth Technical Community College. Her aspirations are to work in criminal justice.

When asked if she would have pursued this path without the support the Hand to Hand program offers, she replied she wouldn’t have. “The program teaches us independence.

It changes you as a whole person,” she says.

Literacy is a primary focus in this program, and in Sierra’s life. She reads to her daughter regularly and is even teaching her Spanish.

While Sierra and Jordyn live with her mother Angela, Sierra is the primary caregiver for Jordyn. Angela and she decided that at the beginning, and they keep to it.

“[Being a teenage mother] has made me mature a lot faster. I’ve learned to put the need of my child before my own. I thank my mom for teaching me,” Sierra says.

Neither Sierra nor Angela denies the challenges associated with their situation, and both speak lovingly about the Hand to Hand program.

“God just makes ways. There is good in every situation,” Angela says. “When life has turned for what seems like the worst, don’t give up, because God has provided people through Catholic Social Services. It’s the beginning of a new life.”

Hand to Hand is one of several efforts funded by the DSA in the Winston-Salem area. The DSA provides 10 percent of the direct program costs, which allow the program to obtain additional funding through government grants and allow for the supervision of this important ministry.

The program also receives funding from Smart Start of Forsyth County and United Way of Forsyth County, besides support from individuals and churches.

While its purpose is to help these teenagers delay having additional children, Hand to Hand reaches much further. The program encourages these teens to continue their education, teaches quality parenting and life skills, and helps with the logistics of raising a child while still being young themselves.

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charlottediocese.org/catholicnews | April 1, 2011 OUR PARISHES

Providing help after the death of a child St. Pius X gives donation to grief support program Ryan Murray Correspondent

GREENSBORO — The laugh of a child is intoxicating. The absence of one is deafening. The death of a child affects so many, and it is a loss that many cannot contemplate.

Heartstrings Pregnancy and Infant Support Loss is able to help parents in their times of grief.

“We recognize that grief and loss is different for each family,” said Mary Easton, co-executive director of Heartstrings Pregnancy and Infant Support Loss and a parishioner at St. Pius X Church in Greensboro. “Babies aren’t supposed to die – it’s very taboo.

Heartstrings provides a place where grieving parents can come for support.”

Heartstrings was started by Greensboro resident Tracey Holyfield when she lost her twin children two days after they were born. Holyfield was determined that no one should face the loss of his or her child alone. And from her grief, Heartstrings was born in 2005.

“This was the first place where everything was supportive to me,” said Priscilla Forney, a parent who has experienced a loss. “Not everyone knows what to say all the time, but the people at Heartstrings knew what to say every time.”

Just like many people don’t know how to talk to someone who is grieving, many people may not know how they can help Heartstrings.

“The programs that are provided for families are free of charge,” Easton said.

“We rely on special events and private donations to keep things running.”

Recently, the We Care Care Committee at St. Pius X made a $2,500 donation to Heartstrings.

“The generous gift that St. Pius X has made will ensure the Greensboro Support Group of Heartstrings has the necessary financial resources to continue into 2011,” Easton said. “This is the third time that St. Pius X has made a donation to Heartstrings, and we are thankful for their kindness and support.”

“Heartstrings is there months and years later for parents with a loss,” Easton said. “Society doesn’t always recognize the sadness and grief that comes with a loss, and many times these families grieve alone. We have found that some of the most beneficial healing has come from other families, and with a peer-support based system, grieving parents recognize they are not alone.”

For more, go to heartstringssupport.org.

As Father Carmen Malacari begins Mass at Holy Spirit Church in Denver, Ron Kolodziej instructs Patrick Vellia about the use of his FM Assistive Listening Device. The device allows people with hearing problems to fully participate in worship services. photos by Doreen Sugierski | Catholic News Herald

Hearing the Word of God Deaf-blind Holy Spirit parishioner receives assistance from deaf teacher, new listening device Doreen Sugierski Correspondent

DENVER — Holy Spirit parishioner Patrick Vellia is legally blind and deaf, but thanks to a device and assistance from fellow Catholic Ron Kolodziej, he is able to participate actively in the Mass and learn more about his faith.

Kolodziej is a teacher and counselor who assists people with hearing and sight disabilities as they prepare to receive the sacraments. He has worked with dioceses in New York and South Carolina, and after moving to the Diocese of Charlotte five years ago, he has been looking for ways to assist the disabled here. Kolodziej knows how difficult it can be to worship if you can’t hear or see the priest at Mass – he is deaf himself, having lost his hearing at the age of 5 when he contracted measles.

The blind and deaf can receive assistance from guide dogs, Kolodziej notes, but the presence of a dog at Mass – even a dog trained for guide work – can be uncomfortable for some parishioners.

To help Vellia and any other parishioners with hearing difficulties, Kolodziej outfitted the parish with an FM Assistive Listening Device, purchased from money raised by the parish’s Knights of Columbus.

The device enables the hard-of-hearing to better understand the spoken word with more clarity and crispness, and it can be a more practical solution for smaller parishes that don’t have access to sign-language interpreters or for places where guide dogs cannot go, Kolodziej notes.

He also assisted Vellia with translation of the Gospel and prayers of the Mass that are not available in Braille, and he was instrumental in helping Vellia become a member of the Knights of Columbus.

Kolodziej began his personal journey teaching the deaf, hard-ofhearing and deaf-blind in the Diocese of Syracuse, N.Y. He helped the religious education program prepare students for first Communion and confirmation, and he organized a deaf Bible study group to provide further educational opportunities for the hearing disabled.

Then he accepted a position as mental health counselor specializing in services to the deaf/hard-of-hearing with multiple needs. He relocated to Florence, S.C., and provided outreach for those who struggled with economic and societal barriers. He assisted in providing faith formation instruction to two deaf girls in the Diocese of Charleston and helped a parish in the diocese with sign language services and training for people with deaf family members.

“There is more to just providing the mechanics, “ Kolodziej says. “There is also a need for bonding – a human being to bring the touch, and sight of Jesus’ love.”

He encouraged the diocese to build up its services for the deaf, blind and hardof-hearing, and as a result, ministries were strengthened to provide greater pastoral care to families in need, he Kolodziej and his dog Pozy show the FM Assistive says.

Listening Device that he is pleased to have assisted Kolodziej branched in bringing to Holy Spirit Church. out to assist other Christian churches in South Carolina – Episcopal, Methodist and Baptist – that wanted to improve their sign-language services and provide more trained interpreters for worship services.

At the same time, he became involved with hospice care as a pastoral worker for 12 years. When he moved to North Carolina, he was alerted to the urgent need to care for a deaf parishioner of St. Thérèse Church in Mooresville who was in hospice care. Kolodziej was happy to help, not just with translation when she received Communion, but also with Scripture study, he said.

He’s now providing free sign language classes and trying to build awareness for more sign-language interpreters and services for the deaf, blind and hard-of-hearing. This pastoral care is important, he emphasizes, for Jesus commands us to feed his lambs.

Kolodziej wants to help others with hearing loss to enrich and grow their faith. To learn more, contact him at 704-483-2552 or at rdkolodziej@hotmail.com.

April 1, 2011 | charlottediocese.org/catholicnews

catholic news heraldI

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Father John T. Zuhlsdorf

Liturgy must draw us towards the world beyond T

here is a great deal of confusion in the Church today. We have in large part forgotten who we are as Catholics and why we belong to the Church.

We don’t belong to the Catholic Church first and foremost for earthly motives. Bettering the world, improving the lot of others – these flow from our love for God and our desire to be with Him in heaven.

Try as I might, with the possible exception of the fact that Jesus founded her, I cannot think of a more important reason to be a member of the Holy Catholic Church than the certainty that one day I will die and I will be judged. You will, too.

Why are we Catholic? Why bother with Mass? With the Church’s teachings about moral issues, why stand against the wind in the public square and twist in it, just to lose friends, status and comfort?

Why? Our Savior established the Catholic Church as our way to salvation. No matter how bad the deeds of some fellow members of the Church may be, or how alluring the world surely is, or how tough we think we have had it, we are going to die one day – some of us pretty soon. That’s why we are Catholic.

I hope by grace and elbow grease to do His will and to serve and worship Him fittingly in His Church. I try to love God. I want to please God. I believe He will help me, a sinner, in my weakness and forgive me when I fail. I strive to make changes when I am doing something that isn’t working. Why? Because I’m going to die, that’s why. I want to go to heaven.

If we love God, we will try to help other people get to heaven, too.

We have some problems with that part right now, my friends, because Catholic identity is weary and weak where once it was strong and everything.

We are all men and women of our age. To one degree or another, we are subject to prevailing trends and world views. Also, we are wounded from sin and death is scary. Death yawns before us as that door we must go through to come before the great mystery which is both fearsome and alluring. We are, to our peril, quite willing to avert our eyes from this fearful prospect – death – through innumerable distractions that fog our inner compass. We easily forget the one transcendent source of our being, our origin and goal.

We have problems in the Church as well. Many people working in the Church today have an immanentist mentality. Immanence, from the Latin “to remain within,” refers to a notion that divinity permeates the material universe. A radical immanentist would be something like a pantheist.

