Nov. 5, 2023, ET Catholic, A section

November 5 | 2023 VOL 33 NO 3

IN THIS ISSUE

A4 CEMETERY LESSONS

KCHS students experience history

A PARISH IN BLUE B1 CELEBRATING A6 BOYS AND ITS PAST AND THEIR DOGS K-9 officers receive St. Francis blessing

St. Mary in Athens takes a walk down memory lane

Catholic commentary ....................... A2 Parish news ....................................... B4 Diocesan calendar ............................ B5 Columns ..........................................B6-7 Catholic schools ..........................B9-10 La Cosecha ............................Section C

Finding healing from abortion Women share personal testimonies as they take part in pro-life ministries

By Gabrielle Nolan

COURTESY OF LISA MORRIS

N

ot only was October “Respect Life Month,” but it was also “Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month.” In addition to men and women grieving miscarriage, stillborn birth, and the death of an infant, there is also the grief of loss due to abortion.

Catholics are not exempt when it comes to the tragedy of abortion, and three women who know that truth well are sharing their testimonies with the hope that others may also find healing. In addition, a program leader from Catholic Charities of East Tennessee is offering her perspective on hope and healing for those affected by abortion.

‘Continue the healing process’

Witness for life Lisa Morris speaks at the National Memorial for the Unborn in Chattanooga.

Back in 1979, Colette Souder had just graduated from college and found herself pregnant.

“I just put my blinders on thinking, ‘I’ll take care of this problem, and then I won’t have to deal with it.’ And, oh my goodness, was that the biggest mistake of my life. It is

my need to control the situation, was what it was. I think whenever you try to avoid suffering that comes into your life, like suffering of an unwanted pregnancy … whenever you try to avoid a suf-

fering that just kind of comes into your life, you bring on yourself so much more suffering than you can imagine, and I think this is a perfect example of that,” Mrs. Souder shared.

“The suffering that I went through because of that abortion was so great,” she continued. “You know, just depression … self-hate are the biggest things that happened. I did not stay with that father of the baby, and I think it’s almost impossible unless you really deal with what you did as a couple.”

Mrs. Souder was eventually led to her now-husband.

“I did tell him on our Engaged Encounter that I had had an abortion, and that was really, really, really difficult. It was very difficult for him, too.”

After getting married, Mrs. Souder wanted to keep her abortion a secret from her children but also prevent them from making the same mistake that she did.

“I didn’t want them to know what I did. I wanted to keep it secret. You’re as sick as your secrets,” she said. “Now, I’d gone to confession, but I had not forgiven myself, that’s the biggest thing. …

It’s the inner self-hate and the way Healing continued on page A14

Pilgrimages to Holy Land on hold Outbreak of war in the Mideast forces faith groups, travel planners to rethink tours

As the world prays for peace in Holy Land, Israeli-Hamas war intensifies

By Judith Sudilovsky OSV News

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A

e dodged a bullet” was Father Bill McNeeley’s reaction to the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel, led by Palestinian militants known as Hamas.

The attack has led to a full-blown war, resulting in more than 10,000 deaths to date, including the lives of Americans.

Father McNeeley, pastor of Holy Ghost Parish in Knoxville, led 11 pilgrims on a trip to the Holy Land Sept. 14-22, having departed for home just two weeks before the attack and subsequent war began.

The pilgrimage was Father McNeeley’s second to the Holy Land.

“It was just a wonderful experience,” he said of his most recent trip.

“The high point, the highlight for me, was I got to say Mass inside the Holy Sepulchre. It was one of the high points of my life.”

“I wasn’t too concerned about general safety because I know there are warnings and alerts that go on all the time,” he said. “I thought, well it’s reasonably safe and everyPilgrimages continued on page A23

COURTESY OF FATHER BILL MCNEELEY (2)

By Gabrielle Nolan

War and peace Above: Father Bill McNeeley, pastor of Holy Ghost Parish in Knoxville, reads the Liturgy of the Word in the outer chamber of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Father McNeeley led a pilgrimage to the Holy Land just days before Hamas militants led a deadly attack into Israel on Oct. 7.

Left: Father McNeeley celebrates the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass inside the inner room of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where Jesus' body was laid and from where He was raised on the third day.

s the world continues to pray for peace in the Holy Land, Pope Francis called for the war to halt and prayers to continue during the Angelus on Oct. 29, as the death toll surpassed 10,000 and Israeli troops launched an ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.

“Let us not stop. Let us continue to pray for Ukraine, as well as for the serious situation in Palestine and Israel, and for other regions at war,” the pope said. “Particularly, in Gaza, may space be opened to guarantee humanitarian aid, and may the hostages be released right away. Let no one abandon the possibility that the weapons might be silenced—let there be a ceasefire,” the Holy Father urged.

In a recorded Oct. 25 YouTube video message, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, told Christians in Gaza—who he called his “dear ones”—that he is dedicating all of his time not only in prayer for Peace continued on page A22

Did you see Jesus on the streets of New York City?

Eucharistic Revival takes the Big Apple by loving, forgiving storm

By Tim Busch National Catholic Register

J

esus was just in the middle of Manhattan.

On Oct. 10, during Tuesday rush hour, I joined more than 5,000 Catholics to actually follow Our Lord down Broadway and the streets near Times Square. We held a eucharistic procession, and our goal was simple: We wanted the people of New York to see faithful devotion in action, and more importantly, to see the Author of our faith.

At the head of the procession was Christ Himself in the Eucharist— body, blood, soul, and divinity. The monstrance containing our eucharistic Lord was held aloft by Father Mike Schmitz in a beautiful golden vessel.

More than 100 priests and nuns followed Father Schmitz closely, while an altar server swinging a thurible filled the air with the soothing aroma of incense. The

Sr. Regina

NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER/JEFFREY BRUNO

Commentary

Eucharistic state of mind The cross, preceding the Blessed Sacrament, passes by Radio City Music Hall during a eucharistic procession on the streets of New York City on Oct. 10. throng of the faithful processed accordingly, singing and praying as we walked behind Christ.

Catholics have held these eucharistic processions since ancient times. They’re intended to be a © 2023 Handmaids of the Precious Blood

public witness to the faith, a sign to society that Catholics believe in something, and Someone, higher.

Processions have been especially popular in times of religious bigotry. They prove to the world that

Christ and His Church aren’t going anywhere. They invite non-Catholics to watch what’s going on—and perhaps wonder why so many people would do something so strange.

They let onlookers encounter the Prince of Peace.

Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and tourists had that opportunity on that Tuesday afternoon. We started in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in the heart of the city, with a Mass that was filled to overflowing.

At 5:30 p.m., the cathedral’s massive bronze doors were swung open, a rare event reserved for the most important occasions. The priests and parishioners filed out, slowly and deliberately. Hundreds more people streamed out of the church with every minute.

The busiest city on earth seemed Eucharist continued on page A16

How to sign up and qualify for Diocese of Knoxville’s safe-environment program

T The Handmaids of the Precious Blood in 2022 celebrated their Diamond Jubilee: 75 years since their founding in 1947; 75 years of prayer and sacrifice for priests. Did you know you can 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.

November Prayer Intention for the Pope “We pray for the Holy Father; as he fulfills his mission, may he continue to accompany the flock entrusted to him, with the help of the Holy Spirit.”

DIOCESE PROCEDURE

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REPORTING

SEXUAL

ABUSE

Anyone who has actual knowledge of or who has reasonable cause to suspect an incident of sexual abuse should report such information to the appropriate civil authorities first, then to the McNabb Center victim's assistance coordinator, 865.321.9080.

he 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

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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

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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. ■

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

Synod members asked, ‘What would Jesus do?’

Small groups had effect of bigger community; local churches to get report

T

he monthlong experience of synodality with cardinals, bishops, religious, and laypeople from all over the world created new and wider “spaces” for everyone to feel welcome, to listen and discern God's will together, several synod members said at the conclusion of the synod assembly's first session.

This new way of experiencing the Church as “outgoing” and “creating spaces for everyone” has come about “because we are trying to live the Gospel,” Cardinal Mario Grech, synod secretary-general, said at a Vatican news conference on Oct. 28.

“This is the attitude, the approach of Jesus: to create spaces for everybody, and nobody can feel excluded, not accepted in His house,” he said.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of the assembly, said at the news conference that the “conversation in the Spirit” in small groups whose membership changed each week “had the effect that we were a big community, that we were really disciples of Jesus together.”

“As disciples of Jesus, we have to look at what would Jesus do?

How would His behavior be?

How would He welcome people?

And I think that’s what the synod participants did,” he said.

Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa, a consultant to the synod secretariat, said the synodal approach showed it is possible for different people with different perspectives and cultures “to talk to each other, listen to each other, to be not in agreement and then to come together, embrace each other, and journey together; therefore, it’s a little seed of hope.”

Cardinal Grech said a synod member told him watching people let go of their fear, difficulty, or reluctance to commu-

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/VATICAN MEDIA

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

Active participation Pope Francis gives his blessing at the conclusion of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops' last working session on Oct. 28 in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican.

nicate was like seeing ice “melt.”

Barriers came down because of each member ’s “generosity” in creating the “space” needed to be open and willing to listen to the other.

While the first session is over, ending with a 41-page synthesis report, he said, “the synod did not end.”

Between now and the second assembly in October 2024, the report, detailing many different topics and degrees of agreement, will go back to the local churches and others for further study and discussion, Cardinal Grech said.

Each paragraph of the document

was approved with the necessary twothirds vote, but in many places it also “confirms that these are open topics, that the discussion, the reflection, the follow-up is ongoing.”

There was “extraordinary harmony” in the way the members worked together, he said. “We’re a family, a unique family, and we have to respect everyone’s pace.”

“We can’t rush the pace or go backward. We walk together, this is the concept of synodality,” he said, where the “bigger voice” does not claim victory “over the other.”

Father Costa said, “I expect that not all the issues will even be resolved next year. But this synod gave us a new way to face them.”

Cardinal Hollerich said it will be easier to speak about issues with a more synodal Church versus “the Church as it was structured in the past.”

That does not mean a “synodal

Church will just embrace everything,” he said. But it means when people have a difference of opinion, no one takes out a “knife” and starts a fight.

Having “this freedom and this openness will change the Church.

And I am sure the Church will find answers, but perhaps not the exact answer this group or this group wants to have but answers which most people could feel well and listen to,” Cardinal Hollerich said.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told Catholic News Service synod members had been “looking for how the Church can learn to bring Jesus Christ better to our unjust, war-filled and imperiled world: by being more open, more welcoming, closer to those who suffer, accompanying those in need.”

The most important lesson “we have learned about being followers of Jesus, and therefore missionaries of justice, peace, and care of our common home, is to listen, and to keep on listening, and then to listen until it hurts, and finally to listen all over again,” he said Oct. 28 in a written statement.

Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg and president of the German bishops’ conference, said at a news conference in Rome on Oct. 29 that the synod “placed the questions of God’s people on the table.”

“The synod was very honest, and I’m grateful for that and am going home satisfied,” he said, according to DPA, the German press agency.

But he said the fear of change was also present at the synod, and he called for the courage “to identify evident questions and to bring to them a clarity that changes the Church for the sake of the people” when it meets next year, DPA reported. ■

Vatican releases Synod report outlining key proposals

T

he Vatican released the Synod on Synodality’s “synthesis report” on Oct. 28 outlining key proposals discussed during the nearly monthlong assembly’s confidential conversations.

The highly anticipated text was approved paragraph by paragraph on Oct. 28 by a vote of 344 synod delegates, which for the first time included women and other nonbishops as voting members.

The document, the synthesis of the assembly’s work from Oct. 4–29, proposes a “synodal Church” that implements synodality throughout Church governance, theology, mission, and discernment of doctrine and pastoral issues.

The 42-page text, released by the Vatican in Italian, covers 20 topics from “the dignity of women” to “the bishop of Rome in the College of Bishops.” For each topic, “convergences,” “matters for consideration,” and “proposals” are outlined.

More than 80 proposals were approved in the synod vote, including establishing a new “baptismal ministry of listening and accompaniment,” initiating discernment processes regarding the decentralization of the Church, and strengthening the Council of Cardinals into a “synodal council at the service of the Petrine ministry.”

Other proposals include giving lectors a preaching ministry “in appropriate contexts,” implementing structures and processes to increase the accountability of bishops in matters of economic administration, supporting “digital missionaries,” and pro-

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

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTO/VATICAN MEDIA

By Courtney Mares Catholic News Agency

Group discussion Participants in the assembly of the Synod of Bishops gather for an afternoon session on Oct. 25 in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. The synod assembly was held in Rome Oct. 4-29. The concluding synod assembly will be held in October 2024. moting “initiatives that enable shared discernment of controversial, doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues in the light of the word of God, Church teaching, theological reflection, and valuing synodal experience.”

The document also encourages churches to experiment with “conversation in the spirit”—the listening-and-reflection method the synod’s delegates have used in their deliberations this month—and forms of discernment in the life of the Church. It calls for the implementation of “the exercise of synodality at regional, national, and continental levels.”

Absent from the summary report are definitive conclusions on same-sex blessings, women’s ordination, and a handful of other hot-button topics that have

drawn the lion’s share of media attention during this year ’s assembly.

Throughout the document, areas of disagreement among the synod participants are listed as “matters of consideration.”

Among them are women’s access to diaconal ministry, priestly celibacy, “eucharistic hospitality” for interfaith couples, and assigning the handling of abuse cases to another body instead of the bishops.

Written by “experts” invited to attend the synod and overseen by a commission of 13 synod delegates, the text says it aims to be “a tool at the service of ongoing discernment.” It is divided into three main sections on the elements of a synodal Church, participation in mission, and processes that enable dialogue

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with the world.

Vatican spokesman Paolo Ruffini said that more than 1,000 amendments were submitted by synod delegates to the original draft of the report after it was presented to the assembly on Wednesday.

Voting on the text took place on Saturday night with each paragraph requiring the approval of two-thirds of the members present for inclusion in the final report.

Every paragraph was approved in the voting process. A paragraph describing “uncertainties surrounding the theology of the diaconal ministry” and calling for more reflection on women’s access to the diaconate received the most negative votes.

“Rather than saying that the Church has a mission, we affirm that the Church is mission,” the document says.

“The exercise of co-responsibility is essential for synodality and is necessary at all levels of the Church,” it adds.

The text is the culmination of days of discussion by 365 synod delegates during the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops after years of consultation at local, national, and regional levels since the global synod process was launched in 2021. It lays the foundation for the second Synod on Synodality assembly that will take place in October 2024.

The 2023 synod assembly came to its formal conclusion on Oct. 29, when Pope Francis offered the closing Mass in St. Peter ’s Basilica. ■ NOVEMBER 5, 2023 n A3

Our brethren before us Students learn that care for departed, their burial grounds are part of Christian life

By Emily Booker

Remembering those before us

The small but growing and faithful Catholic community in Knoxville in the 1800s understood the importance of a consecrated burial ground for their loved ones when they bought six acres of land a couple of miles east of Immaculate Conception Church and established Calvary Cemetery in 1869.

The dedication of the cemetery shows how much the parishioners valued and respected having this place to properly bury their Catholic brothers and sisters.

On Oct. 3, 1869, Bishop Patrick A. Feehan of the Diocese of Nashville consecrated Calvary Cemetery in Knoxville.

According to an Oct. 5, 1869, Knoxville Daily Press and Herald report of the events, Bishop Feehan celebrated Mass at Immaculate Conception in the morning.

In the afternoon, a procession moved from the church to the cemetery, about a two-mile route.

From the Knoxville Daily Press and Herald: “Headed by the Knoxville Brass Band, left the church grounds at about half past 2 o’clock. First came the Right [….]

Bishop of the Diocese, P. A. Fee-

PAM RHOADES (2)

A

burial ground, be it a cemetery, mausoleum, or columbarium, is an important part of a Catholic community.

The Catechism says, “The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the resurrection. The burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy (Tobit 1:16-18); it honors the children of God, who are temples of the Holy Spirit” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2300).

Experiencing history Above: Beth Willard Wolf, who helps Immaculate Conception Parish maintain Calvary Cemetery, leads Knoxville Catholic High School students on a tour of the historic cemetery for the school's Christian Pilgrimage class. Below: KCHS senior Patrick Barry stands next to a gravestone for his ancestors.

han and Father Finnegan, both of whom were dressed in the ecclesiastical costume. They were followed by the Acolytes, who were clad in their red Cossacks [sic] and surplices, led by the choir attached to the Church of the Immaculate Conception. These

were followed by a large train of beautiful girls, who were dressed in white and wore green sashes.

Next came the boys and the different societies; and lastly, those in carriages and other vehicles.

The scene, while bearing all the semblance of religious devotion,

was, nevertheless, exceedingly picturesque; the band discoursed beautiful music, upturned faces appeared in every direction along the street, and anxious faces looked down from every window and balcony.”

Once at the cemetery, five crosses fixed in different parts of the six acres of burial grounds were incensed and prayers said at each one. The grounds of the cemetery were blessed with holy water.

According the paper ’s report, Bishop Feehan spoke of the reverence and respect we should have for the dead and for the place of their repose.

“Death was no destruction, no annihilation, for the Christian looked forward to a blessed and glorious resurrection. The Bishop’s language was chaste and refined throughout—at times it was really sublime—it was always logical and substantial,” the paper reported.

Several Catholics were relocated from the local Gray Cemetery and reburied in the new cemetery. The first recorded burial was that of an infant child of Daniel Kay in 1869. Calvary would soon become the place for generations of Catholics to be laid to rest and remembered.

Care and remembrance More than 150 years later, Calvary Cemetery remains the only Catholic burial ground in the greater Knoxville area. It is still maintained by Immaculate Conception Parish.

“There’s a core group of parishioners. It’s wonderful. A lot of them have great-great grandparents and parents and grandparents all buried there,” Father Charlie Donahue, CSP, pastor of Immaculate Conception, said of Cemetery continued on page A19

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Blessing the officers: man and his best friend Police chaplain Fr. Charlie Donahue leads service for Knoxville's finest

By Bill Brewer

BILL BREWER (2)

W

ith heavy hearts and a somber countenance on Oct. 6, Knoxville Police Department officers and their canine partners received prayers and a blessing from Father Charlie Donahue, CSP, to mark the feast of St. Francis of Assisi and as part of the national law enforcement Faith & Blue Weekend initiative.

The eight KPD K-9 teams lined the middle of Vine Avenue in front of Immaculate Conception Church in downtown Knoxville as they received the St. Francis of Assisi blessing and were sprinkled with holy water by Father Donahue, who serves in their midst as a KPD volunteer chaplain.

Father Donahue, a Paulist priest who serves as pastor of Immaculate Conception, led the blessing in conjunction with the Oct. 4 feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

Also taking part in the blessing and launch of the Faith & Blue Weekend were Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon, Knoxville Police Chief Paul Noel, who is a parishioner of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, a host of police officers and KPD cadets, and a representative from the Young-Williams Animal Center in Knoxville.

The blessing was held on the same day as the funeral for Knox County Sheriff’s Deputy Tucker Blakely, who was killed in the line of duty. He was shot on Oct. 1 while responding to a domestic disturbance, and he died on Oct. 2. Deputy Blakely was 29 and leaves behind a wife and 5-yearold son.

The blessing was held at 9 a.m. on Oct. 6, and the funeral was at 2 p.m. at Clear Springs Baptist Church in Corryton.

Father Donahue said Deputy Blakely, who was working his final shift as a patrol officer when he was shot, was to have started his first day with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit on Oct. 6. He already had been assigned a police dog.

“We do gather with a sense of sadness as Knox County today celebrates the life of and commend to God Sheriff’s Deputy Tucker Blakely. It’s a reminder of just how precious life is,” Father Donahue said to begin the

Serving and protecting Above: Officers with the Knoxville Police Department K-9 unit line Vine Avenue in front of Immaculate Conception Church to receive a blessing for the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Below: Father Charlie Donahue, CSP, center, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, leads the blessing of the K-9 service.

ceremony.

