Dec. 2, 2018, ET Catholic, A section

December 2

| 2018

VOL 28 NO 2

IN THIS ISSUE

SAINTS A18 A5 SERVING Cardinal Rigali reflects on his work with Pope St. Paul VI

FINANCE REPORT Diocese of Knoxville issues annual audit results

TO B1 SALUTE ST. BRIDGET

Dayton parish marks 50th anniversary

He dwells among us ......................... A2 Parish news ....................................... B3 Diocesan calendar ............................ B4 Columns ............................................. B8 Catholic schools ............................. B10 La Cosecha ............................Section C

Tennova closing former St. Mary’s Hospital East Tennessee’s first Catholic medical center to be shuttered Dec. 28, longtime Sisters of Mercy to relocate

DAN MCWILLIAMS

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n 88-year-old tradition will end Dec. 28 when Physicians Regional Medical Center in North Knoxville, formerly long known as St. Mary’s Medical Center, will close its doors.

The hospital’s owners, Tennova Healthcare, announced the move Oct. 26. The hospital was a Catholic facility from its founding by the Sisters of Mercy in 1930 until its sale to Tennova in 2011.

“I think about the generations of East Tennesseans who were born at St. Mary’s Hospital and the many others who were returned to health thanks to the skill, care, and compassion of the many dedicated doctors, nurses, technicians, and staff who served there, including the Sisters of Mercy, who helped establish St. Mary’s Hospital in 1930,” Bishop Richard F. Stika said in a statement.

“Its doors as a health-care facility may be closing, but I know that St. Mary’s will remain a community landmark for its significant and positive role in the history of our region and for its continued legacy,” he added.

Funds received by the Diocese of Knoxville when St. Mary’s was sold to Tennova by Mercy Health Partners in 2011 helped fund the St. Mary’s Legacy Foundation, which to date, has contributed more than $6.8 million to benefit health care, education, and charity through grants distributed by the Diocese of Knoxville.

The funds also created its most visible legacy: the St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, a mobile medical mission that continues to bring the healing ministry of Jesus to remote communities and the medically underserved in the East Tennessee region.

Tennova said in a press release that as it “proceeds with its strategic reorganization of services, growing capacity at North Knoxville Medical Center and Turkey Creek Medical Center and enhancing services at its affiliated hospitals in Jefferson City, LaFollette, and Newport, the system has begun work to end operations of Physicians Regional Medical Center and Lakeway Regional Hospital [in Morristown] by the end of this year.

“All services at Physicians Regional Medical Center and Lakeway Regional Hospital will be permanently terminated as of 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 28, 2018, subject to satisfaction of all necessary notices and regulatory requirements.”

“We will work with our medical staff, patients, and local EMS/first responders to ensure a

By Dan McWilliams

Continuous ministry Sister Mary Albertine Paulus, RSM, left, and Sister Mary Martha Naber, RSM, are with the Sisters of Mercy religious community, which has taken a lead role in providing health care at St. Mary’s Hospital since its founding in 1930. Sister Martha and Sister Albertine will end their ministry in Knoxville and relocate to Nashville after the hospital closes on Dec. 28.

“May the blessing of God descend today on St. Mary’s Hospital. With a real heart in its work, with a genuine love for all, with a real sympathy for those in distress and a desire to help those in suffering, may St. Mary’s, and all connected with it, start out today to do whatever good it can.”

— Prayer at St. Mary’s Hospital dedication

April 22, 1930 smooth transition of care,” said Tony Benton, chief executive officer for Tennova Healthcare in East Tennessee. “Strengthening our network and pursuing new outpatient strategies is critical to meet the needs and preferences of today’s health-care consumers and support the way our physician partners prefer to practice. Deliver-

ing care in facilities designed to support current medical practices will best serve our patients and the community.”

Multiple construction projects this year have grown capacity for services at the Powell and Farragut Tennova hospitals. Construction is continuing with completion projected for next summer.

North Knoxville Medical Center has renovated and reconfigured existing space to add cardiac catheterization laboratories and operating rooms to help accommodate cardiac care and orthopedic, general, vascular, and other inpatient surgeries from Physicians Regional. Capacity for surgery and childbirth services is being added at the facility off Emory Road, with construction targeted to be complete next summer.

Hospital continued on page A11

Bishops await Vatican guidance on abuse response Pope Francis asks USCCB to delay vote on proposals for responding to crisis

Bishop Stika discusses topics raised during the USCCB general assembly

By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service

By Bill Brewer

Crisis continued on page A9

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CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/VATICAN MEDIA

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t the urging of the Vatican, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops did not vote on two proposals they were to discuss at their Baltimore meeting regarding their response to the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, USCCB president, informed the bishops as they opened their fall general assembly Nov. 12 that the Vatican wanted the bishops to delay any vote until after a February meeting with the pope and presidents of the bishops’ conferences around the world that will focus on addressing clergy abuse.

Affected are proposed standards of episcopal conduct and the forma-

High-level discussions Pope Francis meets with U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops representatives at the Vatican Oct. 8, just ahead of the USCCB fall general assembly in Baltimore. Seated across from the pope are Monsignor Jeffrey D. Burrill, USCCB associate general secretary; Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, USCCB vice president; Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, USCCB president, and Monsignor J. Brian Bransfield, general secretary of the conference.

ishop Richard F. Stika, who took part in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops general assembly in Baltimore Nov. 1214, expressed disappointment that he and his peers weren’t able to vote on proposals in response to the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Bishop Stika said that while the annual fall meeting of bishops covered a number of topics, the main areas of discussion surrounded Archbishops Theodore McCarrick and Carlo Maria Vigano.

Bishop Stika, who noted that while some of what the conference does is captured in the media, much more of what is done occurs behind the scenes in committee meetings, agreed that it will be better to get Bishops continued on page A9

He dwells among us

by Bishop Richard F. Stika

Holy exchange of gifts As God gathers us to Himself in holy sacrifice, what do we bring to Mass?

“That my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”

— Luke 2:19

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rying to find the ideal gift to give a loved one or a friend can be very difficult and even stressful. But when we find that perfect gift for someone, there is a special joy we experience in the surprised joy of the person who receives our gift. Now imagine if in giving our gift we were to receive an even greater gift in return from the person who received ours — our joy and theirs would be that of both giving and receiving!

Such should be our joy and that of Christ’s in the beautiful and holy exchange of gifts in every Mass. For in the gift of the Eucharist, Jesus makes us sharers in God’s own life! “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb!”

Does the Mass change your life?

Does it fill you with a peace and joy that the world cannot give?

Sadly, for far too many Catholics this is not the case. And I truly believe it is because in large part we have lost the true meaning of the offertory. For if the Mass is a holy exchange of gifts, the decisive mo-

Follow Bishop Richard Stika on Twitter @bishopstika and Facebook for news and events from the diocese. ment that determines this exchange is the offertory (the presentation of the gifts, preparation of the altar, and prayers over the offerings).

We must bring the offering of our very self in every Mass if we are to receive the gift of gifts in exchange.

Do we “attend” Mass or do we “assist” at Mass? Are we spectators or participants? To assist at Mass is not only to “pray the Mass,” but to be offered — “Through him, and with him, and in him….” And the offertory is that pivotal point.

Unfortunately, as one Catholic lamented, the offertory seems to be simply an “intermission” where we pause to sing and wait for the collection basket to come around, and for the gifts to be brought up to the altar. But if we see it that way, then in reality we offer nothing.

So crucial is the offertory that the music should be more instrumental and subdued, and proper time given to sacred silence, so that we might more prayerfully prepare the total and intimate gift of our life, with all its struggles and challenges, so as to offer it with the

bread upon the paten and the wine within the chalice on the altar.

The offertory is that crucial part of the Mass where we transition from the Liturgy of the Word — from the ambo — to the Liturgy of the Eucharist — to the altar. And it is the Introductory Rites and the Liturgy of the Word that help us to better prepare our offering. As St. Gregory the Great reminds us, “The Mass will be a sacrifice for us to God, when we have made an offering of ourselves.”

In the Penitential Act and Kyrie, we confess our sinfulness and ask for forgiveness and reconciliation, not only from God, but from the people of God as well. For every sin, no matter how personal, is nonetheless a social sin that harms the Body of Christ as well. Jesus tells us, “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). And so we do in every Mass. Only sac-

ramental confession, though, can wash us of serious sin — mortal sin.

In the Gloria that follows, we rejoice with all the angels and saints in the God who saves us from our sin. In it we are reminded of the four purposes of assisting at Mass: to adore the God of our salvation, to offer thanksgiving and praise, to seek atonement for our sins, and to petition the Lord to receive our prayer.

The Introductory Rites conclude with the “Collect,” the collective prayer of the faithful offered by the priest, wherein we pray for the grace to receive more fully the treasures of the mysteries of our faith.

We have thus been prepared for the Liturgy of the Word, that we might more keenly listen and make fruitful within our heart the “Good News” of the Lord.

Enriched by the Liturgy of the Word, we are then better able to renew the faith of our baptism, professed in the Creed, and to respond to God, who has spoken to us in the Scriptures. And in the prayer of the faithful that concludes the Liturgy of the Word, we petition for Bishop continued on page A16

Bishop Stika’s calendar of events December Prayer Intentions “That people, who are involved in the service and transmission of faith, may find, in their dialogue with culture, a language suited to the conditions of the present time.”

–– Pope Francis

”As we prepare to celebrate the solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, let us remember to honor and venerate His mother who, born free of sin, brings us closer to Jesus through her intercessions. May we also give thanks for the gift of her holy image given to us with her appearance as Our Lady of Guadalupe. Mary, mother of Jesus, pray for us.”

–– Bishop Stika

Upcoming Virtus training sessions set

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

The seminars are re-

A2 n DECEMBER 2, 2018

quired for parish and school employees and regular volunteers in contact with children and vulnerable adults.

The following training sessions are scheduled: n Basilica of Sts.

Peter and Paul, Chattanooga, 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Dec. 4. n St. Mary Church, Johnson City, 1 p.m.

