Feb. 2, 2020, ET Catholic, A section

February 2

| 2020

VOL 29 NO 3

IN THIS ISSUE ROMAN IN A6 DEBT-FREE A4 LIVING St. Joseph in Norris A GREEK WORLD FOCUS reaches sororities, fraternities

retires mortgage nearly six years early

B1 TRI-CELEBRATION Notre Dame marks priest's installation, birthday, anniversary

He dwells among us ......................... A2 Parish news ....................................... B4 Diocesan calendar ............................ B5 Columns ............................................. B8 Catholic schools ............................. B10 La Cosecha ............................Section C

D.C., Knox Marches for Life attract big numbers Pro-life supporters turn out en masse to voice their positions on the sanctity of life, backing for life legislation

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Students from Notre Dame, Knoxville Catholic high schools witness historic national March for Life

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Choosing life Pro-life supporters take part in the Knoxville March for Life from the Knoxville Convention Center through the Fort Sanders neighborhood adjacent to the University of Tennessee on Jan. 26.

COURTESY OF DANIELLE SANOK

arches for Life in Washington, D.C., and Knoxville attracted near-record numbers of supporters this year as pro-life advocates make their voices heard in an important election year.

As the historic national March for Life concluded, with Donald Trump becoming the first sitting U.S. president to attend and address pro-life supporters, estimated to number more than 100,000, the Knoxville March for Life also attracted a large number of pro-life advocates.

Stacy Dunn, director of the Knox County chapter of Tennessee Right to Life, which organizes Knoxville’s March for Life, said the Jan. 26 march from the Knoxville Convention Center on Henley Street to the Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health Clinic on Clinch Avenue in Fort Sanders drew about 1,000 supporters.

A line of marchers stretched from the Convention Center six blocks to the west, where Knoxville’s only clinic that performs surgical abortions is located.

Before the march began, Mrs. Dunn addressed marchers, who filled a Convention Center ballroom and lined its walls. The marchers also prayed, listened to an inspirational singer, and learned about pro-life efforts at the state level.

By Bill Brewer

March on Washington Knoxville Catholic High School students, led by Father Michael Hendershott and Sister Scholastica, OP, visit the St. John Paul II Shrine in Washington, D.C., while participating in the national March for Life.

“I would like to thank you for being here today.

It is important that you are here. It does matter

that you took time out of your day, out of your life, to take a public stand, to pray for an end to abor-

tion, and to March for Life,” Mrs. Dunn said.

“Tennessee Right to Life

TRL continued on page A15

he Diocese of Knoxville was well represented at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., with students from Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga and Knoxville Catholic High School taking part in the historic event.

The students were witness to the first time a sitting president has attended the march and addressed the pro-life supporters in attendance.

President Donald Trump credited attendees at the 47th annual March for Life for their commitment to protect the life of unborn and born children.

“Together we are the voice for the voiceless,” President Trump told tens of thousands of people gathered at a noontime rally Jan. 24 on the National Mall.

Some estimates put the crowd size at more than 100,000 people.

“You stand for life each and every day. You provide housing, education, jobs, and medical care for the women that you serve,” the president said.

President Trump spoke for about 10 minutes at the start of the rally and before attendees began their march to the Supreme Court.

“Today, as president of the United States, I am truly proud to stand with you. We’re here for a very simple reason: to defend the right for every child, born and unborn, to fulfill their God-given potential,” the president said.

He also credited the young people who made up a large portion of the crowd for their commitment to life, saying they were “the heart of the March for Life.”

“It’s your generation that is mak-

March continued on page A16

Diocese part of USCCB-led border pastoral encounter

Pastoral Juvenil Hispana leader joins clergy, laity from across U.S. to meet with immigrants, refugees where they are

By Emily Booker

COURTESY OF BRITTANY GARCIA

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n the headlines and political discourse, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that immigration and border discussions are about thousands of individuals, each deserving of dignity and care.

The plight of those individuals at the southern border recently was communicated home to the Diocese of Knoxville by a woman working in Hispanic ministry for the diocese.

In September, Brittany Garcia, coordinator of Pastoral Juvenil Hispana for the diocese, accepted an invitation to join a national delegation that traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a pastoral encounter sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The weeklong visit served as a lead-up to the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on

Bless these hands Diocese of Las Cruces, N.M., Bishop Peter Baldacchino uses holy water to bless the hands of migrant workers.

Sept. 29.

“I was really excited when I received the invitation because there’s so much talk about what’s happening at the border, espe-

cially in the media,” Mrs. Garcia said. “I was really thankful for this opportunity to go.”

She emphasized that the agenda for the trip was not political but

pastoral. While it’s hard to ignore the publicity and debate surrounding immigration, refugee resettlement, and border security, the visit was focused on meeting the actual people affected by these issues, seeing their situations, and hearing their stories.

“Our Catholic faith is deeply rooted in the belief that there is value and dignity to the life of every person. So in regard to migrants and refugees, the bishops were challenging us about how this is not just politically a topic of interest to us as Catholics, but how this is a topic in regard to the dignity of these refugees, these migrants, these people seeking asylum, people who have traveled from countries of distance to come to the U.S. border and ask for help,” she said.

The USCCB has organized pastoral encounters with migrant Border continued on page A11

He dwells among us

by Bishop Richard F. Stika

An offering pleasing to God St. Gregory the Great: ‘The Mass will be a sacrifice for us to God, when we have made an offering of ourselves’ O Lord, “let our sacrifice be in your presence today and find favor before you.”

— Daniel 3:40

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o those who say, “I don’t get anything out of Mass,” Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen would answer, “It’s because you must bring something to it.”

This is so important that we should ask ourselves every day, “What do I bring to Mass?” In continuing with our year of reflection upon the liturgy and the Eucharist, it would be good for us to reflect upon the offertory of the Mass.

In order to better understand the Mass, it is important to understand a very beautiful truth about our baptism. For by virtue of our baptism, we are not only united to Christ as members of His body, but we also share in His threefold mission—Priest, Prophet, and King.

In regard to the offertory, our share in Christ’s priesthood makes it possible for us to offer our gifts and our very selves in union with Him. Being more united with Him through faith, hope, and love is what makes us holy. Therefore, it

Follow Bishop Richard Stika on Twitter @bishopstika and Facebook for news and events from the diocese. is the triple dignity of our baptism that helps us to be the saints we are called to be—“to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).

Our participation in Mass calls for the exercise of our baptismal priesthood. This is because there is but one sacrifice offered at every Mass—the one and same sacrifice that Christ offered on Calvary to the Father. And since the liturgy is the action of the whole Christ, body and head, His priestly sacrifice must include ours.

Here we must be careful to distinguish between the “baptismal” or “common” priesthood of the laity and the “ministerial” priesthood of the ordained. For while there is but one priesthood of Christ that we all share in, there are different ways of participating in it.

Our baptism enables us to participate in the sacred liturgy as members of the mystical body of Christ.

But through the sacrament of holy orders, the priest is configured to

Christ the head and enabled to act in the person of Christ and to serve and help the faithful to live out their priestly, prophetic, and kingly office.

Now that we have a clearer idea of the baptismal priesthood, let’s seek to understand our offering.

What is it that we should offer? In a word, everything—your soul, your body, and your heart; all your life, all your prayers and sacrifices, your joys and disappointments, your crosses, anxieties, and sufferings, your loneliness and trials, your labors and works of mercy.

Offer to God your vocations in life, be it as clergy or religious, the dedicated single life, as husband or wife, father or mother and your children, and all your worries about them and your families.

And as your material gift of support for the Church and for the poor is collected, and the gifts of bread and wine are brought up, call upon your angel to bring your spiritual offering to the altar as well.

In giving thanks for all of God’s gifts that we have received from

Him and which we now place upon the altar, we are enjoined by the priest, “Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.”

And in responding, “May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of His name, for our good and the good of all His holy Church,” we are filled with a holy expectation of a miraculous exchange.

For the “something” we have offered will, during the consecration, become “someone”—Christ Jesus!

This is why in Masses when the gifts and the altar are incensed, the priest and all the faithful are also incensed—for each of us is a holy temple and our heart a spiritual altar upon which we offer ourselves as a gift to God. With the consecration, the bread and wine we offer are transubstantiated into the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world—a sacrifice pleasing and acceptable to God! We began by making an offering of ourselves with and through the gifts of bread and wine. And with the consecration,

Bishop continued on page A10

Bishop Stika’s calendar of events February Prayer Intentions “We pray that the cries of our migrant brothers and sisters, victims of criminal trafficking, may be heard and considered.”

–– Pope Francis

”We recently celebrated the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also known as Candlemas day, which reminds us that Christ is the light of the world. I pray that each of us reflects the light of Christ in our lives as we prepare for the season of Lent.”

–– Bishop Stika

Upcoming Virtus training sessions set

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he Diocese of Knoxville’s program for the protection of children, youth, and vulnerable adults is offered in parishes and schools around the diocese.

The seminars are required for parish and school em-

A2 n FEBRUARY 2, 2020

ployees and regular volunteers who are in contact with children and vulnerable adults.

The following training sessions are scheduled: n Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, Chattanooga, 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 5

n St. Thomas the Apostle Church, Lenoir City, 6 p.m.

Monday, Feb. 10 n St. Mary Church, Oak Ridge, 6 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 20 n St. Mary Church, Johnson City, 1 p.m.

Saturday, April 18; 1 p.m. Saturday, May 9 ■

These are some of Bishop Stika’s upcoming public appointments for the next two months: n February 1: 11 a.m., confirmation at St. Mary Church in Oak Ridge n February 2: 11 a.m., installation of Father Peter Iorio as pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Alcoa n February 3-5: Gatlinburg study days with priests of the Diocese of Knoxville n February 4: 8 a.m., Relevant Radio interview n February 5: noon, Presbyteral Council meeting in Gatlinburg n February 16: 2:30 p.m., confirmation at St. John Neumann Church in Farragut n February 18-19: Louisville Province meeting in Kentucky n February 21-25: seminary visit n February 26: Ash Wednesday n February 29: 1 p.m., Rite of Election for Chattanooga and Five Rivers deaneries at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus n March 1: 4 p.m., Rite of Election for Cumberland Mountain and Smoky Mountain deaneries at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus n March 3: anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus n March 3: 8 a.m., Relevant Radio interview n March 5: 5:30 p.m. Catholic Charities of East Tennessee dinner

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at Rothchild Catering in Knoxville n March 7: 8:05 a.m., annual Scouts Mass and gathering at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus n March 8: 10:30 a.m., confirmation at Holy Spirit Church in Soddy-Daisy n March 10: 11 a.m., general priest meeting at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish Hall n March 12: 5:30 p.m., Catholic Charities of East Tennessee dinner at the Chattanooga Convention Center n March 15: 11 a.m., confirmation at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Mountain City n March 18-21: seminary visit n March 19: 11th anniversary of the episcopal ordination of Bishop Richard F. Stika n March 22: 10:30 a.m., confirmation at Blessed Sacrament Church in Harriman n March 25: 6 p.m., confirmation at St. Augustine Church in Signal Mountain n March 26: 6:30 p.m., confirmation at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Chattanooga n March 28: 5 p.m., confirmation at St. Albert the Great Church in Knoxville n March 29: 9 a.m., cathedral Mass in celebration of the 138th anniversary of the founding of the Knights of Columbus ■

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FEBRUARY 2, 2020 n A3

Living Roman in a Greek world University of Tennessee is among FOCUS campuses seeing Catholic outreach to sororities and fraternities

By Bill Brewer

COURTESY OF FELLOWSHIP OF CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

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All Vol and in FOCUS Missionaries for FOCUS assigned to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville campus and St. John XXIII University Parish are, from left, Payton Burnett, Mike Buell, Spencer Purdy, and Brooke Soares.

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he Fellowship of Catholic University Students is expanding its mission: revolutionizing for Christ the sorority and fraternity culture on college campuses.

When FOCUS missionaries first arrived on the University of Tennessee-Knoxville campus in 2012 to start a chapter at St. John XXIII Parish, the mission was to work with college students to strengthen their faith through liturgy, apologetics, and social activities. FOCUS now has a presence on the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga campus beginning in this 2019-20 school year.

The mission hasn’t changed, but the FOCUS outreach now extends to UT sororities and fraternities, campus communities not typically associated with faith development.

Joanna Brady, national manager of outreach to campus Greek communities for FOCUS, explained that Protestant faiths already reach out to Greek organizations as a way to evangelize. And they have been successful.

“Our brothers and sisters in the Protestant world have been doing this for decades,” Ms. Brady said.

“The model we use for FOCUS Greek is the same we use with FOCUS in general. We develop authentic friendships with students, we create a divine intimacy so that a one-on-one relationship with Jesus is for life, and we want to inspire clarity and conviction about spiritual multiplication. The model is to invest deeply in a few people so they can invest deeply in a few people to reach the world for Christ.”

Ms. Brady said FOCUS Greek started in 2009 and is now active on more than 100 of the 164 college campuses where FOCUS has a presence. During the 2018-19 school year, FOCUS Greek engaged more than 2,600 sorority and fraternity members in Bible studies.

The Fellowship of Catholic University Students was founded in

Greek support Brooke Soares and Mike Buell are the FOCUS missionaries working with University of Tennessee sororities and fraternities.

1998 to invite college students into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church. FOCUS works to inspire and equip students

for a lifetime of Christ-centered evangelization, discipleship, and friendships in which they lead others to do the same.

The Denver-based faith organization has more than 730 missionaries in the field, serving the 164 campuses and eight parishes across the United States and Europe.

According to FOCUS, the FOCUS Greek missionaries encourage Greek students to seek their identity in Christ instead of their sororities and fraternities, or academic achievement, or extracurricular service accomplishments.

FOCUS missionaries are investing in Greek students by developing those authentic friendships, becoming involved alongside them at philanthropic events, “and helping them grow in their relationship with Christ through Bible studies, daily Mass, and other faith-driven activities,” according to FOCUS. Brooke Soares and Mike Buell are FOCUS Greek missionaries at UT-Knoxville who are approaching

Greek continued on page A8

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/JESUS VALENCIA, CATHOLIC SUN

Prayer is key to being missionary disciples, FOCUS participants learn The Diocese of Knoxville invites you on a pilgrimage to the

EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS and highlights of central europe

with His Eminence

Cardinal Justin Rigali September 17-27, 2020

Moved by the Holy Spirit A young woman shares her excitement about attending the annual Student Leadership Summit of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students at the Phoenix Convention Center in Arizona on Jan. 2.

By Justin Bell Catholic News Service

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hough more than 8,500 Catholics attended the Fellowship of Catholic University Students’ annual Student Leadership Summit to start the new year, the Phoenix event focused on the power of prayer and sharing Christ in small groups.

Participants learned how prayer, small-group discipleship, proclaiming the Gospel, and having a Catholic worldview can help influence others to follow Jesus during the conference’s fourth day, Jan. 2.

FOCUS staffer Kelsey Skoch said that everyone deserves to hear the Gospel, and “when you preach the Gospel something always happens.”

In a workshop, she recounted how a Baptist woman contacted her after overhearing a FOCUS missionary share the Gospel with a student in a coffee shop.

Later in the session, Jim Jansen, another FOCUS leader, spoke on A4 n FEBRUARY 2, 2020

the need for missionary disciples at parishes. He followed up with a strategy laid out in the Book of Acts: teaching, fellowship, the breaking of the bread, and shared prayer, emphasizing that prayer is the first step.

Kevin Cotter, a former FOCUS missionary and current executive director of The Amazing Parish, spoke about how changing one’s prayer can change the world and the person who is praying. He suggested that parish staffs develop a culture of prayer, teamwork, and discipleship.

Father Michael Gaitley, director of evangelization of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, discussed how anyone can teach the Gospel. He called the practice “spiritual multiplication,” which happens to be a strategy employed

by FOCUS to share the Gospel in daily life.

He said such work was the “heart of evangelization.”

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Father Julius becomes Citizen Abuh Pastor of St. Joseph the Worker sworn in as U.S. citizen during Dec. 6 naturalization ceremony in Chattanooga

By Bill Brewer

COURTESY OF ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER PARISH (3)

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ardon Father Julius Abuh while he brushes up on his Southern drawl.

Since becoming a U.S. citizen Dec. 6, the pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Madisonville feels an obligation to connect more closely with his adopted community.

Home is now very far away from home.

