‘
Praying the
whole
time’
Dad braves Hurricane Helene, long hike to walk his daughter down the aisle at St. Mary
By Gabrielle Nolan
What do a wedding, a hurricane, and a father’s multi-state journey have to do with each other?
No, this is not the plot of a Hallmark movie (yet), but rather the real-life story of bride Elizabeth Marquez and her devoted father, David Jones.
Immediately following the remnants of Hurricane Helene, which brought devastation to Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee, Mr. Jones traveled from his home in Boiling Springs, S.C., to Johnson City, Tenn., to attend his daughter’s wedding on Sept. 28.
However, the journey did not go as planned.
Because of closed roads and destroyed bridges, Mr. Jones’ car ride came to a sudden halt after crossing into Tennessee, and he decided to continue on foot for about 17 miles, hiking through the dark with many hazards along the way.
His story made national news, being featured on outlets such as Fox News, NBC News, People, Today, The Washington Post, Southern Living, and more.
“I was absolutely shocked and amazed to learn that that’s what had happened and that he had gone through all that,” said Mrs. Marquez, who is a parishioner at St. Mary Church in Johnson City and attended St. Mary School there. “It really was incomprehensible but such Wedding continued on page A16
Diocese responds to flood disaster
Catholic Charities, parishes, Legacy Clinic, Bishop Beckman assist
Relief arrives in many forms as East Tennessee faithful support brothers and sisters in harm's way
By Bill Brewer
The people of upper East Tennessee near the North Carolina border are working to piece their lives back together amid the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene.
And the Catholic parishes of this region have joined together in leading disaster-relief efforts as communities suddenly found themselves without water, communications, basic necessities, and even roads to access critical
Aid on page A20
at ground zero
GHM, diocesan Hispanic ministry director Blanca Primm, Father David Boettner, Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, RSM, Deacon David Duhamel, and Deacon Joe Herman
Diocesan pastoral teams reach out to residents in need of spiritual, physical, emotional, and financial support
By Dan McWilliams
Bishop Mark Beckman was able to see firsthand the ministry to victims of flooding caused by Hurricane Helene in visits to Erwin and Hampton on Oct. 2. The bishop met with Glenmary Father Tom Charters, associate pastor of St. Michael the Archangel in Erwin, where three parishioners died. Father Charters has been extremely busy in the wake of the disaster Minister on page A21
Sorrow and survival
Impact Plastics worker describes harrowing rescue from floodwaters as river overran Erwin plant
By Bill Brewer
Don’t let go!”
And with that urgent plea, Efraín Gómez Sr. convinced his co-worker to keep clinging to plastic pipes floating in the rapidly rising Nolichucky River that had swept up nearly a dozen employees in the Erwin, Tenn., industrial park where Mr. Gómez worked.
The horrifying scene unfolded on Friday, Sept. 27, as Hurricane Helene blew northeastward after making landfall in the Florida panhandle.
With high winds and storm clouds ready to unload a record amount of rainfall, Helene battered the mountains of western North Carolina, which sent torrents of water rushing down
mountain tributaries and into the Nolichucky, Doe, Pigeon, and French Broad rivers that flow through East Tennessee.
Mr. Gómez, an employee of Impact Plastics in Erwin and a member of St. Mary Parish in Johnson City, paid attention to the inclement weather on that Friday, and as the Nolichucky began to spill into the parking lot of his employer, he was worried his vehicle was at risk.
Mr. Gómez, accompanied by his son, Efraín Gómez Jr., took part in a counseling session for survivors and family members of people who died in the flooding and have been missing, which was held at St. Michael the
Church on Oct. 2. Ministering to them were Father Tom Charters, GHM, associate
continued on
Archangel
pastor of
BEING THERE Bishop Beckman shows
Praying for healing Bishop Mark Beckman on Oct. 2 prays with the family members of loved ones who were killed or missing in the flood that struck Erwin, Tenn., on Sept. 27. Joining Bishop Beckman at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Erwin were Father Tom Charters,
Photo by Bill Brewer
St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us Efraín Gómez Sr., left, is with his son, Efraín Gómez Jr., and Sister Esther Ordoñez, MAG
COURTESY OF STELLAR
PHOTOGRAPHY
Getting to the church on time David Jones walks his daughter, Elizabeth Marquez, down the aisle at St. Mary Church in Johnson City on Sept. 28.
Pope Francis will create 21 cardinals in December
Holy Father names new ‘ red hats’ from 18 nations; consistory to be Dec. 8
By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service
Pope Francis has announced he will create 21 new cardinals on Dec. 8, including a 99-year-old former nuncio and the 44-year-old Ukrainian bishop who heads his church’s eparchy in Melbourne, Australia.
The 21 cardinals-designate named by the pope on Oct. 6 hail from 18 nations. Eight of the cardinals come from Europe, five from Latin America, five from Asia, two from Africa, and just one from North America: Archbishop Francis Leo of Toronto.
“Their origin expresses the universality of the Church, which continues to proclaim God’s merciful love to all people on earth,” the pope said after reciting the Angelus prayer at midday on Oct. 6 with visitors in St. Peter’s Square.
Creating the cardinals and formally making them part of
the Diocese of Rome, he said, “manifests the inseparable bond between the See of Peter and the particular churches spread throughout the world.”
Within his announcement of
The Handmaids of the Precious Blood this year celebrate the 77th year since their founding in 1947; more than three-quarters of a century of prayer and sacrifice for priests. To receive weekly cartoons and short reflections and news from the Handmaids of the Precious Blood, visit their website, nunsforpriests.org, and sign up for the FIAT newsletter.
An
October prayer intention for a shared mission
“We pray that the Church continues to sustain in all ways a synodal lifestyle, as a sign of coresponsibility, promoting the participation, the communion, and the mission shared among priests, religious, and laypeople.”
Pope Francis
the new cardinals, Pope Francis also announced that as of Oct. 6 his new vicar for the Diocese of Rome would be Cardinal-designate Baldassare Reina, a Rome auxiliary bishop who had been
serving as vice regent of the diocese, which the pope heads. Pope Francis included on the list of new cardinals Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe, a theologian and former master of the Dominican order, who has been serving as spiritual adviser to the Synod of Bishops on Synodality.
Indian Monsignor George Jacob Koovakad, an official of the Vatican Secretariat of State who is responsible for organizing papal trips, was also among those named.
The oldest on the list is Italian Archbishop Angelo Acerbi, 99, a career Vatican diplomat who served in New Zealand, Colombia, Hungary, Moldova, and the Netherlands before retiring in 2001.
The youngest is 44-year-old Ukraine-born Bishop Mykola Bychok, who was named head of the Ukrainian Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul of Melbourne, Australia, in 2020.
How to sign up and qualify for Diocese of Knoxville’s safe-environment program
The Diocese of Knoxville has implemented the CMG Connect platform to administer the Safe Environment Program, which replaces the former Safe Environment Program (VIRTUS “Protecting God’s Children”).
CMG Connect is a web-based platform that will assist in ensuring that all employees and volunteers who are in a position of trust with children and vulnerable adults within Diocese of Knoxville schools and parishes are trained to recognize behavior patterns of potential abusers and provide pro-active measures for preventing abuse in any context.
“Safe Haven-It’s Up to You” is a three-part video that provides vignettes of real-life situations to educate the viewer about methods of grooming, desensitization, bullying, and neglect, all of which can lead to abuse.
Each part of the video is immediately followed by a brief questionnaire to further develop understanding.
Education is a key
element of the Safe Environment Program
All clergy, employees, contracted school personnel, volunteers, members of groups and organizations over the age of 18 who work, volunteer, or participate in any capacity are required to complete the diocesan Safe Environment training and a criminal-background check before they can begin employment, volunteer, or participate with ministries, groups, and organizations affiliated with the Diocese of Knoxville.
In addition, the mandatory renewal training must be completed every five years and a new background check submitted before the five-year expiration of prior training.
The Diocese of Knoxville Safe Environment compliance training and renewal training is a condition of employment and for volunteer ministry in the Diocese of Knoxville.
The CMG Connect
platform contains all three elements of the Diocese of Knoxville’s Safe Environment Program: n Annual review of the Diocese of Knoxville’s Policy and Procedures Relating to Sexual Misconduct; n CMG Connect Safe Haven training program to be completed every five years; n Criminal background check to be completed every five years.
In compliance with the Diocese of Knoxville’s Safe Environment Program, all affiliates require that volunteers and employees complete the requirements prior to working and/or volunteering in a parish, school, The Paraclete, or through Catholic Charities and/or St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic
Go to https:// dioknox.org/safeenvironment on the Diocese of Knoxville website for more information ■
Sr. Regina
© 2024 Handmaids of the Precious Blood
TA
‘ Pilgrims of hope’
Jubilee Year is an opportunity to be present, prayerful, and purposeful to those in need
he great Jubilee Year of 2025 begins this Christmas Eve when Pope Francis opens the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, an event that ordinarily takes place every 25 years in the life of the Church.
The name given by Pope Francis to this jubilee is “Pilgrims of Hope,” and the artistic logo shows pilgrims moving forward across a wavy sea reaching out to the cross, which is attached to an anchor. The rough waves are meant to be a reminder that the journey of life is not always smooth.
Indeed, the coming year’s jubilee takes place in the background of a world touched by major wars in various parts of the world, polarization and conflict in many countries, the painful effects of climate change, and many other forms of human suffering. Indeed, here in our own Diocese of Knoxville, our Five Rivers Deanery has been directly impacted by the remnants of Hurricane Helene, as were so many other states.
Recently, a group from our Chancery offices was able to visit some of the hardest hit areas of our diocese. Witnessing firsthand the destruction caused by the floodwaters left an indelible mark on my mind. More profoundly, meeting those directly impacted and the terrible losses they have experienced remain engraved in my heart.
We first met a circle of people in Erwin at the local Catholic church who were trying to process what had happened. Some had lost loved ones in the floodwaters, others were
witnesses to what took place, and still others had family members who had not yet been found. The grief, shock, and loss were palpable.
Later at a local press conference, family members held up photos of missing loved ones, calling out to authorities to help them find their lost family members and friends, a heart-wrenching experience. In the face of such pain, what can we do?
Perhaps the call of Pope Francis to “cling to the cross of Christ,” which is our only true anchor in the storms of life, is part of the answer. We are called to be “Pilgrims of Hope” in the darkest moments. Being a “pilgrim of hope” means being present
to others in their suffering, walking with them in love, living with them in a solidarity of prayer. Presence, prayer, purposeful actions of support and compassion—these are embodied signs of hope.
I was truly moved by the goodness and service of countless men and women, young and old, who simply showed up to help, and to the many who have made financial contributions to support those in flood-ravaged areas.
My own recent trip to Rome to attend the required “new bishops’ school,” with hundreds of other bishops from throughout the world, deepened my own awareness of the
universality of this beautiful Catholic Church. Bishops from all over the planet revealed the “waves” that afflicted their own parts of the world.
I met bishops from India, where clergy are being persecuted for their Christian faith by the government.
A bishop from Lebanon was standing next to me when we received the news that “pager bombs” had detonated throughout his country.
A bishop from Syria pleaded with the pope for prayers for suffering Christians there and throughout the Middle East. And a bishop from Ukraine spoke about how the Russian advance had come within seven kilometers of his home.
Yet what moved me the most from being in Rome with all of these bishops was a profound experience of hope and solidarity. The joy, prayer, and peace I witnessed on their faces spoke to me of Christ.
As we move forward in this beautiful Christian life here in the Diocese of Knoxville, I want to invite and challenge all of us to truly be “pilgrims of hope”! Let us cling to the cross of Christ, bearing witness to His love for everyone, allowing the anchor of our faith to hold us in peace in the storms of life.
On one of my journeys to Rome, our guide would call out “Andiamo!” It’s a beautiful Italian word that means something like “Let’s go!” or “Hurry Up!” Andiamo, brothers and sisters! Let’s go forward now together as pilgrims of hope in a world desperately yearning for the light of Christ ■
Pope Francis: Hear the cry of the excluded
By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service
Maybe it is a sign of aging, Pope Francis said, but he is increasingly concerned about what kind of world he and his peers will leave for younger generations and the prognosis is not good.
“This isn’t pessimism,” the pope told about two dozen representatives of popular movements and grassroots organizations meeting on Sept. 20 at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral
Human Development.
Pope Francis said he feared adults are leaving behind “a world discouraged, inferior, violent, marked by the plundering of nature, alienated by dehumanized modes of communication,” and “without the political, social, and economic paradigms to lead the way, with few dreams and enormous threats.”
But, he said, if people join forces, especially with those who are most often the victims, things can change.
And he prayed that “the cry of the excluded”
‘It grounds me ’
By Maria del Pilar Guzmán OSV News
When asked how her faith and culture impact her day-to-day life and responsibilities as the executive director of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, Christina Lamas responds with a brief yet resolute, “It grounds me.”
Ms. Lamas stepped into the NFCYM leadership role in 2016 a position that required her to move across the country from her native California to the nation’s capital to oversee the administration, management, and operations of the nonprofit member organization, which aims to connect and empower youth ministry leaders as they evangelize the next generation of Catholics.
“When I took this position here in Washington, D.C., the thought of moving across the country by myself, as a single parent, and trying to figure this out without the support of my family and community that has always been a part of who I am was daunting,” Ms. Lamas told OSV News
But Ms. Lamas has been a trailblazer within her own family and community and not one to pass on such an offer, having cultivated leadership skills like courage and commitment from a young age, especially to something as cherished by her as youth ministry.
One of eight children of Mexican immigrants from the state of Zacatecas, Ms. Lamas grew up in a household in La Puente, Calif., with a “deep-rooted Mexican culture.”
“(That culture) is present in every aspect of my life, from the moment that I was born to even today: it’s a part of who I am,” she said While her parish, St. Louis of France Church in La Puente, welcomed Ms. Lamas and her family among its faithful, Ms. Lamas credits her mother
for instilling the seeds of the Catholic faith. Whether it was by taking her to el grupo de oración (“the prayer group”), to pray the rosary on Thursday nights, or to Catholic congresses happening within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, her mother “took it upon herself to expose us” to the Catholic faith, Ms. Lamas said.
She would embrace that faith tightly when she headed off to college at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Ms. Lamas recalls her parents being hesitant at the idea of her living on campus and being away from home for prolonged periods, but she said, again resolutely: “Since a very young age, I’ve been wanting to break barriers ... so, in faith, I took the risk and said, ‘This is what I’m doing,’ and moved forward. And that (also) opened doors for the rest of my siblings.”
Armed with two degrees a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and psychology and a master’s degree in social work from USC Ms. Lamas became the youth ministry and confirmation coordinator for St. Louis of France Church. She shared that this role spanned from 2004 to 2009, leading to positions at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, including as youth ministry and confir-
would “awaken the slumbering consciences of so many political leaders who are ultimately the ones who must enforce economic, social, and cultural rights.”
Pope Francis was meeting with representatives of movements and organizations from Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia, including those that organize informal workers who collect and recycle trash, gather people who live in the informal settlements on the outskirts of cities, rally citizens to promote Pope continued on page A11
mation consultant (2009-10) and division coordinator of youth ministry (2013-16)
Her experience at St. Louis of France, which boasted a large Hispanic community, was pivotal as she built a career related to youth ministry, not only because it informed her of the spiritual needs of parishioners but also because she identified with the struggles they faced
She could relate to parents of teens who “had one foot in the U.S. and one foot in Mexico and were dealing with some of the culture that comes with it, trying to balance it all.” The work was challenging, Ms. Lamas revealed, but she embraced it, finding profound joy in “having a conversation with parents and then helping them navigate that with their young persons.”
“That brought me closer to the community, which allowed me then to raise a group of volunteers that embraced their faith but also wanted to pass that on to the youth,” she said
As the executive director of the NFCYM, Ms. Lamas now connects with youth ministry leaders across the nation, striving to offer intentional formation and committing to create initiatives so everyone feels included.
“It’s always being mindful of who’s around the table, whose voice is not there, and identifying the leaders that may or may not be there,” she said.
She also has been inspired by the vision expressed in Evangelii Gaudium about “our collective ability to empower young people to embrace their role of ‘street preachers’ or callejeros de la fe,” she said, according to the NFCYM website
“It brings me great joy to envision them spreading the message of Jesus throughout every street, town square, and corner of the world, with the support of nurturing adults through formation, resources, and networking,” she said. ■
Word from the Bishop by Bishop Mark Beckman
Christina Lamas
BILL BREWER
Being present Bishop Mark Beckman and Father Tom Charters, GHM, associate pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Erwin, Tenn., attend a press conference at Unicoi County High School on Oct. 2 with family members of loved ones who were killed or missing in Hurricane Helene flooding.
Synod on Synodality: the second session
By Cindy Wooden and Justin McLellan Catholic News Service
With many of the concrete, hot-button issues removed from the agenda and turned over to study groups, some people wonder what members of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality will be doing as they meet at the Vatican this month.
For Pope Francis and Synod organizers, though, taking issues like women deacons or seminary training off the table will allow the 368 Synod members to focus on their main task: Finding ways to ensure “the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language, and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.”
Cardinal Mario Grech, general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, cited that quote from Pope Francis’ 2013 exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” when explaining what the three-year process of the Synod on Synodality was all about.
The working document for the Synod’s second session Oct. 2-27 summarized as its task “to identify the paths we can follow and the tools we might adopt in our different contexts and circumstances in order to enhance the unique contribution of each baptized person and of each Church in the one mission of proclaiming the Risen Lord and his Gospel to the world today.”
In the preface to a book on synodality, published in the Vatican newspaper on Sept. 24, Cardinal Grech wrote that the consultations held with Catholics around the world starting in 2021-22 “noted, not without disappointment, the
problem of a Church perceived as an exclusive and excluding community the Church of closed doors, customs, and tolls to be paid.”
“What needs to change is not the Gospel but our way of proclaim-
ing it,” he said.
The task of Synod members bishops, priests, members of religious orders, and lay men and women will be to better defi ne or at least describe what is meant by synodality and to suggest ways to
live out that vision. Specifi cally, that means: helping people listen to one another and to the Holy Spirit; looking at relationships within the Church and making sure they empower every member to take responsibility for the Church’s mission; reaching out to people who have felt rejected or excluded by the Church; increasing the accountability of people in leadership positions; ensuring parish and diocesan councils are truly representative and listened to; and increasing opportunities for women to place their gifts and talents at the service of the Church, including in leadership and decision-making.
While those goals make sense from an organizational point of view, the Catholic Church sees itself as the body of Christ, not an organization, and it has traditionally tied the task of governance and decision-making to ordination. How that authority is exercised can vary according to church, country, and culture. Synod members come from more than 110 countries and from 15 of the Eastern Catholic churches.
Part of the Synod’s discernment involves listening to each other and to the Holy Spirit in respecting people’s traditions with a small “t,” while also being open to something new. Pope Francis’ frequent observation that the Holy Spirit takes diversity and from it creates harmony, not uniformity, is a test for a Church that is universal while also incredibly varied.