Such a one would say that God is not transcendent, but is rather in everything that is.

Learn more This is part 13 of a year-long series featuring the revised translation of the Third Missal. Our series will be compiled online at catholicnewsherald.com.

For even more resources, check out the U.S. bishops’ extensive material online at usccb.org/romanmissal.

As Christians we affirm that God alone is holy, almighty, omnipresent and transcendent. God entirely transcends the natural order. We also affirm God’s immanence, especially in the Second Person of the Trinity, God incarnate, Christ Jesus.

Church immanentists don’t deny the transcendence of God, at least as a proposition. But it just isn’t that important. They will even affirm God’s transcendence if it occurs to them or when they are pushed. Call their position “Immanentism Lite.”

Immanentism corrodes our view of who God is and who we are. We glide into neglect of the supernatural. We become less and less concerned with guilt for sin, even with the idea of sin as anything beyond transgressions of what we ourselves determine is right for ourselves at this time (read: passing trends). We lose sight of our absolute dependence on God for help through grace, our need for a Savior, and our impending judgment.

We forsake clarity in doctrine and the obligations which come from the profession of the Christian faith, including submission to the Church’s authority given her by Christ. The suggestion that something we might do could offend God and endanger our salvation sounds increasingly foreign. We get the idea that we are self-sufficient. We forget the real reason why Jesus died for us and why we are Catholic.

I propose that, to get at the root of our problems, we need encounters with the transcendent, with mystery. The regular way for this is through participation in true, sacred liturgical worship.

Last December, Pope Benedict XVI met with members of the Roman Curia to exchange the traditional Christmas greetings. But he delivered a grim “state of the Church” address. At one point he actually said, “The very future of the world is at stake.”

Pope Benedict had the Church throughout the world in mind for his speech, but a large portion of it was about his state visit in September to Scotland

and England, probably the most important trip of his pontificate. The Vicar of Christ reminded the whole Church, but in my opinion, the people of Great Britain in particular, “When (Christ’s) powerful word had calmed the storm, He rebuked the disciples for their little faith. He wanted to say: ‘It was your faith that was sleeping.’ He will say the same thing to us.

Our faith, too, is often asleep. Let us ask Him, then, to wake us from the sleep of a faith grown tired, and to restore to that faith the power to move mountains – that is, to order justly the affairs of the world.”

To wake up our faith and even to save our world, we must save our liturgy. Pope Benedict has explicitly called for a new liturgical movement.

Shall we embark on a “New Evangelization” where Catholic identity has become weary and weak? Let us renew Holy Church’s liturgy. Worthy, vertical, transcendentally-oriented liturgy slaps us awake, tears us out of the ephemeral and the worldly, and gives us space to pause in awe and in longing for what we cannot understand and yet know to be true and necessary. The older Mass in the Extraordinary Form (often called the Tridentine Mass or the Latin Mass) explicitly asks for surrender to the supernatural and strips us of our power to control.

The newer Ordinary Form, especially where Pope Benedict’s influence is being felt, also can achieve this when offered in continuity with the Church’s Tradition.

Some will object that elements of Extraordinary Form worship are too hard for us now. The difficult elements of worthy worship, especially in the traditional form of Holy Mass, create in the soul the tensions that are essential for an encounter with mystery, our way out of the trap of being selfabsorbed in this world.

We cannot easily argue ourselves or others away from this prevailing, modernist mentality or out of incessant distraction, though we must certainly try.

The more people encounter mystery through liturgy, the more hollow will clang the world’s passing distractions and the proposals of those who have strayed from the good path.

A reform of our liturgical worship along the lines Pope Benedict proposes is our most charitable and effective plan of action. “Summorum Pontificum” is a valuable tool. The revised English translation, though not perfect, will be of great help. This time of transition is a precious opportunity.

Father John T. Zuhlsdorf is a columnist for the American weekly

newspaper “The Wanderer” and writes the award-winning blog, “What does the Prayer Really Say?” (wdtprs.com). Reprinted with permission.

The more people encounter mystery through liturgy, the more hollow will clang the world’s passing distractions and the proposals of those who have strayed from the good path.

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charlottediocese.org/catholicnews | April 1, 2011 FROM THE COVER

Seeing God Dogs Parish pooches set an example of unconditional love, providing a tail-wagging tool for diocesan priests in their pastoral ministry SueAnn Howell Staff writer

CHARLOTTE — No doubt you’ve heard of famous Hollywood canines that were man’s best friend: Lassie, Benji, Rin Tin Tin. But have you ever heard of the “holy pooches”?

Pious puppies, faithful friends, mutts in ministry – they are the dogs who play special roles in the lives of our diocesan priests and the parishes they serve.

They have names like Chiquita, Casey, Maggie and Tobey. They are the stars of any parish event they attend and they are often the center of attention greeting parishioners after Mass, in the confessional, or in the parish office or school.

They are our diocesan dogs, ministering in their own special ways to everyone they meet.

Priests and religious throughout the centuries have kept dogs as pets in rectories and monasteries, relying on their companionship and in some cases protection.

Because dogs are known to sense peoples’ moods and can help calm people’s nerves simply with a wag of their tails or a nudge of their noses, their roles in pastoral care can be a natural fit.

More than a dozen priests across the Diocese of Charlotte have dogs that are serving in parish ministry, seen trotting happily alongside their owners.

The dogs range in size and breed, from Chihuahuas to Labradors, varying in temperament and talents. One thing the dogs have in common, though, is the shared mission of priestly companionship, bringing us all a glimpse of God’s unconditional love.

Doreen Sugierski | Catholic News Herald

Father Carmen Malacari and his dog Random greet parishioners after Mass at Holy Spirit Church in Denver.

Father Carmen Malacari

‘Random’ acts of kindness DENVER — Rarely will you see Father Carmen Malacari without his little Jack Russell Terrier very close by. Named Timber Ridge Random on her pedigree certificate, her friends just call her “Random.” And she has a lot of friends. Parishioners of Holy Spirit Church in Denver – especially the children – love this sweet little dog that is always there to greet everyone before and after Mass, at parish events and during business hours at the parish office.

Probably the best-dressed dog in Denver, Random has quite a collection of sweaters and jackets that she has received as gifts and which she wears throughout the winter months. A medal of St. Francis dangles from her collar.

Father Malacari got Random from a breeder in 2005. She was six years old at the time. He wanted companionship and a pet to care for. He smiles when he speaks about Random.

“She is so sweet, playful and obedient,” he says. “She loves to chase squirrels and rabbits. She loves to sleep, too!”

“She brings me a lot of joy, gives unconditional love,

and does not talk back!” he says with a laugh, adding, “She is very good with people in the parish.”

Random’s ministerial work includes visits to nursing homes, where she brings happiness to the residents. She also provides a soothing and calming effect to parishioners dealing with grief and difficulties, and she sits in the confessional to put children at ease who might otherwise be afraid of celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation.

Do dogs go to heaven? Father Malacari responds, “Regardless of whether a dog has a soul, God created the animals that bring us happiness and joy on earth, so why wouldn’t God allow us to have our pets in heaven?”

— Doreen Sugierski

April 1, 2011 | charlottediocese.org/catholicnews

FROM THE COVERI

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Bishop Emeritus William Curlin

A lifetime love of dogs

Bishop Emeritus William Curlin with his three Chihuahuas: Cindy, Missy and Holly.

CHARLOTTE — Bishop Emeritus Wiliam Curlin has loved dogs for as long as he can remember. His mother used to tell him stories about how he would fall asleep every night with his arms wrapped around his big Collie, named Pete, when he was a child.

“I had big dogs all my life,” recalls Bishop Curlin. “My folks had the small ones as they got older. So when my dad died, I inherited their small dogs, so I just kept them.”

Bishop Curlin now shares his retirement and his residence with three four-legged friends.

They are all Chihuahuas – named Holly, Missy and Cindy.

Holly is the oldest at 16. Bishop Curlin has owned her since he moved to Charlotte in 1994 to serve as bishop. Holly lived in the bishop’s residence with him near St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte until his retirement in 2002. She can’t hear anymore and her back legs can’t support her weight like they used to, but she continues to exude a joyful spirit.

“She was spoiled by everyone who came to visit us there,” says Bishop Curlin. “She is old now, but she was full of life and running around back then, greeting everybody.”

He also had another Chihuahua named Brian, named after Father Brian Cook. Brian (the Chihuahua) passed away about four and a half years ago and is buried near the Marian Grotto in Bishop Curlin’s backyard.

Then there are the two sisters, Cindy and Missy. They were given to Bishop Curlin as Christmas gifts, one from the Grim family and

another from Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, shortly after Brian the Chihuahua died.

“Cindy is the alpha-dog. She’s the boss. She loves the older dog, Holly. She gets right up next to her and kisses her. Missy is short for Mistletoe,” he says.

All three Chihuahuas enjoy the natural beauty of Bishop Curlin’s backyard and grotto, and the visitors who still come and go.

