June 21, 2013

June 21, 2013

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Shining as the lights of Christ The Way of St. James Waynesville pilgrims travel part of the Camino de Santiago during an 11-day pilgrimage,

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St. Vincent de Paul Parish breaks ground on ministry center, chapel, 5A CHECK ONLINE The full, official list of priest assignments will be posted on our website, www.catholicnewsherald.com, when complete. Check for breaking news alerts on Facebook.

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Year of faith

catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Commentaries on the Creed from Pope Francis Editor’s note: Continuing a tradition begun last year by Pope Benedict when he launched the Year of Faith, Pope Francis has been giving meditations on the Creed in his homilies and general audience talks. Excerpts from his talks are below. For more about the Year of Faith and what Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis are saying about the teachings of our faith, go online to the official Year of Faith website, www.annusfidei.va.

that filled their hearts. This should happen in our lives, too. Let us feel the joy of being Christian! ... The Resurrection of Christ is our greatest certainty; He is our most precious treasure! How can we not share this treasure, this certainty with others? It is not only for us, it is to be passed on, to be shared with others...

APRIL 3: ‘HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD’

What does the Resurrection mean for our life? And why is our faith in vain without it?

Our faith is founded on Christ’s death and Resurrection, just as a house stands on its foundations: if they give way, the whole house collapses. Jesus gave Himself on the Cross, taking the burden of our sins upon Himself and descending into the abyss of death, then in the Resurrection He triumphed over them, took them away and opened before us the path to rebirth and to a new life.

St. Peter summed this up at the beginning of his First Letter: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (1:3-4).

The Apostle tells us that with the Resurrection of Jesus something absolutely new happens: we are set free from the slavery of sin and become children of God; that is, we are born to new life. When is this accomplished for us? In the sacrament of baptism...

It is the Spirit Himself whom we received in baptism who teaches us, who spurs us to say to God: “Father” or, rather, “Abba!”, which means “papa” or “dad.” Our God is like this: He is a dad to us. The Holy Spirit creates within us this new condition as children of God. And this is the greatest gift we have received from the Paschal Mystery of Jesus.

Moreover, God treats us as children, He understands us, He forgives us, He embraces us, He loves us even when we err...

Yet this filial relationship with God is not like a treasure that we keep in a corner of our lives, but must be increased. It must be nourished every day with listening to the word of God, with prayer, with participation in the sacraments, especially reconciliation and the Eucharist, and with love...

This is the very event that we are celebrating: the Resurrection of Jesus, the centre of the Christian message which has echoed from the beginning and was passed on so that it would come down to us. St. Paul wrote to the Christians of Corinth: “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve” (1 Cor 15:3-5). This brief profession of faith proclaims the Paschal Mystery itself with the first appearances of the Risen One to Peter and the Twelve: the death and Resurrection of Jesus are the very heart of our hope.

Without this faith in the death and Resurrection of Jesus our hope would be weak; but it would not even be hope; or precisely the death and Resurrection of Jesus are the heart of our hope.

Unfortunately, efforts have often been made to blur faith in the Resurrection of Jesus and doubts have crept in, even among believers... And this is due to superficiality and sometimes to indifference, busy as we are with a thousand things considered more important than faith, or because we have a view of life that is solely horizontal.

However, it is the Resurrection itself that opens us to greater hope, for it opens our life and the life of the world to the eternal future of God, to full happiness, to the certainty that evil, sin and death may be overcome...

But how was the truth of faith in Christ’s Resurrection passed down to us? There are two kinds of testimony in the New Testament: some are in the form of a profession of faith ... while others are in the form of an account of the event of the Resurrection and of the facts connected with it. ...

First of all let us note that the first witnesses of this event were the women.

At dawn they went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body and found the first sign: the empty tomb. Their meeting with a messenger of God followed. He announced: “Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified One, has risen, He is not here.” The women were motivated by love and were able to accept this announcement with faith: they believed and passed it on straight away, they did not keep it to themselves but passed it on.

They could not contain their joy in knowing that Jesus was alive, or the hope

APRIL 10: THE RESURRECTION

APRIL 17: ‘HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN ...’

Jesus’ earthly life culminated with the Ascension, when He passed from this world to the Father and was raised to sit on His right. What does this event mean? How does it affect our life? ...

Let us start from the moment when Jesus decided to make His last pilgrimage to Jerusalem. St. Luke notes: “When the days drew near for Him to be received up, He

CNS | PAUL HARING

Pope Francis passes a crucifix as he leaves his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican May 1. set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Lk 9:51).

While He was “going up” to the Holy City, where His own “exodus” from this life was to occur, Jesus already saw the destination, heaven, but He knew well that the way which would lead Him to the glory of the Father passed through the Cross, through obedience to the divine design of love for mankind. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that: “The lifting up of Jesus on the cross signifies and announces His lifting up by His Ascension into heaven” (CCC 662).

We too should be clear in our Christian life that entering the glory of God demands daily fidelity to His will, even when it demands sacrifice and sometimes requires us to change our plans. The Ascension of Jesus actually happened on the Mount of

Olives, close to the place where He had withdrawn to pray before the Passion to remain in deep union with the Father: once again we see that prayer gives us the grace to be faithful to God’s plan.

At the end of his Gospel, St. Luke gives a very concise account of the event of the Ascension. Jesus led His disciples “out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. While He blessed them, He parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God” (Lk 24:50-53).

I would like to note two elements in the account. First of all, during the Ascension Jesus made the priestly gesture of blessing, and the disciples certainly expressed their

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

faith with prostration, they knelt with bowed heads. This is a first important point: Jesus is the one eternal High Priest who with His Passion passed through death and the tomb and ascended into heaven. He is with God the Father where He intercedes forever in our favor...

A second element: St. Luke says that having seen Jesus ascending into heaven, the Apostles returned to Jerusalem “with great joy.” This seems to us a little odd.

When we are separated from our relatives, from our friends, because of a definitive departure and, especially, death, there is usually a natural sadness in us since we will no longer see their face, no longer hear their voice, or enjoy their love, their presence. The Evangelist instead emphasizes the profound joy of the Apostles.

But how could this be? Precisely because, with the gaze of faith they understand that although He has been removed from their sight, Jesus stays with them for ever, He does not abandon them and in the glory of the Father supports them, guides them and intercedes for them.

APRIL 24: ‘HE WILL COME AGAIN IN GLORY TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD’ Human history begins with the creation of man and woman in God’s likeness and ends with the Last Judgment of Christ.

These two poles of history are often forgotten; and, at times, especially faith in Christ’s return and in the Last Judgment, are not so clear and firm in Christian hearts. In His public life Jesus frequently reflected on the reality of His Final Coming. Today I would like to reflect on three Gospel texts that help us to penetrate this mystery: those of the 10 virgins, of the talents and of the Last Judgment. All three are part of Jesus’ discourse on the end of time which can be found in the Gospel of St. Matthew.

Let us remember first of all that in the Ascension the Son of God brought to the Father our humanity, which He had taken on, and that He wants to draw all to Himself, to call the whole world to be welcomed in God’s embrace so that at the end of history the whole of reality may be consigned to the Father. Yet there is this “immediate time” between the First and the Final Coming of Christ, and that is the very time in which we are living.

The parable of the 10 virgins fits into this context of “immediate” time (cf. Mt 25:1-13) ... It is a time to live in accordance with God, because we do not know either the day or the hour of Christ’s return.

What He asks of us is to be ready for the encounter ... with Jesus, which means being able to see the signs of His Presence, keeping our faith alive with prayer, with the sacraments, and taking care not to fall asleep so as to not forget about God...

The second parable, the parable of the talents, makes us think about the relationship between how we use the gifts we have received from God and His return, when He will ask us what use we made of them (cf. Mt 25:14-30)... This tells us that the expectation of the Lord’s return is

the time of action ... the time in which we should bring God’s gifts to fruition, not for ourselves but for Him, for the Church, for others...

Lastly, a word about the passage on the Last Judgment in which the Lord’s Second Coming is described, when He will judge all human beings, the living and the dead (cf. Mt 25: 31-46). The image used by the Evangelist is that of the shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats...

This tells us that God will judge us on our love, on how we have loved our brethren, especially the weakest and the neediest...

Jesus is exactly this: the Truth that, in the fullness of time, “became flesh” (cf. Jn 1:1, 14), and came to dwell among us so that we might know it. The truth is not grasped as a thing, the truth is encountered. It is not a possession, it is an encounter with a Person.

But who can enable us to recognize that Jesus is “the” Word of truth, the Only-Begotten Son of God the Father? St. Paul teaches that “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). It is the Holy Spirit Himself, the gift of the Risen Christ, who makes us recognize the Truth.

Jesus describes Him as the “Paraclete,” namely, “the one who comes to our aid,” who is beside us to sustain us on this journey of knowledge ...

So how does the Holy Spirit act in our life and in the life of the Church to guide us to the truth? First of all, He recalls and impresses in the heart of believers the words Jesus spoke and, through these very words, the law of God – as the Prophets of the Old Testament had foretold – is engraved in our hearts and becomes within us a criterion for evaluation in decisions and for guidance in our daily actions; it becomes a principle to live by.

‘Evangelizing is the Church’s mission.

It is not the mission of only a few, but it is mine, yours and our mission.’

MAY 8: ‘I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT’ The first truth to which we adhere in the Creed is that the Holy Spirit is “Kýrios,” “Lord.” This signifies that He is truly God just as the Father and the Son; the object, on our part, of the same act of adoration and glorification that we address to the Father and to the Son. Indeed, the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity; He is the great gift of Christ Risen who opens our mind and our heart to faith in Jesus as the Son sent by the Father and who leads us to friendship, to communion with God. The Holy Spirit is the inexhaustible source of God’s life in us... Man is like a traveller who, crossing the deserts of life, thirsts for the living water: gushing and fresh, capable of quenching his deep desire for light, love, beauty and peace. We all feel this desire! And Jesus gives us this living water: He is the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and whom Jesus pours out into our hearts ...

MAY 15: THE HOLY SPIRIT GUIDES US ‘INTO ALL THE TRUTH’ Jesus Himself told His disciples: the Holy Spirit “will guide you into all the truth” (Jn 16:13), since He Himself is “the Spirit of Truth” (cf. Jn 14:17; 15:26; 16:13).

We are living in an age in which people are rather sceptical of truth. Pope Benedict XVI has frequently spoken of relativism, that is, of the tendency to consider nothing definitive and to think that truth comes from consensus or from something we like.

The question arises: does “the” truth really exist? What is “the” truth? Can we know it?

Can we find it?

Here springs to my mind the question of Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator, when Jesus reveals to him the deep meaning of His mission: “What is truth?”

(Jn 18:37, 38). Pilate cannot understand that “the” Truth is standing in front of him, he cannot see in Jesus the face of the Truth that is the Face of God. And yet

MAY 22: THE CHURCH AS EVANGELIZER In the Creed, immediately after professing our faith in the Holy Spirit, we say: “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” There is a profound connection between these two realities of faith: indeed it is the Holy Spirit who gives life to the Church, who guides her steps. Without the constant presence and action of the Holy Spirit, the Church could not live and could not carry out the task that the Risen Jesus entrusted to her: to go and make disciples of all nations.

Evangelizing is the Church’s mission.

It is not the mission of only a few, but it is mine, yours and our mission.

Who is the real driving force of evangelization in our life and in the Church? Paul VI wrote clearly: “it is the Holy Spirit who today, just as at the beginning of the Church, acts in every evangelizer who allows himself to be possessed and led by Him. The Holy Spirit places on his lips the words which he could not find by himself, and at the same time the Holy Spirit predisposes the soul of the hearer to be open and receptive to the Good News and to the Kingdom being proclaimed (“Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi,” 75). To evangelize, therefore, it is necessary to open ourselves once again to the horizon of God’s Spirit, without being afraid of what He asks us or of where He leads us.

MAY 29: THE CHURCH AS THE FAMILY OF GOD In recent months I have more than once

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mentioned the Parable of the Prodigal Son or, rather, of the Merciful Father (cf.

Lk 15:11-32). This parable, like others in the Gospel, clearly shows God’s design for humanity.

What is God’s plan? It is to make of us all a single family of His children, in which each person feels that God is close and feels loved by Him, as in the Gospel parable, feels the warmth of being God’s family. The Church is rooted in this great plan. She is not an organization established by an agreement between a few people, but – as Pope Benedict xvi has so often reminded us – she is a work of God, born precisely from this loving design which is gradually brought about in history. The Church is born from God’s wish to call all people to communion with Him, to friendship with Him, indeed, to share in His own divine life as His sons and daughters. The very word “Church”, from the Greek “ekklesia,” means “convocation”: God convokes us, He impels us to come out of our individualism, from our tendency to close ourselves into ourselves, and He calls us to belong to his family...

So what is the Church born from? She is born from the supreme act of love of the Cross, from the pierced side of Jesus from which flowed blood and water, a symbol of the sacrament of the Eucharist and of baptism. The lifeblood of God’s family, of the Church, is God’s love which is actualized in loving Him and others, all others, without distinction or reservation.

The Church is a family in which we love and are loved.

Still, today some say: “Christ yes, the Church no,” like those who say, “I believe in God but not in priests.” But it is the Church herself which brings Christ to us and which brings us to God. The Church is the great family of God’s children. Of course, she also has human aspects. In those who make up the Church, pastors and faithful, there are shortcomings, imperfections and sins. The pope has these, too – and many of them – but what is beautiful is that, when we realize we are sinners, we encounter the mercy of God who always forgives.

JUNE 12: THE CHURCH AS THE PEOPLE OF GOD Today we consider the Church as the People of God, called to new life in Christ.

We become part of this people through God’s gift of faith and spiritual rebirth in the waters of baptism. Our law is the twin commandment of love for God and neighbor. Our mission is to be a leaven of the hope born of God’s love in our world wounded by sin and evil.

Amid the darkness that so frequently surrounds us, we are called to be so many points of light, illumining all reality and showing the way to a better future.

God’s goodness is stronger than any evil!

Our destination is the Kingdom of God, which Christ inaugurated on earth and which will attain its fullness in the joy of heaven. This is what it means for the Church to be God’s People, an essential part of His loving plan for our human family.

Your daily Scripture readings JUNE 23-29

Sunday: Zechariah 12:10-11, 13:1, Galatians 3:26-29, Luke 9:1824; Monday (The Nativity of St. John the Baptist): Isaiah 49:16, Acts 13:22-26, Luke 1:57-66, 80; Tuesday: Genesis 13:2, 5-18, Matthew 7:6, 12-14; Wednesday: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18, Matthew 7:15-20; Thursday (St. Cyril of Alexandria): Genesis 16:1-12, 15-16, Matthew 7:21-29; Friday (St. Irenaeus): Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22, Matthew 8:1-4

JUNE 30-JULY 6

Sunday: 1 Kings 19:16, 19-21, Galatians 5:1, 13-18, Luke 9:51-62; Monday: Genesis 18:16-33, Matthew 8:18-22; Tuesday: Genesis 19:15-29, Matthew 8:23-27; Wednesday (St. Thomas): Ephesians 2:19-22, John 20:24-29; Thursday: Genesis 22:1-19, Matthew 9:1-8, Friday (St. Anthony Zaccaria, St. Elizabeth of Portugal): Genesis 23:1-4, 19, 24:1-8, 62-67, Matthew 9:9-13; Saturday (St. Maria Goretti): Genesis 27:1-5, 15-29, Matthew 9:14-17

JULY 7-13

Isaiah 66:10-14, Galatians 6:14-18, Luke 10:1-12, 17-20; Monday: Genesis 28:10-11, Matthew 9:18-26; Tuesday (St. Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions): Genesis 32:23-33, Matthew 9:32-38; Wednesday: Genesis 41:55-57, 42:5-7, 17-24, Matthew 10:1-7; Thursday (St. Benedict): Genesis 44:18-21, 23-29, 45:1-5, Matthew 10:7-15; Friday: Genesis 46:1-7, 28-30, Matthew 10:1623; Saturday (St. Henry): Genesis 49:29-32, 50:15-26, Matthew 10:24-33

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catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 OUR PARISHES

Diocesan calendar of events ASHEVILLE ST. EUGENE CHURCH, 72 CULVERN ST. — Respect Life Rosary Committee: 7 p.m. June 17 in the church. We are praying for a respect for life at all stages of life.

Bishop Peter J. Jugis Bishop Peter J. Jugis will participate in the following events over the coming weeks: JUNE 21 – 5 P.M. HOLY HOUR FOR PRIESTHOOD CANDIDATE ST. PATRICK CATHEDRAL, CHARLOTTE

— El grupo de oración se reúne todos los sábados a las 7 p.m. en la Iglesia

Mass honoring the military set for July 7 CHARLOTTE — All are welcome to a Mass honoring our military personnel, celebrated by Bishop Peter J. Jugis, at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, July 7, at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte. The rosary will be recited at 3 p.m. Mass will be followed by a reception in the Family Life Center.

Judy McCloskey, the founder of Mission Capodanno, will speak about Servant of God Father Vincent Capodanno, Medal of Honor recipient and famed wartime chaplain, and the work Mission Capodanno does to minister to veterans and their families. Learn more about the mission online at www.missioncapodanno.org.

BELMONT QUEEN OF THE APOSTLES CHURCH, 503 NORTH MAIN ST. — Faith Formation Group, “Triple B”: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 9. All parishioners 45 years old and younger are welcome. For details, e-mail qoatripleb@gmail.com.

JUNE 22 – 10 A.M. LITURGY OF ORDINATION TO THE HOLY PRIESTHOOD ST. PATRICK CATHEDRAL, CHARLOTTE

BRYSON CITY ST. JOSEPH CHURCH, 316 MAIN ST. — Upcoming parish mission: June 23-25 presented

by Monsignor Michael Flanagan. Topics are: 6 p.m.

Sunday, “There is only one thing you must be doing: to have Jesus and His Father love you”; 6 p.m.

Monday, “What does abundant life look like? Jesus wants you to have it”; 6 p.m. Tuesday, “Jesus wants you healed,” and the sacrament of the anointing of the sick and the sacrament of reconciliation will be offered. For details, call the parish office at 828-4886766.

JUNE 24-26 BISHOPS’ PROVINCE MEETING ATLANTA JUNE 27-28 QUO VADIS DAY CAMP BELMONT ABBEY COLLEGE, BELMONT JUNE 30 – 11 A.M. MASS FOR FORTNIGHT FOR FREEDOM ST. PATRICK CATHEDRAL, CHARLOTTE

CHARLOTTE ST. BASIL THE GREAT UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC MISSION (MEETS AT ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHURCH, 1400 SUTHER ROAD)

JULY 1 – 7 P.M. SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION ST. MARGARET MARY CHURCH, SWANNANOA JULY 7 – 3:30 P.M. ROSARY AND MASS FOR MILITARY PERSONNEL ST. PATRICK CATHEDRAL, CHARLOTTE

— Liturgies for the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul: Saturday, June 29 with 10 a.m. Matins Service and 10:30 a.m. Typica Service with Holy Communion.

ST. MATTHEW CHURCH, 8015 BALLANTYNE COMMONS PKWY. — Natural Family Planning Introduction and Full Course: 1- 5 p.m. June 22. Topics includes: Effectiveness of modern NFP, health risks of popular contraceptives and what the Church teaches about responsible parenting, offered by Catholic Charities. RSVP to Batrice Adcock, MSN, RN, at 704-370-3230 or join via live webinar.

— Special Event workshop, “Answering the Call to Transform Our Hearts and the World”: 7-9:30 p.m.

Tuesday, June 25, in the banquet room. Presented by Jack Jezreel.

— St. Peregrine Healing Prayer: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 27. St. Peregrine is the patron saint of cancer and grave diseases. For details, call the parish office

at 704-543-7677.

HIGH POINT

— Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) meeting: Held on the third Monday of every month. RCIA will provide information about the entire conversion process and include detailed Q&A sessions. For details, call Tom Lindemuth at 704-543-7677.

— Living the Faith Book Club: Second Thursday of the month, 7-8 p.m. Everyone welcome.

ST. PATRICK CATHEDRAL, 1621 DILWORTH ROAD EAST — Mass for the Fortnight for Freedom: 11 a.m. Sunday, June 30, celebrated by Bishop Peter J. Jugis.