In the same text published by the Vatican newspaper on Sept. 24, Cardinal Grech wrote, “While traditionally Catholicism has focused more on the ‘singular,’ identifying in unity cum et sub Petro (‘with and under Peter’) a safeguard against dispersion and error, today we feel Synod continued on page A14
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The final session Above: Pope Francis, leaders of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops, and participants attend the Synod's opening session in the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall on Oct. 2. Below: Officers of the Synod of Bishops applaud Pope Francis and all members of the Synod of Bishops named after St. Francis of Assisi, on the Italian saint's feast day, Oct. 4, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican.
Sole consultor
Pope Francis names Diocese of Knoxville resident as only
By Gabrielle Nolan
Sociologist, researcher, and Knoxville resident Tricia Bruce is contributing to the second session of the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican this month, being held Oct. 2-27.
A lifelong Catholic, Dr. Bruce was appointed by Pope Francis in February to be a consultor to the General Secretariat of the Synod. Out of the six consultors in this round, she is the only American.
She received her master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Santa Barbara, as well as a bachelor’s degree in sociology and communications from Southwestern University.
Dr. Bruce is currently the director of Springtide Research Institute, a nonprofit and non-partisan organization that uses social science to gain knowledge from and about young people ages 13 to 25.
She also is an award-winning author whose books include Parish and Place: Making Room for Diversity in the American Catholic Church (Oxford University Press, 2017); Faithful Revolution: How Voice of the Faithful is Changing the Church (Oxford University Press, 2011/2014); and How Americans Understand Abortion (forthcoming with University of California Press).
Her writing has been published in notable publications such as Time magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Journal for the American Academy of Religious, U.S. Catholic Historian, and others.
This appointment for the Synod is not something that Dr. Bruce originally pursued; rather, Cardinal Mario Grech, who serves as secretary general of the Synod on Synodality, contacted her directly.
“It’s a huge honor,” Dr. Bruce shared. “The way that I think about it is that it’s really not about me. I mean, literally, the work that I’ve done has just connected to hundreds and hundreds of Catholics, and those who … interact with Catholicism; in the U.S. especially is where most of my work has been focused. And so I think of myself as a bridge and a funnel to those voices and those perspectives, and in all of my work I’ve tried to surface those different ways of thinking and including from both those holding formal leadership positions, whether priests or bishops or lay Catholics who are in … either volunteer positions or paid positions, and then just everyday people, everyday Catholics, and also non-Catholics.”
Dr. Bruce said that in many ways she wants “to stay invisible” in this process.
“I think for me it’s an honor, it’s an obligation, it’s a responsibility,” she said. “I want to just be a way to connect to the kind of work, the specific work that I have done in terms of my research and also the
Standard-bearer Dr. Tricia Bruce holds the papal flag on the steps of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus before departing for Rome to take part in the Synod on Synodality this month. Ms. Bruce was selected by Pope Francis to take part in the historic Synod and is the only American named as a consultor to the final phase of the three-year project.
kind of work that I do, the ways that I do it, and also recognize that it just has to be put in conversation with theologians, with historians, with canon lawyers, with others who are thinking about this differently.”
As a consultor, she will review documents, provide feedback and insights, and be available as needed during the meetings. Her appointment extends into 2025.
“I honestly think that my participation is going to be potentially more intense after the actual inperson gathering,” she shared. “I think it’s going to be more so about the documents that result from it. Much like last year, there were the reports that emerged from it, and again with this year, I was able to offer commentary on the Instrumentum Laboris before it was released publicly. I think that’s where my role will come in and hence the overlap in 2025.”
Although she has visited the Vatican a handful of times before, one checkpoint remains to be crossed off her list.
“I haven’t actually met Pope Francis yet, so I would like to meet him,” Dr. Bruce said.
Dr. Bruce first pursued sociology as a degree because it gave her “a language for the kinds of curiosities
"There's both a magical and overwhelming sense of unity in what the Church is, both in the U.S. and globally, but just in that high level of polarization and different kinds of experiences and perspectives and inequalities that I think have to be attended to. So, the Synod conversation is being super intentional about surfacing those, and social scientists have tools to do that."
Dr. Tricia Bruce Synod on Synodality consultor
and questions I had about how is it that different backgrounds play out to impact people differently in terms of their life choices, their life outcomes.”
Because her father was in the Army, she moved around often, and this way of life caused her to have many questions about the world around her.
“We were quite literally picking up and moving to a wholly different context pretty often, and so it was this kind of jarring reset in terms of trying to figure out what the world was, how it worked, how people inside of it worked,” Dr. Bruce said. “And then for us, too, the Church was always a place where we would come back to as home base, no matter where we went. And that opened up a set of questions for me that then once I got to college and realized, oh, sociology is kind of asking these kinds of questions, this is a way for me to explore that. Then it really became something I fell in love with and pursued for my career.”
When the Synod on Synodality began in October 2021, Dr. Bruce said that she had “a great deal of optimism.”
“The word listening kind of came up early and often with the Synod process, and so did the idea of ac-
tually opening up an invitation to listen to so many different people in the Church from different perspectives, including those whose voices aren’t necessarily included all the time or maybe whose experiences can feel more marginalized,” she noted. “And as someone who has done so much of this kind of work interviewing priests and immigrants and racialized minorities and all sorts of groups who tend to be on the sidelines … I, through my work, knew how important that was, and so was excited to hear this initial prospect of it.”
Dr. Bruce said that she sensed the Synod was another opportunity, similar to the Second Vatican Council, to “do the same kind of thinking about who we are, who is the Church, and how is it moving forward together, while including so many kinds of voices in that process, too.”
The themes of the Synod on Synodality are communion, participation, and mission. As a sociologist, Dr. Bruce is analyzing those aspects within the Catholic Church.
“There’s both a magical and overwhelming sense of unity in what the Church is, both in the U.S. and globally, but just in that high level of polarization and different kinds of experiences and perspectives and inequalities that I think have to be attended to,” she said. “So, the Synod conversation is being super intentional about surfacing those, and social scientists have tools to do that.”
“I continue to look forward to a positive future, and to me the sign and the actual action of things like the Synod is something that says, hey, this is a Church that is trying to lead positively with faith towards a positive future, and that’s something I absolutely would like to support,” Dr. Bruce shared.
The Synod on Synodality is a three-year process of listening and dialogue that began with a solemn opening in Rome Oct. 9-10, 2021, with each diocese and church celebrating the following week on Oct. 17.
Every diocese in the world convened groups of people to provide input into the Catholic Church, from its organizational structure to its goals for the future.
Reports from those conversations were then compiled, synthesized, and delivered to the Vatican.
They became the basis for the synodal process over a three-year period. That synodal process is completed this year with the conclusion of the last phase.
However, additional dialogue is expected to continue into 2025 on key issues the Church will likely address separately.
For more information on Dr. Bruce, visit her website at triciabruce.com
To stay updated with the Synod on Synodality, visit the official website at synod.va/en.html ■
GABRIELLE NOLAN (2)
Special Mass celebrated by Bishop Beckman concludes 50th anniversary Religious Sisters of Mercy close jubilee year
By Gabrielle Nolan
After a yearlong celebration of their Golden Jubilee, the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich., concluded their festivities with a special gathering at their Knoxville-based convent on Aug. 30.
The event included an open house with food and refreshments, confession, vespers, and a Mass led by Bishop Mark Beckman. Father Christopher Floersh, parochial vicar at St. John Neumann Parish in Farragut, concelebrated, and Deacon Bob Hunt of All Saints Parish in Knoxville served as deacon of the Word and altar.
The religious order was founded on Sept. 1, 1973, and Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, RSM, commented that it’s a “miracle of the Holy Spirit at work” that the community has made it to this milestone.
“We started with a very small group of Sisters seeking to return to the charism of our foundress. They were young, it was in the midst of a very confusing time after the Second Vatican Council, but they, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, knew that there were certain essentials of religious life that they needed to continue to live. So, in 50 years it’s amazing to see how we’ve grown,” Sister Mary Lisa said.
The Religious Sisters of Mercy currently include about 120 Sisters who are stationed at convents all around the world, including the United States, Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Scotland.
“We’ve just continued to go deeper in those essentials of religious life, our understanding of religious life in the Church and the gift of being able to serve the Church as a religious woman,” said Sister Mary Lisa, who serves as the Knoxville community’s superior. “So, it’s a time to really thank the Lord for how He has blessed us and led us through these years, in hope for the future to keep going
Holding a jubilee Above: Bishop Mark Beckman is shown with, from left,
Sister Marie de Paul prays during Vespers on Aug. 30 at the convent. Below right: Sister Mary Timothea participates in the Aug. 30 Vespers service.
deeper and keep our eyes on him in the midst of all of this. … I think it’s a beautiful time to turn to the Lord again in gratitude and in supplication to be faithful as we continue on for the next 50 years.”
Throughout the jubilee year,
March for Life prepares for new U.S. president, its own new president
By Kate Scanlon OSV News
Jennie Bradley Lichter, president-elect of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, said challenges for the group’s cause on both political and cultural fronts also present an opportunity to demonstrate “leading with love.”
“I think we have a great opportunity ahead of us as a pro-life movement and as an organization to continue to refine our message and to continue to get better and better at speaking into this moment,” Ms. Lichter told OSV News in an interview.
Ms. Lichter, who will become president of both the March for Life organization and its sister lobbying organization in February, was previously deputy general counsel at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where she oversaw its Guadalupe Project, a campus-wide initiative to offer tangible support for pregnant and parenting students, faculty, and staff.
That effort included increasing paid parental leave for faculty and staff from eight to 12 weeks, adding designated expectant-mother parking on campus; installing additional diaper-changing stations on campus, including in men’s restrooms; and making diapers and wipes available through the on-campus food pantry, as well as other new resources for pregnant students.
Asked how other institutions could make similar efforts, Ms. Lichter urged “responsiveness to a specific community’s concrete needs.”
Jennie Bradley Lichter
“I think many institutions could stand to take a hard look at their paid parental leave policies and think about whether they have the capacity to make them just a little bit more generous,” she added.
Ms. Lichter will take the reins of the key pro-life organization after a 2024 election cycle in which abortion has been a key issue, and as a growing share of American adults identify as “pro-choice” just two and a half years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide and initially prompted the annual prolife demonstration.
Asked how she is strategizing about her new role coinciding with a new presidential administration, Ms. Lichter said she hopes “there will be opportunities for me and for the march as an organization and the movement to find ways to work with the new president and the new president’s team.”
“And it’s hard to know that without knowing exactly the out-
friends and benefactors of the Sisters visited their chapel for an opportunity to pray and receive a plenary indulgence allowed by Pope Francis.
Sister Maliya Grace Suen, RSM, shared that every day for the past year she has been able to offer
her prayers for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
“Our convents have now become places of pilgrimage, where people can come to meet the Lord and experience His mercy for themselves and their own faith life, but they also can apply this to somebody who has died. Which is, if you think about it, the ultimate sense of living that jubilee in heaven. It allows some of your loved ones to enter into the final jubilee,” she said.
Sister Maliya Grace also spoke of how the jubilee year is a biblical concept that comes from chapter 25 of the book of Leviticus.
“The Lord tells the Israelites every 50 years you are to hold a jubilee,” she explained. “And in the jubilee, the Lord tells them that you should free all prisoners, forgive all debts, and really you should celebrate for a whole year. He even says that on the 49th year, He will provide a big enough harvest that they don’t even need to harvest for the jubilee year. It is a sign of heaven where there’s no more debt, no more sin … all relationships are restored … inequality is kind of done away with.”
‘Pour that mercy forth’
Delivering his homily to an overflowing chapel of guests, Bishop Beckman pointed to the right side of the chapel where a stained-glass image of the crucifixion depicts the Religious Sisters of Mercy below the cross.
“The love of God that flows from the heart of Christ, His mercy, received by Mary, His mother, and communicated to the great Sisters of Mercy and the great work that you all do and the example of Mother Catherine McAuley,” the bishop said. “So, there is something about love poured out, freely given, the self-giving love that God offers us on the cross that is greater than any human power. That’s where we get our strength
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Sister Joan Miriam Nelson, RSM, Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, RSM, Sister Mary Timothea Elliott, RSM, Sister Maliya Grace Suen, RSM, and Sister Marie de Paul Stokes, RSM, at the Sisters' convent on Aug. 30. Below left:
Sisters
Bishop Beckman visits with UT students in Chattanooga, Knoxville ‘ Your presence on campus matters’
UT-C students welcome Bishop Beckman to Newman Center for food and fellowship
By Claire Collins
Bishop Mark Beckman celebrated Mass on Sept. 29 at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Newman Center for the students, staff, and FOCUS team serving the campus.
The UT-C Newman Center has been in its current building since 1989, but its status was made official by UT-C’s president in 1962. The ministry hosts social events, small groups, and sacraments for the Catholic students in Chattanooga, including two weeknight Mass and dinner events, where students on campus are invited to join for food and fellowship.
The campus also boasts a team of missionaries from the Fellowship of Catholic University Students whose mission is to share the Gospel on campus and invite students into lifelong Catholic mission through small group Bible studies and intentional mentorship.
David Hamilton, FOCUS team director at UT-C and a seventhyear missionary from Knoxville, was thankful for the time Bishop Beckman spent with the students.
“We are deeply grateful that our bishop, Bishop Beckman, made time to come down to UT-C, celebrate the holy Mass, and connect with us FOCUS missionaries and our students. As a prince of the Church and descendent of the Apostles, his presence lifted our hearts and kindled greater love and excitement for his episcopacy,” Mr. Hamilton said.
Bishop Beckman shared with the students that he fondly remembered spending time with
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come, and anyone who will be surrounding the president, what that will look like,” she said. “But I do feel confident that there will be ways in which we can work together.”
Ms. Lichter was previously in the White House as a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, where she supervised rulemaking and policy efforts at some federal agencies during the Trump administration.
At a media briefing on Oct. 10 with Jeanne Mancini, the group’s current president, the pair unveiled the theme for the Jan. 24 event, “Every Life: Why We March,” which will come just days after the new president is inaugurated as well as just days before their own handoff.
Ms. Mancini cast the choice of the organization’s new leader as a return “to the basics” amid a time of “confusion and erroneous messaging” about abortion.
In an interview with OSV News reflecting on her tenure at the helm of the March for Life, which included growing the group’s staff, launching its state march initiative as well as the overturn of Roe and overseeing the first in-person addresses from a sitting president and vice president, Ms. Mancini said the group’s mission is “pivotal at this time in history.”
The March for Life is nonpartisan and nonsectarian, but Ms. Mancini said, “There are Catholic social teachings that are so clear on showing the inherent dignity of the human person, and the March for Life essentially allows pro-life Americans to be able to do that in a very easy way in the public square about the human rights issue of our time.”
The addresses by then-Vice President Mike Pence and then-President Donald Trump sparked an increase in media attention for the
Meeting students of all ages Bishop Mark Beckman talks with David Hamilton, FOCUS team director at the University of TennesseeChattanooga, as the bishop visits the UT-C Newman Center on Sept. 29 . Mr. Hamilton is holding his young son, Augustine.
Monsignor Al Humbrecht in Chattanooga as a seminarian, and that he was glad to be able to spend time celebrating Mass with them. He also shared details about his crosier’s East Tennessee roots, being made from cedar in Lebanon, Tenn., a nod to the historic cedar trees of Lebanon.
Bishop Beckman was joined by the UT-C chaplain, Father Michael Hendershott, and Deacon Brian Gabor, who serves as a campus minister at the UT-C Newman Center.
Bishop Beckman’s homily reminded the students of the hope we should all have knowing the humanity of those whom God called to begin His Church and ministry, specifically those Apostles whom he called to be shepherds and to make disciples.
UT-C continued on page A15
"T here will be opportunities for me and for the march as an organization and the movement to find ways to work with the new president and the new president's team. And it's hard to know that without knowing exactly the outcome, and anyone who will be surrounding the president, what that will look like. But I do feel confident that there will be ways in which we can work together."
Jennie Bradley Lichter, president-elect of March for Life Education and Defense Fund
annual event as well, Ms. Mancini said, adding, “Because we’re very much in the public square, and we want to do our very best on messaging these most critical issues in a beautiful and attractive and compelling way.”
Ms. Mancini said she laments “that there’s still so much confusion” around the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe and “what that decision did and didn’t allow,” and said there is a need to continue “educating on that and speaking clarity into kind of this confusing haze.”
“We need to put most of our ducks into making sure that women know that they have the requisite support, and then making sure that they have the requisite support, so that they do choose life,” she said.
The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion. After the Dobbs decision, Church officials in the United States have reiterated the Church’s concern for both mother and child, and it has called for strengthening available support for people living in poverty or other causes that can push women toward having an abortion. ■
VolCatholic students at St. John XXIII Parish engage bishop in some questions and answers
By Gabrielle Nolan
Bishop Mark Beckman visited the University of Tennessee’s Catholic student center at St. John XXIII University Parish for the first time on Aug. 28, gathering with the students and Paulist Fathers for an evening of Q&A.
The bishop thanked the Paulists for their 50 years of ministry, noting they have been a gift to the university and to the students.
The Paulist Fathers in attendance for the evening were Father Larry Rice, pastor of St. John XXIII; Father Rich Whitney, associate pastor; and Father Bob O‘Donnell, priest in residence.
The bishop spoke to the nearly 60 students for 45 minutes, answering a variety of questions such as what his favorite part of being Knoxville’s bishop is; who is his favorite saint; how did he know he was being called to the priesthood; what was his favorite part of walking the Camino de Santiago; what encouragement would he give to someone who is the only Catholic in their family; and many more.
“Your presence in the Church matters, and your presence on this campus matters,” Bishop Beckman said. “You wouldn’t be here tonight if God didn’t want you here for some reason. You have all responded gracefully to God’s call to be part of the UT student center. Stay active, stay engaged, always stay close to the Lord no matter what, through the good times and the bad times; don’t give up.”
Bishop Beckman said that he was “delighted” at the turnout for
the evening.
“Lots of students and they asked wonderful questions, and they were so interested. I mean they sustained interest for a rather lengthy period of time of asking questions. Very good questions, thoughtful questions. I love the energy of the young people and their enthusiasm,” the bishop commented.
Bishop Beckman attended the college seminary at St. Ambrose in Davenport, Iowa, for four years. He said he had “fantastic” teachers who challenged his thinking, and he also knew priests who were his role models on campus.
“I think finding good mentors and good professors that you can talk to when you’re going through UT-K
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On this pilgrimage to the Shrines of Italy, it encompasses some of the holiest Catholic sites that Italy has to offer! In Rome, step into the four Major Basilicas, see the Square from St. Peter’s Basilica, and attend a Papal Audience with his successor, Pope Francis. In San Giovanni Rotondo, visit sites from the life of St. Padre Pio. Enjoy touring the beautiful hometown of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi. Close out your pilgrimage visiting Pompeii and Naples.
CLAIRE COLLINS
continued
A good fit Bishop Mark Beckman, wearing a Big Orange zucchetto, enjoys a moment with a University of Tennessee student at St. John XXIII Catholic Center on the UT-Knoxville campus. Bishop Beckman visited the Catholic student center on Aug. 28, where the Paulist Fathers and UT-K students presented him with the Vol headcover fit for a bishop
Shining a light on St. Mary ’ s Legacy Clinic
Diocese ’s medical ministry hosts national visitors at St. Alphonsus site
By Emily Booker
The campus of St. Alphonsus
Church in Crossville was a popular destination recently for out-of-state observers who wanted to see firsthand the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic in action.