— SueAnn Howell

SueAnn Howell | Catholic News Herald

Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio

‘Being petted is their ministry’

Photo provided by St. Pius X Church

Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio and Obispo, one of his two Chihuahuas, diligently proofread a homily.

GREENSBORO — Before he became pastor of St. Pius X Church in Greensboro 11 years ago, Monsignor Anthony J. Marcaccio served as priest secretary to Bishop Emeritus William Curlin for five years. When the monsignor transferred to Greensboro, Bishop Curlin presented Monsignor Marcaccio with two housewarming presents: two little Chihuahuas.

“Bishop Curlin had Chihuahuas and while working with him, I became attached,” he says. “When I was transferred to St. Pius X in 2000, Bishop Curlin gave me two as a housewarming present, although I was sort of hoping for a flat-screen television!”

“Chica was named by Bishop Curlin and I named the other Obispo, which is Spanish for bishop,” he says, grinning. “I named one Obispo so I can tell the bishop to sit, to stay, to be quiet.”

Similar to humans, both dogs have unique personalities, he muses.

“They can sometimes be a little standoffish. So when a soonto-be groom comes in (for counseling) and one of the dogs goes right to him, I let his fiancée know that’s a good sign – as good as any pre-marital inventory!”

Just as the Chihuahuas are there to celebrate with others, they are also there to help others.

“Chica and Obispo are very sensitive and can tell when people are sad or a little upset,” Monsignor Marcaccio says. “They will come out and want to be held by that person – as if being petted, which is kind of calming, is their ministry. And I truly believe it is.”

— Ryan Murray

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iiiApril 1, 2011 | charlottediocese.org/catholicnews

FROM THE

Father John Putnam

Monsignor Richard Bellow

Casey, ‘the peek-a-boo puppy’

Maggie brings ‘great joy’ to kids at the parish school SALISBURY — For the past six months, clergy, staff and parishioners at Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury have been graced by the presence of a Pug named Maggie – “Lady Margaret, Duchess of Salisbury,” as she is affectionately referred to.

Father John Putnam, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, adopted Maggie six months ago after one of her elderly owners died and the woman’s elderly husband was unable to care for her.

Maggie has a variety of nicknames, but there is one thing for which she is especially known.

“She has an extremely long tongue that everyone notices because it hangs out of her mouth most of the time, including when she is sleeping,” says Father Putnam.

Her long tongue makes her a big hit with children, especially at Sacred Heart School, which is adjacent to the parish.

“Maggie is a very lovable dog. She loves children and people in general,” adds Father Putnam. “The students at the school generally ask where Maggie is before they say anything else to me!”

Father Benjamin Roberts, parochial vicar at Sacred Heart Church, agrees that Maggie “brings great joy to the staff at the parish and

SueAnn Howell | Catholic News Herald

the school children.”

It appears that Maggie was a gift from God, according to Father Putnam.

“I’ve always had dogs from the time I was a child,” says Father Putnam. “My last dog, an English Bulldog, died a little over a year ago.

I had decided at that point to forgo getting another dog for a while, but I guess God had other plans.”

— SueAnn Howell

HUNTERSVILLE — If you spot a little fluffy ball of white fur peeking out from St. Mark pastor Monsignor Richard Bellow’s coat, you’re not seeing things.

Casey, a five-month-old Maltese puppy, is Monsignor Bellow’s new canine sidekick. He is named after a friend who gave Monsignor Bellow the puppy.

“He is adorable, playful and polite,” says Tricia McCaa, business manager at St. Mark Church.

Casey accompanies Monsignor Bellow when he visits St. Mark School, and all the kids love Casey. Casey also stays in Monsignor Bellow’s office when he has appointments, and parishioners enjoy seeing him there.

“Casey helps the kids settle down and be less nervous when they come in for confession,” adds McCaa. Bob Greis, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Mark, shares this story about meeting Casey recently.

“Last week I encountered Monsignor, walking and talking with three of his deacons in the hall of our family center. I am the president of the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul Society and I was on my way to a meeting when we all encountered each other. Just as we were starting to greet one another, a tiny white Maltese puppy (about 2 or 3 pounds’ worth) all of a sudden appeared from behind Monsignor’s legs. Monsignor Bellow told me that the puppy was his new friend and companion. While we were sitting

SueAnn Howell | Catholic News Herald

in the meeting room a little while later waiting for our pastor, Monsignor appeared with his overcoat on and then Casey popped out from behind him once again. Monsignor apologized and said he could not attend the meeting as planned due to an emergency Communion out-call. We all laughed when we saw Casey, and I asked Monsignor if he was taking Casey with him on his call. His answer was, ‘Of course, since my illness, he does all the driving for me now!’”

Word has it that now when Monsignor Bellow is invited to people’s homes for meals, they say, “Bring Casey!”

— SueAnn Howell

Father Bill Evans

Parishioners love their retired priest and his old dachsund CASHIERS — Father Bill Evans’ beloved dachshund Tobey is showing his age. Tobey is apt to bark at anyone who visits, and he’s none too neat around the house. But that’s all right with the retired priest, who enjoys his canine companion.

“Tobey is very possessive of me. He keeps me from going crazy. I love the old guy,” says Evans, who is 77 this year.

Father Evans is not a “cradle Catholic” but came to his vocation and life by following the call of the Holy Spirit. He was raised a Baptist but converted to Catholicism at 18, prompting his grandmother to say he was “doomed to hell.”

After four years as a U.S. Navy medical corpsman during the Korean War, he attended the University of North CarolinaChapel Hill, earning a doctorate in French studies. He taught French language and literature at Appalachian State University until he was 40, when he felt the call to the priesthood.

“I thought God had lost His mind,” Evans quips, but nevertheless he joined the Dominican order and was ordained in 1981.

The Dominicans utilized his teaching skills at universities in the Memphis, Tenn., area until 1986 when he decided to become a

parish priest with the Diocese of Charlotte.

He subsequently served at Catholic churches in Statesville, Maggie Valley, Sylva and finally Highlands/Cashiers, where he retired six years ago. In 1988 Father Evans started teaching French classes at Western Carolina University, which he continued to do until his retirement. Bishop John F. Donoghue allowed Father Evans to teach in addition to being a priest because he liked having a Catholic presence on a state university campus.

“Teaching and being a priest are two jobs I love dearly,” Father Evans says. “Even as a priest, I was a teacher trying to explain what the Scriptures say to us today.”

He still teaches a Bible study class at St. Jude in Cashiers and helps out at weekend Masses. Father Evans has no living family but counts the people at the Cashiers and Highlands churches as his extended family.

“They are so good to me. Anything I need, they do,” he says. When recent medical issues prevented him from driving for a time, parishioners took him to medical appointments, shopping, even seeing to Tobey’s needs.

Father Evans got Tobey from a shelter

nine years ago and was told the dog was 9 years old at that time. Tobey is the sixth dachshund Father Evans has owned over his lifetime.

A lifelong teacher, Father Evans still has a keen mind and enjoys learning as well as teaching. He takes flute lessons with Rita Hayes, a member of the Asheville Symphony.

Tina Cone is one of the parishioners helping Father Evans as he faced health problems requiring several hospitalizations and surgery over the past two years. She said parishioners are glad to give back to the man who has brought so much to their lives “Father Evans is a very good speaker and an inspiration to be around,” Cone says.

“He puts you at ease. You can talk to him about anything.”

People flock to Father Evans whenever he comes to church, as they want to tell him how much he has meant to them, she says.

Cone and fellow church member Maggie Schifhourer take him to lunch about once a week. “He’s a wonderful man,” Cone explains. “He’s brought so much joy to everyone else’s life. Now it’s his turn.”

— Tim Reid

Tim Reid | Catholic News Herald

Father Bill Evans plays the piccolo for his beloved dachshund Tobey.

THE COVER

April 1, 2011 | charlottediocese.org/catholicnewsiii

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‘Animals are God’s creatures. He surrounds them with His providential care. By their mere existence they bless Him and give Him glory. Thus men owe them kindness.’

- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2416

photo provided by Father Paul Gary

Father Paul Gary of St. Luke Church in Mint Hill poses with his Boston Terrier named Chiquita.

Mollie Gordon | Catholic News Herald

Father Brian Cook of St. Leo the Great Church in Winston-Salem has two beagles, Abigail and Marigold.

Father Paul Gary

Father Brian Cook

A sweet little Chiquita

His ‘girls’ make people laugh

MINT HILL — For more than two years now, St. Luke Church in Mint Hill has become home for pastor Father Paul Gary and his 10-year-old Boston Terrier, Chiquita.

Chiquita, which means “little girl” in Spanish, is an apt name for the tiny dog with big, brown eyes.

“Chiquita was a Christmas present from a priest friend of mine who bought her when she was three months old,” says Father Gary. “I have had her since Christmas of the year 2000.”

Before they moved to Mint Hill, Father Gary and Chiquita served at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte.

According to Father Gary, “Chiquita is a very smart dog with an exceptionally kind disposition.

She loves to go for walks in the park.”