— Mass for our Military Personnel: Sunday, July 7, celebrated by Bishop Peter J. Jugis, to honor our military personnel who are currently serving and who have been injured while serving. Rosary at 3 p.m., Mass at 3:30 p.m. Everyone welcome.

— Annual parish picnic: 2-6 p.m. Sunday, July 14. All are welcome to attend. Food and games will be available.

Please bring a side dish to share along with blankets and chairs. For more information, email info@ stpatricks.org.

— Young adult group entitled “Theology on the Vine”: Meets every Friday 7-8:30 p.m. The group is open to young adults aged 18-35. For details, email Father David Miller at dmiller@stpatricks.org.

— Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every Wednesday.

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CHURCH, 1400 SUTHER ROAD — “Divine Mercy Holy Hour”: Exposition and readings from the Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska: 7-8 p.m. every first Friday. For questions, contact Paul Deer at 704-948-0628.

— “Rosary for Life”: Join the Respect Life group to pray each Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., followed by Mass at 7 p.m. To participate, contact Gretchen Filz at gfilz10@ ses.edu or 704-919-0935.

— Pro-Life Rosary to pray for an end to abortion: 9 a.m.

Saturday, July 6, rain or shine, at 901 North Main St. and Sunset Drive in High Point. Parking available on site. For details, contact Jim Hoyng 336-882-9593 or Paul Klosterman 336-848-6835.

IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY CHURCH, 4145 JOHNSON ST. — Second Annual Women’s Retreat: July 26-28. The weekend retreat will be held in Dover, Del. For details, e-mail Meg at uncgmeg@gmail.com.

HUNTERSVILLE ST. MARK CHURCH, 14740 STUMPTOWN ROAD — Catholic Athletes for Christ youth ministry: Meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month. Ministry provides an evening of fun, athletic activities, meals and featured speakers who address faith and athletics. For details, teens and parents can contact Tim Flynn, at 704-948-0231 or stmarklifeteen@gmail. com.

GREENSBORO ST. MARY CHURCH, 812 DUKE ST. — Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group “Servants of Light”: 10 a.m. Saturdays. Everyone welcome.

ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE CHURCH, 2715 HORSE PEN CREEK ROAD — The Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians welcomes all women who are practicing Roman Catholics, and who are Irish by birth or descent, who are the wife of a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, or the mother of a junior member. Meetings are the first Thursday of the month. To join or for more information, email marylisk@aol.com.

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

Editor’s note: Priest assignments list to come CHARLOTTE — The list of parish assignments for the clergy of the Diocese of Charlotte had not been finalized as of press time Tuesday, June 18, for inclusion in this week’s edition.

As soon as all of the assignments have been confirmed, we will publish the information online at www.catholicnewsherald.com.

“Like” the Catholic News Herald on Facebook to receive this news alert, as well as all other news published in between the print editions, which publish every other Friday. It’s the best way to keep up with the latest breaking news easily and quickly.

— Patricia L. Guilfoyle

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JUNE 21, 2013 Volume 22 • NUMBER 17

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

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

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In Brief

Sacred Heart Parish celebrates patronal feast day BREVARD — Parishioners of Sacred Heart Church in Brevard celebrated their patronal feast day, the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, on June 9.

As part of their celebration, local clergy blessed a faceted glass window that had come from the parish’s original church and was recently hung in the entryway of the current church.

The parish was officially established on May 15, 1949. The original building at 323 South Caldwell St. was dedicated on Aug. 28, 1949. On the grounds in the front of the church there was a marble statue of the Sacred Heart. This statue is now in the columbarium of the present church.

A photograph of the interior of the church that appeared in the local paper in 1972 shows a “new” wood carving of the figure of Christ above the altar and a clear glass round window above it. Sometime later a faceted-glass round window with the face of Christ replaced the clear glass. There are no records of who designed the window or exactly when it was put in place.

When the new Sacred Heart Church was constructed on Brian Berg Lane and the old church building sold, that window was removed and put in storage. In the present church, in keeping with tradition, there is a representation of Christ in faceted glass above the altar and a smaller faceted-glass window which depicts the Sacred Heart with a crown of thorns on the back wall. Recently the window from the Caldwell Street church was hung in the entryway of the church.

After Mass on June 9, Capuchin Franciscan Father Andrew Nowak, joined by Father Wilbur Thomas of St. Lawrence Basilica in Asheville, Capuchin Franciscan Father John Pagel and Deacon Patrick Crosby, formally rededicated the window from the original Sacred Heart Church.

Besides this window and the statue in the columbarium, there are representations of the Holy Family, Mary and Joseph holding the Child Jesus that were originally from the Caldwell Street church plus items used in the liturgy.

— Dorice Narins

Liturgy for Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul planned CHARLOTTE — St. Basil the Great Ukrainian Catholic Mission in Charlotte will celebrate liturgies for the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul on Saturday, June 29.

Matins (Morning Prayer) will be at 10 a.m., followed

by Typica (Holy Communion service) at 10:30 a.m. All liturgies are celebrated in English at the St. Thomas Aquinas Parish Chapel in Charlotte. For details, go online to www.stbasil.weebly.com.

MARY B. WORTHINGTON | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

(From left) Deacon John Kopfle of St. Vincent de Paul Church; Father Joshua Voitus, parochial vicar; Monsignor Mauricio West, vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of Charlotte; and Father Mark Lawlor, pastor, dig in for the groundbreaking of St. Vincent de Paul Parish’s new ministry center and chapel June 15.

St. Vincent de Paul Parish breaks ground on ministry center, chapel MARY B. WORTHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

CHARLOTTE — Accompanied by chuckles of delight and generous applause, members of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Charlotte watched as their pastor, Father Mark Lawlor, donned a hard hat and broke ground on the parish’s new ministry center and chapel June 15.

The ceremony also included a dedication of the new facility’s cornerstone and blessing of the construction site, conducted by Monsignor Mauricio West, vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of Charlotte.

“Some of you here remember when the previous building was erected in 1980,” noted Father Lawlor, “but I assure you that none of us will be here when this new building is worn out – it will be centuries!”

Despite being land-locked by established neighborhoods in the South Park area, St. Vincent de Paul Church has undergone significant growth in parish membership over the past decade – especially from the Hispanic community – which necessitated the facility improvements.

“Our faith formation program participation has tripled in the past eight years,” explained Father Lawlor. “This has been a parish project for the past 10 years; the two driving forces were the poor condition of the old office and the growth of the parish.”

Where a bee-infested 4,500-square-foot office stood just two months ago, a new 18,000-square-foot, two-story facility with 12 offices, eight classrooms, chapel, multi-purpose room, kitchen and storage area will stand before the end of 2013.

Surprisingly, the new design will also free up some real estate and allow for the addition of 20 parking spaces, which will be especially valuable for the 2 p.m. Spanish-language Mass, which routinely draws a standing-room-only crowd.

Holding his infant son, Hector Garcia expressed his delight for the new facility, where he noted that his son will attend faith formation classes in a few years. “I think it’s great, and a needed expansion. It’s wonderful to see people coming together to get it done.”

Boy Scout Liam Watts, 14, said he is excited for the opportunity for projects and meetings that the new facility will give his Scout troop. “We get a closet adjacent to the room.

More online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: See a slideshow of more photos from the groundbreaking celebration for St. Vincent de Paul Church’s new ministry center and chapel.

It’s exciting to have a new building which is bigger; it’s great!”

To make the new facility a reality, parishioners have raised 80 percent of the capital necessary already and are still working on fundraising activities.

“This parish has always been pay-as-you-go,” explained Kevin Roche, chairman of the parish’s capital campaign.

“Debt-reduction campaigns are a killer to a parish. Rather, we looked hard at the offertory and gauged what was realistic, what we could afford. We now have $2.5 million in the bank or pledged on a $3.2 million project!”

“Between (former pastor) Father Bill Pharr and Father Mark, we had a great vision,” Roche continued. “Father Mark is an engineer by trade and really understands the project and did something many aren’t able to do: listen to his finance committee.”

For example, rather than over-build and go into debt, he noted, the committee recommended a two-story building instead of a three-story building with a basement.

During the dedication of the cornerstone, Monsignor West asked for God to “bless those who come here to pray … and bless the students who will grow in their faith and bless their dedicated catechists.”

“Christ is really at the center of all of the ministries” that will be housed in the new building, commented parishioner Sue Saele.

“This is really enforced with the center being the chapel,” chimed in her husband Vince.

“It has been a long time coming,” said Roche. “Today we move from the talking phase into the building phase.”

And with that, shovels turned over heaps of dirt as the members of St. Vincent de Paul Parish cheered their new building on its way to completion.

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catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 OUR PARISHES

The Way of St. James Editor’s note: Pope Francis has urged all Roman Catholics to become pilgrims: “Having our eyes opened, our faith deepened, and enjoying the spiritual experience of our lives.” This spring a group

from Waynesville embarked on a true journey of faith, an 11-day pilgrimage from Lourdes to Fatima.

This is the second part of their journey:

PAUL VIAU CORRESPONDENT

When we last left the group of 31 pilgrims from St. John the Evangelist Church in Waynesville, they were in Lourdes, France.

After a second torchlight procession honoring Our Lady, many in the group stayed up late into the night reflecting on their inspirational experience. The following day began all-too-early, with a French Mass at the Grotto – a farewell to Lourdes – where all had “bathed in Our Blessed Mother’s love.” Following Mass, the pilgrims boarded their bus and continued toward Spain.

Their driver, named Sunny, set the tone, welcoming the pilgrims as they crossed the border into Spain, saying, “Mi casa es su casa.”

Along “The Way,” the only Spanish-speaking pilgrim in the group, Rosie Bornoty, surprised everyone – passing out special prayer cards with a dramatic image of Christ, painted by her long-time friend and artist, Gene Scurio.

Rosie, short for Rosario, had dipped the cards in the sacred water of Lourdes.

The bus stopped for lunch in San Sebastian, then continued to Santander, where Rosie rose to the occasion, interpreting and helping to order dinner for each of the pilgrims. She was the first to volunteer, and the last to be served – reflecting the Gospel of Matthew, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

The following day began with Mass in the Chapel of Our Lord at the Cathedral of Santander. The pilgrims then boarded the bus for the six-hour trip to Santiago de Compostela. Along the way, blue and yellow road signs marked “Camino de Santiago,” “The Way of St. James.”

Pilgrims have traveled “The Way” to the sacred burial site of St. James for centuries, following a variety of paths through France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela. The most popular of those paths are marked with a scallop shell.

The scallop shell is a metaphor for the Camino de Santiago – the linear grooves of the shell representing the different paths taken by the pilgrims, which all come together at the tomb of St. James.

The shell has also become a symbol for the pilgrims themselves. As the ocean waves wash the shells onto the shores of Galicia, so God’s hand guides the pilgrims to Santiago.

After another long day’s journey by bus, following those scallop shells, the Waynesville pilgrims arrived in Santiago. After checking into their hotel, they enjoyed a memorable dinner, with Rosie Bornoty showing her gift for Flamenco dancing. Father Larry LoMonaco did not join in the dancing, but encouraged Rosie with a frequent use of the word “Ole!” The following morning, the group arrived early at the Cathedral de Santiago to secure front row seats for the memorable morning Mass. Both pilgrim priests, Father LoMonaco and his long-time friend, Father Don Dusza, concelebrated the Mass, which included a dazzling ritual display, as eight monks manipulated the 80-kg. Botafumeiro, “dancing it wildly the length of the cathedral.”

According to tradition, this ritual has been taking place since the 11th century.

After Mass, the 31 Waynesville pilgrims toured the cathedral, which is replete with symbolism. Many went behind the altar to venerate the relics of St. James. Others paused and reflected by the seated statue of St. James holding a pilgrim’s stick and a scroll, which reads, “The Lord sent me.”

The tour concluded on the Porch of Glory. As they stood before the statue of St. James, they could see imprints left by countless pilgrims “touched” at the end of their journey of faith.

After the tour, many of the Waynesville pilgrims walked the last three miles of the Camino from the Mount of Joy. Though they hadn’t walked the full length of “The Way,” it was still a “Buen Camino.”

IN THE JULY 5 EDITION, the pilgrimage concludes for the Waynesville parishioners, as they travel through Spain and into Portugal to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. Go online to www.catholicnewsherald.com to read about the first leg of their pilgrimage: Lourdes.

Scenes from the Cathedral de Santiago, the end of the Way of St. James pilgrimage

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI 7A

40 YEARS OF SERVICE AT SPX

‘It is a blessing when one’s avocation is also a vocation’ GEORGIANNA PENN CORRESPONDENT

GREENSBORO — Teacher and mentor Lorraine Malphurs,was honored at Mass May 18 for her 40 years of service to St. Pius X School and Parish. Malphurs began teaching second grade at St. Pius School in 1973. She is a full-time teacher and mentor today and a great blessing to the St. Pius X community.

Malphurs was born and raised on Long Island, N.Y., and graduated from SUNY-Oneonta.

“The most rewarding part of teaching is the same today as it was in the beginning,” Malphurs shared in a recent interview. She said when a child enters the classroom as an “emergent reader and leaves a confident reader,” she feels “their year has blossomed. They are no longer pageturners, but have become ‘readers.’ ” When asked what the difference is in teaching today as opposed to 40 years ago, she noted, “Today is much the same and very different than it was 40 years ago.” Children love coming to school and learning, but the difference is in how they learn. With technology in the home and classroom, she said, “students come to school with many skills and experiences that were not available to them in my early years of teaching.” However, her goal remains the same: “that children understand how to use the knowledge they have acquired.”

In her early years at St. Pius X School, Malphurs had the “joyful opportunity to teach with the Daughters of Charity for almost 20 years.” These dedicated and compassionate religious women were some of her most influential role

They leave second grade understanding the parts of the Mass and can now ‘participate.’

They receive the Body and Blood of Christ with grace.”

Malphurs has inspired generations of students. She has been published twice in “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers,” has received the Charlotte Diocese’s Outstanding Teacher Award, as well as the Servant’s Servant Award, and the NCEA Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award. She is a founding member of the Youth Stewards in Action Committee and an GEORGIANNA PENN | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD integral part of the parish Stewardship Committee, a Lorraine Malphurs (second from right) is pictured with her co-workers Sharon Rothweiler, Cindi DeVillers coordinator for the St. Jude and Patty Delaney.

Mathathon fundraiser, an officer in Volare Women and a faculty rep for the school’s models, she said. “They especially shaped my enthusiasm for being in a Catholic school and Catholic environment.”

Spirituality Committee.

Soon after her first year of teaching, she said, she “It is indeed a blessing when one’s avocation in life is realized she could not imagine teaching in a school where also a vocation,” noted St. Pius X’s pastor, Monsignor God and praying were not present on a daily basis.

Anthony Marcaccio. “I hope that over her many years Malphurs’ aim has always been to lead the children she of teaching Lorraine has inspired men and women to teaches to the Father. “A major highlight of every year is embrace not just teaching, but that which is a ministry when the children receive their first Holy Communion. of Catholic education: assisting in the formation of our The children enter second grade as attenders at Mass. children in the way of faith.”

Maronite mission says farewell to pastor CHARLOTTE — Members of the Maronite Mission of Charlotte said goodbye to their pastor, Father Kamil Al-Chouefati, at a farewell party at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte June 8, as he leaves to take up his new position as pastor of Our Lady Star of the East Church in Pleasantville, N.J. During his homily at his last Divine Liturgy (Mass) in Charlotte, Father AlChouefati encouraged people to make a place in their hearts for Jesus, to become His friend, and to keep their hearts pure for the love for Him. In receiving Holy Communion, Father Al-Chouefati said, we literally take Jesus into ourselves and thus become a tabernacle for Him. Allowing Jesus into our hearts, and accepting His love and mercy, brings us joy and peace.

“I want you to feel that joy for a long time, by staying away from sin and all that goes with it,” he preached.

His homily message was particularly special for 9-year-old Andrei Moubarak, who received first Holy Communion during Father Al-Chouefati’s last Mass in Charlotte. He and his family, including his parents Christina and Joseph Moubarak and his godfather Jihad Aboujaoude, were all smiles during and after the Mass.

Father Al-Chouefati was born in Lebanon in 1961 and was ordained a priest in 1995. He came to the United States in 2006, to serve for six months as parochial vicar of St. Anthony Maronite Church in Richmond, Va. In 2007, he was assigned as pastor of Our Lady of Lebanon Church in Easton, Pa., and within two years he was made pastor and administrator of St. Sharbel Mission in Raleigh.

The Maronite Mission of Charlotte was formed when a small group of Lebanese immigrants asked Father Al-Chouefati to celebrate the Divine Liturgy once a month in Charlotte. Since March 2010, he has been traveling from Raleigh to Charlotte to

PATRICIA L. GUILFOYLE | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Father Kamil Al-Chouefati celebrates Mass June 8 at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte, his last as pastor of the Maronite Mission of Charlotte. Looking on is 9-year-old Andrei Moubarak, who celebrated his first Holy Communion. More photos from the Mass, Moubarak’s first Communion, and the farewell celebration for Father Al-Chouefati are at www. catholicnewsherald.com. celebrate the Divine Liturgy on the second Saturday of the month, at the Chapel of St. Matthew Church. Under Father AlChouefati’s guidance, it has grown from a handful of worshippers to a congregation of a couple of hundred and a second monthly Mass was introduced last April.

Known for his deep spirituality and for having a pastor’s heart, Father AlChouefati will be greatly missed by his flock, who all called him a holy man who has done much to help the mission in its spiritual growth.

The missions in Charlotte and Raleigh will now be headed by Father Elie Mikhael, who will celebrate his first Divine Liturgy for the Charlotte mission on Saturday, July 13. The Divine Liturgy scheduled for Sunday, June 23, has been cancelled.

— Natasha Beathe and Patricia L. Guilfoyle

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catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 OUR PARISHES

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or relative of a Knight to join, nor do you need to be a member of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish. For more information, contact Gen Rollin, president of Columbiettes Council 10505, at Gen526@aol. com or 704-548-0644.

Charlotte. The AOH is a Catholic fraternal organization for men of Irish heritage. Pictured are AOH President Ray FitzGerald and Kara Martinez, president of the St. Mark Home School PTO group.

In Brief

— Joseph Dougherty

Military Mass planned for July 7 CHARLOTTE — Bishop Peter J. Jugis will celebrate a Mass for U.S. military personnel at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, July 7, at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte. The Mass and rosary (to be recited at 3 p.m.) will be offered for all military personnel who have died and for those who are now serving.

All military personnel are invited and encouraged to come in uniform.

Photos of those who have died or who are now serving in the military will be displayed in the cathedral. To include your service member, preferably in uniform, mail a color or black/white photocopy of them with their name and military rank on the back of the photocopy to: Nancy Weber, Office of the Bishop, 1123 South Church St., Charlotte, NC 28203, to be received no later than July 2. (Please do not send original photographs as they will not be returned.)

Flag procession held on Pentecost Sunday Parish hosts luncheon for local seniors DENVER — Holy Spirit Church in Denver hosted an Inter-Faith Community Senior Luncheon May 23. More than 240 seniors from Denver-area churches attended the luncheon, which had the theme “Kick-off to Summer.” They enjoyed a DJ, dance instructor and homemade barbecue and various sides, salads and desserts. Each year a different church in Denver hosts a community luncheon like this.

— Doreen Sugierski

CHARLOTTE — St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Charlotte celebrated Pentecost Sunday on May 19 with a special flag procession that included the papal flag and the American flag, followed by flags from 24 other countries representing the country of origin of some parishioners. More than 750 parishioners attended, some wearing traditional clothing. The procession capped the parish’s two-day Multicultural Festival.

Pictured with the members of the procession are Father Matthew Kauth, priest in residence, and Deacon James Witulski.

— Mary A. Morales and Lota Mascarenas

Parish marks Memorial Day ALBEMARLE — In honor of Memorial Day, the whole congregation of Our Lady of the Annunciation Church in Albemarle stood at attention after Mass on Trinity Sunday while Grand Knight Greg Fischer played “Taps” as a tribute to our fallen heroes.

OLA Rosary Club surpasses first-year goal CHARLOTTE — Twenty members of the newly-formed Rosary Club at Our Lady of the Assumption School recently made 571 rosaries that were sent to various missions in Africa, India and the Philippines. Members from grades 3 to 7 initially had a goal of creating 400 rosaries but surpassed it. According to club advisor Yasmin Santschi, their goal for next school year is 600 rosaries, which will be distributed to different missions around the world.