Saturday, March 23; 1 p.m. Saturday, May 11. ■

These are some of Bishop Stika’s upcoming public appointments for the next month: n December 1: 11 a.m., Knights of Columbus Appreciation Mass and luncheon at the Christ Prince of Peace Retreat Center n December 2: 11 a.m., Mass for the first Sunday of Advent at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus n December 4: 7:30 a.m., interview with author and Seize the Day radio show host Gus Lloyd at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City n December 4: 10 a.m., visit to St. Jude School in Chattanooga n December 6: 1:05 p.m., Catholic leadership seminar at Sacred Heart Cathedral School n December 7: 10 a.m., Relevant Radio interview n December 7: 11 a.m., Finance Council meeting at the Chancery n December 8: 9 a.m., Mass for the diocesan men’s retreat at All Saints Church in Knoxville n December 9: 9 a.m., Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

www.di o k no x .o rg

Follow the diocese on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ knoxdiocese

n December 10: noon, Mass and luncheon with the Serra Club of Chattanooga n December 12: 7 p.m., Mass (in choir) for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus n December 19: 11:30 a.m., Mass and luncheon at the Chancery n December 23: 10 a.m., Mass and dedication of the altar at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga n December 24: Midnight Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus n December 25: 9 a.m., Christmas Day Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus n December 30: 9 a.m., Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus n January 2-8: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops-hosted spiritual retreat for bishops at Mundelein Seminary in Chicago n January 15: 11 a.m., general priest meeting at the Cathedral Parish Hall ■ Visit the diocese on Facebook: on.fb.me/ dioceseofknoxville

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

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DECEMBER 2, 2018 n A3

Pastoral Juvenil Hispana ministry aims to engage youth Program leader believes dialogue, diversity can engage and unite young people in the Diocese of Knoxville

By Emily Booker

COURTESY OF PASTORAL JUVENIL HISPANA

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Faces and hands of Jesus Participants in the Diocese of Knoxville’s Pastoral Juvenil Hispana are shown at a grotto as part of a book workshop hosted by the Southeast Pastoral Institute. Young adults from across the Southeast compile information and write a book of testimonials and devotions each year for use in the ministry. up with the ideas, and you’re kind of guiding them but letting them fail, too. You say, ‘Why don’t you try it? See how it goes.’ But more of that is giving them space to rise up as leaders, giving them space to own the group, to take ownership of it,” she said.

Several parishes in the diocese have Pastoral Juvenil ministries for youth and young adults. Some may wonder why a parish with an active youth group would need a Pastoral Juvenil youth group.

“There’s a mentality out there that youth ministry is one group,” Mrs. García said. “In the USCCB document Renewing the Vision on Youth Ministry we are encouraged to have several ministries for youth as well

and not to expect a one-size-fits-all ministry model.”

Just as adult parish groups are diversified — for women, men, prayer, social justice, music, hospitality, Bible study, etc. — youth and young adult ministry needs multiple avenues to reach the maximum number of people.

“We have this vision of youth ministry being one group, but really that’s not what our Church preaches,” she said. “It’s that unity in plurality is the way of the Catholic Church — the universal Church with all the cultures.”

“It’s hard in the U.S. because of our perspective of a melting pot. I think it comes from a very good intention of wanting unity; we want to

EMILY BOOKER

common question in the Church today is “How do we reach young people?”

With more young people leaving the Church or growing up without religion, connecting with the next generation can feel like a looming challenge.

Pastoral Juvenil Hispana is a ministry that takes on that challenge by providing space in the Church for young people of Hispanic/Latino heritage to express their spirituality and culture.

Brittany García, coordinator of Pastoral Juvenil Hispana for the Diocese of Knoxville, hopes to give Hispanic youth and young adults a space to express themselves, gain leadership skills, and most importantly, grow in their faith.

“Pastoral Juvenil Hispana — it is a distinct ministry. It is not just youth ministry or young adult ministry in Spanish. And a lot of people are confused about that. It’s not like we’re doing the exact same thing but in Spanish,” she said.

“Spanish is often their spiritual language, the language that they pray in even if they are bilingual...

But it goes deeper than that because there is so much culture that language is not the only factor.”

She said many Hispanic young people are trying to balance having one foot in Hispanic/Latino culture and one foot in mainstream American culture. Pastoral Juvenil is a space where that struggle is understood, and they can express their faith in a way that feels most authentic.

Pastoral Juvenil meetings follow a general structure that provides time for prayer, games, music, and teaching, but it adapts to the needs and desires of the group. Mrs. García explained that the ministry tries not to have one leader but rather encourages the young people to lead themselves.

“You let the young people come

It’s official Catholic Charities of East Tennessee officials open the expanded area of Samaritan Place. From left, Lisa Ingle, Paul Ritter, Mandy McKay, Lisa Healy, Ashley Cornell, and Christine White cut the ribbon on the expansion.

Catholic Charities’ Samaritan Place expands to house more seniors

By Emily Booker

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amaritan Place unveiled its larger quarters during a ribboncutting ceremony on Oct. 30.

The long-anticipated expansion project will allow the program to help more seniors in crisis.

“For every single person here who calls Samaritan Place home this is a place of comfort and refuge from life on the streets,” said Lisa Healy, interim executive director of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee. “This is a place to enjoy a good, warm meal without having to worry about where your next one is coming from; a place to lay your head at night, to sleep in peace and safety; a place to be supported by a loving staff each day who connects you to the resources in the community to support your journey toward independent living.

“We’re getting people off the streets, out of abusive living situations every day. Here at Samaritan Place, our senior citizens are cared for, supported, sheltered, and respected. And today, we get to welcome even more people home.”

Samaritan Place provides shelter and support for seniors in crisis, including short-term shelter and transitional housing services. There currently are 30 residents living there. The expansion has added 12

A4 n DECEMBER 2, 2018

beds — a 40 percent increase.

The expansion was made possible through the support of The Regal Foundation, The St. Mary’s Legacy Foundation, and the Haslam Foundation, as well as private donors Wes and Liz Stowers, Bruce and Sharon Bosse, Bruce and Tami Hartmann, Richard and Leslie Consoli, Tom and Florence Graves, Robert and Margaret Petrone, and contributors to Catholic Charities of East Tennessee’s 2017 #iGiveCatholic campaign.

Ms. Healy noted that two years ago in Knoxville almost 800 senior citizens over the age of 62 were reported as being homeless, with many being victims of violence and abuse. The goal of Samaritan Place is to help each client live in the most independent environment possible that still ensures their safety.

“Over the past year, we have accepted more than 50 homeless seniors into our emergency and transitional programs,” said Mandy McKay, program leader of Samaritan Place. “Out of those 50 individuals, 42 found successful, independent housing within Knox County. I am grateful to play a small part in those individuals’ lives on their journey to become more independent in society.

I am also thankful to have an amazing staff that treats each resident as a family member.” ■ www.di o k no x .o rg

be together. But the way that we see unity in the U.S. is often uniformity, that we’re all meant to be one group, so that’s why it’s hard to see the unity in plurality,” Mrs. García said.

“For intercultural ministry, it’s rather based on the salad bowl, where the tomatoes remain tomatoes and the croutons remain croutons and the lettuce remains lettuce, but together it has a better flavor…

All of these are just different expressions of the same faith and a different way to engage it,” she added.

With multiple ministries, young people are able to choose where they most resonate, which helps keep them involved in the parish and growing spiritually. From there, Juvenil continued on page A10

Pilgrimage to

POLAND including Budapest and Vienna

with Bishop Richard F. Stika and Deacon Sean Smith May 25-June 4, 2019

For More Information Contact:

We share your faith

Lisa Morris at 865-567-1245 lisam@select-intl.com www.selectinternationaltours.com

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

Pope Paul VI, Fr. Oscar Romero, five others canonized New saints risked all for the love of Jesus, lived lives marked by pain and criticism

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE/PAUL HARING

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arrying Pope Paul VI’s pastoral staff and wearing the blood-stained belt of Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, Pope Francis formally recognized them, and five others, as saints of the Catholic Church.

Thousands of pilgrims from the new saints’ home countries — Italy, El Salvador, Spain, and Germany — were joined by tens of thousands of others Oct. 14 in St. Peter’s Square to celebrate the universal recognition of the holiness of men and women they already knew were saints.

Carolina Escamilla, who traveled from San Salvador for the canonization, said she was “super happy” to be in Rome. “I don’t think there are words to describe all that we feel after such a long-awaited and longdesired moment like the ‘official’ canonization, because Archbishop Romero was already a saint when he was alive.”

Each of the new saints lived lives marked by pain and criticism — including from within the Church — but all of them dedicated themselves with passionate love to following Jesus and caring for the weak and the poor, Pope Francis said in his homily.

The new saints are: Paul VI, who led the last sessions of the Second Vatican Council and its initial implementation; Romero, who defended the poor, called for justice and was assassinated in 1980; Vincenzo Romano, an Italian priest who died in 1831; Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa, a Spanish nun who ministered in Mexico and Bolivia and died in 1943; Catherine Kasper, the 19th-century German founder of a religious order; Francesco Spinelli, a 19th-century priest and founder of a religious order; and Nunzio Sulprizio, a layman who died in Naples in 1836 at the age of 19.

“All these saints, in different contexts,” put the Gospel “into practice

By Cindy Wooden/Catholic News Service

Meeting the faithful Pope Francis prepares to greet the crowd after celebrating the canonization Mass for seven new saints in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Oct. 14. Among the newly canonized were St. Paul VI and St. Oscar Romero. in their lives, without lukewarmness, without calculation, with the passion to risk everything and to leave it all behind,” Pope Francis said in his homily.

The pope, who has spoken often about being personally inspired by both St. Paul VI and St. Oscar Romero, prayed that every Christian would follow the new saints’ examples by shunning an attachment to money, wealth, and power, and instead follow Jesus and share his love with others.

And he prayed the new saints would inspire the whole Church to set aside “structures that are no longer adequate for proclaiming the Gospel, those weights that slow down our mission, the strings that tie us to the world.”

Among those in St. Peter’s Square for the Mass was Rossi Bonilla, a Salvadoran now living in Barcelona.

“I’m really emotional, also because I did my Communion with Monsignor Romero when I was eight years old,” she told Catholic News Service.

“He was so important for the neediest; he was really with the people and kept strong when the repression started,” Ms. Bonilla said. “The struggle continues for the people, and so here we are!”

In his homily, Pope Francis said that “Jesus is radical.”

“He gives all and he asks all; he gives a love that is total and asks for an undivided heart,” the pope said.

“Even today he gives himself to us as the living bread; can we give him crumbs in exchange?”

Jesus, he said, “is not content with a ‘percentage of love.’ We cannot love him 20 or 50 or 60 percent.

It is either all or nothing” because “our heart is like a magnet — it lets itself be attracted by love, but it can cling to one master only and it must choose: either it will love God or it will love the world’s treasure; either it will live for love or it will live for itself.”