She loves to chase chipmunks, too.

Chiquita must enjoy car rides as well, as she accompanies Father Gary on his visits to nursing homes.

She apparently enjoys the sacraments, too.

“I bring Chiquita with me to Mass on Saturday night and Sunday. The people know she is at church and they look for her to say hello and give her treats.

She loves all the attention.”

— SueAnn Howell

Father Adrian Porras, pastor of St. Barnabas Church in Arden, has two beagles, Oliver and Petey.

WINSTON-SALEM — St. Leo the Great Church is full of many kinds of families, including the family Father Brian Cook has in his two beagles, Abigail and Marigold. Abigail came to Father Cook by way of the North Carolina Pet Adoption League. After having been hit by a truck and losing one of her legs, her options were slim. Abigail was still bandaged and pretty wobbly on her three remaining paws, but soon she felt right at home in the rectory. Parishioners often saw the two together, but the family wasn’t complete until about three years ago when Father Cook adopted Marigold. Marigold, also a rescued beagle, had been abandoned in a shopping center parking lot and needed a safe home. There was some trepidation over whether the two dogs would get along, but they took instantly to each other.

Like many sisters, their personalities are quite different. Abigail tends to be reserved, and Marigold is a “wild child,” he describes. Marigold ate three television remote controls within her first two weeks at the rectory and she “liberates” trash cans, he recounts.

“They are great buddies, wonderful company, and they make me laugh,” he beams, calling them his “girls.”

And as honorary mascots of St. Leo School, they also make adults and children laugh.

When asked why he chose dogs as his pets, Father Cook says, “Dogs don’t let me take myself too seriously.”

— Mollie Gordon

Suzanne Konopka | Catholic News Herald

Father Adrian Porras

Dogs ‘become companions and friends’ ARDEN — Oliver the Kisser and Petey the Cuddler, three and four years old, respectively, are the two happy beagles of Father Adrian Porras, pastor of St. Barnabas Church in Arden.

Oliver was found as a sick pup, wandering in Kentucky. He came to Father Porras in 2008 by way of a foster home and petfinder.com. Petey was adopted at PetSmart a year later. Both dogs are typical hounds, but Petey is the “really good one” and Oliver is a “master Houdini,” Father Porras says.

Oliver easily breached Father Porras’ first chicken-wire fence. A second fence was constructed of wood, so Oliver tunneled under it. Another time the dog pushed a board loose and let himself and Petey out.

“I thought I’d lost two dogs in one day,” he recalls.

Luckily, their dog tags identified them to alert neighbors. Now, the fence has large rocks set along its base.

Once, when Oliver was at a parish staff member’s home, he forced open a dog door, climbed over a fence and escaped again.

Admits Father Porras, “Oliver is tenacious. I have to work to contain him.”

He laughs, “If dogs were human children, Oliver would probably be in counseling! But Petey settles him down. I love dogs – they become companions and friends.”

— Suzanne Konopka

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charlottediocese.org/catholicnews | April 1, 2011 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Diocesan schools to celebrate Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

In Brief Charlotte Catholic students win honors CHARLOTTE — The following Charlotte Catholic High School students have won honors: n Caitlin Cristante: awarded the Alumni Endowed Undergraduate Scholarship, a full scholarship plus a summer stipend to Duke University n Morgan May: given a North Carolina Teaching Fellow scholarship to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill n Natalie Myrick, Allison Whitmeyer and Nicole Rice-Clewell: selected to attend the North Carolina Governor’s School n Michaela Reinhart: selected as a Clemson University National Scholar, which is the school’s premier full scholarship n Michael Batres: named a finalist for the Park Scholarship at North Carolina State University

Christopher Lux Intern

Father Roger K. Arnsparger, vicar of education for the Diocese of Charlotte and pastor of St. Michael Church in Gastonia, is calling all parishes and schools to observe the celebration of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati’s birthday on Wednesday, April 6.

Frassati, the patron of World Youth Day, was born in Turin, Italy, in 1901 to a rich and politically influential family. He was a pious youth, average student, outstanding athlete and mountain climber. He was also extremely popular with his peers.

Throughout his life, he worked with Catholic groups such as “Apostleship of Prayer” and the “Company of the Most Blessed Sacrament” who ministered to the poor and promoted Eucharistic Adoration, Marian devotion and personal chastity. He was also involved in political groups such as

the Young Catholic Workers Congress and Catholic Action who supported the poor and worked for the Church’s social teachings.

He spent his fortune on the needy and often visited the sick.

Frassati enrolled as a Dominican tertiary on Frassati May 28, 1922, and he died in 1925 at the young age of 24. Though his life was short, he filled it passionately with holy living. Among his notable sayings, Frassati once said, “Christ comes to me daily to visit me in the Holy Eucharist. I return the visit by going to visit Him in the poor.”

Pope John Paul II beatified Frassati on May 20, 1990, calling him “the Man of the Eight Beatitudes.”

The faithful are asked to celebrate his birthday with a Mass, recitation of the

rosary or Eucharistic Adoration, and performance of charitable projects.

Father Arnsparger said he believes strongly in introducing Frassati to youth and promoting his canonization. Efforts to promote this awareness include the “Tipi Loschi” and the Association of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati which celebrates his birthday on April 6.

“I pray that the example of Pier Giorgio’s vigorous faith will be an encouragement to our youth. His devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus led him to love Christ and the Church and to be an active Catholic,” Father Arnsparger said. “His life is summed up by the words he wrote on a photo from his last mountain climb on June 7, 1925: ‘Verso l’alto,’ meaning ‘to the heights.’ His life was a daily ascent to heaven. His example encourages everyone to seek heaven.”

Along with Mary, Help of Christians, Frassati is a patron of the Bishop’s Annual Lenten Youth Pilgrimage at Belmont Abbey.

— Jennifer B. Johnson

OLG student principal for day GREENSBORO — Seventh-grader Erica Justice was the principal for a day at Our Lady of Grace School March 17. Erica performed many duties that day, but the most important was declaring March 22 a dress-down day for all OLG students who brought in a donation for victims of the Japanese disaster. Students responded with enthusiasm and raised $437. The money will go to Catholic Relief Services for its work in Japan.

— Karen Hornfeck

sueann howell | catholic news herald

Keeping up with technology The third annual Catholic Schools Technology Fair was held March 25 at the Diocese of Charlotte Pastoral Center. Charlotte Catholic High School volunteers, David Herlocker (left) and Liam Winters (right) are pictured with teacher Catherine Bischoff during the technology

fair. More than 20 vendors participated in the event which drew 70 educators from around the diocese.

April 1, 2011 | charlottediocese.org/catholicnews

photo provided by Robin Fisher

Charter Junior Beta Club members inducted Sacred Heart Catholic School in Salisbury recently chartered its first National Junior Beta Club, recognizing students in grades 5-9 for their high academic achievement. Principal Frank Cardelle led the induction ceremony, and guidance counselor Karen Wenker and three teachers, Sister Myra Caylan, Marilee Reilly and Katie Meseroll, assisted in the ceremony.

Members are: (eighth grade) Erin Ansbro, Matthew Chilton, Meghan Hedgepeth and Arnold Yu; (seventh grade) Chloe Burks, Makayla Dillon, Max Fisher, Katlyn Glover, Reilly Gokey, Kayla Honeycutt, Caroline Parrott, Spencer Storey and Mimi Webb; (sixth grade) James Boyd, Justin Boyd, Ceci Cardelle, Will Casmus, William Clark, Mathias de Comarmond, Adam Habeeb, Bryan Reid and Maria Strobel; and (fifth grade) Alex Antosek, Bess Bryan, Elly Burks, Michael Childress, Keegan Dillon, Kyle Glover, Julia Honeycutt, Johnson Huynh, Adanya Johnson, Mary McCullough, Anne Marie Metz, Anna Patel, Sara Nguyen, Ben Roy, Miriam Roy and Daniel Yu. For more than 75 years, the Beta Club has provided academic, character, leadership and public service opportunities to more than 5.5 million students.

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Mix

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charlottediocese.org/catholicnews | April 1, 2011 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

In theaters

On TV

‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules’

n Sunday, April 3, 8-9 p.m. EDT (EWTN) “Franciscan University Presents: Redemptive Suffering.” What is suffering?

Why does it exist? Series host Franciscan Father Michael Scanlan will examine these questions and more with Dominican Father Paul Keller, author and professor of theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West outside Cincinnati, and panelists Regis Martin and Scott Hahn.

Gently humorous, and more family-friendly, sequel about the tensions between a hapless seventh-grader (Zachary Gordon) and his teenage brother (Devon Bostick). When their advice columnist mother (Rachael Harris) tries to get these constantly quarreling siblings to bond, big bro goes from bullying persecutor to mildly bad influence, leading to some good-natured high jinks that eventually involve the younger lad’s best friend (Robert Capron). Director David Bowers’ follow-up to the 2010 comedy “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” – adapted, like its predecessor, from one of Jeff Kinney’s best-selling cartoon novels – sends its protagonist through another series of embarrassing situations and useful learning moments.