On Aug. 27, the Legacy Clinic (SMLC) hosted several guests from Catholic Extension Society and DePaul University who spent the day experiencing the clinic at one of its newest sites.
Catholic Extension representatives visited the clinic to learn more about Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, RSM, the SMLC medical director who had recently been named a finalist for the esteemed lay organization’s Lumen Christi Award.
The Lumen Christi Award is the highest honor given by Catholic Extension, whose nonprofit work supports and strengthens mission dioceses across the United States, including the Diocese of Knoxville.
“Sister Mary Lisa and really the entire clinic has been nominated for our highest honor, the Lumen Christi Award. So, our goal today is to kind of help tell the story, get the word out. Hopefully that will result in some resources coming your way to help expand this ministry,” said Joe Boland, chief mission officer for Catholic Extension.
Sister Mary Lisa was announced as the 2024 recipient of the Lumen Christi Award in late September.
The Lumen Christi recipient is given a $25,000 grant, along with an additional $25,000 grant for the nominating diocese. Bishop Mark Beckman has said the full $50,000 will go to the Legacy Clinic.
On their Aug. 27 visits, Catholic Extension representatives interviewed several of Sister Mary Lisa’s patients and talked to them about their experiences with SMLC.
“I’ve been working with Catholic
Extension for 16 years, and I’ve had the privilege to come down to this great diocese many times, and it’s always a delight, always a pleasure to be here,” Mr. Boland said.
“One of the things for us when we come here is we experience a
missionary spirit in this diocese and a real desire to go to the margins, to care for God’s people, whether they’re Catholic or not,” he added.
Two graduate students from DePaul, a private Catholic research
‘ Yet to touch bottom ’
Archbishop Wenski: Massacre shows violence in Haiti unending
By Gina Christian OSV News
Arecent massacre in Haiti that killed at least 115 people shows “the deteriorating situation in Haiti has yet ‘to touch bottom,’” Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami said.
Members of the Gran Grif de Savien gang stormed the town of Pont-Sondé during the early hours of Oct. 3, killing at least 115 and displacing more than 6,000. A local human rights group advised media that gang members had traveled by canoe to reach the village, which sits along the Artibonite River, to ambush residents.
On Oct. 9, Mayor Myriam Fièvre of Saint-Marc—a city about nine miles west of Pont-Sondé, to which thousands had fled after the attack—told The Associated Press that authorities were still searching for bodies.
The attack ranks as the worst in Haiti’s recent history, which has been plagued by multiple, sustained crises such as political instability, natural disasters, foreign intervention, and international debt Archbishop Wenski—who is fluent in Haitian Creole and whose archdiocese is home to an extensive and historic Haitian expatriate community—slammed both domestic and international efforts to restore order in Haiti, which has experienced high volatility in government leadership for several years.
In July 2021, Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated; in April 2023, the head of the United Nations office in Haiti warned the nation was sliding into “a cata-
strophic spiral of violence.” A year later, Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigned under pressure from armed groups, which have waged a brutal and chaotic territorial war in Haiti.
But the transitional council that succeeded Mr. Henry “was pretty much foisted on Haiti by the international community,” said Archbishop Wenski in an Oct. 10 e-mail to OSV News. “Some of its members have been implicated in corruption schemes, and the political parties represented on the council had in the past been credibly accused of abetting or supporting gang activity.”
Amid the power struggle, “the Haitian people … are suffering from gang violence, including rape and kidnapping” and are “increasingly at risk for famine,” Archbishop Wenski said.
Some 5.4 million Haitians face “high levels of acute food insecurity” due to the armed gang violence, with 6,000 residents experiencing “catastrophic levels of hunger and a collapse of their livelihoods,” according to a report released in August by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
“The country is completely sick” and its people “exhausted,” said Archbishop Max Leroy Mésidor of Port-au-Prince, president of the Haitian Catholic bishops’ conference, in a widely circulated audio message released after the PontSondé attack.
The Haitian people “remain on the sidelines powerless to intervene in the apparent standoff between the ‘criminals in sandals’ (the gangs) and the ‘criminals in ties’
university in Chicago, also were visiting the Crossville clinic to meet with SMLC volunteers. Zach Ellis and Aaron Nguyen are studying community psychology and researching the needs of a community and how research and advocacy can address those needs.
They were put in contact with SMLC through a faculty adviser who had visited the clinic through an earlier trip with Catholic Extension.
“We’ve been working with St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic for little over a year now doing a couple different programs and projects, trying to help out,” Mr. Ellis said. His background is health-care research and community-building.
“The first project we did was interviews with volunteers centered around how did they get involved, what were their motivations for getting involved, trying to get their perspective on how this has impacted them both professionally, personally, how they have come to understand the needs in the different communities,” he added. “That helped to inform this survey, which we just rolled out this past spring and has led into the summer. That is kind of a follow-up on stress and satisfaction of the volunteering experience, motivations, what kind of sense of community does St. Mary’s provide for the volunteers.”
Mr. Ellis said he was glad for the opportunity to meet some of the volunteers face-to-face and get to know one another on a deeper level than just survey responses.
Mr. Nguyen’s background is in health behaviors, especially substance use, in rural areas.
“I think my big focus is to empower the voices of the people rather than to come in and dictate what things should be. I think that a big part of what we do is that we try to involve the community
Including Mont St. Michel, Beaches of Normandy, Lisieux & Avila with Fr. Steve Pawelk
12 Days
June 16-27, 2025
Highlighting the Light of Christ Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, RSM, and the St. Mary's Legacy Clinic are the subject of a video project by Catholic Extension.
SMLC continued on page A9
Telling their story A Catholic Extension team gets photography and videography of the St. Mary's Legacy Clinic and Sister Mary Lisa in action as the medical ministry visits St. Alphonsus Church in Crossville.
Multilingual rosary unites diverse Catholics
Prayer for migrants, refugees brings together Diocese of Knoxville faithful
By Gabrielle Nolan
The Diocese of Knoxville’s Office of Hispanic Ministry hosted the annual multilingual rosary at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville on Sept. 20.
The rosary, prayed in several languages, preceded National Migration Week (Sept. 23-29) and World Day of Migrants (Sept. 29), two events celebrated by the universal Church.
Pope Francis chose “God walks with His people” as the 2024 theme.
Blanca Primm, director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry, welcomed the participants.
“We especially welcome our brothers and sisters in Christ who are not of the Catholic faith,” Mrs. Primm said. “Like in Pentecost, we come together as one family to elevate our prayers for our brothers and sisters who are immigrants and refugees. We ask for our Blessed Mother’s protection, especially for those who are forced to flee their homes seeking a safe and better life for themselves and their families.”
In addition to praying for migrants and refugees, Mrs. Primm informed the crowd that Father Youngseung Lee, pastor of the Catholic Church of the Korean Martyrs in Nashville, was unable to attend the event because he was involved in an automobile accident 40 miles outside of Knoxville.
partners into the decision-making process as much as possible,” Mr. Nguyen said.
He added that he’s hoping to do a survey of patients at the Divine Mercy Parish clinic site as well.
“There’s a lot of challenges working with this population because there’s not a lot of Vietnamese volunteers capable of translating medical terms,” he pointed out.
He wanted to research the needs of the patients, the resources of the clinic, and then try to match the clinic’s capabilities with the needs of the patient as much as possible. He noted that while there are some language barriers and communication issues, he’s found the staff and volunteers are “guided by very strong faith and a charitable cause of giving to the patients of the community.”
The DePaul students hope their work will help not only SMLC and its patients but also offer an understanding of the health-care needs of rural patients.
Sister Mary Lisa reaffirmed that commitment to listening to the needs of and serving her patients.
“Our goal is to bring the love of Christ to them so that they know that they have dignity and they have worth and that they are worthy of excellent medical care. They are worthy to be treated as a whole human person just because of who they are as a child of God,” she said.
“What happens from the first moment that they walk in, from our hospitality volunteers—their kindness, their smiles—they’re treating them with such love and dignity. And then all the way through the experience, our goal is to keep building them up,” she added.
Martin Vargas, SMLC executive director, shared with the Catholic Extension and DePaul University visitors how the clinic has grown and evolved.
In the past year, the clinic has seen 24 percent growth, with the percentage of patients who are Hispanic having grown from 25 percent to 35 percent. The clinic has added two new clinic sites, in Crossville and Pigeon Forge. There are now more than 125 volunteers who assist not only in medical exams but in driving, hospitality, triage, and more.
And the Legacy Clinic is work-
He was taken to the hospital but later discharged. Notably, this accident occurred on the feast day of St. Andrew Kim Taegon and the Korean Martyrs.
“We are going to offer this rosary for Father Lee, as well,” Mrs. Primm said.
Before the rosary began, Deacon Fredy Vargas, who serves at the cathedral, gave a reflection for the event.
“Dear brothers and sisters, as we prepare for World Migrant and Refugees Day … it is a significant occasion to remember the
ing with community partners to offer more services from health screenings to job searches to winter clothing.
“Each of our clinics is different. So, what you find is they are coming to see us for localized, faithbased care and where they need and how they need us,” Mr. Vargas said.
The visitors toured the clinic, where Sister Mary Lisa walked them through the steps of setting up a mobile clinic, from the landing gear to setting up the triage station to bringing food and clothes for patients they know are experiencing homelessness.
“It takes a whole team, and it’s a lot of teamwork for the patient care as well as the set-up and take-down of the clinic. But we have a great group that works well together to get it done,” Sister Mary Lisa said.
The visitors also checked out the recently dedicated St. Alphonsus Church and St. Alphonsus Community Services, which provides food and support to people in need in the Cumberland County community.
“I think what we experience at this parish, St. Alphonsus Liguori, is the Gospel put into practice,” Mr. Boland said.
“Here we have a health clinic that is attending to people’s medical needs, that beautiful new church that was dedicated last year, which is attending to people’s spiritual needs. So, the health needs are taken care of, their spiritual needs, and also people’s physical needs as well as St. Alphonsus Community Services to see how people are caring really for mind, body, and soul. And that holistic approach to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy is the Church at her best. That is the Gospel put into practice. That is something that we celebrate at Catholic Extension,” he observed.
For many of its patients, SMLC is the face of the Catholic Church. It offers not just health care but compassion and hope to those in most need in the community.
“My goal here is to bring that light of Christ to each person that I meet, and I think that that’s the goal of all of us who work together with the clinic,” Sister Mary Lisa said.
“I think the beauty of this clinic is that this is an area where not many people have met a Catholic before, much less a religious sister, and so
dignity of every person, regardless of where they were born or their circumstances,” he said. “Migration affects millions of people who are forced to leave their homes due to violence, war, persecution, or extreme poverty.
As Christians, we are called to be instruments of God’s love and compassion in the face of this reality. Every person has the right to seek safety in their lives in the face of danger. Jesus Himself, as a child, fled from Egypt with Mary and Joseph to escape the violence of King Herod.”
Deacon Vargas said the suf -
this is their picture they get of the Church. It’s coming out to meet them where they’re at with the love of Christ. Please, God, that they remember that, that this is what the Lord desires of them, to bring healing and wholeness, and they can receive that through the Church.”
Mr. Boland and Catholic Extension witnessed Sister Mary Lisa and the SMLC team being the face, hands, and feet of Jesus.
“To see the faces of these joyful, young Sisters of Mercy bringing light and hope and healing into people’s lives is just such a beautiful thing to witness,” Mr. Boland said. “We hope that more people in seeing this beautiful ministry will come to realize that the Gospel, the Church, is still a relevant force in today’s world, perhaps now more
fering of migrants is “not a distant issue but a human reality that we must respond to with compassion.”
He quoted Leviticus 19:34, which says, “You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself; for you, too, were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the LORD, am your God.”
Deacon Vargas shared how this Scripture passage reflects the corporal works of mercy.
“Every time we welcome a migrant, we are welcoming Christ Himself. Pope Francis constantly reminds us that our true citizenship is not in this earth but of heaven. We are pilgrims on this earth and along our journey we encounter Christ in the poor, the marginalized, and the immigrants,” he remarked.
In addition to praying for the poor and marginalized, Deacon Vargas also invited those in attendance to reflect “on the dangers that come with pursuing wealth and comfort.”
“In our pursuit for material well-being, we can forget those in need, such as migrants and the poor,” he said. “In the Letter of James, chapter five, he warns us that the desire for wealth can blind us to the needs of others. We must not let our concerns for material things prevent us from feeling our call to serve the most
Rosary continued on page A12
than ever. And so this is taking the Gospel and putting it into practice in 2024. That’s what we’re witnessing today.”
He said Catholic Extension was excited to share the inspiring stories of the Church in East Tennessee with a wider audience.
“Catholic Extension has been a partner with the Diocese of Knoxville for many decades now, and you all are doing the heavy lifting, doing the work on the ground on the front lines. To be able to visit parishes and communities all across East Tennessee to see what that looks like, to see how you put faith in action, is really something that is not only a blessing to us but hopefully to all the people who are part of Catholic Extension Society,” Mr. Boland shared. ■
'We thank you, Mother Mary' Women representing the African community sing in Swahili for the third mystery of the rosary during the annual multilingual rosary at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on Sept. 20. Some 20 languages were represented during the rosary.
GABRIELLE NOLAN
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Vatican pushes for peace in Ukraine
No end in sight for war with Russia as third winter of fighting approaches
Peter Laffin National Catholic Register
As the brutal fighting in Ukraine approaches its third winter with no end in sight, the Vatican has once again dispatched Italian Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi to push for peace.
Cardinal Zuppi, who is Pope Francis’ special envoy to Ukraine, embarked on his second visit to Moscow on Oct. 14, where he is “assessing further efforts to facilitate the reunification of Ukrainian children with their families and the exchange of prisoners, with a view to achieving the much-hoped-for peace,” according to Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office.
One million people have now either died or been injured as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, according to recent estimates, including 200,000 dead Russians and 80,000 dead Ukrainians.
Ukrainian infrastructure has also been severely damaged, as long-range Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian power grid have knocked out 70 percent of the nation’s energy-generation capacity, according to the United Nations, a fact that could cause millions to flee their homes in the brutal cold of the approaching Ukrainian winter.
Neither side has appeared willing thus far to curb their demands to begin the process of negotiated peace.
(the corrupted political class),” said Archbishop Wenski.
Describing Haiti as “a house on fire,” the archbishop also denounced ongoing moves by the U.S. and Dominican Republic governments to deport Haitians fleeing their homeland’s violence. Such deportations amount to “sending (Haitians) back into the fire in violation of international treaties regarding non-refoulement of refugees,” said Archbishop Wenski.
Under international human rights law—such as the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol—the fundamental principle of non-refoulement provides that refugees cannot be expelled to territories where substantial threats to life or freedom exist.
Metropolitan Archbishop Mésidor asked in response to the massacre, “Is there a plan to destroy the country?”
Oblate Father Thomas Hagan, who has spent three decades min-
Pope continued from page A3
care of the environment, assist subsistence farmers, and rescue migrants at sea.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told the representatives that “justice cannot be an intellectual or even a juridical matter. It must be rooted deep within us, as urgent and impossible to ignore as hunger and thirst.”
“To raise our voices for the voiceless,” the cardinal said, Christians must follow the example of Jesus and be “humble, not caught up in pride, success, money, and fame; in solidarity with those who suffer, capable of weeping with them and comforting them; meek, acting without violence or boasting, but with a deep thirst for justice.”
Pope Francis told the leaders that the injustices that keep too many people poor, malnourished, unemployed, and on the margins of their community ’s social and political life fuel violence and ultimately war.
Gloria Morales-Palos, a member of Christ the King Parish in San Diego and an officer in the local, state, and national offices of the PICO Network, a faith-based community organizing group, told
As preconditions for any peace talks, Ukraine has insisted that Russian troops leave the Eastern European country, that Russia recognizes the 1991 borders between the countries, and that Russia pays reparations for the war and faces justice through international tribunals.
For its part, the Russian Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine cede its lost territory and more, in addition to ending its ambitions to join NATO.
The chasm has left foreign-policy experts flummoxed as to how this conflict will be able to move closer to a resolution—or at the very least, to
a “new normal” in which the fighting is isolated to a singular front line to reduce the suffering of innocent civilians.
Russia continues to enjoy several strategic advantages in the conflict, including a larger economy due to its vast energy exports, its naval superiority and control of the Black Sea, and its nuclear deterrent, which prevents Ukraine’s Western allies from escalating the conflict in a manner that would endanger the rule of the current Russian regime. But above all, Russia, whose population is more than three times larger than Ukraine’s, has vastly superior man-
istering in Haiti through his Hands Together nonprofit, told OSV News that gang leaders—among several of whom he had brokered a truce last year—felt “they do have the power because the ones who are empowering them are content with
the country being unstable.” At the same time, said Father Hagan, the Haitian people are “very resilient.”
Pope Francis on Oct. 13 said he is praying for peace in Haiti and an end to the violence that has increasingly gripped the country.
Catholic News Service she feared Pope Francis was right; “In America, this is the first generation of children who will not be better off than their parents.”
“The political environment is very harsh right now and scary for many Latinos,” especially those who have family members in the United States without legal papers, she said.
“The immigration laws are old, broken, and need to change,” Ms. Morales-Palos said. “People always say, ‘They should get in line,’ but
power and can sustain greater losses in the trenches.
Aware that his country cannot sustain a war of attrition against its much larger enemy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has engaged in talks with the United States and other allies to secure permission to use long-range missiles to strike inside the Russian mainland.
The United States has thus far withheld its support for this type of escalation, though European powers are currently split on the issue, with Germany taking a hard line against lifting the weapons restriction and the United Kingdom appearing to favor approval for the long-range missiles, though they have yet to make a formal decision.
In recent months, the predominantly Catholic nation of Poland has come out strongly in favor of lifting the weapons restrictions on Ukraine. The nation has seen its relations with its neighbor Russia deteriorate since the Ukraine invasion in 2022. In response to the perceived threat faced from Moscow, Poland has ramped up its defense spending and transitioned away from Russian oil. It joins Finland and the Czech Republic in calling for the long-range-weapons approval.
As it has awaited a final decision on the use of long-range missiles, Ukraine has attempted to push into the Russian mainland to improve its position. The Kursk Oblast in-
The Holy Father told a crowd of faithful who had gathered to watch him lead the Angelus prayer in St. Peter ’s Square that he is following the “dramatic situation in Haiti,” where extreme gang violence “continues against the population, forced to flee from their own homes in search of safety elsewhere, inside and outside the country.”
Since 2020 Haiti’ s capital, Portau-Prince, has been the scene of ferocious gang battles, and since February most of the capital has been in the control of gang members. But the violence is spreading.
The attack on the town of PontSondé on Oct. 3 is the most recent atrocity that has Haiti living in fear and has isolated the Caribbean country of 11.5 million people.
