May 15, 2009

May 15, 2009

The Catholic News & Herald 1

www.charlottediocese.org

Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte

Perspectives Obama’s abortion agenda; a radical lifestyle re-examined; seven secular challenges

Established Jan. 12, 1972

by Pope Paul VI may 15, 2009

Listening to the voices of Appalachia

| Pages 14-15 Serving Catholics in Western North Carolina in the Diocese of Charlotte

vOLUME 18

no. 27

Building bridges, tearing down walls Pope takes Holy Land peace pilgrimage to city of Christ’s birth

Committee works to create awareness, address concerns

by JOHN THAVIS catholic news service

JOANITA M. NELLENBACH

by

correspondent

CANDLER — “O Lord, we come together today to listen to the voices of Appalachia, including those of the natural world; to become informed about issues relevant to the church’s presence in Appalachia; to address the causes of poverty in Appalachia; and to promote justice and dignity in accordance with Catholic social teaching. Bless and guide our work here today. Amen.”

Thus did members of the North Carolina Chapter of the Catholic Committee of Appalachia (CCA) pray at their

CNS photo by Tony Gentile, Reuters

See CCA, page 7

Pope Benedict XVI and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas shake hands in front of the controversial Israeli security barrier during a visit to the Aida Refugee Camp near the West Bank town of Bethlehem May 13. The pope called the fortified Israeli wall a tragic symbol of deadlock in the struggle for peace in the Middle East.

Lights, camera, action, prayer Young man starts Catholic production company by

KATIE MOORE staff writer

Photo by Katie Moore

Zachery Brakefield (right) gives instructions during a script read-through at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Gastonia May 7.

GASTONIA — On paper, Zachery Brakefield is an entrepreneur. But perhaps a better word to describe him is visionary.

Within the past year, he single-handedly started his own production company with the goal of creating quality

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Visiting the Palestinian city of Bethlehem during his Holy Land pilgrimage, Pope Benedict XVI called for an independent Palestinian state and urged young people to reject acts of violence and terrorism.

The pope celebrated Mass May 13 in the city of Christ’s birth and encouraged Christians to help rebuild their homeland’s “spiritual infrastructure.”

“Be a bridge of dialogue and constructive cooperation in the building of a culture of peace to replace the present stalemate of fear, aggression and frustration,” he said in his homily.

See POPE, page 8

Helping in the healing

Ministry assists grieving families by

KATHLEEN HEALY SCHMIEDER

Catholic films.

It all started about a year ago when he made a 30-minute film on the American Revolution for a school project.

Brakefield, a parishioner of St. Michael the Archangel Church in Gastonia, enjoyed the project so much that he

HENDERSONVILLE — “Rose’s Ministry helps begin the healing process,” said Sandy Donecho, a parishioner of Immaculate Conception Church in Hendersonville.

See MOVIE, page 5

See MINISTRY, page 6

correspondent

Culture Watch

In Our Schools

The last frontier

Book on spiritual quests; student film on microlending

Students win awards, help others through outreach

Peruvian bishops fight to protect Amazon region

| Pages 10-11

| Pages 12-13

| Page 16

May 15, 2009

2 The Catholic News & Herald

InBrief

Current and upcoming topics from around the world to your own backyard

WASHINGTON (CNS) — As the National Institutes of Health continued to gather comments on the draft guidelines that would permit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops launched a new campaign urging support for ethical cures and treatments “we can all live with.”

The “Oppose Destructive Stem Cell Research” campaign at www.usccb. org/stemcellcampaign also encourages Web users to contact Congress and NIH to express opposition to the draft guidelines.

May 26 is the NIH deadline for public comment on the draft guidelines, which would allow the use of federal funds for stem cell research on embryos created for reproductive purposes at in vitro fertilization clinics and later discarded.

D o n a l d R a i b o v s k y, a n N I H spokesman, said a total of 13,503 comments on the stem cell guidelines

Suffering the after-effects

CNS photo by Jason Lee, Reuters

Earthquake survivors stand at Donghekou Earthquake Site Park, a memorial to victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, in Qingchuan county, China, May 11. China was marking the one-year anniversary of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake that devastated parts of the country’s southwest.

A year later, suicide risk remains high among Chinese quake survivors SHIJIAZHUANG, China (CNS) — One year after the deadly Sichuan earthquake, Catholic workers are focusing on the psychological needs of tens of thousands of survivors at risk of suicide.

The church-run Jinde Charities in Shijiazhuang — which sent the first group of medically trained nuns to the disaster area after the May 12, 2008, quake — is counseling survivors and helping them to rebuild their homes, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News.

Psychologists believe the quake’s first anniversary could trigger more suicides than traditional celebrations of Chinese festivals that remind survivors of their families.

Father Paul Han Qingping, Jinde’s deputy director, told UCA News that his agency is providing counseling and other services at several makeshift schools and shelters.

Two local government officials in Beichuan have killed themselves — one last October and another in April — according to media reports. No one knows exactly why, but the two men, ages 33 and 40, were grieving over the deaths of their sons in the quake and were working on the reconstruction of the area.

A Catholic nun who helped with relief work following the disaster said that some survivors had hanged themselves at their homes or from trees or had jumped from cliffs or buildings.

Chinese psychologists estimate that

Bishops launch new campaign against embryonic stem cell research

3 percent to 5 percent of the victims — about 360,000 to 600,000 people — are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Up to 10 percent of survivors would have suicidal tendencies, according to psychologists.

Catholic nuns and agency workers have responded by providing regular counseling to victims.

Father Han said quake-related suicides “make us more conscious of the significance and urgency of our work.”

“Even if our intervention helps only one person, it would be a success,” said Father Han, who visited Sichuan several times after the quake struck.

Jinde staff members often work with the local government and other nonreligious agencies. They also cooperate with the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences by offering psychological counseling courses for local officials and teachers to help them in their efforts to aid quake victims and students.

Father Han said that Jinde workers do not explicitly express their religious identity while helping in relief work, but when “we get in touch with and accompany the psychologically wounded victims, our faith would be shown naturally.”

As of March 31, Jinde had given 23.3 million yuan ($3.4 million) for earthquake relief work. The Vatican and the Caritas network, the church’s international relief arm, are among those providing aid.

Diocesan planner For more events taking place in the Diocese of Charlotte, visit www.charlottediocese. org/calendarofevents-cn.

ALBEMARLE VICARIATE MONROE — A parish retreat featuring guest speaker Augustinian Father Michael Sullivan will take place at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 725 Deese St., May 24-27, each evening at 7 p.m. Topics covered will include “To be born again,” “The healing love of Jesus,” “The call to be church” and “Our response to the call.” The retreat is free and open to the public. For more information, call Deacon Roland Geoffroy at (704) 289-2773, ext. 240.

CHARLOTTE VICARIATE CHARLOTTE — St. Vincent de Paul Church, 6828 Old Reid Rd., is hosting a series of eight talks by Father Rick DeClue on “The Mind of the Pope: Benedict the XVI on Major Topics.”

The talks will be held the second and fourth Mondays of the month from 7 to 9 p.m. in the parish activity center. The last session is May 25. No pre-registration is required. For more information, call Ruben Tamayo at (704) 5547088, ext. 222.

had been received as of May 8.

The home page for the bishops’ new campaign outlines the reasons that the proposed guidelines are considered unacceptable and provides links to USCCB resources on stem cell research in English and Spanish.

In a video on the site, Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said the U.S. bishops “will be writing to Congress and the administration about the need to restore and maintain barriers against the mistreatment of human life in the name of science, and we urge other concerned citizens to do the same.”

“Even if, like the embryos targeted by the NIH policy, an embryo may be at risk of being abandoned by his or her parents in a fertility clinic, that does not give researchers or the government a right to kill that human being — much less a right to make the rest of us subsidize that destructive agenda,” the campaign materials say.

CHARLOTTE — All adults are invited to attend the Christian Coffeehouse at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy, May 24, 7:30-9:30 p.m. in the Parish Center gym.

Join us for energizing spiritual messages with live Christian contemporary music, snacks and drinks, all served in a candlelit atmosphere.

There is no charge; however, donations are accepted. To reserve a table for six or more, call Kathy at (704) 400-2213 by May 22.

CHARLOTTE — St. Gabriel in Transition (SGIT) is a ministry for those who are, or may soon be, facing job layoffs or transitions during these trying economic times. The program goal is to support job seekers in their search for rewarding employment. Learn how we can open ourselves to new points of view and find opportunity in the face of adversity. The next meeting will be May 26 in the St. Gabriel Church Ministry Center, 7-9 p.m. Keynote speaker is Tom Lane, one of Charlotte’s leaders in career development. Networking and oneon-one coaching sessions will follow the speaker. To register, contact Bill Conwell at SGIT@bellsouth.net.

CHARLOTTE — A monthly respect life Mass will be celebrated May 23 at 9 a.m. at St. Ann Church, 3635 Park Rd. There will be exposition of the Blessed Sacrament following Mass and an opportunity to pray the rosary with Father Timothy Reid, pastor, at a local abortion facility. The morning will conclude with Benediction upon Father Reid’s return.

For more information, contact Danielle Mathis at tmathis3@carolina.rr.com.

CHARLOTTE — St. Ann Church, 3635 Park Rd., will celebrate a Missa Cantata May 21, the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, at 7 p.m.