During this time, he picks up lessons about honesty and self-confidence. This time, though, the only possible red flag for parents is raised by a few instances of childish scatological humor, one of which can be seen as vaguely irreverent.

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

‘Sucker Punch’ Inchoate fantasy designed especially for those who like their movies to be thrill rides devoid of such niceties as coherent plot, writing or wrapup. Considerable gun and knife violence, crude language, and a couple of scenes of sexual menace.

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

Jo-Anne Allison | Catholic News Herald

Patrick and Penny Hession of Jefferson, married for 37 years, continue their mission of spreading the Good News.

Jefferson artists release Christian CD Jo-Anne Allison Correspondent

JEFFERSON — “A Quiet Place,” two acres amid the rolling hills of Wilkes County, is home to Patrick and Penny Hession – Catholic artists, authors, teachers, parents and grandparents. For Patrick, that list of accomplishments now also includes a newly-released music CD entitled “Sung from the Heart.”

Patrick has always had a heart for music and was leading worship music at his church when his first mentor recognized his talent. He studied with him for one year, learning to sing with a matchstick propped between his teeth to open his mouth and allow the vocal sounds to fully resonate. Throughout the years he had many teachers, including the wife of a professor from Purdue University who said he was a natural tenor. Coming from a musical family, he knew his voice was a God-given instrument and he welcomed the training.

Music chosen for this new CD was intended to symbolize “the journey of a soul in search of its God.” The Hessions have literally followed that path throughout their 37 years of marriage, seeking to proclaim to others their experiences of reconciliation, healing and restoration. They have spent years opening themselves to God’s love and compassion, healing their own past, searching for meaningful relationships within churches and “laying strong foundations” around the country.

Patrick says, “The key to the restoration of all things in Christ is to be Christ where we are, in service. The world needs to know that Jesus is not an ‘ism’ or a label or a denomination, but is a Person who is alive and active today in those who

bear His Name, baptized with the same Holy Spirit as He was.”

In the early years of their marriage and family life, the Hessions journeyed forward on an Abraham walk, a traveling ministry, trusting each step to be directed by God’s design. Life was challenging and they struggled, but trust in their mission and in God was the compass by which they navigated. When their children were young, a puppet ministry enriched by music was their way of bringing God’s love and peace.

After their children grew older and left home, they devoted more time to writing. Between the two of them, they have published more than 20 books on spiritual instruction and a series of fictional novels based on a young priest, Father Jon Mark.

Their self-recorded CD is comprised of two sections, and Patrick’s creative writing flowed onto the CD in Part 1 with the song “God Is Worthy of His Name,” a song he first heard in a dream. A poem he wrote, “I Will Go with You,” appears on the inside cover. He says it summarizes his journey with God and his wife Penny. By using his writing and his music, he said, he hopes to encourage others to begin or deepen their journeys to God, and to give Him glory and praise.

The second part of the CD has a Christmas theme. One song written by his uncle, a priest, is about the Holy Family. Other sacred songs include recordings of “Panis Angelicus” and both compositions of “Ave Maria.”

The Hessions have found their home at St Francis of Assisi Church in Jefferson. They are fully restored to the faith, “embedded on this mountain to recover the Church,” Patrick says. “The HESSIONS, SEE page 17

n Wednesday, April 6, 10-11 p.m.

EDT (EWTN) “Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings:’ A Catholic Worldview.” Joseph Pearce explores the Catholicism underpinning J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. n Friday, April 8, 9:30-10:30 p.m. EDT (PBS) “Energy Innovation.” This episode of the series “Planet Forward” harnesses the power of the online community to uncover innovative solutions to global energy and climate challenges as it showcases ideas submitted by the public to the program’s website. Emmy Award-winning CNN veteran Frank Sesno hosts (TV-G – general audience). n Wednesday, April 6, 8-10:30 p.m. EDT (TCM) “Friendly Persuasion” (1956). Winning adaptation of Jessamyn West’s novel about a Quaker household (Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire and Tony Perkins) at the time of the Civil War. Director William Wyler’s lyric treatment of family life and human relationships heightens the conflict between the hard realities of the war and the pacifist convictions of the Quaker faith. Still a warm and cheering experience for family viewers. CNS: A-I (general patronage), MPAA: Not rated

April 1, 2011 | charlottediocese.org/catholicnews

Franciscan guardians of Holy Land sites launch new Web site Catholic News Agency

JERUSALEM — The Franciscans in the Holy Land, who have been charged by the Vatican with preserving Catholic sanctuaries in the area throughout the last 800 years, have launched a new Web site offering more information about the sacred sites as well as pilgrimages to the region.

“It is the love and care for the places of the incarnation of Jesus that create the desire for all Christians to feel closer to the Holy Land,” Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, major superior of the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land, said in a March 21 announcement.

“The renewed Internet site meets this desire,” he said, explaining that it will continue to inform the faithful around the globe who are interested in “the life of the Holy Land and its community.”

The new Web site, available in six

languages, details the historical significance of the Franciscans’ work to preserve the places where the Christian faith originated in the Middle East. The site also explains the importance of each sanctuary and provides information about pilgrimages to the area.

Since the 13th century, the friars have been tasked by the Vatican with having “custody” over the holy sites within areas of Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Cyprus and Rhodes. The job involves coordinating and directing the reception of the faithful who make pilgrimages to the Holy Land to pray at the shrines.

“The present Web site will be a ‘work in progress,’ growing gradually in time,” Father Pizzaballa said. “In addition to the life of the custody of the Holy Land, the places of salvation that the Franciscans have looked after with passion for 800 years will be presented with more detailed information.”

For more information, visit custodia.org.

CNA launches new ‘Catholic Men’ column to affirm men in lay vocations Catholic News Agency

DENVER, Colo. — Catholic News Agency is launching a new online resource focusing on the experiences and spiritual lives of Catholic men to strengthen them in their commitments to marriage, fatherhood and the single life.

The new column, “Catholic Men,” features contributions from men in diverse fields of expertise on topics relating to lay men within the Church. It premiered March 21.

“Through this column, we hope to encourage guys to embrace the adventure of their lay vocation – as single or married men – and to bring their unique masculine virtues into their lives of faith, prayer, family and profession,” said organizer Brian Caulfield.

Caulfield – editor of the Web site “Fathers for Good,” an initiative of the Knights of Columbus that provides resources on Christian fatherhood – explained that the “Catholic Men” column on CNA is an extension of that ministry.

A father of two young boys, Caulfield emphasized that members of the faith “need to show laymen how much they are needed within the Catholic Church, and that there is

HESSIONS: FROM PAGE 16

mountains have been a learning experience over and beyond all the accumulated years of ministry and service in the Lord. We are able to pull wisdom from our nomadic life to live

a place for them even if they are not called to priesthood.”

“As we can see from popular culture, true masculine virtues and strength are not highly valued today,” he added. “Men are portrayed as either ineffective husbands and fathers, or dangerous psychological agents who use their strength to harm society or to seduce and use women. In so many social, legal and cultural settings, the natural masculine instinct to protect, provide and guide is seen as unnecessary,” leaving men “to struggle with their role and identity.”

CNA will post new contributions to “Catholic Men” every Monday.

Besides Caulfield, seven other columnists will contribute to the site on a rotating basis: Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a Catholic psychiatrist who writes about marital relationships; Dr. Peter Kleponis, a Catholic psychologist who addresses the effects of pornography and raising teens; Andrew Haines, a blogger-philosopher; Daniel Lord, a composer and musician who writes on cultural issues; Devin Rose, a dad who has adopted four children; Jason Godin, a young college professor who writes about domestic life; and Michael Brewer, head of the College Knights of Columbus program.

in His grace and mercy. The Lord, our God, has blessed us in all of our undertakings; He has been concerned about our journey.”

Their publications and the CD “Sung from the Heart” can be obtained through their Web site. To learn more about their journey and publications, go to familytofamilies.com. The CD is online at digstation.com or cdbaby.com (enter Patrick Hession in search).

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Our nation

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charlottediocese.org/catholicnews | April 1, 2011 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

In Brief USCCB urges no change in fed housing rules

Young people attend an event during the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress at the Anaheim Convention Center in mid-March.

The congress, the largest of its kind, drew more than 40,000 people from across the nation and around the globe.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Proposed changes in federal housing regulations to forbid discrimination based on “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” could violate existing federal law and force faith-based organizations to end their “long and successful track record in meeting housing needs,” according to comments filed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Anthony R. Picarello Jr. and Michael F. Moses, USCCB general counsel and associate general counsel, respectively, said the proposal by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to add to the list of protected categories for which discrimination in HUD programs is prohibited “appears at odds” with the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which says marriage is the union of one man and one woman. “HUD should not create a new protected classification where there is no statutory policy undergirding it and where the new classification flies in the face of a policy expressly adopted by Congress,” they said.