“I ask everyone to pray for an end to all forms of violence” in Haiti, Pope Francis said, and he encouraged the international community “to continue working to build peace and reconciliation in the country, always defending the dignity and rights of all.” ■
racy,” but oftentimes, they are rich through no merit of their own, he said. Their money comes from “inheritance, they are fruit of the exploitation of people, of the pollution of nature,” or “they derive it from corruption or from organized crime.”
“The blind competition to have more and more money is not a creative force, but an attitude, a path to perdition,” the pope said.
“It is reckless, immoral, irrational behavior. It destroys creation and people’s lives.”
there is no line.”
Pope Francis told the group that he has been criticized for never speaking up for the middle class, “and I apologize for that,” he said. But at the same time, “it was Jesus who put the poor at the center.”
“Millionaires should pay more taxes,” the pope said. They draw their wealth from the goods of creation, which God made for everyone, and from which everyone should benefit.
People with money like to speak of the economy as a “meritoc -
Too many people, and not just the rich, want to have someone they can look down on so they feel superior, he said. They “look from afar, look from above, look with indifference, look with disrespect, look with hate.”
“This is how the silence of indifference is exercised,” the pope said, adding that “it is silence and indifference that enliven the roar of hate. Silence in the face of injustice opens the way to social division. And social division opens the way to violence.”
The answer and the key to hope is love, he said. The fight for social justice, for respect for the sacredness of all human life, and for care for creation must all be motivated by love. ■
Caring for creation Pope Francis releases a dove outside the Basilica of St. Nicholas after meeting with the leaders of Christian churches in Bari, Italy, on July 7. CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
Praying for peace Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia is greeted by Father Vyacheslav Trysh, pastor, and parishioners of the Ukrainian Catholic Transfiguration of the Lord Parish in Lozova, Ukraine, on Sept. 7.
OSV NEWS PHOTO/GINA CHRISTIAN
Haiti turmoil continues Friends and family members carry the casket of Jean Louis Jeune Gracien, killed in an Oct. 3 attack by members of the Gran Grif gang, to a tomb during a funeral service on Oct. 8 in Pont-Sondé, Haiti.
OSV NEWS
PHOTO/MARCKINSON PIERRE, REUTERS
Haiti continued from page A8
Ukraine continued on page A23
Order of the Fleur de Lis names award recipient
St. Stephen Parish member C. Michael Horten is given prestigious honor
The East Tennessee Catholic
C. Michael Horten, a member of St. Stephen Parish in Chattanooga, has received the Benjamin I. Kiper Award from the Order of Fleur de Lis.
Mr. Horten received the award on Aug. 24 during the order’s annual banquet. The award is named for the man who initiated the effort to develop the Order of the Fleur de Lis. Mr. Kiper was invested with the Knight Commander Cross in 1970.
The Benjamin I. Kiper Award acknowledges the contributions by a Knight Commander who has exhibited excellence in his love of Church, family, country, and the order.
Commander Horten was invested with the
vulnerable.”
Lastly, the deacon encouraged the crowd to examine their lives and recognize any barriers between themselves and others.
“Those barriers might be cultural, social, or economic, and they prevent us from seeing others as they truly are: people made in the image and likeness of God,” he said.
“Jesus calls us to tear down these barriers and open our hearts to others with love and mercy. This evening as we pray the rosary together in several languages, united in prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, many of us here are also migrants. And through the mysteries of the rosary, we ask for her intercession to guide us toward her Son, Jesus, and to teach us to be more compassionate and welcoming to others. May the Virgin Mary with her love and humility inspire us to welcome those in need and be witnesses of God’s love in this world. Amen,” Deacon Vargas continued.
The rosary was prayed in nearly 20 languages, including Arabic, Swahili, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Each section of the rosary, such as the Apostles’ Creed, Our Father, and Hail Mary, was prayed in a different language. Before each decade, an intention was prayed; after each decade, a different community would perform a song.
Drocella Mugorewera, a parishioner at Holy Ghost in Knoxville, participated in the multilingual rosary with other women in the African community, singing a song in their native language between decades of the rosary.
“I was inspired to participate because I am an immigrant. I came to America as a refugee,” she said, noting that she is originally from Rwanda.
Mrs. Mugorewera said that she knows the power of the holy rosary.
“Mother Mary appeared in my country of Rwanda, so it’s like I did a pilgrimage to come here and to pray and uplift those voices, those voices that are in the bushes who cannot talk for themselves, and we uplift our prayers to support them,” she said.
She wore a traditional African dress adorned with the image of the Blessed Mother.
“I wear this just to honor Mother Mary and to be present with her. And when she appeared in Rwanda, she did say she never separates with her Son, Jesus. So, the presence of Jesus when I’m also with Mary is fascinating for me,” she commented.
Mrs. Mugorewera said the faithful need to not only pray for the welcoming communities and people but also for the oppressors and dictators who cause problems in the home countries of migrants and refugees.
Adeline Letizia, a parishioner at St. John Neumann in Farragut, was present at the multilingual rosary with her family.
Mrs. Letizia is originally from France, and her husband is Italian. She noted that often her family prays the rosary at home in different languages.
“We are very involved in the international community here,” she said. “We like to discover other cultures. I also like the children to see that there is not just one culture, like many people can be different and still we all came here to pray the same rosary. … I think it’s important for the kids to see the diversity.”
Though this event brings many cultures together, Mrs. Letizia said that they all “have the same desire” to seek God and follow Jesus.
Jin Wook Ro, a member of the Korean Catholic community and a parishioner at All Saints in Knoxville, described participating in the multilingual rosary as a “meaningful experience.”
“It gave me a chance to reflect on the challenges [migrants and refugees] face and highlighted the importance of community support,” he said.
“As a migrant myself, my Catholic faith inspires me to welcome others with compassion and understanding,” he continued. “I recognize the struggles that come with leaving one’s
Knight Commander Cross in 2003 in Little Rock, Ark. During his 21 years of service with the order, commander Horten has served as grand scribe and grand chancellor. Currently, he publishes the order’s newsletter, Herald Commander Horten and his wife, Phyllis, reside in Ringgold, Ga. They have two sons, Christopher (Katie) Horten and Jeff (Allyson) Cornell. They have two grandsons, Joshua and Jacob Cornell, and a granddaughter, Elizabeth Joan Horten.
The Order of the Fleur de Lis is an organization of Catholic men incorporated under the laws of the state of Louisiana as a not-for-profit organization. The order’s domain is the fivestate region of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana,
Church and injustice, for peace, and for the governments to work for the common good,” she said.
“The rosary is an occasion to gather everyone and highlight our rich diversity of cultures, promote participation in the prayer, and despite our different languages spoken, praying in our mother tongue reminds us we are at home,” Mrs. Primm continued. “As Catholics, the Church is our home, and we are welcome. We felt united as one in Christ as members of one Church.”
After the rosary, all participants were invited to the Chancery for a variety of international foods and drinks.
“We played a game that allowed us to share aspects of our cultures, and many participants from different countries emphasized how ingrained and important the Marian devotions, especially the prayer of the rosary, were for them,” Mrs. Primm explained.
home, and my faith reminds me of the importance of treating everyone with dignity and love.”
Mr. Ro said that he believes prayer can connect various cultures and promote unity within the Church.
“I think the multilingual rosary strengthens our sense of community and reinforces our dedication to supporting migrants and refugees. I am excited to become more engaged with the community in the future,” he remarked.
Mrs. Primm noted that this is the third year the diocese has hosted the multilingual rosary.
“The intention of the rosary was to ask our Blessed Mother’s protection, especially for those who are forced to flee their homes seeking a safe and better life for themselves and their families. We pray for the end of war and violence, for an end of persecution of the
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1. Publication title: The East Tennessee Catholic
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The annual multilingual rosary is just one avenue of how the Office of Hispanic Ministry caters to migrants and refugees.
“Our office connects new residents to a parish community and other existing resources,” Mrs. Primm noted. “We also work on accompanying immigrants facing challenges and collaborate with other institutions who advocate and serve immigrants as well. Our Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who are part of our ministry serving in the Five Rivers deanery and in the Chattanooga area, are great examples of walking with immigrant communities living by the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.”
Mrs. Primm shared that the Catholic population in the diocese is growing largely due to migration.
“We as Catholics need to be prepared and develop intercultural competencies for ministries to welcome new members who come from other places and cultures,” she said. ■
6. Annual subscription price: $15 7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 805 S. Northshore Drive, Knoxville, Knox County, TN 37919-7551 8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of publisher: Same 9. Full names and complete addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor: publisher, Bishop Mark Beckman, Diocese of Knoxville, 805 S. Northshore Drive, Knoxville, TN 37919-7551; editor, Bill Brewer, 805 S. Northshore Drive, Knoxville, TN 37919-7551; managing editor, Dan
Bread of Life Members of the Hispanic community sing 'Christ Needs You to Love' and 'Bread of Life' before a decade of the rosary during the annual multilingual rosary at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on Sept. 20.
Rosary continued from page A9
GABRIELLE NOLAN
Award winner C. Michael Horten, left, of St. Stephen Parish in Chattanooga, Order of Fleur de Lis grand chancellor Stephen Koach, and Monsignor Lanaux Rareshride, right, are shown with the Benjamin I. Kiper Award Award continued on page A23
COURTESY OF C.
MICHAEL
HORTEN
from as people of faith, don’t we?”
He referenced the Gospel reading of the day from Matthew 25, which describes the parable of the 10 virgins with their oil lamps.
“The oil that they hold is nothing other than the mercy of God they have received,” Bishop Beckman explained. “You can’t give that to another. You have to receive it yourself, so that you are ready to pour that mercy forth on those around you.”
The bishop acknowledged the medical ministry that many of the Religious Sisters of Mercy are engaged in “so that the wounded, those who are in need of healing, are touched by the love of Christ in what you do for them.”
Bishop Beckman said the Sisters are a reminder that every person is in need of God’s mercy.
“We stand as beggars before the cross, and our prayer is ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ And when we receive that mercy, it opens our hearts, and then we begin to love others as the Lord loves us. ... And God chose to let Himself be given for you and for me and for all humanity on the cross,” he said.
At the end of his homily in the convent chapel, Bishop Beckman thanked the Sisters for their witness to mercy and for all that they “do for love of the bridegroom.”
“He knows your hearts, and He knows all the ways that you’ve been open to that mercy, and He also knows the ways that you have shared that mercy,” he said. “And His invitation to you is let your flasks continue to be filled by His mercy and His love. And you just stand before His heart at the cross and you say that same prayer: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’”
Cardinals continued from page A2
The complete list in the order named by the pope is as follows:
n Italian Archbishop Angelo Acerbi, former nuncio, 99.
n Archbishop Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio of Lima, Peru, 74.
n Archbishop Vicente Bokalic Iglic of Santiago del Estero, Argentina, 72.
n Archbishop Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera of Guayaquil, Ecuador, 69.
n Archbishop Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib of Santiago, Chile, 67.
n Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo, who will be 66 on Nov. 1.
n Bishop Pablo Virgilio Siongco David of Kalookan, Philippines, 65.
n Archbishop Ladislav Nemet of Belgrade, Serbia, 68.
n Archbishop Jaime Spengler of Porto Alegre, Brazil, 64.
n Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, 63.
his ordination Bishop Mark Beckman celebrated Mass for the Knoxville Diocesan Council of Catholic Women's board during the fall board meeting at Christ Prince of Peace Retreat Center on Sept. 7. After Mass, Bishop Beckman joined the KDCCW board members for lunch, where representatives of three deaneries presented the bishop with donations in honor of his ordination and installation: from the Five Rivers Deanery, $525 to Catholic Charities of East Tennessee; from the Smoky Mountain Deanery, $200 to St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, and from the Cumberland Mountain Deanery, baby items for CCETN Pregnancy Help Centers Photos by Emily Booker
children are members.
“With our co-op, they teach our teenage girls, and the girls love them so much. It has a lot of them really discerning if they want a religious life or not. It’s almost like a wildfire, even the littlest girls. They don’t teach the little kids, they just walk by the little kids, and the little girls are like, we want to do that,” she said. “It’s so beautiful. … It’s very inspiring to the little girls, just their presence.”
Mrs. Dunn commented that the Sisters “radiate God’s love to everybody,” and she hopes their community continues to grow.
“I just hope that this convent is bursting with Sisters because what they do for the community is so beautiful, and we really need more Sisters. They show us the role of the feminine genius in the Church. We need it,” she said.
Bruce Fisher, a parishioner at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville, was retiring years ago when a Religious Sister of Mercy recruited him to volunteer for the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, a mobile medical clinic that provides free health care to the uninsured of East Tennessee.
Mr. Fisher began driving the mobile clinic to the various clinic sites as well as helping with patient education. Almost 10 years later, he still enjoys volunteering for this ministry. He shared that the Sisters have love for the people they serve, providing “good medical care without any hesitation.”
“I can’t help but praise them and say good things about them. It doesn’t matter what job they’re doing, whether it be the mobile clinic or working at the Chancery,” Mr. Fisher said.
For more information on the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich., visit their website at almamercy.org ■
Turin, Italy, 57.
n Auxiliary Bishop Baldassare Reina of Rome, who will turn 54 on Nov. 26 and whom the pope named on Oct. 6 as his vicar for the Diocese of Rome.
n Archbishop Francis Leo of Toronto, 53.
n Lithuanian Archbishop Rolandas Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major, 52.
n Bishop Mykola Bychok of the Ukrainian Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul of Melbourne, Australia, 44.
n English Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe, theologian, 79.
n Italian Scalabrinian Father Fabio Baggio, undersecretary and head of the section for migrants and refugees at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, 59.
n Indian Monsignor George Jacob Koovakad, 51, of the Vatican Secretariat of State who is responsible for organizing papal trips. ■
n Archbishop Jean-Paul Vesco of Algiers, Algeria, 62. n Bishop Paskalis Bruno Syukur of Bogor, Indonesia, 62.
n Archbishop Dominique Joseph Mathieu of Tehran and Isfahan, Iran, 61. n Archbishop Roberto Repole of
Cardinal creation Pope Francis holds a consistory at the Vatican on July 1 with cardinals living in Rome to approve the canonization of several sainthood candidates. The Holy Father has announced a consistory on Dec. 8 to create 21 cardinals.
Radiating God’s love Mena Dunn, a parishioner at Holy Ghost in Knoxville, attended the
closing of the jubilee. Mrs. Dunn was invited by the Sisters, who teach at the homeschool co-op in which her
Sisters continued from page A6
Sharing His mercy Above: Bishop Mark Beckman gives Communion to Sister Marie de Paul Stokes, RSM, during Mass for the closing of the Religious Sisters of Mercy's Golden Jubilee Year. Below left: Mena Dunn, a parishioner at Holy Ghost, prays during Vespers for the closing of the Golden Jubilee Year as a young parishioner observes the service. Below right: Sister Maliya Grace Suen, RSM, plays the keyboard for both Vespers and Mass to close the Golden Jubilee Year.
GABRIELLE NOLAN (3)
Honoring
Ministry embraces the ‘new to me ’ approach
Recycler of religious objects collects used items, gives them to churches that need them
By Mike Latona OSV News
While cleaning out your house or a loved one’s, you come across a batch of rosaries, crucifixes, and other religious artifacts. You hesitate to throw them out, recoiling at the thought of treating such spiritually significant items as mere garbage. Yet you may not wish to keep them for yourself.
What to do?
One popular option—as Erika Lindsell knows from experience—is to leave the goods at the local parish. Ms. Lindsell, the administrative assistant at Immaculate Conception Parish in Ithaca, N.Y., has often found boxes full of religious objects on the office doorstep upon arriving for work.
Synod continued from page A4
the need to rebalance the discourse by making space for the ‘plural,’ so that unity does not degenerate into uniformity, extinguishing the imagination of the Holy Spirit, who scatters seeds of truth and grace in the different peoples and in their varied cultures.”
Cardinal Grech also insisted that the synod’s criticism of “clericalism,” like Pope Francis’ criticism of it, does not come from some “philosophical or political egalitarianism” but from “missionary anxiety.”
“In fact, by sapping the potential of lay men and women in the work of evangelization, clericalism weakens mission, making the Church more fragile in the face of the challenge of sharing the Gospel in the world,” the cardinal wrote.
Clericalism restricts evangelization to the clergy, he said, and it “leaves the ‘simple’ baptized in a position of passivity as if the missionary mandate of the Risen Lord did not apply to them as well.”
The second session of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, which brings 368 bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople to the Vatican, began by asking forgiveness for various sins on behalf of all the baptized.
As Synod members did before last year’s session, they spent two days on retreat before beginning work; that period of reflection concluded on Oct. 1 with a penitential liturgy presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The liturgy included time to listen to the testimonies of three people: one who suffered from the sin of abuse, one from the sin of war, and a third from the sin of indifference to the plight of migrants, according to a Vatican statement that announced the liturgy.
Afterward, “the confession of a number of sins will take place,” said the statement, released on Sept. 16. “The aim is not to denounce the sin of others, but to acknowledge oneself as a member of those who, by omission or action, become the cause of suffering and responsible for the evil inflicted on the innocent and defenseless.”
According to the Vatican, the sins confessed included: sins against peace; sins against creation, sins against Indigenous populations and migrants; the sin of abuse; sins against women, family, and youth; the sin of “using doctrine as stones to be hurled”; sins against poverty; and sins against synodality or the lack of listening and communion.
The liturgy is open to all but is specifically geared toward young people, as it “directs the Church’s inner gaze to the faces of new generations,” the Vatican said.
“Indeed, it will be the young people present in the basilica who will receive the sign that the future of the Church is theirs, and that the request for forgiveness is the first step of a faith-filled and missionary credibility that must be re-established,” it said.
Cardinal Grech said that in addressing young people, the Church
“People leave stuff there figuring the church will know what to do with it,” Ms. Lindsell remarked.
The rub, she said, is that it’s not so simple for parishes to place the objects, especially if there are large quantities.
Earlier this year, Ms. Lindsell received an e-mail from a ministry in Lancaster, Pa., addressing that very dilemma. The organization, St. Mary Recycle Mission Group, offered to come to Immaculate Conception to pick up unwanted items belonging to the parish and parishioners, repurposing them for use elsewhere.
“I thought, ‘Hey, now this makes a lot of sense,’” Ms. Lindsell told the Catholic Courier, the Diocese of Rochester, N.Y., newspaper.
A drop-off took place at Immaculate Conception’s weekend Masses
July 27-28. On July 29, the recycling ministry—essentially a two-person operation—took away many containers full of religious items as well as a Stations of the Cross set the parish no longer needed.
St. Mary Recycle Mission Group is operated by Kimberly Walters, a Catholic who formerly lived in the Diocese of Rochester and attended church at Rochester’s Our Lady of Victory Parish.
Mrs. Walters travels with her husband, Mike, all over the northeastern United States, letting parishes know in advance they’ll be in their area if interested. They arrive in town with their pickup truck—and, if the need calls for it, a trailer that serves as their warehouse back home.
Mrs. Walters and her husband
Praying for synodality Above: Pope Francis and members of the Synod of Bishops pray at the start of a working session on Oct. 4 in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. To the left of the pope is Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, Australia, a president delegate at the Synod. Below: Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the Synod of Bishops, left, and Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod, are shown in the Vatican press office on April 26, 2023.