“We’re gathering here to bless this amazing squad of canine teams, these dogs and their partners. We are a Catholic Church here in East Tennessee, and we take ecumenism and interfaith dialogue very seriously. But we also know that you are here for this blessing, so it is going to be in the Christian tradition,” Father Donahue continued.

Nancy Brennan Strange, music director at St. John XXIII Catholic Center, who participates in the music liturgy at Immaculate Conception, sang the hymn “All Things Bright and Beautiful” before Father Donahue led in prayer the group that had gathered.

“And so we pray, God our Father, to those who have never had

a dog as a partner, this prayer will sound strange. But to you, the Creator of all life and all creatures, it will be resonant. From these animals we learn many lessons, such as the quality of naturalness and unembarrassed requests for affection, to share food, to listen effectively. In caring for them, we are taken up out of our own selves. We relearn every day the importance of service to others. Be with these K-9 teams and their handlers and support staff to work with their focus and discipline for all public safety, we pray,” Father Donahue said.

Father Donahue praised the work of KPD chaplain Mike Patty, who assisted in organizing the K-9 blessing.

“One of the things that Mike

Columnist George Valadie pens book on perspectives

By Bill Brewer

G

eorge Valadie has been writing columns for 25 years. And during that time an idea has been germinating that is just now flowering.

The columnist has authored his first book, which is a compilation of his work writing for publications in the Diocese of Jackson, Miss., the Diocese of Memphis, and most recently for the Diocese of Knoxville.

We Lost Our Fifth Fork … and other moments when we need perspective is being released by Foresight Publishers.

Mr. Valadie has developed a wide audience that has taken a liking to his every layman (and laywoman) style of writing. His monthly Praying for Perspective column in The East Tennessee Catholic (page B6) is popular with readers as were his regular submissions in the Mississippi Catholic and the West Tennessee Catholic.

And for the uninitiated, Mr. Valadie leans on his decades spent as an educator and a school principal, as well as his family, for his column ideas, which are rich in lessons learned … and sometimes not learned.

Faith—and humor—are always the underlying themes in his A6 n NOVEMBER 5, 2023

taught me and the other chaplains is that if you’re looking for something, you’re probably going to find it. If you’re looking for some good news, you’re going to find it.

And if you’re looking for trouble, you are bound to find it. If you’re looking for grace in the presence of God, you’re going to find it. If you are looking for something, you are going to find it,” the Paulist priest said.

“These K-9 teams teach all of us about self-mastery. Through rigorous training and experience, they have a dual sense together of mastery and knowing one another. It’s their training to know the other’s capabilities, instincts, aspirations, and experience. Look to these K-9 teams. Think of their training and watch them in action.

And learn from the time invested in knowledge of one another.

Think of their self-mastery and look to apply it in your own life toward goodness and kindness,” he advised.

He then shared another prayer with the K-9 units.

“A famous prayer goes: ‘Officers, these dogs’ eyes are your eyes, and watch to protect you and others. These dogs’ ears are your ears to safeguard you and others in the dark. These dogs’ noses are your noses to scent, track, and lead others to safety.

These dogs’ very lives are your very lives, heroically and riskily offered in great love so that you and others might live and prosper. Be good stewards of these creatures, one and all, these partners.’”

Father Donahue then offered the prayer for the blessing of animals, saying “Blessed are you, Lord God, maker of all living creatures.

You called forth fish in the sea, birds in the air, and animals of the land. You inspired St. Francis to call all of them brothers and sisters. We ask you to bless these teams. By the power of Your love, enable them to live according to Your plan. May we always praise You for all of Your beauty and creation. Blessed are You, Lord God in all creatures. Bless us each this day to God’s use.”

He proceeded to walk down Vine Avenue, which was blocked off by police cars for the occasion, to sprinkle holy water on each Blessing continued on page A20

NEW RELEASE

A website for the new book, "We Lost Our Fork...," also is available at ourfifthfork. com. content.

“This has been marinating for 25 years. That’s when I started writing columns,” Mr. Valadie said.

And just how did a career educator and school leader decide to start putting his personal ideas on his profession and his family life on paper, or on a computer screen?

“I started getting an interest in writing in 1998-99. I was a principal in Vicksburg, Miss., and I would send out a regular newsletter to parents and faculty. And at the end of a newsletter, I decided to tell everybody about something that had happened in our house,” Mr. Valadie shared.

“I soon realized they weren’t talking about the news in the newsletter. They were interested in something stupid our family had done,” he noted.

Little did he know at the time that a columnist was born.

As his concluding missives in the school newsletters gained a following, he decided to try his hand at a longer form of storytelling and in a different medium.

CONTACT:

GEORGE VALADIE www.ourfifthfork.com For information about possible speaking engagements, you can contact the author at george.valadie@gmail.com

Scan the QR Code to visit: www.ourfifthfork.com

Author continued on page A21 www.di o k no x .o rg

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

Communion and Liberation Diocesan chapter of ecclesial movement getting underway at St. John Neumann

By Bill Brewer

BILL BREWER (2)

T

he Diocese of Knoxville is now home to a new lay ministry that traces its roots to Italy and whose mission is to form its members as adults in the Christian faith who seek Jesus Christ in each moment of daily life.

Communion and Liberation is an international ecclesial movement in the Catholic Church that was recognized pontifically in 1982. It is a community of people who have been changed by their encounter with Christ. The name refers to the conviction that Christianity, lived in communion, is the foundation of authentic human liberation.

The members join in friendship to learn how to judge life’s experiences with the knowledge that “faith corresponds to some fundamental, original need that all men and women feel in their hearts,” according to Communion and Liberation founder Monsignor Luigi Giussani.

The Communion and Liberation mission is the education toward Christian maturity of its members and collaboration in the overall mission of the Catholic Church in all areas of contemporary life. It was defined by Pope John Paul II, as “one of the beautiful fruits of the Holy Spirit for the entire Church.”

Local chapters of Communion and Liberation (CL) welcome anyone interested in learning how to see the face of Christ in all circumstances. They meet regularly for what is called School of Community, a small-group-style meeting where they reflect on readings, discuss questions, and engage in finding out what Christ wants to do in their lives in a concrete way.

They openly discuss how their encounters with Christ not only happen in personal ways but also in their daily professional and so-

Sharing their stories Above: Federico Gallo, left, leads the Communion and Liberation "Beginning Day" program in the library at St. John Neumann School in Farragut on Sept. 23. He is joined by his wife, Mandy Pekowski, center, and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Carie Boothe. Below: Communion and Liberation participants listen to Ms. Pekowski and Lt. Cmdr. Boothe give their witness and share their experiences taking part in the ecclesial movement.

cial activities.

The movement has found its way to East Tennessee.

On Sept. 23, Father Joe Reed, pastor of St. John Neumann Parish in Farragut, celebrated Mass for the new Communion and Liberation group in the Knoxville area. Fol-

lowing Mass, local CL leaders held a “Beginning Day” program in the library of St. John Neumann School to introduce the movement to East Tennessee.

The program was emceed by Federico Gallo, an aerospace engineer who is a group leader in the

Communion and Liberation founder’s vision should grow — Pope Francis

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

W

hile many Catholic movements go through a period of confusion after their founder dies, the key to continued flourishing is to remember with gratitude the founder’s gifts and to be open to new ways or new places the Holy Spirit wants them to grow, Pope Francis has told members of Communion and Liberation.

More than 60,000 members of the movement filled St. Peter’s Square to overflowing on Oct. 15, 2022, as they celebrated with Pope Francis the 100th anniversary of the birth of Father Luigi Giussani, a Milan priest and educator who began laying the foundations for Communion and Liberation in the 1960s. He died in 2005.

As a religion teacher in a public high school, Father Giussani saw his mission as helping students have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a relationship that would be strengthened in communion with others and would give meaning to the students’ involvement in society and culture throughout their adult lives.

After the death of Father Giussani, the movement experienced “no shortage of serious problems, divisions,” according to Pope Francis. But such “times of crisis” are a call to rediscover and reaffirm the movement’s “extraordinary history of charity, culture, and mission,” honestly evaluate what has hindered the movement’s flourishing, and what the Church and the world need from the movement given “the needs, sufferings, and hopes of contemporary humanity.”

“Crisis makes for growth. It should not be reduced to conflict, which undoes,” the pope said.

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‘Crisis makes one grow’

Father Giussani “was certainly a man of great personal charisma, capable of attracting thousands of young people and touching their hearts,” the pope told them. But if they look at his life and what he himself said, they will discover that his charisma came from his personal relationship with Christ and his understanding—“not only with his mind but with his heart— that Christ is the unifying centre of all reality, is the answer to all human questions, is the fulfilment of every desire for happiness, goodness, love, and eternity present in the human heart.”

In sharing that conviction with students and helping them use their hearts, their intelligence, and their culture to come to their own personal relationship with Jesus, Father Giussani left “a great spiritual legacy” to Communion and Liberation, the pope said.

“I urge you to nurture in yourselves his educational passion, his love for young people, his love for the freedom and personal responsibility of each person in the face of his or her own destiny, and his respect for the unrepeatable uniqueness of every man and woman,” Pope Francis told members.

Complying with new Vatican rules placing term limits on the leadership of Catholic lay movements and associations, Spanish Father Julián Carrón, president of Communion and Liberation, announced in November 2021 that he was stepping down from the office he had held since 2005.

“I have decided to submit my resignation as president of the fraternity of Communion and Liberation in order to encourage the change of leadership to which we are called by the Holy Father,”

enrichment science engineering division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His wife, Mandy Pekowski, and their friend from CL, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Carie Boothe, gave their personal witness to the Beginning Day group as to how Jesus Christ has impacted their lives.

“What the movement is not is a replacement of the Catholic Church. It is a movement within the Catholic Church and is a particular charism that helps participants follow the Catholic Church,” Dr. Gallo said during the Beginning Day program.

When Dr. Gallo and Ms. Pekowski moved to Farragut in January 2022 with their children, they brought Communion and Liberation with them. They relocated from Houston when he accepted a position at ORNL. They spent their first year acclimating to East Tennessee and the Diocese of Knoxville. Then earlier this year they began to incorporate Communion and Liberation into their lives in their new home.

Dr. Gallo explained that while a permanent Communion and Liberation chapter has just started in Knoxville, there have been movement members who have transitioned into the diocese in the past.

They were doing a School of Community (weekly meeting) in person and remotely.

As he and his family were preparing to move to East Tennessee, Dr. Gallo said members of Communion and Liberation in Houston, which has a membership of about 150 people, told him that God was sending him to Knoxville for a reason, not only because of a position at ORNL. “They told me to not feel detached from the Houston community just because I got this job.

They said there is something for CL continued on page A25

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NOVEMBER 5, 2023 n A7

Partners in Haiti health care Sacred Heart ministry supporting impoverished country hears from award-winning leader

By Gabrielle Nolan

GABRIELLE NOLAN (2)

T

he Haiti Outreach Program of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus held its annual banquet, Hands Across the Sea: Supporting Haiti, on Sept. 22 at Cathedral Hall.

More than 80 attendees enjoyed a meal, live music, and a selection of Haitian metal artwork for sale.

Father David Boettner, rector of the cathedral, gave the opening welcome.

“Thank you all for coming this evening,” Father Boettner said. “We’re thrilled to be able to gather together. It’s always a joy to see friends and meet new friends. We hope this evening you have the opportunity to do both. … We have some wonderful guests with us this evening, some great opportunities to learn more about our mission with our brothers and sisters in Haiti. First, we just want to thank God for this evening, and for the food, and especially for all those volunteers who have helped to put this great feast together.”

Frank Murphy was the master of ceremonies, and Matt Webster, president of the Haiti Outreach Program, provided program highlights and updates.

Additionally, the crowd watched a video message from Bishop Desinord Jean of the Diocese of Hinche, Haiti. Drew Peloubet, the U.S. liaison to Bishop Jean, gave remarks and reflections after the video.

Helping Haiti Above: Loune Viaud, the keynote speaker for the Haiti Benefit Banquet at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, delivers her remarks on Sept. 22. Below: A banquet attendee looks over Haitian metal art that was on display as part of the fundraising banquet.

‘You are doing God’s work’

The keynote speaker for the evening was Loune Viaud, a native Haitian who won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 2002 for her work to provide Haiti with health care through Zanmi Lasante, the sister organization of the nonprofit Partners In Health.

Additionally, Ms. Viaud is the first female Haitian civilian to address the United Nations Security Council when she spoke about equitable health care for women and girls.

“Good evening, friends. I bring you warm greetings from Haiti,” Ms. Viaud began. “I would like to express my thanks to you all for honoring my friend and mentor Dr. (Paul) Farmer last year. And if I’m here today, it is in part because of Paul and a chance encounter almost 40 years ago.”

Dr. Farmer, a former professor at Harvard Medical School and doctor in the field of global health, was the co-founder of Partners In Health and assisted Sacred Heart’s ministry in Haiti. He died in Rwanda in February 2022.

Ms. Viaud has worked for Partners In Health for 37 years, and for most of that time was the executive director of Zanmi Lasante. Since fall 2021, Ms. Viaud has represented Partners In Health as the chief gender and social equity officer.

“We at PIH, we’re always discussing partnership and ways to better collaborate with other organizations. We believe partnership is the only way we move forward if we are going to survive in this line of work,” she said. “The opportunity

to work with the late Dr. Paul Farmer from 1998 until the evening before his passing in February 2022 was the best partnership I have ever had. Through our journey we experienced many wonderful advancements and miracles, as well as surviving many disasters, crises, and losing many good friends along the way. Over the last three decades of our friendship, Paul and I built a team of what is now about almost 7,000 colleagues in Haiti.”

“Everything is possible,” Ms. Viaud continued.

“And while I know Haiti has many tragedies and struggles with social, political, and economic challenges, Haiti has become the global model of care for all of Partners In Health around the world and for many other organizations.”

Ms. Viaud said that the parish of St. Michel in Boucan-Carré, Haiti, and the surrounding communities are “better because of a group of people from Knoxville who hold Haiti close to their hearts.”

“Today, thousands of patients have access to a better life because of you, because of your support and your unconditional love,” she said.

“So many Haitians have jobs today and are able to care for their families because you believe in their education. Education has opened closed doors for them because of your pragmatic solidarity. At St. Michel (school), you are transforming lives. The community of Bouly is healthier since 2015 because of your commitment. … You proved without any doubt that holistic health care could be available to anyone, anywhere.

You have proven what was once impossible to achieve is possible for the neediest communities, and you are doing so by making it preferential for the poor in health care, delivering quality care to all and education to the people in Boucan-Carré.”

Ms. Viaud said that fulfilling this mission “has never been and will never be easy, especially in parts of the world where inequity and injustice are rampant, such as Haiti.”

She commented that the communities they serve in Haiti face violence, illness, malnutrition, and gangs.

“No one is safe,” she said. “The best and brightest of our citizens are fleeing the country in unprecedented numbers.”

Haiti continued on page A24

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A8 n NOVEMBER 5, 2023

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

Fr. Ryan sainthood documents go to Vatican officials Fr. Carter, Deacon DeGaetano deliver vital information to Holy See

By John Burger Aleteia

COURTESY OF CORINNE HENDERSON (2)

A

nother case of a possible saint from the United State is now in the hands of the Vatican.

Representatives from the Diocese of Knoxville have delivered to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints all the paperwork that was done for the cause of Servant of God Father Patrick Ryan, an Irish-born priest who gave up his life ministering during a yellow fever epidemic in the late 19th century.

In addition to his death in service of others, Father Ryan also is remembered for having brought the order of nuns now known as the Nashville Dominicans to his parish.

Deacon Gaspar DeGaetano, vice postulator for the cause, delivered the documents along with Father David Carter, episcopal delegate to the cause, and others on Oct. 4.

In an interview, Deacon DeGaetano said he believes it is only the second cause to be introduced under a new category that Pope Francis introduced in 2017: the free offering of one’s life, where sainthood is conferred because the person knowingly put himself in danger for the benefit of others.

Father Ryan, when pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish (now basilica) in Chattanooga, gave his life in ministering to people who had yellow fever in the epidemic of 1878. He was 33 years old.

The South had a particularly bad epidemic of yellow fever that year. Father Ryan and the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church— good friends—were among just 1,800 people who stayed in Chattanooga, while some four-fifths of the population fled from the pandemic.

Insisting on caring for the victims, Father Ryan came down with yellow fever himself on Sept. 26, 1878. He was much sicker on the morning of Sept. 27, and his newly ordained younger brother, Michael, administered the last sacraments to his older brother. Father Patrick died on the morning of Sept. 28, 1878.

It was Deacon DeGaetano’s idea to initiate the cause when he transferred his Knights of Columbus membership to the council at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, where Father Ryan had been pastor. Council 610 is named for Father Ryan. He suggested to Father

Hand-delivered documents Above: From left, Federico Favero of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome receives documents about Father Patrick Ryan from Deacon Gaspar DeGaetano, Father David Carter, and Dr. Emanuele Spedicato, who chairs the Diocesan Historical Commission that researched Father Ryan. Below: Father Carter and Deacon Degaetano show the Vatican receipt for the documents.

Carter, who is rector of the basilica, that it was time to start a cause of canonization for Father Ryan.

Father Carter agreed. So did Bishop Richard F. Stika of the Diocese of Knoxville, who in 2016 petitioned the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to advance the cause. The bishops voted to do so. Deacon DeGaetano formed a historical commission to prepare the paperwork for Rome.

Along the way, the diocese exhumed Father Ryan’s body and reinterred it in the Basilica of St. Peter and Paul. Father Ryan was not found to be incorrupt, as Deacon DeGaetano was hoping, but his vestments were. He said the diocese is planning to put those vestments on display.

Just days before the presentation of the documents in Rome, Archbishop Emeritus Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville on Sept. 28 presided over the closing session of the Tribunal of Inquiry that examined the life, Christian virtues, heroic offering of life, reputation for holiness, and signs of intercessory power of Sainthood continued on page A13

Shreveport Martyrs’ cause moves ahead Fr. Carter serving in an official role for La. diocese

By Joseph Pronechen National Catholic Register

T

he bishops of the United States have affirmed the advancement of the cause of beatification and canonization on the diocesan level of five Frenchborn priests known as the “Shreveport Martyrs.”

The affirmative vote to continue the cause took place on June 15 during the spring plenary meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

And on Oct. 8, Bishop Francis I. Malone of the Diocese of Shreveport in Louisiana, presided at the Mass commemorating the 150th anniversary of the yellow fever epidemic. The Mass also served as the opening session of the diocesan phase of investigating the lives and the heroic virtues of the Servants of God, diocesan priests, and martyrs to their charity in Shreveport.

Father David Carter, rector of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga, who is leading a cause for sainthood in the Diocese of Knoxville, also is serving in an official role with the Shreveport Martyrs’ cause for sainthood.

Father Carter is a native of Shreveport who grew up in Knoxville. He is leading the cause for sainthood of Servant of God Father Patrick Ryan, who died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 while ministering to those ill from the contagion in Chattanooga.

Already named “Servants of God,” the five young priests who were age 26 and 27 gave their lives ministering to the sick during the great yellow fever epidemic of 1873 in Shreveport.

Servants of God Father Isidore Quémerais, Father Jean Pierre, Father Jean-Marie Biler, Father Louis Gergaud, and Father François

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LeVézouët had recently arrived from their homeland in France to serve in the new diocese.

This year marks the 150th anFr. Carter niversary year of their work and deaths during that devastating epidemic.

Oct. 8 also was the anniversary of the death of one of the five Shreveport martyrs, Father François LeVézouët.

Bishop Malone spoke about the significance of this move that will lead to further interactions with the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, which has already granted that the five priests be considered together as one cause. They have always been known and referred to collectively in the diocese as the “Shreveport Martyrs.”