— Mary A. Morales

— Done M. Espina

Philippines’ independence day celebrated PINEVILLE — Filipino-Americans of the Charlotte Metropolitan Area celebrated the 115th commemoration of the Philippines’ independence from Spain and the United States during a celebration at the Belle Johnston Recreation Center in Pineville June 8. Pictured, children are playing a game called “Pabitin,” which literally means “to have some items hanging.” In the game, candies, chocolates, gums, toys, etc., are attached to a lattice tied to a rope. The goodies are lowered several times intermittently for the kids to jump and scramble for the dangling items. This is done several times until nothing is left on the lattice.

— Dr. Cris Villapando

AOH donates to several PTOs Youth volunteers honored CHARLOTTE — Dozens of youth volunteers were honored by parishioners at St. Thomas Aquinas Church June 2 during an ice cream social. The young parishioners volunteer their time and talent with ministries such as the children’s choir and youth ministry, as well as serving as altar servers, acolytes, ushers and lectors at Mass. Pictured with some of the youth volunteers are Father Patrick Winslow, pastor.

— Mary A. Morales and Lota Mascarenas

Columbiettes forming at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish CHARLOTTE — The Columbiettes, the Auxiliary of the Knights of Columbus, are forming a new chapter at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte. If you are a Catholic woman, 17 years old or older, you are invited to come to find out who the Columbiettes are and what exciting activities are planned for the year ahead for the new chapter. More than 12,000 women throughout the United States and Canada already serve their parishes and communities as Columbiettes. You do not have to be the spouse

HUNTERSVILLE — In keeping with its motto of “Friendship, Unity and True Christian Charity,” the St. Brendan division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Huntersville recently presented checks in the amount of $500 each to St. Mark Home School PTO, St. Mark School PTO and Christ the King High School PTO. These funds were raised from the group’s Hibernian Dinner and Show, which is held each year in March to honor the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick. Catholic education is one of the core charities that the division supports, with the others being Room at the Inn, LauraLynn Ireland’s Children’s Hospice, and also supporting seminarians from the Diocese of

Brevard parish takes part in Memorial Day festivities BREVARD — Sacred Heart Parish was well represented at the recent Memorial Day Parade in Brevard. Capuchin Franciscan Father Andrew Nowak and Deacon Patrick Crosby said the convocation. Karla Bertlshofer, representing the U.S. Air National Guard, sang the National Anthem and many Knights of Columbus from Jack Driscoll Council and parishioners marched in the parade. The highest-ranking parishioner, retired U.S. Army Major Gen. Jack Osteen, rode the parade route in a yellow convertible.

— Dorice Narins WE WELCOME your parish’s news! Please email news items and photos to Editor Patricia L. Guilfoyle at plguilfoyle@charlottediocese.org.

Our schools

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

Two Charlotte teachers to travel to Israel Anti-Defamation League mission aims to highlight Catholic-Jewish relations NEW YORK — Robin Siczek from Holy Trinity Middle School and Dana Tarney from Charlotte Catholic High School are among 21 Catholic school teachers from 10 states who are traveling later this month to Israel on an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) mission that aims to provide an advance course of study on anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and Catholic-Jewish relations.

As part of the nationally acclaimed ADL Bearing Witness Advanced program, they will visit Israel from June 25 to July 4, where they will visit Christian and Jewish holy sites and meet with Holocaust survivors, members of the Israeli government, Arab Israelis, Israeli journalists, Catholic dignitaries, Jewish community leaders, interfaith experts and scholars.

“This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Catholic educators to experience first-hand the scope of Jewish life in today’s Israel,” said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

“We hope that these educators will take these meaningful experiences of touching and feeling the history, coupled with a small immersion into contemporary Israeli society, back into their classrooms.”

The group will travel across Israel, with stops in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, Nazareth, the Golan Heights and Haifa.

They will tour the old city of Jerusalem, and numerous

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In Brief

Christian churches and holy sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Church of the Annunciation, St. Joseph’s Church and Mount of Beatitudes.

The group will also visit Yad Vashem, Israel’s national memorial to the Holocaust, and hear from representatives of the Israeli government, Israeli Defense Forces, the Arab-Jewish Community Center, the Apostolic Delegation, the JOINT Distribution Fund, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, Shalom Hartman Institute, the Interfaith Encounter Association and Bar Ilan University.

Besides the two teachers from the Diocese of Charlotte, the group of educators represent middle and high schools in Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Georgia, Missouri and California.

Since its inception in 1996, ADL Bearing Witness has trained more than 1,700 Catholic school educators across the U.S. about the historical relationship between the Jewish and Catholic communities and the impact of that relationship on Catholic teaching, catechesis and liturgy.

Bearing Witness Advanced was initiated in 2005 to allow Bearing Witness graduates to extend their learning and travel to Israel.

The program is endorsed by the National Catholic Educational Association and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

OLM gives out awards WINSTON-SALEM — Our Lady of Mercy graduated 30 students on June 5, a large majority ready to move on to Bishop McGuinness High School. Grand Knight Bruce McKenna of the OLM Knights of Columbus Council 10504 presented cash awards to the following graduates with the highest gradepoint averages in each subject: math, Nicole Harrison and Nelly Lara; science, Cecilia Kammire; art, Samira Davis and Matthew Herdon; music, Casey Martin and Cecilia Kammire; language arts, Cecilia Kammire and Casey Martin; social studies, Delaney Fay and Peter Ingle; religion, Cecilia Haggas; Spanish, Cecilia Kammire, Ryan Buchmeier and Rosa Martinez.

Ben Babcock and Cecilia Kammire received the annual Principal’s Award for an outstanding Mercy student who has exemplified the Mercy spirit with excellence in academics, athletics and service to community.

— Lara Davenport

Former Our Lady of Grace School and current Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School students pose with Father John Eckert, pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Tryon, and Sister Joseph Andrew and Sister Mary Ignatius of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY JEFF STOLLER

Dominican sisters speak to Bishop McGuinness students JEFF STOLLER SPECIAL TO THE CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

KERNERSVILLE — Father John Eckert, pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Tryon and former chaplain at Bishop McGuinness High School, recently accompanied Sister Joseph Andrew and Sister Mary Ignatius of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, to speak to theology students at Bishop McGuinness.

The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist is a new religious community of consecrated

women. Through the profession of the three vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, they seek to embody the graces of the New Evangelization.

Their spiritual identity is shaped by Dominican spirituality with an ardent living of Eucharistic Adoration and Marian devotion. Both women spoke about vocations in a broad sense and then shared their personal stories.

“God has a plan for us and there is a path, like from where I’m standing to the door,” said Sister Joseph Andrew.

“I can either follow it clear and straight or take a longer time going to either side. These are the distractions

that keep us from the plan God has for us.”

Referencing Moses and the Israelites, she added, “It only should have taken them a few days to cover the land they had to travel, but it took them 40 years!”

Bishop McGuinness’ principal, George Repass said that the school community was grateful to Father John Eckert for arranging the sisters’ visit.

“Their presentations were of great value in orienting students to the many dimensions of consecrated life,” Repass said.

SLS students visit historic Stagville GREENSBORO — As part of their studies of the Civil War, Our Lady of Grace School’s eighth-grade class recently visited historic Stagville, one of the largest pre-Civil War plantations in the South, and Bennett Place, the site of the largest Confederate surrender in the Civil War. Both sites are located near Durham. Shown are OLG students Lily Hiser, Jeannie Egan and Marie Lawson as they tour a barn located on the Stagville plantation.

— Karen L. Hornfeck

catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 10A CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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In Brief Charlotte Pop Warner player named All-American Scholar CHARLOTTE — Becket Granelli has been named a Pop Warner All-American Scholar, one of the top 35 fifth-grade student-athletes in the league nationwide.

Every year, the most academically accomplished Pop Warner athletes are tapped for Academic All-American status. The process starts at the local association level and continues up through each of the eight Pop Warner regions to the national level. Last year, more than 400,000 kids participated in Pop Warner athletics across the U.S. All-American status Granelli is based upon a minimum 96.0 grade-point average, extra-curricular activities, and community involvement. The 53rd All-American Scholar Banquet will take place May 24-25 in Boston.

Becket is the son of Yohanne and Chris Granelli of Charlotte. He is a fifth-grader at St. Matthew Catholic Elementary School. He has played two seasons of Pop Warner football for the Weddington Titans, most recently for Coach Michael Newman, where he played free safety and wing back. “Coach Newman is tough.

He taught me to try even harder when things get tough. You don’t know what you are really capable of unless you push through – and not just in football.” Becket also plays lacrosse with Stick With Us and enjoys the drums, hunting, reading and writing.

Becket’s community involvement includes providing snacks throughout the year for area homeless children through A Child’s Place and playing drums at the children’s Mass at St. Matthew Church. “My church and school provide me with a lot of opportunities to help others. My parents have always stressed the importance of volunteering and hard work.

When I was younger I didn’t really understand but it actually feels good to do things for other people,” Becket said. He has been recognized with various awards at St. Matthew Elementary School, most recently for his character and creative writing. Next year, he will attend Holy Trinity Middle School.

Charlotte Catholic student wins State Department scholarship CHARLOTTE — Patrick Menkhaus, a student at Charlotte Catholic High School and resident of Fort Mill, S.C., has been awarded one of approximately 625 National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) scholarships for 2013-2014.

The NSLI-Y program, funded by the U.S. Department of State, provides merit-based scholarships for eligible high school students to learn less commonly-taught languages in summer and academic-year overseas immersion programs. NSLI-Y offers overseas study opportunities in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Russian and Turkish.

The NSLI-Y scholarship will enable Menkhaus to study Arabic in Jordan for the summer.

The scholarship covers all program costs for participants including domestic and international travel; tuition and related academic preparation; language testing; educational and cultural activities focused on language learning; orientations; meals; and accommodations, usually with a host family.

Launched as part of a U.S. government initiative in 2006, NSLI-Y seeks to increase Americans’ capacity to engage with native speakers of critical languages by providing formal instruction and informal language practice in an immersion environment.

Educational and cultural activities are designed to promote language learning and build mutual understanding and long-lasting relationships.

The goals of the NSLI-Y program include sparking a life-long interest in foreign languages and cultures, and developing a corps of young Americans with the skills necessary to advance international dialogue in the private, academic or government sectors, and build upon the foundations developed through person-toperson relationships while abroad.

Through his participation in the program, Menkhaus will serve as a citizen diplomat while developing the skills necessary to be a leader in the global community.

— Jennifer B. Johnson

Charlotte Catholic student to attend West Point seminar CHARLOTTE — Nolan Hedglin, a junior at Charlotte Catholic High School, is one of 1,000 students nationwide selected to attend West Point’s prestigious Summer Leaders Seminar this month.

More than 4,000 juniors across the U.S. applied for the seminar, which offers students the opportunity to experience life at West Point.

SLS attendees live in the cadet barracks, eat in the cadet mess, and participate in academic, leadership, athletic and military workshops.

The one-week seminars are designed to help juniors with their college selection process, which giving them an idea of the importance of leadership and sound decision-making in their education, careers and lives in general.

All SLS attendees participate in virtual-reality war simulation, physical and military fitness training, and workshops such as leadership and ethics, civil and mechanical engineering, systems engineering, history, physics, human behavior, social sciences, chemistry, mathematics, computer applications and programming, and more.

St. Michael School principal retires GASTONIA — Joseph C. Puceta, principal of St. Michael School, will retire on June 30.

Puceta has served as principal in the Charlotte diocesan school system for 23 years. He has served on numerous boards and committees and has been a tireless volunteer for the school and community.

His wife Barbara, a Gaston County School augmentative communication specialist, has worked for approximately 30 years and is also retiring. They plan to pursue their love of travel and to relax and enjoy their home at Oak Island. They have two grown children, Colleen and Danielle Puceta.

Students, parents, teachers and staff love and will miss him but wish him and his family the best. Pictured with Puceta are graduating eighth-graders Joseph Glisson and Ethan Burnett at a recent retirement celebration.

— Pat Burr

Charlotte Nature Museum. The St. Patrick fourth-graders and Brookstone’s third-, fourthand fifth-graders learned about butterflies, explored butterfly habitats, and spent time together on the museum’s nature trails. They also made wildflower seed balls together, to help them create their own butterfly gardens at home.

The trip was made possible with a Front Porch Grant. The Front Porch Grants program fosters building social capital between individuals, communities, neighborhoods and organizations.

The goal of the Front Porch Grants program is to increase trust, build bridges across differences and expand social connections and informal networks by building relationships. The Front Porch Grants program is named to honor the power of a simple gathering place where people can meet and begin to build relationships. Front Porch Grants help neighborhood associations, social clubs, school groups and other civic organizations act to create the type of community they want to see in the future.

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Foundation, an affiliate of Foundation for the Carolinas, awards grants of up to $2,500 that may be used to support the creation of smallscale efforts that build relationships.

— Anastasia Macaya and Kathleen Smith

— Kathi Shea

St. Michael graduates Annual Knights of Columbus Patriot Award given to SPX grad GREENSBORO — St. Pius X graduate Neal Kordsmeier is pictured accepting the annual Patriot Award from Sir Knight Joe Tomlinson, representing Father Francis Connolly Assembly 3253 Knights of Columbus in Greensboro. This honor is awarded each year to one student who has earned the respect of both the faculty and student body, who recognized in Kordsmeier the qualities of spiritual, moral and social character.

In his years at St. Pius X School, Kordsmeier has consistently exhibited those values and qualities which make up the cornerstone of the mission of St. Pius X School.

— John Russell

St. Patrick students visit nature museum CHARLOTTE — Students from St. Patrick School in Charlotte recently joined with students from Brookstone School to visit the

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GASTONIA — Pictured are eighth-grade students who graduated from St. Michael School on June 1: Gabrielle Adams, Ethan Burnett, Kristen Caulfield, Emily Gamble,

Joseph Glisson, Joshua Helton, Michael Kowalik, Kayla Mero, Gus Miller, Noah Murray, Paul O’Meara, Miriam Okonkwo, Leo Pichardo, Drew Robinson, Gabrielle Samuels, Faith Shindler, Amelia Taylor, Andrew Templeton and Gilles Turcotte. Also pictured is eighth-grade teacher Greg Davidowitz. The eighth-grade 2013 graduating class service started with Mass in the church and an awards ceremony followed in the gym with a luncheon.

— Pat Burr

State’s top teacher visits OLG GREENSBORO — Our Lady of Grace School welcomed the 2012-2013 North Carolina Teacher of the Year, Darcy Grimes, to campus April 8. Grimes spent the day with OLG’s teachers, conducting grade-specific workshops on using technology in the classroom. Grimes is a third-grade teacher at Bethel Elementary School in Watauga County.

— Karen L. Hornfeck

Mix

catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 12A CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

On TV

For the latest movie reviews: catholicnewsherald.com

n Friday, June 21, 7 p.m. (EWTN) “Opening Mass of the Fortnight for Religious Freedom.”

The second-annual Fortnight for Freedom begins with this liturgy. Live from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore.

Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore is scheduled to preside.

In theaters

PHOTOS FROM PROJECT 2 HEAL FACEBOOK PAGE

(Above) Bean sleeps in on his second birthday.

(Left) Charlie Petrizzo and Monsignor John McSweeney, pastor of St. Matthew Church, are pictured with Jordan, a Lab raised by Petrizzo who now serves as a companion dog for a man in Washington, D.C.

‘After Earth’ Grueling sci-fi adventure set 1,000 years after humans have been forced to evacuate an environmentally despoiled Earth. While on an intergalactic military mission, a general (Will Smith) and his teen son – played by Smith’s real-life son Jaden – become the sole survivors of a crash landing on the Blue Planet. With Dad temporarily disabled as a result, the lad must brave a hostile array of predators in order to reach the other part of their wrecked spacecraft – and the signal beam that represents their only hope of rescue. While the filial relationship at the heart of director and co-writer M. Night Shyamalan’s plodding coming-of-age drama is ultimately characterized by self-sacrificing love, the code by which the father lives and which he strives to instill in his offspring - seems to have more in common with Zen Buddhism than with the values promoted in Scripture. The script’s glib portrayal of the bonds uniting veterans will also strike at least some viewers as either jingoistic or exploitative. Much action violence, a few mildly crass expressions.

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

Additional reviews: n ‘Frances Ha’: CNS: L (limited adult audiences); MPAA: R n ‘Now You See Me’: CNS: A-III (adults); MPAA: PG-13 n ‘The Internship’: CNS: L (limited adult audience); MPAA: PG-13 n ‘The Purge’: CNS: O (morally offensive); MPAA: R

‘BEAN IS BORN’

WAXHAW — Two years ago an adorable Fox Red Labrador Retriever was born in a litter at Charlie Petrizzo’s Project 2 Heal home kennel, where he raises Labs for service organizations to work with children with special needs.

Little “Bean” wasn’t growing as fast as the others and he had a hard time walking and eating, so Petrizzo took him to the vet and found out he had two serious health conditions: myasthenia gravis, a muscular condition; and mega esophagus, which made it hard for him to eat. Petrizzo was encouraged to put Bean down.

“Typically I would have followed the vet’s instructions right there on the spot because holding on any longer just makes you become more attached to the animal,” Petrizzo says. “However, God told me something different that day. So, I said, ‘Let me take him back home and

n Thursday, June 27, 2 p.m. (EWTN) “Saint Etheldreda: Abbess of Ely.” Despite her vow of purity and desire to serve the Lord as a nun, St. Etheldreda is forced into marriage by her father. She miraculously escapes and becomes the Abbess of Ely. n Thursday, June 27, 5:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Mary, Our Mother of Perpetual Help.” A documentary look at the Redemptorists’ devotion to Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help.

Project 2 Heal puppy teaches lessons on love, acceptance SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

n Wednesday, June 26, 5:30 p.m. (EWTN) “They Call Him Father In The Five Continents.”

A journey into the life and works of St. Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei.

think about it.’”

Over the course of the next few days, Petrizzo watched Bean and sensed his will to survive, which in turn made him believe God had a special plan for the little puppy.

A devout Catholic who has himself survived life-threatening injuries and lives with daily pain as a result, Petrizzo knew giving Bean a shot at life was the right thing to do.

“Given my accidents, I saw a lot of myself in Bean and that’s when God’s message came to me,” Petrizzo explains.

“The message was to use Bean’s story to try to help typical children to understand the importance of their role in associating with special-needs children.”

He knew that caring for Bean would pose some challenges, though.

“I thought to myself, ‘Lord, if anyone can care for this puppy it is my wife PUPPY, SEE PAGE 13A

n Saturday, June 29, 12 p.m. (EWTN) “Solemnity of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.” Pope Francis presides over the Solemn Mass of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, live from Rome. n Saturday, June 29, 5 p.m. (EWTN) “Rock of the Truth – Three Fountains.” The extraordinary story of Bruno Cornacchiola, a modern-day persecutor of the Catholic Church who planned to kill the pope but was converted when the Virgin Mary appeared to him. n Thursday, July 4, 12 p.m. (EWTN) ”Closing Mass of the Fortnight for Religious Freedom.”

The closing of the second-annual Fortnight for Freedom from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., with celebrant Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington. n Thursday, July 4, 2 p.m. (EWTN) “The Grunt Padre in Vietnam.” Touching feature on the life of Servant of God Father Vincent Capodanno, a military chaplain who committed his life and ultimately gave it up in ministry to U.S. Marines fighting in Vietnam. Several Vietnam veterans recall.

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PUPPY:

Learn more

FROM PAGE 12A

Sandy, who is the most loving and caring person in the world.’ And I was right. All you have to do is see Sandy caring for Bean in the movie ‘Charlie’s Scars,’ which they made about my life a couple of years back, and you can see that is the truth.”

Bean takes medicine three times a day to help him walk and he sits in a special chair to help keep him upright. He eats only liquid food. Bean is just like other Labs, though, in that he loves to play and swim.

And he has something most dogs don’t: a Facebook page.

Recently Petrizzo teamed up with Charlotte author Peg Robarchek, illustrator Chad Lewis and SPARK Publications to create “Bean is Born,” a children’s book about Bean, highlighting how his special needs can teach everyone valuable life lessons about love and acceptance.