Addressing key issues Sister Mary Teresa Barron, a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, speaks during a news conference on the Synod of Bishops on Synodality at the Vatican on Oct. 7. Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India, is seated with Sister Mary Teresa. Sister Mary Teresa, who is president of the International Union of Superiors General and leader of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles, is looking forward to more input into key issues before the Synod, including relations between bishops and religious communities.
wanted “to communicate to them and to the world that the Church is in a dynamic of conversion.”
“After all, this is the path to holiness, not that there is no sin but that we recognize our limits, our weakness, that we are open to conversion, to learning, always with
assembly, which was held in October 2023, though 25 changes were made for different reasons, such as health problems.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who participated last year as an alternate delegate of the U.S. bishops’ conference, will not be at the assembly; Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, who was elected but could not attend in 2023, will take his place as part of the U.S. delegation.
Cardinal Hollerich said that of the 368 voting members, 96 or just over a quarter are not bishops. Additionally, he said the number of representatives from other Christian communities participating in the Synod without voting privileges increased from 12 to 16 “given the great interest that the sister churches have shown in this synodal journey.”
Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa, special secretary of the Synod, said at the news conference that unlike the first session of the Synod on Synodality’s assembly, which focused on “an awareness and identification of some priorities,” the second session is about “going indepth” into some of the key points raised during the listening sessions around the world and during the first assembly.
But Cardinal Grech confirmed that some of the more controversial points raised, including about ordaining women to the diaconate, would not be a topic of discussion at the assembly. In March, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had established study groups to examine those issues and report back to him in 2025. But the groups will share a progress report with the Synod members at the beginning of the October assembly. Whereas the Synod assembly produced a synthesis report at the end of its first session in 2023, the 2024 session will produce a final document to be given to the pope.
“To date, there has always been a communication to the people of God on the part of the Holy Father,” Cardinal Grech said in response to a question on whether the pope will issue a post-synodal exhortation after the Synod.
Another introduction into this year’s session is the organization of four public “theological-pastoral forums” centered on different topics for a deeper understanding of synodality. The forums, hosted in Rome and open to the public, are titled: “People of God as Subject of the Mission”; “The Role and Authority of the Bishop in a Synodal Church”; “The Mutual Relationship Local Church-Universal Church”; and “The Exercise of the Primacy and the Synod of Bishops.
the help of the Lord,” he said. Presenting details for the upcoming Synod session at a news conference on Sept. 16, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the Synod, said most of the participants would be the same as those who participated in the first
The forums are intended to respond to the need to “continue the theological, canonical, and pastoral deepening of the meaning of synodality for the different aspects of the Church’s faith and to offer theologians and canonists the opportunity to contribute to the work of the assembly,” a Vatican statement said. ■
Recycle continued on page A23
New life for old artifacts A box of religious items is destined for recycling by St. Mary Recycle Mission Group.
PHOTO/MIKE LATONA, CATHOLIC COURIER
“One of the things that I love about Mark’s Gospel is that his portrayal of the disciples is so human. He does not hesitate to point out their shortcomings, their failures, their weakness, and even their betrayals. And that should give all of us hope when we fail,” the bishop said.
Bishop Beckman then spoke about the Gospel reading in which John is recorded speaking with Jesus about a man driving out demons in Jesus’ name but not following in His company. Jesus rebukes John, reminding him that, “Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward” (Mark 9:41).
Bishop Beckman then humorously recounted a time when his cousin paid a visit to him as a child. She was playing with his neighbor, someone he was not fond of, and when he asked why, she said, “grow up.”
In the same way, he said, Jesus was calling on John to “grow up” in a sense, and realize that those who do good in the name of Jesus are not against him, but with him. And similarly, we ought to see the good of others, whether they are seemingly with us or against us, and be willing to acknowledge and join their efforts and be inspired by them to actions of love.
“If something is causing you to have a closed heart to others, then do what Jesus said, cut it off,” Bishop Beckman said, reminding them that this hardness of heart is what we have to ask God to remove in order to let love propel us forward and drive out divisions in our Church and world.
noted. He spoke of the humanness of the Apostles and how their own failings in the midst of their faithfulness gave him comfort to accept this invitation of the Holy Spirit to be the next bishop of Knoxville.
Bishop Beckman then shared a meal with the students and staff at the Mayor’s Inn Bed and Breakfast next door that was hosted by the Knights of Columbus.
Chloe Wesson, a sophomore at UT-C and co-director of events for the Newman Center, spoke about how important it was for the community to have the presence of Bishop Beckman at their student Mass.
“It’s really great, and it means a lot that he’s here. I think this is pretty big for our community, and it shows just how much he cares about us. This community is small, but it's growing, and I think the fact that the bishop (came) is showing that we are growing and even he wants us to succeed in our mission,” Chloe said.
Collins Self, a junior and a recent convert to the Catholic faith, was able to experience his first time serving at Mass during Bishop Beckman’s visit.
“It means a lot that Bishop Beckman came to celebrate Mass,” Collins said. “Just having the fullness of the Church in our little Catholic center was amazing. I can tell the community really enjoyed it, and it brought so many people here together.”
Bishop Beckman then closed his homily, recounting the words of his good priest friend in response to his nervousness about accepting the call to be bishop.
the inevitable crises of young adulthood and college is very important,” he said.
Bishop Beckman acknowledged the importance of a Catholic center on a secular campus.
“A Catholic student center on a secular university campus makes me very much think of Jesus saying, ‘You’re the salt of the earth, you’re the light of the world. Let your light shine so that others can see the good things you do and give praise to your Father in heaven.’ So, that’s the role of a good Christian, that’s the role of a good student center on a secular campus,” the bishop said.
Brother and sister Christian and Anna Ratterman grew up in the Nashville area and knew Bishop Beckman as their parish priest at St. Matthew in Franklin.
“He actually confirmed me,” said Anna, a sophomore at UT. “It was super great to see him again, and it’s really cool to see how much he’s progressed in his faith and just to see what this process has done for him spiritually.”
Anna said that the bishop’s talk inspired her to pursue imaginative prayer.
“I’d never really thought of prayer like that, and I think it would be super helpful and beneficial to put yourself in that setting; just to say if Jesus was really in front of me right now what would I be saying to him?” she remarked. “I just think that that was really something that I’m going to start doing in my own life, especially when life is hard and I don’t know what to do. … I can see him as a friend sitting in front of me instead of just like some entity that I’m talking to.”
Christian, a senior, said that “it was weird at first” to see his former pastor as a bishop.
“I kept calling him Father Mark because that’s what I’m so used to saying,” he shared. “He was [at St. Matthew] until I was in sixth grade, and then he got moved to St. Henry, which was our rival middle school at the time. So, every time we would play them in football, our new pastor was also
“You’re going to be a successor
of the Apostles. Remember what those Twelve were like and how many mistakes they made,” he
named Father Mark, so we would have the Father Mark Bowl in Nashville, and the schools would actually get a food truck or something, and all the kids would go out and watch the football game, and both Father Marks would get out on the field and pray. It was kind of a fun thing.”
Christian mentioned that years ago he was able to do spiritual direction with Bishop Beckman and was blessed to see his wisdom firsthand.
“He is so meticulous with his thought, and he really cares,” Christian said of the bishop. “Any-
body who talks to him, he really cares for that person. … He talked about, too, what inspired him to be a priest was seeing a priest connect with people. I think this is going to be his way of elevating that and getting to do that with so many more people, and it’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be a lot of fun for him, and it’s a lot of fun for me as somebody who’s kind of grown up with him to see him get to have that in his life because he’s so deserving of it.”
Kathryn Mesplace, a sophomore and vice president of the VolCatholic women’s group, was also
Collins also quoted St. Ignatius of Antioch, who said, “Where your bishop is, there is Christ,” to emphasize just how important Bishop Beckman’s presence was, uniting their small Catholic center with the whole of the Church throughout the ages. ■
present for the Q&A.
“He was amazing,” she said. “I’m so happy we got the gift to hear him today, and he answered so many hard questions. I whispered over to my friend, ‘He is in a job interview right now.’ But he answered them so well, and he gave so much good advice to the students on campus here that I think a lot of us will take that advice for a long time and help us grow in our faith and to evangelize here on campus and throughout the world.”
One answer the bishop gave that resonated with Kathryn was that when he is enduring a hard time, the bishop prays more often.
“I think it’s easy as college students, when you get busy, to kind of put your faith on the back burner. So, just to increase prayer, like during midterms and stuff like that, he gave really good advice,” she said. “Even though … he’s older than us, he related to us really well. I think a lot of students here are going to take specifically that, and he also talked a lot about finding peace and just the places you can find it; I think that was really good.”
Father Whitney shared that the bishop’s visit showed that the Catholic Church’s hierarchy consists of people who “care and want to help guide all of us in the direction of lifelong holiness.”
“I saw that most clearly in the sheer number of times that Bishop Beckman greeted students by name and asked about parents; he knows them from previous parishes, in some cases their whole lives,” Father Whitney continued. “And not just for the students, because when he took the time to simply chat with us priests who staff St. John XXIII, we could feel his interest and curiosity. Our faith is so relational, and Bishop Beckman modeled that for our whole community.”
St. John XXIII has been a home to UT’s Catholic college students since 1969, and the Paulist Fathers have been serving the campus community since 1973.
For more information, visit john23rd.org ■
Making a connection Above: Bishop Mark Beckman gives a homily to students at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Newman Center on Sept. 29. Below: Bishop Beckman is with, from left, Deacon Brian Gabor, Father Michael Hendershott, and altar servers Tony Zglav, Collins Self, and Kestutis Dubininkas.
CLAIRE
COLLINS (2)
GABRIELLE NOLAN (2)
Campus Q&A Above: Bishop Mark Beckman takes part in a question-andanswer session with University of Tennessee-Knoxville students at St. John XXIII Catholic Center on the UT-K campus. Below: Bishop Beckman is shown with, from left, St. John XXIII associate pastor Father Rich Whitney, CSP, St. John XXIII pastor Father Larry Rice, CSP, and Father Bob O‘Donnell, CSP, priest in residence
UT-K continued from page A7
an act of love from my father.”
Over the hills and through the woods
Mr. Jones, 64, was to travel to his home in Johnson City the day before the wedding, a drive that normally takes 2.5 hours. Hurricane Helene had passed through South Carolina that day, wiping out power and Internet and leaving debris at Mr. Jones’ home.
But Mr. Jones was not deterred and began his drive to Johnson City. The weather cleared, but he only progressed 30 miles up the road before traffic came to a screeching halt.
“At one point I think it took me three hours to go 10 miles,” he said.
There were sections of the road where the highway patrol forced drivers off Interstate 26, which caused slowdowns as cars had to merge into one lane and go through towns that did not have functioning stoplights.
Mr. Jones was able to return to the interstate at a later ramp but had to get off again in Hendersonville, N.C. Although he could not send or receive calls or texts, his GPS was still working, often telling him to make a U-turn. Some roads were barricaded by police, while others were blocked by fallen trees and downed power lines.
Driving around Hendersonville on the west side of the highway, Mr. Jones could not find a way out. So, he crossed to the other side of the interstate, and it was open again.
“I made it a little farther and I sort of leap-frogged my way through,” he said. “Asheville was fine, there was nobody on the roads, and all the way from Asheville to the state line was clear. Then as I went down the hill… I saw some signs that said road closed ahead.”
“I never did let my guard down because every few miles there was another delay, another stop,” Mr. Jones continued. “So, I got to almost the bottom of the mountain there at exit 43, Temple Hill Road exit. I will always remember that now. The state troopers were gathered at the bottom of the ramp, there’s probably eight or nine patrol cars with their lights flashing, and a group of the patrolmen standing together. This was about 2 in the morning.”
The troopers informed Mr. Jones that he could not continue because the interstate was closed, and multiple bridges were completely washed away. When he inquired about the back roads, the troopers said some roads were washed out, but because they did not have full reports, no one was allowed to travel the back roads, either.
At this point, the drive had taken about seven hours.
“I was already a little tired and frustrated, it’s past midnight, my daughter’s getting married at 11 in the morning,” Mr. Jones shared. “These guys are just telling me to go back to my car and sit until the morning, and maybe they’ll be able to open a road then; they just didn’t know. And I couldn’t go on a maybe. My mindset was and I told them my daughter is getting married in Johnson City at 11, and I’m going to be there to walk her down the aisle.”
Mr. Jones drove off trying to find an alternate route but returned to the same spot only 15 minutes later. He had a thought: he could continue his journey on foot.
“I grabbed my backpack, and my shaving kit, and a couple of changes of underwear and socks, and I strapped on a belt and a windbreaker, and off I went with the backpack on my back and my cell phone light to guide me through the dark,” he shared.
He passed the state trooper who told him not to proceed, but Mr. Jones said that he would not hold anyone responsible except for himself.
At first, the road was clear as Mr. Jones began to walk. He was more concerned about what wild
Father-daughter moment Left: David Jones and his daughter, newly married Elizabeth Marquez, are shown outside of St. Mary Church in Johnson City. Right: Mr. Jones receives a gift from his daughter outside the church as she reacts to him receiving the present
animals he might encounter, so he shined his cell phone flashlight to guide the way. Eventually, the farther he walked he encountered a section of road that was washed out with ankle-deep debris.
The trek became more dangerous and challenging when he happened on a bulldozer and backhoe clearing huge piles of debris from the road.
“They weren’t expecting a pedestrian at 3 in the morning, so they weren’t looking out for me,” Mr. Jones said. “And I can’t get past them because they’re going side to side on this road trying to clean it off. I’m trying to get their attention.”
Eventually, the bulldozer driver noticed Mr. Jones and ceased working. He told Mr. Jones that the road was blocked with no way through.
Mr. Jones began thinking of an alternative plan perhaps he could get to a location that had Internet service so he could FaceTime his daughter during the wedding ceremony. Or he could hike back to his abandoned vehicle and give a firsthand report of the state of the roads to the state troopers.
Instead, he decided to persist: “My daughter is getting married at 11 o’clock, and I’m going to be there to walk her down the aisle.”
The bulldozer operator called the backhoe driver on their radios, and they stopped clearing for a moment in order to let Mr. Jones hike past. He was able to walk 30 to 40 feet beyond the backhoe when he encountered a huge debris pile consisting of mangled trees, old fences, and farm equipment that spanned the road.
Seeing no way over the pile, he attempted to go around it on the left side, but immediately stepped into mud.
“I was up to my knees in mud, it was like quicksand,” Mr. Jones remarked. “It just sucked me down, and I actually fell down in a seated position. And now this backhoe has started back up again, and he’s scooping up logs and swinging around and dumping them one place and swinging around again. Every time I heard him swing around, I’m kind of flinching thinking, oh, no, is he coming my way? Sooner or later, he’s going to finish with that pile; he’s going to come for this pile at some point.”
A lifelong Catholic, Mr. Jones said that he was “praying the whole time.”
“I was pretty forcefully screaming out to the Lord at that point, hoping He would hear something over the sound of that heavy equipment,” he said.
He was able to pull his right leg out of the mud, but his shoe remained trapped underneath. Knowing he could not continue on foot without his shoe, Mr. Jones dug down barehanded until he retrieved it. Eventually, he inched his left leg out of the mud pit, shoe intact.
He walked back to stable ground but was still on the wrong side of the debris pile. Searching, Mr. Jones found a gap in the pile that he could crawl into the middle of, climbing below and above the
many mangled trees.
Making it to the other side, he had to maneuver through two or three more knee-high piles of rubble. He continued walking to the interstate, where there was only a small amount of standing water.
“I wanted to mention God’s providence and His timing,” Mr. Jones said. “If I didn’t have that delay that one-and-a- halfhour drive that turned into seven hours there would have still been water there, and I wouldn’t have been able to cross. It wouldn’t be wise to cross. … But the water had receded by then, so I think God had His hand of protection out for me there on the timing of all this.”
After walking down the interstate for half a mile, he approached a destroyed bridge and a road covered with hurricane litter.
“There was some debris that clearly came from a home, some looked like bathroom products; and so I could only imagine at that point somebody’s house had been destroyed if their stuff from their bathroom had washed up onto the interstate,” Mr. Jones stated. “The magnitude of this devastation was indescribable.”
“I don’t think Hollywood could have depicted it better. It’s one of those things where the pictures don’t do it justice,” he continued. Mr. Jones recalled the state troopers telling him there was only one bridge in town that wasn’t knocked out, so with hope, he began walking in the direction of that bridge.
“There were a couple of patrol cars there but they were out on patrol. They weren’t in their cars, so I didn’t have to ask permission, I just went. And it was as stable as I could tell, it was just fine,” he said.
When he reached the other side of the bridge, a sign welcomed him to Erwin, Tenn.
Mr. Jones has devoted a career to management consulting, and one of his clients is Erwin Utilities, which is responsible for the area’s water, electricity, and cable.
“There were a lot of lights on, downtown Erwin was completely lit up; they had done a marvelous job,” he said. “I was familiar with the town; I was glad to get to that point. A state trooper pulled up alongside me, and he rolled his window down and he said, ‘Are you the one that’s trying to get to his daughter’s wedding?’ And I chuckled because now I’m sensing that the worst is behind me. I chuckled and I said, ‘Yes sir, I am. How did you know?’ And he said, ‘We’re all talking about you.’ And I said, ‘Oh my gosh; I hope it’s good.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, they all said you’re determined.’ And I said, ‘Yes sir; My daughter’s getting married at 11 o’clock in Johnson City and I’m going to walk her down the aisle.’”
The state trooper gave Mr. Jones a short ride into town to the town hall, which was the temporary headquarters where the officer was reporting in.
“We had a nice little chat, he was the nicest guy. I wish I could remember his name to give him full credit,” Mr. Jones shared. “He had been on duty for 23.5 hours, and he was just as nice and professional
and pleasant and personable as if he had just woken up and had his first cup of coffee. It was amazing, and he didn’t have any idea when he would be off shift.”
Mr. Jones set off on foot again, walking to a Shell station to purchase a protein bar and energy drink to fuel the remainder of his journey.
He noted that whenever he sees coins on the ground, he picks them up and says, “In God We Trust,” the motto on the coins.
“It’s just a little reminder,” he said. “I pick up the coin and look heavenward and I just say, ‘In God we trust.’”
At the gas station, he found seven cents on the ground, his cell phone light shining brightly on them.
Mr. Jones cried as he said he appreciated “that message and encouragement” from God.
Next, he had to decide whether to take the interstate again or go on the old highway. He shared that something within him told him to take the old highway route, which is a bridge-like bypass in Erwin that goes over the train tracks.
After beginning his walk on the bypass, Mr. Jones discovered 42 more cents, bringing his total to 49 cents.
“It’s not seven times 70, but it’s seven times seven; that’s a biblical combination,” Mr. Jones observed. “So, I picked it all up, put it in my pocket, and I thought, OK, this is the path I’m supposed to go on. He is clearly telling me, go this way.” He walked down the narrow, twoway country road with no shoulder, estimating he had another 12 to 15 miles until he would reach Johnson City.