So parishioners may notice a little East Tennessee twang in his homilies as he blends accents.

“Sharing this good news with my parishioners the following Sunday (Dec. 8), I told them that no one can complain any longer that they do not understand my accent because I am now an American. I went further to say, ‘so I can now with confidence, as a true Tennessean, say, good morning y’all,’” the native of Nigeria said.

For Father Abuh, Dec. 6 is a day that now fills his memory, a day when one of the United States’ newest citizens raised his right hand and took the Oath of Allegiance during a naturalization ceremony in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga before Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr. Father Abuh joins a growing list of Diocese of Knoxville priests who have become U.S. citizens while serving East Tennessee’s Catholic residents.

His journey to U.S. citizenship began in 1997 when he began doctoral studies at the Angelicum University in Rome. During the summers of his graduate studies, he worked in the United States on an R1 visa, which is given to those in religious service who are practicing their ministerial duties.

“After several years of

Proudly taking the oath Far left: Father Julius Abuh, pastor of St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Madisonville, takes the Oath of Allegiance during a naturalization ceremony on Dec. 6 in Chattanooga.

“It was an emotional moment when immediately following the Oath of Allegiance, the presiding judge, the honorable Harry S. Mattice Jr., addressed us and declared, ‘Welcome fellow Americans to this great nation.’ This was a dream come true, one I will never forget, much like the day of my priestly ordination. As it is extremely humbling becoming an American citizen, I am truly happy and grateful to God. I will do anything within my reach to defend and love my country as a new American.”

— Father Julius Abuh American visits with this R1 visa, which was repeatedly renewed by the U.S. Embassy in Italy, I succeeded in finishing my studies and headed back to my native land in Nigeria. While in Nigeria, I served for nine years and became a formator and faculty member at our Provincial Seminary in Makurdi, Nigeria. It then came time for me to take a respite. So I applied to the Diocese of Knoxville in the summer of 2011,” Father

Abuh said.

Deacon Sean Smith, chancellor of the Diocese of Knoxville, extended an invitation to Father Abuh from Bishop Richard F. Stika to interview to become a priest in the diocese. Bishop Stika and Father David Boettner, a vicar general who was then moderator of the curia, interviewed Father Abuh and qualified him to exercise his ministry in the diocese.

“This renewed yet another

Left: Father Abuh is congratulated by U.S. District Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr. on becoming a U.S. citizen.

Above: St. Joseph the Worker parishioners Lorene Steffee, Joyce Lamentia, Jack Lamentia, and Nancy Lambert celebrate Father Abuh’s naturalization.

R1 visa. My first assignment as a priest-in-residence was with Monsignor Patrick Garrity at St. John Neumann Parish, which got underway on Dec. 15, 2011,” Father Abuh recalled.

Father Abuh explained that the citizenship process took a more serious turn in 2013 with Bishop Stika’s permission for him to become authorized with a working permit called a green card, which is valid for 10 years. After five

to six years of working in the United States with a green card, an individual can apply for U.S. citizenship.

“In early 2019, I began applying and assembling the necessary documents.

For many, the immigration process can be cost prohibitive, filled with bureaucratic hurdles and extended delays, particularly when it involves marriage, divorce, and children. However, my case

Citizen continued on page A9

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FEBRUARY 2, 2020 n A5

Debt of gratitude

Norris parishioners welcome Bishop Stika, who celebrates Mass at newly unencumbered St. Joseph

BILL BREWER (2)

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ebt. Many parishes have it, yet can’t wait to be rid of it. Others without it are grateful on one hand, but on the other wonder what funds from a 30-year note could build.

St. Joseph Parish in Norris won’t have to worry about principal and interest for a while after Bishop Richard F. Stika joined Father Richard Armstrong on Jan. 26 to “burn the mortgage” and retire the parish’s debt—nearly six years early.

Bishop Stika celebrated Mass at the Anderson County church and delivered the homily, preaching the light of Christ, accomplishment through God, ownership, gratitude, faith in the face of division, and some papal current events.

On a recent visit to the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis, Bishop Stika told the congregation he shared with the Holy Father the many good things happening in the Diocese of Knoxville.

“We’re a small diocese, but we’re very much alive,” Bishop Stika told the Holy Father.

After his Sunday sermon, something similar could be said of St. Joseph—“We’re a small parish, but we’re very much alive.”

The bishop highlighted St. Joseph Parish as a faith community that joins hands in service to God, a strong sign of unity in a world increasingly divided. There are 140 families in the parish.

“There are so many issues that divide our nation right now. If you look at it, there’s 50 percent this and 50 percent that. So, if you look at it logically, it’s probably in your families and in this parish,” Bishop Stika said. “I love history. My hobby is presidential history. And when I look at the United States, we’re probably more divided now than we have been since, well, I was going to say the Civil War, but I know in this part of the country it’s the War Between the States, or the War of Northern Aggression.”

The bishop said he’s concerned that youth are not learning from history, citing a British poll that found most people under age 25 in Great Britain thought Winston Churchill was a fictional character.

By ignoring history, could the divisions that led to great strife through the centuries resurface?

“The same thing happens, I think, in our Church today. At the beginning of December I had this extraordinary experience. Every five to eight years, every bishop in the world goes to Rome to visit the tomb of St. Peter and St. Paul. And then they give a report on their diocese as well as meet with the Holy Father,” Bishop Stika said.

“The highlight of this ad limina meeting was to meet with Pope Francis. About 35 of us met with him for three hours. When it started, we went into this big room, his library, and it was the pope, his translator, and us. He said, ‘I have no agenda. I want to talk to you as a brother.’ It was so extraordinary,” he added. “When I first met the pope, as I entered, I said, ‘Holy Father, the Diocese of Knoxville is praying for you.’ And we do that at every Mass. He pulled me into himself a bit, smiled, and said, ‘For? Or against?’”

As the bishop smiled, the St. Joseph congregation laughed. But Bishop Stika underscored the anecdote to illustrate his point. Division is spreading.

Nowhere is the divide greater than on social media. The bishop recounted his own experiences—as a parish priest and as bishop—with the divide. He recalled a church in his home Archdiocese of St. Louis, where people in the congregation would nod in agreement on some issues he would address in his homilies, like the sanctity of

By Bill Brewer

Debt relief Father Richard Armstrong and Bishop Richard F. Stika lead the mortgage-burning ceremony at St. Joseph Church in Norris on Jan. 26. life, while shaking their heads in disagreement over other issues, like the death penalty.

“There are so many issues in the world in which we live that actually are dividing us. Have you been defriended on Facebook or unfollowed on Twitter? I’m there on Facebook and Instagram, and I’m nice. On Twitter, I commit sin because I like to engage people and throw pieces of meat out there and see how they respond,” he said.

Listen closely Bishop Stika praises St. Joseph parishioners for their For or against notwithstanding, Bishop Stika volunteer spirit during his homily on Jan. 26. appealed to the St. Joseph members to closely follow the Scripture readings about St. Paul VI, who was known as a gentle from the weekend of Jan. 25-26. In Isaiah 8:23-9:3, man. However, in a meeting on Church affairs people in darkness have seen a great light, and amid division among those attending, Pope the Scripture asks: “For is not everything dark Paul VI suddenly slammed his hand loudly on a as night for a country in distress?” But there was table and with raised voice said, “Enough! This rejoicing for people who saw the light of Christ.

Church is not your Church. This Church is not my In the Gospel, Matthew 4:12-23, Jesus fulfilled Church. This Church belongs to Jesus, to God.’ the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah and began And the Holy Father quoted the second reading. proclaiming the Good News as he began choosing The bishop then complimented St. Joseph parishhis apostles, and urging people to repent, “for the ioners for working in the spirit of agreement and kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.” cooperation to fulfill the Good News and show And in the second reading, 1 Corinthians 1:1that Jesus is alive in the St. Joseph community.

13, 17, Paul implored the Corinthians to not have “One of the reasons I’m so overjoyed to be with factions among them and to be in agreement, you today is, and Father Armstrong was just tellunited in their beliefs and judgments. ing me this, the unity of this parish. You have “I think the readings we have today are promuch to be proud of,” Bishop Stika said. “When I found in terms of reflecting. The first reading is a look at this parish, I see all kinds of involvement. beautiful reading from Isaiah, and it talks about There are people in each parish who are much a light in the darkness that attracts us. It’s Christ. more out front, but a majority of people in all Jesus lights up a dark world. In the second readparishes are behind the scenes.” ing there is Paul, who said, ‘I hear there is diviFather Armstrong offered a chronology of St. sion among you. Some say I belong to this, and Joseph’s development through the years. n In 1991, the parish moved from its original locasome say I belong to that,’” Bishop Stika said.

St. Joseph continued on page A14 He recalled a story from Cardinal Justin Rigali

Diocese of Knoxville reaches settlement in lawsuit

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s an act of pastoral outreach and without admitting wrongdoing, the Diocese of Knoxville has agreed to a request by Mr. Michael Boyd for a financial settlement of the lawsuit he filed against the diocese in July 2019.

The diocese has throughout denied the validity of the claim. However, the diocese also recognizes that further pursuing this matter through the legal system could be time-consuming, costly, and detrimental to its mission of service.

“Despite my personal feelings regarding the claim that names two now-deceased priests, I hope that this action offers Mr. Boyd a path to peace and reconciliation,” Bishop Richard F. Stika said.

When first presented with Mr. Boyd’s allegations in 2018, the diocese immediately contacted state authorities and encouraged Mr. Boyd to file a report with law enforcement. The diocese also turned over relevant materials to an independent and highly qualified criminal defense attorney not connected with the Diocese of Knoxville or its diocesan review board.

Based on a report submitted by the investigator, the diocesan review board, the majority of whose members are lay persons not in the employ of the diocese, determined that the allegations against Monsignor Xavier Mankel, Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell, and others named in the suit could not be substantiated.

“This diocese remains committed to acting with compassion and prudence regarding abuse allegations,” Bishop Stika said.

This settlement will be covered by insurance and will not impact the diocesan budget or its charitable missions. ■ A6 n FEBRUARY 2, 2020

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TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

Basilica moves Hispanic ministries to newer location Exit from outdated All Saints Academy building places outreach efforts closer to Latino community

DEACON HICKS ARMOR

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he Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga is cutting ties after more than nine decades with All Saints Academy, its nearby building that has fallen into disrepair after serving the parish as a school and later a meeting space since 1925.

The parish has purchased a new building at 2311 E. 23rd St. for its Hispanic Ministry, the primary user in recent years of All Saints Academy, and is leasing out the Academy building.

“We knew we couldn’t keep the building going indefinitely, as the cost to renovate and maintain it was prohibitive,” basilica rector Father David Carter said. “After going through two other project proposals, we finally have landed one with a developer seeking to remake the Academy into office space.”

That marks “a soluThe All Saints Acad- tion to relieve our parish of the costly emy building was burden to maintain All originally home to Notre Dame Acade- Saints Academy, the my, now Notre Dame large building located one block east of our High School, when church at 310 E. Eighth it was a grade 1-12 school from 1925 to St., while still retaining ownership of the 1965. property,” Father Carter wrote in a letter to parishioners. “We trade in this maintenance burden for another big challenge of accommodating our large parish community without this large, flexible meeting space at All Saints Academy that we have enjoyed for decades.”

The All Saints Academy building was originally home to Notre Dame Academy, now Notre Dame High School, when it was a grade 1-12 school from 1925 to 1965. When the high school grades moved to the current NDHS site on Vermont Avenue in fall ’65, the remaining grades continued under the name Sts. Peter and Paul Elementary School.

In 1972, the African-American parish and school of St. Francis combined with Sts. Peter and Paul,

By Dan McWilliams

Leaving longtime landmark The Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga is relocating its Hispanic ministries from the All Saints Academy building near the basilica. and the school became known as All Saints Academy until its closure in 1985.

The building continued to serve the parish as a host to youth Search retreats and nonprofit activities.

“Most recently it has served as home to our very active Hispanic ministries and, at times, our RCIA and youth group,” Father Carter wrote in his letter. “However, the building has fallen into disrepair and become unsafe to inhabit, and we determined a few years ago that the cost to make it habitable reaches into the millions—far beyond

the means of our budget to support. It also costs a significant amount in utilities to keep it open, at a time when we are operating on a large deficit.

“Selling the property is not allowed to us by the diocese. Even the cost of demolishing the building and rebuilding a smaller one on site or putting in a parking garage was investigated, but the cost would be exorbitant. Therefore, because of safety and liability concerns, we decided to lease the building out to a developer who can invest to bring the building back up to code and turn it into

Academy continued on page A13

‘Privilege of highest poverty’ Poor Clares monastery in Memphis quietly closes; last four nuns relocate

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s Christmas approached and 2019 came to a close, the last Catholic contemplative monastery in Tennessee quietly closed.

An 88-year-old priest, Father David Knight, was the last remaining resident. He had hoped to live out his days in his tiny single room with a connecting office where he has written over 40 books.

Few people have been behind the tall brick walls and iron gates of the Monastery of St. Clare, which covers nine acres in the Memphis neighborhood of Frayser. A group of nuns there has been quietly praying for the city and its people since 1932.

But now, with only four nuns remaining, the monastery has closed.

In May 2018, the Vatican issued guidelines that all contemplative communities, Catholic communities established ostensibly for continuous prayer, need to have at least seven members.

The last four Poor Clares in Memphis sought out ways to continue their vocation, joining other Poor Clare communities around the country.

Sister Anthony went to join the Poor Clares in Cincinnati, as did Sister Alma months earlier. Sister Marguerite and Sister Claudia went to live with the Poor Clares in Travelers Rest, S.C. There are about 20,000 Poor Clares worldwide; officially they are members of the Order of St. Clare.

The silent and prayerful lives of the women at the monastery remained a mystery and a curiosity to most

outsiders. The nuns relied on a loyal group of neighborhood friends for generosity, food, donations, and even occasional help around the monastery. The friends asked only for prayer in return.

In a neighborhood plagued by crime and whose residents fight to climb out of poverty, these women chose a life that St. Clare called the “privilege of highest poverty.” They were called to a life of prayer and silence, to live in radical poverty.

Last August, on the feast of St. Clare, the sisters were applauded for all the fruits of their prayers.

Choked up, finding it difficult to get out the words, Sister Marguerite looked into the faces of the wives, husbands, children, and elderly that she’d spent a lifetime praying for.

“We are leaving,” she said, “but we will continue to pray for you and you will always be in our hearts.” She was unable to say more.

Sisters came in from out of town to help the aging Memphis sisters with the daunting task of unraveling more than 85 years of religious life in the huge monastery, which once housed 30 holy women.

For several months, they worked to pack up the monastery. A sewing room filled with shelves of brown and black material for veils and habits was cleared out. Cabinets filled with candles and other liturgical items were cleaned and the items given away. Statues of saints were taken down from their pedestals.

One critical duty was taking an inventory of over 100 relics the Poor

By Karen Pulfer Focht/Catholic News Service

Clares had — matching each relic with the official authentication papers from Rome. The relics, each with a label, included part of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s veil; a piece of the habit of St. Francis of Assisi; the ashes of St. Francis and St. Clare; and even splinters identified as being from the

original cross of Jesus, according to tradition and authenticated by the Vatican.

The relics have been transferred to the Memphis Diocese.

As the day approached for Sister Anthony to leave, she answered

Poor Clares continued on page A19

One Heart, One World Pilgrimages with Lisa invites you on a pilgrimage to

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FEBRUARY 2, 2020 n A7

FOCUS AT A GLANCE FOUNDED: At Benedictine College in 1998 by Curtis Martin and Dr. Edward Sri. Headquartered in Denver.

MISSION: To know Jesus, fulfilling His Great Commission by launching college students into lifelong Catholic mission.

LEADERSHIP: Curtis Martin, chief executive officer; Craig Miller, president; Father John Lager, OFM, chaplain.

SCOPE: FOCUS has more than 730 missionaries serving 164 college campuses and eight parishes in the United States and Europe.

FOCUS continued from page A4

ecutive director of JoyToB, a teaching ministry, called on his audience to develop a relationship with each member of the Holy Trinity, spend time in community, and go out on mission to society.

There is “no such thing as a halfway Christian,” Mr. Owens said in relaying the idea of renouncing everything to serve Christ and giving God everything, understanding that God will give return graces in abundance.

“Give him everything and you will not be disappointed,” he said.