“You can imagine if we had to deal with five different causes, the length of time it would take to do that,” Bishop Malone told the Register. Rome granting the consolidation of the five priests into one cause made the work streamlined.

He pointed out that combined with the extensive work being done on the cause, people have also written two books on these priests and produced The Five Priests, a full-length documentary film that has won awards at national and international film festivals, including the Cannes World Film Festival.

The Shreveport Martyrs fit the new category of “martyrs of charity” promulgated by Pope Francis in his 2017 motu proprio Maiorem hac Dilectionem (The Offer of Life).

Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States,

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NOVEMBER 5, 2023 n A9

LEFT PAGE

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

Supplying Food to Hungry Families Is the First Step in Transforming Communities When ministry leaders with Cross Catholic Outreach set out to transform the impoverished communities of Rosa de Lima, Guatemala,they knew addressing the urgent need for food would have to be their priority.

“You can rarely succeed with long-term mission work if you ignore basic human needs.

Desperately hungry people are understandably focused on survival, and their first goal is always to make sure their children are fed. Only when that need is addressed can they focus on programs to break the cycle of poverty and build a better future,” explained Jim Cavnar, CEO of Cross Catholic Outreach, one of the largest and most successful Catholic charities serving the poor in Latin America.

Within Guatemala, one of the countries that Cross Catholic Outreach serves, the ministry is currently working with Catholic leaders in the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima. There, extreme hunger and the medical hardships it creates have been impacting thousands of Guatemalans without drawing much attention from the world at large, even though most of the victims are babies and young children. Fortunately, through Cross Catholic Outreach — and the support of compassionate Catholics in the U.S. — the local clergy now believe helping families escape the hardships of chronic hunger is possible.

Families in Santa Rosa de Lima have great faith, but the poverty in their communities is making their life a daily trial.

Nutritious meals will help restore their hope.

“Malnutrition has a terrible impact on poor children, and this crisis is particularly deadly in Guatemala’s remote, rural regions.

There, families live too far from hospitals and clinics capable of helping them. A serious lack of resources and inadequate food

production create the perfect conditions for malnutrition to thrive,” Cavnar said. “Poor mothers are forced to choose which of their children to feed on a given day, and they watch in despair as their sons and daughters weaken, grow gaunt and lose the will to live.”

Cavnar went on to explain the major difference between hunger and malnutrition.

“Most Americans think of hunger as a temporary thing — a pain that will eventually be relieved — and, praise God, that’s often the case. A child in the U.S. may go hungry at times, but that hunger isn’t usually a lifethreatening issue,” he said. “The poorest Guatemalan children may have to endure hunger for weeks or months on end, and at that point, they begin to manifest signs of mental and physical damage

that may become irreversible.”

Stunted growth is one of the most common physical problems Cavnar has seen, and the harm it does to a child’s body is lasting.

Thankfully, Church leaders in Guatemala have been working with Cross Catholic Outreach on an ambitious plan to distribute food where it is needed most. [See related story below.]

“Santa Rosa’s Catholic leaders are eager to feed the vulnerable in their diocese, but they need our help and they depend on the support of compassionate American Catholics. Contributions will allow Cross Catholic Outreach to ship large quantities of donated food to the diocese for distribution through feeding programs, schools and other diocesan outreaches.

“The more who contribute to this mission of mercy, the more

we can accomplish. So we are asking for people to be generous in their response,” Cavnar said.

“I’m confident we’ll have a major impact on hunger in Santa Rosa if American Catholics get involved.”

Readers interested in supporting Cross Catholic Outreach food programs and other outreaches to the poor can contribute through the ministry brochure inserted in this issue or send tax-deductible gifts to: Cross Catholic Outreach, Dept. AC02577, PO Box 97168, Washington, DC 20090-7168.

The ministry has a special need for partners willing to make gifts on a monthly basis.

Use the inserted brochure to become a Mission Partner or write “Monthly Mission Partner” on mailed checks to be contacted about setting up those arrangements.

Donors Send A Box of Joy to Children Who Would Otherwise Go Without Christmas Gifts There’s nothing quite like Christmas time in a household of young children. Even before the Thanksgiving menu has been set, their eyes are already sparkling with anticipation for the holiday to follow. Everything about Christmas is exciting to children, especially opening the presents under the tree.

That’s why Cross Catholic Outreach’s Box of Joy® program is so important. It supplies fun gifts and Christ’s love to thousands of boys and girls in developing

A10 n NOVEMBER 5, 2023

countries who would otherwise go without any presents at Christmas — or any other time of the year.

“It’s a sad truth, but the struggle for survival in some developing countries is so intense that many parents simply can’t afford to give their sons and daughters Christmas gifts of any kind,” explained Michele Sagarino, president of Cross Catholic Outreach, the respected relief and development ministry behind the Box of Joy program. “This year, as Christmas approaches, thousands of children

will be wishing for just one gift, but most will expect to be disappointed. They have lived in poverty their whole lives, so they’re used to having the joys of childhood denied them. We want to restore their hope this year by blessing them with a Box of Joy.” The Box of Joy program mobilizes Catholics in the U.S. to pack small Christmas gifts that are then shipped to parishes, Catholic schools and other ministries in developing countries where they are distributed to children living in

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the poorest communities.

“Box of Joy is a wonderful way for Catholics in the U.S. to involve their children, schools, parishes or groups in a hands-on outreach that benefits the poor. When they pack our special shoeboxes with toys and practical gifts like clothing, hygiene items and school supplies, they help the Church overseas become a real source of joy in the communities they serve,” Sagarino said. “If your readers want to learn more, they can visit boxofjoy.org for all of the details.”

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RIGHT PAGE

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

Catholic Leader Laments the Impact of Guatemala’s Hunger Crisis: “You Can See the Pain in Their Eyes”

Most of Santa Rosa’s poorest families rely on subsistence farming to survive, and when the weather or pests damage their crops, they have no savings to get through the hard times. That is when the struggle with daily hunger becomes unbearable.

In the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima, Guatemala, most poor families rely on farming for survival, and because their remote villages are isolated, many are dependent on the success of their local harvest. This becomes a dangerous gamble in years when nature does not cooperate.

“This suffering must end.”

Jim Cavnar, Cross Catholic Outreach

“When harvests are poor, household incomes can also dry up, leading to a critical shortage of food,” explained Jim Cavnar, CEO of Cross Catholic Outreach, a respected Catholic charity working in the region. “In no time, children become hungry and start missing more meals, and the signs of malnutrition start to appear. It’s tragic, and you can see the pain in their eyes.” [See related story above.]

When Cavnar encountered this crisis on a visit to the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima in Guatemala, it immediately reminded him of a passage in Chapter 16 of the Gospel of Luke, he said.

“There, in Luke, Jesus tells a parable about a poor man living on the doorstep of a man with plenty.

The poor man’s needs are ignored, though he longs for something

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

simple — just the scraps from the rich man’s table. When both die, the affluent man is rebuked for turning away from a situation he could easily have helped solve.

Simply put, he ignores a neighbor in need. I believe we are faced with a modern-day example of that parable today in Guatemala, a country so close to our own.”

Statistics certainly back up Cavnar’s view. Guatemala — less than a three-hour flight from Houston or Miami — has the highest levels of extreme hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the fourth-highest level in the world. With their limited access to employment and educational opportunities, many of the country’s remote indigenous people have begun feeling hopeless. Some have resigned themselves to eating one small meal of tortillas each day, and they are in anguish seeing their children languishing on the brink of starvation as a result.

Thankfully, in the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima, Catholic leaders are working with Cross Catholic Outreach to end extreme hunger through an ambitious plan that will also set local families on the path to long-term health through improved nutrition. In partnership with Cross Catholic Outreach, large shipments of food will be secured and distributed to those who need help most.

“My team is committed to providing the food these desperate families need, and I’m confident

Catholics throughout the U.S. will join our cause by helping to sponsor those shipments,” Cavnar said. “This suffering must end.”

Cross Catholic Outreach’s plan is simple but very cost-effective because it relies on obtaining and delivering nutritionally formulated meal packets known as Vitafood. This fortified rice product is specifically designed to improve the health of malnourished children, and is distributed to the parishes.

In the parishes, the food is distributed by the parish priest and local community leaders, who determine which families have the greatest need in the community. A single container of Vitafood can make a big impact, according to Cavnar.

“Vitafood is extremely flexible.

It is rice- or lentil-based, and it comes in several different varieties. It can be prepared straight from the package or flavored with additional ingredients to suit local tastes,” he explained. Providing the optimal balance of vitamins,

minerals, protein, fiber, fat and carbohydrates that a child’s hungry body needs. What’s more, because these Vitafood meals are donated to us, we only need to cover shipping costs to deliver the food to our partner in Guatemala. That means every dollar donated to this project can put 14 nutritious meals in the hands of a family in need.”

Cavnar’s current goal, is to secure the support of American Catholics to fund the effort.

“The diocese is eager for the help, and we have the logistics settled. All we need now is the support of compassionate Catholics willing to help a neighbor in need,” Cavnar said. “And once we have fully addressed the hunger issues in Santa Rosa, more can be done to ensure the long-term prosperity of these people. We have big plans for Santa Rosa, and I believe the world will be stunned by the transformation of that area when our work is done. Our expectation is that thousands of lives will be changed.”

How to Help

To fund Cross Catholic Outreach’s effort to help the poor worldwide, use the postage-paid brochure inserted in this newspaper or mail your gift to Cross Catholic Outreach, Dept. AC02577, PO Box 97168, Washington, DC 20090-7168. The brochure also includes instructions on becoming a Mission Partner and making a regular monthly donation to this cause.

If you identify an aid project, 100% of the donation will be restricted to be used for that specific project. However, if more is raised for the project than needed, funds will be redirected to other urgent needs in the ministry.

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The Eucharist impels us to mission St. Michael the Archangel Parish hosts advent retreat led by USCCB's Yohan Garcia

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he Glenmary Home Missioners are hosting an advent retreat day on Saturday, Dec. 2, that is open to everyone in the Diocese of Knoxville, either in person or via livestream.

The retreat, titled “The Eucharist and Missionary Discipleship,” will take place at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Erwin from 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

The day will be led by Yohan Garcia, who serves as the Catholic social teaching education manager at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Mr. Garcia will share his story and how the Eucharist impels each Catholic to be missionary disciples.

“Yohan Garcia is one of a generation of national, young lay leaders who God is raising up right now, many of whom are bilingual Hispanics like Yohan,” said Polly Duncan Collum, the director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation at Glenmary.

“Yohan has a profound love for Jesus and the Church, and he is on fire for the Church’s social mission. He has a brilliant mind, a humble, prayerful spirit, and an amazing personal story of faith,” Ms. Collum said.

Ms. Collum, who is organizing the retreat for Glenmary, said she knew she wanted to collaborate with Mr. Garcia on the event after reading an article he wrote for the National Eucharistic Revival blog.

In the article, “This Is My Body: A Reflection on My Migrant Journey and the Eucharist,” Mr. Garcia details his decision to emigrate from his hometown of Puebla, Mexico, at the age of 16 in search of a better life.

Jesus and the Eucharist remained a source of strength for him as he journeyed hundreds of miles and, at one moment, found his life threatened at gunpoint.

“While these experiences of our human journey make us vulnerable,” Mr. Garcia wrote, “Christ lifts our vulnerability through His sacrifice on the cross. At the Eucharist, our burdens and preoccupations are transformed into feelings of hope and gratitude.”

Mr. Garcia’s first talk at the retreat will center on his migrant journey and the unifying power of the Eucharist. The talk will be given in English and Spanish. After the first talk, the group will break for lunch.

COURTESY OF THE U.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS

By Theresa Nguyen-Gillen

Yohan Garcia Following lunch, the retreat will split into English- and Spanish-speaking sessions. Mr. Garcia will give his second talk, “The Eucharist Prepares Us for Mission,” in Spanish while English speakers can participate in adoration, reconciliation, a rosary walk, outdoor Stations of the Cross, or fellowship.

Then the Spanish-speaking group will have those same opportunities while Mr. Garcia gives the second talk in English.

“My hope is that participants can experience the Eucharist as a community,” Mr. Garcia said. “When they go to Mass, that they will see the Liturgy of the Word differently and relate the parts of the Mass to their personal lives.”

The retreat will end with the celebration of the Eucharist—the Saturday vigil Mass.

The retreat is being held as part of Glenmary’s celebration of the National Eucharistic Revival movement.

Glenmary is a society of Catholic priests, brothers, and lay missioners who serve primarily in Appalachia and the Deep South.

In the Diocese of Knoxville, Glenmary currently serves at three mission parishes: in Erwin at St. Michael the Archangel Parish; in Maynardville at St. Teresa of Kolkata Parish; and in Rutledge at St. John Paul II Catholic Mission.

The Glenmary order also manages a volunteer program at Joppa Mountain in Grainger County.

The mission of the society to establish Catholic communities in rural areas that commonly do not have easy access to the Eucharist goes hand in hand with the mission of the National Eucharistic Revival.

Father William Howard Bishop, a Baltimore parish priest and founder of Glenmary, said in 1917: “One who has found a vast treasure, which was meant for the whole human race to enjoy, will not be excused for failing to try to bring his fellow men to a knowledge of it.

We have found such a treasure, for we have drunk of the Water of Life, we have eaten of the Bread of Angels. We have Christ with us every day. Should we hesitate to show the world where He is to be found?”

Glenmary Home Missioners was founded in 1939 to serve what Father Bishop termed “No Priest Land, USA.” At that time, he noted that more than one-third of the counties of the United States, mostly in Appalachia and the South, had no resident priest.

Father Bishop foresaw that this area—then as populous as Canada, as large as Mexico and covering one-fourth of the United States—could be lost to the Church unless this vast priest-less “home mission” area was recognized by and designated a specific ministry of the Church.

Glenmary operates missions and ministries in the dioceses of Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Knoxville, Lexington, Nashville, Raleigh, and Savannah, Ga. The mission of bringing the Eucharist to the peripheries is not limited to those who work professionally in Catholic social teaching and social justice, such as Mr. Garcia and Ms. Collum.

“All of us as children of God are called to be missionary disciples,” Mr. Garcia said.

The retreat on “The Eucharist and Missionary Discipleship” is free and open to all. Both talks will be livestreamed for those who cannot attend in person.

Visit glenmary.org/revival to RSVP for lunch, view livestream information, and learn more about the Eucharistic Revival in the Glenmary mission areas. ■ Theresa Nguyen-Gillen is an associate editor of the Glenmary Challenge, which is the quarterly magazine that serves the Glenmary Home Missioners.

FOCUS marks 25 years of student evangelization

By Kiki Hayden OSV News

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OCUS’ mission statement is simple: It’s to know Christ Jesus and fulfill the great commission,” said Curtis Martin, founder of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students.

Based in Denver, FOCUS lives out that mission in that order: For its campus missionaries, “divine intimacy” and the pursuit of holiness come first, before their evangelization efforts, Mr. Martin said.

FOCUS has grown greatly in the 25 years since its launch in 1998.

Now with about 981 missionaries, the student-focused missionary outreach serves 193 college and university campuses in the United States, nine international campuses, nine digital campuses, and 23 parishes. Most U.S. states have multiple university campuses served by FOCUS missionaries.

In Tennessee, FOCUS missionaries are located at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Chattanooga and at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

On its website, the organization underscores its vision, which it calls its “main thing”: “Inviting college students into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church, inspiring and equipping them for a lifetime of Christ-centered evangelization, discipleship, and friendship in which they lead others to do the same.”

Knowing Jesus wasn’t always central for Mr. Martin or his wife, Michaelann Martin. By their late teens, both had rejected their Catholic faith. However, through evangelical Christian Bible studies in college, each rediscovered Christ and recommitted to Catholicism.

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With a burgeoning love for Scripture, in 1988 Mrs. Martin joined a young adult Bible study that Mr. Martin started with about 65 to 70 people in his parents’ living room.

She and Mr. Martin “became friends almost instantly,” Mrs. Martin recalled. The evening they met, they talked about “how Our Lady brought us back to Jesus in the Eucharist.”

The following November, Mr. and Mrs. Martin were married.

They felt called to help others experience Scripture as they had in college, but in a Catholic context.

While Mrs. Martin was pregnant with their first son, the Martins met Scott Hahn, a former Presbyterian minister who had recently converted to Catholicism. After hearing about their dream to minister to college students through Catholic Bible studies, Mr. Hahn invited Mr. Martin to study with him at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio.

In February 1998, Mr. Martin traveled to Benedictine College in Kansas to lead a retreat with his friend, Benedictine professor Edward Sri. Believing the pair were called to start something larger than that single retreat, Mr. Sri worked that semester with students as a part-time leader for FOCUS. That summer, Mr. Martin and Mr. Sri trained two part-time missionaries who were rising seniors at Benedictine as well as two full-time missionaries who would serve with Mr. Martin at the University of Northern Colorado. Ever since, FOCUS has been sending missionaries to college campuses to be disciples among students.

By strategically focusing on

How does the Eucharist call us to live Matthew 25?

An Advent Retreat with Yohan Garcia

The Eucharist and Missionary Discipleship Saturday, December 2 10:30 am — 5 pm

St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church 657 N. Mohawk Drive | Erwin, Tennessee RSVP for lunch or view livestream details at glenmary.org/revival

Talks (English & Spanish) • Eucharistic Adoration • Reconciliation Lunch • Fellowship • Saturday Vigil Mass Yohan Garcia is the Catholic Social Teaching Education Manager at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He emigrated to the U.S. at age 16 from his hometown of Puebla, Mexico.

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Celebrating FOCUS Curtis Martin is the president and founder of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, or FOCUS. growth is central for all FOCUS team members, who have access to spiritual direction.

FOCUS helps each missionary fundraise their salary, while FOCUS subsidizes with benefits. “We walk with our people,” Mr. Martin said.

FOCUS hosts annual SEEK conferences for university students, with this year’s event drawing nearly 19,000 attendees to St. Louis in January to learn about evangelization and other faith-related topics.

Like many of FOCUS’ endeavors, SEEK conferences provide opportunities to encounter Christ through Mass and eucharistic adoration.

Online, FOCUS provides free formation materials, such as Bible study guides and YouTube videos on topics ranging from saints to dating, at its website focusequip.org.

Trevor Jin, a FOCUS formation specialist whose work emphasizes formational media, described FOCUS’ digital outreach as “providing air support to that in-person mission.”

Mr. Jin, 30, grew up Catholic in St.

Louis. But he knew more “about” Jesus than he knew the Lord’s love for him, he said. After being invited to a FOCUS Bible study while attending The University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, Mr. Jin quickly discovered a desire to spread the Good News about Jesus’ love.

After two years as a missionary, Mr. Jin moved to Denver to join the national team to support missionaries. He’s stayed with FOCUS in part because of the atmosphere of prayer in the Denver FOCUS support center, where there is easy access to priests and chaplains, confessions, spiritual direction, and daily Mass.

“We all pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet every day together, there’s a rosary said every day here, there’s a culture of prayer here," Mr. Jin said. Meanwhile, “Professional development is very important here for … being more effective in spreading the kingdom.”

Like Mr. Jin, Amy Chang was extremely successful at what she studied, but found her passion in

lous,” the deacon said, but none has risen to the level of a miracle—the proof needed for beatification and then canonization.

Father Ryan joins a number of other Americans, including Blessed Michael McGivney, Dorothy Day, Augustus Tolton, and the Shreveport Martyrs, whose causes for canonization are being considered by Rome. ■ Aleteia is an online publication distributed in six languages, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, and Slovenian, that offers a Christian vision of the world by providing general and religious content that is free from ideological influences. The Aleteia site reaches more than 13 million unique visitors a month. For more information, go to aleteia.org.

Study: chemical abortions up 72 percent since Dobbs

By Kate Scanlon OSV News

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he number of legal abortions provided by virtual-only clinics via abortion pill prescriptions spiked 72 percent in the year following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, according to a report by #WeCount, a research project by the Society of Family Planning, a group that supports legal abortion.