Missa Cantata, Latin for “sung Mass,” is a Mass in the extraordinary form in which the liturgical

MAY 15, 2009 Volume 18 • Number 27

Publisher: Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis Editor: Kevin E. Murray STAFF WRITER: Katie Moore Graphic DESIGNER: Tim Faragher Advertising MANAGER: Cindi Feerick Secretary: Deborah Hiles 1123 South Church St., Charlotte, NC 28203 Mail: P.O. Box 37267, Charlotte, NC 28237 Phone: (704) 370-3333 FAX: (704) 370-3382 E-MAIL: catholicnews@charlottediocese.org

The Catholic News & Herald, USPC 007-393, is published by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, 1123 South Church St., Charlotte, NC 28203, 44 times a year, weekly except for Christmas week and Easter week and every two weeks during June, July and August for $15 per year for enrollees in parishes of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte and $23 per year for all other subscribers. The Catholic News & Herald reserves the right to reject or cancel advertising for any reason deemed appropriate. We do not recommend or guarantee any product, service or benefit claimed by our advertisers. Second-class postage paid at Charlotte NC and other cities. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to The Catholic News & Herald, P.O. Box 37267, Charlotte, NC 28237.

May 15, 2009

The Catholic News & Herald 3

FROM THE VATICAN

Pope thanks Swiss Guard for dedicated, loyal service

VAT I C A N C I T Y ( C N S ) — Pope Benedict XVI underlined the Swiss Guard’s important task of protecting the pope and watching over the Vatican.

The Guard must keep watch over the Apostolic Palace and be vigilant and kind to all those who enter, the pope said.

But, most importantly, the Guard must “faithfully, loyally and honorably serve the supreme pontiff and sacrifice, if necessary, their lives for him,” he said.

The pope’s comments came May 7 during a special audience with Swiss Guards and 32 new recruits.

New soldiers are sworn in during a colorful ceremony at the Vatican every May 6 to commemorate the day 150 Swiss Guards died saving Pope Clement VII’s life during the sack of Rome on that

date in 1527.

Today, the Swiss Guard numbers 110 men, but that may someday change.

The Swiss Guard’s new commander has reiterated that he is open to the possibility of allowing female recruits.

Col. Daniel Anrig, who was named by the pope in December to head the Guard, told Italian television May 5 that letting women join the elite papal guard “may be possible.”

Anrig said if the corps were to include women it would happen in the distant future.

The main problem, he said, is logistical: Where would the female guards be housed when there is only one barracks?

Having young men and women share the same living quarters “could create problems, but every problem can be solved,” he said.

parts are sung as in the High Mass. For more information, call the church office at (704) 5234641, ext. 221.

CHARLOTTE — A summer study on Women in Church History will be held at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 6828 Old Reid Rd., Wednesdays June 3-July 29 at 10 a.m. (no study July 15).

The program will be led by Barbara Reagan, retired high school and college history professor with more than 36 years of experience.

For more information, call Aida Tamayo at (704) 554-1622.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN VICARIATE MAGGIE VALLEY — Contemplative living and nonviolence, a one-day workshop based on the life of the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, will be held at Living Waters Catholic Reflection Center, 103 Living Waters Lane, May 30 from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The program will be led by J. Patrick Mahon, who studies and teaches extensively on peacemaking and justice seeking. There is no registration fee, but pre-registration is encouraged. To register, call (828) 926-3833 or e-mail lwcrc@bellsouth.net.

GREENSBORO VICARIATE GREENSBORO — The Men’s Early Morning Bible Study Group meets Tuesdays at 6:30 a.m. for an hour of prayer, sharing and discussion in the library at St. Paul the Apostle Church, 2715 Horse Pen Creek Rd. The group will study the Book of Joshua during the month of May. For more information, contact Gus Magrinat at gmagrinat@pol.net or John Malmfelt at jmalmsie@aol.com.

GREENSBORO — A Troubler of Israel, the second of six planned presentations on the legacy of the apostle Paul, will be held in the Parish Life Center at St. Paul the Apostle Church, 2715 Horse Pen Creek Rd., May 21 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The talk will focus on the writings of Paul regarding the Jewish people.

Rabbi Fred Guttman of Greensboro’s Temple Emanuel will provide a contemporary Jewish perspective. For more information, contact Gus Magrinat at gmagrinat@pol.net.

HIGH POINT — An International Festival will be held at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, 4145 Johnson St., May 31 from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. Bring food to share; beverages are provided. There will be entertainment and exhibits from exotic places around the world, as well as special entertainment for children. It’s all free. For more information, call (336) 869-7739.

Episcopal

calendar

WINSTON-SALEM VICARIATE CLEMMONS — Catholic homeschooling families in the Triad gather on Mondays at Holy Family Church, 4820 Kinnamon Rd., for enrichment activities such as hands on science, geography, Latin and art. Registration is now open or fall 2009. Interested families should contact Katie Knickrehm at (336) 996-2643 or katie_knickrehm@ yahoo.com, or Liz Ruiz at lizimagination@ triad.rr.com. For more information, visit www.holyfamilyhomeschoolenrichment.com.

CLEMMONS — A Charismatic Prayer Group meets Mondays at 7:15 p.m. in the eucharistic chapel of Holy Family Church, 4820 Kinnamon Rd. Join us for praise music, witness, teaching, prayers and petition. For more details, call Jim Passero at (336) 998-7503.

Is your parish or school sponsoring a free event open to the general public?

Deadline for all submissions for the Diocesan Planner is 10 days prior to desired publication date. Submit in writing to kmmoore@charlottediocese. org or fax to (704) 370-3382.

Bishop Peter J. Jugis will participate in the following events:

May 17 (5:30 p.m.)

Sacrament of confirmation St. John Neumann Church, Charlotte

May 20 (7 p.m.)

Sacrament of confirmation Queen of the Apostles Church, Belmont

May 18-19 LARCUM Conference Catholic Conference Center, Hickory

May 24 (11 a.m.)

Sacrament of confirmation Our Lady of Consolation Church, Charlotte

‘Angels and Demons’ is harmless entertainment, Vatican newspaper says ROME (CNS) — The newly premiered movie “Angels and Demons” is little more than “harmless entertainment,” with many factual errors and little cultural value, according to the Vatican newspaper.

Two dispassionate articles in L’Osservatore Romano May 7 may disappoint the film’s promoters, who had sought a conflict with the Vatican of the type that surrounded “The Da Vinci Code” in 2006. Both films are based on books by author Dan Brown.

An editorial in the paper called both the film and the book “modest” and “rather innocuous.” An accompanying review said that viewers “must face two hours of harmless entertainment that has little to do with the genius and mystery of Christianity, without getting beyond the usual stereotypes.”

The review said the film was “pretentious” but actually complimented the “dynamic direction” and “splendid photography,” and said the computer and studio reconstructions of the Vatican,

Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica, which were off limits to filming, were “magnificent.”

The film, an action mystery involving the kidnapping of cardinals from a papal conclave by a secret Catholic sect, is the second collaboration between director Ron Howard and Brown, with Tom Hanks again in the starring role. It was shown May 4 at a glitzy affair at Rome’s Auditorium performing arts complex.

The Vatican newspaper editorial acknowledged that the two books and films dealt with hot-button issues: the church and sexuality in the case of “The Da Vinci Code” and faith and science with “Angels and Demons.”

L’Osservatore Romano’s editor, Gian Maria Vian, said “Angels and Demons” posed no danger to the church.

“It only confirms the centuries-old fascination with our faith and our symbols,” he said, adding, “If only all antiCatholic operations were like this one.”

The movie is set to debut in U.S. movie theaters May 15.

Smiles and solidarity

CNS photo by Gregory A. Shemitz

New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan enjoys a light moment with Rabbi Gilbert S. Rosenthal (center), executive director of the National Council of Synagogues, and retired Rabbi Alvin K. Berkun of Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh following a prayer service for Catholic and Jewish leaders hosted by the archbishop at his residence in New York May 12. The service, held after a meeting of the Consultation of the National Council of Synagogues and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was arranged to express the solidarity of the service’s participants with Pope Benedict XVI during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Clinton’s remarks on reproductive rights spark Catholic concern WASHINGTON (CNS) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remarks expanding the definition of reproductive rights to include abortion have sparked criticism and warnings from a U.S. church official and a Catholic congressman.

Clinton’s comments are a “real threat” to U.S.-based international aid agencies, such as Catholic Relief Services, which do not promote or provide abortions, said Deirdre McQuade of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities.

On Capitol Hill in late April, Clinton responded to a series of questions from Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a leading pro-

life member of Congress and a Catholic.

“Reproductive health includes access to abortion,” Clinton said. “We are now an administration that will protect the rights of women, including their rights to reproductive health care.”

In an interview with CNS, Smith said if U.S. dollars from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the U.S. Agency for International Development sponsor reproductive health care that must include abortion, then countries and organizations with pro-life policies could be forced to change their policies to include abortion in order to receive U.S. funding.

4 The Catholic News & Herald

youths in action

Teen constructs prayer garden

BOONE — Anastasia Wilkinson, a parishioner of St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country Church in Boone, completed construction of a prayer garden at the church.

The garden, part of Anatasia’s Girl Scout Gold Award project, was dedicated March 29 by Father Joseph Mulligan, pastor.

Designed in the shape of a cross, the garden features Stations of the Cross, benches and urns of flowers. A path through the surrounding wooded area eventually will be turned into a “contemplative trail” by parishioner Alan Craft as part of his Boy Scout Eagle rank project.

With the assistance of her family, Anastasia, 17, began working on the

prayer garden in the summer of 2008 after completing other components of her Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouts earned through service projects that demonstrate organizational skills and leadership.

Anastasia, a member of Girl Scout Troop 492, has been active in Scouting for 12 years.

“The parish would like to congratulate Anastasia on achieving her Gold Award and thank her for this beautiful contribution to our parish grounds,” said Louise Ochoa, a parishioner of St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country Church.

“It (the garden) is sure to be used and enjoyed for many years to come,” she said.

May 15, 2009

Pure style

Courtesy Photos by Ralph Melvin

Above: Janie Warstler (left), a parishioner of St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, and Elizabeth Beltz, a parishioner of St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, model fashion on a runway during the Pure Fashion Show at the Charlotte Convention Center April 25.