This 40-page book tells Bean’s story through his eyes. It is the first in a series of books that Petrizzo hopes will teach children how to “love their neighbor” even at a very young age.

“Children love puppies and dogs, and I thought teaching this lesson from Bean the puppy’s perspective would be really appealing to children,” he says. “It was kind of like the ‘anti-bully message’ I saw in Bean’s story and an opportunity to create greater awareness of how we all can do a better job of engaging these children, and for us as adults trying to help them.”

Petrizzo hopes children will heed a call to reach out to others who have special needs.

“I hope they learn that even though we may look different on the outside (which I certainly did after my second accident),

TO ORDER ‘Bean is Born’, make a donation to Project 2 Heal or get more information about this local non-profit, go to www.project2heal.org.

FOLLOW BEAN ON FACEBOOK at “Project2Heal.”

VIEW A CLIP from “Charlie’s Scars,” the documentary about Petrizzo, on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNyoyP90ph8.

we are all the same in the eyes of God. Each of us being created by God is loved by Him and as the Gospels tell us, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, we have a responsibility or a special call to help those who may need a little extra from us.”

Both in real life and in the story, Bean is an inspiration to children and adults. He travels to schools, churches and community events with Petrizzo to encourage people living with special needs.

“Our Catholic social doctrine teaches that private property should be used for the public good, and that is what we are doing with this ministry: adhering to that social doctrine of our faith,” Petrizzo says.

“The reality is, however, that God has something more planned for us. I believe His will for Project 2 Heal is to build a facility where we can also provide canine therapy for children with special needs.

However, the only way our vision can ever become a reality is if we get the funding.

“We are hoping the Bean story will resonate with parents and children, and that it might take off and lead to other things that can help us to generate the funding we need to build that facility.”

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Our nation

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In Brief Retired CRS president nominated as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Barack Obama June 14 nominated Ken Hackett, retired president of Catholic Relief Services, to be U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. “It gives me great confidence that such dedicated and capable individuals have agreed to join this administration to serve the American people. I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come,” Obama said.

Hackett retired in December 2011 after 18 years as president of CRS, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency. As U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, he succeeds Miguel Diaz, who left the post in late 2012.

Diaz now is a professor of faith and culture at the University of Dayton, Ohio. Hackett was appointed president of CRS in 1993.

During his tenure, he established a division focusing on outreach to dioceses, parishes, Catholic organizations, and colleges and universities, and laypeople were first appointed to the CRS board of directors.

Church has led way in addressing abuse of minors, says board chairman WORCESTER, Mass. — The Catholic Church has led the way in addressing the sexual abuse of minors, said the new chairman of the National Review Board. Francesco C. Cesareo, president of Assumption College in Worcester and a member of the review board for one year, succeeded Al Notzon III as board chairman June 9 at the conclusion of the board’s June meeting. Since the board meets four times a year, the first meeting Cesareo will oversee as chairman will be in September.

His three-year term as chairman is a contribution the college is making to the life of the Catholic Church, he said. His plans are to do what the review board was set up to do. It advises the bishops’ Secretariat for Child and Youth Protection and was established by the “Charter for Protection of Children and Young People,” which the bishops adopted in 2002. The board does this by making sure that the bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” is being implemented, he said. Cesareo said he was very active in his year on the board, contributing ideas and suggestions and engaging in debates.

CNS | LOUIS BATIDES, REUTERS

Large plumes of smoke from a wildfire burning in the Black Forest stretch across the horizon threatening homes northeast of Colorado Springs, Colo., June 11. As of the morning of June 12, it was estimated that 100 homes were destroyed in the blaze, forcing the evacuation of nearly 3,000 people and the fire had consumed nearly 8,000 acres.

Colorado wildfire forces thousands to flee BILL HOWARD AND VERONICA AMBUUL CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — For the second year in a row, a wildfire got out of hand on a hot and windy afternoon in Colorado Springs June 12, leaving thousands of people fleeing for safety and thousands of others reliving a nightmare.

The Black Forest Fire, as it is being called, started in a forested area in the far northeast corner of El Paso County, just outside the Colorado Springs city limits, that goes under the name Black Forest.

Two people died and 483 homes were destroyed in the blaze, which consumed nearly 15,000 acres. As of June 16, the fire was between 55 percent and 65 contained, and federal officials predicted it would be totally contained by June 20. Its cause was still under investigation.

The sisters of Benet Hill Monastery, located in the heart of the Black Forest area, made preparations June 11 and voluntarily evacuated June 12.

“We’ve got everybody ready in case the fire changes direction,” Benedictine Sister Jan Ginzkey said in an interview before

they left. “We did take nine sisters who are in more fragile health to Mount St. Francis (where the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration run a nursing home),” Sister Jan told The Colorado Catholic Herald, the newspaper of the Colorado Springs Diocese. “Sister Nadine (Heimann, provincial) called and offered us sanctuary.”

Meanwhile, a group of parish social outreach ministers and Stephen ministers set up camp at St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in the northeast part of the city to serve those whose homes had burned or were forced to evacuate.

“I started getting calls last night from parishioners whose homes were destroyed,” said Deacon Ed DeMattee, head of the ministry team. Most were members of Our Lady of the Pines Parish in Black Forest, he said.

Our Lady of the Pines Church in Black Forest was near the mandatory evacuation zone. The church has no power and was closed, with no daily Mass to be offered until further notice.

Colorado Springs Bishop Michael J. Sheridan assured residents affected by the

fire of his prayers.

“Please know of my solidarity with you during this time of suffering and loss. As you pray for each other, I pray for each and every one of you. May God be with you to comfort and console you,” he said in a message read at Masses the weekend of June 15 and 16.

In the Denver Archdiocese, which covers northern Colorado, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila also urged solidarity with those affected by the fire and called on everyone in the archdiocese to join him in prayer “for those affected by the wildfires, and for the firefighters, medical personnel, and civic leaders helping to contain the blazes.”

“Last month Pope Francis called the Church to ‘become courageous Christians and seek out those who need help most,’” he recalled. “Those who have lost their homes need our help the most.”

Catholic Charities of Central Colorado was offering assistance to those affected by the Black Forest Fire.

“Let us ask the Lord, whose mercy pours forth like gentle rain from heaven,” Archbishop Aquila concluded, “to send consolation, healing and rain to Colorado.”

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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In Brief Obama administration drops fight to limit age restrictions on Plan B WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Catholic officials expressed disappointment with the June 10 announcement that the federal government will comply with a judge’s ruling to allow girls of any age to buy the morning-after pill without a prescription. The decision reversed recent course of action by the federal government. On May 1, the Justice Department announced that it would appeal a ruling by a federal judge in early April that said the Food and Drug Administration must make emergency contraceptives available to all ages by May 6.

In a June 10 letter to U.S. District Judge Edward Korman in Brooklyn, N.Y., department officials said they will submit a plan for compliance with his ruling and will drop their appeal. The letter also said the FDA has advised the drug’s manufacturer to submit an application to make Plan B One-Step available over the counter without restrictions.

News reports June 11 said the Justice Department also told the judge it will not make available over the counter the two-pill Plan B product, which it described as being significantly different from the one-pill version. Two-pill generic versions of Plan B would remain behind store counters and require a prescription and ID for those under the age of 17.

Bishops warn against changes in immigration bill that could kill it SAN DIEGO — Three bishops weighed in on the ongoing congressional debate on immigration reform legislation June 10, warning against amending a Senate bill in ways that would block the path to legalization for undocumented immigrants, but urged support for its passage.

“Families are separated, migrant workers are exploited, and our fellow human beings die in the desert,” said Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration. At

a news conference in San Diego, held as the USCCB opened its annual spring meeting, the chairmen of three committees reiterated the bishops’ support for comprehensive immigration reform that protects families and workers. “Each day in our parishes, social service programs, hospitals and schools, we witness the human consequences of a broken immigration system,” said Archbishop Gomez.

He called the status quo morally unacceptable, adding, “This suffering must end.” Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the Committee on Communications and former chair of the migration committee, specified a handful of concerns for changes to the bill that might be attempted on the Senate floor.

Neb. religious leaders urge concern for poor in farm bill debate OMAHA, Neb. — Cutting food aid for poor children to bring the federal deficit under control seems “penny-wise and pound-foolish,” said an essay by four Nebraska Christian bishops, including the Catholic bishop of Grand Island, Bishop William. J. Dendinger. “We do not want to saddle our children with crushing debt,” the bishops said in an essay published in the June 2 issue of the Omaha World-Herald daily newspaper. “However, votes to reduce the deficit for our children that have the unintended consequence of increasing their hunger and poverty seem penny-wise and pound-foolish.”

The bishops urged Nebraska’s two senators, Mike Johanns and Deb Fischer, both Republicans, to reject amendments to the farm bill that would cut funds to the federal Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.

“Today, 18 percent of children in Nebraska live in poverty -- a 3 percent increase since 2009 -- and 95,500 families struggle to put food on the table,” the bishops said. “During difficult economic times, families go to local church pantries and apply for assistance through SNAP.” The bishops alluded to the size of potential SNAP cuts as part of the overall farm bill being considered in June. “The Senate is considering $4 billion in cuts over 10 years, while the House proposal would cut $21 billion over 10 years, removing 2 million people from SNAP,” they said.

— Catholic News Service

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Let’s keep talking.

Our world

catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 16A CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

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In Brief Anglican leader says he and pope discussed their spirituality, prayer ROME — Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury said his private conversation with Pope Francis was “very personal,” with the new leaders of the Catholic Church and of the Anglican Communion discussing how their positions have influenced their prayer lives. The new spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion traveled to Rome June 14 for his first meeting with the new pope; they both were installed in March. In addition to delivering speeches and praying together, the two spent more than 30 minutes speaking privately and later had lunch together in the pope’s residence.

Speaking to reporters later, Archbishop Welby said he was returning to England with an impression of Pope Francis as a pope with “an extraordinary humanity on fire with the spirit of Christ. We discussed a whole range of issues,” the archbishop told reporters during a briefing at Rome’s Venerable English College, a Catholic seminary. “But most of the conversation one-to-one was really about spirituality and prayer and how we conduct ourselves before God” in their new jobs.

Pope: Don’t pretend to be sinless; preaching Gospel demands humility VATICAN CITY — When boasting of having Jesus Christ as one’s savior, people shouldn’t pretend they aren’t guilty of sin, Pope Francis said in a morning homily. The sincere and humble admission of one’s weaknesses, of having “a sliver of Satan in my flesh,” shows that the power of salvation comes from God, not oneself, the pope said at Mass June 14 in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

The pope concelebrated Mass with Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy; those in attendance at the Mass included members of the clergy office. The pope highlighted the day’s reading from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians in which the apostle said, “We hold this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.” In fact, the only way to truly receive the gift of salvation is in “an earthen vessel,” that is, in recognizing one’s own sinful nature with real humility, the pope said. “The dialogue of salvation” happens between Christ and people exactly “as we are,” he said.

Pope confirms he’s finishing encyclical begun by Benedict VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis told members of the ordinary council of the Synod of Bishops that he was preparing to publish an encyclical on faith written “with four hands” – his own and those of Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Francis told council members he had received their suggested draft for a post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the new evangelization, the theme of the Synod of Bishops in October 2012. “But there’s a problem. The encyclical has to come out and it’s an encyclical written with four hands, so to speak, because Pope Benedict began writing it and he gave it to me,” he said.

CNS | PAUL HARING

Pope Francis greets people in wheelchairs after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican June 16. The Year of Faith Mass concluded a weekend of events calling attention to care for the aged, the sick, the unborn and those with disabilities.

Pope says false ideas of freedom spawn threats to human life FRANCIS X. ROCCA CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY — Ideologies and practices that destroy human life arise from false ideas of freedom without God, Pope Francis told a crowd in St. Peter’s Square, including thousands of pro-life activists from around the world.

“Whenever we want to assert ourselves, when we become wrapped up in our own selfishness and put ourselves in the place of God, we end up spawning death,” the pope said in his homily during the Mass June 16.

The Mass was the culmination of a weekend dedicated to “Evangelium Vitae” (the “Gospel of Life”), a pilgrimage organized for the Year of Faith and named after the 1995 encyclical by Blessed John Paul II on the “value and inviolability of human life.”

“All too often,” Pope Francis said, “people do not choose life, they do not accept the ‘Gospel of Life’ but let themselves be led by ideologies and ways of thinking that block life, that do not respect life, because they are dictated by selfishness, self-interest, profit, power and pleasure, and not by love, by concern for the good of others.

“It is the idea that rejecting God, the message of Christ, the

Gospel of Life, will somehow lead to freedom, to complete human fulfillment,” he said. “As a result, the living God is replaced by fleeting human idols which offer the intoxication of a flash of freedom, but in the end bring new forms of slavery and death.”

“Let us say ‘yes’ to love and not selfishness,” he concluded. “Let us say ‘yes’ to life and not death. Let us say ‘yes’ to freedom and not enslavement to the many idols of our time.”

The pope did not mention any specific threats to life, but in an address at the end of Mass, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, alluded to abortion and euthanasia.

“From the very beginning in the womb of a woman, until the very last moment when a person’s breath speaks of his or her presence in the world, this life is human, even if it develops into an immense array of conditions of weakness, suffering and demands for help,” said the archbishop, whose office organized the weekend pilgrimage.

On the evening of June 15, an international group of some 2,500 pilgrims also took part in a prayer vigil, which included readings in various languages from Blessed John Paul’s “Evangelium Vitae,” and a candlelight procession to St. Peter’s Square.

— Contributing to this story was Clare Myers at the Vatican.

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In Brief Maronite, Orthodox leaders call for release of kidnapped bishops BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Maronite Catholic patriarch and Syria’s Greek Orthodox patriarch called for the release of two Orthodox bishops kidnapped in Syria. “We demand the kidnappers and the countries concerned” to release the two bishops and the two priests kidnapped before them, and all those who have been kidnapped on Syrian territory, said Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, the Maronite patriarch, and Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X in a joint statement from Bkerke, the Maronite patriarchate north of Beirut. “We express our sorrow and regret for the continuation of the cycle of violence in Syria, which kills people and destroys their homes,” the two religious leaders said in their appeal on behalf of Orthodox Metropolitan Paul of Aleppo and Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan Gregorios Yohanna of Aleppo.

The Orthodox leaders were kidnapped April 22 in northern Syria while on a humanitarian mission.

Pope decries ‘real slavery’ of child labor VATICAN CITY — Many of the hundreds of millions of child laborers around the world work under conditions of “real slavery,” Pope Francis said. Marking the World Day Against Child Labor June 12, the pope told people at his weekly general audience that he hoped the international community could find more effective means to stop the exploitation of boys

and girls in jobs that are often dangerous and in situations where they are subjected to abuse.

“These people, instead of letting them play, make them slaves,” the pope said at the end of his weekly general audience. “This is a plague.”

At an audience where, as usual, he kissed dozens of babies and young children, accepted drawings from several and flipped through the sketchbook of one, the pope said, “All children have a right to play, study, pray and grow within their own families in an atmosphere of harmony, love and serenity. It is their right and our obligation.”

For 2013, the International Labor Organization, which sponsors the World Day Against Child Labor, focused on the estimated 10.5 million children who do domestic work – cleaning, ironing, cooking, collecting water, looking after other children or caring for the elderly – in other people’s homes.

Pope: Wealth obscures power of God’s word, free gift of salvation VATICAN CITY — A church that is rich and lacking in praise for the Lord is an old, lifeless church that neglects the true treasure of God’s free gift of grace and salvation, Pope Francis said in a morning homily. “Proclaiming the Gospel must take the road of poverty,” the pope said at Mass June 11 in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae. Those who preach and share the Gospel need to give witness to poverty, where the only abundant riches in their lives are the free and joyful gifts received from the Lord, he said. The pope, who concelebrated Mass with Archbishop Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, highlighted a line from the day’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew: “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” When Jesus told His Apostles, “Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick,” he was urging them to proclaim the Gospel “with simplicity,” Pope Francis said.

Pope: Religious freedom gets more lip service than guarantees VATICAN CITY — Religious freedom is talked about more than it is protected, Pope Francis said. “The serious violations inflicted on this basic right are causes of serious concern,” and the world’s nations must act together to uphold “the intangible dignity of the human person against every attack,” he said. The pope made his comments during an audience with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano at the Vatican June 8. The pope said the cooperation that exists between Church and state in Italy is built on the daily interaction and rapport between government officials and Catholics, whose main aim is always the promotion of “the interests of the people and society.” He noted that 2013 marked the 1,700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan. This proclamation of tolerance of

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Christianity throughout the Roman Empire is seen by many, he said, “as a symbol of the first affirmation of the principle of religious freedom.”

— Catholic News Service

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Joshua Davey

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Saint can teach us a lot about threats to religious liberty

s an attorney, I have a particular devotion to St. Thomas More, patron saint of lawyers, whose feast, along with that of fellow martyr St. John Fisher, the Church celebrates on June 22.

Today, the vigil of the feast of St. Thomas More, coincides with the beginning of the second Fortnight for Freedom, a two-week period of prayer and action ending July 4 called by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to address current threats to religious liberty.

This timing is no mere coincidence, for St. Thomas – beheaded in 1535 because he would not swear that King Henry VIII, and not the pope, was the supreme head of the Church in England – has much to teach us about how to respond to the religious persecution the Church faces today.

And today’s threats – while not yet demanding the “red” martyrdom of St. Thomas – are nonetheless grave. Perhaps chief among them is the mandate issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that will force religious institutions to provide, for free, contraceptive and abortifacient drugs to their employees despite their own religious objections. The decision as to which organizations are “religious enough” to satisfy the mandate’s narrow exemption is to be decided by the IRS, whose targeting of certain religious and conservative groups for special, unfavorable treatment was recently exposed.

The threats do not end there.

In recent years Catholic foster care and adoption agencies have been the target of government action for their refusal to place children with unmarried, cohabiting opposite-sex couples or with same-sex couples. For this reason, local Catholic Charities in Boston, Washington, D.C., Illinois and San Francisco have been driven out of their mission of finding homes for children. Private businesses are targeted under local laws for refusing to provide services for so-called same-sex “weddings.” Discrimination against Christians in the military is on the rise. Christian groups on college campuses are denied official recognition because they insist that their leaders actually be Christian. The U.S. government argues to the Supreme Court that the First Amendment’s guarantee of the right to free exercise of religion, on its own, provides churches with no freedom to make hiring and firing decisions concerning their ministry personnel. And the list goes on.

So what can we learn from St. Thomas about how to respond to these threats?

First, work for reform. William Roper, St. Thomas’s son-in-law and biographer, records that More, then the lord chancellor of England, told King Henry to his face that Henry could not, under Church law, divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon to remarry. But influencing the culture takes more than direct political involvement.

As St. Thomas recognized, it begins at home with the instilling of virtue and learning in our children. Roper records that More raised up his children “to take virtue and learning for their meat, and play

but for their sauce.”

Second, be prepared to suffer. For most of us, this will not mean dying for the faith. Instead, it will mean suffering the loss of prestige, position or influence. Roper records that St. Thomas taught his children to “suffer ... rather than they would offend God,” and of “what an happy and a blessed thing it was for the love of God to suffer loss of goods, imprisonment, loss of lands, and life also.”

At the height of his power, More resigned the office of lord chancellor, unable in good conscience to continue in light of the king’s designs to remarry. Deprived of almost all his income, St. Thomas told his family that they would have to stretch in order to eat, and if their remaining income provide inadequate “we yet with bags and wallets go a-begging together, and hoping that for pity some good folks will give their charity at every man’s door to sing Salve Regina, and so still keep company merrily together.”

Third, be steadfast. St. Thomas counseled his children to stand firm in their faith and trust God, saying that “If you live in the time, that no man will give you good counsel, nor no man will give you a good example, when you shall see virtue punished, and vice rewarded, if you will then stand fast, and firm stick to God upon pain of life, if you be but half good, God will allow for you the whole good.”

Fourth, do not be swayed from the truth, even if it is unpopular.

On trial for his life, the judges tried to persuade St. Thomas to swear that King Henry was the supreme head of the Church, pointing out that many bishops and learned men had done so. More was unmoved, telling the judges that those who had sworn the oath were but the “least part” of Christendom. Rather, More would find his company among the saints in heaven, saying that he would not “conform my conscience to the council of one realm against the General Council of Christendom.”