“A leap forward in love,” he said, is what would enable individual Christians and the whole Church to escape “complacency and

self-indulgence.”

Without passionate love, he said, “we find joy in some fleeting pleasure, we close ourselves off in useless gossip, we settle into the monotony of a Christian life without momentum where a little narcissism covers over the sadness of remaining unfulfilled.”

The day’s Gospel reading recounted the story of the rich young man who said he followed all the commandments and precepts of Jewish law, but he asks Jesus what more he must do to have eternal life.

“Jesus’ answer catches him off guard,” the pope said. “The Lord looks upon him and loves him. Jesus changes the perspective from commandments observed in order to obtain a reward, to a free and total love.”

In effect, he said, Jesus is telling the young man that not doing evil is not enough, nor is it enough to give a little charity or say a few prayers.

Following Jesus means giving him absolute first place in one’s life.

“He asks you to leave behind what weighs down your heart, to empty yourself of goods in order to make room for him, the only good.”

“Do we content ourselves with a few commandments or do we follow Jesus as lovers, really prepared to leave behind something for him?” the pope asked people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, including the 267 members of the Synod of Bishops and the 34 young people who were observers at the gathering.

“A heart unburdened by possessions, that freely loves the Lord, always spreads joy, that joy for which there is so much need today,” Pope Francis said. “Today Jesus invites us to return to the source of joy, which is the encounter with him, the courageous choice to risk everything to follow him, the satisfaction of leaving something behind in order to embrace his way.” ■

Witness to sainthood

Pope Paul VI is the second papal saint Cardinal Justin Rigali has served

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ardinal Justin Rigali had yet another front seat to history on Oct. 14 when Pope Francis canonized St. Paul VI and five others who led exemplary lives in serving the Catholic Church.

For Cardinal Rigali, the historic moment was especially poignant since he worked closely with Pope St. Paul VI for the last eight and a half years of the Holy Father’s life beginning in 1970.

Cardinal Rigali is never really far from the Church’s newest saint. Cherished photos of a young Father Rigali at the side of Paul VI during papal audiences and addresses keep him company in his office at the Chancery in Knoxville. A large, framed photo of the pontiff that has become a popular image hangs just above the cardinal’s desk.

A closer look reveals the cardinal dutifully accompanying the man revered for his leadership during and after the Second Vatican Council and other Church reforms.

In addition, St. Paul VI has been called the first “modern” pope whose encyclical Humanae Vitae still is widely embraced and whose efforts to bring the Gospel to the world are considered groundbreaking.

Cardinal Rigali describes the modernist pontiff as the first to travel by plane to reach far parts of the world. While air travel was established when Paul VI became pope on June 21, 1963, he was the first pontiff to use this modern form of world travel.

After serving as the pope’s English translator and director of the English-language department of the Vatican Secretariat of State, Cardinal Rigali said he and others recognized the pontiff’s unique gifts early on.

“Pope Paul VI died in 1978 and many of us were convinced that he was truly a saintly pope and that he would hopefully someday be declared a saint of the Catholic Church,” Cardinal Rigali said following the canonization. “Paul VI was an extraordinary human being, so kind.”

He pointed out that 40 years after the pope’s death, their hopes were realized.

“I was with him for eight and a half years.

Sometimes I was with him every day of the week; sometimes I was with him more than once a day. I just had the opportunity to be impressed by what he stood for, how he acted, how he lived, how he spoke, what he said. He was the pastor of the Church, the faithful pastor who was leading all of us in those very important years after the Second Vatican Council,” the cardinal said.

He pointed out that while Pope St. John XXIII initiated the Second Vatican Council and presided

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

BILL BREWER

By Bill Brewer

In service to a saintly pope Cardinal Justin Rigali displays two historic photos he cherishes from his work with Pope Paul VI. In both photos, Cardinal Rigali is shown just to the right of the pope as he served as English translator for the now St. Paul VI. over the council’s first session before dying on June 3, 1963, Pope Paul VI was called on to lead the council’s next three sessions in 1963, 1964, and 1965.

“It was Paul VI who came in and had to shepherd the Church through this enormous undertaking, and he did it so faithfully and so well. He always called our attention to the nature of the Church as the Body of Christ and the importance of us all being faithful to Christ,” Cardinal Rigali recalled.

When Cardinal Rigali joined the Secretariat of State in 1970, he soon learned that one of the pontiff’s unique gifts was teaching the nations about Christ. That emphasis on education took the pope and his translator around the world to such locales as Iran; Bangladesh, which was then East Pakistan; the Philippines, Australia, Samoa, American Samoa, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Sri Lanka when it was Ceylon.

He grew close to Pope Paul while serving as translator and was near the pontiff at the Manila airport in November 1970 when an assassin dressed as a priest made an attempt on the pope’s life. The assassin was accosted at the moment he tried to plunge a dagger into the pope’s chest, but the pontiff still sustained a minor knife wound.

“Luckily, he (the assassin) was impeded at the very last second. The night it happened I was with him translating for him,” the cardinal said.

The pontiff offered another glimpse into his saintly virtue by immediately brushing off the incident w ww.di o k no x .o rg

to instead focus on his trip to the Philippines.

Cardinal Rigali explained that during the last eight and a half years of Pope Paul VI’s life he learned that the pontiff preferred to speak Italian during audiences although he spoke English.

Among those in the private audiences were heads of state like President Richard Nixon, President Gerald Ford, and even a first mother.

“The very last audience I was with him — he died on Aug. 6, 1978 — and the last time I was with him was at the end of July when he gave an audience to the mother of the president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. That is the last time I translated for Paul VI,” the cardinal said.

Many of those memories were with Cardinal Rigali as he watched Pope Francis elevate the beloved Paul VI to sainthood. The cardinal was not going to miss the chance to be part of another Pope Paul VI historic moment.

And thinking of the pontiff’s many contributions to Church history, Cardinal Rigali couldn’t help but fondly compare St. Paul VI to his successor, Pope St. John Paul II, who continued Paul’s mission to bring the Gospel to the world and who Cardinal Rigali also dutifully served for years.

“Paul VI was the great teacher during and after the Second Vatican Council. His papacy lasted more than 15 years. When you read what Pope Paul VI said, you see what depth there is, what beauty there is,” Cardinal Rigali concluded. ■ DECEMBER 2, 2018 n A5

Sr. Mary Martha Naber celebrates 6th decade of healing ministry Knox native has devoted her consecrated life to extending Jesus’ compassion and caring to people in East Tennessee

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That inspiration has carried Sister Martha through six decades of religious life. She celebrated her 60th anniversary as a sister Aug. 4 at Mercy Convent in Nashville, 12 days before her actual anniversary date.

“It was wonderful,” she said. “It was primarily our sisters from Tennessee, but also there were a few who came from Louisville, Ky., and also several who came from Cincinnati to Nashville. My cousin, Father John Schork, is a Passionist priest, and he was the celebrant at my jubilee Mass.

Monsignor Bill Gahagan gave the homily, and also in attendance were Father Tom O’Connell, who is our chaplain here at the hospital, and Father Bill McKenzie.”

Mr. and Mrs. Naber’s only child went into religious life.

“I didn’t realize at the time what a sacrifice it was for my parents, because I was an only child,” Sister Martha said. “I was doing what I felt God was calling me to. They supported me very much, never let on, but afterward I learned a little bit more about how really hard it was for them.

I went to Cincinnati for the novitiate, and they would make that trip up to Cincinnati very faithfully when we could have visitors once a month.

It was an eight-hour drive. That was a sacrifice that they made.”

Sister Martha was among 21 who entered the community of the Sisters of Mercy in 1958.

“After I made my vows, I came back to Tennessee and taught school in Nashville for five years,” she said. “Then I was invited to come here to the hospital. I came here in 1968, stayed until 1980, then I was coordinator at St. Bernard Convent in Nashville for four years. I came back here in ’84 and have been here ever since, 46 years here.”

Being at the former St. Mary’s Hospital “has really been the greatest part of my ministry, being able to be alongside other Sisters who have been here over the years, along with some very dedicated employees and wonderful physicians,” Sister Martha said, “just really to share in that caring

Marking a milestone Sister Mary Martha Naber, RSM, is a Knoxville native who first began serving the St. Mary’s Hospital community in 1968.

“This has really been the greatest part of my ministry, being able to be alongside other sisters who have been here over the years, along with some very dedicated employees and wonderful physicians, just really to share in that caring and outreach to people who are sick and those who have special needs. It’s such a place where through the years we have extended the healing ministry of Jesus to the people in East Tennessee. All through the years, and even more in recent times, we have continued to do God’s work with a great deal of compassion and caring for people.”

— Sister Mary Martha Naber, RSM and outreach to people who are sick and those who have special needs. It’s such a place where through the years we have extended the healing ministry of Jesus to the people in East Tennessee. All through the years, and even in more recent times, we have continued to do God’s work with a great deal of compassion and caring for people.

DEACON PATRICK MURPHY-RACEY

Influenced by joy

DAN MCWILLIAMS

ister Mary Martha Naber, RSM, mission representative at Physicians Regional Medical Center (the former St. Mary’s Medical Center), couldn’t help but be influenced by the Sisters of Mercy as she discerned her vocation as a young woman in Knoxville.

“I was taught by the Sisters of Mercy,” she said.

“They were at school from grades one through 12. I went to St. Mary’s grade school on the hill next to Immaculate Conception Church. We had sisters there teaching in practically every grade.

Grades one through eight. Then I went to Knoxville Catholic High School on Magnolia [Avenue], and again we had sisters teaching there.

“My parents, George and Alma Naber, were both very active at church and in the school, so I was always around the sisters, even outside of school time. I admired the sisters. I saw how joyful they were, along with being people of prayer.

Their example is really what inspired me.”

By Dan McWilliams

Setting an example

“I think the example of the sisters has attracted other people who share those same values. Even though we have A lifetime of service Sister Mary Martha Naber, RSM, has worked with had fewer sisters in more the area’s Catholic health-care community from her office at St. Mary’s. recent years, the employees and the doctors still exhibit an attitude of serSister Martha has seen major changes in religious vice. That’s what really makes it so hard now to life since she has been in the Sisters of Mercy. see that the hospital is closing, but we’re very, “In religious life, following Vatican II, there very grateful for the 88 years that the hospital were major changes that Vatican II called rehas served the Knoxville and surrounding comligious to go back to our roots and reflect on munities, and we’ve done it with a great deal of the spirit of our foundresses,” she said. “We, compassion and generosity and have had such as Sisters of Mercy, had wonderful leaders who dedicated and wonderful physicians.”