Approximately 730 people attended the show, the culmination of a program in which teenage girls between the ages of 14 and 18 learned the value of dressing and acting modestly in accordance with their dignity as children of God. Pure Fashion is sponsored by Regnum Christi, an apostolic Catholic movement associated with the Legionaries of Christ.

Below: Madison Welborne and her father, Neil, parishioners of St. Mark Church in Huntersville, walk the runway during the show. Madison was the winner of the program’s dress design competition and is modeling her creation.

Courtesy Photo

Anastasia Wilkinson is pictured in November 2008 in the prayer garden she constructed at St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country Church in Boone as part of her Girl Scouts Gold Award project.

Winning words

Courtesy Photo

Kathryn Hodges, a 12th-grader from Morning Side High School in Boone, receives a certificate of merit and a $150 check from Maryknoll Father Robert Jalbert at the school April 7. Kathryn was a third-place winner in the Maryknoll Essay Contest, this year themed “You Will Be My Witnesses,” and one of six student winners out of 5,000 entries.

Margaret Gaughan, managing editor of Maryknoll magazine and one of the contest judges, noted that this year’s entries indicate today’s young people are very aware of Christ at work in their midst.

“Many of them see Christ in parents who not only sacrifice for their own families but also volunteer their time for others, in grandparents who serve as role models through their faith and devotion, and in peers who do the right thing even if it means risking popularity,” she said.

Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers — formally known as the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America — was founded in 1911 with the support of the U.S. bishops to be the chief mission outreach of the U.S. church. Maryknoll currently serves in 27 countries worldwide.

May 15, 2009

from the cover

The Catholic News & Herald 5

Young man starts Catholic production company MOVIE, from page 1

thought, “Maybe this is what God is calling me to do.”

He took the necessary steps required for opening a business, acquired a tax ID number and designed his own Web site.

Now he is head of operations for his production company — Divine Intervention Films.

And he did all that before his 18th birthday.

Brakefield is currently working on his first major production — a film about Maryknoll Father Vincent Capodanno, a Medal of Honor recipient and military chaplain who was killed while performing last rites for dying soldiers in Vietnam.

Patriotism and prayer Deciding on the subject for his first major film required quite a bit of research on Brakefield’s part.

“Zac is a very energetic and intelligent boy who has an interest in the visual arts and the media, and wants to be able to serve the church by using that interest,” said Father Roger Arnsparger, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Church and vicar of education for the Diocese of Charlotte.

From the beginning, there were two themes Brakefield wanted to incorporate into his film: Catholicism and war.

“I knew I wanted to have a hero in the movie,” said Brakefield, who began by researching Medal of Honor recipients.

W hen he disc o v e r e d F a t h e r Capodanno, Brakefield said he knew “this is the guy I want to make a movie about.”

The film will chronicle the last three weeks of Father Capodanno’s life during the Vietnam War. “I want people to know how much

CNS photo courtesy of Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers

Maryknoll Father Vincent Capodanno is pictured in an undated black-and-white file photo. this man of God was willing to sacrifice for others and how we should all strive to be like that,” said Brakefield.

“Zachery has a drive and a passion for anything that he feels called to do,” said Theresa Webster, faith formation director at St. Michael the Archangel Church and script writer for the Father Capodanno film.

“Last summer I was talking with Zac and his mother,” said Webster, recalling how she got involved in the project.

“They were looking for a writer and they wanted to try me.”

In terms of research, Webster said she read “The Grunt Padre,” a biography about Father Capodanno, and did research on the Vietnam War. But for the most part she relies on prayer.

Brakefield relies heavily on his faith, as well.

“During my first production, everything kept falling into place and I just knew God was looking out for me,” said Brakefield. “We all kept saying it is divine intervention.”

“He prays over everything,” said Webster. “It seems that God places the right people in front of him.”

Father Capodanno known as a ‘servant of God’ by

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON — Maryknoll Father Vincent Capodanno was killed on the battlefield in Vietnam a little more than 40 years ago.

Known for his extraordinary service as a chaplain during the Vietnam War, Father Capodanno was killed Sept. 4, 1967, by sniper fire while administering last rites to dying Marines.

According to a biography on the Web site of the military archdiocese, Marines affectionately called Father Capodanno “the ‘grunt padre’ for his ability to relate well with soldiers and his willingness to risk his life to

minister to the men.”

“Grunt” is slang for a member of the U.S. infantry.

He extended his one-year tour of duty in Vietnam by six months to continue serving with his men.

Father Capodanno was posthumously awarded the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor, “for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”

In June 2006 his canonization cause was formally opened and he now has the title “servant of God.” Since his death, several chapels and a U.S. Navy frigate have been named in his honor.

Photo by Katie Moore

Zachery Brakefield (center) is pictured with Glenn Yellico and Theresa Webster during a script readthrough at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Gastonia May 7. Webster wrote the script and Yellico will play Father Vincent Capodanno in the film being produced by Brakefield’s production company, Divine Intervention Films.

Divine direction One such person is Dave Jordan, military technical advisor for the film.

Brakefield met Jordan through the South Carolina National Guard, 178 Engineering Battalion, in Rock Hill, S.C. They were there to welcome returning military veterans from Afghanistan.

“Dave had about 100 flags for people to hold,” said Brakefield. “So I went up and asked him for a flag. He gave me one and we began talking.”

Another instrumental person in the project is David Rabideau, composer of the soundtrack and score for the Father Capodanno movie.

The two met through homeschool activities and are members of the church youth group. Like Brakefield, Rabideau is only 17 years old.

“Zac has a great leadership ability that stems from his maturing in the faith,” said Father Arnsparger. “He is able to organize the generosity of these other young people and adults around him.” “ H e ’s s o c h a r i s m a t i c a b o u t everything that he just draws you in,” said Webster. “It’s a pleasure working with him.”

Brakefield estimates that he spends about 30 hours a week working on film-related tasks. That is in addition to keeping up with his schoolwork and working part-time at a bagel shop in Rock Hill.

Brakefield also occupies his time talking to Vietnam vets about Father Capodanno.

One goal of the Father Capodanno film is to pay tribute to these men and women of the armed forces for the great sacrifices they make.

“I want to be able to show them that new generations support them and what they did in giving their lives for our country,” he said of his presentations to Marine Corps Leagues and Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Brakefield hopes also to bring recognition to Father Capodanno and

Photo by Katie Moore

Zachery Brakefield passes out a revised version of the script for his movie about Father Vincent Capodanno during a read-through at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Gastonia May 7. further his cause for canonization.

While the Father Capodanno film is in the fundraising and preproduction phases, Brakefield is occupying himself with a smaller project — a series of educational DVDs on the seven sacraments.

Father Arnsparger will narrate the films, which will be used during Catholic faith and culture camps at the church this summer.

“He is producing these to help with the theme of the Eucharistic Congress, ‘The Word Became Flesh and Made His Dwelling Among Us,’” Father Arnsparger said, and to show that “God dwells with us through the sacraments.”

“His effort with all of this stems from a very deep and growing spirituality,” said Father Arnsparger.

Brakefield turned 18 on May 10. In the fall he will begin classes at Belmont Abbey College and will continue to work on the Father Capodanno film.

In terms of what is in store for the future, Brakefield said he plans to continue relying on faith.

“If God wants me to make this film, it’s going to happen,” he said.

WANT MORE INFO? For more information about Divine Intervention Films, go online to www.divineinterventionfilms.com

6 The Catholic News & Herald

Confirming faith

around the diocese

May 15, 2009

Teenagers learn about faith, unity during sacrament preparations by

KATHLEEN HEALY SCHMIEDER correspondent

HENDERSONVILLE — The 2009 confirmation class at Immaculate Conception Church in Hendersonville reflects the diversity of the parish.

Of the 77 candidates, 40 come from Hispanic heritages.

Due to language barriers, two separate confirmation classes — one in English, one in Spanish — were formed.

But this year the two will be working closer together.

In addition to introducing texts in both English and Spanish, the teachers have planned a number of activities and social events to foster unity and

appreciation between the cultures while teaching the important connections based on their shared faith.

As such, the candidates’ parents are encouraged to help foster their children’s spiritual growth and to discern the priority that faith must play in their lives.

“With a class this size, they are all at different levels of faith commitment, but they feed off each other and make it work,” said Sandy Donecho, who works with the English-speaking candidates.

The confirmation students gathered for a retreat at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville May 2.

A family picnic is planned this summer and another social event will be held in September.

Photo by Kathleen Healy Schmieder

Sandy Donecho and Mary Ann Owen of Rose’s Ministry prepare a reception after a funeral Mass at Immaculate Conception Church in Hendersonville.

Ministry helps grieving families MINISTRY, from page 1

Photo by Kathleen Healy Schmieder

Confirmation candidates from Immaculate Conception Church in Hendersonville take part in a retreat at the Kanuga Conference Center May 2.

Growing Catholics

Courtesy Photo by Raymond Taber

Bishop Peter J. Jugis lays hands on confirmation candidates during a Mass at Holy Angels Church in Mount Airy May 8.

When her mother, Rose Fiumara, died last year on May 15, Donecho realized how important the support offered by her parish family was in her grieving and healing process.

“The day of her funeral, when friends, family and the people from the parish came together, someone asked me if there was anything available at the church (for families),” said Donecho.

She found her grief leading to action.

“We called it Rose’s Ministry because it was at the reception for my mother that the Holy Spirit gave me the idea,” said Donecho.

This June, the ministry will celebrate its first anniversary with a bi-annual potluck luncheon at the church.

Over the past year, upon request the ministry — funded entirely through donations and comprised of eight teams, each consisting of at least 10 volunteers — has served several parish families by providing cake and coffee receptions after funeral Masses.

Wearing aprons embroidered with a single red rose, the volunteers offer compassionate service by allowing grieving families to share the

consolation of friends and family at the church while all the preparation for and clean up of the receptions are handled for them.