Fifth, pray for those who persecute the Church. Even after he was sentenced to death, St. Thomas told the judges condemning him that they could be assured of his prayers that “we may yet hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together to our everlasting salvation.”

Sixth, keep a sense of humor. Even upon the scaffold, St. Thomas conversed cheerfully with his executioners, exhorting his escort to “see me safe up, and for my coming down, let me shift for myself.”

After his final prayers, he laid his head upon the block. Setting his beard aside carefully, he reminded the executioner that his neck was “very short” and that he should take care not to harm his beard, which “never committed any treason.”

As Christians, we know that our hope lies ultimately, not in the perfection of the laws of any nation, but in the consummation of the Kingdom of God that is yet to come.

St. Thomas More, pray for us.

The St. Thomas More Society THE ST. THOMAS MORE SOCIETY INC. is an independent charitable organization sponsored by members of the North Carolina Bar. We believe that the legal profession is a high calling in which the principal objective of every lawyer should be to promote and seek justice in society. Ultimately, we believe that the duty of a Christian lawyer is to remain faithful to Jesus Christ and His Church at all times regardless of the personal consequences.

Through fellowship with like-minded lawyers, we strive to support and to assist individual members of the St. Thomas More Society in their own efforts toward incorporating spiritual growth, Christian principles and the pursuit of truth in their spiritual and professional lives. We look to the example and ideals of St. Thomas More in our pursuit of the highest ethical principles in the legal profession generally and, in particular, in the community of Catholic lawyers. In addition, we encourage interfaith understanding and community, in part through sponsorship of an annual Red Mass to invoke the assistance of the Holy Spirit for the judiciary, lawyers, law enforcement, and other members of the legal community.

JOSHUA DAVEY is a local attorney and parishioner of St. Ann Church in Charlotte.

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June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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Deacon James H. Toner

The Poor Clares

The art of discernment

I

t’s the million-dollar question: “How do I know if God is calling me to be a nun?”

In my experience serving as vocation director for our community of Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, this is always the burning question.

Regardless of age, background or level of seriousness in considering a vocation to the consecrated life, the focal point for those inquiring is always the same: discernment itself.

There seems to be a radical generosity at work in the hearts of young people today which produces an incredible openness to the calling God has in store for them, whatever the implications, sacrifices and limitations that vocation may involve.

They simply want to know if they are in fact being called, and how they can come to recognize the signs of that call. The rest, to them, will fall into place if the call itself is authentic.

Their quandary on “how to really know” is not surprising. Our world today has lost the notion of discernment. More often than not, our choices are based on impulse, emotional experiences and feelings that come and go much too quickly.

To discern means to “recognize clearly.” Unfortunately, there is only one answer to the inevitable question. “How do I know if God is calling me to the priesthood, to the sacrament of matrimony, to the consecrated life?”

And it is a terribly frustrating one: You just know.

For each person, the journey is unique. But I would like to offer five suggestions to aid any one who is in the process of discovering the state in life where they will live out their fundamental vocation to holiness.

1. Do not be afraid to take the plunge. Be open to the possibility that God may be calling you to a special vocation within the Church. If you are a young, unmarried Catholic in good physical and mental health, without conflicting obligations, you are at a level of basic eligibility for priesthood or religious life. Give God the opening to call you. Go on retreats, attend conferences, read about religious communities and their charisms online. Talk with your pastor or a religious sister about discerning your vocation. Visit a religious community. You can’t try out the sacrament of holy matrimony, but you can give religious life or seminary a try. There are years of formation and discernment before making a definitive commitment for the rest of your life. There’s no shame in giving it a go even if that’s not your final destination in life.

You won’t regret having explored the possibility.

2. Listen for that still, small voice which God so often uses to communicate His Will to us. Most people won’t get the neon sign that says “Go here.” But there are many small signs along the way. God plants His inspirations and confirmations right where and when we need them. Reflect on where you find the most peace, what makes you feel most fulfilled. Listen for the desires He plants within your own heart. What do you most long for? A vocation does not necessarily go against your own nature and inclinations but it does go beyond the natural – to the supernatural.

3. Step back and look for patterns, for sustained peace in the search. Our emotions can be a rollercoaster, and our feelings are never a clear gauge. For instance, being called to a vocation to priesthood or consecrated life does not equal having no desire for the vocation to marriage. The inclination towards personal fulfillment through the union of spousal love in the complementarity of holy matrimony will always have an appeal to your heart. We are designed for that by God Himself. If you are called to give yourself totally to God, though, you will have the peace and joy of fulfillment despite the sacrifice of the love of an earthly spouse and family. If you feel it would be hard to leave your family, to pull away from the attractions life in the world has to offer, you are correct. But if God is calling, the grace of that call supersedes any hardship or obstacle. Take the time to look calmly at the big picture, beyond the particular situation or emotion of the moment.

4. Enjoy the journey. Don’t panic if you don’t have any clear idea yet what God wants of you. Each step along the path of life is important. Don’t feel that the in-between time is useless until you know the destination. Each day of your life contributes to the process of becoming who God wants you to be. Relax, and realize that God wants to be found. He is not trying to trick you or trap you. You are not alone on the path. And you are not the only one responsible for your discernment. If you begin discerning with a religious community or enter seminary, there are many wise and experienced people who will help guide you and who know well the signs of an authentic vocation.

5. Surrender your life to God. Go before Him in the Blessed Sacrament and place your discernment in His Hands. Get to know Him and fall in love with Him. Remember that you can completely trust Him. He wants your good, He wants your fulfillment. He will not call you to a life that will make you miserable. Every vocation has its own set of trials, sacrifices and joys. In whatever state of life He has made you for, He will pour out the graces of peace and joy. You will become more yourself than ever before.

There is nothing to fear! Let Him lead, and you may be surprised where He takes you.

Should I become a priest?

T he following letter offers one perspective about entering the seminary. “Davey” is fictional.

Hi, Davey. Your Grandpa and I go back a very long way, and I appreciate his suggesting that you ask my advice about becoming a priest.

I advise against it.

Surprised? Good!

I am sure that most advisers, knowing of our need for priests, will encourage you to pursue the priesthood. I would advise you, instead, to pursue the “pre-priesthood.”

Because that’s a term that doesn’t exist, maybe I should try to explain it. You’re now a high school junior, seriously interested in college studies. I would urge you to consider studying at one of our fine Catholic colleges, such as Christendom (Virginia), Franciscan (Ohio), Thomas Aquinas (California), Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (New Hampshire), the University of Dallas (Texas), or the Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.). I would suggest that you not major in theology but, instead, in any of the liberal arts, such as English. Take philosophy, of course, but choose demanding professors (academically challenging, enthusiastic, orthodox) rather than just courses.

Throw yourself into your undergraduate education – great courses, lectures, clubs, concerts, sports, good friends – all in the atmosphere of a great Catholic campus. The friends you make there will be with you, at least in spirit, all your days.

After college, you may want to consider working for a few years or military service for a tour. You would be only about 26, with a great college career and with, say, three or four years of work or military experience, when – God willing – you walk into the office of your diocesan vocations director and inquire about seminary.

By the time you’re 26, you should have been able to think through whether you’d like to be a diocesan priest or religious-order priest (say, a Dominican, Franciscan or Jesuit). By the time you’re 26, you will understand the significance of celibacy. By the time you’re 26, you will have had a broad range of academic and practical experience, coupled with the leadership challenges of working or military life. By the time you’re 26, you will have developed, I hope, a rich and extensive prayer life which will have become a consolation to you at all times and in all places.

The Holy Mass, simply put, will have become an essential part of who you are, how you think, what you desire.

In other words, after college and some practical experience, I think that you will be in a much better position to answer the three questions every man should be able to answer positively before he enters the seminary: (1) Is Jesus Christ the center of your moral, mental and emotional life? (2) Do you seek the answers to life’s most difficult questions in and from the Church which Christ established? (3) Is being a priest something you have to do?

The third question is the most unusual question, I know. What I mean is this: After about eight years of college and work or military service, have you reached the settled judgment that the sense and the purpose and the destiny of your life are so vividly Catholic that you cannot foresee the rest of your days without being wholly immersed in that faith – loving it, learning it, living it, and leading others to it?

By the time you’re 26, you will likely know the answer to this question: Have your prayers, your studies and your social experience led to Christ in such a way that, in turn, you must lead others to Christ? (All this is beautifully captured in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2105, which I recommend to you).

Finally, there is a fourth question: Are you willing to sacrifice a great deal to become priest? I won’t go into detail here because this really is a trick question. If you are thinking of the priesthood in terms of what you have to give up in order to become a priest, you probably do not have a vocation. Becoming and being a priest should be a matter of joy (although we understand, of course, that no life is without some pain and suffering). You should be gratefully amazed that Christ calls you to the ineffable joy of service as one of His priests, to a life of devotion to His Church, and to prayer and study. Those who are dour, sullen or self-pitying have lost something; but you will seek the priesthood because you have found something or, better put, Someone. (St. Paul, as usual, said it with flair: “Furthermore I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ ...” Philippians 3:8-11 DRB.) In the years of your pre-priesthood, Davey, you’ll read many books (and it’s a vocational sign if you’re drawn to serious spiritual reading including, principally, sacred Scripture).

Right now, though, I’d recommend a novel to you: Brian Gail’s “Fatherless.”

Tell your grandpa to get down this way soon: there’s a guest room waiting for him! I’ll write him and encourage him, too. God bless you, Davey.

In Christ, Deacon Jim Toner

‘In whatever state of life He has made for you, He will pour out the graces of peace and joy.

You will become more yourself than ever before.’

SISTER MARIE THÉRÈSE OF THE DIVINE CHILD JESUS is professed with the Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration St. Joseph Monastery in Charlotte. Learn more about the Poor Clares at www.stjosephmonastery.com.

DEACON JAMES H. TONER serves at Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro. He taught at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Conn.

catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 20A CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Vocations

June 21, 2013

catholicnewsherald.com charlottediocese.org

S P EC I A L E D I T I O N O F T H E C AT H O L I C N E W S H E R A L D

Shining as the lights of Christ ORDINATION Advance coverage of Jason Christian’s ordination to the priesthood,

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JUBILARIANS Our 2013 jubilarians: Diocesan priests and women religious,

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RETIREES Three priests set to retire, while others mark anniversaries,

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DEACONS Permanent diaconate program celebrates 30th anniversary,

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VOCATIONS General information about religious vocations and lay ministry,

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catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

‘How shall I repay the Lord for His goodness to me, the cup of salvation I will raise and call upon the Lord’s name.’

— Psalm 115

Ordination Mass set for June 22 at St. Patrick Cathedral Christian

Father Jason Christian With his ordination to the priesthood on June 22, Deacon Jason Christian will become Father Jason Christian, the newest priest in the Diocese of Charlotte. Here are some facts about this native Charlottean to help you learn more about him.

Birthday: Nov. 29, 1982 Parents: Joseph and Denise Christian Siblings: Jeremy and Ana Home Parish: Sacred Heart Church, Salisbury Also lived in: Miami, Fla. Elementary School: Kendall Christian School & Calusa Elementary (Miami, Fla.); St. Gabriel Catholic School (Charlotte) Middle School: Holy Trinity Middle School High School: Myers Park High School, South Mecklenburg High School College Seminary: Pontifical College Josephinum, 20052009 Theology: Pontifical North American College, 2009-2013 Summer assignments in the diocese: St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, 2011; Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury, 2012

CHARLOTTE — Jason M. Christian will be ordained to the holy priesthood at St. Patrick Cathedral on Saturday, June 22. The ordination Mass, celebrated by Bishop Peter J. Jugis, will begin at 10 a.m.

Deacon Christian is the son of Joseph and Denise Christian, who are parishioners of St. Ann Church in Charlotte. He has been studying for the past three years at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

In the days leading up to their son’s ordination on June 22, Joseph and Denise Christian reflected upon Deacon Christian’s call to follow Christ as a priest for the Diocese of Charlotte. Here are their thoughts: “Who can comprehend the mysterious pathways by which God leads a soul to recognize His call to a life set apart for Him? “His patron saint, Augustine of Hippo, wrote: ‘Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.’

“Prior to entering seminary, Jason grappled with this restlessness. Through suffering, he drew near to God and discovered much about himself in the process. Prayer, the SUEANN HOWELL | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD sacraments, and spiritual direction opened Deacon Jason Christian lies prostrate during the diaconate ordination Mass last July at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte. the door to grace. In this context, there came During this part of the Mass, the Litany of the Saints is sung by all those in attendance. a moment of great clarity, in which he knew that he was being called by the Lord to the holy priesthood. The most beautiful side of his journey was the incredible Blessed Mother’s loving intercession. transformation he experienced when he accepted God’s call and “Our Lord has blessed Jason with wonderful priest mentors and completely surrendered his life to the Will of the Lord. This brought teachers who have encouraged him in the pursuit of self-knowledge, him great peace. intellectual development and a deep prayer life.

“Without hesitation, he began the application process. A few short “Our hearts are filled with gratitude to Almighty God for the great gift months later, on a pilgrimage to Fatima, he received word of his of Jason’s vocation. He has persevered with hard work, determination acceptance as a seminarian for the Diocese of Charlotte. Our Lady’s and confidence in Divine Providence. The prayers of many faithful souls watchful gaze has steadied him through these many years. have nurtured God’s good work as it comes to fruition. The joy of his “If we could encapsulate what has undergirded Jason’s vocation, it ordination will remain forever in our hearts.” would be prayer, trustful abandonment to God’s great mercy, and our — SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

Online The two-hour ordination Mass will be broadcast live online from St. Patrick Cathedral, starting at 10 a.m. ET. Go to www.catholicnewsherald.com to watch the Mass live and join the conversation in the online chat forum during the Mass.

Facebook messages of support for Deacon Jason Christian can be posted to the Catholic News Herald’s Facebook page.

For more photos, stories and details about the Mass, go to www.catholicnewsherald.com or read the upcoming July 5 issue of the Catholic News Herald.

Q&A with the future Father Jason Christian CHARLOTTE — For the past three years, seminarian Jason Christian has been studying theology at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. The Catholic News Herald recently contacted Deacon Christian to learn more about his vocation story as he approached his ordination on June 22: CNH: When did you first discern a call to the priesthood?

Deacon Jason Christian: It was not until later in my life that I even began to think that Our Lord was calling me to the priesthood. For most of my life I had given it very little thought, but through various life experiences and ways in which I slowly came to recognize God’s providential working, I decided that it was something

that I had to at least explore. My time in seminary was one in which I discovered a love for philosophy and theology, but above all for Our Lord and the truths of the faith.

That time was crucial and confirmed in a powerful way what I had only vaguely discerned before entering.

CNH: Was there a particular person that had a positive influence on this decision?

Deacon Jason Christian: I could not name all the people who had a positive influence. I would have to mention the faithful example of both of my parents throughout my life. Monsignor John McSweeney was instrumental in helping me to make the decision to enter the seminary. In subsequent years, I have benefited greatly from the example of a

number of priests who have become both mentors and good friends.

CNH: What are you looking forward to most with regard to your priestly ministry?

Deacon Jason Christian: I have come to love a passage from Psalm 115 that goes, “Quid retribuam Domino pro omnibus quae retribuit mihi, calicem salutaris accipiam et nomen Domini invocabo,” which is translated, “How shall I repay the Lord for His goodness to me, the cup of salvation I will raise and call upon the Lord’s name.”

As the passage suggests, I cannot imagine a greater way in which I could thank God for His surpassing goodness and mercy than to offer the Holy Sacrifice. Of course, there are many other parts of ministry

that I eagerly look forward to, as likewise suggested by the name “Father” – to share the goodness of the Lord and in some small way participate in His work of raising fallen man to the glorious vocation of sons.

CNH: What advice would you give to men discerning a call to the priesthood?

Deacon Jason Christian: Stay close to Our Lord in prayer and in the sacraments; don’t shy away from constantly seeking answers to the most important questions in life. There is also, perhaps, a common illusion that a religious life is dull or uninteresting (something that I even once thought), but the reality could not be further removed. The Lord exceeds all possible expectations.

— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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Seminarian summer parish assignments for 2013 CHARLOTTE — The following is the official list of the summer assignments for the Diocese of Charlotte: n Deacon Paul McNulty is assigned to serve with Father Roger Arnsparger, pastor of St. Michael Church in Gastonia. n Brian Becker is assigned to serve with Father John Eckert, pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Tryon. n Chris Bond is assigned to serve with Father Timothy Reid, pastor of St. Ann Church in Charlotte. n Paul Buchanan is assigned to serve with Father Benjamin Roberts, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Monroe. n Santiago Mariani is assigned to serve with Father Matthew Buettner, pastor of St. Dorothy Church in Lincolnton. n Noah Carter is assigned to serve with Father Patrick Winslow, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte. n David McCanless is assigned to serve with Father John Putnam, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury.

Diocese welcomes new seminarians this fall

SUEANN HOWELL | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishop Peter J. Jugis (center, kneeling before altar) joins the clergy and the faithful of the Diocese of Charlotte in praying for Deacon Jason Christian during the diaconate ordination Mass last July.

The ordination rite explained Editor’s note: Never attended an ordination before? Here is a helpful guide to the ordination Mass, which will be broadcast live on www.catholicnewsherald.com starting at 10 a.m. June 22:

What is the sacrament of holy orders?

Holy orders is the sacrament of “apostolic ministry” – that is, how “the mission entrusted by Christ to His Apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time. …”

(CCC 1536) The word “ordination” derives from the word “order,” which is the “appropriate disposition of things equal and unequal, by giving each its proper place” (St. Augustine, “City of God,” XIX.13). Order is used to signify not only the particular rank or general status of the clergy, but also the sacramental act by which they are raised to that status: ordination.

Ordination to the priesthood takes place within the context of the Mass.

The rite, most of which dates back many centuries, has several distinct parts, but the essential element is the laying on of hands on the head of the ordinand and the bishop’s consecratory prayer.

The rite of ordination n Calling of the Candidates: In the ordination rite, after the opening prayers of the Mass and the scripture readings, the presentation of the candidate takes place. The candidate responds, “Present,” (in Latin, “Adsum”) steps forward and makes a sign of reverence. n Presentation, Inquiry and Acceptance: Bishop

More online At www.catholicnewsherald. com: Read more about the Church’s teaching on the ordination of priests, and check out Pope Francis’ homily on the priesthood and advice to priests during his ordination of 10 priests in April.

Jugis then asks for testimony that the candidate has received proper training and is worthy of ordination.

Father Christopher Gober, diocesan vocation director, attests that the candidate is prepared. The bishop then says: “We rely on the help of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and we choose this man, our brother, for priesthood in the presbyteral order.” The people respond “Thanks be to God,” and also give their approval by a hearty round of applause. n Examination of the Candidate: After the homily, the candidate approaches Bishop Jugis, who asks him if he is willing to serve Christ and His Church as a faithful priest. The examination concludes with this exchange: Bishop Jugis, “Are you resolved to consecrate your life to God for the salvation of His people, and to unite yourself more closely every day to Christ the High Priest, who offered Himself for us to the Father as a perfect sacrifice?” Candidate, “I am, with the help of God.” n Promise of Obedience: The candidate then promises obedience to the authority of the Church and to his own religious superiors, as he kneels before Bishop Jugis. Why? The bishop is the head of the local Church. St. Ignatius of Antioch said the bishop is “typos tou Patros” – he is like the living image of God the Father. (CCC 1549) “The promise of obedience they make to the bishop at the moment of ordination and the kiss of peace from him at the end of the ordination liturgy mean that the bishop considers them his co-workers, his sons, his brothers and his

CHARLOTTE — This fall the Diocese of Charlotte will welcome five new seminarians to discern their vocation to the priesthood. The five men will be attending the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.

They are Alfonso Gamez, first-year pre-theology; Daniel C. Pressley, first-year college; Bradford J. Rybak, first-year college; Thomas J. Rider III, first-year pretheology; and Britt A. Taylor, first-year pre-theology.

More information about seminarians in the diocese can be found online at www.charlottediocese.org/ vocations/seminarians.

friends, and that they in return owe him love and obedience.” (CCC 1567)

Support our seminarians’ education and priests’ retirement

n Prayer for the Candidates: Bishop Jugis kneels and invites all of those present to join in prayer for the candidate. This period of prayer includes the Litany of the Saints. The chanting of the Litany of the Saints is an especially moving and memorable moment in the ordination ritual. The candidate prostrates himself before the altar as the prayers of the Litany invoke God’s saving mercy and the intercession of all the saints to send down the Holy Spirit upon this man, soon to be a priest.