“I can do this, I run marathons,” Mr. Jones told himself. “When I started this, I sort of mentally calculated this is about 20 or 30 miles from home, I can do this. I run marathons. That wasn’t the question of whether I could make it or not. If there was a path, I could make it. The question was would I make it to the church on time?”
As he continued walking, a fast car whizzed by him, and he stepped onto the grass for safety. Farther up the road, Mr. Jones found a reflector stake by a stop sign, so he grabbed it to wave as oncoming traffic approached him.
As other cars slowed down and passed, Mr. Jones wondered if anyone would stop to offer him a ride
“I actually said a prayer and asked the Lord, help me decide if anybody does make that offer, make the decision easy for me so that I don’t get in the wrong car with the wrong person. … You don’t know who you’re getting in the car with, just like they don’t know who they’re picking up. So, I kind of asked Him to not have anybody stop that I wouldn’t want to ride with,” he shared.
Nobody stopped, so he continued his walk down the old highway. However, he realizes that he is slowing down by looking at his Garmin GPS device. Normally he could travel four miles in one hour, but he was walking slower than that.
At around 5 in the morning, Mr. Jones decided to call his brother, but it went to voicemail. He found out later that cell phone coverage was still down, so his brother did not receive the message until much later.
Not long after that, as Mr. Jones continued his hike, a white truck approached, and the man inside offered him a ride.
It was around 7 in the morning at this time, and, trusting God, Mr. Jones agreed to get in the truck.
“I’m starting to recognize his voice,” Mr. Jones said. “I didn’t recognize him, of course the light was dim. I recognized his voice. He and I were coworkers together at Texas Instruments in Johnson City 20 or 30 years ago. And so we got caught up and it was like, oh my goodness! What’s the latest?
What’s going on?”
He said the white truck was “like an angel.” Wedding continued on page A17
COURTESY OF STELLAR PHOTOGRAPHY (2)
Relief efforts continuing in N.C. Flooding caused by Helene devastates western part of state
By Catholic News Herald and OSV News
Relief efforts are underway to help communities across western North Carolina reeling from the impacts of Hurricane Helene.
Unprecedented flooding from the storm swamped municipal water systems, washed away roads, and downed utility lines leaving many mountain communities cut off on Sept. 27 and in critical need of emergency aid. At one point, authorities closed 400 roads, deeming them unsafe for travel. The Associated Press reported Sept. 30 that supplies were being airlifted to the region around the isolated city of Asheville.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said it was “one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of North Carolina.”
As of Oct. 11, at least 93 deaths were reported in North Carolina due to the storm, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and
When Mr. Jones was dropped off in the driveway of his Johnson City home at 7:30 a.m., there was no power at his home. He was able to get inside, clean up, and change clothes he had an old suit and an old pair of shoes and some ties in his closet. Because he also had a vehicle there at his house, he was able to drive himself to St. Mary Church in Johnson City at 10 a.m. the exact time he was expected to arrive. “It was truly the grace of God that got me there,” Mr. Jones said. “He was with me all the way. There was that point with the backhoe where I was afraid, really afraid of an accident, but not panicked, just seriously afraid. And there was another point back when I had the reflector… there was a pack of dogs up in the woods to the right on the other side of the road, that was barking furiously. It was a steep hill and I couldn’t see up in there. It’s all brush and trees. I didn’t know if there was a fence or if they were chained, but there had to be a half a dozen of them. … And so I was a little, shall we say, concerned at that point. I might be able to fend off one dog in my mind … but I don’t think I could fend off a pack. They must have been fenced or chained; they didn’t come down the hill; they didn’t come after me. Those were the only two times where I had some serious concern. The rest of the time I was just focused on my goal: my daughter’s getting married at 11, and I’m going to be there to walk her down the aisle.”
In God we trust
Mrs. Marquez noted that she and her husband, Daniel, had family traveling through the hurricane’s aftermath of storms, trying to arrive on time for her wedding. But on the day of the wedding, the weather was sunny, with the temperature comfortably in the low 70s. However, when she arrived at St. Mary for her hairstyling and makeup, the church was without power. Contemplating what to do, the priests encouraged her to continue on with the wedding.
The hair and makeup artist still had power at her salon, so Mrs. Marquez traveled 10 minutes to complete her hair and makeup there instead of at the church.
“So, we decided to proceed with the wedding as scheduled and planned, just with no electricity,” she said. “There are several windows in the church, there’s a lot of natural light, and then my family came together and pulled all the candles they had and put mirrors and candles on little stands at the altar so that it gave some candlelight for the ceremony.”
Father Michael Cummins, pastor
search-and-rescue operations have continued to locate many more who remain stranded or unaccounted for.
“Power is out everywhere and cellphone towers are down and water is out in some places, too,” said Margaret Beale, principal of Immaculata School in Hendersonville, N.C., which was flooded and remains closed. “This really is a disaster. People can’t get out of their homes and may not have food or water.”
Parishioners, clergy, and staff across the Diocese of Charlotte are rallying to provide help uniting in prayer, raising money and collecting and delivering relief supplies.
“We pray for everyone who has been affected, especially for those who have been injured or lost loved ones, and for the communities in western North Carolina that are seeing total devastation,” said Monsignor Patrick Winslow, vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of Charlotte.
Monsignor Winslow and other diocesan leaders have been contacting pastors in the affected areas to sur-
vey parishes’ immediate needs and evaluate how best to help as the scale of destruction becomes clearer.
The diocese also organized a drive to take emergency supplies from Charlotte to affected areas. An initial truckload of supplies was delivered on Sept. 29 to Immaculate Conception Church in Hendersonville, where the community was in need of water, according to staff reports.
In Huntersville, N.C., some 400 St. Mark parishioners and surrounding community members quickly marshaled a drive for supplies of diapers, nonperishable goods, and water that were airlifted and carted in trucks and trailers to parishes in Waynesville, N.C., Hendersonville, and elsewhere.
In Concord, N.C., St. James the Greater Parish organized a supply through the Concord airport for delivery to western North Carolina as part of Operation Airdrop, a national organization that’s arranging aid relief for the region.
Other relief aid collections were coordinated by local police and fire
of St. Dominic Church in Kingsport, presided at the wedding.
“I came to know the Jones family when I was chaplain at the ETSU Catholic Center and would help out at St. Mary,” he said. “Elizabeth was active in the St. Mary youth group at that time.”
“I joked to those gathered that I was impressed by the groom, Daniel, going to such great lengths to ensure that his bride had a candlelit wedding,” Father Cummins shared.
Following the ceremony were photographs and a reception at a restaurant. It was during the reception that Mrs. Marquez first heard any news of her father’s remarkable journey.
“Part of the plan for the schedule of the day was to have a first look with my dad before the ceremony and give him a small gift, just sentimental, and I get to spend a little bit of time with him beforehand,” she said. “And we did that, and we were both emotional. I was very happy to share that moment with my dad, so glad that he was there for it, and it was very touching just as a father-daughter moment. But I had no idea about what he had gone through to get there until the reception.”
“So after the ceremony, part of the plan for the day was that my dad would give the blessing over the food for the reception, and so when he got up to do the blessing for the food, he gave some remarks and he told the group about what he had gone through and all that tied into some of his encouraging words for us and for our marriage,” she continued. “That is when we all learned about what he had been through, and that was an absolute emotional rollercoaster, and I cried all the tears I had during that.”
Mrs. Marquez shared that what was going through her mind, in addition to shock and amazement, was praising the Lord.
“Praising the Lord for delivering him safely through all those
challenges and through the danger because it was so perilous what he was doing,” she said. “I can’t imagine what could have happened and how none of us would have known where to find him, where to even look for him, what had happened in any type of way. That would have been an absolute disaster. So, the Lord protected him, provided, so by the grace of God he was delivered safely and that was all I could really think about is how good our God is.”
For his speech to the bride and groom, Mr. Jones brought a gift with him: the reflector stake.
“I wanted to say a blessing over the two, and so I brought that reflector that I carried,” Mr. Jones said amid tears. “So, I presented it to them, and I said I want this to be a memory from this day. … I want you both, when you see this, to remember to always be a protector for the other person, especially in their darkest times. That’s when they need it most. Just like this reflector did for me. It protected me coming up. And I want you to continue to reflect God’s goodness because you’re both such good people. Keep this in a safe place in your house and let it be something you can remember this day by. And so that sort of brought it all full circle.”
Father Cummins commented that he was truly impressed by Mr. Jones’ love for his daughter and his “determination to walk her down the aisle.”
“The perseverance David demonstrated in making it to his daughter’s wedding despite the many obstacles he faced reveals a strength grounded in love, I believe,” Father Cummins shared. “The story speaks well both to the vocation of fatherhood and the importance of the sacrament of marriage. It’s a story to allow ourselves to be both uplifted and challenged by in a good way. For whom and for what would I endure such challenges and where would I find my resolve?”
departments.
Catholic Charities of the Charlotte Diocese launched an online appeal at https://ccdoc.org (Helene Relief Aid) to support communities for what is expected to be a long recovery from this historic storm. The aid agency is coordinating with local first responders and emergency relief agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the American Red Cross, and it has also requested disaster grant funding and other help from Catholic Charities USA and its Disaster Response Team out of Alexandria, Va.
“Our hearts are with all those suffering in the wake of Hurricane Helene,” said Gerry Carter, executive director and CEO of Catholic Charities. “While we’ll be there handing out water and providing food as soon as it is safe to do so, our real impact is on the longer-term restoration of lives. It’s important to remember that when you’ve lost everything, it can frequently take Carolina continued on page A19
Since the wedding weekend, Mr. Jones said life has been “a whirlwind.”
“There’s been a lot of interest around the globe, literally,” he shared. “A lot of people have said we need some good news amongst all this darkness and all the bad news, and for that I’m grateful to be able to be the vehicle for that. But I don’t think I did anything that any other dad wouldn’t do for their daughter. I don’t feel like I’m a hero. I just did what dads do for their kids.”
For Mrs. Marquez, her father’s gesture opened her eyes and heart to the love of God.
“It was such a powerful and moving experience to know that my dad made that choice and took that journey out of love for us, and it really brought my faith into the forefront after that,” she shared.
“It just was an eye-opening experience for me in that to see someone physically on this earth that I know and to experience this of someone putting themselves through that type of hardship and difficulty, pain and suffering, out of love for another; it was like a firsthand reflection of what Christ did on the cross,” she continued. “And so I think that’s what was the big connection faith-wise for me was to see this can happen, this does happen, and this is what Christ did. Christ went through the pain and suffering out of love for us. So that was such a wild connection to see it put into practice and to have it right here in front of my eyes, an example of what Christ did for us on the cross out of love.”
Mr. and Mrs. Marquez enjoyed a honeymoon in Hawaii, while Mr. Jones returned to his home in South Carolina this time by rental car.
“[My car is] still right now at the bottom of the ramp of exit 43, the Temple Hill Road exit. I will always remember that. It’s on the Tennessee side. But after all this happened, North Carolina closed the interstate at the state line,” he said. “So, I’m trapped between the closed interstate at the state line and the bridges that are out. I can’t go anywhere; my car is still there. I had to rent a car to get back here to South Carolina, and I had to drive all the way up to Wytheville (Va.) and down to Charlotte and then over to Boiling Springs (S.C.) to get here. Way, way, way farther than normal to get back. My Ford Explorer is sitting at the bottom of that ramp, and I’m asking God’s protection on that as well, since it’s there abandoned until they open the roads again.”
Mr. Jones said that he and his family are “grateful to God that everything worked out.”
“God really was in it the whole way,” he concluded. ■
Wedding continued from page A16
Run so as to win David Jones of Boiling Springs, S.C., near Spartanburg, runs in the Indi 5K in Austin, Texas, in November 2023. Mr. Jones' running experience served him well as he trekked for miles to his daughter's wedding.
Praying for Relief: Images from Upper East Tennessee
Eyeing the storm 1. Part of the campus of Hampton High School in Hampton, Tenn., is in shambles after the Doe River overflowed its banks and spilled into the town. 2. Devastation from flooding caused by Hurricane Helene is seen in Hampton. 3. Floodwaters surround buildings in Newport, Tenn., on Sept. 27 in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. 4. A woman stands where the Jet Broadcasting radio station once stood in Erwin, Tenn., on Sept. 29. The station's entire building was swept away in the floodwaters caused by Hurricane Helene. 5. Volunteers with St. Dominic Parish in Kingsport were active in collecting necessities for the flood-relief effort. 6. Volunteers with St. Mary Parish in Johnson City receive donated items for flood relief in the basement of the church. St. Mary has served as a key distribution point for flood-relief donations. 7. Part of Interstate 40 east near the Tennessee-North Carolina border is washed away by the flooded Pigeon River. 8. Volunteers receive flood-relief donations at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on Oct. 2. 9. Volunteers fill a tractor-trailer with donated items for flood relief at Sacred Heart on Oct. 2. 10. Floodwaters from Hurricane Helene wash away the Kinser Bridge along Highway 107 in Greene County. 11. Sister Mary
and
the
Lisa Renfer, RSM,
Sister Marie de Paul Stokes, RSM, sort through donated flood-relief items at
Diocese of Knoxville Chancery. 12. National Guard troops clear away flood devastation in Hampton.
1. DAN MCWILLIAMS
5. COURTESY OF FATHER MICHAEL CUMMINS/ST. DOMINIC PARISH 6. COURTESY OF FATHER DUSTIN COLLINS/ST. MARY PARISH
8. BILL BREWER
7. COURTESY OF TDOT
9. BILL BREWER
10. COURTESY OF DANIEL SHRADER
St. Michael the Archangel, along with Sister Esther Ordoñez and Sister Maria Luisa Morales, both of whom are Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus “Ad Gentes,” and Blanca Primm, director of Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Knoxville.
Members of the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, an advocacy group, also participated in the counseling session, helping the family members of deceased and missing flood victims to get through the heartbreaking events wrought by Helene.
Bishop Mark Beckman also ministered to the group, praying with them and speaking to each person, extending his heartfelt concern and reassuring them that the Diocese of Knoxville will be with them during this difficult time.
Joining Bishop Beckman in meeting with the survivors and family members were Father David Boettner, rector of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Deacon David Duhamel, executive director of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, and Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, a Religious Sister of Mercy and a physician.
Catholic Charities has been a lead disaster-relief agency for the flood-affected counties of Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Hawkins, Johnson, Unicoi, and Washington in East Tennessee.
Sister Mary Lisa is medical director of the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, a health-care ministry of the Diocese of Knoxville. The SMLC mobile medical clinic treated patients impacted by the disaster on Oct. 11 at St. Michael the Archangel and St. Anthony of Padua Church in Mountain City. The clinic volunteers its services.
Mr. Gómez Sr. noted that the flooding was first noticed in the Impact Plastics parking lot about 10 a.m.
“I went outside because the power went out,” Mr. Gómez said. “I was waiting for a while for the supervisors to tell us to leave. But they never came. I went to the cafeteria because that is where everyone meets when something happens. I had heard a noise in the parking lot and that’s when I saw the parking lot was flooding. Everyone was going to their cars.”
He explained that he went to retrieve his keys to move his vehicle to higher ground. That is when a co-worker called out to him to alert him to the quickly swelling river.
“Both of us went outside to see the flooding, and the water was rising. The supervisors never told us that we could leave,” Mr. Gómez said, noting that when he saw coworkers finally trying to exit the plant, he asked if they could leave and they said yes.
“But by this time, we could not get out. We could not escape. The water continued to rise, and I wanted to rescue my car. But I was not able to rescue my car,” he said. As he described the situation, Mr. Gómez said plastic pipes made in the industrial park were beginning to float away. He gathered some personal items he had inside the plant, including his watch, a gold chain with the image of St. Jude, and a bracelet his daughter had given him.
“But I wasn’t able to go anywhere. I went with my co-workers and got on a trailer. I called the
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months, if not years, to be restored.”
Power remained out for days following the storm, trees were down, and water damage was reported at several churches and schools. In a statement, Duke Energy said a majority of customers were expected to have power returned no later than Oct. 4. However, repair efforts were so widespread that very few areas were assigned estimated times of restoration, the company said. “Thousands of line workers are working tirelessly to assess damage and make repairs in response to the historic destruction from Helene,” the statement said. “Due to the severity of damage and ongoing flooding in the western Carolinas, we antici-
How can we help? Blanca Primm, center standing, director of Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Knoxville, offers words of sympathy and understanding to Efraín Gómez Sr., sitting left, and his son, Efraín Gómez Jr., at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Erwin. Mr. Gómez Sr., an employee of Impact Plastics in Erwin, was swept away by floodwaters and miraculously survived. Also ministering to the Gómezes is Sister Esther Ordoñez, MAG, standing at left.
emergency line, but no one came to where we were. At around 1:30 p.m. the trailer began to tip over. When that happened, my co-worker Rosa fell into the river. She was the first one to fall into the river,” Mr. Gómez recalled, trying to restrain tears.
In a short amount of time, Mr. Gómez and co-workers went from watching water accumulate in the parking lot to floating in the rapidly rising, rapidly moving Nolichucky River, holding on for their lives.
“When the trailer was again about to tip over, my other coworker, Lidia, was calling for me to help her grab on to the trailer,” he continued, explaining that he advised her to move closer to him because when the trailer tips over, it and the pipes loaded on the trailer could pull her under water.
“One of my co-workers was grabbing her, but when the trailer tipped over, it caused a wave that pushed her away, and the current took her away,” Mr. Gómez recalled. “We all fell and were being dragged into the river. We were now in the river. I had fallen from the pipes we were clinging to.”
“I said, ‘I don’t want to die. I don’t want to drown,’” he added, describing how he was on top of the pipes loaded on the flatbed trailer when he fell into the river.
His co-workers Rosa and Lidia were still missing days after the tragic flood as recovery efforts continued.
As the urgency of the situation unfolded and his adrenaline kicked in, he was able to pull himself up
pate a multiday restoration effort.”
In Swannanoa, N.C., a large oak tree fell onto the 88-year-old St. Margaret Mary Church, which announced on Facebook its “campus is closed indefinitely; no Mass or sacraments can be offered at this time, and we have no idea when our ability to have Mass may be restored.”
“It’s terrible. It looks like a war zone,” Roger Patton, a landscaper for the church, said after checking on his clients’ properties in Black Mountain and Swannanoa.
“There’s no power and no water, and none of the stores are open. Almost everybody has some kind of damage. And everybody up here needs water and we’re getting to the point where we’re going to
ening the plant, to shut down the plant and evacuate the building. It further stated that to its knowledge, no one was trapped in the building or on its premises.
Mr. O’Connor said Impact Plastics is cooperating with investigations into the company by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Sister Esther Ordoñez, MAG, described the events leading to the tragedy of Sept. 27 and how the Sisters and priests in the floodimpacted region are ministering to those in need.
“On Monday, Sept. 30, we learned that the torrential waters of Sept. 25, 26, and 27 had caused the rivers to overflow, taking away the bridges in some places here in the area of the Five Rivers Deanery. It filled us with anguish to think about what the workers who come from Mexico to work on the fields would be like at that moment, whom we see every seven days because we meet to celebrate holy Mass with them on Wednesday mornings,” Sister Esther said.
out of the river and onto other plastic pipes.