Sister Martha continued on page A14

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Sr. Mary Timothea Elliott marks 60 years of consecrated service Co-foundress of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich., is renowned as a Scripture scholar

“I had the sisters in high school. I went to Our Lady of Mercy High School in Detroit,” she said.

“And I was really struck by the joy in the sisters.

I had been with one community of sisters from grade one through four, and another Community from five through eight, and then the Mercies for high school. I found the sisters had a real strong community life, and I liked to be with them because they were so joyful and positive, and they were great teachers.”

Her vice provincial at the convent teasingly suggested naming her Draclan or Hannah instead of Timothea.

“I thought, Draclan sounds a lot like Dracula,” she said. “And then we had a great aunt Hannah in our family who was kind of a joke.

Whenever somebody was sick, she would make pea soup and send it to them, and you could stand a butcher knife up in the bowl, it was so thick. That was the only connotation I had for Hannah.”

Sister Timothea’s younger brother, born when she was a freshman in high school, is the director of the diaconate for the Diocese of Knoxville.

“My brother, Tim, Deacon Tim, is my godchild,” Sister Timothea said. “I named him Timothy, and it turned out that I received the feminine form of the name when I received the habit.

We’ve always been close, especially since I’m his godmother.”

Serving alongside her brother was a key component in her coming to Knoxville in 2010.

“When Bishop [Richard F.] Stika, through [chancellor] Deacon Sean [Smith] and [vicar general] Father [David] Boettner, asked if I could come to Knoxville — I was stationed in Denver, Colo., at the time — the bishop said, ‘Do you think you can work with [Deacon Elliott]?’” Sister Timothea recalled. “And he asked Tim the same question, ‘Do you think you can get along with your sister?’ because he wanted us to work together, setting up the new deacon education program. And Tim said, ‘I don’t know. I haven’t lived in the same state with her for 38 years.’ But we’ve worked well together. I’ve recruited faculty for him for the diaconate formation program.”

Scholarly pursuits

Sister Timothea was a professor in Rome from 1974 to 1991. She was a lecturer at the Institute of Continuing Theological Education at The North American College in Rome from 1984 to 1991, as

Celebrating six decades of service Sister Mary Timothea Elliott, RSM, shown in her office in the Chancery, marked her milestone with her community, the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich.

“I had the sisters in high school. I went to Our Lady of Mercy High School in Detroit. And I was really struck by the joy in the sisters. I had been with one community of sisters from grade one through four, and another community from five through eight, and then the Mercies for high school. I found the sisters had a real strong community life, and I liked to be with them because they were so joyful and positive, and they were great teachers.”

— Sister Mary Timothea Elliott, RSM well as a professor of Old Testament Scripture at The Pontifical Gregorian University there from 1987 to 1991, and a professor of Biblical Hebrew from 1984 to 1991 at The Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

Those years provide some of her fondest memories of religious life.

“I think my 17 years in Rome as a block of time was very special. It was during the reign of Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul I, and Pope John Paul II,” she said. “I just feel like their teachings and Active community life Sister Mary Timothea Elliott relishes her work all were part of a spiritual for- in the Religious Sisters of Mercy convent in West Knoxville. mation for me at the same time where you can get what is called an SSD degree, I was doing biblical studies and teaching, and meaning a doctorate in sacred Scripture. It’s a teaching at the Biblical Institute in Rome.

“I was one of the first women ever on the facvery special institute, founded by Pope Pius X. ulty there. For many years I was the only woman All of the faculty are chosen by the Holy Father, in the classes because the entrance requirements for one thing. There’s no tenure. You are expectwere very high, and many women didn’t have ed to keep up on your studies and publications. access to them at that time.”

“The license is a four-year program. There Sister Timothea earned her bachelor’s degree were 180 in the year I started. Maybe 20 would in elementary education and American history register for the doctorate after completing the from Mercy College of Detroit in 1960 and her license. The Institute requires an honors average master’s degree in theology from the University before you can apply. If 20 began the doctorate, of Notre Dame in Indiana in 1965. At the Pontifithree would finish — it’s very small — because of the length of time it takes to do the studies. cal Biblical Institute, she received her licentiate in You have what is called a doctoral year where Sacred Scripture in 1979 and her doctorate in the you fill in the background of the area in which field in 1987. At her commencements at Notre you want to do your dissertation. Then you have Dame and the Biblical Institute, she graduated a public exam at the end of that year, and you magna cum laude. publish a paper. Then you may begin your dis “I focused primarily on the Old Testament when I was doing my studies and writing my sertation, and that takes six to nine years. It’s doctoral dissertation. The study at the Biblical Inrigorous.” stitute is long and difficult,” she said. “To begin Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, is one of with, you have to master 10 languages, enough the 10 languages Sister Timothea had to learn as to do research and write. It’s the only university Sister Timothea continued on page A14

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STEPHANIE RICHER

Also influenced by joy

DAN MCWILLIAMS

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ister Mary Timothea Elliott, RSM, has been a professor in Rome, a retreat leader around the United States, and much more in her six decades of religious life.

“In 60 years of time, lots of things happen,” she said.

Sister Timothea celebrated her 60th anniversary of religious life Aug. 16 at the motherhouse of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich.

“It was a lovely, lovely day, celebrating with all the sisters,” she said.

She took her first vows Aug. 16, 1958.

“I started out teaching in elementary school and had no idea that within a short time I would be teaching in colleges and universities. It’s been interesting,” she said.

The RSMs of Alma were founded in 1973, with Sister Timothea as one of the co-foundresses.

She began religious life in the Religious Sisters of Mercy, founded in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831 by Venerable Mother Catherine McAuley.

Before entering the convent, she was a young Margaret Anne Elliott.

By Dan McWilliams

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

Bishops continued from page A1

guidance from Pope Francis on addressing the sex abuse crisis after the Holy Father meets with the presidents of all episcopal conferences across the globe in Rome in February.

“Rather than quickly voting on something and then having to finetune or re-tune it, it is better to get it right,” Bishop Stika said following the general assembly.

The USCCB’s primary topic of discussion was set after Pope Francis accepted Cardinal McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals in July following allegations of sexual abuse against the former cardinal.

Then Archbishop Vigano, retired papal nuncio to the United States, in August released an 11-page letter asserting that Pope Francis knew of allegations against Archbishop McCarrick five years before accepting the former cardinal’s resignation.

Also in August, a Pennsylvania grand jury issued a report saying Crisis continued from page A1

tion of a special commission for review of complaints against bishops for violations of the standards.

Cardinal DiNardo said he was disappointed that no action would be taken during the assembly, but that he was hopeful that the delay “will improve our response to the crisis we face.”

The cardinal’s announcement came two days after Pope Francis met with Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, at the Vatican. Archbishop Pierre returned to the United States Nov. 11 in time for the first day of the U.S. bishops’ general fall assembly in Baltimore.

However, at a midday news conference, Cardinal DiNardo said the request to delay action came from the Congregation for Bishops.

The assembly planned to move forward with discussion of both proposals from the bishop’s Administrative Committee.

The Administrative Committee consists of the officers, chairmen, and regional representatives of the USCCB. The committee, which meets in March and September, is the highest authority of the USCCB outside of the full body of bishops when they meet for their fall and spring general assemblies.

In response, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago suggested the general assembly move forward with its discussion of the two proposals. He also called for a special assembly in March to weigh and vote on the measures after being informed by the outcome of the February meeting in Rome.

“It is clear that the Holy See is taking seriously the abuse crisis in the Church,” Cardinal Cupich said, adding that the February meeting was a “watershed moment” in Church history.

“We need to be clear where we stand and tell our people where we stand,” he said.

Later in the morning session, just before the assembly adjourned for a day of prayer and penitence, Cardinal DiNardo opened his presidential address pointing to the weakness within the Church that has led to the clergy abuse

Addressing the issues Bishop Richard F. Stika met with fellow bishops at the USCCB general assembly Nov. 12-14. the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years.

The cardinal’s resignation, archbishop’s letter, and grand jury report — and the public response to them — have prompted the U.S. bishops to act.

“We had great hope that the conference would be able to address accountability of bishops and send something to Rome. We spent (Nov. 12) in a day of prayer, with Mass at the end of the day. And there was continuous holy hour, and within the context of holy hour we had speakers who were (abuse) victims. It was very sobering within the context of prayer. And it was very challenging to the bishops to do something, to better police the college of bishops as well as to better reach out to victims, and to reassure the people in the pews that we are doing something and we have been doing something since 2002,” Bishop Stika said, referring to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People adopted in 2002 by the USCCB. Bishops continued on page A17

Bishops discuss former cardinal in USCCB meeting

By Ed Condon Catholic News Agency/EWTN

The Bishops of the United States resumed their openfloor discussion on the recent sexual abuse scandals facing the Church in America Nov. 14. And in addition to debating the best means of institutionally responding to the crisis, the specific case of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick was raised by several speakers.

Bishop Richard F. Stika of the Diocese of Knoxville told the USCCB continued on page A13

ahead. Let us draw near to Christ today sacrificing for Him our own ambitions and promptly submit ourselves totally to what He demands of us both in love and justice,” he said.

In his seven-minute address, the cardinal said he read that St. Augustine warned there are two extremes that pose dangers to the faithful — despair and presumption.

“We and the faithful can fall into despair believing that there is no hope for the Church or [for] good change in the Church. We can also believe that there are no hopes for healing from these sins,” he said.

“But we must always remember that there is a thing called trusting faith, and it leads us on our current journey. This trusting faith provides us roots, roots for a living memory. Our people need this living memory of hope,” he said.

Presumption can lull the Church into inactivity, he added, “by presuming that this will blow over, that things simply return to normal on their own.

Some would say this is entirely a crisis of the past, and it is not. We must CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS BY RICK MUSACCHIO, BOB ROLLER, KEVIN J. PARKS, VATICAN MEDIA never victimize survivors over again General assembly scenes Top left, bishops gather in prayer; top right, Cardi- by demanding that hey heal on our nal Daniel DiNardo addresses the group; middle left, USCCB leadership panel timeline.” presides; middle right, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, addresses the assembly; While the majority of abuse incibottom left, Bishop William Medley of Owensboro, Ky., Archbishop Charles C. dents occurred decades ago, the pain Thompson of Indianapolis, and Bishop J. Mark Spalding of Nashville discuss; among victims “is daily and present,” bottom right, protesters speak to the media outside the general assembly. he continued and warned against leaving behind people who have been hurt crisis.