Oregon province to pay $166M to abuse victims

CNS | Victor Aleman, Vida Nueva

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Oregon province of the Society of Jesus has agreed to pay $166.1 million to about 500 people abused by Jesuit priests at schools in the Pacific Northwest in past decades. Most of the abuse took place from the 1950s to the 1980s, but some of the cases date back to the late 1940s. The claims were primarily from Alaska natives and Native Americans who said they were abused as children by priests at the order’s schools in remote Alaskan villages and U.S. Indian reservations. The Portland-based province serves Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

The settlement, which is part of the Society of Jesus Oregon province’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, was announced March 25 in Portland.

The province also agreed to publicize the names of the abusers, issue written apologies to victims, and provide personal and medical records of about 140 priests and brothers accused.

Father Dietzen, leading Q&A columnist, dies PEORIA, Ill. — Father John J. Dietzen, the foremost question-and-answer columnist in the Catholic press for 35 years, died March 27 in Peoria. He was 83.

Funeral for Ferraro held BOSTON — A funeral Mass for Geraldine Ferraro, a lawyer and former congresswoman who in 1984 became the first woman to seek the vice presidency on a major political party ticket, was celebrated March 31 at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan.

Ferraro died March 26 in Boston at the age of 75.

She was not only the first woman on a major party’s presidential ticket, she was the first Catholic Democrat to be nominated after abortion became a significant issue in political campaigns.

— Catholic News Service

Congress billed as ‘moment for conversion’ Doris Benavides, Paula Doyle and Mike Nelson Catholic News Service

ANAHEIM, Calif. — An enthusiastic assembly – a host of assemblies, actually – greeted new Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez as he experienced his first Religious Education Congress in Anaheim, and with it the spirit and thirst for knowledge, support and sharing that accompany the largest event of its kind worldwide.

More than 40,000 people, including more than 15,000 at Youth Day, attended the March 18-20 congress at the Anaheim Convention Center, representing nearly every U.S. state and nearly every continent in the world.

“This is a great moment for conversion,” Archbishop Gomez told the assembly at the close of the event, “a conversion of heart in this Lenten season. For once we have conversion, we can bring the Good News to the people of God.” Evangelization likewise was the focus of a talk by Sister Edith Prendergast, who addressed the gathering’s theme, “Hold Firm ... Trust!”

“As teachers and leaders, we know the Church exists to evangelize. We are challenged to lead our people to a new vision, calling them to have faith and to trust,” said the nun, a Religious Sister

of Charity. She is the director of the Los Angeles archdiocesan Office of Religious Education, which sponsors the congress.

Sister Edith urged the parish and school ministers in the arena not to be discouraged in difficult or challenging times.

“As Catholics, we believe all will be well if God is at the center of our lives,” she said. “Believing we are loved and cherished by God, we can risk, because we know as Christians that we will rise even in the midst of pain. And we can’t do it alone; we must collaborate. And isn’t that what we’re about? Working together to share the Good News as catechetical leaders?”

During his March 19 morning keynote speech titled “Gathered and Sent: Saints, Prophets, Martyrs on a Mission,” Jack Jezreel stressed the need of practicing compassion and integrity in parishes, as outlined in Catholic social teaching, which he said is “still a best-kept secret in the Church.”

“Those of us inspired by saints, martyrs and prophets who work in social ministry often say that our work is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable,” said the founder and executive director of Kentucky-based JustFaith Ministries, which he described as a “faith-formation laboratory.”

“I consider being made uncomfortable an attribute of the Holy Spirit,” he added.

“And I believe that the transformation process begins with being provoked, disturbed or annoyed, which is why people who have children are so often transformed.”

Opening his homily at the final Mass with prayers for “our brothers and sisters in Japan who are suffering,” Archbishop Gomez recounted the story of Satoko Kitahara, who lived in Tokyo after World War II. After converting to Catholicism at age 20, she started to see the world differently and left her wealthy parents’ home to live with the poor until her death from tuberculosis at age 29.

“The story of Satoko Kitahara is the story of every disciple,” the archbishop said. “We are called to follow God’s call and to teach others about Him; to bear witness to His love in our lives.

“God wants all men and women to know what we know – that He is alive, that He loves us with a father’s great love,” he added. “That means that we all are called to be missionaries, to be apostles. This is your task as religious educators. You are evangelists, missionaries.”

The goal of religious education is not to impart information, continued the archbishop. “It is to bring men and women to knowledge and faith in God’s redemptive plan,” he said. “It is to bring men and women to conversion – to know Jesus and to know the love and forgiveness of Our Father.”

April 1, 2011 | charlottediocese.org/catholicnews

Archbishop Dolan: Bishops’ commitment to address clergy sex abuse remains firm Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, head of the USCCB, shows his pectoral cross to 5-month-old Patrick Long and his grandfather Patrick Long of St. Henry Parish in Bayonne, N.J., during the 250th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York March 17. “The protection of our children and young people is of highest priority,” the archbishop reiterated last week.

Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. bishops’ procedures for addressing child sex abuse remain “strongly in place” and the bishops remain “especially firm” in their commitment “to remove permanently from public ministry any priest who committed such an intolerable offense,” said the president of the U.S. bishops’ conference.

“This painful issue continues to receive our careful attention,” said Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York.

“The protection of our children and young people is of highest priority,” the archbishop said in a March 24 statement. He added that the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” approved by the bishops in 2002 “remains strongly in place.”

He said the bishops who met in Washington, D.C., for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Administrative Committee meeting March 22-23 asked him to offer reassurances about the Church’s resolve to address sexual abuse and deal firmly with clergy who abuse children.

The Administrative Committee – composed of the executive officers, committee chairmen and regional representatives of the USCCB – is the highest decision-making body of the bishops apart from the entire body when it meets twice a year in general assembly.

“We bishops recommit ourselves to the rigorous mandates of the charter, and renew our confidence in its effectiveness,” Archbishop Dolan said. “We repeat what we have said in the charter: ‘We make our own the words of His Holiness, Pope John Paul II: that the sexual abuse of young people

CNS | Gregory A. Shemitz

is by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God.’” Both the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” and norms the U.S. bishops approved for dioceses to adhere to the charter’s mandates have Vatican approval. The charter, which also established the bishops’ Office for Child and Youth Protection, was updated in 2005, the norms in 2006.

The charter mandates that safe environment programs be set up in dioceses and parishes. It also requires an annual audit on how dioceses and religious orders are complying with provisions in the charter.

In the nine years since the charter was first approved, “we have constantly reviewed the high promises and rigorous mandates of the charter, as we continually try to make it even more effective,” Archbishop

Dolan said, based on input from the lay-led National Review Board and from Catholic parents, professionals, the victim-survivor community, law enforcement officials and diocesan victim-assistance coordinators.

The bishops are to take up a “long-planned review” of the charter during their June meeting, he said.

In his statement, Archbishop Dolan said the progress the Church has made in addressing abuse “must continue and cannot be derailed; we want to strengthen it even more; we can never stop working at it, because each child and young person must always be safe, loved and cherished in the Church.”

Archbishop Dolan said the designation of April as National Child Abuse Prevention Month provides the bishops with “the providential opportunity to unite with all Americans in a renewed resolve to halt the scourge of sexual abuse of youth in our society.”

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In Brief Pope appeals for suspension of fighting in Libya VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI appealed for a suspension of fighting in Libya and the immediate start of a serious dialogue aimed at restoring peace to the North African country. Speaking at his weekly blessing March 27, the pope said he was increasingly concerned at the news from Libya, where rebels supported by U.S. and European airstrikes have battled the forces of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

“My fear for the safety and well-being of the civilian population is growing, as is my apprehension over how the situation is developing with the use of arms,” the pope said. “To international agencies and to those with political and military responsibility, I make a heartfelt appeal for the immediate start of a dialogue that will suspend the use of arms,” he said.

New Ukrainian Catholic Church leader installed KIEV, Ukraine — The new head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church – its youngest bishop – was installed March 27 in Kiev.

Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, 40, was elected to succeed retired Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Kiev-Halych.

The archbishop had been apostolic administrator of the Ukrainian Catholic Diocese of the Protection Shevchuk of the Mother of God in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A moral theologian, Archbishop Shevchuk was elected during a five-day synod of bishops in Lviv, and his election was confirmed by Pope Benedict XVI March 25.

Pope picks Augustinian nun to write Good Friday meditations VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has chosen an Augustinian nun to author the texts for this year’s Way of the Cross procession on Good Friday. Mother Maria Rita Piccione, a contemplative nun who leads the Federation of Augustinian Nuns, wrote the texts that will be read at each of the 14 stations. Each year, the pope selects a different person to author the texts that mark the steps in the solemn, candlelight ceremony that begins at Rome’s Colosseum and leads toward the nearby Forum and Palatine Hill. Mother Piccione, who lives in the cloistered convent attached to the Four Crowned Saints church in Rome, is the third living woman to be chosen to write the meditations.

— Catholic News Service

CRS resuming food program in Western Darfur Catholic News Service

BALTIMORE — Catholic Relief Services has announced that is resuming operations in Western Darfur more than two months after evacuating its staff.

A statement on the CRS Web site March 28 said the agency was working with local government officials to ensure food distribution would begin immediately, and it expressed appreciation “for support.”