Keynote speakers of the evening were Jonathan Reyes and Helen Alvaré, who spoke about acknowledging the basic idea that humans were created by God and not created by themselves, which runs contrary to some modern notions.

A8 n FEBRUARY 2, 2020

COURTESY OF FELLOWSHIP OF CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Greek continued from page A4

their mission work much the way they approached school when they attended the University of Alabama (Ms. Soares) and the University of Nebraska (Mr. Buell). They are building friendships with students, and Jesus Christ is the foundation of those relationships.

Ms. Soares and Mr. Buell are half of the FOCUS missionary team at the University of TennesseeKnoxville. They are partnered with Payton Burnett and Spencer Purdy in bringing the Catholic faith to the 29,000-student campus.

At Alabama, Ms. Soares was active in Delta Gamma sorority, and Mr. Buell was active in Phi Kappa Theta fraternity at Nebraska.

“During a difficult moment at the beginning of my junior year of college, I was encountered by a sorority sister who was a FOCUS student leader and actively lived her faith. It was friendship with her and other students and missionaries that brought me to the person of Jesus Christ,” Ms. Soares said.

Up until then, Ms. Soares was active in a multi-denominational Bible study through her sorority, which taught her prayer, fellowship, and the importance of Scripture.

“I had the opportunity to practice Christianity, which was beautiful, but not my Catholic faith, which was what I truly wanted and needed,” she said, noting that when FOCUS came to the University of Alabama she was able to learn more about fully living her Catholic faith through fellowship, prayer, the sacraments, and Church teaching.

Mr. Buell didn’t have to venture very far out onto the Nebraska campus to find likeminded students.

He said Phi Kappa Theta is a faithbased fraternity with strong Catholic ties that attracts young men with similar beliefs.

He said FOCUS is very active on the Nebraska campus, so his association with the student evangelization program was natural.

“A FOCUS conference that I attended my senior year was a turning point in my faith. After that, I started to pray every day and developed a relationship with Jesus that I never had,” said Mr. Buell, who graduated from Nebraska in December 2018.

The FOCUS Greek missionaries believe being active in a sorority and fraternity in college has prepared them well for their evangelization efforts.

“Being a Greek woman gives me common ground with young women, either rushing or already in a sorority,” said Ms. Soares, who graduated from Alabama in May 2018. “Being Catholic is already difficult in college, but I think there is even more stress in trying to be Catholic in the Greek community and so many just need someone to understand that.”

Mr. Buell has found that being in a fraternity has given him a relatability to men in Greek life as he understands their unique lifestyle.

Signaling their faith Missionaries with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students symbolize their faith in Christ and their mission to help college students have a closer relationship with Jesus.

They agree the key to building those friendships is to meet the students where they are and invite them into the FOCUS missionaries’ lives.

“Our approach to mission is Jesus’ approach to mission. He met them where they were at,” Ms. Soares said. “I’m growing in deeper friendship with women who desire authenticity. When you love something or someone you want to share it or them with others. As we grow together they desire to invite their friends to Bible study and Mass.

There is a big difference in friendship focused on yourself and friendship focused on God. We make them aware of this friendship focused on God, to offer something that’s real.”

She cites 1 Thessalonians 2:8 as a guidepost for their Greek ministry: “With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the Gospel of God, but our very selves as well, so dearly beloved had you become to us.”

Ms. Soares and Mr. Buell say they are well-received on the UT campus as they lead Bible study for Greek students, attend Mass with them, and share in social activities.

As alumni of Greek communities who are now evangelizing in Greek communities, Ms. Soares and Mr. Buell are encouraged that God is working through them and their fellow FOCUS missionaries to build His kingdom on college campuses.

“God is doing very good things on this campus and we’re excited about the future of the Greek system at UT and the future of the Church because young people are the future of the Church,” Ms. Soares said.

The Greek system on college campuses is rooted in the values of community, academics, philanthropy, integrity, and friendship, according to FOCUS, and many Greek students occupy leadership roles within their sororities and fraternities and campus organizations like student government.

Ms. Brady said that in addition to Bible studies and campus events, FOCUS Greek and FOCUS Missions host spring-break trips for students Mr. Reyes, who leads evangelization and faith formation for the Knights of Columbus, suggested prayer, study, and God forming one’s mind. Among his reading recommendations were The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, Theology and Sanity by Frank Sheed, and Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton.

Ms. Alvaré, professor of law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, also pointed toward prayer, stressing that holding a Catholic worldview and participating in the sacraments are critical elements of a Catholic life.

Her fast-paced talk prompted widespread laughter after she asked the audience to identify and remove three obstacles or distracting factors in their lives, and then that they would have only two left after they put their phones away. ■

in Greek life. These mission trips include El Salvador, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Mexico City. More than 500 Greek students have taken part in the mission trips over the past five years.

“Our short-term mission trips are designed where we have relationships with people on the ground in those countries. We’ve seen Greek students have a transformative change, where they’ve returned from mission trips and then can identify pockets of poverty on the campuses where they are,” Ms. Brady said.

It’s just that kind of spiritual impact that FOCUS hopes to have on the students it is working to reach.

The impact is measurable. Among FOCUS alumni, more than 850 have pursued vocations within the Catholic Church, and many more have taken their faith into parishes,

where they continue to grow in that faith.

To open the evangelization door in the Greek community—and the broader campus—FOCUS missionaries meet students at Mass and follow up, or they work through alumni who might have a connection with both Greeks and FOCUS, or they simply make an introduction and announcement at sorority and fraternity chapters to make themselves known.

Ms. Brady acknowledges that challenges can exist in establishing Bible studies in sororities and fraternities around the country. But for the most part she finds Greek culture to be welcoming to the Holy Spirit.

“Generally, we are received well.

We aren’t going to force ourselves into any area. We don’t want it to be forced and we won’t go where we’re not welcome,” she said. “It’s really a breath of fresh air when someone says ‘I want to get to know you.’ We want to become friends with these students. Get to know your neighbors and invest deeply in them. That’s how we get to know the Lord.”

“I believe there are many good things in the Greek system, but there also are challenges that are amplified. It’s our responsibility to be a witness to the joy and hope that a relationship with Christ brings, and we want to do that,” she added.

Ms. Brady emphasized that both young men and young women are involved in Bible studies in fraternities and sororities, and their peers in FOCUS are accompanying them.

“It’s really beautiful to see what the Lord has been doing. These students are missionaries who are meeting them where they’re at,” Ms. Brady said. “I know they are doing great work on the UT campus.” ■

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TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

Steven Ray to lead mission at St. Thomas the Apostle Author to share his conversion story and offer insight on defending the Catholic faith

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est-selling author, intrepid world traveler, and Catholic convert Steven K. Ray never set foot in a Catholic Church until 1994.

In March, Mr. Ray will share his story on how he eventually became Catholic and will offer tools for explaining and defending the faith during a special mission at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City.

“Mission 2020: Living the Catholic Life… Defending Our Faith” will take place March 29-31 at the St. Thomas Parish Family Life Center. There is no charge to attend.

“I was raised in a very anti-Catholic, Baptist home,” Mr. Ray said.

“When I was 39, my wife and I discovered the fullness of the faith of the Catholic Church, and I am going to tell that story.”

His biography states that the couple “backed their way right into the Catholic Church” during their travels

and study of the early Church in Europe. The Rays officially entered the Catholic Church at Christ the King Parish in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Pentecost Sunday in 1994.

St. Thomas parishioners Shawna and Warren Hunt were instrumental in bringing Mr. Ray to East Tennessee.

“I think this is a very convenient opportunity to hear from a wellknown and respected Catholic author and speaker, and to learn more about our faith without having to drive out of state to attend a conference,” Mrs. Hunt said.

Two years ago, a similar mission at St. Thomas featured Gus Lloyd, morning show host on Sirius XM Radio’s The Catholic Channel.

“Warren and I first heard Steven speak at Franciscan University in Steubenville (Ohio) in 2012. Steve is so on-fire for the Catholic faith and

Steven Ray his enthusiasm is infectious,” Mrs. Hunt added.

The Hunts have traveled with Mr. Ray to the Middle East and Poland.

Mr. Ray has led nearly 200 pilgrimages to the Holy Land and has been dubbed “Jerusalem Jones” by the National Catholic Register according to Mrs. Hunt.

COURTESY OF JACK LAMENTIA

Citizen continued from page A5

must have been expedited since I did not have to deal with any of these documents,” he said, noting that his status as a priest with no dependents likely resulted in a more streamlined naturalization.

As part of the process, he was required to submit to medical examinations, a rigid background check

by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of Homeland Security, and the successful completion of a two-part naturalization test. The first part is an English exam to confirm that the candidate can read, write, and speak English. The second part is a test on U.S. facts.

Father Abuh said he had to study 100 questions, of which he had to answer at least six of 10 correctly.

“It was an emotional moment when immediately following the Oath of Allegiance, the presiding judge, the honorable Harry S. Mattice Jr., addressed us and declared, ‘Welcome fellow Americans to this great nation,’” Father Abuh recalled. “This was a dream come true, one I will never forget, much like the day of my priestly ordination. As it is extremely humbling becoming an American citizen, I am truly happy and grateful to God. I will do anything within my reach to defend and love my country as a new American.”

Father Abuh was among 50 new citizens from 22 countries taking the Oath of Allegiance in Chattanooga on Dec. 6. He said there was one other Nigerian man being naturalized.

After meeting for the first time at the ceremony, they have become friends.

Father Abuh, who also has served at St. Joseph Parish in Norris and St.

Celebratory supper Father Julius Abuh is joined by St. Joseph the Worker parishioners Lorene Steffee, Joyce Lamentia, and Nancy Lambert at a Cracker Barrel restaurant to celebrate his new U.S. citizenship.

Therese Parish in Clinton, is looking forward to voting in the next national election later this year as well as participating in federal programs available to all U.S. citizens.

“Over the years that I have been here on a working visa and eventually with a green card in the Diocese of Knoxville, I have always encouraged parishioners and friends who are citizens to go vote on election days. My famous slogan has been ‘If you don’t vote, don’t complain.’ So for me, it was another dream come true that I will not only encourage parishioners and friends to go vote, but I can now vote for any candidate of my choice,” Father Abuh said.

“Another joy that came with my becoming a U.S. citizen is the freedom of traveling to any country of

my choice during my vacations without the expenses and challenges of obtaining visiting visas to so many countries as I would on my Nigerian

New York priest needs lifesaving liver transplant, but can a donor be found in time?

Catholic News Service

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ather John Mack, a priest of the Diocese of Buffalo, N.Y., needs a liver transplant — from a living donor.

Living donors have been judged to be better donors than cadavers.

The recipient receives a portion of the healthy donor’s liver, and typically the organ will grow back to normal size in both the recipient and the donor within weeks. Relatives are the best donors.

But Father Mack, being celibate, has no children. He also is an only child. Research indicates the best donors are between ages 18 and 60.

And all of the priest’s cousins are older than he is.

Nobody knows, but Father Mack, who has been living with liver disease for the past five years — and whose manifestations really knocked him for a loop 18 months ago — could be one of the 20 percent to 25 percent of people waiting for a transplant who die before getting one.

Father Mack, who is 65 and teaches at Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, N.Y., said his prayer life changed when his health worsened in mid-2018.

“Every time I would have an upper endoscopy and have conscious

TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

sedation, I would say an Our Father and kind of get myself calmed down,” he said. “But in the midst of all of this, the prayer that seems for me that makes it OK is, ‘This is God’s will. This is God’s will.

This is going to happen.’”

Despite the negative news, “the miracles keep happening,” he added.

Father Mack Although Father Mack has no kin eligible to donate part of their liver, people have learned of his plight and have called the University of Rochester Medical Center to see if they are a match.

It takes six to eight weeks for the donor to fully recover from the surgery; it’s two months minimum for the typical transplant recipient, according to Father Mack, and there’s far more frequent monitoring in case the body rejects the organ.

Father Mack has nonalcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. “Fatty liver disease is the second largest disease of people going in for transplants.

I was never a drinker,” he said. It results, he noted, from eating “fast foods, a lot of food.” ■ w ww.di o k no x .o rg

From staff reports The St. Thomas mission will take place each night from 6:30 to 8.

In addition to a discussion on his Catholic conversion (March 29), Mr. Ray will speak on defending the Catholic faith (March 30). His final presentation (March 31) is titled “Swimming Upstream and How to Live a Catholic Life in a Pagan World.”

Mr. Ray and his wife Janet are the producers of the Catholic DVD series The Footprints of God: The Story of Salvation from Abraham to Augustine, which is featured on EWTN and Netflix. Mr. Ray is also a best-selling author and a regular guest on Catholic Answers Live, Ave Maria Radio, Relevant Radio, EWTN, and many others.

“It’s a Catholic mission and I am looking forward to meeting people who want to live their faith stronger and understand it better,” Mr. Ray said. ■ passport. What is more, I am now eligible for federal benefits, especially the opportunity of benefiting from U.S. tax laws,” he added.

But as invaluable as participating in the U.S. democratic process is, Father Abuh put his naturalization in a more important, spiritual context.

“Since the desire to become a U.S. citizen was hatched, especially thinking of all the privileges and benefits that awaited me, I made it a point of prayer, asking the good Lord to make it possible if it was His will for me to become a U.S. citizen. Therefore, with God making it possible on Dec. 6 with my swearing-in ceremony, my faith was all the more strengthened knowing that through prayers and perseverance God’s purpose in our lives will always be achieved,” Father Abuh said.

To mark the joyous occasion, Father Abuh and several of his parishioners celebrated in a very American way.

They dined at a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, where Father Abuh was free to practice his southern drawl. ■

One Heart, One World Pilgrimages with Lisa invites you on a pilgrimage to

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FEBRUARY 2, 2020 n A9

Knights purchase ultrasound for crisis pregnancy center St. Stephen Council 6099 raises funds for Choices East equipment aimed at saving lives

JANICE FRITZ RYKEN

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hanks to God’s providence and a lot of spaghetti dinners, expectant mothers in Chattanooga can now see clear ultrasound images of their unborn babies after the St. Stephen Parish Knights of Columbus Council 6099 purchased a new ultrasound image machine for a crisis pregnancy center in Chattanooga.

Victor Williams and his brothers in the Knights of Columbus recently purchased the machine for Choices East, a pregnancy resource center located on Vance Road.

For years, Mr. Williams, a pro-life advocate, had admired the work of Choices East. As a past Grand Knight, he’d taken part in many pro-life activities and found himself crossing paths with the kind and hardworking people who run the center, participating in community prayer services, annual prolife events, and property cleanup days.

So when Choices East Director Mi-

Ultramodern Choices East crisis pregnancy center in Chattanooga is outfitted with a new ultrasound purchased by St. Stephen Knights of Columbus Council 6099. Pictured are Knights Orville Fisher, Victor Williams, and Eric Pelton, and Carol Anne Ferguson and Kim Patton with Choices East. chele Cheresnick reached out to the Knights, seeking help in raising funds

to replace their old, obsolete ultrasound machine, Mr. Williams was thrilled to

Raffle raises more than $138,000 for schools

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be able to help.

“I immediately said yes,” said Mr. Williams, who took up the task of raising funds through his council. After initial success, however, the donations slowed.

“I started to worry, imagining myself doing 1,000 or more spaghetti dinners to raise the $13,400 we’d still need,” Mr. Williams said, laughing.

But after realizing this was not his project, but God’s, Mr. Williams said he prayed for guidance and some assistance.

“I decided to just trust God,” he said.

On the following weekend — in just one weekend — the Knights had raised enough funds to meet their goal, even raising an extra $3,000. With a matching grant from the Knights of Columbus Ultrasound Initiative out of Knoxville, Mr. Williams and his brother Knights recently presented Choices East with

Ultrasound continued on page A18

2019 Schools Raffle Winners 1st place: Kim Litton –– $10,000 2nd place: Courtney Painter –– $5,000 3rd place: Gina Martin –– $2,500 4th place: Judy Speck –– $2,500 5th place: Nicole Underwood –– $1,000

PAM RHOADES

he Diocese of Knoxville Office of Catholic Schools has announced that the 2019 raffle raised more than $138,000 to benefit schools and tuition support.

The raffle raised more than $63,000, which will go directly to the schools, and more than $75,000 for tuition assistance. Since its inception three years ago, the raffle has raised more than $475,000 for Catholic education in the diocese.