The study is notable because it is the first fullyear census of U.S. abortion providers following the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that sheds light on how they view trends in their industry.

The survey only considered data from licensed clinics within the health-care system, researchers said, and does not account for what may be illegal procedures, such as abortion pills ordered from overseas.

The increase in abortions at virtual-only clinics, which use telemedicine to prescribe an abortion-inducing drug regimen to patients, comports with some previous studies showing similar results post-Dobbs. Even prior to that decision, data from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that more than half of the abortions performed in the United States were chemical or medical, rather than surgical.

The #WeCount report, which examined the period from April 2022 to June 2023, found that

Mission accomplished Father David Carter and Deacon Gaspar DeGaetano are joined by, from left, basilica parishioner Corinne Henderson, Father Matthew Donahue, and Dr. Emanuele Spedicato.

Join Fr. Michael Cummins for this amazing retreat

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spreading the Gospel, eventually choosing to work for FOCUS as a missionary. Seeing FOCUS’ growth gives Ms. Chang, 28, hope for the future.

FOCUS leaders invited Ms. Chang to apply to become a missionary after college. Instead, she worked for a Fortune 500 company but ultimately felt lonely and unfulfilled.

She recalled how different things felt when she had been involved with FOCUS during college.

Ms. Chang called FOCUS and described her struggles. The FOCUS hiring manager said the organization’s offer wasn't about FOCUS needing a certain number of missionaries, but rather “we gave you an offer because we believed in you, and we still believe in you.” She accepted.

To celebrate FOCUS’ 25th anniversary, all missionaries were invited to the same summer training at the University of NebraskaLincoln’s campus. Thinking about all the hundreds of missionaries together “gives me goosebumps,” Ms. Chang said.

The 25th anniversary also gives Ms. Chang “great hope and great faith that there are a lot of … young people who are answering the call to the new evangelization, and just how many more souls are being brought along.”

Within the next 15 years, FOCUS hopes to reach half of U.S. college campuses and 5 percent of U.S. parishes, Mr. Martin said.

While FOCUS boasts impressive numbers, such as 1,206 priestly and religious vocations inspired by FOCUS and more than 70,000 missionary and student alumni, Mr. Martin said FOCUS has its eyes on each individual.

“The value of a single soul is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,” he said. ■

COURTESY OF ALETEIA

Sainthood continued from page A9 Father Ryan. Archbishop Kurtz, who served as Bishop of Knoxville from 1999 to 2007, placed his wax seal on bundles of papers that would be taken to the Vatican.

That day, as well, the basilica presented a documentary about the hoped-for saint, “Father Ryan: A Higher Call,” directed by Veronica DiPippo and produced

by Marc Aramian. The film crew agreed to make it at cost.

For Deacon DeGaetano, the next step is to spread knowledge of the cause and “get people to pray for Father Ryan’s intercession” for a miracle. There have already been several interesting “favors” reported after people prayed to Father Ryan.

“There have been a couple of cases that bordered on the miracu-

OSV NEWS PHOTO/TERRY WYATT, COURTESY OF FOCUS

FOCUS continued from page A12 American universities, FOCUS has an opportunity to connect with and evangelize rising leaders from all over the world, Mr. Martin said.

When Mr. Martin had the opportunity to share his ideas that year with St. John Paul II, the pope responded: “Be soldiers.” This meeting was the first of several encounters with popes and influential Catholic leaders—encounters that the Martins believed confirmed they were doing God’s will, they told OSV News.

FOCUS sends full-time missionaries to campuses and parishes to support local Catholic volunteers.

“You can be impacted by a webpage or some great materials, but the webpage and materials can’t love you, whereas our missionaries can,” Mr. Martin said.

Those missionaries receive training based on St. John Paul’s 1992 apostolic exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis (“I Will Give You Shepherds”), which was written for the formation of priests. FOCUS’ two-year training emphasizes the same pillars of formation as seminarian formation, he said.

An ideal missionary candidate is someone who is faithful to the Church, eager to learn and who is “contagious,” or lives their life in a way that attracts others, said Mr. Martin, who served under Pope Benedict XVI as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization and whom Pope Francis named in April to the Dicastery for Evangelization.

FOCUS missionaries spend their days leading Bible studies, praying together, attending Mass, and getting to know the students and others around them, offering deep friendships and delving into important topics, especially what it means to follow Jesus. Personal spiritual

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NOVEMBER 5, 2023 n A13

‘The truth has no exceptions’ Challenges to pro-life efforts only ramped up following Supreme Court Dobbs decision The East Tennessee Catholic

THE EAST TENNESSEE CATHOLIC

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he truth has no exceptions.

This keynote message for the annual banquet of Tennessee Right to Life’s Knox County chapter on Oct. 5 reverberated through Bridgewater Place event center in Knoxville as East Tennessee pro-life supporters were informed that their efforts to protect the sanctity of life did not end on June 24, 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with the landmark Dobbs decision.

Their fight was just beginning a new phase.

Dr. David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute and an associate scholar with the Charlotte Lozier Institute, shared his breakthrough research on abortion and its effects on women. Dr. Reardon is recognized as a leading expert on the aftereffects of pregnancy loss on women. His studies have been published in the British Medical Journal and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The Elliot Institute is engaged in research and education related to the effects of eugenics, abortion, population control, and sexual attitudes and practices on individuals and society. The Charlotte Lozier Institute advises the pro-life movement with scientific, statistical, and medical research through the contributions of more than 70 associate scholars.

Before Dr. Reardon shared his research, Tennessee Right to Life

Sharing the data Dr. David Reardon shares his research into the impact abortions have on women with more than 350 East Tennessee pro-life supporters who attended the Tennessee Right to Life banquet on Oct. 5. president Stacy Dunn shared an impassioned message of how the pro-life movement in Tennessee is facing increased threats, not only from pro-abortion activists but also from one-time political allies who are trying to weaken Tennessee’s Human Life Protection law, which is considered the strongest pro-life law in the country.

Mrs. Dunn, who is a member of Holy Ghost Parish in Knoxville, also has served as the executive director of TRL’s Knox County chapter.

“At last year’s banquet, we were right where we wanted to be. Celebrating the end of Roe and looking forward to making abortion unthinkable. We were living the

dream,” Mrs. Dunn said. “But that dream didn’t last long. Before we could even say thanks be to God appropriately, we started hearing about legislators who were making plans to change the law. Some of them had formerly been our allies who voted for the law in 2019. But with Roe gone, they were changing their tune, saying that our total lifesaving law just went too far.”

“Really? After 50 years of unfettered abortion, how can we go too far?” Mrs. Dunn asked. “How can a law that protects the right to life of all unborn children go too far?

How can a law that led to abortion facilities closing their doors, packing their bags, and leaving go too

to try to control the situation so my children wouldn’t do it. That’s not healthy. I’m making sure my children didn’t do what I did, which of course I have no control over that.”

“If I have that intention in my being a mother, then I lose sight of who are my children and what do they need to grow and be the person that God called them to be,” she continued. “My mothering definitely wasn’t as good. … I didn’t follow their heart because I was too wounded, and I know when you are so wounded and not healed, you cannot do the job God called you to do as well at all.”

After more than 20 years of marriage, Mrs. Souder’s husband suggested that she needed postabortive counseling.

“It was one of those times where the truth hit me like cold water in the face, and I knew he was right,” she shared.

At the same time, a friend introduced her to the Sisters of Life, a religious order that is committed to the protection of human life and offers help to women who have had an abortion.

“I called them, and the first conversation—oh my gosh, I just sobbed and sobbed and sobbed,” she said. “They invited me up for a day of prayer and healing, and I ended up staying in their convent for a couple of nights because I came from out of town. … The one day of this retreat there was a talk in the morning, and it was all in front of the Blessed Sacrament. And I’m listening to this talk, and it kind of struck me, it all brought back to me my pain, and I just sat there in front of the Divine Mercy picture and just cried and cried and cried.”

While at the retreat, Mrs. Souder had an encounter with a priest who commended her courage in coming there.

“I just looked at him, and I go, ‘Oh, we who have had abortions, we deserve nothing. Please don’t say that.’ We deserve nothing, and it’s truly how I felt. And by the end of that day, I knew I deserved it. I deserve mercy and peace. But I had a chance to talk about my hate. My self-condemnation was so strong, and by the end of it, God’s mercy came through,” she cried. “Now that did not mean I forgave myself really all the way, but it was so A14 n NOVEMBER 5, 2023

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Remembering the children The National Memorial for the Unborn is a nonprofit ministry located in Chattanooga and dedicated to healing generations of pain associated with the loss of aborted children. great of a breakthrough.”

About five years ago, Mrs. Souder brought the Sisters of Life to the Diocese of Knoxville for a retreat at the Christ Prince of Peace Retreat Center.

“It’s a one-day retreat, and it’s the kind of opening up of the healing process for women, and after you go on this one day of prayer and healing, then you can go on their three-day silent retreats,” she said.

“After bringing the Sisters to our diocese, … Sandi (Davidson), myself, and [one of the Sisters] had a meeting just to kind of talk about it. … We needed to start doing followup, and it’s called Spirit and Life.

Every month we go to the Sisters of Mercy, and we have a holy hour, we eat dinner with all the Sisters, and then we break off and do kind of a Bible study. … It’s just a way to continue the healing process and invite other people to continue their healing,” she said.

Mrs. Souder, a parishioner of Our Lady of Fatima in Alcoa, said her faith life is fueled by the Eucharist and confession.

“They bring me to tears. It’s such a great gift,” she shared. “I have this place to go with my sins, and then I have this place to go to—I always think food for the journey. … He sits there, and He waits for you, and then He comes in you, and you can ask Him anything…. You can give me your love so I can love other people; You give me your yes for everything that I can think of, prudence and wisdom and knowledge, and that He will give it to you. …

How I love the Eucharist, and how I appreciate confession.”

To women who have had an abortion, Mrs. Souder has a message.

“Oh, mercy is waiting for you.

He’s waiting for you, and when you finally forgive yourself, you can finally grieve the loss of the child.

Because if you are so busy beating yourself up, hating yourself, and unforgiveness, you can’t even focus on grieving for this loss that you have,” she said.

‘Jesus is there, He’s waiting’

Lisa Campbell was 21 years old and away at college when she had her abortion.

“I was in a loving relationship, thought we were going to get married,” she said. “I was not living a good Catholic life; I was away from my faith so to speak. I would attend Mass every now and then.”

When she found out she was pregnant, the father of the baby offered to marry her, but Mrs. Campbell declined.

“I thought about that for half a second, no, no. A big part of that was fear because, oh, my gosh, then my parents would know I was having marital relations when I wasn’t married. So, that fear of disappointing my parents. … And the other part of that was well, no, I was on this trajectory to finishing my degree, getting on with my life, making money, making … the dream, the American dream, come true, and this was a problem that needed to be solved.”

A friend drove her to an abor-

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far? How can a law that is protecting 1,000 babies every month go too far?”

Mrs. Dunn was critical of lawmakers who have supported Tennessee’s pro-life stance but then earlier this year called for exceptions to state law that allows the abortion of babies who may have challenges at birth such as Down Syndrome, or who may be sick at birth and won’t live long, or whose fathers are “horrible criminals,” such as in the case of rape.

“Those children they would rather euthanize,” Mrs. Dunn said, referring to one-time pro-life lawmakers. “But we know that the truth has no exceptions. True prolife legislators still want to protect all unborn children. They know that we like our law. We like that we are saving 1,000 children every month. We want to save all 1,000, not only 900, not only 975, but all 1,000 with no exceptions. They are all worth it.”

Mrs. Dunn noted that when the 2023 legislative session began last January, it was apparent at the outset that defending the Human Life Protection Act was going to be a battle. She said pro-abortion medical associations and large hospitals joined forces and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in an attempt to weaken the law through exceptions.

And she pointed out that leaders in the state House of Representatives “tried their best to squash Pro-life continued on page A21

tion clinic after she saw a billboard advertising free pregnancy tests.

After her test turned up positive, the clinic offered to schedule Mrs. Campbell’s abortion.

“So, [I] went there. It was weird.

The whole thing was weird,” she said. “So, you walk into the clinic, and you get the gown on and go into a waiting room, and there’s many other girls in there just sitting. No one talked. And I glanced around, and there was another girl in there that I recognized from school, from like volleyball intramurals. And I thought, oh, my gosh, and our eyes met, but we didn’t say a word to each other.”

“So, I went in, they called me back, I was given anesthesia, which many women aren’t,” Mrs. Campbell continued. “I believe that I was probably eight or nine weeks along, at least that’s what I remember them telling me. And then I woke up in recovery, they had seated you in these lounge chairs, for lack of a better term, and brought me two little cookies and a little thing of juice. I clearly remember the moment I was conscious, just bawling my eyes out. I will never forget that.

And the nurse there said, ‘It’s OK honey.’ Oh no, it was not.”

Because of her recovery from the abortion that semester, Mrs. Campbell had to drop out of a physical education class.

“Then the next semester I remember calling home to my mom crying, ‘I can’t make it here.’ I wasn’t doing well in school, and I wanted to come home. … So, I went back home, lived at home, enrolled in a local college, and finished my degree. It took me a little bit longer.

And in the meantime, I guess it was that Christmas maybe … [my boyfriend and I] got engaged, and I thought we were going to get married. And then that next summer we broke up because it just dissolved,” Mrs. Campbell recalled.

For years, Mrs. Campbell submerged her abortion history. She went to graduate school, married, and then became pregnant again.

“I was like, oh, my gosh I need to teach my child the faith; I need to get back into my faith. So, I hadn’t been to confession, probably since I was 13 years old, and looking back that was probably part of the issue, sliding away from the faith,” she Healing continued on page A15 TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

‘God’s gentle mercy’

Lisa Morris was engaged to be married when she had her abortion.

“My mom had just committed suicide in September of ’79, and we were reeling from that,” Mrs. Morris said. “I got engaged. The person I had been dating was like, ‘Life is too short, what am I waiting for?’ So, we got engaged right then, found out I was pregnant in February of ’80. We had this big wedding planned for May, and I thought, I can’t do this to my dad after all he’s been through.”

At the time, sonograms were not widely used, TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

COURTESY OF CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF EAST TENNESSEE

Healing continued from page A14 said.

“I remember walking into confession. I was very nervous about that whole thing, but I knew I had to go. … I finally got enough courage. And it takes courage, oh, my gosh. I had no one to talk to,” she continued.

Once she entered the confessional, the priest welcomed her, which put her at ease. He suggested they go through the Ten Commandments to go over her sins.

“Then he got to the part, have you killed anyone? And I just lost it,” she said. “So, that’s when I confessed my abortion. I cried, oh, my gosh. … I think that was the start of my turning back to the Lord in the Catholic faith.”

In the fall of 2009, Mrs. Campbell attended a Rachel’s Vineyard retreat, which is a retreat weekend specifically designed for men and women affected by abortion.

“I guess I was ready. It takes a long time because there’s a lot of fear and shame and just things, obstacles that get in the way,” she noted.

“The weekend was very healing. There was a lot of group sharing, compassion shared. … Each woman’s story was different, different circumstances, but the same pain of loss and all those things—we don’t like to go through painful things, we don’t like to go through painful memories, but that’s part of the healing. You have to bring all the infection out in the open so it can be healed.”

“I think when I look back at the fruits of that retreat, I think the one thing that I would say really helped me was becoming a more peaceful person and a more peaceful mom to the three children I did have then at that point,” Mrs. Campbell continued. “Sometimes the woman who’s had abortions, even men, too, but the women who’ve had abortions, those suppressed feelings can come out in different ways, and for me it was control and anger. So, I think I was able to become a more peaceful person at home with my girls.”

After that weekend, Mrs. Davidson asked Mrs. Campbell if she would like to help out on the next Rachel’s Vineyard retreat, and Mrs. Campbell said yes.

“There’s additional healing in that as well,” Mrs. Campbell said. “I mean there is such compassion I had for these women. … One story was more heart wrenching than the next. But because I had had a degree of healing, I felt like I would want those women to feel that mercy and love and healing and all that the Lord can give if they would just open their hearts to it and forgive themselves. And I think with a lot of women, they hear in confession God’s forgiven them, that they’ve done that step, but yet they can’t forgive themselves, and that’s a hard one. We beat ourselves up a lot.”

Mrs. Campbell said that she would definitely recommend a Rachel’s Vineyard retreat to those affected by abortion.

“The fact is that Jesus is there; He’s waiting for us to just pour out His mercy on us,” she said.

“It’s during the Rachel’s Vineyard retreats we do living Scripture exercises, which are bringing the Gospel to life in a way. And it’s through that where something happens where the Lord is really present and it changes how you view yourself and the mercy of God.” For women considering having an abortion, Mrs. Campbell would urge otherwise.

“I think if I had to go back and do it over again, I didn’t get any counsel. Seek wise counsel. Don’t just go to the foxes watching the henhouse. Seek wise counsel, seek the Lord. Ask the Lord what is His desire for you. Life is a gift from God. ... There’s abuse situations, there’s drug situations, there’s all kinds, and I’ve heard a lot. But there is no situation, there is no situation where choosing abortion is good. Never. It’s evil; it’s demonic. Abortion is murder. I did not know that at the time; I had no counsel. I was solving my problem, and it created many more.

It did not solve a problem. It shuts you off from grace,” she said.

Mrs. Campbell was previously a parishioner at St. John Neumann in Farragut but now resides in Cincinnati. She says the Eucharist is what fuels her faith life.

“You’ve got to grow your relationship with Jesus, and how do you fall in love with someone?

You spend time with them. So, spending time with the Lord in adoration. I have an adoration hour once a week. How do you grow your faith life? Prayer, community, sacraments, time with the Lord. I go on an annual silent retreat every year to kind of get away from the daily concerns and foster that reconnection,” she pointed out.

Assisting mothers-to-be Sandi Davidson is the pregnancy services program leader for Catholic Charities of East Tennessee. and Mrs. Morris believed that the baby was really a “bunch of tissue and cells.”

“I was far enough along that I went in thinking that this was the right thing to do,” she said. “I went into a regular hospital, they put me under, but when I came out, I was absolutely inconsolable and just kept screaming, ‘I didn’t want to do it, I didn’t want to do it.’”

“My head went in thinking this was right, but when I came out of that recovery, and that’s still under the influence of the anesthesia, it’s like the heart, that law that’s written in your heart was screaming ‘no, no,’” Mrs. Morris added. “People still think it’s nothing, and it’s going to take care of the problem, and it doesn’t. It just creates a whole host of new problems and a heartache that goes on for a lifetime. Even though God is merciful and forgiving and is right there and weeps with us … the consequence is forever. And there’s not really a day that goes by that I don’t regret that and think about that baby. That’s why now I am so committed to helping people see the truth because I’ve been on both sides of this.”

Mrs. Morris attends the same Spirit and Life groups with Mrs. Souder and also has been involved with the organization Silent No More for around 15 years.

“At the March for Life in D.C., the Silent No More group at the very end of the march, at the Supreme Court steps, there’s a microphone, and we get up and do a one- or two-minute testimony of why we’re silent no more, meaning we’re not going to be silent about our abortion. So, I’m one of the regional coordinators for that … for East Tennessee,” she said.

Mrs. Morris, who is a parishioner at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville, also has spoken locally about her abortion, giving talks for the Knoxville Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, 40 Days for Life, and a “Freedom Ride” in Chattanooga at the Memorial for the Unborn.

“For a long, long time, nobody knew my story but me. Even my family didn’t know,” Mrs. Morris said. “One thing led to another, and that’s how I kind of got involved with Silent No More.”

In the early 2000s, somebody asked Mrs. Morris to do a silent prayer chain for an end to abortion in front of her church.

“Again, nobody knew anything about my past.