Two days earlier, the agency announced that the Sudanese government had asked CRS to leave because it said it could not guarantee staffers’ security. CRS remained in Darfur in 2009 when the government expelled 13 other aid agencies.

In mid-January, more than a dozen CRS workers were evacuated from a remote area of Western Darfur to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum with the help of the United Nations after receiving “indications of threats.” A CRS spokeswoman discounted rumors that the agency had been distributing Bibles in the area.

The threats and evacuation came less than two weeks after the start of an independence

referendum in Southern Sudan in which voters overwhelmingly voted to separate from the North. CRS worked to support programs, such as peace-building initiatives and distribution of radios to people, so they could educate themselves about the referendum.

CRS has worked in Sudan since 1972 and first began responding to the Darfur crisis in 2004. The agency had said if it had closed its food program, more than 400,000 people would have been without food aid.

In mid-March, U.N. officials said more than 70,000 people had fled continued fighting in Darfur, increasing the numbers of displaced.

Officials said one camp near El Fasher had approximately 170,000 displaced Sudanese.

The agency’s work in Darfur began after two insurgent groups largely aligned with African farming communities formed to fight what they claimed was the region’s historical marginalization from the Arabdominated central government, as well as to lay their claim for a rightful share of the region’s mineral wealth.

The government responded by arming Arab nomads, ostensibly to counter the threat of the insurgency. Yet Arab militias

CNS | Zohra Bensemra, Reuters

A displaced Sudanese family stands at their shelter at a camp for internally displaced people in El Fasher, in Sudan’s Darfur region, last year. Nearly 5 million people have been estimated to have been displaced within Sudan.

– known as Janjaweed, or “devils on horseback” – also turned their weapons against innocent civilians.

Miners hold St. Barbara statue in Swiss tunnel Miners hold a statue of St. Barbara, patron saint of miners, as fireworks explode after a giant drill machine broke through the rock at the final section of Sedrun-Faido, at the construction site of the NEAT Gotthard Base Tunnel March 23. Crossing the Alps, the world’s longest train tunnel should become operational at the end of 2016. The project consists of two parallel single track tunnels, each 35 miles long.

CNS | Arnd Wiegmann, Reuters

April 1, 2011 | charlottediocese.org/catholicnews

Pope Benedict XVI’s public statements this week God poses no danger to society, individuals VATICAN CITY — Asking questions about God is not a threat to individuals or society, just as a secular society that respects freedom of conscience is not a danger to religion, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“If we are to build a world of liberty, equality and fraternity, then believers and nonbelievers must feel free to be just that: equal in their right to live as individuals and in community in accord with their convictions, and fraternal in their relations with one another,” he said. The pope’s remarks were broadcast in a video message to thousands of people attending the launch of the Vatican’s “Courtyard of the Gentiles” initiative March 26 in Paris. The video message was shown in the square in front of the city’s Cathedral of Notre Dame.

The initiative, sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Culture, aims to promote friendly and respectful discussions between Christians and atheists or nonbelievers.

In his video message, the pope said, “The question of God is not a menace to society; it does not threaten a truly human life. The question of God must not be absent from the other great questions of our time.”

The pope said many people who do not identify themselves as believers “challenge believers to live in a way consistent with the faith they profess” and to reject any distortions of religion that “would make it unworthy of mankind.”

People must choose to see one another as brothers ROME — The “most horrendous evil” of crimes perpetrated by the Nazis is the reminder that recognizing one another as brothers and sisters created by the same God is a choice and not necessarily something instinctual, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“Everywhere, on every continent, to

whatever people one belongs, a human being is a child of that Father who is in heaven and is a brother or sister of everyone else,” the pope said March 27 during a morning visit to the Ardeatine Caves, now a memorial to 335 Italians, mostly civilians, who were executed there in retaliation for an attack on Nazi soldiers.

The victims – all males – included some Italian military, but also political prisoners and men rounded up in the Jewish neighborhood. They were all shot in the back of the head March 24, 1944. The Nazis threw the bodies into the caves and used explosives to seal off access. After the war, a memorial was built on the site.

Confession is a teaching moment for priest, penitent VATICAN CITY — The sacrament of confession can be a teaching moment for both priest and penitent, Pope Benedict XVI said. While penitents can discover grace and hope from God’s love and forgiveness, priests hearing confession can be inspired to be more honest, humble and transparent about their own sins, he said.

The pope made his comments during an audience March 25 with participants attending a course sponsored by the Apostolic Penitentiary – a Vatican court that that handles issues related to the sacrament of penance. The pope said confessors can learn so much from “exemplary penitents about their spiritual life, the seriousness with which they examine their conscience, about their transparency in recognizing their own sins and their docility toward Church teaching and recommendations from the confessor.”

“We can learn great lessons about humility and faith” when administering the sacrament of penance, he said. A priest’s faith in God and in God’s mercy can be strengthened every time he assists and witnesses true “miracles of conversion.”

— Catholic News Service

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Letters to the editor

A prayer for the victims of the Japan disasters Mother Dolores Marie

Spiritual warfare: The battle plan Editor’s note: This is the third in a five-part series about spiritual warfare and our call to holiness.

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n the Gospel of St. Luke, Our Lord addresses the multitude and gives them this tidbit to chew on: “Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000?” The Lord also tells us that we must be “as clever as serpents and as innocent as doves.”

Each day we go forth to battle against the kingdom of the world.

Are we well prepared to set forth? What is our battle plan to meet the day’s difficulties?

Did we take counsel, as our Lord advises? Let us see how Our Lord’s words of wisdom enter in to the scheme of our daily mode of living.

Each morning, God willing, we wake up.

Let’s stop there for a minute: What mode do we automatically glide into? Is it grumbling over another early morning and dread of the work before us? Is it a check of our aches and pains? Is it a mindless fog? We must try to remember at this first moment of a new day, we are children of God, not unmanned drones operating on autopilot. Yes, God is present even at this waking moment of our day, and He is eager to receive our first thoughts.

Just as in the Old Testament when the Lord looked for the first fruits of the harvest and the firstlings of the flock, He is anxious that we acknowledge Him at the start of our day, and that we look to Him to fortify us for the scuffles ahead.

The very fact that we open our eyes to glimpse a fresh day full of possibilities to grow in grace is a pure gift from God, and for this, we must be sure to thank Him. A fitting way to honor God at the start of the

day is with a Morning Offering. If we don’t already have one handy, there are plenty available to choose from online. (Check out the one online at stjosephmonastery.com/ news.html.) This is the first stage of “taking counsel” to prepare for the war ahead. It is a perfect replacement for our “automated mode,” yet it needs to be from the heart.

The first stage of our strategy is now in place. The next line of attack is to know our enemy. We need to look ahead at the day and see if there are any warning flags – areas of danger for which we will need backup.

These are danger points to our souls and we need special guidance to avoid them. It is imperative to ask for that grace now. We know our weaknesses (this is half of the battle!), so if we have learned by our past falls and sins, we should know well enough where the swamps and quicksand are to be found. If we are “as clever as serpents,” we can map around them with God’s help.

To round out our 24-hour strategy, each night as we close the events of the day, a quick examination of conscience to review our battle will help us to set up our plan to win the next day. If we take a momentary look from an eternal perspective, we can give thanks to God for the victories of the day, humbly ask pardon for the failings, and lay our heads down to sleep in peace.

As St. Philip Neri once said, “Cast yourself into the arms of God and be very sure that if He wants anything of you, He will fit you for the work and give you strength.”

‘We need to look ahead at the day and see if there are any warning flags – areas of danger for which we will need backup.’

Mother Dolores Marie leads the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration at St. Joseph Monastery in Charlotte.

Subscribe to their newsletter and learn more about the Poor Clares online at stjosephmonastery.com. Coming next week: “The Arsenal.”

It’s hard. No matter how I replay it in my mind, it always seems to end with a prayer and a tear. Where was God’s love that day, when the earth shook and a 100-foot wave washed ashore, sweeping away thousands of innocent souls? The earthquake and tsunami were followed by man’s failure to design a nuclear reactor that could withstand the forces of nature. It’s difficult to see this side of nature.

There is so little we can do for the people of Japan from here in North Carolina, little we could do if we were sitting beside them – but there are our prayers. For the thousands swept out to sea, we can ask God to take them in. For the thousands who survived these first few days, we can ask God to help them in their hour of need. For the families of the pipe fitters, mechanics and maintenance workers staying at the deteriorating nuclear plants to try to stop the worst from happening knowing full well that their lives are at serious risk from radiation – for those families, I pray that they may find comfort, knowing that there’s a special place in heaven for their loved ones.

We can also make a donation. Go online and look for ways you can help. Catholic Relief Services is aiding Caritas Japan, particularly.

I pray that these dire days will end and that with the spring, God’s love will bring a season blossoming with hope. These poor souls surely need our prayers, but also save a couple for the person in the mirror – because it always seems to end, with a prayer and a tear.

James Brigham lives in High Point.