Knoxville Catholic High School led the way with more than 3,600 tickets sold. St. Joseph School was next with nearly 3,200 tickets sold. Figures do not include online sales.

Ten schools make up the diocesan school system. Eight are elementary schools and two are high schools. The high schools are in Chattanooga and Knoxville, and the elemen-

By Janice Fritz Ryken

6th place: Andrea Russell –– $1,000 And the winner is... Dr. Sedonna Prater, superintendent of Diocese of Knoxville schools, and Father Chris Michelson, pastor of St. Albert the Great Parish, select winning entries in the 2019 schools raffle. tary schools are located in Johnson City, Kingsport, Chattanooga, Oak Ridge, Farragut, and Knoxville.

All 10 schools are nationally accredited by AdvancED. There are 3,161 students enrolled in pre-kindergar-

ten through 12th grades, and the high school graduation rate is 100 percent.

Students at Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga and Knoxville Catholic High School have been awarded $31 million in scholarships. ■

7th place: Antonio Rodriguez –– $1,000 8th place: Andrea Donahue –– $1,000 9th place: Mike Eiffe –– $750 10th place: Kraigyn McCord –– $750 11th place: Wendy Kelly –– $750 12th place: Elizabeth Albert –– $750

Federal judge rules against Notre Dame University in health plan suit Catholic News Service

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lawsuit to force the University of Notre Dame to provide free contraceptives and abortifacient drugs in its health plans will proceed after receiving a green light from a federal district court in South Bend, Ind. Judge Philip Simon of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana denied motions by Notre Dame and the federal government to dismiss the case, Irish 4 Reproductive Health v. Department of Health & Human Services et al. He issued the ruling on Jan. 16.

The lawsuit originally was brought in 2018 against the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury, and Notre Dame by a handful of coeds calling themselves Irish 4 Reproductive Health, or I4RH. The suit was filed for them by the National Women’s Law Center, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The latter organization will honor the I4RH in March as

“2020 Students of the Year.”

The lawsuit alleges the university reached an “unlawful settlement” with the federal government that allowed it to “deny students, employees, and their dependents insurance coverage of birth control guaranteed to them by the (2010) Affordable Care Act,” better known as Obamacare.

President Barack Obama promised conscience protection in his health plan, but when his Health and Human Services Department issued specific rules in 2011, only houses of worship were given an exemption from the mandate for employers to provide contraceptives in their employee insurance plans. Religiously affiliated schools, hospitals, and other social service institutions weren’t exempted.

Some Catholic entities, namely the Little Sisters of the Poor, refused to obey the mandate and have been fighting court battles ever since. Notre Dame did initially challenge the Obamaera mandate in two different lawsuits, but neither were successful. The university provided the mandated insurance to employees and students. ■

ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE Presents

STEVE RAY Mission 2020:

“Living the Catholic Life...

Defending Our Faith” Sun., Mar. 29: Baptist to Catholic-Steve’s Conversion Story Mon., Mar. 30: Apologetics & Six Rules for Dealing with Non-Catholic Family & Friends Tues., Mar. 31: Swimming Upstream-Living a Catholic Life in a Pagan World

6:30 to 8:00 PM 1580 St. Thomas Way Lenoir City, TN 37772

Bishop continued from page A2

we now offer ourselves to the Father through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ in an act of perfect worship. The Mass is truly Christ’s sacrifice, but now we can say that it is our sacrifice, our praise and adoration, our thanksgiving.

The Mass does not end when we leave church each week. The command, “Go forth, the Mass has ended,” means we must now go and live our offering united to Jesus. And when we make a series of offertories of our days as an extension of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the heavenly hymn of praise resounds in our lives—“You made them a kingdom and priests for our God, and they will reign on earth” (Revelation 5:10). ■ A10 n FEBRUARY 2, 2020

O Jesus, through the immaculate heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in thanksgiving for your favors, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my relatives and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father.

Amen.

All are invited! Space is limited.

Go to https://sta-mission2020.eventbrite.com/ to reserve your spot.

There is no charge, there will be a free will offering each night.

For more information, contact Penny Manczko at mustang62261@comcast.net Steve and Janet Ray are the producers of the Catholic DVD series The Footprints of God: The Story of Salvation from Abraham to Augustine which are featured on EWTN and NETFLIX. Steve is also a best-selling author and a regular guest on Catholic Answers Live, Ave Maria Radio, Relevant Radio, EWTN and many others.

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El Paso bishop: treat migrants as Jesus would be treated Bishop Seitz urges Christians to encounter a Christ who exists in those at the southern border

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t the start of a week focused on the plight of migrants, El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz asked Sept. 23 whether Christians are ready to encounter a Christ who exists in the migrants at the U.S. border, in the children who have lost their lives while under immigration custody, and those seeking to enter the country looking for work or safety.

“That is the question,” Bishop Seitz said in a homily during Mass at St. Pius X Church in El Paso, where he

welcomed bishops from other parts of the country, members of a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and many who tend to migrants around the United States.

Leading up to the Catholic Church’s Sept. 29 celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, the group planned to visit farmworkers, youth, and other migrants, and celebrate the Eucharist each day, keeping in mind the plight of refugees and other vulnerable populations.

By Rhina Guidos/Catholic News Service

Even as anti-immigrant sentiment rises, the church has remained steady in its call to tend to refugees and migrants.

“Thank you for showing your solidarity,” said Sister Joanna Okereke, assistant director for Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees and Travelers at the USCCB’s Secretariat of Cultural Diversity, as she welcomed the group to the opening Mass. “Continue to speak in defense of migrants.”

During his homily, Bishop Seitz

asked those gathered whether they have wondered what it’s like to see the face of Christ, shake His hand, embrace Him. We can experience what that’s like, he said, by seeing the Lord’s face in the person in need, in the person who needs our help.

As photos of migrants were displayed on a big screen, he mentioned the names of children who died while in U.S. immigration custody, and showed images of people who come USCCB continued on page A12

‘You belong with your family’

“The best way I could sum up this pastoral visit would be that it was incredibly and deeply moving,” she said. “We were moved by the beauty of culture, the tragedy of injustice that people face, and also by the power of human love—what one is willing to do for love for their family, for a hope for a better future for their kids.”

In El Paso, the 43-member delegation crossed the border into Juarez, where thousands of people are waiting to have their cases heard to enter the United States.

There also are people who have been deported from the United States preparing to return to their home countries.

“In Juarez, there were about 1,000-1,500 who were kind of waiting in line. We didn’t count them, but we heard that was the number. We did see them camping out under the bridge, waiting in line to get to the border to then ask for their case to be heard. So there are definitely a lot of people on the side of Juarez,” Mrs. Garcia said.

“We didn’t have any sort of situation come up to make our group feel unsafe. The border was very organized, if you will, even though there was a long line on the side of Juarez. There were clearly checkpoints. There were soldiers from the Mexican side that we saw stationed along the border. On the U.S. side, there were border patrol vehicles that we saw every now and then parked near the border,” she added.

In Juarez, they went to Corpus Christi Parish and del Casa de Migrante, or the migrant house, which provides a shelter for people who are trying to arrange an appointment for their asylum or immigration cases to be heard.

The first thing the delegation saw were two large buses preparing

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farmers every year for the past 16 years, visiting various parts of the country.

This year the encounter included the Diocese of Las Cruces, N.M., the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, and the Diocese of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Bishop Mark J. Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, Bishop Oscar Cantú of the Diocese of San Jose, Bishop Peter Baldacchino of the Diocese of Las Cruces, and Father Robert Stark, regional coordinator of the Vatican’s Section on Migrant and Refugees, attended.

The encounter included visits with refugees awaiting asylum, those who have faced deportation, the victims of the mass shooting in El Paso, and migrant farm workers and their families. The goal of a pastoral encounter to is meet these migrants and refugees face-to-face and take time to learn about their lives and hear their stories.

There also is prayer. For the delegation, it can be a time of learning and compassion. For the migrants and refugees, it can be a time of consolation and validation.

“This year they did very intentionally choose a border town visit for the very reason that there’s so much attention being drawn to the border right now. They thought it was particularly important this year to go there,” Mrs. Garcia said.

A pastoral encounter More than 40 members of a pastoral encounter by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops visited immigrants on the U.S. southern border with Mexico last fall. Members of the mission visited Texas, New Mexico, and Juarez, Mexico.

“We were moved by the beauty of culture, the tragedy of injustice that people face, and also by the power of human love— what one is willing to do for love for family, for a hope for a better future for their kids.”

— Brittany Garcia to take 75 people back to El Salvador and Honduras. Mrs. Garcia noted how downcast the people looked.

“You’ve given up time and money and months of your life generally to get to where you’re at, and to receive a no or to go home to where a lot of times the reason they left in the first place is. This isn’t true for every case, but a lot of times it’s because of fear of the mafia, of the government, of politics, of being hungry, whatever it is,” she said. “So to have to go back, they tend to also be somewhat of a target because you’ve left the country. They see you now as a bit of a traitor that you wanted to leave, and then you didn’t make it, so now you’re back. So that’s just a hard reality for people to go back into.”

The visiting bishops gave the people on the buses a blessing for their travel and their safety.

At del Casa de Migrante, Mrs. Garcia met with some of the residents.

“What I wasn’t expecting to encounter was when we went into the kitchen we saw some young people who were serving lunch, who I was speaking to in Spanish, but then they switched to speaking in English. They spoke perfect English, and they told me that they were both deported recently from the U.S. They actually grew up in the U.S.,” she recalled.

One young man shared how his family had brought him to the United States as a toddler. He grew up in Washington state. Because of new restrictions placed on DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that allows immigrants brought to the United States as children to work, study, and get a driver’s license), this young man was not able to apply for the protective status when he turned 18. He was deported to Mexico, a country he’s never known.

“That was really impactful for me because I was expecting to see people from Guatemala, Honduras, who are waiting for their appointment to come into the United States. But I wasn’t expecting to see young people from the United States who had recently been deported,” Mrs. Garcia said. “They’re

On a mission Brittany Garcia is shown on the USCCB-sponsored pastoral encounter with immigrants on the southern border last fall. kind of in this holding ground, if you will, in Juarez.”

“One of the things that really struck me from this young man’s story is he said, ‘Yeah, they deported me back to where I belong.’

One of the priests who was with us at the time really took that opportunity to ask him and push on that. ‘Well, where is your family?’

And he said, ‘My family’s still in Washington.’ And the priest says, ‘Well, that’s where you belong. You belong with your family.’”

In El Paso, the pastoral encounter delegation visited the memorial for the 22 people who died in a mass shooting at a Walmart there on Aug. 3. Another 24 were injured.

The memorial has 22 white crosses.

Mrs. Garcia recounted how one of the priests recognized a man laying flowers at one of the crosses.

The man had lost his wife in the tragedy, and every day he brought flowers to the memorial. The group was able to meet the man, listen to his story, and share in that moment of grief. A 21-year-old Texan was arrested immediately after the shooting and charged with capital murder. Investigators said they believe his motive was based on white nationalist and anti-immigrant ideologies.

El Paso’s existence revolves around the border, Mrs. Garcia explained. The city felt it was targeted because it is a border town.

Going back and forth is a way of life for many residents.

“They were very threatened in their essence that day,” she explained. “The young shooting suspect was actually from Dallas.

Dallas has a lot of Hispanic/Latinos, too. So that begged the question, why did he come here? So just hearing their accounts, they’re

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pretty convinced that it’s just because of everything that was happening in the media, the attention that the border was getting—that we’re being flooded and run over and crazy things happening at the border—that that’s reportedly why a young man from Dallas would drive six hours to El Paso to carry out this horrific crime.”

Blessings from the Rio Grande

The next leg of the pastoral encounter was with migrant farmers. Migrants travel to the United States for a short time, such as during harvest season, and then return to their home countries. Some spend months away from their families, and they endure hard labor and low wages.

Hatch, N.M., is the chili pepper capital of the world. Although the town has less than 2,000 people, in the surrounding fields migrant farmers work long hours loading 10-gallon buckets with chili peppers. They carry the buckets across the fields, unload them, and fill them again, back and forth for 1012 hours in the Southwestern heat.

For each bucket, they receive a token worth 70 cents. On a good day, the young and strong can fill 100 buckets—$70.

The pastoral encounter delegation met with these workers and learned not just about the farming process but the challenges long, hard hours can put on family life.

Mrs. Garcia noted that many work without gloves because it slows them down.

“So it was just learning little things like that, for us to enter into the reality of what the struggles are like for these migrant workers who are working 12 hours a day, often on weekends. They get up at

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Catholic homily length shorter than Christian counterparts

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service

DEACON PATRICK MURPHY-RACEY

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f experience can’t prove it, data scraping will: Catholic sermons are shorter than their Protestant counterparts.

According to an analysis of 50,000 sermons — Catholics commonly refer to theirs as homilies — the Pew Research Center determined that the median Catholic sermon is 14 minutes long.

The next shortest are mainline Protestant sermons, at 25 minutes.

Evangelical Christian sermons are nearly three times as long as Catholic sermons at 39 minutes. But the longest median sermons belong to churches in the African-American Protestant tradition, clocking in at 54 minutes, nearly four times as long as their Catholic counterparts.

Pew made its analysis by conducting data scraping, a technique in which a computer program extracts

To the point Bishop Richard F. Stika delivers a homily during Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“You can clock me, and I’ll be anywhere between eight-and-a-half and 10 minutes. I may do 13, 14, 15 minutes, but that’s more the exception than the rule,” Deacon Kramer said Dec. 12 before the Pew study was released Dec. 16.

Deacon Kramer said he sees “no value” in longer sermons. “If you can say it, say it and get out,” he added.

He said the relative brevity of Catholic homilies is not because the church parking lot needs to cleared in time for the next Mass.

He said Catholic preaching tends to be shorter because of the nature of the Mass, which has both a Liturgy of the Word and a Liturgy of the Eucharist.

Protestant worship, he added, has “minimal eucharistic services.”

Deacon Kramer, who has a doctorate in ecumenical homiletics, was ordained a permanent deacon in 1994 for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., but is now attached to the Arch-

data from human-readable output coming from another program. Pew found its trove of sermons and homilies either posted on church websites or on YouTube.

The numbers sound right to Deacon Steve Kramer, director of the homiletics program at the Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wis., near Milwaukee.

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to the United States looking for work or seeking safety.

“We can see the face of Christ in the face of children and adults who have lost their lives,” he said. “We who have received so many blessings, will we allow ourselves to be the face of Christ?”

Can we respond to the Christ who appears in the form of those who suffer, whether they be migrants or the poor, he asked.

How we respond “says a lot about us,” he said.

“Are we willing to accept our responsibility as Christians?” he asked.

The call to tend to all the marginalized is a call for all faithful to focus on and should be at the center of faith, said Father Robert Stark, regional coordinator of the Vatican Migrants and Refugees Section, who is attending the gathering and offered brief comments following the opening Mass.

“The pope’s prayer is that together we will have an ‘encuentro con Dios’ (encounter with God) in such a way that it will help with (accompaniment) not just to include migrants but those who should never be excluded,” he said.

When El Paso Catholic leaders on Sept. 23 welcomed the USCCB delegation, including lay ministers who tend to migrants in various parts of the United States, they proudly spoke of

the “DNA” of the El Paso community, one that doesn’t treat those who aren’t from the area as strangers.

El Paso, as a community, practices much of what the Gospel asks of believers, said Dylan Corbett, executive director of the local Hope Border Institute, which helps migrants.

“It welcomes in a real way, in a concrete way, the stranger, the Christ in our midst,” he told the group gathered at St. Pius X Church on the first day of a weeklong pastoral “encounter” with migrants in the region.

When Central Americans and other migrants began appearing in this border city in large numbers during the past few years, the El Paso community fed them, clothed them, and helped them contact family with whom to stay in other parts of the country.

Sometimes they helped as many as 1,000 per day. When their numbers dropped because U.S. government policies changed, leaving the migrants stranded on the Mexico side, it “felt like a good friend had died,” recalled Bishop Seitz.

And it’s exactly that welcoming attitude, that embracing of strangers from Latin America, that a gunman tried to extinguish Aug. 3, when he opened fire at the local Walmart, killing 22, including many Catholic El Pasoans and their Mexican neighbors who died after being shot.