Cardinal DiNardo urged the bishops by clergy.

Repeatedly citing the words of St. to root themselves in the life and teach- “In justice we must search for every Augustine, he said “in order that ing of Jesus to lead the church and the child of God whose innocence is lost to weakness might become strong, victims of abuse to healing. He also a horrific predator at any time decades strength became weak.” called for the bishops to focus on the ago or this very day,” Cardinal DiNar He called for action to lift the entire needs of victims so that “our example do said. brotherhood of bishops from a place will not lead a single person away He explained that healing can result of ––––weakness that has allowed the from the Lord.” through forgiveness, adding, “Let us clergy sex abuse crisis to exist. While He also said that the bishops must not only be willing but also ready and there were to be no votes on specific be as accountable as anyone else in eager to ask for forgiveness.” action at the meeting, he said the deministry in the Church, and that they, “Combating the evil of sexual asliberations the bishops would underlike priests and other Church workers, sault in the Church will require all our take would set them on the route to must adhere to the same standards of spiritual and physical resources,” he healing for the Church and for victims conduct identified in the “Charter for said. “We must draw near to Christ of abuse. the Protection of Children and Young in our sorrow, in humility, and in He also held up his own weakness People.” contrition to better hear His voice and to victims, saying: “Where I have not “Whether we will be remembered as discern His will. It is only after listenbeen watchful or alert to your needs, guardians of the abused or of the abus- ing that we can carry out the changes wherever I have failed, I am deeply er will be determined by our action needed, the changes the people of sorry.” beginning this week and the months God are rightfully demanding.” ■

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Indie couple gets ‘Gosnell’ movie made against all odds Hollywood balks at getting behind pro-life project, producer tells Tennessee Right to Life supporters

BILL BREWER

H

ollywood is always quick to embrace a true-life drama rich in pathos, conflict, interesting characters, and suspense … or so it would seem.

But when Irish journalists/producers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer were transforming their bestselling book “Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer” into a movie, interest was scarce.

And so began their independent odyssey to bring the non-fiction story to life on the movie screen. After four years and nearly $3 million spent developing the film “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer,” the husband-and-wife journalism team is ready for crowds to see their movie in

On a mission Ann McElhinney bucked the Hollywood system to get the “Gosnell” movie made. theaters.

So far, that isn’t happening. While

the movie has attracted interest, widespread buzz about the feature-length film has been muted, a situation Mrs. McElhinney blames on Hollywood and its pro-choice culture, which is shared around the United States.

The book and movie are based on the legal case against Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the notorious Philadelphia abortionist who was convicted of firstdegree murder in the killings of three infants born alive in his abortion clinic and involuntary manslaughter in the death of an abortion patient, Karnamaya Mongar. Dr. Gosnell also was convicted of 21 counts of performing illegal late-term abortions and 211 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s 24hour informed consent law.

The abortion doctor agreed not

A10 n DECEMBER 2, 2018

COURTESY OF PASTORAL JUVENIL HISPANA

Juvenil continued from page A4

ministries can build bridges, working together and helping support one another, in order to build a stronger parish where more people feel included.

Pastoral Juvenil Hispana also connects young people to the larger Church through national and regional events. These events provide resources to take back to parishes as well as a stage for parishes to share their successes to help others.

La Red, which means “The Net” in Spanish, is the national organization for Pastoral Juvenil Hispana. Member dioceses send representatives to the annual membership meeting. In November, the Diocese of Knoxville sent four representatives to the national meeting in Chicago.

At the meeting, Mrs. García was elected secretary of the executive committee for La Red. She previously served two years as a vocal, or member-at-large, on the board.

The new position comes with more responsibility in helping plan national meetings. La Red is entirely volunteer-based.

The keynote speakers were young people, mostly from the Chicago area, sharing how Pastoral Juvenil Hispana had impacted their lives.

The meeting also offered breakout sessions focusing on a range of topics affecting young people today.

The diocese also participates in events on a regional level.

The Southeast Pastoral Institute (SEPI), the regional office for Hispanic Ministry in the Southeast, offers a nine-day Pastoral Juvenil training course, which teaches leadership techniques and how to communicate in groups. The diocese has participated twice in this course.

SEPI also hosts a book workshop each year, with young people guiding the creation of a book, Libro de la Pascua. Pascua means Easter in Spanish; traditionally the book was compiled during the Easter season.

“The young people themselves participate in picking a title for the book, the theme of the book, and then we break it down into chapters,” Mrs. García said. “The whole work of this entire book is done by the young people themselves in the Southeast. And every single year there’s a new book, new theme, new focus, and different chapters.”

The book includes testimonials, prayers, and reflections on Church documents and Scripture. At the final workshop, everyone receives a copy of the book and learns how to use it as a resource with other young people in their own parishes. This year, the Diocese of Knoxville had 15 young adults representing the diocese at these book workshops.

“Even though 15 worked directly on the book, there are many more that benefit from the book because these are representatives from different groups that will then go back and work this book with the whole group that wasn’t able to come,” Mrs. García explained.

While these events are educational and provide resources to bring back and implement in the diocese, work at the national level also serves as an opportunity to share the successes from the diocese in order to help others.

On Oct. 16, Mrs. García spoke at the Mission Bishops Conference organized by Catholic Extension. The

A growing community Participants in Pastoral Juvenil Hispana engage in a group discussion about issues and activities pertaining to Hispanic youth. The Diocese of Knoxville is reaching out to East Tennessee Hispanic youth through programs such as Pastoral Juvenil Hispana.

70 or so bishops attending all represented mission dioceses in the United States. Mrs. García served on a threeperson panel discussing Pastoral Juvenil. She focused on her background of being raised in an evangelical Protestant church, and what lessons Catholics can learn from our Protestant brothers and sisters regarding ministry.

Catholic Extension also shared a video on Pastoral Juvenil filmed in the diocese. Jim Wogan, director of communications for the Diocese of Knoxville, provided footage of Pastoral Juvenil meetings at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City and St. Patrick Church in Morristown.

Mrs. García also had the opportunity to speak on the main stage at the National V Encuentro in Grapevine, Texas, this fall. She was on a panel discussing the fruits of the Encuentro in reaching young adults.

“It was really special, really humbling, because our diocese — you know, 2.7 percent Catholic — was about to be represented on the main stage at that event, and I felt like that was just really incredible, how they invited us to be a part of that as a diocese, a small mission diocese that got to be a part of this national event.”

She shared with more than 3,000 attendees from all over the country how the Diocese of Knoxville had used the Encuentro as an opportunity to listen to and accompany young people and hear what their needs and wants from the Church were.

One example of this is a retreat for Catholic school students held in May 2017 at Christ Prince of Peace Retreat Center in Benton. The retreat focused on engaging young leaders in grades 7-12 in the Encuentro process.

“We realized a lot of young people weren’t really as involved on the parish level as we hoped, because the focus was youth and young adults,” Mrs. García said. “That was an effort to engage more young people. It was an effort between the Catholic Schools Office, Pastoral Juvenil, the Youth and Young Adult Ministry Office, and Hispanic Ministry — so those four ministries coming together to host this one-day retreat for Catholic school students.”

Many youth at that retreat expressed that music and sports events would help them engage their friends and family members who currently

weren’t engaged in the Church. From that listening session came the Diocesan Soccer Tournament, now in its second year. Mrs. García said they also are working to incorporate more music at retreats and times for praise and worship at events in response to

By Bill Brewer

to appeal his 2013 conviction in exchange for avoiding the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Mrs. McElhinney was the keynote speaker Oct. 15 at the Knox County chapter of Tennessee Right to Life’s annual banquet held at the Knoxville Convention Center. The banquet and its speaker attracted about 400 attendees.

The depravity of Dr. Gosnell’s crimes first grabbed the attention of Mrs. McElhinney and Mr. McAleer.

Then the community of enablers who endorsed the doctor’s grisly practices — from his neighborhood clinic workers and patients to Pennsylvania’s governor and that state’s bureaucracy Gosnell continued on page A17

the youths’ requests.

“From that we were like, ‘OK, we’ve listened to the youth. Now let’s listen to the young adults,’” Mrs. García said. “And when I listened to the young adults, their priority, No. 1 over all, was leadership and faith formation — that they were hungry for that. They needed that.”

In response to that, she was able to arrange for Instituda Fe de Vida, the Institute of Faith and Life, to come to the diocese and lead a series of weekend courses on leadership and faith formation in Pastoral Juvenil.

“We’re seeing a lot of fruit from listening through the V Encuentro, listening to what the youth and young people are saying their needs are and from there being able to act on them. We think it will keep bearing fruit in the future,” she said.

Being able to share the successes of Pastoral Juvenil in the diocese on a national level is rewarding. And it shows that the lessons and techniques for engaging young people learned at national and regional events are being brought back and implemented where they are most needed: the parishes. ■

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

Landmark changes Left: The former St. Mary’s Hospital, now Tennova Physicians Regional Medical Center, will close Dec. 28.

Below: Sister Margaret Turk, RSM, comforts a patient at the former St. Mary’s Hospital.

The Sisters of Mercy have served the hospital in Knoxville since it opened in 1930.

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

the sisters.’”

The legacy of St. Mary’s Hospital “lives on in the hearts and the experiences of people who have been part of St. Mary’s, from the people who have been served here as patients — many generations of families have been served through St. Mary’s,” Sister Martha said. “And also, of course, I don’t know how many employees who have been here providing wonderful services, the nurses and support services, and certainly magnificent doctors.

The legacy lives on in the hearts and the memories of all the people who have ever walked through these halls and have been part of St. Mary’s.”

Those include founding administrator Sister Annunciata Dannaher, RSM, and Dr. Herbert Acuff, Sister Martha said.

“From the very beginning, Dr. Herbert Acuff was the first medical director. He and Sister Annunciata were a wonderful team who worked together, really on the cutting edge of many services. He was recognized even internationally,” she said.

Sister Albertine, also the director of pilgrimages for the Diocese of Knoxville, said the legacy of St. Mary’s is in the sisters who have served there.