“I don’t know how I got the strength to pull myself up. I climbed up again on the pipes; the pipes had lodged against debris in the river,” he said. “Me and two other ladies were still alive. I saw that there were only three of us.”
Five days after his rescue, Mr. Gómez vividly recalled the relief he felt when rescuers arrived after the three employees clung to life for hours in the river.
He feared they would not survive. “I had called out to them to get on top. One of them could climb up and the other one said, ‘I can’t. I’m going to let go,’” Mr. Gómez remembered. “I told her ‘No! Don’t let go. Use all your inner strength to pull yourself up. Give me your hand.’ And I gave her my hand.”
Mr. Gómez’s chilling account had an unexpected conclusion.
“I couldn’t pull her up. And then at that moment, two military men (Tennessee National Guardsmen) came and helped me to raise her up, and we pulled her onto the pipes,” he said almost in disbelief as he relived that tragic day in his memory
Mr. Gómez shook his head as he thought about the dozen co-workers in harm’s way. He wondered how half survived, and he lamented that half of them did not.
Impact Plastics founder Gerald O’Connor released a statement saying the company is saddened by the deaths of its employees. The company maintains that a decision was made on the morning of Sept. 27, once floodwaters were threat-
need food, too,” he told the Catholic News Herald, Charlotte’s diocesan newspaper.
On Sept. 27, Mr. Patton said he saw six people rescued from swift currents of the Swannanoa River, which had swelled beyond its banks to five times its size. “People were clinging to trees and debris piles, anything they could. The river washed away whole houses, and trailers just came apart. We’ve had floods before, but we’ve never seen anything like this.”
Water leaks were reported at churches as far east as WinstonSalem, N.C. Trees were down at churches in the North Carolina towns of Elkin, Shelby, Gastonia, and Mooresville. Water damage from flooding also was reported at
“The person in charge of them told us that they did not have electricity or drinking water, and that they were also isolated, like many residents who live in this area. The first thing that we as missionaries wanted was to bring them food and water. But we couldn't find any path that would take us to the field on (highway) 107,” she continued. “Shortly after, the parishioners of St. Michael called us and told us that some workers were missing due to the rush of water from the river that overflowed and swept away the workers and that they were so sorry for what had happened. The parishioners said that the two factories of plastic parts in Erwin had been badly affected.”
That is when she and Sister Maria Luisa Morales, MAG, went into action ministering to families of flood victims and sharing their grief
“From then on, we approached those who grieved to listen to the stories they told as if they wanted to hide how sad they were. This is how we arrived in the mornings and returned to pray in the afternoons. People turn to God in this desolation, seeking comfort from their sudden pain, losing their loved ones. At first, they didn’t open themselves to us because of their grief. But we continued to accompany them while giving them privacy and space to work through their feelings. We were sharing in their suffering,” Sister Esther said.
“No one caused the disaster. We knew what happened and the weather simply affected us a lot this time. The disaster was rather within the mourners who remained together in silence. The high school (Unicoi County High School), which was the location of the shelter for the victims, received food, water, clothing, footwear, and vaccines,” she noted. “In addition to the shelter itself, which was very helpful and very busy with all the volunteers, many also received vaccines. It was very nice to see the unity of the people with so much material and spiritual support. Father Tom (Charters), pastor of St. Michael, and his parishioners gave everything for the good of the victims. Following his invitation, we joined in praying the holy rosary.” ■
St. Michael School in Gastonia. Charlotte Bishop Michael T. Martin, OFM Conv, lifted the Sunday Mass obligation in places impacted by the storm, but some churches held Sunday services as usual even without power.
“Friday was a tough day,” said Ms. Beale, of Immaculata Catholic School, “and it’s really frustrating for a school that has gained so much momentum. But then you get on the other side of the storm, and you see how horrific the damage is, you realize you are blessed. There isn’t anything that’s happened at our parish or school that can’t be repaired. We are such a strong community that we’ll come back from this.” ■
DAN MCWILLIAMS
With deepest sympathy Bishop Mark Beckman speaks to family members of loved ones who were missing or died in flooding from Hurricane Helene that hit upper East Tennessee. Joining Bishop Beckman is Sister Esther Ordoñez, MAG, who serves Diocese of Knoxville parishes in the Tri-Cities
assistance.
The disaster unfolded on Sept. 27 as Hurricane Helene blew northeastward after making landfall in the Florida panhandle. With high winds and dark clouds swollen with record amounts of rainfall, Helene unloaded on the mountains of western North Carolina, which sent torrents of water rushing down mountain tributaries and into the Nolichucky, Pigeon, Doe, and French Broad rivers that flow through East Tennessee.
Almost without warning, the rivers spilled over their banks and consumed everything in their path, including businesses, services, roads, bridges, and most heartbreakingly, residents.
The towns of Erwin, Newport, Mountain City, Hampton, and Greeneville in East Tennessee are still dealing with the devastation a month later. Rescue and recovery efforts have continued following the historic storm.
Interstate 40 at the TennesseeNorth Carolina border was closed after the normally serene and picturesque Pigeon River turned into a raging rapid that ripped away part of the interstate. The Tennessee and North Carolina departments of transportation were reopening I-40 through the mountains, using only the two westbound lanes to handle eastbound and westbound traffic.
And part of Interstate 26, which connects the Tri-Cities at Johnson City to Asheville, N.C., also was washed away by the fierce, fast-moving currents of the Nolichucky River.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation was able to reopen I-26 two weeks after Helene hit.
Construction on roads, bridges, and major arteries affected by the storm could take months, according to Department of Transportation officials.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency has confirmed 17 deaths from the East Tennessee flooding as of Oct. 17. The agency also reported that authorities were searching for missing residents after the disaster struck.
Bishop Mark Beckman of the Diocese of Knoxville visited the affected communities on Oct. 2 and met with parish pastors who are on the front line of disaster relief and who also are ministering to family members of loved ones who died in the floods or are missing, as well as flood survivors.
A profound impact
When Bishop Beckman arrived at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Erwin, Tenn., one of the hardest-hit areas, he was welcomed by a group taking part in grief counseling as they shared their experiences of being rescued from rapidly rising floodwaters, of anxiously awaiting word about missing loved ones, and of feeling the loss of loved ones who died.
“The two moments that have stayed with me most are the first moment when we walked into the church in Erwin, and we met this circle of the community there taking part in grief support. Watching the faces of those who have lost loved ones in the flood, those who have survived and witnessed what happened to people, and also those who are still missing loved ones who haven’t been found yet made a tremendous impact,” Bishop Beckman said.
“The immense grief and sadness in the room has remained with me. They are really traumatized. They need prayer. They need our support and love, and they need to know they are not alone in the journey ahead,” the bishop added.
“The second moment that was very heart-wrenching for me was the press conference where the people who are missing loved ones were holding up pictures of their missing family members and pleading with the authorities to help find them. You could really sense their desperation and their cries for help. They, too, need to know they are not alone. They are valued members of our community, and we will do whatever we can to help them,” he said. Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, a Diocese of Knoxville ministry, has taken a lead role in disaster-relief
efforts. The agency has been coordinating truckloads of water, food, baby food and other products for babies, personal hygiene items, and other necessities to the affected areas since Sept. 28. And it has dispatched Catholic Charities staff to the areas to assist with collection and distribution of resources as well as translation services for the Hispanic communities there.
Materials have reached the hardest-hit areas as residents awaited the resumption of water and power service.
The need for assistance will continue for some time as authorities and residents come to terms with the breadth of destruction.
“The scope of the damage is really unimaginable, especially if you haven’t been to a flood zone before. They have done significant cleanup work in the few days since the worst of it. The power of the water to move houses, to destroy bridges and interstates, is overwhelming. If you haven’t been to a flood area like that before, it really is unimaginable until you see it for yourself,” Bishop Beckman said.
Father Tom Charters, GHM, associate pastor of St. Michael the Archangel, and his community of volunteers have been leading rosary vigils and prayer services at the church and at Unicoi County High School in Erwin, which is serving as a shelter for those displaced by the disaster.
Father Charters has received critical support from the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus “Ad Gentes,” including Sister Esther Ordoñez and Sister Maria Luisa Morales, in ministering to the flood victims.
homes, businesses, roads, and bridges, Deacon Duhamel noted that utilities in the impacted areas also were severely affected. Water and power operations were wiped out in several communities.
“The wastewater facilities have been the most urgent need in these communities because of the water situation. Five wastewater facilities were down, and seven water districts at one point were requiring boiled water,” Deacon Duhamel said. Deacon Duhamel pointed out that all diocesan churches in upper East Tennessee have been accessible during the disaster. And also working with Catholic Charities of East Tennessee in responding to the flood victims have been Catholic Charities USA, St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Knights of Columbus, Ladies of Charity, and KDCCW volunteers.
Support is crucial
Their participation has been crucial as area priests reach out to the many people who continue to feel the effects of the flooding.
St. Michael the Archangel and Good Shepherd Parish in Newport have reported the deaths of several parishioners in the floods and others who have been missing. Flood survivors and the families of those who died and are missing are in vital need of spiritual, emotional, and financial support.
“They are dealing with the loss of lives and livelihood. Three main employers in the Erwin-Johnson City area were wiped out and destroyed. Businesses in Newport are flooded out. And homes in the low-lying areas also were affected and some destroyed,” Deacon Duhamel said. St. Michael the Archangel, St. Mary Parish in Johnson City, Good Shepherd, and St. Anthony of Padua became distribution points for community flood relief.
Parishes throughout the Diocese of Knoxville solicited and collected donations of materials desperately needed in the flood zones. The Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga led efforts in the Chattanooga deanery to get much-needed supplies to upper East Tennessee. It was joined by several other parishes and schools, including St. John Neumann in Farragut and Sacred Heart. Sacred Heart Cathedral and School was a central donation point in the Smoky Mountain Deanery, where tractor-trailer loads of supplies were collected and thousands of dollars raised for those in need in the flood areas.
Bishop Beckman was joined on the visits to Erwin, Hampton, Elizabethton, and Johnson City by Father David Boettner, rector of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville, Deacon David Duhamel, executive director of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, and Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, RSM, the physician who leads the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic for the Diocese of Knoxville.
In addition to reaching out to the communities and parishioners at St. Michael the Archangel, St. Elizabeth in Elizabethton, and St. Mary in Johnson City, Sister Mary Lisa assessed the St. Michael campus for the mobile medical clinic’s visit to St. Michael the Archangel on Oct. 11, where it provided free medical care to anyone in the flooded areas. The mobile clinic also gave medical care to people in Mountain City at St. Anthony of Padua Church on Oct. 11.
Catholic Charities of East Tennessee has created a disaster-relief donation page on its website, ccetn.org/ donate/. The page also can be found on the Diocese of Knoxville webpage, dioknox.org. And the second collection in Masses at all diocesan churches the weekend of Oct. 5-6 was for flood relief in the region.
“We are seeing people who want to help, like those at Catholic Extension, and we have grant applications that we are working on with Catholic Charities USA and St. Vincent de Paul Society. When the state and federal governments issue disaster grants, we will be applying for those to help make sure we are serving all the people we need to,” Deacon Duhamel said.
In addition to destruction to
“We were able to fill two 53-foot trailers. The first tractor-trailer dropped off supplies at Good Shepherd Parish in Newport, St. Mary Parish in Johnson City, and St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Mountain City. We also collected over $30,000 in donations between the school and parish. We received donations until Oct. 8. That second truckload took donated items to Mountain City,” said Scott Barron, director of parish ministries for the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“The drive went great. This was due in large part to the efforts of parish staffs, students, and volunteers. We had a tremendous team that welcomed everyone with a smile. Previously, we received donations in the hours following the Gatlinburg fires. So, we knew there would be a strong response. But the genuine concern and ‘what can I do’ attitude was just amazing,” Mr. Barron added.
“We did not just collect donations. We gave hope, not just to those in need, but to ourselves. Our community is wonderful and filled with people who wish to be the hands and feet of Jesus. This disaster just focused that desire. We partnered with St. Joseph School, St. John Neumann Parish and School, as well as Overbrook School in Nashville to achieve our goal of filling the trucks,” he observed.
Catholic Extension Society donated $10,000 for East Tennessee floodrelief efforts.
As of Oct. 17, Catholic Charities of East Tennessee had received more than $574,000 in donations for flood relief, including $350,000 from Catholic Charities USA.
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Go tell it on the mountain Father Jesús Guerrero, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Mountain City and St. Elizabeth Parish in Elizabethton, tells Bishop Mark Beckman how flooding from Hurricane Helene has impacted his parishes. Standing with them inside St. Elizabeth Church are Father David Boettner and Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, RSM.
Interstate assistance Bishop Beckman, left center, speaks to Father Dustin Collins, right center, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Johnson City, about St. Mary's role as a distribution center for flood relief in upper East Tennessee. Joining them are Father Boettner, Sister Mary Lisa, and St. Mary volunteers.
Great job Bishop Beckman gives a thumbs-up to a student of St. Mary School in Johnson City. St. Mary students and adult volunteers from the parish have been active in flood-relief efforts for upper East Tennessee.
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MCWILLIAMS
dealing with a constantly ringing telephone with people asking for aid, granting interviews to national networks, and helping to coordinate the relief effort at the Unicoi County church.
Also on the ground floor of assistance to victims is Father Pontian Kiyimba, AJ, parochial administrator of Good Shepherd in Newport, which lost two parishioners to the flooding.
Bishop Beckman was accompanied by Father David Boettner, rector of Sacred Heart Cathedral; Deacon David Duhamel, executive director of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee; Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, RSM, the physician who leads the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic for the diocese; and Blanca Primm, diocesan director of Hispanic Ministry.
The ministry team visited not only St. Michael the Archangel but also St. Elizabeth Church in Elizabethton and nearby Hampton, which saw heavy damage from the flooding, before finishing its travels at St. Mary Church in Johnson City, a point of distribution for assistance to victims.
‘Pour forth Your Spirit ’
Bishop Beckman entered St. Michael the Archangel Church as a grief-support group was meeting. Its members included a man who survived the flooding who worked at hard-hit Impact Plastics and another man who lost his wife in the disaster.
“Buenos tardes. I am sorry for your loss. I’m praying for you all,” the bishop said in greeting them.
Bishop Beckman then led a prayer for the men and women and for those they have lost.
“O God, pour forth Your Spirit upon this community of faith gathered in Your name. Lord, hold them in the palm of your hand,” the bishop prayed in part, before embracing each member of the group. While the diocese is providing considerable assistance to victims of the flooding, a simple gesture like a hug can make a difference, the bishop said at St. Michael the Archangel.
“I think sometimes the most important thing people need to know is that they’re not alone,” he said. “Sometimes you can’t do anything to erase the loss that they’ve experienced, but to know that they’re not alone in it matters, and so I think our presence here today is a reminder God is with us. We’re not alone, no matter what we experience. I got a sense that they were
Parish impact
very grateful that we were here.” Bishop Beckman said he was impressed by the response Deacon
While floodwaters have receded from Newport, where two parishioners of Good Shepherd died and two families belonging to the Cocke County parish were displaced and forced into temporary housing, Good Shepherd continues to be a distribution point for emergency-relief supplies.
Father Pontian Kiyimba, AJ, parochial administrator of Good Shepherd and also St. Mary Parish in Gatlinburg, has been ministering to his community during the disaster and helping to coordinate relief efforts there.
In Greene County, where the water-distribution system and roadways took the biggest hit from the storm, truckloads of water from Catholic Charities helped alleviate a water shortage almost immediately after the storm.
Father Joseph Kuzhupil, MSFS, pastor of Notre Dame Parish in Greeneville, has been ministering to the Greene County community.
Father Jesús Guerrero, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua as well as St. Elizabeth in Elizabethton, and Deacon Joe Herman of St. Anthony of Padua have been leading ministerial and emergency-assistance efforts in Mountain City and Elizabethton. Deacon Herman, who operates a trucking company, has made his trucks available to deliver needed supplies to the stricken areas.
And Father Dustin Collins, pastor of St. Mary in Johnson City, has been overseeing his parish’s role as a key distribution point for disaster-relief supplies, joined by Father Michael Cummins, pastor of St. Dominic Parish in Kingsport, in coordinating disaster relief in Sullivan and Hawkins counties Bishop Beckman and Father Boettner are thankful for the community outreach by the Catholic parishes in the affected areas and to be a part of pastoral outreach to people in need of support.
“I was grateful to be able to go with the team from Catholic Charities, our mobile medical clinic, and our bishop and be pastorally present with the
“The response has been overwhelming. Seeing what Catholic Charities is doing, a lot of the volunteers, right here Father Tom and his team here at the parish—they’ve done incredible outreach and ministry,” the bishop said. Father Charters, Father Kiyimba, and other priests in the areas affected by flooding are finding themselves in another kind of ministry: simply being there for those who have lost loved ones.
“The ministry of presence is the most important ministry, and it’s being with people and accompanying them, whatever is going on in their lives, and that means also the sorrow and the loss and the trauma of life,” Bishop Beckman said.
Deacon Duhamel drove a pickup truck loaded with donations to help St. Michael the Archangel on Oct. 2 as he transported Bishop Beckman, Father Boettner, and Sister Mary Lisa to Erwin.
“It’s been a hectic, fast-paced environment, just trying to get as much information on people’s needs in the northeast part of our diocese, working hand in hand with the different parishes, trying to identify the resources they need, and then pushing those resources up to those communities,” Deacon Duhamel said.
Plenty of water has gone to the affected sites in upper East Tennessee.
“I have procured truckloads of water with our partnership with Catholic Charities USA,” Deacon Duhamel said. “We’ve gotten four truckloads of water to the different mountain communities, two up to Mountain City, another to Newport, and another to Johnson City.” Catholic Charities is “trying to meet as much of the physical needs” of people “as possible,” Deacon Duhamel added.
“We have emergency monies available to people who are in need,” he said. “We’re putting people up in hotels who have lost their houses. We’re providing food and meals to people. We went shopping the other day with three families that had their homes totally destroyed, just getting basic necessities for them to live and try to start rebuilding their lives.”
Having Bishop Beckman onsite Oct. 2 where those who are suffering and receiving aid is huge, Deacon Duhamel noted.
Duhamel and others throughout the diocese have given when the calls for assistance came in.
people in those communities who are hurting. It was inspiring to see our Bishop Mark as he met with and prayed with the families who have lost loved ones in the flood in Erwin. Their pastor, Father Tom Charters, is just doing an amazing job,” Father Boettner said. “Everywhere we went with Father Charters, every person in Erwin knows Father Tom and was consoled by his presence no matter where we were.”
Father Boettner also noted the importance of being at Unicoi County High School in Erwin, which has served as a shelter, and in being a ministerial presence to those who are hurting because their homes and places of work have been destroyed, as well as to the volunteers serving at the shelter.
“As the recovery efforts go forward, they are still finding groups of people who were separated by the flooding and are now being reunited with family members. Sadly, there were at least four fatalities in Erwin and still seven missing,” Father Boettner noted. “It was heartbreaking to see the pain and suffering that those families are going through and the uncertainty that they are experiencing right now.”