I went ahead and organized this silent prayer chain … and then after that I was asked to do some more pro-life stuff, and I remember feeling really just so uneasy because here I’m being asked to do this pro-life stuff, and yet nobody really knew that I had had an abortion, including my family. So, I remember saying to God, you know, ‘God, if you want me to be more involved in sharing my story, then I’m going to have to tell my family, and you’re going to have to make it really clear that that’s what You want me to do because otherwise I’m not going there.’ That was kind of the thought process and the prayer.

“And, as only God can do, over the next six months to a year He made it abundantly clear to be able to tell each one of my kids at that time … and was able to share with each one of them and my husband,” she continued. “I’ll never forget when I told my oldest son, who was the first one I shared it with. He said, ‘Mom, you have felt bad about this and struggled with this long enough, now go and help others.’ And that was like the big hug from heaven that I needed, through my son, to go out and really share in a more public way. So, that’s how I went to the March for Life in D.C., shared my testimony at the Supreme Court steps, and then got involved in being the coordinator for Silent No More.”

Mrs. Morris would describe her healing process as gentle.

“In God’s gentle mercy, He has been so gentle with me in that process,” she said. “As my life started to unravel after [the abortion] and just all the classic symptoms of post-abortive syndrome of addictions and failed relationships, and you know it was just one thing after another. It wasn’t until years later when I just really came to a really low point in my life, and that’s when God came in. … It wasn’t one big moment, it was just over time He gently let me see what I had done and the consequences and His merciful love.”

Mrs. Morris believes abortion is both an individual and communal sin.

“I look at what’s happening in our country, and www.di o k no x .o rg

I think until we get abortion right and make it unthinkable, the rest of our problems in this country are not going to get resolved because we can’t keep killing our children and think that we are going to be OK as a nation,” she said. “Laws are going to help, but it’s going to be one heart at a time to really truly make it unthinkable. Honestly, I can tell you, being a rule-follower, if it had been illegal at the time, I would have never considered it. And I know I’m not alone. There’s other people who have said the same thing. You know, I’m not saying it’s right, but I just left the whole thought process to somebody else thinking, ‘Oh, they figured it out; it’s legal; it must be OK.’” Mrs. Morris has never heard anyone say they regret having their baby but has heard plenty of people say they regret their abortions.

“I would just say, please, please, do not do it.

You will regret this for the rest of your life. We will help you; we will help you in whatever way.

If you can’t keep your baby, there’s somebody who would love that baby. You will regret it (abortion); it will be something that will be devastating, even though you may feel relief at first, and you may feel relief for a long time, but eventually it comes full circle. You’re never going to be the same.”

Mrs. Morris wants women to know that God’s mercy is abundant, and there are people to walk with through the journey of healing from abortion.

“The statistics now are saying that one in three women in the church pews have had an abortion,” she said. “Most of them are sitting there in silence and secrecy about it. It is time to hopefully let people get out of that, the shame of it, and be healed.”

Project Rachel

Sandi Davidson is the pregnancy services program leader for Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, and she also oversees Project Rachel, a ministry of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that is a diocesan-based network providing resources to those affected by abortion.

Catholic Charities offers a Rachel’s Vineyard weekend retreat twice a year at Christ Prince of Peace Retreat Center in Benton. The Polk County retreat is open to men and women affected by abortion, whether it’s the father or mother, sister or brother, or grandparent. One does not have to be Catholic to attend the retreat.

The retreat includes a meditation of Scripture.

“It’s a re-enactment of sorts where they can put themselves in front of Jesus, and it helps them to understand that if God can forgive them, and He does forgive them, that they can forgive themselves,” Mrs. Davidson said. “So, that’s one part of it, but in a lot of the re-enactments, too, we help them to understand that they aren’t alone, that a lot of people feel the same way that they do. And not only does God forgive them, they need to forgive themselves, but also their babies forgive them. And a lot of our women get stuck in ‘what I did,’ and they don’t go beyond the act of their abortion, and they get stuck there. So, this takes them, and we walk them step-by-step through the weekend to help them to understand that.”

The retreat also includes a memorial service for the unborn.

“We do a memorial service to let them grieve the loss of their child because usually when a baby dies, you’re allowed to bury the baby and mourn the loss of the baby. Well with abortion, you aren’t allowed to do that. You’re told that you shouldn’t do that because it’s a quick, simple procedure, and there’s nothing to it, and when that doesn’t happen, women think there’s something wrong with them. So, this gives them the opportunity to mourn the loss of their child, name their babies, and honor their babies. So, we do that, and then at the very end we have a Mass,” she said.

Mrs. Davidson says she loves the retreats because of the transformation she sees in the participants.

“They come to us on Friday, they’re anxious, they’re scared to death, they’re afraid of what they’re going to have to talk about or unfold,” she shared. “Because not only do we talk about their abortion, but we talk about the decisions that they made during their lives or things that have happened to them during their lives that led up to them making that decision. And there is a definite connection with almost everyone. So, when they come, they just are absolutely broken.

But as the weekend occurs, and we go through the different exercises, really the biggest transformation is Saturday night and then Sunday morning, that’s when you see the biggest difference.

I’ve never been on a retreat where someone did not receive healing. Everyone receives healing.

Now, it could be different degrees, but they walk away with hope, which means that’s the beginning of healing.”

For men and women dealing with grief and suffering from an abortion, Mrs. Davidson welcomes them to a Rachel’s Vineyard retreat weekend.

“Don’t spend one more second in pain because I’m here to tell you, and there’s a lot of people that are here to tell you, that there is in fact help, hope, and healing after an abortion,” she said.

Visit ccetn.org/project-rachel for more information about this ministry. ■ NOVEMBER 5, 2023 n A15

Beauty and danger Fr. Schmitz: eucharistic procession participants must overcome distractions

By Maria Wiering OSV News

Spreading the Word Priests participate in a eucharistic procession through Midtown Manhattan in New York City on Oct. 10. The procession and the Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral that preceded it attracted more than 2,000 people.

The services, which concluded with benediction at the cathedral, were affiliated with the Napa Institute's Principled Entrepreneurship Conference that took place in New York City Oct. 10-11.

Eucharist continued from page A2 to stand still. Drivers pulled over, rolling down their windows to get a better look. Pedestrians pulled out their smartphones, taking pictures and videos. Streets and sidewalks that were bustling moments before didn’t move until the procession passed.

When one block started moving again, the next one stopped, one after another. Every eye in the area was fixed on Christ and his followers.

That was the point—not to turn heads toward us, but to turn hearts toward the Lord. I lost track of how many times I saw a pedestrian pull aside someone in A16 n NOVEMBER 5, 2023

OSV NEWS PHOTOS/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ

OSV NEWS PHOTOS/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ

F

OSV NEWS PHOTOS/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ

Evangelizing Manhattan New York Auxiliary Bishop Edmund J. Whalen carries the monstrance during a eucharistic procession through Midtown Manhattan in New York City on Oct. 10. Father Mike Schmitz is leading the procession.

Sisters on the streets Members of the Sisters of Life participate in a eucharistic procession through Midtown Manhattan in New York City on Oct. 10. The procession included Mass and benediction at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

OSV NEWS PHOTOS/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ

ather Mike Schmitz has mixed feelings about public eucharistic processions, something he admits is somewhat surprising, given that he led one in downtown Manhattan on Oct. 10.

Father Schmitz said there’s both beauty and danger in taking the Eucharist to the streets.

“I’m not a massive fan of ‘let’s take what’s sacred and bring it out into the world in a way that could be massively misunderstood,’ or I’m not convinced it necessarily evangelizes the way that maybe we hope it evangelizes,” the host of the popular podcasts “The Bible in a Year” and “The Catechism in a Year” told OSV News on Sept. 15.

Despite his hesitation, he agreed to lead the eucharistic procession in New York because processions are part of the Church’s patrimony, he said, and he is open to whatever fruit the experience might bear—for him, other pilgrims, and passersby.

“There is someone who has to take the lead when it comes to changing our culture,” he said.

“This is maybe something that God is initiating.”

Father Schmitz, a popular speaker known for quick-take catechetical lessons on YouTube, is the chaplain of Newman Catholic Campus Ministry at the University of MinnesotaDuluth. In 2021, he and Bible scholar Jeff Cavins launched “The Bible in a Year (with Father Mike Schmitz),” which hit No. 1 on Apple’s podcast charts. In January, the duo launched “The Catechism in a Year (with Father Mike Schmitz)” to complement it. Both are produced by Ascension Press.

The New York procession he led was organized by the Napa Institute, which is a Californiabased Catholic think tank. It was free and open to the public, who were asked to register at napainstitute.org.

The event was part of the Napa Institute’s 2023 Principled Entrepreneurship Conference, held Oct. 10-11 at The Metropolitan Club in New York.

Prior to the procession, Father Schmitz celebrated and gave the homily at a 4:30 p.m. Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The procession returned to the cathedral for benediction.

Father Schmitz said he has found eucharistic processions to be powerful forms of worship in contexts where everyone has been prepared to pray and adore Jesus, such as during Fellowship of Catholic University Students’ (FOCUS) SEEK Conferences.

But, taking the Eucharist to a secular space means many people—even Catholics—are not expecting to see the monstrance and don’t know what it is or don’t know how to respond.

Yet, he said, that might be the point.

“Here’s the Holy of Holies taken out of the temple, yet at

Celebrating Christ Father Mike Schmitz, a popular speaker, author, and podcaster based in Duluth, Minn., elevates the Eucharist during Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City on Oct. 10. the same time many people have pointed out that maybe that’s

what was meant by the tearing of the veil in the tabernacle, in

the procession, asking them what was happening. I also lost track of how many people joined us as we went.

I saw a deliveryman get off his bicycle and start walking alongside. I saw an entire family cross themselves and join the crowd.

I even saw a guy get out of a parked car, ignoring wherever he had to be, in order to be with us.

More than an hour later, we returned to St. Patrick’s. It was even more full than when we started.

Did our walk of faith have any effect? It certainly upset some people, since we disrupted traffic and made plenty of commutes a lot longer than usual.

One commuter yelled to an New York Police Department officer, “How long is this going to take?” The officer yelled back, “It’s Jesus—we’ll wait all day if necessary.”

Many others surely shook their heads at what they think is outdated religious foolishness. And some perhaps scoffed at the Catholic Church, given all the sins of her members over the years.

Thankfully, no one was violent or hateful. Instead of aggression and anger, all we saw was curiosity and the peace that only Christ can give.

No matter their reactions, no one will ever forget what they

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the temple, from top to bottom,” he said, referring to a detail from the accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. “Not that now the world can enter the Holy of Holies, but now God’s presence can come out into the world.”

He said that people can respond to the invitation present in the Eucharist in the same way they respond to Scripture—seeing it as a mirror, a flashlight, or sandpaper. As a mirror, both can help a person see himself or herself as he or she truly is. As a flashlight, both can shed light on something that needs to be seen. And as sandpaper, both can smooth away and “rub us in a way that we have to act,” even if it’s uncomfortable, he said.

“A procession of Our Lord in the Eucharist Himself is that mirror, that flashlight, and that sandpaper that shapes us, that shines on us, and that reveals us to ourselves,” he said.

He noted that people who are participating in a procession need to try to overcome self-consciousness and enter into prayer, despite the distractions.

“As we’re walking along, journeying with the Lord, there is a big temptation to be distracted by that self-preoccupation; there is a big temptation to be distracted by ‘what are people thinking?’ (And) there’s a distraction of ‘what is my experience right now?’” Father Schmitz said, “instead of ‘this is the moment, I’m entering into this, I’ve said yes to this, and I’m part of this worship, I’m part of this procession, and God, whatever it is that you're doing here, I want to be open to that.’”

In an invitation to the procession posted to the Napa Institute’s Instagram account, Father Schmitz said the Greek word for “martyr” means “witness.”

While some people give witness to Christ through their death, all Christians are called to give witness with their lives, he said.

“We’re all called to bear witness to Christ in some way, shape, or form,” he said, noting that participating in the procession witnesses “to the true presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.” ■ saw. The Lord works in mysterious ways. He may now be working in many more hearts. That’s what happens when you encounter Christ, especially in places you don’t expect Him to be. Nobody thought they’d meet the Savior of the world during Tuesday rush hour in the middle of Manhattan. But that’s exactly where Jesus wanted to be. ■ Tim Busch is the founder of the Napa Institute, a Catholic organization based in Napa, Calif., that empowers Catholic leaders to renew the Church and transform the culture. The Napa Institute sponsored the New York City eucharistic procession.

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Vocations Awareness Week celebrated in U.S. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

T

he Catholic Church in the United States commemorated National Vocation Awareness Week Nov. 5-11.

Each year, national Catholic organizations, dioceses, schools, and local parish communities sponsor events and provide different resources to raise awareness for vocations and help those who are discerning a vocation, particularly one to ordained ministry or consecrated life.

In his message for the 60th anniversary of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis addressed the importance and beauty of vocations.

“Our common vocation to give ourselves in love develops and finds concrete expression in the life of lay men and women, devoted to raising a family as a small domestic church and working as the leaven of the Gospel to renew the different sectors of society; in the testimony of consecrated women and men who are completely committed to God for the sake of their brothers and sisters as a prophetic sign of the kingdom of God; in ordained ministers—deacons, priests, and bishops—placed at the service of preaching,

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

prayer, and fostering the communion of the holy people of God,” the Holy Father said to mark the occasion.

Bishop Earl A. Boyea of the Diocese of Lansing, Mich., who serves as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, expressed his gratitude for holy families, ordained ministers, and consecrated men and women.

“During this week, the Church gives thanks to God for the faithful example of husbands and wives and joyful witness of ordained ministers and consecrated per-

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sons. We pray that many more men and women will be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit in their hearts as they discern the mission God has for them,” Bishop Boyea said.

Bishop Austin A. Vetter of Helena, Mont., a member of the USCCB Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations and episcopal liaison to the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors, National Religious Vocation Conference, and Serra International, emphasized that National Vocation Awareness Week offered us a special opportunity to “redouble our efforts of prayer that young people would be able to hear the voice—the quiet, gentle voice many times— of Jesus inviting them into a vocation as a priest or religious.”

Beginning in 1976, the U.S. bishops designated the 28th Sunday of the year as an opportunity for the Catholic Church in the United States to renew its prayerful support for those discerning an ecclesial vocation.

In 2014, the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations elected to move the week to the first week of November to better engage Catholic educational institutions in the efforts to raise awareness for vocations. ■

NOVEMBER 5, 2023 n A17

Faithful Departed Linda Marie Buzzeo Best

on Aug. 29, 1958, to the late Junior and Marion Mahoney. Mr. Mahoney was an avid outdoorsman and particularly enjoyed riding his ATV and going “off road.” He enjoyed fishing, playing softball, and “full contact” volleyball with the family. And he was an expert “rock thrower.”

Mr. Mahoney served his Church as a maintenance supervisor for more than 30 years at the Basilica of Sts. Peter Mr. Mahoney and Paul, and he was a member of Sts. Peter and Paul his entire life.

Mr. Mahoney was a beautiful blessing to his family and all that knew him.

Left behind to cherish Mr. Mahoney’s memory are his brothers and sisters and their spouses, Pam (Robin) Rudd, Becky (Larry) Elam, Emilie (Squeek) Cavin, Chris (Patti) Mahoney, Pat (Karen) Mahoney, Mike (Toni Goodman) Mahoney, and Mark (Teresa) Mahoney; several nieces and nephews; many great-nieces and great-nephews; and many special friends.

Mr. Mahoney was laid to rest with his parents in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chattanooga. Serving as pallbearers were his brothers and nephews Nick Whitfield and Dylan Mahoney. The family gave special thanks to his nephew, Lance Elam, who took such good care of him.

Donations in Mr. Mahoney’s memory can be made to the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul or to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

Linda Marie Buzzeo Best of Lenoir City passed away peacefully at home after a brief illness. She was 73.

Dr. Best died Sept. 10 in the presence of her loving husband, daughter, and son. She was a highly accomplished and beloved woman of letters and faith. She was professor emerita and chair of the English department at Kean University and the Dr. Best first woman to serve as president of the parish pastoral council at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City.

Dr. Best also was a national award-winning author of eight books, highly regarded international authority on writing, volunteer instructor for local adult learning programs, and committed community-service organizational leader.

She is preceded in death by her father, Antonio “Tony” Buzzeo, the subject of her book “Antonio’s Story: Coming of Age on the Battlefields of WWII,” her mother, Helena “Lena” Carella Buzzeo of Stamford, Conn., and her sister, Louise Osborne of Largo, Fla. She is survived by her husband of 51 years, Laurence Best; their daughter, Barbara BestSerpas of Cambridge, Mass.; and their son, Michael Best of Farragut; sisters Rosemarie Miller of Chester, N.J., and Deborah Pond of Norwalk, Conn.; brother Anthony Buzzeo Jr. of Bears, N.Y.; granddaughter Elena Serpas of New Haven, Conn.; grandsons Vincent and Jackson Best of Farragut; and numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, friends, and former students.

A funeral Mass was held at St. Thomas the Apostle on Oct. 20, and inurnment was in the St. Thomas columbarium.

June Rose Ulewicz

John Paul Mahoney A funeral Mass for John Paul Mahoney was held on Sept. 2 at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, where Mr. Mahoney worked for more than 30 years. He died on Aug. 27 at the age of 64.

Father David Carter, rector of the basilica, served as the Mass celebrant.

Mr. Mahoney was born in Dunlap, Tenn.,

June Rose Ulewicz, age 78, passed away Sept.

24 at her home after a long struggle with ALS. Mrs. Ulewicz passed peacefully with her son, Jonathan, her caregivers, and her dog, Remy, by her side.

She was a member of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City.

Mrs. Ulewicz was born in Carroll, Iowa, went to school in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and attended college in Warrensburg, Mo., where she met the love of her life, Bill. They were married for 53 years.

Mrs. Ulewicz was active in the Boy Scouts of America with her three sons. She was also

involved in helping with their school projects, school parties, and field trips and was so helpful to the teachers.

Mrs. Ulewicz never missed an opportunity to make new friends good friends and then lifelong friends. It was her gift. She blessed the lives of each one, and was blessed by them.

Before ALS became her journey, she loved to do yoga and she walked Remy three to five miles a day. The highlight of her day as Mrs. Ulewicz her disease progressed was to watch Remy retrieve Nerf balls midair.

People would stop in their cars to watch Remi perform. It always made her so happy.

Mrs. Ulewicz loved her church and loved God and was a faithful servant all of her years. She was devoted to her family and her friends, and she was loved by many.

She was preceded in death by her husband, William F. Ulewicz, and her parents.

She is survived by her sons, Chris ( Jane) Ulewicz, Nathan Ulewicz, and Jonathan Ulewicz; grandchildren, Lauren, Charlotte, Brody, Bradyn and Blake; and one great-grandchild; sister, Jeanie Gerken; sisters-in-law, Carol Bubb and Judy McElhiney; several nieces and nephews; and many lifelong friends.

A funeral Mass for Mrs. Ulewicz was held on Sept. 28 at St. Thomas the Apostle. Inurnment followed the funeral Mass.

Donations in memory of Mrs. Ulewicz can be made to the ALS Association, als.org, for finding a cure for this disease.

Joyce Erdman Patten Joyce Erdman Patten of Knoxville, affectionately known as Mame to all, passed away on Sept. 7. She was 88.

Mrs. Patten, formerly of Charlotte, N.C., grew up in Cincinnati and was a graduate of St. Ursula Academy. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Mrs. Patten was preceded in death by her husband of 51 years, Thomas (Spike) Patten, son Patrick Patten, and son-in-law Wade Otey. She is survived by daughters Peggy Otey, Pamela Deaths continued on page A19

The Assurance of Peace, Quiet Reflection, & Prayer

The Columbarium

For more information on how to reserve, please contact Scott Barron: sbarron@shcknox.org A18 n NOVEMBER 5, 2023

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

Faithful Departed Deaths continued from page A18

Patten, Polly Proctor and husband Parker, Joy Loughlin and husband K.C., and daughter-in-law Paula Patten.