“That’s what was attacked on that

day,” Mr. Corbett said. “But we’re also a resilient community, and we won’t give in to the fear that drove that attack. And we’ll continue to be who we are and faithful to our DNA.” Mr. Corbett, along with other local Catholics, are hoping the group that visited El Paso and its surrounding area Sept. 23-27 will act as ambassadors for the realities in border cities, including people being victims of antiimmigrant and racist acts, such as the one that took place last summer.

El Paso stepped in to help when it saw a humanitarian crisis at its doorstep and decided to help vulnerable people in need. That’s what the local diocese hoped to explain to its Catholic visitors.

“I’m very proud of our community, of our Church, for its amazing response,” Bishop Seitz said. “Can you imagine? We’re one of the most economically challenged regions of the country based on income, but we were receiving more than 1,000 a day, feeding them, clothing them, giving them a chance to bathe, giving them a chance to contact families. We were doing that for days, for months, purely a community response.”

It was painful when those actions were said to be the reason El Paso was targeted, he said.

The suspected shooter is believed by authorities to be an anti-immigrant, white nationalist who had railed in

writing about the “Hispanic invasion of Texas” prior to the shooting.

Bishop Oscar Cantu of San Jose, Calif., who previously was the bishop of the Diocese of Las Cruces, N.M., was clearly moved by Bishop Seitz’s recounting of the situation. His community, also one of immigrants, experienced similar violence in late July during a family festival in the town of Gilroy, which celebrates its most popular crop: garlic.

“Families come out to enjoy food, and it was disrupted by gunfire. Three innocent people died, two of them children. One whom I buried,” Bishop Cantu said, choking back tears.

When he saw the news about the Walmart shooting, he talked to parishioners in California and told a couple about having been a bishop in El Paso’s neighboring city of Las Cruces.

“I don’t know how these parishioners saw me … but when I made comment, I saw surprise in their faces when I mentioned that I (had been) the bishop of the twin city to El Paso, to which I traveled in and out of. I considered El Paso part of my home.

As a Hispanic myself, I could have been targeted,” he said. “Maybe they didn’t see me as Hispanic, but I saw the change in their complexion, in their eyes. At some point, when it becomes personal, when it becomes relational, that’s when it changes.” ■

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stewards of what we’re given.”

One way to serve immigrants in East Tennessee neighborhoods, Mrs. Garcia suggested, is to make sure parishes have resources to help them when the immigrants arrive in communities around the diocese— where they can go for help, how to navigate the community, schedules of available English classes, etc.

There are many resources available,

but it takes some work to make sure they reach the local parishes and the people who need them.

Support also can be as simple as a warm smile and introduction after Mass—let each person know that he or she is not only welcome but an important part of the community—that they belong, she said. ■

1 a.m., are home by 3 or 4 p.m., so they’re often invisible to society because they’re not being seen during the day.”

Four bishops with the pastoral encounter delegation celebrated Mass in the chili fields for the migrant workers. Their families and other members of the community attended, sitting on hay bales.

“While we were there, Bishop Baldacchino, who is the local bishop in the diocese of Las Cruces, blessed the water coming from the Rio Grande. He then used that holy water to bless the hands of the migrant workers by going through the aisles of hay bales and sprinkling their hands that they may be blessed in the work that they do to provide food on our tables, for all their suffering and the days out in the sun, all the hours that they give so that the rest of the world might have chili peppers, just really honoring the work that these migrant farm workers do for us, to feed us, to nourish us,” Mrs. Garcia said.

She pointed out that it isn’t just chili fields in New Mexico that rely on migrant workers. Farms all across the country, which are growing a variety of U.S. produce, have migrant workers putting in long, backbreaking hours to keep the country’s agriculture system running.

“I think it’s a challenge to recognize the suffering that was behind that or the hard work that goes into this plate of food that we get to enjoy,” Mrs. Garcia said. “Honor those workers by saying a little prayer for them at dinner time, just keeping them in mind and being respectful of the food, being good A12 n FEBRUARY 2, 2020

Work to be done

Mrs. Garcia’s work with migrants and refugees did not end with the pastoral encounter.

One of the results of the recent V Encuentro was the need to focus on the pastoral care of migrants and immigrants. In January, Mrs. Garcia traveled to the USCCB offices in Washington, D.C., to continue work on how to welcome and advocate for migrants and refugees. She has been chosen to serve on the advisory group for the V Encuentro Immigration and Migrant Ministry.

For the next two years, she and other members of the advisory group will seek ways to implement the findings from the V Encuentro regarding the needs of these demographics; how to overcome cultural, social, and material obstacles; and how to get available resources to dioceses and parishes.

“We’re trying to be faithful to the voices that were heard at the national level for the conclusions of what is urgent pastorally in regards to migrants and refugees,” Mrs. Garcia said.

“That can include meeting their most basic needs, welcoming them into a new community, and providing the space and learning for them to become part of a community.

“It’s our responsibility as lay people, and in particular voters, to educate ourselves on the policies and the laws that are being proposed. Are those policies and laws in congruence with our belief of the dignity of every human person? How will these policies affect migrants and refugees and their quality of life?”

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BVM order endows scholarship for Our Lady of Perpetual Help School Sisters taught at site in Chattanooga 1937-2003

By Bill Brewer

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office space.”

A developer has signed the contract, a 31-year ground lease that the developer has the option to renew, and Bishop Richard F. Stika and diocesan attorneys have approved the transaction.

“Several developers have considered taking on the building to provide low-cost housing using grant money, but they have each had to walk away for lack of funding,” Father Carter wrote.

The developer leasing the building has a connection to All Saints Academy.

“The developer is actually a former student of Sts. Peter and Paul and Notre Dame High schools and has a nostalgic connection to the building,” Father Carter said. “We are grateful for his initiative in making something good come from this venerable old building.”

The basilica began transitioning out of All Saints Academy in late 2019, a decision hastened by the building’s heating system having become inoperable. The nonprofit groups the basilica was hosting there moved off site.

The parish’s Hispanic community has attempted in recent times “to purchase an annex building for their evangelical outreach activities,” Father Carter wrote. “They currently rent two smaller buildings privately for this outreach, but they have outgrown one of the buildings and are seeking to expand. You may not be aware that one of the reasons our Hispanic community has grown so much in numbers recently is because of the efforts of this off-campus ministry. They are spreading and living the Gospel message in our neighborhoods, just as we are all commissioned to do!”

With the loss of the Academy building, “we knew that we needed a new space for our Hispanic ministry,” Father Carter said. “We were able to pair up with one of our ministry outreaches associated with our parish (Casa de Oracion Santa Cruz) and were able to purchase a new building on 23rd Street a few miles from the parish that will be the new location for our parish’s Hispanic Ministry.

“It is a building located right in the TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

Those with big hearts Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary show the Valentine cards they exchange with students at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Chattanooga.

COURTESY OF CISSY WEST (5)

he Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who have served as teachers in the Diocese of Knoxville, are providing scholarships for students at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Chattanooga.

Cissy West, development director for Our Lady of Perpetual Help, said the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary were the first teachers at OLPH, sending four women religious from St. Joseph’s Convent, Mount Carmel, in Dubuque, Iowa, to begin the first classes for grades one through eight in September 1937.

“Those sisters were Sister Mary Emanuela Manning, Sister Mary Consolita Boyer, Sister Mary Madaleva Weisbrook, and Sister Mary Carmelette Kennedy,” Ms. West said. “Over the years, the BVM sisters sent 63 of their order here to pray, teach, and live out their faith, until the last two, Sister Frances Schaeffer and Sister Helen Sherrard, retired and left the convent on our grounds in the summer of 2003.”

And while they may have been gone from OLPH, the sisters were not forgotten. According to Ms. West, OLPH students and the BVM sisters have become pen pals.

“Since then the students of OLPH have stayed in touch, sending Valentine cards to the Motherhouse in Iowa each year. Beginning in the school year following the sisters’ final departure, OLPH established the BVM Award in tribute to their legacy. One student from each grade who shows faithfulness and love to God, to those in the community, and to all of God’s people is honored each year with this distinction,” Ms. West said.

She explained that as vocations to

religious life decreased and fewer of the BVM sisters continued in the classroom, the order sought other ways to continue their educational mission.

“In 2017, they established an endowed scholarship fund with the help of their donors and the BVM funds for mission. Their goal is to establish a scholarship in each of the 37 dioceses in 22 states where the BVMs formerly served,” Ms. West said.

“Late last fall OLPH principal Paul Jette was contacted by the develop-

ment office at Mount Carmel and informed that the school had been selected as a recipient of one of these endowed scholarships. Beginning in the fall of 2020, we will be able to offer this scholarship to one or more students (depending on demonstrated need) from OLPH Parish each year, and the recipient can be considered for one-time renewal,” Ms. West added.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help is one of three diocesan schools in Chattanooga, joining St. Jude as feeder schools to Notre Dame High School.

imagined. Think of it like a full house with one bathroom. In any house with a large family, much sharing and sacrifices are required, but the benefits of having a large, faithful family are well worth it!”

The All — Father David Carter Saints Academy parking will remain available to neighborhoods where many of our the basilica, Father Carter wrote.

Hispanic parishioners live. The pur“As part of the deal with the develchase was approved by the Diocesan oper of All Saints Academy, because Finance Council on Dec. 13 and final- the building will be used for offices ized right before Christmas, and the and not residences, we will be able to community was able to celebrate a continue to use the parking lot on the vigil for the birth of the Savior in the evenings and weekends, when we new building.” truly need it most, during our Masses The 23rd Street building “could also serve as an overflow space for some of our parish ministry activities that have normally met at All Saints Academy,” Father Carter wrote in his letter.

The basilica’s remaining spaces of Varallo Parish Hall and its religiouseducation building “will be taxed heavily,” Father Carter wrote. “It is imperative that we exercise the Christian virtues of patience and humility as we enter this new phase of unity in the life of the parish.”

The challenge is “where will our ministries go?” Father Carter wrote of the parish’s non-Hispanic ministries.

“We will now need to unify all our ministries on our main campus. We will sometimes be unable to accommodate worthwhile activities. Varallo Parish Hall, being our one large room in the parish, will regularly be used by multiple groups at once, with the separation of our portable partition walls.

“This arrangement will require consideration and tolerance between groups who share space. I am asking that our ministries look into moving some activities off-site, where possible, to allow for other groups to meet on campus. We should see this challenge as an opportunity to develop the virtue of humility, which can open up fruitful possibilities in our community that we have not yet “We knew that we needed a new space for our Hispanic ministry.

We were able to pair up with one of our ministry outreaches associated with our parish (Casa de Oracion Santa Cruz) and were able to purchase a new building on 23rd Street a few miles from the parish that will be the new location for our parish’s Hispanic ministry.”

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The school, which is pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, has grown from 60 students in 1937 to more than 275 in 2019. It is located on the campus of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church on South Moore Road off Interstate 24. ■ and other large-group activities. With downtown parking at such a premium now, we should all rejoice in this bonus!”

Father Carter was thankful for the help of several people in the acquisition of the 23rd Street building.

“I am grateful for Bishop Stika, [diocesan chief financial officer] Shannon Hepp, and [diocesan chancellor] Deacon Sean Smith, who helped out tremendously with the diocesan process for us to purchase the building and provide for the needs of our Hispanic ministry,” the basilica rector said. “I in particular would like to thank Deacon Hicks Armor, whose great expertise in the area of finance and real estate aided me so much.

Without his true diaconal spirit of service and his attentiveness to all the details, I don’t think the building could have been purchased as quickly as it was.” ■

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The present and the future Left: Bishop Richard F. Stika greets a young gift bearer during Mass Jan. 26 at St. Joseph Church in Norris. Bishop Stika celebrated the Mass and took part in a mortgageburning ceremony afterward.

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Below: Members of St. Joseph Parish in Norris participate in a Jan. 26 Mass celebrated by Bishop Stika.

The parish with 140 families has retired its debt nearly six years early and parishioners celebrated the milestone.

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tion on West Norris Road in Norris to its present site at 3425 Andersonville Highway. At this time, the parish established its first mortgage with the diocese for the church sanctuary and site work.

In 1991, the original mortgage with the diocese was $400,000, with monthly mortgage payments of $3,138. n In 1996, St. Joseph added the parish hall, which is the rest of the church beyond the second set of pews in the rear of the church. n In 2002, the rectory on Dairypond Road was acquired. n In 2008, the choir area was added in the church nave in addition to removing a wall that separated the nave from the parish hall. A moveable wall was installed to separate the sanctuary and nave from the parish hall. n In 2010, the home and property to the east of the church were purchased and developed into a building for religious education and meetings.

“In each case, the parish had significantly paid down the mortgage balance before making the next investment. Working with staff from the diocese, St. Joseph was able to roll the balance of our prior loan into a revised mortgage that helped the parish fund each acquisition and the associated improvements,” Father Armstrong said. “As a result, the parish has had a mortgage since 1991 until it was recently paid off. Now, for the first time in 28 years, the parish is debt free. This is 70 months ahead of the original scheduled payoff date of May 2025.”

Bishop Stika congratulated the parish for its efforts to become debtfree, and then he wondered how long that will last.

“You’ve paid off the debt. And you finally got a dishwasher. You have one part-time employee, with all these volunteers,” the bishop said. “I said to Father Richard, so now you’re out of debt. How are you going to get back in debt? He said maybe someday you will enlarge the church, maybe add on a kitchen or some classrooms.”

Following Mass, Bishop Stika and Father Armstrong led the parishioners outside, where a facsimile of the mortgage was burned in a small fire pit. Bishop Stika gave thanks to God for the people who had made that moment possible, then the congregation clapped as the faux mortgage document burned.

Afterward, Bishop Stika remarked how he has celebrated Mass with mortgage-burning ceremonies several times recently, including at St. Mary Parish in Johnson City and Holy Family Parish in Seymour. And he said Notre Dame Parish in Greeneville is talking about adding on to

a hall that he broke ground on just a few years ago.

“St. Joseph, a parish with about 140 families, paid off its debt five years ahead of time. It has one part-time employee and that’s it. Everyone else volunteers. The church looks good; it’s immaculate.

Father Armstrong is providing great leadership,” the bishop said. “It’s about ownership.

And people are very faithful to that. And they’re already talking about possibly expanding, so they’ll go back into debt and it will come back again.”

He noted that so many diocesan parishes, when they were established, didn’t have enough money but scraped together enough resources to build a nice building, but a small building, whether it was a church or a parish hall—a situation that resonates with most priests, including Father Armstrong, who establish parishes.

In addition to pastoring St. Joseph, Father Armstrong leads St. Therese in Clinton, where he is parish administrator, and St. Thomas the Apostle Eastern Catholic Mission in Knoxville.

“This would not have been possible but for the tremendous amount of time volunteered by the members of this parish to perform functions that many parishes pay staff to handle. In addition, the generous contributions from parishioners were absolutely essential to make this happen,” Father Armstrong said about the St. Joseph debt retirement.

Bishop Stika called St. Joseph and

“I want you to know from the depths of my heart how much of a joy it is for me to visit parishes like this, especially for celebrations. I have a great love and affection for all of you. I’m so honored to be the bishop here now coming up on 11 years. We have much to be proud of, but also we have much work to do. And we focus on Jesus on this great day of thanksgiving for this church of St. Joseph in beautiful Norris, Tenn.

And please know how grateful I am for you.”

— Bishop Richard F. Stika its members the light of Christ, just as the readings described. He sees that same light in Catholic communities throughout the Diocese of Knoxville, and he appreciates the unity of parishioners throughout the diocese.

“I want you to know from the depths of my heart how much of a joy it is for me to visit parishes like this, especially for celebrations. I have a great love and affection for all of you. I’m so honored to be the bishop here now coming up on 11 years,” the bishop said. “We have much to be proud of, but also we have much work to do. And we focus on Jesus on this great day of thanksgiving for

this church of St. Joseph in beautiful Norris, Tenn. And please know how grateful I am for you,” he said.

“One of the great things about being a bishop here is I know this parish and I know so many of you as I travel throughout the diocese. Just as in the Gospel reading, I’m sure there are things I have decided that you may disagree with or wonder about.

That’s all right. If I don’t please you always, know that I pray over all decisions, just like I hope all the priests and leaders of this diocese do. But I’m not perfect, and you aren’t perfect. But we’re striving for holiness,” he added. ■

Parish where Kobe worshiped offers prayers, Masses Bryant knelt in prayer before helicopter crash claimed lives of all nine on board

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ours before he died on Jan. 26, basketball superstar Kobe Bryant knelt in prayer at Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Newport Beach, Calif. His parish is now praying for his soul.