“People who are grieving feel embraced through this,” said Donecho.

“We need that healing process; without it we can’t move on. What better place for it to begin than here (at Immaculate Conception)?”

Donecho contacted local funeral homes to help inform Catholics about Rose’s Ministry. When there is an interest, Donecho is contacted and a team is put into place to handle all the details for the family.

“There has been a need for a long time,” said Mary Ann Owens, co-chair of one of the teams of volunteers. “Sandy’s mom passed and the Lord used her to start this.”

Donecho said the ministry is one of comfort and support.

“Through embracing your faith, you bring people close to your heart,” she said. “Here it’s like a hug from Jesus.”

WANT MORE INFO? For more information on Rose’s Ministry, contact Sandy Donecho at (828) 6977420. Those interested are welcome to join members and new volunteers at the luncheon at Immaculate Conception Church at 12 p.m. June 11.

May 15, 2009

The Catholic News & Herald 7

around the diocese

Committee works to create awareness, address concerns in Appalachia CCA, from page 1

third meeting at St. Joan of Arc Church in Candler May 4.

They came from throughout the Diocese of Charlotte: Asheville, Bryson City, Charlotte, Hayesville, Hickory, Maggie Valley and Murphy.

“I have a strong interest in social justice issues,” said David Tilly, a parishioner of St. Joseph Church in Bryson City. “We have a responsibility for all people.”

“It’s wonderful to be with likeminded people,” said his wife, Cathy.

Bernie Offerman and his wife, Jan, are parishioners at St. Peter Church in Charlotte. They’re in the chapter because membership “brings home to us in North Carolina concerns about global warming and mountaintop removal.”

“These are 200 million-year-old mountains,” he said. “We have to make it a point to stay in touch and be aware.”

CCA’s North Carolina Chapter formed last September.

“One of the purposes of the chapters in the different states is to create awareness about Appalachia and the problems of Appalachia,” said Mary Herr, chair of the North Carolina Chapter, CCA’s vice chair and a parishioner at St. Joseph Church.

DID YOU KNOW? Appalachia covers 205,000 square miles, comprising all of West Virginia and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The Appalachian Regional Commission, a federal-state partnership, noted on its Web site that about 23.6 million people live in the 420 counties of the Appalachian region.

Most of the counties in the Diocese of Charlotte are part of Appalachia.

At its first meeting, the chapter identified issues of concern in North Carolina: the economy — including poverty; kinship care and lack of transportation; recycling and environmental concerns; and comprehensive immigration reform.

Members agreed to address one or more of these issues by promoting recycling, talking with Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults classes about the concerns, being more present to immigrants, volunteering to teach people about climate change, collecting food for a local food pantry, delving into issues of homelessness and working on a DVD about climate change and immigration reform.

At the May meeting, members talked about what progress they had made. For example, Claudie Burchfield, director of the diocese’s Office of Economic Opportunity in Murphy, reported the kinship care program is under way in her area. Attendees from Asheville are delving into the consequences of Interstate 3, which would go through Asheville and allow for truck transport of hazardous waste.

Augustinian Father John Denny, pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland in Maggie Valley, said he had given “green” grocery bags to the parish’s faith formation classes and had the church’s lighting changed to more energy-efficient bulbs.

Father Denny has been St. Margaret of Scotland’s pastor for 18 months.

“I became aware at one of the (Smoky Mountain) vicariate meetings that Mary Herr was starting a chapter of the Catholic Committee of Appalachia,” he said. “I thought it would be a good way for me, a relative newcomer, to learn about the struggles and the issues of the Catholic Church in Appalachia.”

The CCA-sponsored fourth annual Bishop Begley Conference will be held at St. William Church in Murphy Oct. 2325. The theme is “Building Ecumenical Relationships in Appalachia.”

Contact Correspondent Joanita M. Nellenbach by calling (828) 627-9209 or e-mail jnell@dnet.net.

Courtesy Photo by Karynlee Berstecher

Biologist Rob Gudger and his 12-year-old wolf, Mohican, visit with participants of a Cherokee spirituality retreat in Cherokee March 13. The retreat was sponsored by the Catholic Committee of Appalachia.

WANT MORE INFO? For more information on the Catholic Committee of Appalachia, visit www.ccappal.org.

ABOUT THE CCA The Catholic Committee of Appalachia, founded in 1970, is headquartered in Spencer, W.Va. The CCA: — promotes Catholic social teaching in the region; — collaborates with dioceses, parishes and other organizations to advance social and environmental justice; — offers spiritual and educational opportunities such as Pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Appalachia, the Cherokee spirituality retreat/seminar, religious education materials on climate change and the Religious Leaders Forum on Mountaintop Removal; — publishes and distributes both of the Appalachian bishops’ pastoral letters: “This Land is Home to Me: A Pastoral Message on Poverty and Powerlessness in Appalachia” and “At Home in the Web of Life: A Pastoral Message on Sustainable Community in Appalachia.”

Custom blessings

Courtesy Photo

Parishioners of Slovak, Polish and Ukrainian descents are pictured with items for their Easter dinners at St. James the Great Church in Concord April 11. The families brought the food to the church to be blessed by Redemptorist Father Joseph Dionne, pastor, as part of a European custom of having a priest bless the Easter meal.

Parishioner sentenced for embezzlement

by DAVID HAINS communications director

BELMONT — A 73-year-old woman has been sentenced for embezzling funds from Queen of the Apostles Church in Belmont. Evelyn Graham, a former bookkeeper at the church, was sentenced in Gaston County Superior Court April 28.

Graham pleaded guilty to forging more than 100 checks totaling $126,000 from the parish from March 2004 to October 2007. She was arrested in December 2007.

Financial irregularities at the church were suspected by Jack Morris, parish finance council chairman, and were later confirmed by a diocesan audit.

Graham was sentenced to six months of house arrest, five years of probation and 400 hours of community service. She also was ordered to pay restitution to the church at a rate of $50 per month.

At that rate, it will take her 210 years to make full restitution. However, the embezzled funds have been restored to the parish through insurance.

Father Frank Cancro, pastor, was not assigned to the parish while the embezzlement occurred but stressed the need for careful monitoring of financial accounts in all parishes.

“We were confronted by a clever and crafty individual who established trusting, friendly relationships, seemingly as part of a bigger plan to defraud the parish,” he said. “It should be clear that this was not an isolated event, but a longterm, calculated process.”

Morris, commended the work of the parish finance council.

“We are doing things now that were not being done before. People trust in churches, but it is important to do things such as checking reconciliations on a regular basis,” he said.

“Things (at the parish) are in very good shape now,” he added.

8 The Catholic News & Herald

in the holy land

May 15, 2009

Pope takes Holy Land peace pilgrimage to c POPE, from page 1

The pope was on the sixth day of an eight-day “pilgrimage of peace” that had already taken him to Jordan and Jerusalem. Throughout his visit, he urged the region’s peoples and its religious leaders to set aside historic antagonisms and make serious new dialogue efforts.

Nearly 100 Christians from the wardevastated Gaza Strip attended the Mass in Manger Square. The pope said his heart went out to them, and he prayed that the Israeli embargo on the strip would soon be lifted.

The pope crossed the border from Israel into the West Bank through a gate that stood beneath the most striking feature on the landscape: Israel’s 26foot-tall concrete security wall.

Speaking at the Aida Refugee Camp later in the day, he said the wall symbolized the stalemate between Israelis and Palestinians.

“In a world where more and more borders are being opened up — to trade, to travel, to movement of peoples, to cultural exchanges — it is tragic to see walls still being erected. How we long to see the fruits of the much more difficult task of building peace,” he said.

The pope met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the presidential palace in Bethlehem and paid a visit to the church-run Caritas Children’s Hospital, where he visited an infants ward.

In Israel The 82-year-old pontiff came to Israel from Jordan May 11.

At an airport welcoming ceremony in Tel Aviv, Israel, he said he wanted to honor the memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and “to pray that humanity will never again witness a crime of such magnitude.”

“Sadly, anti-Semitism continues to rear its ugly head in many parts of the world. This is totally unacceptable,” he said.

Meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem the same day, the pope spoke about the sensitive topic of security, saying the term needs to be understood not simply as “the absence of threat” but as inseparable from justice and peace.

In a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Pope Benedict prayed silently before the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance and said the suffering of Jews under the Nazi extermination campaign must “never be denied, belittled or forgotten.”

The pope called the Holocaust an atrocity that disgraced mankind and said the church is committed to working tirelessly “to ensure that hatred will never reign in the hearts of men again.”

He met with six Holocaust survivors, who later expressed their appreciation for the pope’s gesture. But some Jewish leaders said they were disappointed

“Hear the cry of the afflicted ... send peace upon his Holy Land.”

— excerpt from a written prayer by Pope Benedict XVI left at the Western Wall that the German pope made no mention in his talk of the Nazi perpetrators of the Holocaust.

That evening, the pope told a group of interreligious dialogue experts that, in a world that has in some ways become “deaf to the divine,” religions must give common witness to God’s rightful place in the world.

The event was marred by a Muslim sheik’s denunciation of Israeli policies, which prompted some Jewish representatives to walk out.

On May 12, the pope celebrated an open-air Mass in Jerusalem, prayed at the Western Wall and visited one of Islam’s most sacred shrines. The events underscored his message that Jerusalem, a meeting ground for Christianity, Judaism and Islam, must again become a city of peace.

The pope also made a morning visit to the Dome of the Rock, sacred to Muslims as the place from which Mohammed ascended to heaven. He told Islamic leaders there that Christians, Muslims and Jews have a “grave responsibility” to expand dialogue and mend divisions.

The pope then went to the Western Wall, a site sacred to Jews as the remains of the Second Temple, and placed a written prayer in a crevice between the massive stones.

It asked God to “hear the cry of the afflicted” and “send your peace upon this Holy Land.”

