4 The Catholic News & Herald
Encuentro, from page 1
Around the Di-
bers were robbed of their cultural identity,” he said. Oblate of Providence Sister Mary through liturgy, prayer and song.” Paul Lee, granddaughter of a slave Numerous workshops and breakowned by Jesuits, told of having to out sessions each day gave particileave her native Philadelphia to bepants a chance to interact in smaller come a nun because at that time no groups and focus on areas of special women’s order in the archdiocese interest to them. would accept an African-American. Father James Moroney, executive K. LaVerne Redden, an AfricanAmerican and president of the National Council of Catholic Women, sobbed as she described the embarrassment of knowing she could not drink from the Communion cup in many parishes because if she did “nobody else would touch it.” Sister of St. Francis Linda Scheckelhoff, coordinator of Hispanic Ministry in the Boone Vicariate in the Diocese of Charlotte, CNS photo by Neil Jacobs Young people of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles attended the gatherjoin the Los Campos de Nati Mariachi Band during ing along with several the opening service of ``Encuentro 2000’’ in Los others involved with Hispanic Ministry from Angeles June 6. across the diocese. She cited the reconciliation service as being one of director of the U.S. bishops’ Secrethe most powerful for her. tariat for the Liturgy, said there is a “It made me aware of how I someconstant wrestling between unity and times participate in injustices and how diversity as people seek to incorporate there is a need for reconciliation. We different cultural and ethnic traditions are not aware of how we sometimes in the liturgy while respecting univertake part in racism and sexism, and we sal church norms. need to ask forgiveness,” said Sister At a reconciliation service ending Linda. “This makes me want to work the second day of the meeting, several further with Hispanics, Anglos and representatives of minority groups those of other races in the areas of spoke movingly of their faith despite common worship and learning to aptheir experiences of discrimination in preciate diversity.” the church. Bishop Donald E. Pelotte of GalStaff Writer Alesha M. Price conlup, N.M., the country’s first Native tributed to this story. American bishop, spoke of growing up in “dire poverty, dilapidated housing. ...” “Many of our native people were baptized, but in the process vast num-
Highlands, from page 1 Our Lady of the Mountains paused to think back and celebrate the present. “A 50th anniversary is a very special event in the life of a faith community,” said Father C. Morris Boyd, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church. That parish, located in nearby Franklin, has had a fruitful relationship with the Highlands church for years. “In this great year of Jubilee, it is a special (time) for us here in the mountains,” said Father Boyd, who concelebrated the Mass with Father William Evans, sacramental minister at Our Lady of the Mountains. In 1950, the few Catholics who formed the Our Lady of the Mountains community opened the doors to its new church for the first time, adding a new chapter in the life of that mission, established five years earlier. Over the decades, a slow but steady influx of new parishioners — especially those who settled in North Carolina’s southwestern mountains during summers — boosted the congregation size into the hundreds during the hotter months of the year. About 100 parishioners now make up the church community year-round. In summer, the number can quadruple. George and Marie Schmitt came from Long Island, N.Y., to Highlands in 1965 to help start a family homebuilding company. They quickly found a parish home at Our Lady of the Mountains. George said to be a part of this vibrant faith family has been “quite an experience.” “When we came here in April of 1965, we doubled the parish,” he recalled with a smile. “It’s always been a wonderful thing here. It is a very,
July 21, 2000
very beautiful family atmosphere, both with the church members and with the priests here.” Diane Small, pastoral associate for the past five years, agreed the church community is special. “The people are wonderful,” she said after the Mass. “It’s family, and through the years we’ve built more family.” Today, she said, Our Lady of the Mountains blossoms with both young families and those who have been here for several of the five decades the church has stood here. Nearby on the church grounds, families lined up under a massive tent for a reception organized by the church’s St. Elizabeth’s Guild. At the entrance of the church, a commemorative plaque just blessed by Bishop Curlin glistened in the summer sun. And the community continued its celebration. The church’s presence has been appreciated in ecumenical circles as well, as testified to in statements from local faith communities read at the closing of the Mass. “May God grant you his richest blessings as you face the wonderful future of another 50 years of spreading, in word and deed, the good news of God’s redeeming love,” went one statement, from the First Presbyterian Church in town. “We ... are blessed to be part of the fellowship of believers that truly exhibits a spirit of unity.” Contact Associate Editor Jimmy Rostar by calling (704) 370-3334 or E-mail jtrostar@charlottediocese.org