“Having known so many sisters who were here, worked here, lived here, ministered here, having lived here myself for close to 30 years, I think the biggest legacy has been in the lives and example of the sisters and the way they showed care and concern for everybody — for patients, for families,” she said. “I’m reminded of Sister Assisium, who said, ‘Every baby is beautiful. There is no not-beautiful baby.’ She would not ever let a baby go uncared for.

“I’m reminded of strong, strong women, like Sister Annunciata Dannaher — marvelous, marvelous woman. God’s gift, because they say that she would walk along the hall and she’d see the dust mite over there that somebody missed. She was also considered the best ‘businessman’ in town.”

Sister Martha said the Sisters of Mercy over the years have provided “wonderful service.”

“I think there have been over 100 sisters who have served here. I feel very privileged, it’s a great honor, very humbled, to be here, along with Sister Albertine, as we kind of close the book on this ministry.”

The original sisters at St. Mary “set the bar very high” from the start, Sister Martha said.

“It was in the middle of the Depression that the hospital opened.

The sisters and the staff had a lot of support of the community and the doctors. The doctors were the ones who went to the bishop in Nashville and wanted a sisters’ hospital in Knoxville because of the reputation of Catholic hospitals in other areas.”

The doctors went to the bishop, and he approached the Sisters of Mercy, as far back as 1919. North Knoxville resident Daniel Dewine got the ball rolling on the hospital project in 1926 when he donated his Oak Hill property to the Diocese of Nashville, which then covered the whole state. Mr. Dewine died in 1927, but surviving daughter Lillian Dewine Harris contacted Bishop Alphonse J. Smith insisting that the hospital be established in memory of her late sister, Mary Joseph “Mamie” Dewine. The bishop agreed, calling the new entity St. Mary’s Memorial Hospital.

The Sisters of Mercy enlisted the help of Mrs. Guy (Blanche) Darst,

DEACON PATRICK MURPHY-RACEY

COURTESY OF KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL

Hospital from page A1

Turkey Creek Medical –Center has increased the number of general medical/surgical beds, created additional operating rooms, and added intensive-care unit beds to accommodate increased and more complex general and cardiovascular surgical cases. Open-heart surgery and neurosurgery services have been consolidated at Turkey Creek. A new cardiovascular intensive care unit is targeted to be complete in spring 2019.

Enhancements are also being made at the Tennova hospitals in Jefferson City, LaFollette, and Newport to strengthen medical services and provide higher acuity care, including recruitment of more providers to practice in the communities.

Many employees and physicians have already transitioned to North Knoxville Medical Center and Turkey Creek Medical Center as the services they provide moved from Physicians Regional, the Tennova release stated.

Job fairs are being held to help remaining employees identify positions at the North Knoxville and Turkey Creek medical centers, other Tennova hospitals, or regional providers where their skills may be a good fit.

“Every individual employee and physician at the hospitals is valued for their unique role in caring for patients,” Mr. Benton said. “It is through their commitment that thousands of patients have received compassionate, quality care over the years.”

Winding down Physicians Regional Medical Center and Lakeway Regional Hospital will focus Tennova’s resources on enhancement of North Knoxville Medical Center and Turkey Creek Medical Center and development of new centers for services. Tennova is continuing in its work with local physician partners to pursue opportunities to develop new outpatient care sites, including property on Middlebrook Pike Tennova has acquired. The health system will announce those developments in the future as plans are finalized.

The closing of the old St. Mary’s Hospital will impact many lives, not the least of which will be those of the two Sisters of Mercy who still serve there. Sister Mary Martha Naber, RSM, is the mission representative for the hospital, and along with Sister Mary Albertine Paulus, RSM, visits patients and their families staying at the hospital. Sister Yvette Gillen, RSM, also recently lived in the Sisters of Mercy convent adjacent to the hospital until recently, when she relocated to Maryville to be near Our Lady of Fatima Parish, where she serves as pastoral associate and director of faith formation.

They continue the healing ministry the Sisters of Mercy began when St. Mary’s Hospital opened in 1930.

Sister Martha said the closing of the old St. Mary’s will certainly impact the North Knoxville community.

“Unfortunately, there have been many, many people, especially families, who have always come to St. Mary’s and always have continued to call it St. Mary’s, even though we’ve had several name changes,” she said. “That’s a major loss for many families. It’s also a loss for the community in North Knoxville and maybe East [Knoxville]. Many of the homeless and people who were lacking finances frequently come here, and we’ve always cared for them through the years.”

Sister Albertine agreed, saying that the closing will leave “a huge, huge hole, because this is the place where people in this area, so many of whom are in need, this is the place they could come. People have come for so many things. There’s always been a clothes closet and a food pantry, these extra things, and a fund to help employees. Those are the extra things, besides it being an excellent hospital.

“It’s just in the DNA of people in this part of the city, especially families who have been here a long time.

I keep meeting people — I met one just this afternoon at the doctor’s office, [who said] ‘It’s not right. What are we going to do? We have to have you around here. We have to have

and fundraising efforts were begun.

Five sisters were withdrawn from school and sent away for professional preparation: Sister Mary Annunciata Dannaher for business and administration; Sister Mary Magdalen Clarke for X-ray; and Sisters Mary Celeste O’Rourke, Rose O’Keefe, and Bernard Fleming for nursing.

Groundbreaking was held Feb. 24, 1929, and the dedication Mass was held April 22, 1930, at the entrance doorway by Father J. Wilson Cunningham, first chaplain of the new hospital. The new hospital had 75 beds, and a crowd of 40,000 attended the dedication and open house.

At 10:30 p.m. on the evening of its dedication, St. Mary’s received its first patient, 6-year-old Lillian Howell. The next morning, Dr. R.L. McReynolds removed her tonsils. By the end of 1930, St. Mary’s had admitted 1,484 patients, performed 931 operations, and delivered 160 babies.

St. Mary’s School of Nursing, under the direction of Sister Mary Celeste, graduated its first class of 12 in 1933. In 1937, Knoxville’s first tumor cancer clinic was opened at St. Mary’s to serve East Tennessee and the surrounding area. The East Wing was built in 1939, bringing the total number of beds to 125. In 1946, the city block facing the hospital was purchased for the School of Nursing.

In 1952, an outpatient department opened for the needy, sick, and poor.

The hospital celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1955. In 1957, Mercy Hall (later named Celeste Hall) School of Nursing and residence opened on Emerald Avenue, accommodating 150 students. Open-heart surgery was performed for the first time at St. Mary’s the same year. In 1958, the Marian Wing opened, adding 80 beds.

Sister Annunciata died in 1963, the same year Knoxville’s first intensivecare unit opened at St. Mary’s. In 1968, East Tennessee’s first cardiac care unit opened at St. Mary’s. Sister Marie Moore, RSM, was named administrator in 1971.

In 1972, Magdalen Clarke Tower opened, only a few days after the death of its namesake, Sister Mary Magdalen. In 1976, St. Mary’s Memorial Hospital changed its name to St. Mary’s Medical Center to reflect its widening range of services.

In 1980, St. Mary’s marked 50 years with more expansion, including a new Central Wing, professional office building, and parking garage.

L. Lynn Nipper was appointed president in 1983, the first layperson to hold the position. St. Mary’s Health System was formed in 1984. The School of Nursing closed in 1988, graduating its final class of 20. St. Mary’s celebrated 60 years in 1990 with a series of special events.

In 1994, St. Mary’s became one of the first hospitals in the state to be directly connected to the Internet.

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In 1999, St. Mary’s Residential Hospice opened in Halls, as did the St. Mary’s Ambulatory Surgery Center at the main campus, and the St. Mary’s Health & Fitness Center in Powell, which is across Dannaher Drive from Tennova’s North Knoxville Medical Center.

In 2000, LaFollette Medical Center joined St. Mary’s Health System, and St. Mary’s Villa at Halls, a HUD housing complex, opened. In 2004, St. Mary’s North (now North Knoxville Medical Center) opened in Powell.

The original hospital held a 75thanniversary birthday party, Mass, and gala in 2005, among many other events. Knoxville Bishop Joseph E. Kurtz was greatly involved in the proceedings.

St. Mary’s Health System and Baptist Health System merged in 2007.

In January 2008, St. Mary’s Health System President and CEO Debra London announced that a new umbrella organization, Mercy Health Partners, would govern the merged systems. Tennova then acquired the merged operation in 2011.

Becky Dodson, vice president of Tennova Healthcare who has been with the hospital for more than three decades, shares the Sisters of Mercy’s sentiments.

“It has been an honor to support the healing ministry at St. Mary’s hospital over my 33-plus-year career. I have worked with so many wonderful physicians, leaders, and dedicated employees over the years and we have all had the privilege of walking with patients and families during very spiritual moments — from the first breath to the last breath of life,” Mrs. Dodson said.

“I am particularly grateful to the Sisters of Mercy who have provided both strong leadership and compassionate ministry. They are a beloved gift to not only the Catholic community but to all of East Tennessee.

“Though the season of St. Mary’s is coming to a close, the many fond memories and commitment to meeting the health-care needs in our community will continue on,” she noted.

What does the future hold for Sister Martha and Sister Albertine?

“As soon as our work is done here, we will stay through finishing up and making sure that all the religious and the sacred [artifacts are properly disposed of], and whatever we can do to support individuals during this time,” Sister Martha said. “We anticipate probably sometime in February moving to Nashville to Mercy Convent.”

Meanwhile, in her last days at the hospital, Sister Martha takes strength from a framed statement on her office wall.

“The Tennova mission statement says that we’re grounded by our faith in God, and we take that very seriously,” she said. ■ DECEMBER 2, 2018 n A11

Bishop Stika presides as 51 couples renew their wedding vows Husbands, wives share colorful stories at Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Mass

STEPHANIE RICHER

D

avid and Martha Yoro can stand out in a crowd.

At least they did on Oct. 13 when they renewed their wedding vows during the Diocese of Knoxville’s annual marriage Mass celebrated by Bishop Richard F. Stika.

The Yoros, members of Holy Cross Church in Pigeon Forge, were joined by 51 other couples from around the diocese for the annual Mass in which couples reaffirm their vows.

Not only did the Yoros celebrate their 61-year marriage, they also celebrated the unique way they’ve lovingly shared each other’s lifestyles and traditions.

Sitting in the front of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Mr. and Mrs. Yoro were wearing kukui nut and seashell leis, which in Mr. Yoro’s native Hawaii are worn to symbolize happy events. The leis accessorized the matching Hawaiian tops the Yoros were decked out in to mark the occasion.