In the evening, the pope celebrated Mass for several thousand people in the Josafat Valley beneath the Mount of Olives, next to the walls of the Old City.

In his homily, he called for Jerusalem to regain its vocation “as a prophecy and promise of that universal reconciliation and peace which God desires for the whole human family.”

Sadly, in today’s Jerusalem, he said, “hope continues to battle despair, frustration and cynicism, while the peace which is God’s gift and call continues to be threatened by selfishness, conflict, division and the burden of past wrongs.”

Like many papal events, the Mass was tinged with politics. Welcoming the pope, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem said Palestinians dream of a “free and independent” state of their own while the people of Israel dream of living

Pope Benedict XVI prays at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in the Old City of Jerusalem May 12. Th upon the Middle East, upon the entire human family.” in peace and security.

In Jordan The pope began his eight-day trip in Jordan, where he walked a pilgrim’s path, energizing its minority Christian population and building bridges to the moderate Muslim world.

Arriving at Amman’s airport May 8 he said he had come with “deep respect” for the Muslim community. It was Pope

Benedict’s first trip to an Arab country.

The pope paid tribute to interfaith dialogues launched by Jordanian leaders, saying they have advanced an “alliance of civilizations between the West and the Muslim world, confounding the predictions of those who consider violence and conflict inevitable.”

The following day, the pope visited the King Hussein Mosque in Amman, pausing briefly in what the Vatican called

May 15, 2009

in the holy land

The Catholic News & Herald 9

city of Christ’s birth

CNS photo by Rina Castelnuovo, Reuters

Pope Benedict XVI and Israel’s President Shimon Peres plant an olive tree, an ancient symbol of peace and prosperity, in the garden of the presidential palace in Jerusalem May 11.

CNS photo by Catholic Press Photo

he pope left a written prayer in a crevice of the wall. It appealed to God to bring “your peace upon this Holy Land,

“respectful meditation” in a Muslim place of prayer.

In a speech afterward to Muslim academics and religious leaders, the pope warned of the “ideological manipulation of religion” that can act as a catalyst for tensions and violence in contemporary societies.

The pope traveled May 9 to Mount Nebo, the place where Moses glimpsed the Promised Land before dying, and rode his popemobile to the ancient biblical city of Madaba, where he blessed the foundation of the first Catholic university in Jordan.

The pope’s Mass May 10 in an

Amman soccer stadium that holds 25,000 people was the liturgical high point of his visit to Jordan.

In his homily, the pope said Christians in the Holy Land have a special vocation to engage in dialogue and build new bridges to other religions and cultures, and to “counter ways of thinking which justify taking innocent lives.”

Later in the day the pope made his way to the Jordan River, where archaeologists believe they have identified the site of Jesus’ baptism by St. John the Baptist.

He blessed the foundation stones of two Catholic churches to be built at the location.

CNS photo by Muhammad Hamed, Reuters

Pope Benedict XVI waves to the crowd during his visit to the Regina Pacis Center in Amman, Jordan, May 8. The center is operated by three Comboni Missionary Sisters and a team of teachers, therapists and volunteers who educate and care for Muslims and Christians with disabilities.

CNS photo by Tony Gentile, Reuters

Pope Benedict XVI is accompanied by members of Jordan’s royal family May 10 as he visits Bethany Beyond the Jordan, the site near the east bank of the Jordan River believed to be the place Jesus was baptized. Pictured from left is Queen Rania; King Abdullah; the pope; Rustom Mkhjian, director of the baptism site; and Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal.

May 15, 2009

10 The Catholic News & Herald

Culture Watch

A roundup of Scripture, readings, films and more

Books offer insights into spiritual quests of past and present reviewed by

SISTER MONA CASTELAZO, CSJ

May 24, The Ascension of the Lord Cycle B Readings: 1) Acts 1:1-11 Psalm 47:2-3, 6-9 2) Ephesians 1:17-23 Gospel: Mark 16:15-20

Individuals make up connected community of God

catholic news service

“God Seekers: Twenty Centuries of Christian Spiritualities,” by Richard H. Schmidt, and “Touched by God: Ten Monastic Journeys,” by Benedictine Sister Laurentia Johns, both present accounts and insights of diverse spiritual quests.

Schmidt offers short biographies, quotations and questions for reflection from early Christianity to the present.

Sister Johns has gathered autobiographical writings from 10 contemporary Benedictines who describe their life experiences and their call to religious life.

Schmidt’s book not only offers information and inspiration, but also shows the development of Christian consciousness from the fluid, open thought of early Christian theologians to the solidifying of structures, concepts and traditions, to postmodern spirituality — each period reflecting the worldview and theology of its particular era.

We see the early Fathers of the Church, from Irenaeus on, presenting Christ as the logos or word of God, the cosmic eternal mirror of the Father.

Gregory of Nyssa sees God as eternal relationship, eventually drawing all things to himself, while Antony emphasizes silence, simplicity and selfknowledge as ways to God. The author begins the section on Western Christianity with Augustine’s idea of the universality of sin and the necessity of grace, but also includes Patrick and the Celts, who stressed relationship to the earth and to one another.

Benedict’s monastic ideal of a balance of study, work, prayer and rest appears in the same period as Symeon, who focuses on personal experience and wisdom as antidotes to the church’s becoming too hierarchical, formal and lifeless.

The Orthodox Church followed Symeon’s belief in human divinization as the purpose of the Incarnation: “God is fire ... and every human soul is a lamp,” he writes.

In the medieval period, Anselm is shown attempting to prove the existence of God from reason. By way of contrast, Bernard of Clairvaux suggests that the Bible be read through the lens of metaphor and symbol in the way of the ancients.

Schmidt includes three major mystics. Julian of Norwich writes that sin results from ignorance and blindness, calling for a mother’s mercy rather than for punishment.

Teresa of Avila’s garden metaphor describes the spiritual development as beginning with hard personal work, but as ending with the acceptance of Godgiven rain.

Trappist Father Thomas Merton stresses the necessity of silent contemplation for transformation from the false to the true self.

WORD TO LIFE

Sunday Scripture Readings: May 24, 2007

In the Eastern tradition, Gregory Palamas practices the “prayer of the heart,” which contrasts with the intellectual, philosophical approach of set teachings.

Jean-Pierre de Caussade, who sees Christ in every atom of matter and the present moment as a sacrament, is likened to Soren Kierkegaard, who holds that Christianity is “an ordered grasping toward a truth that is ever present,” not depending on religious authority or outward forms — “a leap to exist in the fullest sense.”

Schmidt truly provides the reader with an inspiring kaleidoscope of eclectic spiritual insights.

“Touched by God” shows the diversity of ways in which specific men and women live the Benedictine life.

Contributors range from a member of the lay community in her 20s who is considering the vowed life to a sister who entered in her 70s after the experience of two marriages, the raising of her children and the responsibility of a prominent job.

All 10 Benedictines show similarities in their experiences prior to entry, such as an early religious education, personal prayer, idealism and a call to surrender to God through study, service and a desire to become fully human in close community living.

All were inspired by the hospitality and humanness of the monks and through reading the Rule of St. Benedict in their search for personal vocation. Their stories are detailed, honest, captivating and often humorous.

Sister Castelazo, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, has taught English for many years in Los Angeles.

by JEAN DENTON catholic news service

I’m writing this days after celebrating the sacrament of confirmation with 15 young people in our parish.

For me, as coordinator of their sacramental preparation, the confirmation Mass is always a spiritual and emotional “high.” This one was no exception.

But only a few weeks earlier, at our final confirmation class, I felt kind of like the disciples in this weekend’s readings about Jesus’ ascension.

I felt as though I were searching the sky, struck by the feeling that Jesus had “left the building,” so to speak. I sensed that our session wasn’t clicking. None of us — candidates, catechists, sponsors — seemed to be connecting.

I was disappointed because throughout their preparation this particular group had been extremely engaged in every aspect of the spiritual journey we had shared. What was this emptiness I was feeling?

In retrospect, I think it was my looking for Jesus in the wrong place and forgetting, momentarily, about his promise of how the Holy Spirit comes to us and works with us.

I was reminded of it, though, when we gathered again last week for our confirmation dinner, an annual potluck meal with their families and sponsors to celebrate the young people’s impending passage into full participation with us as Jesus’ church.

When they arrived, they came with extended family and extra food, and I’d never seen the entire “confirmation community” mix so freely — and this in a group where three of the families spoke little English. The mood was total joy and fellowship.

At the confirmation Mass, I watched each confirmand anointed and sealed with the Holy Spirit, saw the excitement in their eyes and bearing, and remembered how God had gifted each one for his or her part of our shared mission to spread the Gospel. I recalled how Kane had deftly, compassionately encouraged a reluctant candidate from another parish on our retreat; how Sandi had decided to go play chess every week with an elderly nursing home resident; how Elizabeth had become a confident cantor; how Erin always had thoughtful words of encouragement for me.

I recognized again: Jesus has ascended to be with the Father, and his Spirit, as promised, continuously comes to us and is with us proclaiming the Gospel.

Questions: When have you recognized the Holy Spirit proclaiming the Gospel in your faith community? How do you see individual gifts provided by God combining to build up the body of Christ?

Scripture to be Illustrated: “It is not for you to know the times or seasons ... but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:7-8).

WEEKLY SCRIPTURE Scripture for the week of May 17-23 Sunday (Sixth Sunday of Easter), Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48, 1 John 4:7-10, John 15:9-17; Monday (St. John 1), Acts 16:11-15, John 15:26-16:4; Tuesday, Acts 16:22-34, John 16:5-11; Wednesday (St. Bernardine), Acts 17:15, 22-18:1, John 16:12-15; Thursday (The Ascension of the Lord), Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:17-23, Mark 16:15-20; Friday (St. Rita of Cascia), Acts 18:9-18, John 16:20-23; Saturday, Acts 18:23-28, John 16:23-28.