Please support the Diocesan Support Appeal Our parish bulletin recently noted that we parishioners have pledged only about one-third of our Diocesan Support Appeal assessment. My wife and I have made commitments to the annual appeal for more than 20 years. It seems that every year our pastor has to “pull teeth” to obtain our goal.

It shouldn’t be this way.

I’m writing in the hope that this letter will stir some who have not helped this worthy cause. We have a wonderful opportunity to help those who need our help. I would ask that each of my brothers and sisters who has not made a commitment to prayerfully consider making a donation. I realize that many people are financially strapped and are unable to make a commitment. However, I think many of us who have been blessed don’t see or feel the needs of others.

When we ignore the call to be generous, we miss an opportunity to show what it means to be a Christian. What better time than Lent to help show we are Christians by our love, prayers and almsgiving.

William J. Barker lives in Charlotte.

Letters policy The Catholic News Herald welcomes letters from readers. We ask that letters be originals of 250 words or fewer, pertain to recent newspaper content or Catholic issues, and be in good taste.

To be considered for publication, each letter must include the name, address and daytime phone number of the writer for purpose of verification. Letters may be condensed due to space limitations and edited for clarity, style and factual accuracy.

The Catholic News Herald does not publish poetry, form letters or petitions. Items submitted to the Catholic News Herald become the property of the newspaper and are subject to reuse, in whole or in part, in print, electronic formats and archives.

Mail: Letters to the Editor Catholic News Herald 1123 S. Church St. Charlotte, N.C. 28203 E-mail: catholicnews@charlottediocese.org

April 1, 2011 | charlottediocese.org/catholicnews

Patrick Hession

Rico De Silva

Let’s go on the ‘Merciful Mystical Tour’

Consider the mother of Jesus in discussing women’s roles

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Peggy Bowes

The Sorrowful Mysteries at Planned Parenthood

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Rico De Silva is a member of St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte.

Patrick Hession is the director of religious education and RCIA at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Jefferson and the author of several books.

Peggy Bowes is a member of Holy Angels Church in Mt. Airy and the author of “The Rosary Workout” (rosaryworkout.com).

esus Christ is coming to a parish near you this Lent, and He really wants to see us there.

Since the beginning of Lent, I’ve seen several penance services announced in my parish bulletin. Being a rock music fan since childhood, I compared these invitations from St. Matthew and St. Ann to a concert tour and called it “The Merciful Mystical Tour.” However, instead of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” we get ready to encounter God’s mercy acting through our local parish priests.

I had an opportunity to attend Mass on Ash Wednesday this year, and when the deacon signed my forehead with ashes, his words were: “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” That has stayed with me, and I’ve made one of my Lenten resolutions to avail myself of all the means the Church provides to avoid sin and do good.

Earlier this month, I was invited to answer some questions at an eighth-grade religious education class at my parish. The first question, which I’m sure thousands of church-going Catholics frequently ask themselves, came from a courageous young man. “Why do we need to confess our sins to a priest?” he asked.

I gave the class the standard Gospel answer. After the Resurrection, Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and said, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20: 22-23).

After I went home that evening, though, I thought the answer I should have given them was, “We need to confess our sins to a priest for the same reason we go to Mass to receive the Eucharist consecrated by a priest.” All priests are ordained to be “other Christs” to God’s people.

When I was a seminarian, I attended a newly-ordained priest’s first Mass of Thanksgiving. Since he was a good friend of mine, I approached him shortly before the beginning of the Mass and asked him to hear my confession. He agreed to it, but when it came time to give me absolution, my priest friend couldn’t remember the prayer of absolution and didn’t have the formula handy at the time. I told him I knew the prayer by heart because in those days I used to go to reconciliation weekly. “Repeat after me, Father,” I said. “God, the Father of mercies, through the Death and Resurrection of His Son, has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins... Through the ministry of the Church, may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins... .”

The Holy Spirit revealed to me then that even though I knew the prayer, it’s not only the words that are said, but who says them. A priest acts in the Person of Christ, and it is Christ working through the priest who forgives sins.

Confession is good for the soul, and I believe the Church in her wisdom recognizes that we may have reservations about confessing our sins to the same man we shake hands with at the end of Sunday Mass. The “Merciful Mystical Tour,” then, is a perfect opportunity to choose where we want to go to reconcile our hearts to the Father.

Jesus in His priests has many faces – some are young and some are gray-haired. However, it’s the same Jesus who says, “Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.”

ne of the phenomena of the past century has been the Women’s Liberation Movement. The result has been a mixed blessing. There have been many positive aspects as new opportunities have opened up for women, including a healthier respect for and appreciation of women as equal partners with men. However, there has also been a cancerous growth of radical feminism that seeks to drive wedges of hostility, mistrust and competition between men and women.

Both the positive and the negative aspects have affected men and women alike, both in the Church and in society.

In sorting out the voices around us, it is important to seek the answer to the questions “What are women being liberated from?” and “What are women being liberated for?”

God did not create men and women to be in competition but to complement each other. In Genesis we read, “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26).

The attributes of God exist in both men and in women. Some attributes God chose to express primarily in men and some he chose to express predominantly in women. When they become “one flesh,” a man and woman become more than they can as individuals.

One woman most embodies the womanly attributes of God: Mary, the mother of Jesus. She can teach both men and women how to fully express their sexuality.

No Gospel writer more fully expresses Jesus’ concern for women than Luke. For this reason, we read much about the mother of Jesus in his account. In the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, he tells us of the appearance of Gabriel to Mary. Here we learn that Mary was a maiden, a virgin, probably nearing or in her early teens. She was pure, and the Lord was with her. Mary supported Jesus in His ministry and evidently accompanied Him, as she is often mentioned among the women who ministered to His needs. We know from John’s gospel that she gently interceded on behalf of the couple at the marriage feast of Cana (John 2:3-5).

She didn’t make an issue of it; she simply stated the situation and allowed Jesus to respond as He chose. Her command to the servants also applies to us: “Do whatever Jesus tells you to do.”

The mother of Jesus was there when it counted. She was at the foot of the cross, when most of His followers had run away in fear. She was willing to follow Jesus, even to the cross, regardless of the possible consequences to her own life.

Finally, she was a committed member of the early Christian community. She was in the Upper Room among those who devoted themselves with one accord in prayer (Acts 1:14). She was there on Pentecost, when they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim (Acts 2:1-4).

Contrast this woman and mother with the “liberated” women and girls of today. Mary knew what she was liberated from – the same sin and death that baptized Christians have been liberated from. More importantly, she knew what she had been liberated for – to be the woman, the mother and the companion of the Son of God made man. She fulfilled the role for which God had created her and exhibited the Godly attributes that God had instilled in her. This is the role model that women and girls need to see today if they are to be truly liberated. May God raise up again a generation of women of whom it may be said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28).

ast fall I participated in the 40 Days for Life prayer vigil at the Winston-Salem Planned Parenthood.

It was the first time I had done this, and I was a bit fearful: Will I get arrested? Will people yell at us?

On the contrary, the experience was humbling and incredibly moving.

After the 40 Days were over, I often found myself driving to Planned Parenthood and praying on the sidewalk by myself. I didn’t have any “Choose Life” signs, but I did have my bright red rosary dangling in front of me as I prayed. I don’t know if anyone realized what I was doing, but I was proud to be a silent prayer warrior, speaking for those tiny babies whose voices were silenced before they could ever be heard.

I usually pray the Sorrowful Mysteries because they seem appropriate for the situation. As I meditate on each mystery, I realize that abortion ties in with Jesus’ sorrows.

While praying the first Sorrowful Mystery, I recalled a statue I saw several years ago depicting Jesus kneeling on the ground. In His hand, he holds a tiny fetus. A gravestone nearby honors the millions of babies who have been aborted. This heartbreaking piece of art makes me think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, weeping over the loss of those precious lives.

As I pray the second decade and meditate on Jesus’ scourging, I think about how much those tiny babies suffer during an abortion. They are scourged by their own mothers in what should be the safest place on earth: the womb. I can’t even begin to imagine the horror as I fervently beg for an end to this holocaust.

During the third mystery, the crowning of thorns, I imagine how the soldiers mocked Jesus as they pretended to do Him homage. Abortion mocks the sanctity of life, it mocks the sacrament of marriage, and it mocks the Blessed Trinity – the image of a family.

Abortion is a heavy cross to bear. As I contemplate Jesus carrying His Cross, I recall that women who have had abortions often report depression and grief among other negative effects. Sadly, the person often forgotten is the father of the child, who may be an unwilling participant. These men also experience grief and mourning.

Meditating on the fifth Sorrowful Mystery gives me renewed hope as the virtue that shines forth in the Crucifixion is mercy. We must pray for mercy for those who have abortions, those who encourage others to have abortions, as well as the doctors, nurses and administrators who run “abortuaries” and the people who champion a woman’s “right to choose.”

Our prayers can be powerful pleas to change hearts and minds. During Lent, commit to praying at least one hour at a 40 Days for Life vigil (40daysforlife.com).

If you can’t participate, then please pray your next rosary or dedicate a fast for an end to abortion.

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