Mrs. Patten was beloved by her 10 grandchildren, Page Patten, Tess Bridell, Leigh Otey Faha and husband Chris, Tommy Otey and wife Zoe, Parker, Patrick and Paul Proctor, Matthew, Mitchell, and Meredith Krebs; and four great-grandchildren, Ava Mrs. Patten and Charlotte Bridell, Wade Faha, and Kelly Otey.

Mrs. Patten took great pride in being the mother of her “original five” and loved them beyond measure. However, it was her grandchildren and great-grandchildren who filled her later years with an abundance of love and joy.

A memorial Mass was held on Oct. 14 at St. John Neumann Church in Farragut.

The family requests that donations in Mrs. Patten’s memory be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, alz.org, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Floor 17, Chicago, IL 60601.

Kenneth J. Aken

Dave A. Shivinsky Dave A. Shivinsky, age 75, of Powell, passed away on Oct. 9.

Mr. Shivinsky, formerly of Cleveland, Ohio, was the beloved husband of Mary Lou (Green) Shivinsky; dear father of David Shivinsky (Tara) of Knoxville; dearest grandfather of Elise and Cecilia Shivinsky; beloved son of the late Anne and Dominic Shivinsky; sonin-law of the late Virginia and Joseph Green; dear brother of Barbara Wilson (Joe); loving brother-in-law, uncle, great-uncle, cousin, and friend to many.

A loving thank you goes to a special friend,

Susan Puckett, who helped care for Mr. Shivinsky.

A funeral Mass for Mr. Shivinsky was celebrated on Oct. 17 at Holy Ghost Church in Knoxville, with Father Bill McNeeley serving as the celebrant.

Donations in Mr. ShivinMr. Shivinsky sky’s memory may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the Humane Society of East Tennessee.

Pete Zurcher Pete Zurcher, age 85, of Sevierville, formerly of South Knoxville, passed away on Sept. 25, his 67th wedding anniversary, with his wife, Mary Jo, by his side.

Mr. Zurcher, a veteran of the U.S. Army who served with the Air National Guard, retired as vice president of Tennessee Armature and Electric, with over 40 years of service.

Mr. Zurcher was a member of Holy Family Parish Mr. Zurcher in Seymour. After retirement, he enjoyed lake life and doting on his wife, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Mr. Zurcher was preceded in death by his parents, Ernest and Millie Zurcher; stepmother, Frida Zurcher; brother, Nick Zurcher; and sister-in-law, Jerri Zurcher. Survivors include his loving wife of 67 years, Mary Jo Zurcher; sons, Chris (Sally) and Kevin (Victoria); grandsons, Scott (Stephanie) and Chad (Ara); granddaughter, Sydney Zurcher; greatgrandchildren, Lakely, Lincoln, and Warren; sister, Susan (Richard) Cowan; sister-in-law, Kay Zurcher; and several nieces and nephews.

Family and friends met Oct. 2 at Calvary Cemetery in Knoxville for a graveside service, with Father Gilbert Diaz presiding. Memorials in Mr. Zurcher’s name can be made to Holy Family Church, 307 Black Oak Ridge Road, Seymour, TN 37865. ■

PAM RHOADES (2)

Kenneth Joseph Aken, born June 13, 1938, died peacefully at home in Knoxville on Sept.

24 surrounded by family.

Mr. Aken is preceded in death by his mother, Anastasia; father, Kenneth Frederick; sister, Debbie Eggleston; brother-in-law, Daniel Eggleston; sister, Mary Leatha Aken; brother-in-law, Stien Ohrtrom; and daughter, Ellen Marie Aken.

Mr. Aken He is survived by his loving wife of 58 years, Mary Ann Aken; daughter, Mary Emily Bidwell; son, Kenneth Cox Aken; sister, Jane Merdes; brother-in-law, Bob Merdes; brother, John Aken; sister, Ellen Ohrstrom; grandchildren, Mary Alexandria Bidwell and Caitlin Elise Knight, grandson-

in-law, Lee Knight, Matthew Elliot Bidwell, and Jack Anthony Bidwell; and great-grandchildren, James Walker Knight and Laney Jo Knight.

Mr. Aken has a large extended family and will be missed by all. He was a devoted son, brother, father, and husband and a hero in some way to everyone that knew him.

He dedicated his life to faith, service, and making the world a safer place with his environmental engineering contributions to worldwide pollution control. Also, his leadership and senior committee roles in various Catholic-related fundraising activities, charities, and organizations were many.

Mr. Aken was active as a Fourth Degree in the Knights of Columbus for over 50 years, and he was especially recognized for his efforts in fundraising for mental illness programs.

Most recently, he was nominated to be a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jersusalem, one of the highest lay honors bestowed by the Vatican.

Mr. Aken, who served as a 1st lieutenant in the U.S. Army, earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton and an MBA from California Western University. His professional career was dedicated to pollution control of power plants, serving in senior leadership roles for domestic and international projects and operations.

A funeral Mass for Mr. Aken was celebrated on Oct. 2 at St. John Neumann Church in Farragut.

Pilgrimage to Calvary Left: Dr. Michelle Weedman, who leads a Christian Pilgrimage class at Knoxville Catholic High School, guides her students through Calvary Cemetery in Knoxville, which dates to 1869 and is one of only two Catholic cemeteries in East Tennessee. The other cemetery is Mount Olivet in Chattanooga. Right: The names of longtime Catholic families in East Tennessee can be found on gravestones in Calvary and Mount Olivet.

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the parish cemetery committee.

The committee does a monthly cleanup in the cemetery and coordinates for professional mowers and groundskeepers. The committee also works to maintain the tombstones, especially the older ones, which can shift in the soft soil or require delicate cleaning.

Members are working to digitize burial records as well as identify all the veterans buried there.

While many parishioners of Immaculate Conception have family members buried in the cemetery, the committee makes sure that every grave there is respected and taken care of.

“It’s a part of who we are,” Father Donahue said. “I think especially as Catholics in Knoxville, areas where our grandparents, great-grandparents may have had in their life experience being kind of shunned by polite society because they were Catholic. So, there is kind of a sense of a kind of solidarity… to be of service and help.”

As part of its care over Calvary Cemetery, Immaculate Conception Parish holds a Memorial Day Mass and a rosary around All Souls Day there every year. The tradition of praying the rosary at Calvary Cemetery for All Souls’ Day goes back to 1899.

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

Parishioners also offer tours of the cemetery afterward to those who want to learn more about the grounds and the Catholic history of Knoxville.

On Oct. 5, 11 Knoxville Catholic High School students of Dr. Michelle Weedman’s Christian Pilgrimage class took a field trip to Calvary Catholic Cemetery to learn about Catholic ancestry in Knoxville.

“Pilgrimage is an experience of the faith,” Dr. Weedman said. “It immerses you actively participating. Pilgrimage is a deep part of our tradition.”

By taking a pilgrimage to the cemetery, the students were able to contemplate on what the Church truly teaches about death, resurrection, and the communion of saints. For some, it was the first time they had visited a cemetery outside of a burial service.

“It was about introducing them to this sacred space, how we live out our doctrines, the communion of saints, remembering them as part of the Church, the Body of Christ,” Dr. Weedman said.

Father Tim Sullivan, CSP, celebrated Mass, and Beth Willard Wolf of the cemetery committee taught the students more about Calvary.

Notable burials

Some notable burials in Cal-

vary include railroad contractor George Callahan (brother of Father Emmanuel Callahan, who began several missions in East Tennessee); Knoxville mayor and state representative John Paul Murphy; and the brothers Barney and Ally Harman, inventors of the popular soft drink Mountain Dew. Priests Circle is the resting place for many of Knoxville’s priests, including several priests who came from Ireland to serve the scattered immigrant populations in Tennessee.

One of the earliest burials in Calvary was that of Robert Canovan, a seminarian who died at age 27 in 1869. Although he never reached ordination, he is honored for answering God’s call and rests in Priests Circle.

Monsignor Xavier Mankel, who helped found the Diocese of Knoxville, is buried in Calvary along with other members of the Mankel family. Rather than being buried in Priests Circle, Monsignor Mankel selected a particular spot under a tree.

These are just some of the many souls who are buried at Calvary and whose legacies continued to be remembered by family and the community.

The KCHS students laid a wreath in the school’s colors in the cemetery “in honor and memory of faithful before us

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whose footsteps we follow,” Dr. Weedman explained. A couple of students also laid flowers at family member ’s graves.

Students also learned about the work it takes to maintain burial grounds and spent the afternoon in service raking and bagging leaves.

With All Saints’ Day on Nov. 1 and All Souls’ Day on Nov. 2, November is the month when many people remember past loved ones, pray for the dead, and visit burial grounds.

Physically visiting sacred burial ground is a good way to remember the generations of faithful who paved the way before us, ponder our own mortality, and place our faith in the hope of the resurrection.

In Christ there is no death.

Christians are called to pray for the souls of the faithful departed, and, in turn, those in heaven—the communion of saints—pray for those still running the race here and now.

Calvary Cemetery is located at 1916 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. in Knoxville.

Mount Olivet Cemetery, which opened in 1886, similarly serves the Chattanooga Catholic community. It is located at 1 Mount Olivet Drive in Chattanooga. Go to www.mountolivet.net for more information. ■ NOVEMBER 5, 2023 n A19

BILL BREWER (3)

What St. Francis would do Father Charlie Donahue, CSP, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, blesses police dogs and their handlers who were lined up on Vine Avenue in front of the church.

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of the dogs accompanied by their handlers.

“Let us go forth in great joy to love and serve our God and one another,” Father Donahue said.

“In gratitude on behalf of all of the chaplains, thank you so much for your service, especially on this day as we pray with the family of Tucker Blakely.”

Chief Noel said Oct. 6 was a difficult day for everyone in the Knoxville-Knox County community because of Deputy Blakely’s death and his funeral.

“One thing we do well in times of crisis and tragedy is we come together. We rally around one another, and we certainly rally around the Sheriff’s Office and all of its employees. The community has done the same thing. This makes me very proud,” the police chief said.

He praised the KPD K-9 units, calling them a very valuable part of the KPD team. He also praised Father Donahue and the KPD chaplains and noted that the Faith & Blue Weekend can be an effective way for the community and Study continued from page A13

although abortions decreased in states that have banned or limited the procedure, such as Tennessee, abortions increased nationally.

“The Dobbs decision turned abortion access in this country upside down,” Dr. Alison Norris, #WeCount co-chair and a professor at The Ohio State University’s College of Public Health, said in a statement. The increase, she said, demonstrates that people seeking abortions will travel for them despite “tremendous hardships,” while those who cannot travel can

K-9 swag Father Charlie Donahue, CSP, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish and a chaplain with the Knoxville Police Department, presented each police dog with a box of Milk-Bone dog biscuits.

Partners in crime-fighting A KPD K-9 unit is shown at Immaculate Conception Church. Officers wore a black band across their badges in memory of Knox County Sheriff's deputy Tucker Blakely.

law enforcement to engage in a positive way.

“This is just a great opportunity for our police officers to get more connected with the community.

Father Donahue is one of our chaplains. We have a really strong chaplain corps at KPD, something I’m very proud of. This is just another example of us working closely with the faith-based community and the other community members as well to form strong bonds moving forward,” he said.

Mayor Kincannon also expressed sadness over the tragic loss of a beloved and respected member of law enforcement.

“It’s a very sad day, but our faith in this community is what is going to get us through this, and we are very grateful for the Catholic Church’s support,” Mayor Kincannon said. “Officer Blakely was on his last shift of patrol and was shifting over to become a K-9 officer when he was shot and killed in the line of duty. His sacrifice will never be forgotten, and today is the day we are having his funeral service. That’s why I’m wearing all black, and that’s why our officers

have the black bands over their badges, to show respect to the family and to honor his sacrifice and to support his family.”

Mayor Kincannon appreciated the blessing ceremony for the K-9 teams and the community, especially as it began the Faith & Blue Weekend.

“We are really grateful for the Catholic diocese’s support of our law enforcement officers and their canine partners. This is just a nice way for us to bless this squad of people and canines to do the work of protecting our community. We are grateful for the Faith & Blue events that show the community support for this work,” she said.

KPD spokesman Scott Erland believes assembling the K-9 teams for the St. Francis of Assisi blessing worked out well for all involved.

“Faith & Blue Weekend is a national movement and is a community-building movement to establish community partnerships,” Mr. Erland said. “This is a great way to kick off Faith & Blue Weekend, to get everyone together and have one moment to recognize what

Faith & Blue Weekend is about.”

Father Donahue hopes to make the blessing of the K-9 units an annual ceremony. He said the idea originated with the KPD chaplain corps.

“The chaplains got together, and one of the officers made a suggestion about one of the dogs, and it became this. It just happens to fall on this day, not only because of St. Francis but also it falls on this day that horrifically is a day of mourning for law enforcement in Knox County and the city,” Father Donahue said.

“The chaplain corps is always looking for creative ways to support the officers and support KPD, and also with a sense of social justice. We want to be a part of the team, and we are, and they are great with it. Any of these traditions that help integrate the police and the community in a healthy, helpful way is a bonus and is a blessing,” he added. “It’s not lost on any of these officers that Sheriff’s Deputy Blakely was a K-9 officer, and he was going to start today (Oct. 6) with his dog. So, there’s a sense of solidarity.” ■

face “mental, emotional, and economic impacts.”

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred and must be respected from conception to natural death. As such, the Church opposes direct abortion as an act of violence that takes the life of the unborn child.

After the Dobbs decision, U.S. Church officials have reiterated the Church’s concern for both mother and child, as well as about social issues that push women toward having an abortion.

Asked about the #WeCount re-

port, Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, founder and president of New Wave Feminists, said “this is why at New Wave Feminists we have always said our goal isn’t to make abortion illegal, but to make it unthinkable and unnecessary through practical support.”

“You make it unnecessary by creating a society that doesn’t penalize pregnant people for choosing life,” Ms. Herndon-De La Rosa said. “Most of the individuals who contact us need help with housing, child care, health-care resources, and transportation. Many work at

minimum-wage jobs that don’t offer any type of family leave, and they know that continuing their pregnancy means they won’t be able to feed their other children, so they feel trapped.”

“The irony of ‘choice,’” she added, “is that abortion decisions are often only made when a person feels they have no other choice at all because society is only willing to provide the cheapest option (such as abortion pills), but won’t actually invest in the safety nets that would assist them in choosing life and parenting.” ■

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Author continued from page A6

So, he reached out to the Mississippi Catholic and its editor, who he knew, about possibly writing a column.

“I told her I’m a dad, a principal, and I like sports. She bought in, so 25 years ago I began writing columns,” Mr. Valadie recalled.

Mr. Valadie and his family relocated to the Diocese of Memphis for a principalship, where they lived for 14 years before returning home to Chattanooga. In the Memphis area, he continued to write columns for the Mississippi Catholic while writing for the West Tennessee Catholic.

Once he returned to Chattanooga in 2013, where he accepted the position of president of Notre Dame High School, he began writing his column Praying for Perspective for The East Tennessee Catholic.

Mr. Valadie has been honored with “Distinguished Alumnus” and “Service to School” awards at Notre Dame, his high school alma mater, where he holds the position of president emeritus.

After retiring from Notre Dame, he began a second career as an inspirational speaker, using his extensive experience in education, administration, and inspirational leadership development.

George Valadie So, after 25 years of sharing his most cherished lighthearted moments from school hallways, lunchrooms, and the principal’s office, as well as from the living room of the Valadie family household, We Lost Our Fifth Fork is available and ready to occupy bookshelves, nightstands, and coffee tables everywhere.

“It is a compilation of columns that I thought people would enjoy.

I knew from the beginning it would be a collection or compilation of my columns,” Mr. Valadie said.

Mr. Valadie’s Catholic faith is a

recurring element in his columns, as is the prayer he ends each one with.

And that is why We Lost Our Fifth Fork will especially resonate with Catholic readers, although it will appeal to readers from all faiths and walks of life.

“The goal has always been to present my thoughts so that other people can relate to them and see themselves or their families in similar situations,” Mr. Valadie explained. “The goal has always been to seek perspective so that we don’t lose our minds over the insanity of life.”

A website for the new book also is available at ourfifthfork.com.

And just how did he come up with the title for his book?

The website answers that question and others readers may have.

“The name harkens back to a time when our family of five owned but one fork apiece—I kid you not—and we lost one of those,” Mr. Valadie said. “Life can be silly like that … or far more serious, but never lacking in moments when a bit of perspective can be a much-needed gift.”

He pointed out that the missing fork gave inspiration to a favorite—and funny—column in which he described how he and his

our voices by attempting to bully and embarrass us.” But pro-life legislators in the House and Senate, including the lieutenant governor, Sen. Randy McNally of Oak Ridge, who attends St. Mary Church there, as well as Gov. Bill Lee, successfully worked to keep the Human Life Protection Act intact.

However, House leaders were on record saying they would try again in 2024 to weaken the law.

Mrs. Dunn also acknowledged that public interest in the pro-life fight understandably waned after the Dobbs decision last year as did financial support. Tennessee Right to Life realized shortly after the Dobbs decision that the fight wasn’t over. It was just starting again.

“Everything we do, the billboards, the fairs, the exhibits, and even our work with the crisis pregnancy centers, all of these are important and needed to build a culture of life and to save precious babies. But we must keep our law strong in order to save the most lives,” she said.

Mrs. Dunn thanked a supporter who wanted to remain anonymous for giving a large financial donation that helped TRL make ends meet during the battle to keep the pro-life law intact.

“Of course, this was all in God’s perfect timing for sure,” Mrs. Dunn said. “In many ways, we have worked harder and come under more vicious attack now than in all the years when Roe was the law of the land. We have learned that overturning Roe was not the end; it was a new beginning. Tennessee’s lifesaving efforts have put a target on our back.”

Mrs. Dunn shared that in recent weeks there have been new assaults on Tennessee’s pro-life efforts.

She said in September a group from New York representing three women and two doctors filed a lawsuit to halt enforcement of the Human Life Protection Act the legislature passed in 2019.

“If this court challenge is successful at overturning the strongest pro-life law in the nation, it will start a domino effect across the country, and we will be no better off than we were before June 24 of last year,” Mrs. Dunn told those assembled for the banquet.

She then pointed to the Biden administration, which in recent weeks approved redirecting millions of federal dollars to Planned Parenthood that were meant for Tennessee under Title X. “The federal government withheld critical funding from Tennessee families so they could funnel taxpayer dollars to a radical political organization,” Gov. Lee said about the allocation shift.

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THE EAST TENNESSEE CATHOLIC

Pro-life continued from page A14

A Catholic pro-life presence Father John Orr, right, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Athens, is joined at the Tennessee Right to Life annual banquet by, right to left, Stacy Dunn, president of Tennessee Right to Life; Sister Anna Maria Schreyer, OP; Sister Madeline Rose Kraemer, OP; Sister Scholastica Niemann, OP; Father Alex Hernandez, associate pastor of All Saints Parish; Father Adam Royal, parochial vicar at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Lenoir City; Angel Brewer, business manager for TRL's Knox County chapter; and Will Brewer, TRL legal counsel and lobbyist.

The Title X funds are for low-income people to receive health care.

“Tennessee is saving lives, and therefore Tennessee is under attack.

But as proud pro-life Tennesseans, we accept that. We accept the target on our back. We accept the betrayal of some we thought were with us.

We accept the humiliation from those in high places. We accept it all on behalf of the 1,000 babies saved from abortion in our state every month,” Mrs. Dunn said.

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs addressed the more than 350 people in attendance and told them he was grateful for their support for the pro-life movement.

“I really appreciate everything that Tennessee Right to Life has done here in the state of Tennessee.

We are the strongest pro-life state in the country,” Mayor Jacobs said.