Holy Mass was offered on Jan. 27 at the parish for the souls of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven other victims of the Jan. 26 helicopter crash that took their lives, according to NBC 4 Los Angeles.

NBC reported that parishioners have gathered to pray the rosary for the Bryants and the other victims of the crash.

A memorial service for Mr. Bryant is to be held Feb. 24 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, the arena where he starred for the Lakers.

Our Lady Queen of Angels parishioners said Mr. Bryant was a regular part of their parish community.

Heny Russell, an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion at the parish, remembered that Mr. Bryant presented a bit of a challenge to her.

“When I give him Communion I have to put my arm and feet up like that so I can reach him,” Ms. Russell said, demonstrating a stretch on the tip of her toes.

“They are very humble people, you know,” Ms. Russell told NBC of her fellow parishioners.

Kobe Bryant, 41, was the father of four. Gianna Bryant, 13, was an upand-coming basketball player in her own right, who had said she hoped to

Unimaginable loss A card featuring images of Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, has been signed by mourners at a makeshift memorial. play for the University of Connecticut.

They were killed Jan. 26, along with seven other people, while en route via helicopter to a youth basketball tournament.

Mr. Bryant, his wife, and children, are reported to be regular parishioners at Our Lady Queen of Angels Parish.

After his death was announced, Catholics reported their experiences of seeing Mr. Bryant at Sunday and weekday Mass in other parts of California, and other parts of the country.

Some reported seeing him at Mass in their cities whenever the Los Angeles Lakers, the team for which Mr. Bryant

played for 20 years, were in town.

Singer Cristina Ballestero posted on Instagram Jan. 26 a story of her encounter with Mr. Bryant at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange, Calif., at a weekday Mass.

“As we went up to communion, [Mr. Bryant] waited for me to go. If you grew up in the Catholic Church, you understand this is a respectful thing men do in church as a sign of respect to women. He said I have a beautiful voice.”

“His most inspiring trait was his decision to turn to his faith in God and receive God’s mercy and to be a better

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Catholic News Agency man after a regretful decision,” Ms. Ballestero added.

After Mr. Bryant’s death was reported, but before news emerged that his daughter, Gianna, had also been killed, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez tweeted his condolences as did Bishop Robert Barron, an auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles. Bishop Kevin Vann of the Diocese of Orange, Mr. Bryant’s bishop, also tweeted a message of prayer.

Mr. Bryant credited his Catholic faith with helping him move past a challenging period in his own life and the life of his family.

In 2003, Mr. Bryant was arrested after he was accused of raping a woman in a Colorado hotel room.

Mr. Bryant acknowledged a sexual encounter with the woman, but denied that he had committed sexual assault. When the allegation became public, Mr. Bryant lost sponsors and faced criminal charges, which were eventually dropped.

Mr. Bryant issued an apology to his accuser, with whom he also reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit.

“Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did. After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter,”

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TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

Taking it to the streets Left: Pedro and Brittany Garcia, Veronica Rubio, and Selena Ledesma join 1,000 other marchers in supporting the sanctity of life Jan. 26.

TRL continued from page A1

The power of prayer “Every year, leading up to the march, I pray. Pray for good weather, pray for good attendance, pray that God would call people out and that you would heed His call,” Mrs. Dunn said. “This year, the focus of my prayer has been that God would be glorified. It is the point of the march, to glorify the Creator, the God of life.”

“We come together to stand for His precious little ones and their mothers and fathers. We come through His spirit and in His fellowship. We come to testify to His truth about the sanctity of life. We come to tell of His mercy to those who are grieving their own lost children,” Mrs. Dunn added. “We march in hope; in the hope that only He can give that one day, and Lord may it be soon, abortion will be a thing of the past. We do it all to the glory of His name.”

Mrs. Dunn, a member of Holy Ghost Parish, commended President Trump for leading the national March for Life in Washington and said pro-life supporters everywhere are grateful for his words about protecting life.

She also applauded Tennessee lawmakers for passing in 2019 the most important pro-life law in the state, the Human Life Protection Act, which states that if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the Roe v. Wade statute in whole or in part, Tennessee state law on abortion will be restored to what it was before 1973: abortion will be prohibited except to save the life of the mother.

“In Tennessee, we have re-routed over a million dollars every year away from Planned Parenthood’s abortion business and to comprehensive health centers and health departments,” she said. “All these changes have led to the best change of all. Abortion rates are declining and the abortion rate in TennesTH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

Below: Tennessee Right to Life-Knox County chapter director Stacy Dunn speaks to pro-life supporters in the Knoxville Convention Center.

Knoxville-area pro-life supporters show their spirit at the March for Life on Jan. 26. The march went from the Knoxville Convention Center to an abortion clinic near the UT campus.

BILL BREWER (3)

has sponsored this march for several years, but it’s you who make the march. We can plan, promote, and organize, but if you don’t show up, there is no march. So thank you.”

Mrs. Dunn and Will Brewer, director of government relations for Tennessee Right to Life, recognized ministers from a number of area faith communities who were taking part, including Father Tim Sullivan, CSP, associate pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, Father Michael Hendershott, associate pastor of Holy Ghost Parish and associate vocations director for the Diocese of Knoxville, Father Martin Gladysz, associate pastor of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and Father Bob O’Donnell, CSP, associate pastor of St. John XXIII University Parish.

A number of elected officials taking part in the march were recognized, including Congressman Tim Burchett, state Sen. Becky Duncan Massey, state Rep. Bill Dunn, state Rep. Jeremy Faison, Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank, and Knox County school board member Patty Bounds.

Also taking part were Paul Simoneau, vice chancellor of the Diocese of Knoxville, who also directs the diocese’s Office of Justice and Peace and is a coordinator of the 40 Days for Life campaign in Knoxville, and Lisa Morris, president of the Sacred Heart Apostolate and a coordinator of the 40 Days for Life campaign.

Mr. Simoneau and Mrs. Morris are members of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Marchers, from youth to seniors, enthusiastically demonstrated their positions on abortion and the sanctity of life as they walked through the Fort Sanders community adjacent to the University of Tennessee campus to the Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health.

Mrs. Dunn said the theme of the 2020 Knoxville March for Life was “This Could Change Everything,” which was inspired by the song that plays at the beginning of the pro-life film “Unplanned.” The movie is a powerful testament to the sanctity of life, of conversion, and the truth behind Planned Parenthood and how it operates its abortion clinics.

see is the lowest it has been since the 1970s. Lives are being saved!”

She noted that Tennessee’s Choose Life license plate is one of the top specialty plates and is sending muchneeded funds to pro-life pregnancy centers and lifeaffirming agencies.

Mr. Brewer, who represents TRL at the state capital and lobbies for prolife issues, updated attendees on TRL legislative efforts to promote life.

“What a great crowd we have.

If you go through your prayer life praying about this issue, and you think ‘I am in the minority.’ Look around this room and see all the wonderful family and friends you have around you,” he said.

“We have a very important year in the legislature ahead of us. The pro-life message is very strong. It is on everybody’s tongues, thank the good Lord,” Mr. Brewer added.

“At Tennessee Right to Life, we are running a bill this year that is new, interesting, and unique.”

He explained that advancements in science and medicine are yielding breakthroughs to protect life, such as ultrasounds that definitively show how life begins at conception.

“We can see it very physically and vibrantly in these 4D ultrasounds, so now we have pictures and gender-reveal parties. Everybody is finally recognizing that the science is on our side. In the medical community there are revolutionary doctors across this country who have found a method to reverse medical abortions.

“When a woman goes into an abortion facility and gets the abortion pill, there are two pills: one you take right there in the facility, the other one you take 48 hours later at home. If a woman takes that first abortion pill and immediately regrets her decision, saved and healthy when she can contact pro-life they were delivered. doctors across the coun “Our priority legistry and they now have a lation this year is to pass method that will reverse a bill that requires aborthe effects of the first tionists across the state abortion pill,” Mr. Brewto inform women that er pointed out, which this procedure is a posdrew loud applause. sibility, that you can get “You should hear about it, and how you can get these lives that are being Will Brewer it. Abortion clinics will saved, and these rare but have posters in their lobimportant instances where bies, and they will be required to tell women have regret and now they women verbally during the course can do something to save the life of of the informed consent information their own child.” how they can go about getting this He relayed an instance where a pregnant woman took the first abor- abortion-pill reversal procedure,” noted Mr. Brewer, who attends St. tion pill but had almost immediate John XXIII University Parish. regret and reversed her decision.

He said efforts will get underway She came to find out that she was to educate women on this advancepregnant with twins, who were www.di o k no x .o rg

ment in pro-life medicine. And he thanked the marchers for all the work they do and prayers they say in their homes, churches, and throughout their communities. He said those efforts are felt across the state, in Nashville, and in Washington, D.C. ‘The truth can change everything’ Mrs. Dunn said TRL will continue a media campaign to promote life and dispel abortion as being in the best interests of women.

“The truth can change everything.

The truth is powerful. That’s why we want to continue proclaiming the truth about life in our community, and in our region, and in our state,” she said. “People can change

TRL continued on page A16 FEBRUARY 2, 2020 n A15

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everything. That is why TRL will work to start 20 new county chapters in 2020. With more chapters, we can educate more people and help elect more pro-life people to office.”

She also talked about how elections can change everything, at the local, state, and national level.

She urged the marchers to vote for candidates with strong pro-life positions.

And she concluded by saying prayer is the most important thing the marchers can do for the sanctity of life.

“Scripture says knock and the door shall be opened. Let’s beat down the door. Pray that God will show you, your church, or your family what He wants you to do in this most important struggle of our times. Lives depend on it,” Mrs. Dunn said.

Pedro Mora Garcia and his wife, Brittany Garcia, were among the 1,000 marching for life in Knoxville.

Like most of the other pro-life supporters, they were marching with a purpose.

The Diocese of Knoxville parishioners felt part of a larger community as they joined people from other faiths in demonstrating for a common goal, one that is pleasing A16 n FEBRUARY 2, 2020

COURTESY OF KNOXVILLE CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL

March continued from page A1

Demonstrating their support Knoxville Catholic High School students and faculty gather on the Mall in Washington, D.C., as part of the 47th annual March for Life.

our common home or caring for the unborn.”

Rally-goers also heard from members of Congress and several other speakers, including women who survived attempted abortions, over the course of an hour following the president’s appearance.

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., urged the audience to support the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act that has been introduced in Congress.

The bill would ensure that any child born alive after an abortion received medical care. It would also institute

penalties for doctors who allow such infants to die or who intentionally kill a newborn.

He said he is working to bring the bill to a vote in the House of Representatives by filing a discharge petition, meaning it would bypass committee action and go directly to the full House. He said 204 House members have signed the petition –– all 197 Republicans and seven Democrats –– and that he is working to gain 14 more Democrats to gain a majority that would force a vote on the bill.

He encouraged those at the rally to

contact their member of Congress to express support for the petition and the bill.

At times the rally turned to politics as speakers called on rally-goers to vote for pro-life candidates in the upcoming presidential election.

They also complimented President Trump for his appointment of 187 federal conservative judges who are more likely to support restrictions on abortion.

“We are at a pivotal moment for the pro-life movement and this great nation,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life education organization, in crediting legislative efforts nationwide to limit abortion.

She encouraged the crowd to “go for the win” and “put the will of the people into law” in an effort to overturn Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court in the November election.

“It’s the most consequential for the cause of the unborn,” she said.

In brief remarks, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., noted how there have been incremental steps to end abortion throughout the nation.

“We’re making progress,” Rep. Smith told the pro-life crowd. “Be very encouraged. With the help of ultrasound imaging, we will tirelessly struggle to ensure that unborn children are no longer invisible, trivialized, mocked, dehumanized, and killed.”

Rep. Smith, who co-chairs the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, credited the crowd for their activism that has resulted in “countless” women and babies who have been spared “the violence of abortion and today live, love, and thrive.”

Others addressing the rally included Elisa Martinez, founder of New Mexico Alliance for Life and co-chair of Native Americans for Life, and Democratic Louisiana State Rep. Katrina Jackson. ■

to God. Mr. Garcia believes marching makes an important difference in the world because it gives a voice to the innocent who are yet to have a voice.

“I march because I support the dignity of every human being from the moment of conception until natural death. One of the things that was very moving was seeing entire families there marching together, and also seeing a lot of people from different faith communities and religions coming together for the same cause of life,” Mr. Garcia said.

The Garcias joined many other Catholics on the march, but they also were surrounded by Protestant pro-life supporters who share the same dream.

“Marching makes people aware of a problem we have in our society that not a lot of people are even conscious of. Marching builds community. I’ll be so happy if we don’t have to march again next year, but we are still in the process of making people aware of how every life should be respected (even the most vulnerable among us),” Mr. Garcia said.

Mrs. Garcia agreed with Mr. Brewer that pro-life supporters often feel in the minority because

their voices can be drowned out by the national pro-choice cacophony.

But that feeling is a misnomer.

“There were over 1,000 people that came out to march at the Knoxville March for Life. There were over 100,000 who marched for life in D.C. that same week.

And then there are countless numbers of others who marched in their local towns across the nation. Sometimes we are made to feel that the pro-life community is a minority, but the sheer number of those who participate in these local and national marches is quite encouraging and tells a different story. There is power in numbers,” Mrs. Garcia said.

Like her husband, Mrs. Garcia believes marching for life makes a difference in the communities where they take place.

“It reminds our town of the ‘silent holocaust’ we cannot ignore.

We march in Knoxville in the hopes of closing abortion clinics everywhere, but also specifically in Knoxville. We march in Knoxville because this is our town and those babies in utero are our community’s babies,” she said. “Those mothers and fathers walking into that abortion clinic are our community’s mothers and fathers. We

all know that one person’s life has a ripple effect on the world. When abortion takes the life of even just one person, we all miss out on getting to know that brother, student, wife, classmate, friend, teacher, father, daughter, neighbor, or even just fellow human being with the right to life in our community.”

And marching gives one loud voice to the issue and to the unborn.

“I march because I believe life is beautiful, each tiny life is a gift to the world, and every life is worth living. Being pro-life means I am pro-life in every way, not just regarding the topic of abortion but in any topic that deals with the dignity of the human person.

But I march, most specifically, in January for an end to abortion as 60 million babies have been aborted in the last 47 years since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in our country. Those numbers are terrifying and haunting. I march because in our Constitution the first right is the right to life, and I believe that right to life applies to everyone. I march with the hope for a change in our country that leads to an end to abortion and gives way to a culture of respecting life,” Mrs. Garcia said. ■

COURTESY OF NEELEY WILSON

ing this a pro-life nation,” the president said, adding, “You are powered by prayer and motivated by pure unselfish love.”

President Trump’s speech before the largely supportive crowd was punctuated by applause and cheers.

Calls of “four more years” welcomed him to the podium.

The pro-life movement has been buoyed by President Trump’s appointment of two conservative justices to the Supreme Court. Their goal has been a reversal of the court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, addressed the rally in a video recorded in Rome prior to President Trump’s arrival at the rally.

Vice President Pence met with Pope Francis earlier in the day.

He said in the video that he thanked the pope “for all that he and Catholic Americans have done to defend the sanctity of human life in the history of this movement.”

Karen Pence thanked attendees for their witness and compassion for the unborn.

“Thank you for standing for life,” she said. “We cannot be more proud to be on this journey with you.”

The vice president called President Trump the “most pro-life president in American history” and a “champion for the movement.”

“So keep standing strong and stand with that love and compassion that has always defined the movement for life,” Vice President Pence said.

Not all participants in the rally agreed with the single-issue stance of President Trump and Vice President Pence. A group of Franciscan friars and their supporters held signs aloft outside of the security barrier with messages reading “I am 100% ProLife.” “Care for the Unborn.” “Protect the Earth,” and “Seek Justice for the Poor.”

Franciscan Father Jud Weiksnar, pastor of Sts. Columba Brigid Parish in Buffalo, N.Y., said he attended the March for Life to encourage people to embrace a wider call in support of life, including care for the environment and peace.

“I’m very deeply convinced that my religious calling calls me to something like the March for Life,” he told Catholic News Service.