Weather forecasts tracked Hurricane Helene as it made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds and torrential rain. As it barreled inland, it wreaked havoc in parts of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. Its path of devastation covered 500 miles. The hurricane is being called the second deadliest to hit the contiguous United States, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and is responsible for more than 200 deaths.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the hurricane and an unremarkable rainstorm that preceded it dumped more than 40 trillion gallons of precipitation over the Southeast the last week of September. Some 30 inches of rain fell in the East Tennessee-western North Carolina area.
“I think it’s incredibly important that the people of this diocese as well as the community at large see the shepherd working with his
The steep topography of western North Carolina and upper East Tennessee and the picturesque gorges that define the area contributed to the ferocious funneling of water into the lower-lying areas.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has declared Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Hawkins, Johnson, Unicoi, Washington, Jefferson, and Sevier counties in East Tennessee as federal disaster areas, which makes them eligible for federal funding and support. In response to Hurricane Helene, FEMA said it has provided about $300 million in federal assistance to impacted states. In Tennessee, FEMA has received at least 2,500 applications for disaster assistance. And the agency says its teams are on the ground in the impacted counties.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced on Oct. 10 the Helene Emergency Assistance Loans (HEAL) Program, which is a $100 million fund to directly serve people in the affected Tennessee counties.
As reports of the devastation began to circulate and images of the flood-damaged areas populated news coverage and social media platforms, people were inspired to volunteer their assistance. And the National Guard was deployed in the flooded counties to assist with rescue and recovery efforts.
In addition to the response from Diocese of Knoxville faithful and other faith-based organizations in the region, East Tennesseans like country music artists Morgan Wallen and Dolly Parton have led fundraising efforts that provided millions of dollars in assistance to upper East Tennessee.
“The hopeful thing is at the same time we were visiting all those impacted communities, people throughout East Tennessee were bringing supplies of water, food, and donations of cash to help those communities. So, we were able to assure them that they are not forgotten and that they are united with us not only in prayer but also in the fellowship that is reaching out to be the hands and feet of Christ in those devastated communities,” Father Boettner said. ■
Community of faith Bishop Mark Beckman asks Gods to hold those impacted by flooding from Hurricane Helene in the palm of His hand while praying with family members of loved ones who were killed or missing in the flood.
DAN MCWILLIAMS
Love, sympathy, support Blanca Primm, director of Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Knoxville, embraces a family member who is grieving those who were killed or missing as floodwaters swept through upper East Tennessee Sept. 27-28
DAN MCWILLIAMS
A firsthand account Father Tom Charters, GHM, associate pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Erwin, discusses with Bishop Mark Beckman, Father David Boettner, and Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, RSM, the catastrophic flooding that devastated parts of upper East Tennessee Sept. 27-28.
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flock,” he said.
Deacon Duhamel is coordinating assistance to flood victims coming both from inside and outside the diocese. The Knights of Columbus of Father James E. Waters Council 12017 in Wilmington, N.C., sent a truck to the diocese on the same day of the group’s visit to Erwin.
“We have a box truck coming in to Johnson City. It’s a pre-positioned shipment that’s put together by the Knights (in Wilmington) as well as Catholic Charities USA,” Deacon Duhamel said. “They pushed that to us, and it’s coming up late this afternoon.”
Outside help has been coming in as Catholic Charities tries to “serve four to five different sites where people are coming to us in need,” Deacon Duhamel said.
“We initially started focusing getting our external resources from Catholic Charities USA, the national level of St. Vincent de Paul, the national level of the Knights of Columbus, and the state level of the Knights of Columbus,” he said. “We’ve started pushing and getting their support to help us get supplies from outside of our region because the region itself is experiencing shortfalls in the water and supplies. Those are the organizations that we’ve been working with. We’ve also been calling up private vendors and trying to buy water. We bought some water up in Kingsport, and St. Dominic [Parish] was great to help us move that water from Kingsport down into Johnson City.”
As the bishop’s group concluded its visit at St. Mary Church in Johnson City, Bishop Beckman met with pastor Father Dustin Collins outside the church, where a Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., Catholic Charities truck was parked. The truck had brought supplies to East Tennessee.
Bishop Beckman happened on a St. Mary youth group that was meeting and preparing to eat dinner. The volunteer kitchen staff also fed the bishop’s traveling party. Bishop Beckman led a prayer to the Holy Guardian Angels, whose memorial was that day, as well as a blessing for the meal.
“Right here at St. Mary, you all have been a real help, lots of volunteers reaching out to your neighbors, and that is a beautiful, beautiful sign of living Christian community,” the bishop told the youth.
Father Dustin Collins, pastor of St. Mary, noted that Johnson City was spared by Helene, which allows that parish to be an effective distribution center for flood relief.
“The affected area around us is mainly Erwin and Mountain City. Johnson City is in good condition,”
Father Collins said. “There was a need of items for Mountain City. Eventually we were approached as being a hub for Catholic Charities. There have been countless donations, even from other states such as Michigan and Iowa.”
Father Collins pointed out how the parish’s food pantry has been instrumental in the effort.
“Our food pantry volunteers took over to make everything possible. They were further assisted by various members of our parish such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Knights of Columbus, the Council of Catholic Women, and Hispanic ministries,” he added. “We have provided support to the food pantry in their work.”
And like St. Mary, St. Dominic Parish in Kingsport was largely unaffected by the storm, which has allowed it to focus on supporting the relief work.
“St. Dominic raised over $20,000 in a second collection to aid victims of the hurricane, and it has sent two truckloads of donated items through the distribution centers,” said Father Michael Cummins, pastor of St. Dominic and dean of the Five Rivers Deanery that covers upper East Tennessee. “In addition to the items and funds we’ve collected, our support is mainly through prayer and fraternity.”
Father Charters spoke on Oct. 7, one day after NBC recorded an entire Sunday Mass at St. Michael the
All hands on deck St. Mary's Legacy Clinic volunteers make personal hygiene kits with donated items for the flood-relief effort underway in upper East Tennessee. The donated items were delivered to the Diocese of Knoxville Chancery and then transported to the communities in need.
Archangel for a national special.
Ministering to their counties
The Glenmary priest said his ministry is not so much toward the victims, “it’s ministering to the county and the needs of the county. We’re one of the three big centers here in the county: the high school, the ecumenical Care & Share center, and then our parish. We’ve been accumulating a lot of items for various needs. A couple of pods have been put out here to store the items because we’ve got so many. People are coming and getting items. We have a lot of parish volunteers who are here. We usually open about 8 in the morning and are supposed to close at 5 but are still here beyond that.”
Father Charters said his ministry with those who have died has basically involved going to the funeral home accompanied by a grief counselor and by Lorena Reynoso, St. Michael the Archangel’s Hispanic minister, religious-education director, and youth minister who also is a longtime parishioner.
On Oct. 7, Father Charters was preparing for one parishioner’s funeral. Another victim of the flooding will have her body taken back to Mexico after her funeral, he said. The body of the third victim had not been found as of that date.
Father Charters said it was “very valuable” to have Bishop Beckman visit. He accompanied the bishop on a visit to flood-damaged areas in Erwin on Oct. 2.
“Actually, the value for me was, he wanted to see the damage, and I hadn’t been down there because I didn’t have an interest to go down because I figured it would be a mess trying to get through,” Father Charters said, adding that the floodwaters came within an eighth of a mile of the original St. Michael the Archangel meeting place, a house on Jackson Love Highway in Erwin.
The damage in Erwin was extensive, Father Charters said, citing a bridge over Interstate 26 in the area.
“There’s a road that goes over the interstate to the other side, and traffic was going over there, but the interstate bridge was lost, down on the ground,” he said. “The whole industrial area was wiped out. You couldn’t get down any further beyond that. The hospital is gone, basically because the water went up to the roof. The Shell station was hit very hard, totally inundated. A little Mexican restaurant, literally the best in the area—that was totally inundated. A motel, the Mountain Inn, that was how high the water went up there. Then it went across, the force of the water across there just wiped out the industrial area. We had our parishioners who worked at a place that makes sheds (Old Hickory Buildings). Somebody there, I don’t know who it was, made a road real quick so people could get out. That’s why they didn’t lose anybody. Other businesses along there used that road, too, I understand, before the water covered it.”
The three parishioners from St. Michael the Archangel who lost their lives worked at Impact Plastics in Erwin.
“At Impact is where we lost our
people,” Father Charters said. “We had three from the parish who died at Impact. There was a fourth person who died at Impact. She was a member of a little Baptist church in Johnson City, a Hispanic lady. The ladies knew her down here. A young man and his mother worked there. They went out to move their cars because the water was coming, and that’s what saved them, because they turned around and the water was inundating the building. Another one survived by holding onto a pipe for two hours as the water rushed by her. She’s one of our readers here on Saturday nights
“We still have more people who worked there, a young fellow, at least three more.”
Father Charters said St. Michael the Archangel is not the only center for physical, spiritual, and emotional outreach as the nonprofit Care & Share center and Unicoi County High School in Erwin are doing their part, too.
As of Oct. 7, Catholic Charities was attempting to set up counseling services at St. Michael the Archangel, and the Mexican Consulate was using the parish to make appointments to help Hispanic residents.
Like St. Mary in Johnson City, St. Michael the Archangel Church’s parish center has “started blossoming out with all sorts of trucks coming in, a semi coming in, trucks from all over the place bringing everything,”
Father Charters said. “People are just bringing a lot of things down. We’re jam-packed. The only place that isn’t having things in it is my office. We’ve used every spot in this building and brought in two pods, the diocese offered us two pods, and those are filling up right now. There are a lot of items, and we’re shipping them out as people need them. We had a call from Mountain City for some things.”
Officials representing U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn have helped family members of victims from Mexico obtain emergency papers so they can attend their loved ones’ funerals in Erwin, Father Charters said
A community service in the Food City parking lot and two rosaries at the high school have helped the grieving Erwin families.
“We had a very beautiful ecumenical service, a community service, on Thursday,” Father Charters said. “It was fantastic. It was for the entire county, for anyone who wanted to come. There were a couple of hundred there. The mayor spoke, I spoke, and Ben Brewer, the elder from the First Christian Church who also oversees the Care & Share center, he and I had a prayer. We had a candlelight service, even though it was 5 in the afternoon. All six people who have been missing, four Hispanics and two Anglos, their pictures were there. We had 130 candles handed out. A cross-section of the county was there.”
The rosaries were attended by non-Catholics as well.
“We did two rosaries at the high school, which was interesting from this standpoint: the first rosary, a couple of people, one who was a Baptist and one who was a Methodist, they sat in on the first rosary
and afterward said to me, ‘I just needed that.’ I don’t know what they were saying, because it was all in Spanish, but the repetition was so peaceful and calming, ‘I needed that,’” Father Charters said, adding that the second rosary “had a lot more people. They weren’t all Catholics.”
At a community service, “I saw one person there, I know very much he was not a Catholic, but he was holding his rosary during the service. He brought it with him to the Friday service. It was very visible hanging down from his hand,” Father Charters said.
The St. Michael the Archangel priest thanked Glenmary Brother Corey Soignier for his assistance in the relief effort.
“I would just uphold Brother Corey and Lorena and all the volunteers here—I’m talking about little kids,” Father Charters said. “There was one little girl they told me was carrying something out to a car that was as big as her, and she was just a little girl, 7 or 8 years old. The teenagers, the middle school kids—they’ve all jumped in. They’re out there now—whenever a truck moves in they’re out there. They’re hauling things, and the adults as well. In fact, I’m wondering how some of these adults are off work, because they must be taking some time off because this is the middle of the afternoon, and they’ve been here since noon. And it’s not because they’ve lost their job, it’s that they’re here working and helping.”
Father Kiyimba is parochial administrator of Good Shepherd Parish in Newport as well as St. Mary Parish in Gatlinburg.
“Newport was affected by the floods, especially the folks living in downtown Newport and along the river. We lost two parishioners, a husband and wife,” he said.
Those who survived the flooding have both short-term and longterm challenges, Father Kiyimba noted.
“Our people had to be evacuated or left their homes to seek shelter somewhere else. They lost houses, and many were left with nothing to live on,” he said. “They need food, water, and other basic needs. Temporary housing is still an issue. I’ve been told that those who have been paying on their own are running out of money. I’ve also been told that people are beginning to get sick from mold bacteria and toxins they’re exposed to in the flooding and cleaning. Those with chronic diseases are finding it hard to manage due to lack of medicines. Many people are so worried that it’ll be difficult to rebuild their houses, especially those without insurance.”
The help given by the Good Shepherd community has not gone unnoticed.
“I’ve been amazed by the Good Shepherd parishioners and our neighbors,” Father Kiyimba said. “They have positively responded to the call to volunteer. I feel so proud of them for the great sacrifice they have made by offering their time and money. Many arrive in the morning at the church and stay working hard up to 7 p.m.”
The Church of the Good Shepherd has served as a distribution center for assistance to flooding victims.
“We’re receiving support from Catholic Charities, from our parishioners, from people within the Newport community, and from all over the country: Iowa, Chicago, Cincinnati, and from other churches here in the Diocese of Knoxville,” Father Kiyimba said.
The Newport priest spoke of his ministry to those in need.
“As the parochial administrator, what affects my people affects me as well,” he said. “In addition to the prayers, which I offer every single day, I’ve personally been on the ground, on some days working with the volunteers. I seek updates from the parish flood coordinators, including Mr. Scott Mulligan, our parish Catholic Charities ambassador and St. Vincent de Paul president. I express my gratitude to all volunteers and continue encouraging all to participate actively.” ■
EMILY BOOKER
Ukraine continued from page A11
cursion in August, which saw Ukrainian forces enter Russian territory and seize several settlements across hundreds of kilometers, exposed Russian border-security issues but also Ukraine’s own military shortcomings. Ukrainian forces have been lauded for grit and tactical prowess, but have neither the manpower nor the weaponry to sustain an offensive in enemy territory. And without the ability to strike deep inside of Russia, Ukraine is forced to remain in the trenches, where Russia can grind down Ukrainian forces in slowmoving and brutal combat.
According to Jakub Grygiel, a professor of politics at The Catholic University of America, Ukraine’s attempt to secure approval for long-
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go to as many as 40 churches in a week. Their recent trek involving Immaculate Conception also included stops at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester, the Carmelite Monastery in Pittsford, N.Y., St. Joseph Church in Penfi eld, N.Y., and St. Patrick Church in Victor, N.Y. The couple hauls away such used items as vestments, crucifi xes, statues, rosaries, chalices, altar ware, candlesticks, tabernacles, relics, monstrances, holy medals and cards, linens, framed religious pictures, musical instruments, and prayer books.
At St. Patrick Church, the parish published in its bulletin a list of religious items the group would accept for several weeks over the summer in advance of their July 26 pickup date, according to Cathy Fafone, secretary at the parish.
Award continued from page A12
Mississippi, and Tennessee.
range missile use is not about invading Russia but defending itself against further aggression.
“Ukraine does not have the desire or the ability to invade Russia,” he said. “They conquered a few square miles of Russian territory mostly for negotiating purposes. The desire instead is to strike logistical hubs that the Russian military has on Russian territory. Inside of their territory, the Russian military has almost a sanctuary where they can do whatever they want. They can prepare an offensive, place all their planes, armor, and ammunition in close proximity to Ukraine.”
So far, the Biden administration has resisted giving Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles to strike inside the Russian mainland, saying that it needs more clarity from Ukraine on
“It’s a lot. It’s labor intensive,” Mrs. Walters said of the pickup process.
Objects are eventually shipped by request to other churches and individuals, including in Third World countries. Mrs. Walters said all items are donated, not sold, noting that few have any real monetary value due to their age.
The ministry’s website, www. StMaryRecycleMissionGroup. com , offers contact details so those interested can access a full list of accepted objects, state their needs, and arrange for deliveries and exchanges. Mrs. Walters prefers to work with objects not needing repairs, although the ministry is able to arrange for some refurbishing. Her local Knights of Columbus council helps with the restoration and placement of items as well as travel expenses; Mrs. Walters as-
Objectives of the order include supporting and defending the Catholic Church and its teachings; promoting patriotism and good citizenship, encouraging public morality, and unselfi sh service to God and country. Additional objectives are assisting and publicizing the activities of other organizations that also promote patriotism and good citizenship, the encouragement of public morality, and unselfi sh service to God and country; memorializing and popularizing the memories and achievements of Catholic leaders in religion, the arts and sci-
how it plans to use the weapons and how longrange strikes would fit into a larger strategy to win the war. Experts believe the Biden administration has rebuffed the request because it fears sparking a larger conflict, one in which Russian President Vladimir Putin might be compelled to use smaller, tactical nuclear weapons to repel the threat. The White House has also shared concerns that loosening restrictions would have negligible impact on the broader conflict while significantly raising the risk for dangerous escalation.
For Mr. Grygiel, the Biden administration’s approach is shortsighted.“It’s a fearful Western approach to arming Ukraine,” he said. “They are afraid of the potential Russian response. But to me it’s not justified.” ■
sumes the bulk of the ministry’s operational costs.
The recycling effort got its start after Mrs. Walters rescued several religious articles in usable condition from a dumpster at a Rochester-area parish in 2004. She eventually sent hundreds of items to a New Orleans parish that had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The initiative has grown since Mrs. Walters’ move to Lancaster 18 years ago—largely, she said, due to goods becoming available through church closings.
Mrs. Walters said her ministry is faithful to Canon 1171 in the Code of Canon Law , which states: “Sacred objects, which are designated for divine worship by dedication or blessing, are to be treated reverently and are not to be employed for profane or inappropriate use.”
Mrs. Walters strives to fi nd
ences, philanthropy, education, exploration and archeology, government and international relations, medicine and jurisprudence, and other established professions.
The Order of the Fleur de Lis encourages and recognizes leadership in living the values and principles of the Catholic faith by presenting the Monsignor Joseph Susi Award of Honor to an individual who has excelled as a Catholic leader in any one of the following: religion, family values, youth, aging, politics, patriotism, the arts and sciences, education, philanthropy, public morality, management-labor, the media, or medicine and jurisprudence.
homes for all of her inventory, regardless of knowing which objects have been blessed by a priest or deacon.
“We try not to let anything go to waste,” she said.
However, she has burned and buried some items, especially those in poor shape. Doing so, she said, refl ects more reverence in the eyes of the Church than if they were thrown out.
Yet by and large, Mrs. Walters manages to place her abundant stock.
Her unique ministry can be exhausting.
“Every day I wake up with 15 voicemails,” she shared.
But she’s happy that God has assigned her this special mission.
“I think it’s a great purpose, myself,” she said. “It becomes a passion; it drives me.” ■
Other Knight Commanders in the Diocese of Knoxville include Father John Orr, pastor of Holy Ghost Parish in Knoxville; Deacon Paul Nelson, who serves at St. Jude Church in Chattanooga; Deacon Sean Smith, who serves as chancellor of the Diocese of Knoxville and at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City; Deacon David Duhamel, executive director of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, who also serves at St. Mary Church in Oak Ridge; Raleigh E. Cooper III; Ronnie Holmes; Paul Simoneau, who serves as vice chancellor of the Diocese of Knoxville; Eric J. Pelton; Victor Williams; and Michael Wills. ■
The Assurance of Peace, Quiet Reflection, & Prayer The Columbarium