The education of our seminarians is possible thanks to the generosity of our parishioners who give to the Diocesan Support Appeal and the Easter Sunday Seminary and Priests’ Continuing Education Collection, and those who contribute leadership gifts to the Friend to Seminarians program. To learn more about how you can donate to seminarians’ education efforts or support our retired priests, call diocesan Director of Development Jim Kelley at 704-370-3301. Learn more online at www.charlottediocese.org: click on Departments, then Stewardship and Development.

The Litany of the Saints is an ancient prayer. The Catholic Encyclopedia says, “It was used in the ‘Litania Septiformis’ of St. Gregory the Great, and in the procession of St. Mamertus. In the Eastern Church, litanies with the invocation of saints were employed in the days of St. Basil (d. 379) and of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus (d. about 270). It is not known when or by whom the litany was composed, but the order in which the Apostles are given, corresponding with that of the Canon of the Mass, proves its antiquity.” n Imposition of hands: This is an outward sign of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus laid His hands upon His Apostles, conferring His priesthood on them, so too does the bishop and other priests lay their hands upon the ordinand. It is the most ancient and universal outward ritual of the Church.

“The laying on of hands by the bishop, with the consecratory prayer, constitutes the visible sign” of ordination. (CCC 1538) In this moment, as Bishop Jugis lays his hands upon the head of the kneeling ordinand, he prays silently for the invocation of the Holy Spirit.

All the other priests who are present also join in the ordination ceremony. Each one in turn lays his hands silently upon the head of the candidate. This signifies that they all belong to, and participate in, the one priesthood of Jesus Christ. It is also a sign welcoming

Interested in the permanent diaconate?

Catholic men who are active in their parish and bring a certain experience of the spiritual life including apostolic zeal and a desire to increase their faith through obedience and fraternal communion, and who are at least 33 years old, married or unmarried, can inquire into becoming a permanent deacon in the diocese. Preparation for the permanent diaconate takes several years to complete, and includes completion of the two-year Lay Ministry program. To learn more, go online to www.charlottediocese.org: click on Ministries, then on Permanent Diaconate.

Learn more about our faith through the Lay Ministry program Interested in learning more about the faith, becoming a catechist or religion teacher, or discerning the possibility of becoming a permanent deacon?

The diocesan Lay Ministry Office offers a two-year program with classes in Arden, Bryson City, Charlotte, Greensboro and Lenoir.

For details, contact Dr. Frank Villaronga at 704-3703274 or favillaronga@charlottediocese.org.

— Catholic News Herald

ORDINATION, SEE PAGE 19B

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catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Celebrating Our 2013 5 YEARS Father Brandon H. Jones Father Tri Vinh Truong

Jones

Truong

10 YEARS Father Matthew R. Buettner Father Julio C. Dominguez Father Jose Enrique Gonzalez-Gaytan

Buettner

Dominguez

Gonzalez-Gaytan

Davis

Leonard

Pham

Kowalski

Malacari

15 YEARS 10 YEARS Bishop Peter J. Jugis was ordained the fourth Bishop of Charlotte on Oct. 24, 2003. Pictured above, he is receiving the miter from Archbishop John F. Donoghue of Atlanta, the principal ordaining bishop and second Bishop of Charlotte, during the ordination rite. Pictured below, Archbishop Donoghue holds the Book of the Gospels over his head, a gesture expressing the burden the bishop will assume of proclaiming the Gospel as a member of the college of bishops. An estimated 3,000 people crowded St. Matthew Church in Charlotte for the two-hour ordination Mass.

Father Dean E. Cesa Father Christopher J. Davis Father Matthew J. Leonard Father Peter T. Pham

20 YEARS Father Eric L. Kowalski Father Carmen V. Malacari Father Youngcheol Kim Father Jaehyun Pak

25 YEARS Father Kenneth L. Whittington

Whittington

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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Priest Jubilarians 30 YEARS Father John D. Hanic Bishop Peter J. Jugis Father John W. Schneider Capuchin Franciscan Father Martin Schratz Redemptorist Father Vang Cong Tran

Hanic

Jugis

Schratz

Tran

35 YEARS Father C. Morris Boyd Father Michael J. Buttner Father Michael S. Klepacki

Boyd

Le

Hawker

Buttner

Klepacki

40 YEARS

45 YEARS

Father Peter Tan Van Le, retired Father Wilbur N. Thomas

Jesuit Father Vincent C. Curtin Conventual Franciscan Father Charles A. Jagodzinski Father George M. Kloster Jesuit Father Thomas P. McDonnell, retired

Curtin

Thomas

Jagodzinski

Kloster

50 YEARS

55 YEARS

Father James F. Hawker, retired Father Edward J. Sheridan, retired

Father Richard R. Benonis Benedictine Father David Kessinger Father Richard McCue, retired

Sheridan

Benonis

McCue

60 YEARS Father M. Joseph Kelleher, retired Monsignor Thomas R. Walsh, retired

Online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Read more about some of these priests and the advice they have to offer.

Kelleher

Walsh

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catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY AMY BURGER

Monsignor Richard Bellow is retiring this month after 43 years of service to the Church as a priest. (Above) Each December Monsignor Bellow dresses up as St. Nicholas to teach students at St. Mark School.

‘I’ve come full circle’ St. Mark pastor Monsignor Bellow reflects upon 43 years of priestly ministry SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

HUNTERSVILLE — As Monsignor Richard Bellow, pastor of St. Mark Church, prepares to retire after 43 years of priestly ministry he can attest that God has a beautiful way of bringing us back to where we began as He closes certain chapters in our lives.

Monsignor Bellow began his priestly ministry as a Franciscan 43 years ago, teaching religion and offering guidance to 245 sophomore boys in Bishop Canevin High School in Pittsburgh, Pa., after his ordination on May 30, 1970.

Fast forward to 2013, and you see Monsignor Bellow again serving as an educator, walking the halls of St. Mark School teaching eighth-grade religion prior to his retirement this July.

“Forty-three years ago I was ordained a priest, and I remember it if it were yesterday,” Monsignor Bellow says.

He just came back from a retreat at a Trappist monastery in Pennsylvania where he says he “went to reflect on what the

Lord has been able to accomplish in me.”

During the course of his priesthood, Monsignor Bellow served at parishes in New Jersey and upstate New York before serving as director of St. Francis Seminary in Staten Island, New York. Then, in 1987, he made the move to the Diocese of Charlotte. He served as pastor of St. John Neumann Church in Charlotte to be closer to his ailing mother.

After 10 years, Monsignor Bellow became a diocesan priest and served with Father Edward Sheridan at St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, one of the largest parishes in the diocese and the largest parish he’d ever been in at that point in his priesthood.

“Since arriving here in 1987, I have seen how the diocese has grown – in terms of Catholics and in terms of what the Church has accomplished.”

On the Feast of St. Francis, Oct. 4, 2002, Bishop William G. Curlin conferred the title of Chaplain of His Holiness upon him and he became Monsignor Bellow.

Since 2004, Monsignor Bellow has BELLOW, SEE PAGE 7B

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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(Left) Monsignor Bellow is pictured at Mass April 25, for the Feast of St. Mark, the patron saint of St. Mark Church in Huntersville, where he has served as pastor since July 6, 2004.

(Above) Then Franciscan Father Bellow celebrates his first Mass. He was ordained on June 7, 1970, at the Church of St. Alphonsus in Hopewell, N.J.

BELLOW: FROM PAGE 6B

served as pastor of St. Mark Church in Huntersville, steering the second-largest parish in the diocese with more than 4,850 registered families.

“I didn’t even know where Huntersville was. I had to pull out a map to find it,” he says, chuckling.

Monsignor Bellow helped guide the construction of a new church building which was dedicated in August 2009, culminating a 12-year dream for parishioners who began their journey celebrating Mass in a bowling alley.

“God has been good to me here at St. Mark,” he says. “We finally did something I never did before in my life. We worked hard to build a church.”

Many of the sacred items that adorn the sanctuary of the new church building are from the Franciscan seminary where he received his formation. The altar, ambo, presider’s chair and crucifix bring back pleasant memories.

“This combines my Franciscan priesthood and my diocesan priesthood,” he explains.

Monsignor shared that the day Bishop Peter J. Jugis came to dedicate the new church was “a glorious day! A great gift from God.” Monsignor is also very proud that Perpetual Adoration is now offered in the chapel at St. Mark.

“On the Feast of Corpus Christi, we celebrated our third anniversary. It has been a blessing. I myself have felt the power of this blessing and many people have attested to the power of this blessing.

“If God wants me to be remembered for one thing, that’s what I want to be remembered for: being the pastor here when God did this good work in us.”

So, now that retirement approaches, what is a priest so active for four decades, to do?

“My plan is to not have a plan,” Monsignor Bellow says. “I’m going to take it day by day. I’m going to let the Lord tell me what He wants me to do and listen to Him. “I’m not retiring from the priesthood. I look forward to staying in the diocese and being with my brother priests in a different capacity. My ministry will hopefully become more active, but in a different way.”

Monsignor Bellow said he also plans on going on a month-long retreat first, to relax and rejuvenate himself and reconnect with God. He wants to express his gratitude to all those who helped him in his priestly ministry.

He is especially grateful to the three bishops who have supported him since his arrival in the diocese in 1987; Bishop John F. Donoghue (deceased), Bishop Emeritus William G. Curlin and Bishop Peter J. Jugis.

“I want to thank all the priests who have served with me. They have challenged me with their enthusiasm, which has sometimes maddened me,” he says jokingly.

“I also want to thank all of the people who have served on my staff or in ministries or on boards or councils where I have served.

If I have ever done well, it is because these people and priests have helped me see the needs of the people of God.” Reflecting over the past 43 years of active priestly ministry, noting that he began as an educator and retires as an educator, Monsignor Bellow simply says, “I’ve come full circle.”

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catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

LATE VOCATION PERFECTLY TIMED

Father, grandfather retires after 12 years of priestly service SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

STATESVILLE — Father Kurt Fohn, 78, entered the priesthood during what most people would term their golden years. He was 62 when he entered seminary, after having been married to his devoted wife Christel for 36 years. They raised four children together before she passed away in 1995.

Theirs was a happy household where they reared their children in the Catholic faith, sent them to Catholic schools and instilled their Catholic identity by centering their lives on their faith. It was in complete contrast to Father Fohn’s childhood in Germany, where under Hitler’s reign practicing one’s religion was a dangerous thing. The Third Reich collapsed when Father Fohn was 10. He finished his education, earned an advanced degree in chemical engineering and took a job with BASF that eventually brought him, his wife and his two eldest children to the United States.

Two more children were born in Charlotte and the family moved to New Jersey before returning to North Carolina.

After he became a priest, Father Fohn had the privilege of marrying all of his

children and offering the sacrament of baptism to his 11 grandchildren, who range in age from 5 to 22.

A LATE VOCATION

Over the years, he has spent a lot of time in prayer and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Every night for four years, he volunteered for the 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. hour at St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte when he lived near there.

He believes the Blessed Mother had a hand in his vocation as a priest. “I have a vocation to the Eucharist and to Our Blessed Mother,” Father Fohn explains.

He recalls asking his children what he should do after his wife passed away – get remarried or become a priest – and they said, “Go to seminary!”

He remembers the first day he went to Blessed Pope John XXIII Seminary in Boston, Mass. “When I went to the seminary I was already 62 years old. I sat for two hours in the car before I walked in. There was a priest standing there when I walked in.

“He said, ‘What did Gabriel say to Mary?’

I said, ‘Hail Mary.’ Then he said, ‘What else did the angel Gabriel say?’ and I said, ‘I do not know.’ He said, ‘Do not be afraid!’”

When he first arrived, Father Fohn

SUEANN HOWELL | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

thought he would last only a couple of months. The studies were rigorous and English for him was a second language.

“Studying theology and philosophy in a foreign language were difficult for me. But after two years I thought, ‘This could work.’”

A FATHER OF TWO FAMILIES

Father Fohn was ordained to the priesthood in 2001 by then-Bishop William G. Curlin, who was of decisive help to him.

His first assignment was as parochial vicar at St. Leo the Great Church in Winston-Salem. He served there for three years before being assigned as pastor of St. Philip the Apostle Church in Statesville, where he has served for the past nine years.

He speaks candidly about what it is like to be a father not to just one, but two families.

“At times it is difficult,” he says. “As a priest, first you are a priest and then comes family. Quite often I could not go to family events. No priest could step in for me (for graduations, etc.)”

JOYS OF THE PRIESTHOOD

“Every Mass is on some level a joy. It’s a beautiful thing. Christ is present. It’s powerful stuff. Many people come to you and say that they have been touched.

“God is infusing His own life into us. A loving God offers us a friendship, and the result of that gracious act is our holiness.

God is holy. God alone is holy and we are not.

God in us makes us holy: ‘I am the vine. You are the branches.’ God is slowly but surely unfolding His own life into us, displayed to us in the life of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we are aware of that dynamic, it is the greatest thing that can happen to anybody.”

VOCATION ADVICE

He has some advice to share with those discerning a vocation as a priest.

“Be open to the guidance of the Spirit. It is the greatest gift that anyone can have, to become a priest.”

And, he adds, “It is very difficult at times.”

Being a priest is like becoming a “crushed grape” in God’s hands: “God Himself became nothing in His human life. That is what it means to become a priest. To become a crushed grape. To become nothing in this life so you can become everything in the next life. Our nothingness will become everything to God.”

WORDS OF WISDOM

Father Fohn is in love with his faith.

“It is a simple fact that humanity is totally meaningless unless God becomes its total concern. Then humanity – made holy with God’s own holiness, by God – becomes God’s prime creation. That’s it. If you get the Light of the World, guess what? That becomes your focus. Without it, you are in darkness.

“Without faith, life is meaningless.”

RETIREMENT PLANS

Father Fohn will be relocating to Winston-Salem and will live in an apartment at his son’s home. He will be assisting Father Brian Cook, pastor of St. Leo the Great Church, as needed.

“We’ll see what God has planned,” Father Fohn says.

“Looking back, you see God’s hand in everything,” he says as he reflects on his life, his family and his vocation. “Without God this whole thing couldn’t happen. God has chosen those who are priests from all eternity. It’s just incredible.”

Note ST. PHILIP THE APOSTLE CHURCH IN STATESVILLE will host a retirement reception for Father Kurt Fohn from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 23, in the Parish Hall.

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

PHOTO PROVIDED BY JOE PURELLO OF CATHOLIC CHARITIES DIOCESE OF CHARLOTTE

Father George Kloster, pastor of St. William Church in Murphy and Immaculate Heart of Mary Mission in Hayesville, is pictured (wearing a Catholic Charities USA Disaster Response vest) with a group of volunteers from his parish and from Methodist Men who repaired a home damaged from a tornado that devastated the Murphy area last year – part of several months of rebuilding work to help the area in its recovery. The repair work was funded with disaster relief funds from Catholic Charities USA and donors from throughout the Diocese of Charlotte.

Father Kloster retires after ‘marvelous learning experience’ Champion of ecumenism served both dioceses of Raleigh and Charlotte SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

MURPHY — Relocating from upstate New York to eastern North Carolina when he was 10 really had an impact on Father George Kloster, pastor of St. William Church in Murphy. He remembers leaving the heavily Catholic Northeast in the late 1950s and moving to Clayton, where he was one of only 11 Catholics in the small town and the only Catholic kid in his school.

“Being in the Catholic majority and then going to the Catholic minority was a significant change,” Father Kloster recalls.

“It was one of the better experiences of my life because I got to know Protestantism from the inside. I got an insight into those denominations that I would never have gotten in New York State.

This experience greatly shaped his priesthood and led to his activism in ecumenical outreach over the past 44 years of his priestly ministry, in both the Diocese of Raleigh and the Diocese of Charlotte.

“That kind of influence affected my ministry in that I spent many years doing ecumenical work,” Father Kloster says.

“I think part of that goes back to my childhood experiences.”

While a seminarian for the Diocese of Raleigh, he studied theology in Rome and was there during the last session of the Second Vatican Council in the fall of 1965.

“Being in Rome at that time, there was an energy and an enthusiasm about the

Note ST. WILLIAM CHURCH IN MURPHY AND IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY MISSION IN HAYESVILLE will host a reception for Father George Kloster from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 23, in Hayesville.

council that was very significant and played a major role in my own formation, because it was in that transition period from teaching theology from an almost strictly Thomistic perspective to a broader perspective based in the Scriptures and using the Scriptures for a foundation for our theological training.”

Father Kloster was ordained with the Class of 1969 by Bishop Francis Reh (then rector of the Pontifical North American College) at St. Peter’s Basilica.

In the spring of 1969, he took a 10-week journey through Africa, staying with people he had met in Rome, experiencing the African Church.

“I had contacts all along the way from the people I had met in Rome. It was a marvelous opportunity to get a good insight into the African Church. It was very formational for me,” he says.

KLOSTER, SEE PAGE 18B

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PATRICIA L. GUILFOYLE | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Father John Hanic, pastor of St. John Baptist de la Salle Church in North Wilkesboro, recently led an ecumenical prayer service to welcome the arrival of a first-class relic of Blessed John Paul II to the Diocese of Charlotte.

‘God wanted me to be a priest’ Father Hanic reflects on 30 years of priesthood PHOTO PROVIDED BY FATHER JOHN HANIC

To celebrate his 30th ordination anniversary, Father John Hanic celebrated Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

NORTH WILKESBORO — Father John D. Hanic thought he wanted to be a deacon.

That was until he applied more than a dozen times to diaconate programs and had a meeting with then-Bishop Michael Begley. Bishop Begley said he would not ordain him a deacon, but he would ordain him a priest.

This was a bit of a surprise to Father Hanic, who is originally from Monson, Mass.

He grew up in a loving family and married in 1967. He and his wife Judith divorced in 1972. They have two children who are now grown.

“I completed my academics with a double degree in theology and Church history at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Conn.,” Father Hanic explains.

He was ordained by Bishop Begley at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte on June 4, 1983.

Father Hanic’s first assignment was at Our Lady of Mercy Church in WinstonSalem.

“I loved being with the families and visiting the school children,” he recalls.

“The Sisters of St. Joseph were a great support to me in my first years as a priest and have continued to be through the years.”

He has served in a variety of parishes and missions, as well as serving seven years as campus minister at Holy Trinity Middle School in Charlotte.

He now serves as the pastor of St. John Baptist de la Salle Church in North Wilkesboro and St. Stephen Mission in

Elkin.

“I’ve totally loved every assignment I’ve had, some as short as six months and some as long as 12 years,” Father Hanic says.

“In the past 30 years, I never accepted an assignment knowing all that would be expected of me. I never left an assignment without a deep sense of gratitude for the blessing that assignment brought into my life.”

Father Hanic believes that the greatest blessing, joy and privilege in his vocation as a priest is serving others and celebrating the sacraments with the people of God. “I’ve learned over the past 30 years that God really, really likes us – a lot!”

He stresses that if someone were considering ministry in the Church, they should pray for openness, humility and courage.

“I never wanted to be a priest. God wanted me to be a priest. If you are being called to be a priest, then do just that – do what God wants you to do and you’ll experience all the joy and peace that is possible,” he says.

Father Hanic did something very special for his 30th anniversary to the priesthood.

“I wanted my 30th anniversary to be memorable, so I decided to celebrate Mass at the Tomb of St. Peter in Rome, surrounded by some of the people who have shared these 30 years with me.”

When he returned from his trip to the Vatican, parishioners from St. Stephen Mission and St. John Baptist de la Salle Church also surprised him.

“They hosted marvelous, surprise parish celebrations for me, which just capped off this 30th anniversary for me.”

Celebrating 15 years of priesthood CHARLOTTE — Four priests in the Diocese of Charlotte are celebrating 15 years of priestly ministry this month: Father Dean E. Cesa, pastor of Our Lady of the Mountains Church in Highlands; Father Christopher J. Davis, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Asheboro; Father Matthew J. Leonard, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Church in Swannanoa; and Father Peter Pham, parochial vicar at St. John Neumann Church in Charlotte.