Renewing their vows after six decades has been a fascinating journey for the Yoros, who have three children and grandchildren. Two of the children still live in Hawaii and one child now lives in East Tennessee.

After their marriage and a short stint in Gatlinburg, Knoxville native Martha Yoro joined her husband on the island of Oahu, where they lived, worked, and raised a family for 48 years. They met in 1954 when he was in the U.S. Army stationed in Germany and she was in Germany with her family while her stepfather served in the U.S. Navy.

“David played football for the U.S. Army team.

We met on the football field in 1954, and we got married in 1957,” she said, explaining that she was Southern Baptist and he was Catholic.

Among the many words the Yoros can use to describe their six-decade marriage, adjustment is top of mind.

By Bill Brewer

Celebrating marriage Bishop Richard F. Stika, center, is surrounded by Diocese of Knoxville couples who renewed their vows during a special Mass on Oct. 13 at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Bishop Stika celebrated the Mass.

Mrs. Yoro, 79, said relocating from East Tennessee to Hawaii as a young woman was an experience she won’t forget. Likewise, re-relocating from the Hawaiian Islands back to Sevier County has been an interesting experience for Mr. Yoro, who is of Filipino descent.

While living in Hawaii, the Yoros made it back to East Tennessee for only three vacations. In deciding to move back, Mrs. Yoro said “the mountains called me.”

“It was an adjustment, but I loved it,” Mrs. Yoro

said of moving to Oahu in the 1950s. And about her husband now being an East Tennessean, “he loves it. He loves the change of seasons,” she added.

Mr. Yoro, 83, noted that his time in the Army prepared him for living in different locations.

“I know we can always go back to Hawaii, but I enjoy living my wife’s lifestyle. It’s a slower lifestyle, not fast-paced. It’s laid back. Hawaii is hustle and bustle,” he said, noting that Sevier County is

Vows continued on page A14

For Fr. Kirk, ‘nothing better I would ever want’ than priesthood

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s a teenager growing up in Knoxville, Father John Kirk worked a variety of jobs to earn money. For a while, he thought his destiny was to be a businessman.

“But I realized that would never be enough for me,” Father Kirk said.

Instead, he felt a call to the priesthood, and for the last 48 years, it’s been all he hoped and more.

“The Lord has given me many great blessings.

There’s nothing better I would ever want to do.

I’m so glad I did this,” said Father Kirk, the pastor of the Church of the Nativity in Spring Hill for the last 10 years.

“Acting in the person of Jesus in the sacrament, in the Eucharist, the priest gets an opportunity constantly to grow closer to the Lord in ministry,” said Father Kirk.

A12 n DECEMBER 2, 2018

“That’s the great fulfillment for the priest.”

He recently received a letter from a parishioner thanking him. “You challenged my heart in the confessional and your guidance has always stuck with me,” the letter said. “Thank you for letting the Holy Spirit work through you.”

“I love being a priest because of those great events,” said Father Kirk, who officially began his retirement on Nov. 5, less than two weeks after he turned 77 years old.

Father Kirk grew up in Knoxville. “My parents had five boys and three girls,” he said. “I was right in the middle. I have a twin sister, Ann Gallegos.”

He was educated by the Sisters of Mercy at St. Mary’s School and then graduated from Knoxville Catholic High School. His

By Andy Telli/Tennessee Register

ANDY TELLI/TENNESSEE REGISTER

Knoxville native, ordained at Sacred Heart, retires as longtime Diocese of Nashville priest

Promoting priesthood Father John Kirk, former pastor of Church of the Nativity in Spring Hill, retired Nov. 5. He is the founding pastor of Nativity. family were parishioners at Immaculate Conception Church in downtown Knoxville and later at Sacred Heart Church in West Knoxville.

His father died of a heart attack in 1955. “He was buried on my 14th birthday,” Father Kirk said. “I think

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that had an influence on me in a lot of ways. I started to think about life in a lot of ways.”

And in his junior and senior years of high school, he began to seriously consider whether he was being called to the priesthood.

After high school, he at-

tended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where he studied Latin before finishing his college studies at St. Pius X Seminary in Erlanger, Kentucky.

With his studies at St. Pius X finished, Father Kirk moved to St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore to complete his four years of theology studies. His younger brother, now Monsignor Thomas Kirk of the Diocese of Memphis, was already a seminarian at St. Mary’s.

“I was glad I went to St. Mary’s,” said Father Kirk.

“It was good for me. We had some good teachers.”

Bishop Joseph A. Durick ordained Father Kirk as a priest on May 9, 1970, at his home parish of Sacred Heart in Knoxville.

He served his first five years as a priest as the asRetire continued on page A16

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

Diocese of Nashville publishes names of priests accused of abusing minors By the Tennessee Register

T

he Diocese of Nashville, as part of its ongoing commitment to transparency, accountability, and pastoral care, is publishing the names of the 13 former priests who served in the diocese who have been accused of sexually abusing a minor.

Of the 13, eight are dead and two are in prison. None are in active ministry.

The names are being released after consultation with the Presbyteral Council and Diocesan Review Board, which is made up almost entirely of lay people not employed USCCB from page A9

conference Nov. 14 that the allegations against Archbishop McCarrick, and the scandal of his rise and fall, were not just affecting longtime Catholics. Many people in the process of entering the Church found themselves having the example of Archbishop McCarrick thrown at them by friends and family as evidence that they were entering an institution in crisis.

Bishop Stika said Archbishop McCarrick, and the letters of former nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, were serving as “ammunition” to discourage people from entering the Church, and that many Catholics felt that bishops were only responding to the sexual abuse crisis when they were “forced to” by the media.

Several bishops spoke in favor of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops acting as a body to speak out about Archbishop McCarrick.

Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth told the conference hall that “we end where we begin.”

“So much of the outrage we experience — and I think it’s a rightful outrage — is prompted by the injustice that our people have experienced at the hands of predators, at the treatment of our seminarians and our priests who were entrusted to the care of former Cardinal McCarrick, a trust that was not only violated, but was ignored by others who were responsible for paying attention.”

Bishop Olson observed that while Pope Francis had accepted Archbishop McCarrick’s resignation from the College of Cardinals and sent him to a life of prayer and penance pending a canonical process, the USCCB had yet to respond as a body to the scandal caused by one of their own.

“He is an emeritus [bishop of a U.S. diocese] and as such he is supposed to be a welcome guest here.

He is not welcome and we should say it,” Olson said. He also questioned if the bishops’ reliance on structural and procedural reform

by the diocese. Files on abuse cases were shared with district attorneys nearly 20 years ago.

The names are those of priests against whom an allegation of abuse was made either while an active priest or following his death.

Following the report, an investigation was commenced, after which a review of the facts and information obtained took place. Following this review, a recommendation was made to the bishop at the time and the bishop decided whether or not an individual priest should be dismissed from the priesthood of the Diocese of Nashville if in active ministry.

Dismissal from the priesthood is a canonical process under Church law that is completely separate from matters under civil or criminal law. In 1985 Tennessee state law began requiring that anyone who reasonably expects that abuse of a minor is taking place must make a report to civil authorities. The diocese’s policies and practices have supported and followed that law since it took effect.

The priests, who were ordained between 1940 and 1973, served as priests between the 1940s and 1990s. At the time most were ordained, the Diocese of Nashville covered the entire state of Tennes-

see. The dioceses of Memphis and Knoxville were established in 1971 and 1988, respectively, and some of the 13 were incardinated in those dioceses. One of the men was a Benedictine priest from Cullman, Ala., who was serving the diocese at the time the abuse occurred.

Their names and assignments in the Diocese of Nashville according to official records of the Diocese of Nashville are listed below. While diocesan priests have formal assignments, they often have duties in other parishes of the diocese, so any of the men could have potentially worked in other parishes or

was overshadowing their need to act with moral authority.

“We have said the Holy See should let us get some new norms, get a process together. Do we use this process as means of avoiding our pastoral responsibilities?”

Bishop Olson asked, suggesting that the conference needed to condemn not just Archbishop McCarrick’s alleged behavior, but also Archbishop Vigano’s call for the resignation of the pope, which he called an attack on the Petrine office.

Bishop Liam Cary of the Diocese of Baker in Oregon also insisted that the conference needed to respond to the McCarrick scandal as a body, saying Archbishop McCarrick had “grievously offended” not just his victims but all Catholics, priests, and bishops.

By abusing seminarians “successively, over decades,” Bishop Cary said Archbishop McCarrick had left a “shameful residue” on all the bishops, and that while other institutions had revoked honors previously bestowed on the former cardinal the USCCB had taken no action.

Bishop Cary cited the example of bodies, like the U.S. Senate, which could pass resolutions to censure its members as one way they could respond, but insisted that some kind of action was urgently needed.

“What are people to make of our silence?” he asked. “How do we lead our brother to the mercy of God if we leave unspoken the demands of his justice?”

Bishop Cary echoed Bishop Olson’s concern that Archbishop McCarrick still was technically qualified as a welcome participant at the conference.

“If McCarrick were to come to this microphone, would he be allowed to speak?” Bishop Cary asked, noting that there was no open microphone for his victims.

In addition to the specific problem of Archbishop McCarrick, the bishops also discussed how they could proceed more generally in the light of the Holy See’s interven-

tion to prevent them from voting to adopt the proposed Standards for Episcopal Conduct or to create an independent special commission to investigate allegations against bishops.

Bishop Kevin Vann of the Diocese of Orange in California summed up the dilemma facing the conference.

“We cannot just sit back and do nothing,” he told the bishops. If a deliberative vote was not possible, he said, the bishops needed to at least take “some sort of consultative vote” to show that the American bishops were firmly resolved among themselves.

Bishop Robert Christian, auxiliary bishop of San Francisco, expressed the frustrations of many bishops at the inability of the conference to act.

He pointed out that as several scandals broke over the summer “the leadership of this conference was blocked from either working in partnership with the Holy See or leaving it to us in the dioceses.”

Bishop Christian said that he was concerned by the Holy See’s intervention. He observed that it could take months for the Vatican to produce a final resolution after the February meeting of the heads of the world’s bishops’ conferences in Rome. This could mean, he said, that the U.S. bishops could find it still “impossible” to act in March, or even June, of next year.

“It is all the more important to vote today as if we were voting on a policy,” he said, so that both the faithful and the Holy See could see the clear mind of the bishops.

Despite the support of many in the conference hall for the original proposal for an independent commission to receive and investigate allegations against bishops, a few bishops have suggested they would prefer to see a different system altogether.