He warned the group that aspirations for power as well as political expediency are threatening the pro-life cause in the halls of government. He said lawmakers are no longer discussing what is wrong and what is right, which is feeding a culture shift.

“Someone sent me a picture of a young lady holding a sign that said, ‘If God can kill his only child, why shouldn’t we be allowed to kill yours.’ Shocking, isn’t it?

Absolutely,” the mayor said, referring to a 2022 pro-abortion protest in downtown Knoxville after the Dobbs decision.

Also speaking to the large group of pro-life supporters was TRL legal counsel and lobbyist Will Brewer and state Rep. Jason Zachary of Knoxville.

“It’s such an honor to be here with so many people who we have been so engaged with for the last 10 years, really since Amendment 1 passed in 2014. Sometimes we forget that leading up to 2014

Tennessee was one of the top five states in the nation for abortion.

Think about that. In 2014, because of the work of so many people in this room, we get Amendment 1 passed, and it literally changed the trajectory of our state and life in our state,” Rep. Zachary said.

“Then we passed the 48-hour bill, we passed admitting privileges, we then get to the 20-week ban. Fast forward 10 years later, when we passed the heartbeat bill and what we still refer to as the trigger bill. Think about this. Since the trigger bill went into effect in August of last year, 13,000 babies’ lives have been saved. Think about that. That’s incredible,” he added.

Dr. Reardon, a noted advocate for healing programs for women, men, and families who have lost children to abortion, miscarriage, and neonatal death, has published the books Aborted Women: Silent No More, Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion, and The Jericho Plan: Breaking Down the Walls Which Prevent Post-Abortion Healing.

In sharing research about abortion, Dr. Reardon said each abortion increases the risk of mental disorders by 23 percent. “Most abortions today are second, third, or fourth abortions,” he said. “Fifty percent of all abortions are repeat abortions.”

He cited a survey of 1,000 women aged 41-45, which found that 61 percent of them reported a high level of pressure to abort their child from other people or circumstances, and 23 percent reported substantial pressure to abort their child.

“That means 84 percent of these women reported high levels of pressure to have abortions. But you don’t hear about that,” Dr. Reardon said. “The presumption is that women are simply freely choosing abortion according to their own

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wife, Nancy, hosted a guest for dinner in their home, and they realized they didn’t have enough forks to go around.

Nancy Valadie makes frequent appearances in the columns.

Mr. Valadie is hoping We Lost Our Fifth Fork … and other moments when we need some perspective will be sold in Catholic bookstores.

“Nancy said she will buy one, so that’s one,” he said. “My wife has been very encouraging. She’s been on me for 25 years to write it.”

Mr. Valadie’s children, like Nancy, are regular topics in the columns, something they have grown used to.

The Valadies have three daughters, three sons-in-law, and five grandchildren with a sixth on the way.

“My family had to get used to me writing about them, but they did,” he shared. “They have never said no, and they have never told me if they got upset. Their view is if it helps someone, do it.”

In fact, he confided that some family members have even asked him why they haven’t been written about.

And there may still be time for that.

Mr. Valadie believes there may be another book waiting in the wings. ■ conscience … and we should not be in their way.”

Studies further show, according to Dr. Reardon, that only 33 percent of women said their abortion was wanted and consistent with their values and preferences; 47 percent said they accepted the need to have an abortion, but it was inconsistent with their values and preferences; 24 percent said the abortion was unwanted and contrary to their values and preferences; and 10 percent said they were coerced into having an abortion.

“This data is totally hidden from the public because they (pro-abortion movement) need to protect the myth that abortion is freely chosen and benefits women,” Dr. Reardon said.

He went on to say that for every one woman who claims abortion helped her, there are two women who say they were hurt by abortion. And there are three deaths.

“That is not good public policy.

That is at best abortion for the convenience of a very few or at worst a social-engineering secret,” Dr. Reardon noted.

“The idea that an unwanted pregnancy is an unwanted child is simply false,” he continued.

Dr. Reardon shared anecdotes gleaned from research about women who were coerced into having abortions or who regret the decision to abort their child.

“Here is the shortcut to an abortion-free world. I’m really glad that you guys have banned abortions in this state. But obviously you still have the problem of (chemical) abortions coming into this state. You still have the problem of people referring abortions out of state,” Dr. Reardon said. “Well, the answer to all those things might be to pass laws that expand the right of redress for women hurt by abortions.”

He suggested there be an extended or no statute of limitations in those cases.

“I encourage Tennessee to pass the first state law that would allow women to sue for abortion injuries anytime in the past since 1972,” Dr. Reardon said to applause. “(The abortion providers) are not going to fear God. They’re not going to fear attorney generals. But they will fear (malpractice judgments).

There are ways we can close the doors and create true liability and create public awareness for the fact that abortions are hurting women.”

“Medical doctors should be held accountable to make sure that procedures that they’re going to do actually benefit women,” he continued. “There is not one study showing a benefit from abortion, yet there are dozens of studies showing the harms associated with abortion.” ■ NOVEMBER 5, 2023 n A21

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Peace continued from page A1

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Immeasurable loss People mourn at the graveside of Eden Guez during her funeral in Ashkelon, Israel, on Oct. 10. She was killed while attending a festival that was attacked by Hamas gunmen from Gaza.

OSV NEWS PHOTO/ALBERT GEA, REUTERS

Prayers for peace A pilgrim prays on the steps outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City on Oct. 10. Pilgrims who were in Israel following a surprise terrorist attack by Hamas against civilian communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7 lit candles and said prayers of peace at the church as fighting continued in southern Israel.

Voices carry Supporters hold signs during a pro-Palestinian protest in Barcelona, Spain, on Oct. 11 amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The war so far has claimed more than 10,000 lives.

OSV NEWS PHOTO/IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA, REUTERS

them but also in dialogue with all the responsible authorities in order to bring the Israel-Hamas war, which began Oct. 7, to an end.

“What we are living now … is touching my heart, me personally but (also) all of our community,” the cardinal said in the video, which he began with an Arabic greeting. “We are also very encouraged, I am very encouraged, by your testimony for the way you are living this terrible situation.”

Cardinal Pizzaballa said their testimony reminded him of the words of Jesus: “Do not be afraid of those that can kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”

“I am with you in your suffering, and your pain is my concern,” he said. “You are not alone: all the Christian community in the Holy Land, not only in the Holy Land, but all over the world, is with you praying for you and supporting you.”

There are some 1,000 Christians living in Gaza mainly belonging to the Latin Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches, with a small Baptist presence as well. The majority of the Christian community has taken shelter in the Holy Family Parish church compound after an Israeli missile landed next to the Greek Orthodox church compound, destroying part of the structure and killing 18 people.

“Now we have also 18 brothers and sisters who are in heaven praying for you and interceding for you, and they are our strength,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said. “God is with you; we are with you. Be strong, one day I am sure, we will join again in Gaza ... for prayer in joy and in peace.”

On Oct. 7 thousands of Hamas terrorists breached the security fence separating Gaza from the southern Israeli agricultural communities on the border and brutally murdered some 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians including children and elderly, in their homes and at a dance party at a nearby kibbutz, and taking more than 230 people— elderly, children and toddlers, and disabled hostages—to Gaza, a new number confirmed to Fox News on Oct. 29.

Israel has since retaliated with airstrikes. Save the Children put the number of children killed in Gaza at 3,195 during the first three weeks of fighting.

But as war rages in Gaza, settler violence is growing in the West Bank as all eyes are focused on the war, noted the Israeli nongovernmental organization Yesh Din, which documents and prosecutes instances of settler violence.

Since Oct. 7, the NGO said at least 82 Palestinian households were forcibly driven from their homes by settlers, who have been threatening farmers herding their flocks, and now with the start of olive-picking season, also farmers tending their trees. On Oct. 22, for the first time, settlers threatened and beat farmers from Christ the Redeemer Parish in the West Bank Village of Taybeh as they began harvesting their olives, said parish priest Father Bashar Fawadleh.

“Our village is quiet. We are afraid. It is not safe. There has never been anything like this, not even during the second intifada,” Father Fawadleh said. “It is because of the fanatical trio in the Israeli government (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir.) This is the point we are now in. It is very dangerous,” the priest said.

On Oct. 27, a Jewish settler fatally shot a Palestinian man harvesting olives near the city of Nablus.

On Oct. 28, only three families were out picking their trees and only on lands close to the village with their cars facing in the direction of the village, so that in case the settlers came from over the ridge, they would be able to escape quickly, Father Fawadleh noted.

Prime Minister Netanyahu met with representatives of families of Israeli hostages held captive in

The pain of war The daughter of Zakaria Abu Maamar, a member of Hamas political office, is comforted as she cries during her father's funeral after he was killed in an airstrike on Oct. 10 in Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip.

Gaza and pledged that Israel “will exhaust every possibility” to bring about their return. However, he did not agree to release Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons in return—a move demanded by families of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.

Prayers in the Holy Land con-

tinued to beseech for peace, and on Oct. 27 the Franciscan Friars in Jerusalem, led by the cardinal and the custos of the Holy Land, Father Franceso Patton, united with the call by Pope Francis for a day of prayer and fasting by walking the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem's Old City for the first time since the

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war broke out.

“The situation in Gaza is critical, with bombings, and in all of Gaza Strip there is shortage of everything: water, fuel, food, medicines,” said Mother María del Pilar Llerena Vargas, a Sister of Charity of the Incarnate Word from Peru, who is serving in the Catholic parish in Gaza, in a videotaped Spanish message on behalf of all the Christians of Gaza before she led the worshipers in a prayer for peace at the Holy Family Parish on the feast of Our Lady of Palestine.

“We all—religious and lay—are praying for peace and an end to the war and for help to all the needy in the south and north of Gaza. We are grateful for the closeness of the Holy Father, and we thank all who pray and work for peace. We want to pray to the Virgin this beloved prayer of peace.”

Another video posted on the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem Facebook page shows a group of children from the parish with their hands pressed together praying for peace during the feast of Our Lady of Palestine celebrations.

At the shrine of Deir Rafat, outside of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa presided over the eucharistic celebration followed by the traditional procession with the icon of the Virgin Mary, Queen of Palestine, who is the principal patroness of the diocese. The shrine was erected during another time of tensions, in 1929, and was chosen as a special place to pray for peace.

However, because of the current state of war, where Hamas is still lobbing missiles into Israel, the faithful were not able to attend the traditional procession this year.

Earlier, in an open letter to the entire diocese, the cardinal noted that they were going through “one of the most difficult and painful periods” in recent times.

He condemned both the atrocities of Oct. 7 in southern Israel and the cycle of violence in Gaza.

“It is time to stop this war, this senseless violence,” he said.

The only way a serious peace process can begin is by ending decades of occupation and “giving a clear and secure national perspective to the Palestinian people,” the cardinal said.

“Unless this problem is solved at its root, there will never be the stability we all hope for. The tragedy of these days must lead us all, religious, political, civil society, international community, to a more serious commitment in this regard than what has been done so far,” Cardinal Pizzaballa said.

In John 16:33, Jesus spoke of courage, he noted: “Such peace, such love, require great courage,” he said.

The day after Pope Francis called for a cease-fire in the Holy Land, his foreign minister spoke by phone with the foreign minister of Iran, “reiterating the absolute need to avoid escalating the conflict,” the Vatican press office said.

Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican foreign minister, spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Oct. 30 at the Iranian leader’s request, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.

During the conversation, Mr. Bruni said, Archbishop Gallagher “expressed the Holy See’s serious concern about what is happening in Israel and Palestine, reiterating the absolute need to avoid escalating the conflict.”

Iran is considered a supporter of Hamas, and that country’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in mid-October, had called on Israel to stop its military action in Gaza or face the possibility of a “huge earthquake” of fighting throughout the region.

After reciting the Angelus on Oct. 29 with visitors in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis again called for the release of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza and prayed that there would be a cease-fire. ■ TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

COURTESY OF FATHER BILL MCNEELEY (4)

Peaceful moments in the Holy Land Left: Father Bill McNeeley and 11 members of a Diocese of Knoxville pilgrimage to the Holy Land recently visited sacred sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Sea of Galilee, the Church of St. Ann, which is the birthplace of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Bethlehem.

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thing, and then we went on this trip, and the trip was fantastic. There was nothing that raised alarms for us or anything.”

Father McNeeley noted that his tour guide, Hazim, an Israeli citizen, said that “life in Israel and the Holy Land comes with a certain underlying tension that everybody experiences.”

“It’s there under the surface because you know that at any time things could blow up,” Father McNeeley continued. “And that exactly describes what’s happened in the last few weeks. And if we had delayed our trip, or if the terror strike had been scheduled just three weeks earlier, we’d be the ones struggling, scrambling to get out of Israel. It was kind of that close.”

“I believe that wherever there is good happening, especially in the Holy Land, the devil doesn’t want anything good to happen, and the Holy Land is one of the places where the devil works the hardest. It’s not unlike the Church. I believe that the Church is one of the places where the devil works the hardest. Because especially when good things are happening to a parish, that’s the last thing the devil wants,” he said.

Father McNeeley said he is not deterred by the recent violence in returning to the Holy Land.

“Once things are stable, I’d go back,” he said. “It doesn’t dissuade me at all. … You don’t want to make foolish decisions, but you also don’t want terrorists to control your life.

And we just have to go about our lives.”

While many pilgrim groups consider themselves lucky to have explored the Holy Land prior to the attacks, other groups found themselves in the midst of the fear and conflict.

One such group was from First Baptist Church in Knoxville, who arrived in Israel the day before the Hamas attack on Oct. 6.

Although the First Baptist group of 12 had its itinerary affected, the pilgrims were able to visit some holy sites before all safely evacuated Israel.

Another group affected by the attack on Israel was from the Diocese of Memphis. Bishop David P. Talley and the Memphis Diocese asked for prayers for those traveling to the Holy Land.

Bishop Talley also asked for prayers for peace in Jerusalem and for “all affected by the horrific violence.”

A group of 44 pilgrims, mostly from Memphis, were able to travel to safety and made their way home amid the intense fighting. Father Dexter Noblefranca of St. Patrick Church in downtown Memphis was on the Memphis pilgrimage, which began the first week of October and was cut short.

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

In response to the Holy Land violence, the patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, called for Oct. 17 to be a day of fasting, abstinence, and prayer with eucharistic adoration and recitation of the rosary to Our Blessed Virgin Mother Mary.

Parishes in dioceses around the world responded to Cardinal Pizzaballa’s request.

Groups from the Diocese of Knoxville that had been planning for months have had their pilgrimages canceled due to the violence and impending threats.

Father Michael Cummins, pastor of St. Dominic Parish in Kingsport, was scheduled to be on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land Oct. 16–26. The group had about 30 pilgrims signed up from different parts of the diocese, with many of them St. Dominic parishioners.

Father Cummins said he was “kind of stunned” when the violence between Israel and Hamas broke out on Oct. 7.

“Watching it all unfold, and then as the violence became more and more apparent, really just heartbroken in a lot of ways about the violence and the violence that’s continuing over there,” he shared. “It is certainly disappointing to not be able to go, but in relation to everything that’s going on over there, it’s really nothing, a disappointment.”

There’s a saying that the third time is the charm, but for Father Cummins this was his third failed attempt to travel to the Holy Land.

“For my 25th anniversary back in 2020 I had arranged a monthlong study for sabbatical there, and then COVID knocked that out. And then I think it was in ’21 I was going to do a pilgrimage similar to this last one, and the second round of COVID knocked that out. And so this was going to be my third attempt to go, and then the violence canceled that.

I don’t think it’s in the cards for me,” he said with a laugh.

Father Cummins said, “The violence certainly is something to be aware of, but I hope that at some point it will calm down again, and people will be able to go.”

“I think we certainly need to pray, pray for the Holy Land, and do what we can to encourage peace and to support our Christian brothers and sisters over there. I think that’s the most important thing to do at this time,” he added.

Lisa Morris, a parishioner at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville, coordinates pilgrimages for the diocese and is a group pilgrimage coordinator for Select International Tours.

She commented that Select International’s No. 1 pilgrimage destination is the Holy Land, with 40-50 pilgrimages scheduled per year.

Currently, all of Select Internation-

al’s pilgrimages to the Holy Land are canceled through November due to the terrorist attack. About 20 pilgrimages have been affected.

“I can speak to the fact of how devastating it is for the Israeli people and the pilgrimages and the tourism that comes, which I’m sure is at a complete halt now,” Mrs. Morris said. “And they went through so much with COVID. I know personally some of the guides and the bus drivers.”

Mrs. Morris is friends on Facebook with some of the Holy Land guides and has been watching their updates.

“I did see one update from one of the guides, and basically he was just in one of the churches in the Holy Land asking for prayer and praying the rosary. … I think he had like a thousand comments on that post alone. It was huge,” she said.

She mentioned that Select International is “in constant contact with their ground partners” in Israel.

“Their ground partners in the Holy Land said it’s not safe, you can’t come. So, that in itself has never happened. … This is way different than anything that’s gone on before,” she commented.

Mrs. Morris also noted how the Israeli people have been recovering from tourism losses due to the COVID pandemic.

“They really suffered a lot for the lack of groups going for that, and then it was busier than it’s ever been until this Oct. 7 attack. And now who knows how long again,” she shared. “I’m sure they’re just reeling on so many levels, the tragedy, the deaths, terror, and not having the people coming anymore. And who knows when that will be. We’re hoping it’s sooner than later.”

“The people would love to have the pilgrims back. It’s just their livelihood. They were just recovering, and now this,” she continued.

Mrs. Morris, who has been to the Holy Land five times, said she has “never felt unsafe over there.”

“There’s always been things going on, but I have never hesitated to go, or once there have never felt unsafe,” she said. “It really is life changing. The Gospels come alive, the Bible comes alive in a way that is just so vivid and so real because when you hear the readings you can visualize where these places are. … It is so powerful. No matter how many times you go, whether it’s once or 100 [times], you’re going to feel the presence of our Lord in a way that is just unmistakable and Mother Mary’s intercession.”

Mrs. Morris commented that Select International is hopeful that pilgrim-

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ages will continue in 2024, and they are still being planned.

Father David Boettner, rector of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, has a pilgrimage to the Holy Land scheduled with Select International to begin the last week of January. The full group has 35 pilgrims signed up to travel in the footsteps of Christ.

“Of course right now, everything is on hold, and we’re waiting to see how things calm down on the ground in the Holy Land and whether or not this is a long-term conflict or a more limited conflict.

Unfortunately, right now, everything makes it look like it’s going to be a longer-term conflict,” Father Boettner said.

He expressed “tremendous sadness, both with the attacks on Israel and the destruction of Gaza.”

“As Pope Francis said, violence is not going to lead to a solution. It always leads to more violence, and it’s just tremendously sad that a land made so holy by so many amazing moments in salvation history is also marked by tremendous injustice, violence, and hatred,” he said.

Father Boettner has traveled to the Holy Land three times.

“One of the reasons why I go is I’m a member of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, and one of our missions … is support of the Christians and holy sites in the Holy Land. So, I always try every couple of years to take a group of pilgrims to the Holy Land so that they can see that land firsthand and really walk through all of the Biblical sites, and for lack of a better term, just really see where Jesus lived and walked and ministered and get a deep sense of the place. I just think it opens Scripture up in a whole new way,” he shared.

He said he will “continue to want to go to the Holy Land as long as it’s possible.”

“I think the key thing as Christians, we’re called to be bridgebuilders and peacemakers, and it’s very easy to get polarized and try and figure out who’s at fault and who’s to blame, and there’s plenty of that to go around,” Father Boettner said. “I think the most critical thing here is for us to be praying for peace, for us to be looking for strategies that will build peace and justice and make it possible for people to live in the Holy Land without violence.”