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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Father Tran gives thanks on his 30th anniversary DAVID EXUM CORRESPONDENT

Redemptorist priest in 1983, he also began working closely with local refugees from Burma who had no priest to minister to them.

“I worked with many Burmese refugees in this area and in Raleigh,” said Father Tran.

As the U.S. inches closer to the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, Father Tran noted that the healing between the two countries continues.

CONCORD — Redemptorist Father Vang Cong Tran delivered a powerful message of thanks at a Mass celebrating his 30th year of ordination to the priesthood at St. James the Greater Church on June 15.

“This is very affirming to me,” said Father Tran about celebrating his 30th anniversary at his first parish. “It is great knowing that there are people very important in my life and being a priest means being part of a family. It’s good to come back (to St. James).”

Father Tran, 62, who evacuated from his homeland of Vietnam in 1975 after the fall of Saigon, is well known for his work aiding the politically and religiously oppressed in Vietnam’s central highlands through the Viet Toc Foundation.

Many of the attendees at the celebration Mass were former Vietnam War refugees whom Father Tran helped to resettle in America.

“Many of the (Vietnamese) people (at the Mass) are people I met at refugee camps in Hong Kong. Many of them, we worked together in different ministries. Those are the people I served and the ones who share with me the faith and the mission, and it’s important that we get together and renew our commitment and realize — Redemptorist Father Vang Cong Tran we have each other in our prayers,” Father Tran said.

“The country has changed a lot. There Other attendees included longtime St. are many rich and there are many poor James’ parishioners who wanted to share and politically oppressed, so the Church in Father Tran’s celebration. is there for them,” said Father Tran. “The “I want to thank God for the people who past is gone. What is important is how we helped me become the person I am today,” can be there for each other at this moment Father Tran said. “I want to thank all of to aid in healing. Mistakes are made every you for your dedication and for helping day, and we can rebuild and recognize that me be a better priest. We priests need your everybody is a family.” support, your prayers and involvement in Father Tran’s homily at his anniversary order for us to live our vocation.”

Mass focused on recognizing the poor Father Tran revisits his homeland every and the oppressed in his homeland and two years to work with sufferers of leprosy throughout the world. He also told a story in the central highlands of Vietnam and about a woman he met in Vietnam who with the Montagnards, a persecuted suffered from leprosy, and how grateful she minority in the Communist-led country. was that she could have a small home to The Montagnards are marginalized call her own. because of their historical support for the “I could not touch her because of fear U.S. during the Vietnam War. of contracting the disease, but she was “I escaped by helicopter on the last day so happy,” said Father Tran. “It was also (of the Vietnam War) in 1975,” recalled about thanking those here for helping Father Tran. “I went through a lot and me change my life and I owe them – even coming to (America), I was very much today.” alone and I was in a strange land and had Father James Cascione, who attended to start from the beginning.” seminary with Father Tran and was Father Tran has used that experience ordained on the same day, was also present in helping other Vietnam refugees in at the Mass. assimilating in the United States.

“It has been a privilege to bring the Good “It is very important for me to be there News of God to all of you and to the poor for them, as many where there for me when for so many years,” said Father Cascione.

I was going through it,” said Father Tran.

“I hope we can keep this going from “It was wonderful to celebrate the Mass generations to generations.” with them, and our solidarity.”

Burmese, Vietnamese and Latin choirs After Father Tran was ordained a also participated in the Mass.

‘I want to thank all of you for your dedication and for helping me be a better priest. We priests need your support, your prayers and involvement in order for us to live our vocation.’

PHOTO PROVIDED BY R. TRENT CODD JR.

Father Matthew Codd, parochial vicar of St. Mark Church in Huntersville, was recently blessed by Pope Francis during a trip to Rome. Father Codd shared with the pope that he was celebrating his one-year anniversary as a priest. He was ordained June 2, 2012, at St. Mark Church along with Father Jason Barone and Father Peter Shaw.

Father Matthew Codd reflects on his first year of priesthood HUNTERSVILLE — This time last year, Father Matthew Codd was embarking on his vocation as a priest of the Diocese of Charlotte after his ordination at St. Mark Church in Huntersville. For the past year he has served as parochial vicar at St. Mark Church, the second largest parish in the diocese.

The Catholic News Herald asked Father Codd to share some of his thoughts and experiences from his first year of priesthood:

surprising things that I realized was that not even my limitations as a human being can prevent God’s grace from being effective. When God wills to work something through me He will do it, even if I try to (unintentionally) get in the way. I have seen this happen a number of times and I have been pleasantly surprised at His incredible power.

CNH: What have been some of the joys you have experienced in your first year of priesthood?

Father Codd: It has been much easier than I expected, in fact! I had some anxiety when I was first assigned because there is so much that is expected of a priest, but so long as a man goes into it with humble love and trust, he will find Christ’s yoke to be easy and His burden light.

Father Codd: One of the greatest joys is the privilege of being so close to Christ in every aspect of priesthood. In the sacraments I am constantly close to Him as He makes Himself present at Mass and forgives our debts in confession, and I have particularly noticed His presence in speaking – in preaching and in advice and in blessings, He is constantly close and showering His wisdom upon His flock and upon me, and this is an incredible joy!

CNH: What are some of the challenges that you have experienced?

Father Codd: One of the greatest challenges has been the constant call to humility. Sometimes preaching doesn’t go well despite my best effort, sometimes I am amazed at the burdens that some have been asked to carry, and I am at a loss for words even though I want to know exactly what to say, and sometimes I am blind to what the Lord does through me.

But in all of these things I have to trust that God is using me as His instrument even though I cannot see it. This is a great call to humility.

CNH: What is one of the most surprising things you have come to realize over your first year of priestly ministry?

Father Codd: One of the most

CNH: Has it been easier or harder than you expected? Why?

CNH: You went to Rome recently. What was it like to meet Pope Francis face to face?

Father Codd: Meeting him face to face was amazing. He was incredibly patient and His love for Christ’s flock was evident in all that he said and did. He took the time to speak to each person with whom he shook hands, and spent 30 minutes to an hour after the Wednesday audience just to speak with those who had traveled there to see him.

I was toward the end of the line and the closer he came the more excited I became.

I told him, when he finally got to me, that my friend and I had been ordained for less than a year and we would love for him to give us a blessing for our priesthood. He smiled and nodded and generously obliged!

Meeting him and receiving his blessing encouraged us both greatly and gave us a deep sense of being beloved sons of our Holy Father. There was a deep sense of joy and gratitude, and the need to share the love he was showing us with our own spiritual sons and daughters.

—SueAnn Howell, senior reporter

catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 12B CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

PHOTO PROVIDED BY PAUL BOND, SISTERS OF MERCY OF THE AMERICAS

Women religious who are marking jubilee anniversaries this year include Sister Bessie McCarthy (left), who celebrated 60 years, and Sister Mary Carmelita Hagan, who celebrated 50 years, as Sisters of Mercy.

Two Sisters of Mercy celebrate jubilees BELMONT — The Sisters of Mercy celebrated golden and diamond jubilees for two sisters May 4 in the Cardinal Gibbons Chapel at Sacred Heart Convent in Belmont.

Sister Carmelita Hagan is celebrating her 50th year and Sister Bessie McCarthy is celebrating her 60th year professed with the Sisters of Mercy. The ministries in which they participated over these many years provided various and extensive ways in which they could spread the charism of the Sisters of Mercy by ministering to the poor, sick and uneducated.

MERCY SISTER CARMELITA HAGAN

Sister Carmelita was born in Buncranna, County Donegal, Ireland, to the late John and Catherine Bradley Hagan.

Sister Carmelita came to the United States in 1962 and the following year she joined the Sisters of Mercy in Belmont. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education at Sacred Heart College in Belmont and a Master of Arts in pastoral studies and parish administration from Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn.

Her early years in ministry were in elementary education in Wilmington, Asheville, Charlotte and Belmont, as well as Florida, both as a teacher and a principal. She also served on parish councils, boards of education and was president of the Sisters’ Council in Orlando, Fla. After many years of ministering in elementary education Sister Carmelita changed her ministry and began serving as parish director of religious education. In this role she provided retreats for students

and adults as well as fulfilling religious education responsibilities for several parishes. In whatever form of education she was involved, she was innovative and forward thinking and willing to create new models of programs to expedite existing programs and activities.

Still striving to serve the poor and uneducated, Sister Carmelita felt it was time to seek a ministry more connected to this population. She took a sabbatical and spent several months on the islands of Guam and Chuuk working with the poor and conducting religious education workshops. When she returned to the United States she felt called to work in parish administration. She was the first Sister of Mercy from Belmont to work in the Diocese of Charleston, where she assumed the leadership of two parishes in Dillon and Marion, S.C., that lacked pastors. She was responsible for all parish functions and activities except religious duties reserved to priests.

In 2000 she brought her ministerial skills and talents full circle when she became facilities manager and volunteer coordinator at Catherine’s House, a transitional housing facility for homeless women and children operated by the Sisters of Mercy in Belmont. Here she combines all of her former experience and preparation to meet the needs of the residents. She serves as counselor, mentor, instructor, advocate, chauffeur and loving presence to all who come there.

She also keeps the civic community aware of Catherine’s House and the programs provided there.

She maintains her ministry to the sick through serving as chaplain for the House

of Mercy, a home for terminally ill AIDS patients on the campus of Sacred Heart Convent.

MERCY SISTER BESSIE MCCARTHY

Sister Bessie McCarthy is the daughter of the late Harry and Bessie Haley McCarthy of Hampton, Va. Sister Bessie entered the convent while she was a student nurse at Mercy Hospital in Charlotte. After receiving an associate’s degree from Sacred Heart College, she returned to Mercy where she earned her nursing diploma. She later earned a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Catherine Spalding College in Louisville, Ky. Sister Bessie’s ministry to the less fortunate began in childhood when she accompanied her mother and grandmother as they performed corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Her love for that kind of ministry burned in her over the years as she taught school in Belmont, Asheville and Charlotte; worked in an orphanage in Raleigh; nursed at Holy Angels in Belmont; and worked with migrants, home health services, hospitals, prisons and parishes.

Sister Bessie was always a pioneer in projects and ministries. She was among the first pastoral associates in the Diocese of Charlotte. To further prepare for duties in this area, she took courses in pastoral ministry at Rockhurst College in Kansas City. She organized and served as first president of the Sisters’ Senate for the Charlotte diocese. She was instrumental in bringing noted speakers and retreat leaders to senate meetings and providing continuing education for the sisters.

Her ministries in health services were performed at Mercy Hospital in Charlotte, St. Joseph Hospital in Asheville and Good Shepherd Home Health Agency in Hayesville, where she assumed various duties in nursing and nursing administration. Always striving to do more, Sister Bessie moved to Elkhorn City, Ky., a coal mining community in the southeastern mountains of the state.

Visiting nursing homes, operating a clothing closet, traveling across mountain roads to teach religion and transporting people to doctor’s offices were only a few of the acts of mercy she performed there. Her presence among the mountain people was a source of strength and encouragement. She inspired many to pursue further education and to seek GEDs. Sister Bessie was prudent and wellbalanced in her work and pleasure and she frequently accompanied the late Monsignor Richard Allen on his many tours throughout the world. Over the years she was fortunate to have visited 26 different countries with his tour groups.

When she realized that she needed some time for her own renewal, she spent several months in San Antonio, Texas, in a program for ministers in ministry.

After working for 10 years in Kentucky, Sister Bessie wanted to return to the Belmont area to be nearer the Sisters of Mercy Motherhouse. She opened and directed Mercy Center in Gastonia, where she still ministers today. She tutors children; visits families of incarcerated persons; distributes food, clothing and household goods to the needy; provides transportation to those in need; and helps with referrals to local social agencies.

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

School Sister of St. Francis celebrates 50th jubilee During a special celebration earlier this year for men and women religious in the Diocese of Charlotte, Bishop Peter Jugis honored the women religious jubilarians, including Sister Jane Elysse Russell, OSF, (pictured left) who is marking her 50th jubilee this year. She and the other women religious jubilarians received an apostolic blessing from Pope Benedict XVI. A School Sister of St. Francis, Sister Jane gathered in Milwaukee, Wis., June 15 with 65 other sisters and associates also celebrating their milestone anniversaries. Sister Jane was born in Monett, Mo. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Alverno College (1967), a master’s degree from the University of San Francisco (1973), and a Ph.D from the University of Notre Dame (1979). In the Charlotte diocese, Sister Jane teaches at Belmont Abbey College, where she serves as an associate professor of theology and is the coordinator of the Justice and Peace Studies minor.

PATRICIA L. GUILFOYLE | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY GIULIANA POLINARI RILEY

Forest City parishioner joins Missionaries of Charity Beatrice Riley, a parishioner of Immaculate Conception Church in Forest City, made her perpetual (final) profession of vows with the Missionaries of Charity Contemplative on May 25 during a Mass at Our Lady of Victory Church in Washington, D.C. Now called Sister Mary Catherine of Siena, she joined six others in making their final vows: Sister Mary Amidei of Colombia, Sister Mary Anna of the Czech Republic, Sister Mary Dominique of Madagascar, Sister Mary Gloria of Kenya, Sister Mary Helenka of Brazil and Sister Mary Rositali of Peru.

Sister Mary Catherine of Siena is one of approximately 200 contemplative out of 5,000 Missionaries of Charity, according to Father Herbert Burke, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church, who recently visited her. She is the daughter of Giuliana and Robert Riley of Rutherfordton. She joined the Missionaries of Charity Contemplative in January 2002. She entered the Formation House in Plaintive, N.J., and made her first profession of vows on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 2007, at St. Mary Church in Plainfield. She is presently assigned to a Missionary House in Chicago.

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catholicnewsherald.com | June 21, 2013 14B CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY DIOCESE OF CHARLOTTE ARCHIVES

The Mass to ordain the first class of permanent deacons for the Diocese of Charlotte was held May 29, 1983, at Ovens Auditorium in Charlotte.

First permanent deacons ordained for diocese 30 years ago DEACON RON STEINKAMP SPECIAL TO THE CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

CHARLOTTE — It was in the early years of the Diocese of Charlotte that an ad hoc committee was formed to study whether to establish the permanent diaconate as called for following the Second Vatican Council. After review, then Bishop Michael Begley decided to inaugurate the permanent diaconate for the diocese, and in the fall of 1979 he appointed Father Anthony Kovacic, then pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury, as the director of the diocese’s new Permanent Diaconate Program.

Twenty-two applicants were accepted into the first class and the first formation class was held Sept. 12-13, 1980, at Sacred Heart College in Belmont. Nineteen of these men were ordained 30 years ago on May 29, 1983, in a Mass celebrated at Ovens Auditorium – the only place in Charlotte that could fit the 3,000 attendees.

I wondered about those 30 years. How was it they applied for the program, what was their formation like, what was it like to be ordained in that “first ever” event for the diocese, and how have these 30 years as a deacon worked out for them?

I interviewed seven of these trailblazing men, and it was a real blessing to hear their stories.

Throughout formation and at annual retreats they are repeatedly told to keep their priorities straight: Keep the Lord first, wife and family second, job third and their diaconal ministry fourth. Maintaining that balance can be a challenge for anyone, but that ordination day 30 years ago changed their lives dramatically. Their volunteer ministry is for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, and their ministry goes largely unseen.

Here is some of what these good deacons shared with me:

DEACON CHARLES KNIGHT

Deacon Charles Knight was 50 when he was ordained for the Diocese of Charlotte in 1983. He said “we were pretty nervous being the first class. Even after the formation we wondered what we had gotten into.” Deacon Charles spoke with good cheer about all who had helped him get started. “Father Wilber Thomas, our pastor at Our Lady of Consolation at the time, was a great help with good advice as we worked our way into ministry.”

“Being a deacon is more than I expected. It has been spiritually fulfilling and the people have been so encouraging. My wife and I were both converts to the Catholic Church. I was active in the Baptist faith and had even taken religion courses at Johnson Smith University (B.A., economics, 1957). I was exposed to the Church by a friend in high school and also while in the Navy (19511953). My wife Lavone and I were not even Catholics when we met then-Father Michael Begley, who helped us with the adoption of the first of three children through Catholic Social Services.”

He was welcomed into the Church in 1962 at Our Lady of Consolation Parish, and became active in the Holy Name Society, Knights of Columbus, RCIA, and the Nocturnal Adoration Society. He applied to the diaconate as a call to be better trained for ministry, a way to be more involved.

Clear in his memory are the words of Bishop Begley at ordination: “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, practice what you teach.”

A cheerful man, Deacon Charles speaks with ease as he describes his life as a deacon. Visiting the sick, teaching Sunday school, finance council and regular preaching were his initial ministries. In 1989, he retired from the U.S. Postal Service after 31 years and moved to Baltimore to be with his wife who had taken a teaching job there after Our

Lady of Consolation School closed. He commuted monthly for five years until retirement. His coworkers recognized his faith (“I was always saying we need to pray about this or that”) and they knew he was ordained clergy: they jokingly gave him a hubcap at his retirement to use as a “Communion plate.”

He was granted faculties in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and served there for 11 years until Lavone retired in 2000.

They returned to Charlotte to be assigned again to Our Lady of Consolation Parish. Lavone, who passed away in 2010, was always full of energy and greatly supported her deacon husband.

He now lives in Rock Hill, S.C., with his daughter but continues to serve regularly at his Charlotte parish even in retirement.

DEACON DENNIS O’MADIGAN

At the 1983 ordination Deacon Dennis O’Madigan says, “We were humbled by the undeserved honor” of being the first deacons ordained in North Carolina. “Monsignor Anthony Kovacic, our formation director, was ecstatic as a father looking upon his children. Bishop Begley was so welcoming, so full of love and so happy about the accomplishment of bringing a class of permanent deacons to ordination. It was a gift of God.” Now mostly retired from ministry, Deacon Dennis was 49 years old at ordination and was assigned to his home parish of St. Leo the Great Church in Winston-Salem, where he remains. With joy he recalls how right after that ordination, Monsignor Kovacic was assigned as his pastor at St. Leo Church and he was immediately fully engaged in preaching and in assisting in many other ways.

DEACONS, SEE PAGE 15B

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

The deacon candidates went on a retreat in Maggie Valley in 1982, accompanied by their wives.

DEACONS: FROM PAGE 14B

An attorney by profession, Deacon Dennis was already involved in prison ministry, and as a deacon he continued that service until just recently. Gregarious by nature – “I’m Irish, you know”– he loves being with people, helping people and talking with people after Mass (“pressing the flesh, as they say”).

He retired as assistant general counsel with Piedmont Airlines after 22 years when it merged to form USAir in 1989. Helping people find jobs was another ministry for the good deacon, he notes. “My secretary at work said that by her count I had gotten 68 people jobs at Piedmont Airlines, and I loved doing it.”

He worked all his life in airline security and investigation. Growing in his faith, he says, “I found myself praying for the people I was investigating.”

Deacon Dennis was the first Catholic hired into management at Piedmont Airlines coming from Boston.

The job provided him great freedom for ministry and he was able to help pastors anytime day or night.

“I never had a pastor I didn’t like,” he recalls. “They often relied on my legal training and I helped many people with legal advice and legal representation. It was a big part of my ministry.”

“St. Leo was a great parish for me and we even had Father Peter Jugis, now our bishop, two times as a parochial vicar. He is a canon lawyer and I (am) an attorney, so we had a common bond in that regard.”

Deacon Dennis’ wife died in 2001. He notes, “She was a Methodist when we married but a year later was baptized

by Cardinal Cushing in Boston, becoming a devout Catholic and a great support for my diaconal ministry.”

He continues assisting and encouraging people, which is where he has found joy as a deacon, he says. Visiting the sick at Baptist Hospital, Cursillo ministry, Knights of Columbus, legal aid – “I loved being a deacon these years.”

DEACON HAROLD MARKLE

Recalling his ordination day in 1983, Deacon Harold

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(Top) Paul Watson and Jos Vandermeer are pictured just before the diaconate ordination Mass.

(Above) Then-Bishop John F. Donoghue is pictured with the first permanent deacons in a 10-year anniversary photo taken in 1993. Also pictured are Father Burke, spiritual director, and Monsignor Kovacic, the first director of the Permanent Diaconate Program.

Markle says, “There were 3,000 people jammed to the rafters in Ovens Auditorium and we were pretty nervous.