His group included about 20 people, among them priests, men in formation, and laypeople.

His friend, Franciscan Father Jacek Orzechowski of Maryland, said he joined the march and rally “to remind others about what it means to be authentically pro-life.”

“It’s not enough to say that a person is against abortion, but especially about other concerns at this time when we as humanity are standing on the verge of ecological catastrophe,” he explained. “I’m not willing to fall into a false choice in caring for

Praying to end abortion Knoxville Catholic High School students Neeley Wilson, right, and Elizabeth Waltman take part in the national March for Life in Washington, D.C.

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TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

East Tennessee Catholic Briefs Diocese of Knoxville Lenten penance services scheduled Here are the Lenten penance services around the diocese, received as of press time: Chattanooga Deanery 7 p.m., unless noted. March 9—St. Bridget, Dayton, 6:30 p.m.; St. Mary, Athens; March 10—St. Jude, Chattanooga; March 11—Holy Spirit, Soddy-Daisy; March 15—St. Augustine, Signal Mountain, 5 p.m.; March 16—St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Cleveland; March 19—Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Chattanooga, 6 p.m.; March 23—St. Stephen, Chattanooga, 6 p.m.; March 30—Sts. Peter and Paul, Chattanooga, 6 p.m.; April 1— Notre Dame High School, Chattanooga, 9:30 or 10:30 a.m.

Cumberland Mountain Deanery Parking relief Ladies of Charity and Joseph Construction officials break ground on parking improvements for the Ladies of Charity facility on Baxter Avenue in Knoxville. More than 50 parking spaces will be added.

Ladies of Charity improving parking

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arking at the Ladies of Charity facility near downtown Knoxville may get worse before it gets much better.

Ladies of Charity officials broke ground Jan. 28 on a project to redesign the parking lot at 120 W. Baxter Ave. and add much needed spaces.

Susan Unbehaun, Ladies of Charity executive director, said funds for the project were raised by donors and from

the annual golf tournament the diocesan social services agency sponsors.

Work on the parking lot by Joseph Construction will begin in February and be completed in about two months as the local operation prepares to host the Ladies of Charity USA National Assembly in August.

Mrs. Unbehaun said traffic congestion in the present parking area prompted the upgrade. ■

Homily continued from page A12

And the reason behind the split between New Testament and Old Testament references?

“Most of our people are not as familiar with the Old Testament,” Deacon Kramer said. He noted the seminary was soon to host its annual preaching conference, with the theme “Hearing the Hebrew Scriptures with a Heart for Homiletics,” and a couple of rabbis leading sessions.

“Realistically, we have the New Testament, the Old Testament, the (Responsorial) Psalm, and the Gospel.

Those are the four basic things you can preach on any given Sunday,” Deacon Kramer said. “In the last 30 years I can pretty definitely say the guys go more with the Gospel.”

What’s more, he added, the Old Testament reading usually has a tie-in to the Gospel.

“Very few people preach to the Pauline readings,” Deacon Kramer said.

“We’re really not adept yet at preaching them.”

Catholic homilists tend to have “the theme of what they want to say.”

“God is love? OK, I can give you 10 minutes on that,” Deacon Kramer said. “Longer is not necessarily better, and I’ve preached that in evangelical communities.”

Like Catholic preachers’ habits, evangelical preachers’ habits may be slow to change. Deacon Kramer recalled being asked to serve as a guest preacher at an evangelical church.

“How long would you like me to preach?” he remembered asking. The response: “Oh, keep it short — 40 minutes or so.” ■

diocese of Milwaukee.

Pew’s analysis found the five most common words spoken in Catholic homilies are “say,” “know,” “God,” “people,” and “life,” words that also were found in the top five in at least one of the Protestant groupings made

by Pew. The most distinctive words found in Catholic preaching — all done at rates 11 to 21 times as often as their Protestant counterparts — were “homily,” “diocese,” “Eucharist,” “paschal,” and “parishioner.” In fact, a Catholic is four times as likely to hear the word “homily” than an evangelical to hear the phrase “eternal hell” or its variants.

Catholic preaching names Scripture 73 percent of the time; 68 percent of homilists cite a book from the New Testament, and 28 percent refer to a book from the Old Testament. This was the lowest rate of such citations among the groups studied. The next lowest group was Mainline Protestants at 88 percent.

Smaller Catholic churches — 200 or fewer congregants — hear an Old Testament book mentioned 37 percent of the time, and the difference of 9 percentage points was larger than any big-small Protestant comparison.

“The Protestants have been much more engaged in the Word over the years,” Deacon Kramer said. “When I was a kid, we didn’t really read the Bible much. (The reading of) Scripture wasn’t really encouraged until later on — Vatican II. In a sense, I guess, we’re playing a little bit of catch-up.”

Boy, I wish our Church wasn’t growing so fast...

How will we afford it?

Good thing we have the Catholic Foundation!

The

Catholic Foundation of East Tennessee invests in two essential needs for the Diocese of Knoxville

Seminarian Education and Land for New Churches Helping to provide for a growing Church for 30 years!

Learn more @ GiveCFET.org or call John Deinhart @ (865) 584-3307

TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

March 3—St. Alphonsus, Crossville, 6 p.m. CST; March 11—St. Therese, Clinton, and St. Joseph, Norris, at St. Joseph, 7 p.m.; March 18—Our Lady of Perpetual Help, LaFollette, 6:30 p.m.; March 26—St. John Neumann, Farragut, 6 p.m.; March 31—St. Francis of Assisi, Fairfield Glade, 6 p.m. CST; Divine Mercy, Knoxville, 7-9 p.m.; Knoxville Catholic High School—April 2, 11 a.m.

Five Rivers Deanery 7 p.m., unless noted. March 2—Good Shepherd, Newport; March 10—St. Mary, Johnson City; March 12—St. Patrick, Morristown; March 17—St. Michael the Archangel, Erwin, 6 p.m.; March 19—St. Dominic, Kingsport; March 24—Notre Dame, Greeneville; March 26—St. Henry, Rogersville Smoky Mountain Deanery 7 p.m. March 9—St. Albert the Great, Knoxville; March 24—Holy Family, Seymour; March 25—St. Joseph the Worker, Madisonville; March 30—Holy Ghost, Knoxville, and Immaculate Conception, Knoxville, at Holy Ghost; March 31—Our Lady of Fatima, Alcoa; April 1—St. John XXIII, Knoxville

Judge Susano retiring from Tennessee Court of Appeals After more than 25 years of service, Tennessee’s longest serving state appellate judge, Charles D. Susano Jr., has announced he will retire from the bench effective April 30. Judge Susano is a longtime parishioner of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville.

In a letter to Gov. Bill Lee, Judge Susano said “It has been the highest honor of my life to have served the people of the state of Tennessee, and I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity.”

In response, Gov. Lee stated, “We appreciate Judge Susano’s long tenure and leadership on the Court. He has been admired in the legal community for many years, and his service will be missed.”

Judge Susano Born in 1936, Judge Susano is a Knoxville native who attended Knoxville Catholic High School, where he was the captain of the school’s first city championship basketball team in 1954. In 1958, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame and served in the U.S. Army until 1960. After being honorably discharged, he enrolled at the University of Tennessee College of Law, where he graduated in 1963.

In March 1994, Gov. Ned Ray McWherter appointed him to the Tennessee Court of Appeals Eastern Section. Judge Susano was elected statewide in 1994 and re-elected in 1998, 2006, and 2014.

He served as presiding judge of the court from 2012-2014.

He has served in other roles as a member of the judiciary, including sitting as a special judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court and serving on the Court of the Judiciary from 1999-2003. Among his many accolades, Judge Susano was recipient of the Justice Frank F. Drowota III Outstanding Judicial Service Award in 2017; Appellate Judge of the Year from the American Board of Trial Advocates, Tennessee Chapter, in 2003; and Courage in the Face of Adversity Award from the Knoxville Bar Association in 2004. Although permanently paralyzed from the chest down as the result of a fall in June 1993, Judge Susano has never let his disability keep him from serving his community and the state of Tennessee.

Funeral Mass celebrated for Sister Adrian Hofstetter, OP

Dominican Sister of Peace Adrian Marie Hofstetter, OP, died Jan. 9 at Sansbury Care Center in St. Catharine, Ky. She is survived by one brother, Monsignor Bob Hofstetter, pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Newport, and several nieces and nephews.

Sister Adrian, 100, who was a Dominican for 76 years and a Nashville native, earned a bachelor ’s degree in math from Siena College in Memphis, a Ph.D. in biology/zoology from the University of Notre Dame, and a master ’s degree in ministry in theology from Creighton University.

She ministered as a teacher at St. Augustine in Jeffersonville, Ind., at Sts. Simon and Jude in Brooklyn, N.Y., at St. Agnes in Memphis, and Siena College. She also provided social work at Holy Names Parish in Memphis. In 1970, she served as a professor of biology at LeMoyne Sister Adrian Owen College in Memphis. In 1973, she served as director of the Center of Ecumenism and Reconciliation in St. Catharine, Ky. She went on to be a visiting professor at Savannah State College in Savannah, Ga., at Knoxville College, and Southwestern College in Memphis.

In 2006, she moved to St. Catharine Motherhouse in St. Catharine, Ky., where she provided community service. In 2011, she moved to Sansbury Care Center in St. Catharine, Ky., where she began a ministry of prayer and presence.

A remembrance service was held Jan. 16 at the Sansbury Care Center Chapel, and a funeral Mass was held Jan. 17 at Sansbury Care Center Chapel. She will be buried in St. Catharine Cemetery.

Memorial gifts in Sister Adrian’s memory may be sent to Dominican Sisters of Peace Office of Mission Advancement 2320 Airport Drive Columbus, OH 43219-2098.

To make a secure online donation or for more information, visit www.oppeace.org. ■

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FEBRUARY 2, 2020 n A17

Knights of Columbus unveil new initiation ceremony for members Degree services to be open to public for first time

By Andy Telli

EAST TENNESSEE CATHOLIC ARCHIVE

A

fter 142 years, the Knights of Columbus are pulling down a veil of secrecy that has surrounded their initiation ceremonies in an effort to better showcase the order’s core principles and its drive to help Catholic men become disciples.

Since its founding, the order’s initiation ceremonies for the first three degrees of Knights membership, which are focused on the principles of charity, unity, and fraternity, have been separate and open to members only.

The fourth degree, dedicated to the principal of patriotism, was added later and is also secret.

But beginning in 2020, the Knights have adopted a new ceremony, called the Exemplification of Charity, Unity, and Fraternity, combining the initiation for their first three degrees into a single ceremony that will be open to family, friends, and fellow parishioners.

“There is nothing we do that is secret or needs to be secret,” Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said. “We decided this is a way to let other parishioners know, family members know, what the Knights of Columbus is all about. We think that’s a good thing.”

The Knights of Columbus is a

Going public Diocese of Knoxville fourth degree Knights of Columbus stand at attention for the beginning of Mass. The Knights will now combine initiations for the first three degrees and make the ceremony public. fraternal organization of Catholic men that was founded in 1882 by Venerable Father Michael McGivney, a young priest serving at St. Mary Church in New Haven, Conn. Today, the order has more than 2 million members internationally.

In 2018, the Knights of Columbus gave $185.7 million to charity and donated 76.7 million hours of handson service.

The order also is one of the largest life insurers in North America, building on Father McGivney’s goal of providing for families left destitute

by the death of its breadwinner.

Although membership in the order as a whole is growing, not all areas are showing increases in members, Mr. Anderson said. It’s a trend that follows what is happening in the Church as a whole, he added.

“I think the Catholic Church is growing more quickly in some areas than in other areas. Those trends affect us as well,” he said. “When you see dioceses with parishes closing, that has to affect all the Catholic organizations in those dioceses.”

At the Supreme Convention last

summer, a resolution from the Illinois delegation calling for combining the first-, second-, and third-degree ceremonies into one and removing the condition of secrecy was approved.

Mr Anderson directed an in-depth review of the ceremonies “with an eye toward staying true to our roots while at the same time presenting our principles of charity, unity, and fraternity in a more clear and convincing way.”

At the mid-year meeting for the order’s state deputies, who are the highest official in each jurisdiction, in Orlando, Fla., in November, Mr. Anderson unveiled the new ceremony “that stays true to our traditions while addressing the needs of our times.” The fourth degree ceremony will remain unchanged and will continue to be open to members only.

“Secrecy has to be understood in the context of the 19th century,” Mr. Anderson said. “There was incredible bigotry against Catholics,” with the anti-Catholic Know Nothings in control politically in New England at the time, and later the Ku Klux Klan became a powerful political force across the country, he noted. “There was some appeal to secrecy.”

Also at the time, the idea of progressing through the degrees as a journey toward Knighthood was popular.

But today, those features have Knights continued on page A19

Pope, U.S. bishops discuss political polarization and the Church good bishop, and political divisions within the United States and how some of that divisive rhetoric is seen within the church as well.

Some bishops “brought up the polarization in society and how this is affecting the Church,” he said. One bishop described for the pope “how as a society, you know, we’re more and more divided, and people attack each other.”

Pope Francis said something similar is “sometimes happening in the Church when different factions try to find something to attack people on personally, and so the Holy Father spoke about this politicization of pastoral life,” Archbishop Cordileone said.

“We are constantly challenged to

By Catholic News Service

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atholics need to be on guard against allowing the angry rhetoric that comes from a polarized society, especially in an election year, to seep into discussions about the life of the Church, Pope Francis told a group of U.S. bishops.

Thirty-three bishops, auxiliary bishops, and retired bishops from California, Nevada, and Hawaii met Pope Francis for more than twoand-a-half hours on Jan. 27.

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco said the topics included: youth and young adult ministry, Marian devotion, the clerical sexual abuse crisis, marriage and family life, migration, how to be a

get the message across that we’re not a political party, and we don’t follow a political platform with the issues,” the archbishop said. “On some issues, one party is more favorable to what we understand is for the common good and, on other issues, another party might be more favorable.”

Pope Francis told the bishops “that in a political system where there are only two parties, there’s more of a tendency to be this way,” the archbishop said. “He wasn’t picking on us because as, he said, it’s the same thing in Argentina, where they have a two-party system, and he sees it happening in his country.”

Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los

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JANICE FRITZ RYKEN

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a check for $29,128 to purchase a brand new ultrasound machine.

“We are so thrilled; this will make such a difference,” Ms. Cheresnick said. “Many of the women who come through our doors are overwhelmed and scared. Many don’t have insurance; they don’t know what to do first. Showing them their baby’s tiny image on an ultrasound screen instantly gives them a visual to help them focus and make clear decisions. This new machine presents an even clearer image than the images from the old, antiquated machines we were using.”

As a nonprofit service for crisis pregnancies, Choices East offers women (and their partners) free pregnancy testing and ultrasounds, support and education, men’s services, and even post-abortion support.

“Men are often overlooked in the decision-making process, and often they are pushed aside because all the focus is heaped on the mother; she’s a more immediate concern,” said Jonathon Hoover, director of Choices’ Men’s Services. “So they will often push aside their own feelings of sadness or guilt. Here we encourage them to open up about their feelings in a safe and healthy environment.”

One young man named Eric who benefited from the men’s program says Choices helped him become a willing participant in his girlfriend Jamie’s pregnancy and that the counsel he received better prepared him for his daughter’s birth.

“Most guys don’t stick around for the baby’s birth; they’re often left out of the decisions, and no one steps up and tells them what’s expected. But through counseling, I felt ready,” Eric said with a proud smile.

Choices East CEO Carol Anne Ferguson said ultrasounds are only one facet of all the resources available for people facing crisis pregnancies at Choices. She said in today’s highly charged environ-

Remembering the unborn The National Memorial for the Unborn, dedicated to healing for those who have lost children, is located next to Choices East crisis pregnancy center in Chattanooga. ”We are so thrilled; this will make such a difference. Many of the women who come through our doors are overwhelmed and scared. Many don’t have insurance; they don’t know what to do first. Showing them their baby’s tiny image on an ultrasound screen instantly gives them a visual to help them focus and make clear decisions. This new machine presents an even clearer image than the images from the old, antiquated machines we were using.”

— Michele Cheresnick Choices East director ment, where people have very strong opinions, Choices puts an emphasis on providing a haven for people dealing with an already stressful situation.