Scripture for the week of May 24-30 Sunday (Seventh Sunday of Easter), Acts 1:15-17, 20-26, 1 John 4:11-16, John 17:11-19; Monday (St. Bede the Venerable, St. Gregory VII, St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi), Acts 19:1-8, John 16:29-33; Tuesday (St. Philip Neri), Acts 20:17-27, John 17:1-11; Wednesday (St. Augustine of Canterbury), Acts 20:28-38, John 17:11-19; Thursday, Acts 22:30; 23:611, John 17:20-26; Friday, Acts 25:13-21, John 21:15-19; Saturday, Acts 28:16-20, 30-31, John 21:20-25.

The Catholic News & Herald 11

May 15, 2009

Comic actor Dom DeLuise dies at age 75 Student film spotlights effort to

help poor with microlending

by MARK PATTISON catholic news service

WASHINGTON — Dom DeLuise, the Catholic comic actor who mastered the double-take look of surprise on film, died May 4 at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., after a long illness.

He was 75.

First bursting into national consciousness with guest appearances on TV’s “The Gary Moore Show,” he cemented his fame with his appearances in some of Mel Brooks’ zaniest movie spoofs, including “Blazing Saddles,” “Spaceballs,” “Silent Movie” and “History of the World Part 1.”

DeLuise also partnered with Burt Reynolds in several movies, among them “Smoky and the Bandit II,” “The End,” “The Cannonball Run” and “Cannonball Run II.” In a 2006 interview with Msgr.

James Lisante for the priest’s TV show, “Personally Speaking,” DeLuise told of his special devotion to Mary.

“People give me Blessed Mothers,” DeLuise said in an interview “I have one here, I have one there. I have them all over the house.”

“I said to my wife — before we had all these Blessed Mothers — ‘I want a Blessed Mother, but only a small one.’

We pull over to the side of the road, and there’s a Blessed Mother. But the smallest one was only about 3 feet (tall).

“I don’t mind them. I like them. They give me comfort,” DeLuise noted. “The Blessed Mother is someone that I pray to all the time, and in fact, I use her as a mantra. When I’m in my car and there’s traffic, ‘Hail Mary, full of grace ...,’” he said, reciting the complete prayer. “I say it all the time. It calms me down.

“When I was having surgery, and I was uncomfortable, I said 11 of those in a row, and it just calmed me down,” he continued.

“I like the Blessed Mother, and I sure hope to heck she likes me.”

When the TV variety show and the daytime chat show were staples of the small screen, DeLuise was a muchsought-after guest. He also racked up 20

by JACKIE TAYLOR catholic news service

CNS photo by Fred Prouser, Reuters

Catholic comic actor Dom DeLuise poses for photographers in 1999 as he arrives for the Museum of Television and Radio gala dinner in Beverly Hills, Calif. appearances on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson as host, and took his turn on the TV game-show circuit, including “The Match Game” and “Hollywood Squares.”

Much of DeLuise’s work over the past 15 years had been in children’s media, acting on TV series, doing cartoon voice-overs and writing books. DeLuise wrote several cookbooks and children’s books and occasionally appeared as a television and radio chef.

His last film role was a cameo in a 3-D shock-movie spoof, “Horrorween,” which is still filming.

Former film publicist Robert Elisberg, writing on the Huffington Post Web site, said that in his 15 years of doing favors for Hollywood types, DeLuise was one of only two actors to have written thank-you notes. The other was John Houseman.

“Dom DeLuise was a big man in every way,” said Brooks in a statement.

“He was big in size and created big laughter and joy. He will be missed in a very big way.”

His wife of 43 years, actress Carol Arthur, and their three sons, all actors, Peter, Michael and David, were at his bedside when he died. He also is survived by three grandchildren.

WASHINGTON — Nonprofit entrepreneur and college student Andrea Carrow hopes her new documentary will “educate and encourage participation” in what she feels is the underreported issue of microlending in Chile.

The documentary debuted March 30 at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., and St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn.

Carrow, 22, a senior at St. Benedict, is from Marshall, Minn. She will graduate this year and expects to continue on for a master’s degree in public policy and international affairs.

In 2008, Carrow founded a nonprofit organization called Extending the Link with the help of the Entrepreneurship Center at St. Benedict and St. John’s.

The organization produces educational documentaries that raise awareness of global concerns within the St. Benedict and St. John’s communities.

St. John’s is the brother school to the women’s College of St. Benedict.

The documentary, titled “Del Micro al Cambio” (“From the Micro to the Change”), examines microlending, a process in the credit market where organizations, banks or individuals provide small loans to aspiring entrepreneurs to create or develop their small businesses. Microlending is especially common in underdeveloped and developing countries.

“These people can’t get loans through a normal bank because they either have no credit history, have no collateral, or the overhead and labor required by the bank is too great to even cover the cost of the small business,” Carrow told Catholic News Service.

Production of “Del Micro al Cambio” began in April 2008. Carrow, a Spanish major, spent six weeks in Santiago, Chile, building relationships with microcredit recipients and microlending organizations while the rest of her team

CNS photo courtesy Andrea Carrow

Nonprofit entrepreneur and college student Andrea Carrow hopes her new documentary will raise awareness of micro-lending programs that helps the world’s poor start their own businesses.

Carrow is pictured in an undated photo.

“We’re all citizens of the world ... .

We want to bring the issue home.”

— Andrea Carrow did research in the United States.

“Chile has a really developed economy for South America. They have a great relationship with the United States, so the organizations we talked to were more receptive to us,” Carrow said.

“I also learned how to get inside an organization in a country where it’s my second language,” added Carrow, who was the main Spanish speaker in her group.

St. Benedict senior Ashleigh Leitch and St. John’s seniors Tom Allen and Martin Kronbergs joined Carrow in Chile for two weeks after Christmas to conduct interviews for the documentary.

The four students had a production budget just short of $10,000. They received grants from the College of St. Benedict Philanthropy Fund, the Undergraduate Student Research Grant at St. Benedict and St. John’s, Students in Free Enterprise at St. Benedict and St. John’s, and the Target Corp.

“Del Micro al Cambio” shows interviews of the entrepreneur recipients, microlending organizations and professors at St. Benedict and St. John’s.

“We looked at the whole spectrum of businesses, but we’ve cut it down to about four in the documentary,” said Carrow.

“One entrepreneur, Lino (Morales), started his business with half a kilo of sugar and a microloan, and now he is manufacturing candy in six cities across Chile,” said Carrow.

Microlending organizations hope small business owners can eventually establish enough credit to become self-sufficient.

“We’re all citizens of the world, so if it’s an issue that affects people in Central Mexico, then it affects you here in the middle of Minnesota. We want to bring the issue home,” Carrow said.

Last year, seven students produced a documentary focused on fair trade coffee in Guatemala and called “Somos de Cafe” (“We Are Coffee”). Carrow was the only student from that production team who returned to work on another film project.

The documentary is scheduled to be shown at an entrepreneurship conference in Seattle and again in Dallas.

Editor ’s note: Andrea Carrow’s documentary is available to any interested schools, churches and organizations; copies of the DVD are available by e-mailing Carrow at arcarrow@csbsju.edu.

12 The Catholic News & Herald

May 15, 2009

in our schools

Warming hearts

Student stewards

Courtesy Photo Courtesy Photo

Sixth-graders at Our Lady of Mercy School in Winston-Salem are pictured in April with blankets they crocheted for the Winston-Salem chapter of Project Linus, a nonprofit organization that provides blankets to children who are ill or traumatized. The students learned to crochet from parents during Catholic Schools Week in January.

Big words

Msgr. Anthony Marcaccio, pastor of St. Pius X Church in Greensboro, stands with Samantha Sikora, a student of St. Pius X School, after the presentation of the students’ Pay It Forward projects March 17.

Msgr. Marcaccio challenged the students to take part in the program by creating and executing plans to amplify $10 to benefit others in a positive way. Students worked individually and in groups.

Samantha and her friends Ginger Barry and Miranda Wronecki combined their money to bake chocolate chip cookies, which were given away as tokens to those donating to TOPSoccer, a community-based training and team placement program for young athletes with disabilities. The effort raised $232.

“Doing this project was really fun and made me feel like I have accomplished something big,” Samantha told her fellow students. “Making this money is going to make a difference in someone’s life.”

Another group of students used their money to purchase and plant a flowering bush for an elderly neighbor.

Student John Abram said, “Stewardship is a miraculous thing. Even the smallest of deeds can make a huge difference. You don’t have to look very far to help someone.”

Great grandparents

Courtesy Photo

Julian Murphy-Long, senior forward on the Winston-Salem State University Rams basketball team, reads “Much Bigger than Martin” to kindergarten students at St. Leo the Great School in Winston-Salem Feb. 20. The school librarian chose the book, about a boy trying to find ways to be bigger than his older brother, because of Murphy-Long’s height of 6 feet, 9 inches.

Exploring history

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Kate Warren, a student at St. Gabriel School in Charlotte, is pictured with (from left) Pam Warren, her grandmother, Phyllis Colegrove, her great-grandmother, and Janine Doule, her grandmother, during Grandparents’ Day at the school May 1. Father Frank O’Rourke, pastor of St. Gabriel Church, celebrated Mass with the students and their grandparents before the guests visited the classrooms.

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Students with costumes and artifacts assist Trish Wagner, a parishioner of St. Matthew Church and author of “It Happened on the Underground Railroad,” during her presentation about slavery and the Underground Railroad to second- and third-graders at St. Matthew School in Charlotte Feb. 2.

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May 15, 2009

Book battlers

The Catholic News & Herald 13

in our schools

Spelling success

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Pictured are students of Our Lady of Grace School in Greensboro and the winning team at the Battle of the Books independent schools regional competition held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Feb. 19.