“It’s tremendously sad to me, and of course we suffer with our brothers and sisters. So, right now I feel so much pain and, really, compassion for all the people who are innocent and trapped in the midst of this cycle of violence,” he noted. ■

NOVEMBER 5, 2023 n A23

However, amidst the trials, those supporting Haiti are working toward a process that “values individuals and prioritizes their rights to health, education, water, sanitation, work, gender equity, social security, personal security, and justice,” Ms. Viaud said.

“Any intervention in Haiti needs to include economic, social, and cultural rights with a focus on the right to work of youth and social security,” she continued. “Haiti needs loyal friends. Haiti needs partnership and cooperation. Haiti needs social justice. Our approach to Partners In Health is to challenge and advocate for global health. We believe one thing: everyone on the planet has the right to high-quality, comprehensive health care. We do our best to address urgent medical and material needs. We achieve this by building health systems able to prevent serious illness. Our work in Haiti … continues despite our environment.”

Ms. Viaud noted that Partners In Health is the primary health-care provider to more than 1 million people.

“While our services are far from perfect, we continue to fight for all Haitians one at a time,” she said.

“With partners, such as you here in Knoxville, Haiti Outreach Program … we share our ambition of beliefs of one global health equity. The voices we choose to amplify, the lesson we take to heart, the actions we perform, and the policies for which we advocate directly have a direct impact on the outcomes of our collective efforts to consider basic social goods.”

Ms. Viaud said the situation in Haiti must not discourage the efforts being made, but rather supporters can continue to challenge themselves.

“We must continue our solidarity work with the people who need

GABRIELLE NOLAN

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Support for Haiti Guest speaker Loune Viaud, second from right, is joined at Sacred Heart Cathedral Hall by, from left, Matt Webster, who leads the parish Haiti ministry, Drew Peloubet, and Father David Boettner. it most, the people of Bouly. Ultimately, we must continue to dare to imagine the better, more equitable future we can build together,” she said. “We might not be able to go physically now, but you can still be involved in Haiti. Paul Farmer called it an open-ended accompaniment rather than a formal contractual obligation. Advancing health equity in settings of poverty such as Bouly and Boucan-Carré is what matters the most. When someone visits Bouly for the first time, they are visiting the middle of nowhere.

But we must flip this mentality. We are visiting the center of the universe for the people in Bouly. We can make a commitment to break the cycle of systemic poverty by decolonizing minds and hearts to focus on equity, justice, and long-term partnership and accompaniment.

We know what can be done, so we can no longer accept what cannot be done as an excuse. Optimism and action are the only options, and we have seen what good can result from hope, faith, and love.”

Ms. Viaud concluded her speech by thanking the Knoxville

community.

“Back here in Knoxville, tonight, we are here to reflect and renew our dedication to the people of Bouly in Haiti,” she said. “People yet to have access to quality health care and education, yet to have access to dignified employment, yet to have access to justice. Here, too, in the U.S., I know that we are facing similar challenges, similar issues. It is not a time to give up. We must keep going. I hope you will continue to join us on this journey because so many lives depend on it. We are grateful to you here tonight, we are grateful to the people of Knoxville, we are grateful to this community, we are grateful to Haiti Outreach Program, and thank you for inviting me… Please keep Haiti in your prayers. Let us continue to embrace our core values. Thank you for being part of our community of doers and accompaniment.

Be generous to Haiti Outreach Program. You are doing God’s work.

Thank you so much.”

The Haiti Outreach Program Sacred Heart Parish has been

Father Carrón said in a statement posted on the group's website on Nov. 15, 2021.

In June 2021, the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, the Family, and Life issued new norms for Catholic associations and lay movements, saying term limits would help promote greater involvement in leadership and help protect members of the groups from possible abuse by leaders who are not answerable to the membership.

“Not infrequently, for those called to govern, the absence of limits in terms of office favors forms of appropriation of the charism, personalization, centralization, and expressions of self-referentiality, which can easily cause serious violations of personal dignity and freedom, and even real abuses,” said the dicastery’s explanatory note, which was published June 11, 2021, along with the new norms.

Under the new norms, those who hold offices in the central leadership of international Catholic lay movements and associations may serve a maximum of two five-year terms.

In explaining his resignation, Father Carrón said the need to find and choose a new president would encourage each member of Communion and Liberation “to take personal responsibility for the charism” of the movement.

“It has been an honor for me to exercise this service for years, an honor that fills me with humility for my limitations and if I have failed any of you,” he wrote at the time. “I give thanks to God for the gift of companionship that I have been able to enjoy” and for the example of the members’ “daily witness, from which I have constantly learned and from which I want to continue to learn.”

“I wish you to live this circumstance as an occasion of growth of your ecclesial self-awareness (and) to be able to continue to witness the grace of the charism given by the Holy Spirit” to Father Luigi Giussani, founder of the movement, Father Carrón wrote to members.

Monsignor Giussani’s inspiration, A24 n NOVEMBER 5, 2023

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Pontifical outreach Pope Francis greets more than 60,000 members of the Communion and Liberation movement in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Oct. 15, 2022. The audience was part of the movement's celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late Monsignor Luigi Giussani, the movement's founder, whose cause for sainthood opened in 2012.

“I urge you to nurture in yourselves his educational passion, his love for young people, his love for the freedom and personal responsibility of each person in the face of his or her own destiny, and his respect for the unrepeatable uniqueness of every man and woman.”

— Pope Francis, addressing members of Communion and Liberation about Father Luigi Giussani he said, was to help young people use their faith and their reason to see Christ as “a real, persuasive, and determining presence” in their lives and cultures.

It was Father Giussani who invited Father Carrón to move to Milan to help guide the movement; the Spanish priest became president after Father Giussani died in 2005.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, told members of Communion and Liberation in 2020 that Christians are called to share their experience of God’s beauty.

People of faith find in God, who became flesh, “the wonder of living,” he said in a written message to participants in an annual meeting of the lay ecclesial movement.

“Isn’t this amazing discovery perhaps the greatest contribution Christians can offer in order to sustain people’s hope” particularly

during a time of great difficulty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, he wrote in a message, released by the Vatican on Aug. 17, 2020.

Father Giussani, 82, died on Feb. 22, 2004, at his home in Milan.

According to the international headquarters of Communion and Liberation in Milan, the monsignor died of complications from pneumonia. His body lay in state in the chapel of Milan’s Institute of the Sacred Heart until his Feb. 24, 2004, funeral Mass was celebrated in the Milan cathedral.

At the time, the Vatican announced that Pope John Paul II asked Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was then prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to preside in the pope’s name at Father Giussani’s funeral.

Born in 1922 in Desio, near Milan, Luigi Giussani entered the archdi-

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connected to St. Michel Parish in Boucan-Carré since 1999 through the Haiti Outreach Program.

“Well, first and foremost, this began as an evangelistic mission, and, again, we want to continue to spread the word of God in all parts of the world. … And once that starts, then the other things begin to unfold, the education of children, Catholic education, and they go to church and they learn of religion, so it becomes an extension of that activity,” Mr. Webster said.

St. Michel has approximately 58,000 residents. Through the volunteers, donations, and various partnerships, the Haiti Outreach Program aims to provide muchneeded services to those in the mountainous region that lies 60 miles from Port-au-Prince.

The Haiti Outreach Program focuses on the mind (education), body (health care), and spirit (faith).

Annual student support includes funding for a primary and secondary school that impacts over 900 students. Donations cover tuition and fees, books, uniforms, teacher salaries, and one small meal per day for the primary students.

Health-care support includes medical staff, medicine, and nutritional supplies that assist more than 130 patients per month. Donations cover salaries for doctors and nurses, medicine and medical supplies, a prenatal nutrition program, and infant nutrition supplements.

Support for St. Michel Parish not only includes the church, but also nine outlying chapels. Donations cover the operations budget, staff salaries, sacristan training, and rectory maintenance.

“Hopefully the rest of our mission and volunteers will one day get a chance to go safely and experience the work we’re doing,” Mr. Webster said.

For information and to donate, visit haitioutreachprogram.com. ■ ocesan seminary and was ordained to the priesthood in 1945.

Music, literature, art, and culture and their interaction with religious faith were the constant focus of his studies, his writing, and his discussions with young people.

Initially assigned to teach at the archdiocesan seminary in Venegono, Italy, in 1954, Father Giussani began teaching religion at the Berchet classical high school in Milan.

A small but fast-growing group of teenagers began meeting with him to discuss ways to live their faith.

Although the group began as part of the Catholic Action youth movement, it soon developed its own special focus and format, which was confirmed in 1959 when Father Giussani published guidelines for the groups, which had already begun to spread throughout Milan and to other cities.

In 1969, it was given the name Communion and Liberation and began involving university students and young adults in its weekly catechesis, known as Schools of Community.

Then, as today, the groups had no formal membership requirements or rolls. The Milan headquarters estimates there are about 100,000 people involved in Communion and Liberation in Italy and thousands more people around the world.

The young adults who want to make a more formal commitment to the ideals of Communion and Liberation and to its charitable works become members of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation.

From 1964 to 1990, Father Giussani was a professor of theology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan.

In addition to having written hundreds of essays and magazine articles, Monsignor Giussani was the author of numerous books, including a study of Protestantism in the United States.

From 1997 until his death, he also served as director of a series of recordings of classical music with listening guides published internationally by Deutsche Grammophon under the title “Spirito Gentil.” ■ TH E EA S T TEN N ES S EE C ATH OLI C

come well aware of the story of these five priests and what they did,” he said. “We’ve all experienced the pandemic here, to imagine what it was like” during that third-worst-documented epidemic of yellow fever in the United States.

The epidemic occurred in Shreveport between late August and mid-

November of 1873; the five priests died between Sept. 15 and Oct. 8.

The two French priests already serving in Shreveport remained ministering to the sick while the other three came willingly at the call for help. Each one left their safe locations, knowing they also would contract yellow fever and die from it.

Cardinal Pierre also called it “something providential in the sense” that in 1873 they endured “in circumstances not so different from what we have lived during the crisis of coronavirus.”

They helped everyone, most of whom were not Catholic, but it was a “desire to give their life for the sake of the Gospel.” Figures available show that Father Biler “gave himself fully to more than 900 sick and dying persons, not simply caring for their bodily needs but more so their spiritual needs, robbing death of its terrors as he led souls with confidence to eternal life.” And Father Gergaud ministered to more than 1,000 sick people, of which “perhaps fewer than 25 were Catholic, but, in the presence of death, it was the priest that everyone called for, and God alone knows how many souls owe their salvation to the heroism of this priest.”

Bishop Malone sees their cause for beatification and canonization affecting not only his diocese but also the Church in the United States. He also sees the strong prospects of the story of the Shreveport Martyrs inspiring vocations. ■

the time. I was raised Catholic, but honestly, I never really believed. I went through all the sacraments, really just because my dad told me to.

I went through religious education for the same reasons, because my dad told me to. After I got to high school, religious education and the classes I took didn’t really seem to me to have the answers to the most important questions I had about my life at the time, such as what is the meaning of life,” she shared.

“It seemed like what I was being taught was more of a rules system.

Questions like ‘Why shouldn’t you do this?’ were answered with ‘Well, the Church says you shouldn’t.’ The teenager in me said, ‘Well, why?’

‘Well, because.” For me, that answer wasn’t enough,” she added.

During her junior year in college, she and then-Mr. Gallo started having conversations and debates about the Church.

“I found somebody I could engage with at a deeper level. I really liked that. Then we started dating.

I saw that he went to Mass every Sunday, and he had a relationship with this group of friends in Houston. At a certain point after we had been dating, I felt like if I really wanted to know him, then I needed to know this thing that was so important to him,” Ms. Pekowski said.

“So, I started going to Mass with him every Sunday at the Catholic Center, and then eventually I went to go meet this group of friends he had in Houston.”

The Houston group organized a Way of the Cross on a Good Friday, where group members processed with the cross in a public space, singing songs and sharing reflections.

“That’s how I met the larger movement. The people I met there really struck me. There were mostly families with young kids. There also were young adults and older people, too. People were together in a very joyful way,” she continued.

“You could tell there was something outside of all these people, this functional group of people, that kept them together. It wasn’t just because they were good people.

There was something else that kept them together.”

In Austin, Ms. Pekowski asked Mr. Gallo if they could begin doing School of Community together as her journey back to the Catholic faith continued.

“At the time it was just him and me, I think it was around 2008, and so it was just me and him doing the School of Community together.

I remember the first book we were studying that year was called ‘The Journey to Truth is an Experience’ (by Father Giussani), and my reaction to reading that title was is this a religious book or is this some psychedelic, hippy Allen Ginsberg novel? I thought this is the philosophy of my life. This totally appeals to me. So, we started working on that book together. Slowly, I started making my

way back to the Church. I started going to Mass again. We maintained this friendship with the people in Houston. I had my first confession after almost a decade with a priest on a log in a park in Oklahoma on one of the CL vacations. I remember the experience very strongly,” she recalled.

From there, her relationship to God grew stronger. So did her relationship with Mr. Gallo. They married and began a family.

“We moved to Houston about a year after we got married and after our first daughter was born because that’s where he found a job. That’s when we really started belonging to the community of Houston. I met people who still are my closest friends today even though we don’t live in the same place. I met mothers who taught me how to be a mother, and through that life in the movement, CL taught me how to stay in front of the questions that I had about life in a serious way, too, not to just bury them under a rug or ignore the questions that you have.

Seriously, ask them; ask the people around you who can help you,” Ms. Pekowski said.

She acknowledged the sadness of leaving Houston, but once in Farragut she decided to take an active role in establishing an active Communion and Liberation chapter in the diocese. She said she was fortunate to find existing CL members and they set about to hold a Beginning Day at St. John Neumann.

“It’s a small world in CL. So, we’ve tried to be part of a movement here. It doesn’t really matter where you go, you find the Church and you find CL,” she said.

Lt. Cmdr. Boothe also shared her personal story of developing a relationship with Jesus Christ, describing her involvement with Communion and Liberation while serving in the Navy.

“Jesus is here, and He is present, and He’s working, and He doesn’t want me to miss anything. So, He lets me come here. And He lets me see what He is doing for all my dear, dear friends and me,” Lt. Cmdr. Boothe said. “My whole time, having met the movement and being here and living this life, there’s always this sensation that something is pulling me along and pulling me by the heart. And I don’t want to miss anything. This has been my whole journey. It’s worth it to keep on going because I don’t know what’s there, but I’m at the beginning of a road I don’t know and I want to walk.”

The naval aviator attended the Farragut Beginning Day at the request of her friends from Houston as she was on a brief leave before being deployed in October.

She said she has learned that even in the military, there is no place she can go where she is too far away from Jesus Christ.

“Positive hypothesis is what I go into with everything. And the

positive hypothesis is this: Jesus is here, and He’s present, and He’s working. And He’s working for the benefit of the whole world but first for me. So, everything is really this moment in which I have all the opportunity with my freedom to say yes. Yes, He’s here. And yes, I want to stay here, and I want to stay with Him because this Man is a great friend of mine, and with Him I am myself,” the Navy officer said during her Beginning Day witness.

She said she brings Communion and Liberation with her as she actively serves her country. “I love, love, love the Navy, and the boys and girls I work with are my dearest friends.”

She said as she once transitioned back to the United States from Japan, where she had been stationed, she visited Milan, Italy, and her friend, Father Julián Carrón, former president of Communion and Liberation.

She said Father Carrón told her, “Carie, you need Jesus to remember all of these faces and to remember why they are important. But you need the Navy in order to remember Jesus.”

“I thought that was upside down from how I normally think about it. I normally think that in order for me to survive in the Navy, which I love, I need to insert my faith.

But instead, it’s the Navy precisely that pulls out all of my need for this Man who has met me. So, the Navy is essential for my faith,” she concluded.

Dr. Gallo believes Communion and Liberation can be a good fit for those who are looking to enrich their faith or who have questions about it.

He explained that Father Giussani realized that while Catholics in Italy continued to observe basic tenets of Catholicism, such as attending Mass weekly, they were losing touch with the deeper teachings of the Church.

“There was a time in Italy when churches were still full. A lot of people went to church, but there was a bit of mess of the meaning that connected religiosity, specifically the Catholic faith, to everyday life. So, people continued their habit of going to Mass, but some of the foundations connecting the teachings of the Catholic Church to the meaning of daily life was starting to be separated,” Dr. Gallo said.

He said this was “ground zero” for Father Guissani as he began having conversations about ways to change this Catholic culture.

“From his teaching in high school, the kids were attracted by his charism, and as they grew up they went to college and began working and wanted to carry on this way of life themselves, and the movement started that way—a continuation of this experience these kids had in high school,” Dr. Gallo said.

Communion and Liberation was born in Italy, but it has spread around the world. ■

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me there. He sends you there. There is Christ in that,” said Dr. Gallo, who is originally from Italy. “It's like my friend in Houston said, I’m being asked because God was already here making this happen. It’s like discipleship.”

“I met Communion and Liberation in Italy during my last year of high school. I’ve been doing it a while. I need places like this (St. John Neumann Parish) to remind me of that beauty. Listening to my wife talk about her experience was like, ‘Wow!’ Sometimes I forget.

That’s why these moments are so beautiful. Even for myself, having known it so long, I can take it for granted. I need people to remind me how present it is right now and how it’s happening right now. It’s not an experience that only happened in Italy. It’s happening here now. But it’s Christ, and Christ happens everywhere,” he noted.

Dr. Gallo pointed out that Communion and Liberation is open to all Catholics, active and those who have fallen away from the Church, and is open to non-Catholics, too. It is open to singles, couples, families, youth and young adults, and older faithful.

“Communion and Liberation also is a fraternity, which means at a certain point you make a choice and you say ‘I sign up for a fraternity,’ which means I follow the Catholic Church but I follow particularly this charism that allows me to follow the Catholic Church. It’s like Opus Dei or other Catholic movements.

At a certain point I signed up for this fraternity because this is the way that helps me the most in following the Catholic faith. For me, it’s kind of like marriage,” Dr. Gallo said. “At a certain point, you have to decide to take a certain road. So, God sends us to Knoxville. I belong to Communion and Liberation. So, somehow there is something that God is making happen for me and for Communion and Liberation in Knoxville. And I am a witness to it, so much so that that is the reason why my wife gave her witness. She said, ‘I need Beginning Day.’” He singled out his wife as an excellent example for whom Communion and Liberation is meant.

She left the Catholic Church but was drawn back through CL. He also cited Lt. Cmdr. Boothe, saying she flies military helicopters while she is active in her Catholic faith.

“God is making this. We’re here. …

We’re this charism, and as we follow it, and as things evolve, we’ll see what happens. This is our mission,” Dr. Gallo said, adding that Father Reed is supporting the local movement.

During her witness, Ms. Pekowski explained how she first encountered the Communion and Liberation movement through then-acquaintance Federico Gallo while attending the University of Texas in Austin.

“I was pretty much an atheist at TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

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also called these five priests “Martyrs of Charity” during a June interview with Catholic Current. As an aside, he mentioned also that one of the priests was from his home diocese (Archdiocese of Rennes), and the first bishop at that time, Bishop Auguste Marie Martin, was from his hometown in Brittany.

Bishop Malone connected these five martyrs to something he heard when he was in the seminary from Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who was giving a retreat to the seminarians.

Bishop Malone recalled Archbishop Sheen stating, “We humans come into the world to live; Jesus was the only person who came into the world to die.” Bishop Malone continued, “And in saying that, he also said, ‘We have the history of the Church of men and women who gave their lives willingly for the well-being of other people.’”

“These five priests did just that,” Bishop Malone explained. “They were told more than likely they would not survive.” Extensive records bear witness to that fact.

Members of the Catholic Church and also non-Catholics “have be-

Advancing the cause Bishop Francis I. Malone of Shreveport, La., speaks on June 15 during the USCCB spring assembly in Orlando, Fla. Bishop Malone spoke on advancing the cause of five Shreveport missionary priests described as "martyrs of charity" in one of the worst epidemics in U.S. history.

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