The Mass was spectacular, the music was beautiful.” His seven children met him in the parking lot after ordination wearing shirts saying “deacon’s demons,” to which he told them, “Get in the car before anyone sees that and they change their mind.”

Deacon Harold was assigned to his home parish of St. John Baptist de La Salle in North Wilkesboro. He adds, “We were pioneers and really didn’t know all that was in store for us, with no deacons as models.”

He is an accountant by trade (B.S. from Spalding

‘Being a deacon is more than I expected. It has been spiritually fulfilling and the people have been so encouraging.’

— Deacon Charles Knight University, Louisville, 1955) and about two years after ordination lost his job with the dairy cooperative with whom he had moved from Kentucky. With the downsizing he was naturally downcast and thought about not attending an upcoming deacon continuing education event.

But his wife Virginia urged him to attend. “I came back from that day uplifted by the support and encouragement of my fellow deacons. They were great.”

He adds, “Bishop Begley was good to us. He even called me when I lost my job and was so pleased when I found a new one.”

Deacon Harold has engaged in a variety of ministries and with three different parishes. He has served in prison and jail ministry, ministry to AIDS victims and migrant ministry. He volunteered to serve at St. Joseph Church in Newton after his North Wilkesboro parish received

a second deacon, and he served at Divine Redeemer in Boonville for five years, making the one-hour round trip several times a week. He has now has returned to St. John Baptist de La Salle to be closer to home.

Although he is now 86 and has limited Spanish language skills, Deacon Harold has become immersed in Hispanic ministry. He jumped into the ministry after a visiting priest told him, “You don’t need to know the language to let people know you love them.”

DEACON ANDREW CILONE

Wife JoAnn Cilone notes, “We can’t remember what is was like before the diaconate. We have loved every minute.”

Indeed, Deacon Andrew Cilone, it seems, has always been a man of the Church. He was a cantor and confirmation teacher at Immaculate Conception Church in Forest City before that Trinity Sunday ordination Mass in 1983. When the announcement was made in the diocese about the diaconate, his pastor suggested he apply. After prayer and discernment, JoAnn agreed and said she would support his vocation.

Deacon Andy says the ordination was like a “wedding day with family and friends gathered for a great celebration. We did not know what to expect and it was overwhelming.”

Deacon Andy was actually the first permanent deacon to be ordained, as the ordination rite was administered alphabetically. He was assigned to his home parish of Immaculate Conception, where music continues to be a large part of his ministry. A talented vocalist, he sings at liturgical celebrations, nursing homes, at communal Morning Prayer and anytime he can offer a melody to lift up spirits. He also continues to serve as cantor. Deacon Andy, now 75, also continues to serve in prison ministry and in taking Holy Communion to shut-ins. He also acted as the religious education director for his parish for many years.

In 1995, as the number of deacons had grown, the diocese set up four Regional Vicariates of deacons to coordinate diaconal activities: Deacon Andy was named vicar for the Hickory region and continues in that role. Ten years ago, he retired from his secular job as a plant manager for a plastics plant in Shelby (he attended Steubenville College in Ohio, now Franciscan University). JoAnn remarks how DEACONS, SEE PAGE 16B

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DEACONS: FROM PAGE 15B

he has been asked to preside at the weddings of many of the young people he taught in confirmation class, and he is often asked to baptize their children. As pastors have changed the deacon’s activities have changed: sometimes he does many baptisms and fewer at other times. His five children, 10 grandchildren and extended family have provided him the occasion for weddings and baptisms as well. He even is asked to do weddings at St. Lawrence Basilica in Asheville, with two scheduled for this fall.

“I just go as I am asked, and I am blessed to be in service,” he says.

DEACON BOB DESAUTELS

Deacon Bob Desautels was a traveling salesman who returned to his mountain home one cold Saturday to find his pipes frozen and broken. He crawled under the house and worked until 1 a.m. on the broken pipes. Exhausted, he finally gave up when the broken pipes were fixed but without being thawed. His wife Peggy asked if they were going to Sunday Mass. He replied, “I am dirty and the water pipes are still frozen.” She persisted, so he told her they would go if they had water in the morning. Early that morning they were awakened by the sound of ice flowing though the pipes. They went to Mass, and that Sunday the letter from Bishop Begley was read announcing the formation of the permanent diaconate.

Peggy urged him to apply, saying “it was meant to be.”

He prayed and discerned and decided to drive to Salisbury and talk to the new director, Father Kovacic. He says, “Father Tony gave me two hours of his time, and because he seemed like a holy man I thought this was a good thing, so I filled out the application.”

Deacon Bob had just turned 35 when he was ordained in 1983, the minimum age for ordination. He was the youngest in the class. His parish was St. Francis of Assisi in Jefferson, which was served at the time by the Glenmary Home Missioners, a Catholic society of priests and brothers serving in rural areas. During his formation period, the last two of his five children were born and

Peggy brought the babies to their classes.

As ordination approached they decided his traveling sales job was not suitable for family life and his diaconal ministry.

Bob has an M.S.Ed and had taught school but needed a better paying job. With Deacon Dennis O’Madigan’s help, he was hired by Piedmont Airlines and sent to Fayetteville in the Diocese of Raleigh. He served at St. Patrick Parish in Fayetteville for eight years, serving the parishioners as well as visiting six nursing homes every week.

He was transferred to Philadelphia and served in a primarily Polish Catholic community. He recalls, “They were wonderful people who repeatedly told me they appreciated having a deacon.”

After three years his job transferred him to WinstonSalem and he was assigned to St. Leo the Great Parish. He remembers that the first thing his pastor asked him to do was to start a Boy Scout troop. Even though he knew little about Scouting, he jumped in.

Weekly prison ministry is now his major focus and he has built up that ministry after the others retired or moved away. He now has 12 people who assist regularly at the Forsyth County maximum security facility, which he says has about 80 Catholics amid the 1,000 inmates.

About three years ago Deacon Bob’s eyesight started failing and he cannot do all he once did. With the encouragement of Father Brian Cook, his pastor, he now uses a laptop computer screen on which he can read Scripture and the prayers in a very large font. He says this has been a blessing for his continued ministry.

DEACON RUDY TRIANA

Rudy Triana and his wife Mary moved from Miami, Fla., to Maggie Valley in 1976 to raise their three sons in a slower-paced, family-friendly environment. He knew that he always wanted to serve God. An altar server since he was in the third grade, he served at Mass when he came to St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in Maggie Valley, where he assisted Father Michael Murphy. When Father Murphy saw the notice in the diocesan newspaper about the diocese starting the permanent diaconate, he told Triana to apply.

Deacon Rudy remembers, “Our formation was fantastic.

Father Tony Kovacic researched the process well and the director of formation from Savannah even helped as we began, but Father Tony jumped right in with excellent direction for the program. Wisely, the wives were asked to

attend the sessions and the men and wives became a close group with 19 of the 22 who started reaching ordination on May 29, 1983. Now, less than half of us are left.”

Deacon Rudy’s parish rented a bus and 65 of his fellow parishioners came from Maggie Valley to his diaconate ordination. Deacon Rudy continued to closely assist his pastor, who was then past 90 years old, assisting him at Mass, as well as at funerals, visiting the sick and homebound.

He recalls preparing his first homily and practicing before his family. One son told him, “Dad, you’ll never make it preaching,” but at Mass it went well and, he says, “In all humility, I think I do well with homilies. It must be the help of the Holy Spirit.” After more than 13 years at Maggie Valley he moved to Chandler and served at St. Joan of Arc Church. Now he is active at St. Barnabas Church in Arden, where he particularly focuses on Hispanic ministry.

“There is no better life for me that the diaconate, and my wife Mary supports me in everything – even coming to three Masses on Sunday if I am serving three Masses. We are always together in ministry.”

DEACON JOE SCHUMACHER

After completing university studies at Ohio State (M.S. and Ph.D in chemistry) Joe and Virginia Schumacher moved to Winston-Salem in 1954 for his new job with RJ Reynolds Tobacco. They moved near Our Lady of Mercy Parish in 1957 and were almost founding members of the parish, which had been founded two years earlier, where Deacon Joe was assigned after ordination and where he remains in ministry to this day.

In March 1980 his pastor, Father Edward Sheridan, talked about the permanent diaconate during his homily and he felt the Lord calling him. “I’ve got to discern this,” he thought.

It was the first time he had ever heard about the permanent diaconate and after discussing it with his wife, he applied.

“Although the formation team was learning as they developed the program, just as we were learning, they did a good job. Under the circumstances it was perfect – we couldn’t have asked for better. Oh sure, we had limited hands-on liturgy training, but it is not a matter of knowing everything but rather of accepting what is good and right as you begin, as an instructor said,” he says.

DEACONS, SEE PAGE 17B

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DEACONS: FROM PAGE 16B

Father Thomas Burke was their spiritual director during formation for the deacons as was his sister, Mercy Sister Mary Thomas Burke, for the wives. The class stayed close with continuing education events throughout the year, continuing their communal fraternity. Deacon Joe was 55 at ordination and he retired from his job as “master scientist” at RJ Reynolds Tobacco on May 1, 1987, four years later.

Prison ministry, homebound and sick Communion calls, baptism and marriage preparation, and the Winston-Salem Crisis Control Ministry has engaged Deacon Joe over the years. And it is probably some kind of record that he has preached the homily at the parish’s daily Wednesday Mass every week for 30 years. For many years he preached at three English Masses once a month, although recently it has been less often. He and Virginia raised nine children in their home, where they hosted the Triad-area deacons’ Christmas gathering before Virginia became sick and passed away in 2006.

A while ago Deacon Joe came upon the book “Hiking the Camino: 500 Miles with Jesus” by Father Dave Pivonka, T.O.R. He thought, “I want to do this.” He called his daughter and she said “I do, too.” So on Sept. 1, 2010, Deacon Joe, at age 82, his daughter Kathy and her husband Casey began their pilgrimage from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France (literally meaning “St. John at the foot of the mountain,” the traditional starting point for the Camino de Santiago). They completed the 500-mile walk on the ancient pilgrim path to the tomb of St. James in Santiago, Spain, on Oct. 8, 2010.

I asked him what his children thought about his ministry and he replied, “All my kids think I’m great. My children and grandchildren show me great respect and love and are always ready to do something for me – a lot to live up to.”

Indeed, his daughters and granddaughters have helped him in recent years to again host the Triad deacons’ Christmas gathering at his home as he and his wife had done.

DEACON RON STEINKAMP is the director of the Permanent Diaconate for the Diocese of Charlotte.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY DEACON RON STEINKAMP

Several of the first diaconate ordination class of 1983 recently came together at Maryfield at Pennybyrn in High Point to recount stories and visit with their mentor, Monsignor Anthony Kovacic, upon their milestone of 30 years in ministry. Monsignor Kovacic, in the foreground, was the first director of the diaconate program and lives at Maryfield. Around the table are Deacons Joe Schumacher, Harold Markle, Denis O’Madigan, Bob Desautels, Charles Knight and Andy Cilone. They were joined by Father Kurt Fohn, who started formation with this group, and a few friends who enjoyed the time with “Father Tony,” who remains a dear friend and encourager to the deacons of the diocese.

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KLOSTER: FROM PAGE 9B

Father Kloster’s first assignment was in Ahoskie, in eastern North Carolina, under what he says was an “apostolate program” in which newly-ordained priests were assigned to one parish with a senior pastor.

He would spend three days working with the senior pastor and then serve three days at a mission associated with the parish. He had one day off a week.

“That was a very good experience for me,” Father Kloster recalls. “It was very good in terms of learning the bigger issues, the pastoral ministry, and the administrative part of parishes.”

In 1970, Father Kloster was transferred to Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro, where he served as associate pastor to then Monsignor Michael Begley.

When the Diocese of Charlotte was carved out of the Raleigh diocese in 1972, Monsignor Begley was named the first bishop of Charlotte. Father Kloster headed west to serve in Sacred Heart Church in Brevard and its missions in Highlands and Sapphire Valley.

“One of the interesting things for me was when Monsignor Begley was named the first bishop of the Diocese of Charlotte. It was interesting to see that develop from the inside,” he notes.

When the Glenmary Fathers left St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country Church in Boone in early 1973, Father Kloster was assigned its pastor. He was also responsible for the summer mission in Blowing Rock as well as another mission in Banner Elk. “June and September were interesting months: I had five Masses in three locations! I would consider it as a success if I was at the right place at the right time,”

‘In all the parishes I have served, I have enjoyed every one of them.

That is a gift from God.’ Father Kloster jokes.

Father Kloster’s next assignment was at St. Pius X Church in Greensboro, where he served as pastor from 1979 to 1988. From his time there, he says, he is especially proud of the construction of Dolan Manor in 1983. This housing development for senior citizens with modest incomes was named after Monsignor Hugh Dolan, the founding pastor of St. Pius X Church. It was the first of its kind in the diocese, bringing together parishioners with varied experience and skills to work with the Housing and Urban Development Office to offer affordable housing to people in the area.

“One of the remarkable memories I have from that time is when the older people moved in. There was a real sense of excitement,” he says.

In the fall of 1988, Father Kloster took a sabbatical as a Merrill Fellow at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. Then in the spring of 1989, he served as the pastor-in-residence at Handler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta.

Father Kloster returned to the diocese in 1989 to serve as pastor of St. Michael Church in Gastonia for the next nine years.

He moved to St. William Church in Murphy in 1998 and has spent his last years of active priestly ministry helping to develop outreach services for Catholic Charities’ Office of Economic Opportunity in the impoverished communities

surrounding his Murphy parish and its mission in Hayesville. In April he won the Catholic Charities USA 2013 Volunteer of the Year Award for his work over the past 15 years, helping to fight poverty, strengthen families and build communities in western North Carolina.

With regard to his vocation, Father Kloster received what he terms as “the blessing of adaptation.”

“In all the parishes I have served, I have enjoyed every one of them. That is a gift from God.” He has also greatly appreciated the expanded role of the laity over the years.

“I have a high respect for the laity.

Vatican II really called laity to ministry.

I have found people who wanted to contribute and did it very well. It has been a huge blessing to me, the effectiveness of lay people in the Church.”

Some of his greatest joys over the past 44 years have also come from seeing the development of relationships with parishioners in the diocese with people in Latin America. From 1976 until 1995, Father Kloster traveled to Latin America every year with other priests, learning about ministry there. Over the years he forged relationships with “sister parishes” in Peru and Nicaragua. “Just going to these places and to receive the faith of these people, seeing the faith they have – I see an appreciation in the people in Latin America

Kloster

and I also see the transformation of our people who visit there,” he says.

His days of world travel over, Father Kloster says he plans on spending his retirement in Murphy, where his parishioners have built and furnished a home for him.

“In the first months of my retirement I plan on staying out of the way,” he says. He has been at the parish 15 years, he says, so he wants the new pastor is to get settled in.

He says he also wants to help nearby priests when needed, and he would like to continue his ecumenical efforts. And he wants to go to school to learn how to cook, he adds.

Father Kloster’s advice to newlyordained priests? “One of the greatest rewards I have had is working collaboratively with people. Respect the lay people and work with them. Learn from their many talents.”

He also believes the liturgy is crucial.

“Provide good liturgy that people can be involved in. Most people have a relationship with the parish through the liturgy.”

“Preaching is important, too. We always have to work on our preaching,” he adds.

He also recommends remaining faithful to private prayer. He takes walks in the forest surrounded by nature to reconnect with God through prayer, he says.

Looking back over the past 44 years of his priesthood, Father Kloster says, “It’s been a wonderful opportunity! A marvelous learning experience.”

Charlotte Catholic High School

The Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Charlotte would like to share in the celebration of...

The ordination of Deacon Jason Christian The retirement of Msgr. Richard Bellow Fr. George Kloster - Fr. Kurt Fohn All the priests and sisters celebrating a jubilee in 2013 May our prayers and good wishes go with you as you continue your ministry to God’s people.

For information about one of our Catholic Schools visit http://schools.charlottediocese.org

June 21, 2013 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

ORDINATION: FROM PAGE 3B

the newly ordained into the common brotherhood as priests. n Prayer of Consecration: Bishop Jugis prays: “Almighty Father, grant to this servant of yours the dignity of the priesthood. Renew within him the spirit of holiness. As a co-worker with the order of bishops may he be faithful to the ministry that he receives from You, Lord God, and be to others a model of right conduct. May he be faithful in working with the order of bishops, so that the words of the Gospel may reach the ends of the earth, and the family of nations, made one in Christ, may become God’s one, holy people.” n Vesting the New Priest: The newly-ordained priest now removes his deacon’s stole and is presented with the symbols of his new office in the Church: a priestly stole and chasuble. This is called the investiture. n Anointing of the Hands: Bishop Jugis anoints the palms of the new priest with sacred chrism, praying, “The Father anointed our Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. May Jesus preserve you to sanctify the Christian people and to offer sacrifice to God.” After the anointing with the oil, the priest’s hands are wrapped with a linen cloth. Anointing with sacred oil, or chrism, symbolizes the Holy Spirit. It is another ancient ritual that has Old Testament roots. n Presentation of the Gifts: After the gifts of bread and wine are brought to the altar, Bishop Jugis gives a paten and chalice to the new priest. These are the vessels used at each Mass to hold the sacred Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. As the priest receives his chalice and paten, Bishop Jugis says: “Accept from the holy people of God the gifts to be offered to Him. Know what you are doing, and imitate the mystery you celebrate: model your life on the mystery of the Lord’s cross.”

n Kiss of Peace: Lastly, Bishop Jugis gives the kiss of peace to the new priest, saying: “Peace be with you.”

The Mass continues as usual, with the new priest concelebrating fully in his first Eucharistic sacrifice, standing closest to Bishop Jugis in a place of honor before the altar. The new priest also helps distribute Holy Communion.

Why does the Church ordain priests?

The rite of ordination is more than an “election” or “delegation” of someone as a priest. The sacrament “confers a gift of the Holy Spirit that permits the exercise of a ‘sacred power’ which can come only from Christ Himself through His Church.” (CCC 1538) The divine grace received through this rite sets these men apart – consecrates them, invests them – within the Church and gives them a unique mission among the People of God.

What are only men ordained priests?

Jesus chose 12 men as His Apostles, conferring upon them the mission to serve in His place on earth, and the Apostles did the same when they chose others to join and to succeed them. The Church is bound by the choice that Jesus Himself made, so it’s not possible for women to be ordained.

Though in earlier times there were several semi-clerical ranks of women in the Church (called deaconesses), they were not admitted to orders properly so called and had no spiritual power. They ministered to women in particular, in instances where customs called for men and women to remain separate.

An indelible mark Holy orders is one of three sacraments that have an indelible spiritual character – that is, they cannot be repeated or rescinded. The others are baptism and confirmation. From the moment of his ordination, a priest’s vocation and mission mark him permanently. (CCC 1583) Like the sacrament of marriage, holy orders is directed toward the salvation of others through the gift of oneself. “They confer a particular mission in the Church and serve to build up the People of God. …

Those who receive the sacrament of holy orders are consecrated in Christ’s name ‘to feed the Church by the word and grace of God.’” (CCC 1534-1535) A priest acts “in persona Christi” – that is, he acts with the authority of Christ, representing the person of Christ in administering the sacraments and shepherding the faithful. That doesn’t mean a priest is perfect! That just means that in administering the sacraments, the power of the Holy Spirit is assured.

‘The voice and hands of Christ’ In his 1990 address “On the Nature of

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the Priesthood,” then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI) said: “Jesus gave His power to the Apostles in such a way that He made their ministry, as it were, a continuation of His own mission. ‘He who receives you receives me,’ He Himself says to the Twelve (Mt 10:40; cf. Lk 10:16; Jn 13:10).”

He added, “If Church usage calls ordination to the ministry of priesthood a ‘sacrament,’ the following is meant: This man is in no way performing functions for which he is highly qualified by his own natural ability nor is he doing the things that please him most and that are most profitable. On the contrary, the one who receives the sacrament is sent to give what he cannot give of his own strength; he is sent to act in the person of another, to be his living instrument. For this reason no human being can declare himself a priest; for this reason, too, no community can promote a person to this ministry by its own decree. Only from the sacrament, which belongs to God, can priesthood be received. Mission can only be received from the One who sends, from Christ in His sacrament, through which a person becomes the voice and the hands of Christ in the world.”

— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor

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