The program, sponsored by the North Carolina School Library Media Association, is for students in grades 6-8 who compete in quiz-bowl-style tournaments to test their knowledge of pre-selected books.

The Our Lady of Grace School team competed in the regional competitions March 24 for a shot at the state competition.

Students pictured are (back row) Kable Young, Sydney Cottingham, Alex Bruno, Joseph Farley, Katelyn Merendino, Gabrielle Dimoff; (first row) Jonah Carmichael, Matthew Hamlet, Stratton Barth, Caleb Carmichael and Zachary Shields.

The classroom representatives who competed in the spelling bee at St. Michael School in Gastonia are seen in this March 5 photograph. Pictured are (from left, standing) fourth-grader Miriam Okonkwo; seventh-grader Brooke Maddie; sixth-grader Nicholas Loya; (seated, from left) third-grader Catherine Wilkinson, second-place winner; eighth-grader Luke Watts, first-place winner; and fifth-grader Austin Purtell, third-place winner. Luke went on to compete against 45 spellers from public, private and homeschools in Gaston County at Gaston College March 19.

Student scientists

First-place winners Courtesy Photo

Pictured are sixth-grade students of St. Mark School in Huntersville who competed at the 2009 Charlotte Mecklenburg Regional Science Fair. Four of the students took top honors. Pictured are (front, from left) Zachary Kennedy, Alexandria Cedrone, Amor Camatcho, Meghan Ducey, Coleen Ducey, Virginia VasquezRios; (back, from left) Alexandria Perini, Hannah Cutlip, Taylor Seger, Michaela Mueller, Matthew Crowell, Jeffery Sisson, Nicholas DoCabo. Not pictured is Danielle Morlando.

Jeffery won first place and Taylor won second place in the biology division, Alexandria Cedrone won second place in the earth science/environmental division and Zachary won second place in the physical science division. The four students qualified to compete in the state competition held in Raleigh March 27-28.

Winning words

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Pictured March 18 are Sean McCabe (left) and Sean Thomas, eighth-grade students at Our Lady of Mercy School in Winston-Salem and first-place winners in regional competitions. McCabe won the regional science fair at High Point University Feb. 27 and Thomas won the regional National Geographic Bee in February.

Top finalist

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Principal Wanda Garrett is pictured with Andrew DeSalvo, a third-grader at Immaculate Heart of Mary School in High Point, who won third place in an essay contest sponsored by Holy Cross Family Ministries in Easton, Mass. Thousands of students from Catholic schools in 17 countries entered drawings, poems and essays expressing this year’s theme, “One Spirit, Many Gifts.”

Timothy Nelson, a senior at Bishop McGuinness High School in Kernersville, is one of the top 10 national finalists in the First Freedom Student Competition. More than 2,500 ninth- through 12th-grade students from public, private, parochial and homeschooling regions competed in the national essay contest that examines the history and relevance of religious freedom.

May 15, 2009

14 The Catholic News & Herald

Perspectives

A collection of columns, editorials and viewpoints

They call each other ‘sister’

Bonds of faith unite two very different women religious

What makes two women sisters?

Blood relationship, of course, makes one type of sisters. But faith can also make women sisters.

Recently my parish took our catechumens and candidates on retreat at a camp run by two nuns who remind me of how the sisterhood of faith is a wonderful thing and a great gift to the church and the world.

Our retreat was at Camp Maria, a youth camp at the water’s edge on Breton Bay along the wide part of the Potomac River, just before it spills into the Chesapeake Bay. It is a spectacular spot within an ancient Catholic country.

That area was settled by English Catholics in 1635.

Two Sisters of Charity of Nazareth run the camp, Sister Rose Johnson and Sister Mary Angela Hicks. Their order was founded by Mother Catherine Spalding, who was born nearby in 1793.

Sister Rose and Sister Angela are about as different as two women could be.

They are from different countries, cultures, races, education and are of different ages.

Yet they call each other sister.

Sister Rose was born in 1962 in Belize, the only English-speaking country in Central America. She was the sixth of nine children in a family of African descent.

She speaks English with the pleasant lilt of the Caribbean. She never knew winter in her tropical home.

Sister Rose went to New Jersey to go to college 20 years ago. As a girl she had met nuns in Belize, a heavily Catholic country. Although she was attracted to their life, she put the idea out of her mind.

But she says, “What you resist will persist.” The idea of becoming a nun never left her.

Nine years ago Sister Rose took her final vows as a Sister of Charity of Nazareth.

Sister Angela took a zigzag path which brought her back to where she began. She was born in 1936, just a few miles away from where she works today.

At age 18, she entered the convent, but left after nine years. She returned home to the tobacco fields and fishing villages of Southern Maryland.

She married a widower, James Hicks, who already had seven children. At age 27, she was wife and instant mother to seven. They had three more children.

To support 10 children, they farmed, fished and ran a bar. For many years Mary Angela was the bartender. And like me, she has heard a lot of confessions; she just couldn’t give absolution.

At age 43, Mary Angela was

Parish Diary FATHER PETER DALY cns columnist

widowed. She still had children at home.

When they were grown, she decided to go back to the convent and took final vows in 1991 at the age of 55.

Her zigzagging was not done yet.

When she was 64, she left to be a missionary in Botswana in Africa where she stayed five years. Now she has come full circle and back home to just a few miles from where she was born and raised a family.

Isn’t the imagination of God wonderful? Who else would have paired these two in making a life and community together?

These two women from different countries, cultures, ages and race form a religious community, a mini-family of faith. They call each other “sister.” I think it’s wonderful.

What makes for strong bonds? Sister Rose and Sister Angela know: It is faith.

In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus asks, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? ... Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Faith makes us family.

Sister Rose and Sister Angela are living proof. We need more like them.

A radical lifestyle re-examined Living our faith will provide compelling example to be followed A radical idea was heard once again, this time coincident with the time when Americans were paying their income tax and discussing budget and policy.

There was a time when the community of believers was of one heart and one mind, and no one claimed his possessions were his own, but they held everything in common.

It was quite a community. There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them and put the proceeds at the feet of the apostles, who saw to it that they were distributed to each according to need.

People willingly parting with some of their possessions to aid the poor — does this sound familiar?

It is the description of the early church in the Acts of the Apostles (4:3237). It is easy to listen to that reading and acknowledge that, while very nice, that was then, and today is a very different age.

Not all agree today with the Christian communal concept, as exemplified by this reader’s e-mail: “In November voters were promised anything and everything from their government at the expense of the socalled rich who were now going to start paying more in taxes while the so-called working class would pay less.”

A basic tenet of faith of that newly founded community was detachment from material possessions for the good of the greater community. Since it strikes some as redistributionist, even slightly socialistic, this concept finds only a tentative grip on the conscience of the culture.

The early church was idealistic, yes. It was not realistic, yes. And yet it is difficult to find any pope or council through the last 2,000 years revoking it for no longer fitting contemporary circumstances.

So if this was a condition at the founding of the church, what changed it? Wouldn’t life be better if the practice continued? What went wrong?

Maybe something such as this: Two or three decades ago, a development of a dozen homes was established. The

Consider This STEPHEN KENT cns columnist

residents agreed that there would be a common green space, no yards at the houses. The community built a picnic area and a playground.

The years went on, more houses were built. Some residents had dogs, so other neighbors erected fences to keep the dogs out. Some objected to people walking over “their” yard to the playground, so they denied access.

The perceived need to protect “their” possessions drove residents to write rules and then to argue over their meaning.

Feelings ran so high that those near the community park weren’t concerned that some other residents no longer had access. Those outside the community no longer saw it as a desirable place to live.

This limping analogy describes an organization that so deviated from its founding principles as to make them seem all but unbelievable when recalled later.

Idealistic, yes; realistic, perhaps not; but it is not impossible that the early Christian lifestyle can be restored despite the pessimism expressed by our same e-mail correspondent: “Do you live outside of this country or perhaps on another planet? Or are you just trying to make yourself believe that people are really becoming nicer and more caring and more giving?”

It has happened before. As the same passage in Acts says: “With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all.”

Rather than surrender to pessimism, can we too bear witness so others can find our faith so compelling as to be an example to follow?

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May 15, 2009

The Catholic News & Herald 15

‘Our job is to help them choose life’ Seven secular challenges to the church Father Val Peter is outspoken, energetic, always thinking and acutely aware of what’s going on in the world.

From 1985 to 2005, he was executive director of what used to be known as Father Flanagan’s Boys Town in Omaha, Neb. It was later renamed Girls and Boys Town, and then went back to simply Boys Town in 2008.

This safe haven for troubled youngsters — on the Omaha campus as well as at sites in 14 other states and the District of Columbia — provides family-style living, a first-class educational experience through high school and spiritual formation for thousands of boys and girls ages 10 to 17 who are admitted through juvenile courts or social service agencies.

Preference goes to those who have no natural or adoptive parents; many have been physically or sexually abused and most have been involved with the courts.

Father Val Peter now runs a Los Angeles-based national coalition of organizations called Character Counts.

An astute observer of life in the church and secular world, Father Peter has just published a book titled “Seven Secular Challenges Facing 21st Century Catholics.” It is well worth reading.

He sees “seven critical areas and challenges where our culture is not enriching, but rather diminishing our lives.”

These are: (1) Diminished respect for authority (2) The widespread belief that one is free to experience everything.

(3) Cynicism.

(4) Mistaken ideological beliefs.

(5) Learned helplessness.

(6) Anti-intellectualism.

(7) Political correctness.

“Learned helplessness” is the label Father Peter puts on the conclusion that “there is nothing I can do to make things better.” And the “mistaken ideological beliefs” he identifies include totalitarianism, the MTV culture and terrorism.

Father Peter suggests that the Catholic Church is in possession of an untried remedy to all these problems, namely, Christian idealism. I’d like to let him speak for himself: “More than anywhere else I have learned the lessons of the long spiritual journey (of reform and renewal that the church must take) from my years at Boys Town.