“There’s already so much animosity and so much strife between the pro-life and pro-choice people. But here at Choices, we’d rather be known for what we’re for, rather than what we’re against,” Ms. Ferguson said. “We just want to be sure everyone is well-informed. We’re always for life. That’s what we place above all else. We don’t judge, we don’t coax; we give counsel and let them know they’re never alone. We make sure they know they have access to all the resources they need, to be able to make sound decisions.”

Women’s questions are answered by caring professionals who will not judge but merely inform and be there to lend support, according to Ms. Ferguson.

She said the Choices facility focuses on support through education, and she believes in incentivizing clients to be as prepared for parenthood as they can be.

First-time parents are encouraged to earn “baby bucks” through the center’s “Earn While You Learn” program. The program takes mothers and fathers through a series of parenting videos.

Each time moms and dads come for a video session, followed by discussions, they receive baby bucks to use at the Choices Baby Boutique. The boutique has everything a baby needs, from cloth-

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Angeles said the issue of migration was among the topics discussed with the pope, who told them “how it’s important for all of us in the Church to be open and welcome immigrants.”

The pope, he said, “gave us some ideas on how to continue helping people to understand the reality of immigration,” but also spoke about how increasing polarization on the issue is found not only in the United States but in many parts of the world.

“He insisted to us that it is important to see the need for dialogue between people and to understand that we all are children of God,” Archbishop Gomez told Catholic News Service. ■ ing and blankets to Pack ’n Plays and baby monitors. Participants have the ability to earn points each time they attend a meeting.

“We have brand-new clothing and baby items donated by the benevolence of others. And often many expectant parents don’t have a great deal of money and might have only minimal support, so this is a great way for them to get what they need to set up their nurseries and prepare for baby, while also being properly educated,” Ms. Ferguson said.

Choices East is located at 6232 Vance Road in Chattanooga. Anyone interested in learning more about Choices can call or text 423-892-0803.

While Choices’ focus is always on the sanctity of life, and inside the center are baby items to illustrate new life, outside of the center is a sobering reminder that so many babies never complete their journeys to be born, either through abortion, miscarriage, being stillborn, or lost to complications.

Outside the Choices East center is the National Memorial for the Unborn, dedicated to healing generations of pain associated with the loss of aborted and miscarried children. These children are honored through the memorial’s Wall of Names and Remembrance Garden, allowing mothers, fathers, and other family members to begin their healing process.

The 50-foot granite Wall of Names holds small brass plates with words of remembrance from individuals and families all over the country, seeking post-abortion healing.

The Remembrance Garden is also a peaceful sanctuary for mothers, fathers, and other family members to honor their miscarried child. Engraved brick pavers placed along the garden paths share their personal stories and provide encouragement to others seeking peace and solace there.

The grounds are open 24 hours a day, every day of the year. ■ TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

Catholics pray novena for Archbishop Sheen’s beatification Peoria bishop calls for devotional in response to unexpected delay in sainthood process

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upporters of the canonization cause for Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen took part in a novena to “petition God unceasingly to remove all obstacles” for the beatification of the media pioneer, author, and evangelist.

“We are confident in the power of prayer,” Peoria Bishop Daniel R. Jenky said in a video message released Dec. 9, the 40th anniversary of Archbishop Sheen’s death.

“I know how deeply saddened we all are about the postponement of the beatification of Fulton Sheen,” said Bishop Jenky, speaking in front of Archbishop Sheen’s tomb at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria. “But in these turbulent times when our faith is being tested — which even Fulton Sheen

prophesied about — we need to remain faithful to prayer like Archbishop Sheen.”

A novena had been planned, starting on the Dec. 12 feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to prepare for and lead to Archbishop Sheen’s scheduled beatification in Peoria Dec. 21. The beatification date was postponed, however, by the Vatican, the diocese said Dec. 3.

Two days later, the Diocese of Rochester, N.Y., which then-Bishop Sheen headed from October 1966 until his retirement in October 1969, when he received the title of archbishop, acknowledged it had raised concerns over the prelate’s role in priests’ assignments and took those concerns to the Congregation for Saints’ Causes. As a

By Tom Dermody/Catholic News Service

Archbishop Sheen result, Vatican officials said they wanted to give a further review of

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/KAREN PULFER FOCHT

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the door with tears in her eyes, saying, “This is really hard for me, it is a very emotional time.” She grew up here and has deep roots in Memphis; she is one of the Memphis Irish Travelers, a close-knit group. She is the youngest of the nuns and was the last nun to join the Memphis order back in the late 1980s.

On her last day, friends came for a pizza lunch. Danny Robinson, 82, hobbled in on his cane; he’s been coming to the monastery since he was a teen.

He cherished his last moments with the nuns. They all sang a prayer over him just inside the cloister. Then he and John Lichterman said goodbye. Sister Anthony leaned into Mr. Lichterman. He held her and hugged her.

These women had chosen a cloistered life, but their days have been full of visitors, phone calls, and e-mails from people asking for prayers from around the world.

In November, on the Sunday before they were to leave, Sister Marguerite and Sister Claudia, both in their 70s, took Communion, sang, and prayed at the monastery’s last Mass. Also attending were those who have worshiped in the public chapel each week, many since

End of an era Father David Knight celebrates Mass for Poor Clare Sisters Mary Marguerite and Claudia at the Monastery of St. Clare in Memphis on Dec. 2. The monastery closed at the end of 2019. they were children.

Father Knight, the oldest priest in the diocese, celebrated the Mass.

Many of the worshipers and the nuns cried, knowing that they’d likely never see each other again. They all had reached the end of the monastery’s life together. “This is a holy place that has

been full of many holy women who have lived here,” Father Knight softly said from the altar.

“The sisters came here to pray for the priests because they needed it,” the priest added. “Inadequate priests have been with the Church from the beginning and we will have them until the

related records before the beatification goes forward.

The Diocese of Peoria, which has promoted the canonization cause, has emphasized that “there has never been, nor is there now, any allegation against (Archbishop) Sheen involving the abuse of a minor.”

And in a lengthy column posted on the Archbishop Sheen beatification website Dec. 7, Monsignor James Kruse — a former vicar general of the Diocese of Peoria who has worked extensively on the cause — presented a timeline of events and questioned what he claims is an “established pattern” by the Diocese of Rochester in trying to block the cause.

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end of the world.”

A young boy, Connor Dwyer, moved between the nuns and hugged them over and over again. He walked out with tears in his eyes. “I am going to really miss you,” he said.

“A bond is very quickly established when you pray for people,” Sister Marguerite said.

On the day Sister Marguerite and Sister Claudia left, Father Knight celebrated Mass at a tiny table in the guest quarters.

A handful of people were present. The nuns were in travel clothes, not their habits. Their chapel had been emptied.

The tabernacle had been removed.

“This is a type of death, but God is with us all the time; he is with us where ever we go,” Father Knight said. “Our happiness is not dependent on anything on this earth,” he added.

In making his own move from the monastery, he had to purge a lifetime of homily notes and spiritual writing.

As hard as it was to get used to the idea of leaving the two tiny rooms that he called home for 45 years, Father Knight has a deep understanding and belief that God is in the hearts of the people and not in this big, old, and now empty building. ■

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COURTESY OF THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS

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proved to be an impediment to men joining, particularly young men, Mr. Anderson said.

Over the years talking with members involved in recruitment efforts and new members, the order has found that many young men thought going through three separate ceremonies too time consuming and difficult to attend, Mr. Anderson said. Also, many councils lacked teams to conduct the ceremonies, which could delay men moving to the next degree for months, he added.

Young men today often find secrecy unnecessary, Mr. Anderson said.

With a new, single ceremony that takes about 30 minutes, more councils will be able to have their own ceremonial team and have more degrees more often, he said. “We think making it easier to join with more degrees in more places will help us move forward.”

Condensing the ceremony should give it a heavier impact, according to Mr. Anderson. “Sometimes less is more in the sense that sometimes the shorter, more compact, more forceful statement is easier to remember than a more lengthy ceremony.”

By opening the ceremony to the public, “families and friends can see what we’re all about and hopefully decide I or my brother or my husband should join,” Mr. Anderson said.

The new degree ceremony pulls from the three previous ceremonies to pass along the history of the order and the importance of the principles of charity, unity, and fraternity.

“We need to impress on the members the importance of charity, unity, fraternity, how they are linked, and how in Father McGivney’s vision of Christian discipleship … charity, unity and fraternity become a path of discipleship for the Catholic man,” Mr. Anderson said.

The ceremony is “an important way that we teach the principles and teach them in a way that the men remember,” Mr. Anderson said. “It’s a way of not just giving a lecture but a way to make a dramatic impression of the principles of the order.”

A ceremony that focuses on the prin-

A new look In addition to a uniform makeover, the Knights of Columbus is changing its degree ceremony. Beginning this year, initiation for the first three degrees will be done at once and will no longer be held in secret. ciples of charity, unity, and fraternity enhances the Knights involvement the Church’s work of evangelization, Mr. Anderson said.

“I think its central,” he said. The order’s principles “are really at the core of Catholic life, and (the new ceremony) makes it clear we have a responsibility, and the responsibility extends into the whole person, the spiritual dimension, the fraternal dimension, and the financial dimension. … We try to take a holistic approach. That’s what this new ceremony emphasizes.”

The script for the new degree calls for the ceremony to be conducted in a church or similarly appropriate location, with a priest or deacon participating. The expectation is that the new ceremony can be held after a Mass when the congregation can be invited to stay and watch.

“It’s an exciting development for the Knights of Columbus,” said Michael McCusker, the state deputy of Tennessee. “How many times do we go home from degrees with our hearts on fire and we had a desperate need to share it with our families, but we couldn’t?

To me that’s akin to putting your light

under a bushel.”

“The more people know about who and what we are, the more likely they are to join,” echoed Tracy Staller, the ceremonials director for the Tennessee State Council and the immediate past state deputy. “And the new ceremony does a wonderful job of explaining who and what the Knights are.”

“What I also like is it removes the struggle of getting a man to go through all three separate degrees,” said Mr. McCusker, a member of Council 9317 at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Cordova, a suburb of Memphis. “I like that they go, they and their families see what they’re involved in, and the minute they leave, they’re full members of the Knights of Columbus.”

The script for the new ceremony was made available to all councils on Jan. 15. It was left to each state deputy to decide how and when the new ceremony will be rolled out in their jurisdiction. The Connecticut State Council used the new ceremony for the first time on Jan. 1 at St. Mary Church in New Haven, Conn., the birthplace of the order.

“Connecticut, where the Knights of

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Columbus was founded, wanted to have the first ceremony of the year,” Mr. Anderson said. “They had a very large turnout and it was very well received. That’s been our experience across the country.”

In Tennessee, councils are encouraged to use the new ceremony as soon as they are ready, but all councils must use the new ceremony on March 29, Founder’s Day for the order, and thereafter, according to Mr. McCusker.

Council 6099 at St. Stephen Parish in Chattanooga plans to use the new ceremony at its monthly degree ceremony, which is on Feb. 27. Masses to mark Founder’s Day are being planned at the cathedrals of the three dioceses of Tennessee — Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis.

A degree ceremony using the new script will be held after the Masses in Knoxville and Nashville, while Knights leaders in the Memphis diocese are still working to organize one there as well.

“We’re eager to start using them,” said Mr. Staller, a member of Council 12961 at Holy Family Church in Seymour. “The sooner we get it going, the more impact it will have.” ■ FEBRUARY 2, 2020 n A19

Super Bowl prompts extraOrdinary wager between rival bishops

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/VATICAN MEDIA

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n addition to the best of professional football, a worldwide audience, and high-stakes competition, Super Bowl LIV was serving up surf or turf.

At least in either the Diocese of Kansas City–St. Joseph or the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Both were betting confidently on their home teams.

So when the clock ran out on 2020’s Super Bowl LIV, either San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was going to be dining on Kansas City Strip or Kansas City’s Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. was going to be tasting succulent Pacific crab.

With Kansas City’s thrilling comefrom-behind victory over San Francisco, Bishop Johnston will be adding seafood to his menu courtesy of Archbishop Cordileone.

“In the spirit of fellowship and healthy competition, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of the Archdiocese of San Francisco and Bishop James Johnston Jr. of the Diocese of Kansas City–St. Joseph agreed to a friendly wager in honor of Super Bowl LIV,” the Diocese

Thumbs up Pope Francis looks at a football jersey presented by Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. of the Diocese of Kansas City–St. Joseph. The Holy Father, who was meeting with U.S. bishops from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska during their “ad limina” visits to the Vatican on Jan. 16, gave a thumbs up to the jersey.

ference champs. The Chiefs won 31-20.

“These two storied franchises have the pleasure of playing in two vibrant Catholic dioceses, and the bishops chose a friendly wager to reflect the loyal fans, the witness of striving for goals, and the common good of teamwork and community unity,” according to kcsjcatholic.org.

That wager stated that for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, should the 49ers lose, Archbishop Cordelione will send Dungeness Crabs to Bishop Johnston.

And for the Diocese of Kansas CitySt. Joseph, if the Chiefs had lost, Bishop Johnston was to send Kansas City Steak Co. steaks to Archbishop Cordileone.

Included in the bishops’ prayer intentions the week leading up to the Super Bowl was for safe travel, good sportsmanship, and play without injury for all involved.

“On Feb. 2, not only will a Super Bowl Champion be named, an Ordinary will soon have the beginnings of a fantastic meal,” the Kansas CitySt. Joseph diocesan website said. ■

of Kansas City–St. Joseph’s website said.

The Kansas City Chiefs faced the San Francisco 49ers in Miami, representing

bragging rights for the National Football Conference champion 49ers and the Chiefs, the American Football Con-

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personal realizations during the ordeal.

Describing his fear of being sent to prison for a crime he believed he had not committed, Mr. Bryant told GQ that “The one thing that really helped me during that process—I’m Catholic, I grew up Catholic, my kids are Catholic—was talking to a priest.”

Mr. Bryant’s Catholic faith is also reported to have helped the basketball superstar renew his marriage. His wife

Vanessa filed for divorce in 2011. But Mr. Bryant said he decided not to give up on his marriage, and two years later, his wife withdrew her divorce petition.

“I’m not going to say our marriage is perfect, by any stretch of the imagination,” Mr. Bryant told GQ. “We still fight, just like every married couple. But you know, my reputation as an athlete is that I’m extremely determined, and that I will work....

How could I do that in my professional life if I wasn’t like that in my personal life, when it affects my kids?

It wouldn’t make any sense.”

Mr. Bryant’s longtime teammate and sometime rival, Shaquille O’Neal, tweeted Jan. 26 that Bryant was “a family man.”

Funeral plans for Mr. Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, had not been announced as of Feb. 6. ■

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A grassroots effort launched in the days prior to the anniversary aimed to have a million Masses said all over the world on that day to pray that the beatification would go forward.

“Please join me beginning on Dec. 12, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” invited Bishop Jenky on the video, “so under her immaculate mantle we can begin a special nine-day novena asking God to please raise up Fulton Sheen and pour out His blessings

on his cause for beatification and canonization.”

Subsequent videos of Bishop Jenky leading the novena prayers will be posted at celebratesheen.com, which also has a link to download the text of the novena, including the prayer for canonization to be recited daily. Each day’s text begins with a quote from Archbishop Sheen, followed by a related prayer on topics such as devotion to Mary, the need for confession, and humility.

“How God will judge my life I know not,” begins the Archbishop Sheen quote for Day 1 of the novena, “but I trust he will see me with mercy and compassion. ... When the record of any human life is set down, there are three pairs of eyes who see it in a different light: As I see it, as others see it, and as God sees it.”

The video, prayers, and other information about Archbishop Sheen can be found at www.celebrate​ sheen.com. ■

Bryant said in his 2004 apology.

In 2015, the basketball player told GQ that after the matter was resolved, he decided to shed some superficiality he felt he had built up in his public persona.

“What I came to understand, coming out of Colorado, is that I had to be me, in the place where I was at that moment.”

Mr. Bryant said it was a priest who helped him to make some important

“I am confident that Sheen’s beatification will eventually take place,” wrote Monsignor Kruse.

“Regretfully, certain forces are now inexplicably causing its delay.

“But do not lose heart,” he continued. “Follow Sheen’s example: Even when facing adversity, keep the faith!”

A focus on prayer was the hallmark of observances of the 40th anniversary of Archbishop Sheen’s death at age 84 on Dec. 9.

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