“I have seen thousands and thousands of young people come to us, all of them filled with anger, loneliness, frustration and the loss of hope, living in a postmodern culture: antiauthoritarian and cynical.

Obama’s abortion agenda Catholics need to stand up and protect the unborn President Barack Obama is on the fast track to undo every single policy and law protecting unborn human life.

First, he cancelled the Mexico City policy, clearing the way for taxpayer dollars to go to organizations that provide and promote abortions overseas.

Next, the president authorized the State Department to release $50 million this fiscal year to the U.N. Population Fund which supports China’s population control program, including coerced abortions.

Then, Obama declared his intention to repeal Health and Human Services’ regulations that help protect health care workers from increasing pressure to perform abortions against their conscience.

Next, he issued an executive order nullifying earlier rules under the Bush administration that had largely prevented the use of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research — which requires the killing of human embryos.

This was followed by the National Institutes of Health drafting guidelines for stem cell research using embryos that were originally created for reproductive purposes.

The next step may soon be the federal government’s support for human embryo farms. Some members of Congress are determined to push through legislation

that will fund the creation of human embryos — through cloning or in vitro fertilization — for the sole purpose of storing and killing these tiny human beings to obtain their stem cells for research purposes.

And there is every reason to believe that Obama would sign such a bill.

Now, if all this isn’t bad enough, there are well-founded fears that the president’s health care agenda will include insurance coverage for abortion.

While the Catholic Church fully supports universal health care as a basic human right, and thus welcomes President Obama’s desire to see it provided, the church cannot accept abortion coverage as part of the package.

Just when pro-life forces thought it couldn’t get much worse, it has!

And it will continue to worsen, unless followers of the God of life awaken and untiringly work for the full protection of the unborn!

It is extremely important that every Catholic contact his or her two U.S. senators and representative urging them to: — Work for passage of a universal health care bill that explicitly excludes abortion.

— Vote against all forms of embryonic stem cell research.

— Vote for morally acceptable

Looking Around JESUIT FATHER WILLIAM J. BYRON cns columnist

“They feel free to experience everything. They embrace MTV’s ideology. In some ways they are hopeless victims.

“These lives are reduced to a single narrow focus: Should I destroy my life (drugs, sex and alcohol) or go on? Is it worth the effort to swim against the tide of pain and despair, alienation and dysfunctionality? Or shall I curse God and die?

“Because of their past, they believe that love (even God’s love) has to be merited, and they are convinced they are unworthy.

“This is the lie Adam and Eve believed when they hid themselves from God in the garden.

“Our job is to help them choose life.”

Choosing life is not easy for anyone, young or old, who cannot see what the really good life is.

I think of the good life as the life that is lived generously in the service of others. That’s a fair description of how Father Peter has chosen to live his very productive life.

That’s why his advice to 21st century Catholics on choosing life wisely and well is worth considering.

Making a Difference TONY MAGLIANO cns columnist

and successfully proven adult stem cell research.

— Support the Weldon amendment to the Labor/Health and Human Services appropriations bill.

This amendment forbids all federal agencies and states that receive federal funds from discriminating against the consciences of individuals and organizations who oppose abortion.

It is also important to contact President Obama (White House comment desk: 202-456-1111/email: www.whitehouse.gov and click “contact us”) asking him to please back off this agenda and begin using the power of his presidency to protect vulnerable unborn human beings.

During his 1979 visit to Washington, Pope John Paul II, standing within sight of the U.S. Capitol, boldly proclaimed to 175,000 of us: “We will stand up every time that human life is threatened. When the sacredness of life before birth is attacked, we will stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the authority to destroy unborn life!”

It’s time to stand up!

Celebrate spring with a gift in honor of your loved ones Legacy Notes JUDY SMITH guest columnists

Spring is a beautiful and glorious time of the year when our senses delight in the blooming azaleas, dogwoods, jonquils and tulips. It is a time for reflection and spiritual renewal.

It also is a time to celebrate family and friends through the observance of Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, graduations and Memorial Day. As you think about a gift that will express your love, consider a gift that also will benefit the entire Catholic community — celebrate your loved ones with a gift in their honor to your parish, a Catholic school or agency, the Diocese of Charlotte or the diocesan foundation.

A gift to an endowment also is a special way to honor those you are celebrating. And if you honor your loved ones with a gift to an endowment, you have the added value and comfort of knowing that the endowment will provide for future generations as well.

Gifts made in honor of others are most often made in the form of a check.

This is a convenient method for the giver, provides a tax deduction within allowable limits for those who itemize their deductions and can readily be put to good use by the church.

But cash is only one of the many funding sources for honor gifts. Assets such as stocks, bonds and mutual funds can also be used to make gifts in honor of others. In addition, if you use appreciated assets to create your gift, you can receive extra tax savings.

When you fund a gift with an appreciated stock you have owned for more than one year, you can deduct the entire market value from your taxable income. Plus you avoid any capital gains tax on the stock because you donated it for charitable use.

These additional tax savings are why many people prefer to make honor gifts using assets rather than cash.

You can also establish these gifts through your will or long-range estate plan. Some families in the diocese have made provisions through their wills or estate plans to create endowments to honor their loved ones.

These endowments leave a legacy serving future generations of Catholics in the diocese and are a perpetual tribute in honor of those for whom they are named.

As you honor your loved ones this spring, consider a gift that will benefit them and the entire Catholic community.

Celebrate your family and friends with a gift in their honor.

Smith is planned giving director for the diocese. Contact her at (704) 370-3320 or jmsmith@charlottediocese.org.

May 15, 2009

in the news

The Catholic News & Herald 16

In the ‘fight for the last frontier’

Bishops urge Peru to protect the indigenous, environment in Amazonia

by BARBARA J. FRASER catholic news service

CNS photo Barbara J. Fraser

Travelers board a boat to return home from Barranquita, Peru, April 9. Small farmers in the area, who often lack official land titles, are fighting to prevent a large agriculture company from taking over land they farm. Nine Peruvian bishops from the Amazon region are urging the government to overturn a series of presidential decrees that they say threaten the Amazonian communities and the environment.

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LIMA, Peru — In a statement criticizing development policies that they say threaten Amazonian communities and the environment, nine Peruvian bishops from the Amazon region urged the government to overturn a series of presidential decrees issued in 2008.

The bishops echoed the grievances of indigenous communities in the northern Peruvian Amazon. The communities have been protesting since April 9, blocking roads and rivers to pressure the government to overturn the laws and set up a task force to address their grievances.

In mid-May, police broke up a roadblock on a key bridge, sent naval vessels to unblock rivers and declared a state of emergency in several Amazonian districts.

The regional president of Loreto, the largest Amazonian region in Peru, refused to enforce the state of emergency, saying it violated the indigenous communities’ right to protest.

In their statement, the bishops said Peru’s Amazon region is “rich in ancestral cultures and biodiversity” and called it “the source of life and hope for humanity.”

They criticized the government, which “in the name of a biased concept of development ... allows the deforestation of great expanses of primary forest” for palm-oil and sugar-cane plantations.

They also criticized pollution from mining and oil drilling, as well as “indiscriminate logging with no control.”

Under Peruvian law, most forests and all underground resources, such as minerals, oil and gas, are stateowned, but the government can grant private logging, mining, oil and gas concessions.

Fifteen percent of Peru’s tropical lowlands were under concession for oil exploration in 2004, a figure that had jumped to more than 75 percent by last year, according to Carlos Monge, a researcher at the Lima-based think tank Desco.

Many concessions overlap indigenous communities, and several include areas that the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon has asked the government to set aside to protect nomadic indigenous groups that still shun contact with the outside world.

Some of the laws the bishops are asking the government to overturn would make it easier for companies to operate on indigenous peoples’ lands.

The government’s attitude is “there are resources there, and these communities are an obstacle,” Monge told a press conference of foreign journalists. “It is the fight for the last frontier.”

Most of the controversial laws were

issued in 2008 by presidential decree, instead of being debated and approved

by Congress.

A congressional commission recommended that they be repealed because they were unconstitutional, but Congress has not discussed the recommendation.

The interethnic association said some 10,000 indigenous people in the tropical lowlands are involved in the demonstrations.

The government moved to break up the protest after demonstrators shut down pumping stations on a pipeline that carries oil from northern wells to the Pacific coast and blocked rivers leading to other oil fields.

“We cannot compromise the country’s energy security,” Environment Minister Antonio Brack told foreign journalists.

Alberto Pizango Chota, president of the interethnic association, said the indigenous people were taking “more radical measures” because “it is the only way to make the government understand” the seriousness of their demands.

Pizango said the indigenous people are fighting for civil rights that have been denied since the Spanish conquest.

Rubber tappers and loggers enslaved Amazonian indigenous people in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the region’s communities are now threatened by deforestation, logging and pollution, he said.

“The government has always seen us as third-class citizens,” he said.

“This is a subtle second colonization, a subtle genocide. It means death for our people.”

Peru’s Health Ministry has found high levels of several heavy metals in the blood of the Achuar people living along the Corrientes River in northern Peru.

Experts say the metals, which can cause neurological problems, probably came from water pumped into streams and the river over decades as a byproduct of oil drilling.

While the government promotes oil concessions for the country’s development, Pizango said: “In 38 years, the only development in that area is that the people are condemned to die with lead and cadmium in their blood. Their rivers and lands are polluted. We don’t want that kind of development.”

In their statement, the bishops cited the conclusions of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida, Brazil, in 2007, which called for “alternative, integral development based on solidarity and an ethic that includes responsibility for human and natural ecology, rooted in the Gospel of justice.”

They echoed the indigenous protesters’ demand for the laws to be nullified and new laws to be drafted “with the participation of the indigenous population” and called for dialogue between the government and protesters.