Bishop Gregory Hartmayer of the Diocese of Savannah proposed that Rome should instead be asked to consider amending canon law to give metropolitan archbishops

an expanded role and authority for dealing with allegations against bishops in their province. His proposal was echoed by Bishop Robert Coerver of the Diocese of Lubbock.

Bishop Hartmayer noted that it might be better for accusations against a bishop to be considered by “a jury of their peers” since, he said, “no one understands a bishop so much as another bishop.”

He also said that bishops owed each other the “courtesy” of listening “to one of our brothers who has misbehaved in some way.”

While the majority of the interventions from the floor were concerned with what direct action the conference could take, others were more reflective.

Bishop Barry Knestout of the Diocese of Richmond gave a long and clearly personal reflection on the pain experienced by priests and laity alike in his former diocese, Washington.

Bishop Knestout said that he looked upon the current scandals on a continuum of previous crises, stretching back 50 years to the promulgation of Humanae Vitae, saying that the rejection by many clergy of that document, and the Church’s teaching on the dignity of human life and sexuality, had caused “one long crisis of leadership and teaching” in the Church.

Despite the clear and forceful calls by several bishops for some clear statement on the case of Archbishop McCarrick, when the bishops resumed their seats after a break they voted down a resolution to “encourage” the Holy See to release whatever documents it could on Archbishop McCarrick.

As they debated the minutiae of the resolution’s wording, the bishops found they could not even agree on the inclusion of the word “soon.”

After the defeat of the proposal, one bishop remarked to Catholic News Agency that “we cannot seem to speak clearly, even when we want to agree.” ■

All Are Welcome To Lessons and Carols

Nashville continued on page A15

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

How will we afford it?

Prepare The Way Of The Lord!

Thursday, December 13, 7:00 PM St. Patrick Catholic Church

Good thing we have the Catholic Foundation!

2518 Andrew Johnson Hwy. Morristown, Tenn. 37814

The

An Evening of Readings…Prayers…Congregational and Choral Hymns A Most Solemn Advent Service!

invests in two essential needs for the Diocese of Knoxville

Refreshments served immediately afterward!

Seminarian Education

Catholic Foundation of East Tennessee

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

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

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

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DECEMBER 2, 2018 n A13

very retiree-friendly because it caters to seniors and veterans and the cost of living is so reasonable.

The Yoros, who are retired from the Hawaiian Telephone Co., haven’t been back to the islands since 2012. That’s not to say they won’t ever return.

For now, they enjoy having their children and grandchildren visit them in Pigeon Forge. It’s another testament to their shared outlook toward marriage.

Mr. Yoro speaks with joy and appreciation for how his wife joined the Catholic Church after they first exchanged wedding vows at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Waipahu, Hawaii, in 1957.

In describing the secret to their happiness after 61 years of marriage, Mr. Yoro harkens back to his football-playing days.

“I guess you would call it teamwork. The trick is to do things together. We enjoy doing things together,” he said, pointing to their travels.

“Home is where you make it.

Home is wherever you live.”

Bishop Stika reminded all the couples that the first miracle Jesus performed was at a marriage, when he transformed water into wine during the Wedding at Cana.

“As we gather together to celebrate this Mass, we give thanks for this beautiful and wonderful sacrament on this day that God has given to us,” Bishop Stika said.

In his homily, Bishop Stika praised the couples for their witness in serving God and the statement of faith they have made through their marriages.

“You are the ones who celebrate daily, moment to moment, the sacrament of marriage,” the bishop said.

“You are the ones who celebrate moment to moment to moment the sacrament of marriage. So you give witness to a world that in some ways needs this witness. We give witness by the example of how we lead our lives.”

Bishop Stika spoke of the practice of commitment and how it is increasingly rare in a secular society, citing as an example a couple he knew who had been married 75 years and told him how they had to elope to get married because the wife’s father said the marriage would never work.

“Commitment, in this day and age when so many marriages end in divorce and so many people move from here to there. The commitment of a job, the commitment of a relationship, the commitment of

Sister Martha continued from page A6

guided us through that whole process. That involved many changes, not to who we were as the core of our religious life in community living and prayer and service, but some of the externals changed as far as the change in our religious habit.”

Sister Martha said she has made many friends among the Sisters of Mercy over the years, “too many to name.” Sister Mary Albertine Paulus, the only other Mercy Sister who now lives at the convent in Knoxville, is among Sister Martha’s best friends.

“Sister Albertine Paulus and I gather every night after our Sister Timothea continued from page A7

a doctoral student at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

“There you’re required to take five ancient languages for your research and five modern languages for both research and for classes, because whatever language the class was offered in, you take it.

When I was there, there were students from 87 different countries speaking 43 languages.”

Sister Timothea knows the ancient languages of Latin, Greek, Aramaic, Ugaritic, and Hebrew and the modern languages of English, Italian, French, German, and Spanish.

What led her to become a Scripture scholar?

“Two things. I had some outstanding professors of Scripture when I was doing my masters of theology. I just fell in love with the Word of God at that time. It was powerful,” she said. “Then in 1973 we were established as a new community of Sisters of Mercy. I was asked because I had the degree in theology to go to Rome to work with the canonists and write our constitutions, our rule of life for the Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich.”

From her early days in elementary education to her time in Rome, Sister Timothea has been a teacher.

That includes time as the chair of the Department of Sacred Scripture at St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., from 1991 to 1999, as chair of the Department of Sacred Scripture and Biblical Languages at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver from 1999 to 2004, and as full professor of the same department at the Vianney Seminary from 2004 to 2010.

“I have been teaching for about 50 years,” Sister Timothea said.

“I’ve been available to give conferences and retreats. I’ve taught deacons in Colorado and here in

A14 n DECEMBER 2, 2018

STEPHANIE RICHER

Vows continued from page A12

Homage to Hawaii David and Martha Yoro show off their Hawaiian heritage after the marriage Mass Oct. 13. our faith in Jesus. Sometimes it’s lost, but then we recapture it when we open our eyes and there is Jesus. We are reminded of ‘until death do us part,’” the bishop said.

He said witnessing a marriage, witnessing a commitment before God, is one of the great privileges priests and deacons have, pointing out that marriages in the Church offer a level of commitment unlike weddings outside the faith community.

“I want to thank you for your witness, for your love, for your belief in the sacra-

evening meal, and we pray the Office together,” Sister Martha said. “Sister Albertine and I have lived together many years here in Knoxville. Sister Yvette [Gillen] recently moved to Alcoa. We’ve had a wonderful community and still do, even though there’s only two of us here. We have always had sisters who have been very dedicated and enthusiastic about whatever their ministry was.”

Celebrating the milestone

Many Sisters of Mercy gathered in Nashville on Nov. 11, the anniversary of the death of Venerable Catherine McAuley, the foundress of the community.

Knoxville. I love seeing the young men in the seminaries move toward ordination, the maturity that comes. When I was in Denver, I taught seminarians for 11 years. In New York, I did it for eight years.

And my classes in Rome were at the pontifical universities, where seminarians were sent.”

Today Sister Timothea is the censor librorum for the Diocese of Knoxville after spending her first seven years in East Tennessee as the diocese’s director of Christian Formation.

She explained her current title.

“When Catholics are publishing anything that deals with faith and morals, if they want the testimony of the bishop that there’s no theological error in what they have written, the bishop gives me the manuscript, and I read it and make corrections if there are any and give an evaluation that goes to the bishop and to the author,” she said.

Sister Timothea has another title in Knoxville, too.

“Secondly, it says on my door I’m theological consultant to the bishop.

When he has questions about different things he’ll let me know,” she said. “I also teach the deacons in the permanent deacon formation program. I give them classes on the Liturgy of the Hours and then intensive work on the Psalms.

“I would say that since I’ve come back to the States, I’ve done a lot of work concentrated on the Psalms.”

Accounting for change

There have been countless changes in the Church since she has been a sister.

“One area would be liturgy,” Sister Timothea said. “When I entered the convent in 1955, the Mass was always in Latin. Slowly things began to change. We could introduce something besides Gregorian chant

ment of marriage,” he said, acknowledging the challenges of staying married over a long period of time.

Bishop Stika encouraged the couples to hold hands as they reaffirmed their vows and together prayed: “Heavenly Father, we thank you for all your blessings to us. We thank you for all things that have enriched our lives, for all people who have blessed us with their love and friendship. We thank you for our marriage, for our homes and families and friends. Give us, O Lord,

this further blessing, that as we have freely received, so we may freely give. Confirm and strengthen our marriages that our homes may be to us, and to friends and strangers, a place of joy and gladness.

We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Marian Christiana, diocesan coordinator of Marriage Preparation and Enrichment, echoed Bishop Stika in saying the annual marriage Mass is an affirmation of Jesus’ important teachings on vocations and the family.

Mrs. Christiana typically plans marriage Masses for each of the diocese’s four deaneries. But the cathedral, in its first year, served as a beautiful setting for this year’s Mass as Bishop Stika has been encouraging as many people as possible throughout the diocese to visit the mother church, she said.

“It was very uplifting to see so many couples come from around the diocese to the cathedral to celebrate the sacrament of marriage and to share that experience with their families. We had 12 couples celebrating 50 or more years of marriage. Their steadfast commitment should serve as an inspiration to all married couples throughout the diocese,” Mrs. Christiana said. ■

“We gathered as a Tennessee community of sisters, and we had a prayer in memory of Catherine,” Sister Martha said. “We also had a litany of every Sister of Mercy who has died in Tennessee.”

Sister Martha is the mission representative for the hospital and has served in that role since Sister Elizabeth Riney, RSM, died in 2001.

What does she do in that role?

“Whatever the Lord puts in my path for the day,” she said.

“Basically I guess it comes down to visiting patients and supporting patients and their families, also supporting the employees, and of course that’s intensified

here recently. Even prior to that, also being able to help employees who were struggling financially, who had some crisis in their family, and we were able to provide financial support from a benevolence fund that came from contributions by employees.

Another area would be, I’m kind of the historian around here, the archives and everything that’s related to that.”

“I represent the Sisters of Mercy, all those who have served here over the years, especially the ones patients and employees remember from earlier days. It is a beautiful privilege, and I am very grateful,” she added. ■

in the Mass. It changed to English after Vatican II. That’s where I felt it very strongly.

“When I entered the convent we wore a habit that was very confining. We couldn’t drive because you couldn’t see out of the side — lateral vision was not possible. It was also a little cumbersome; you’d get your skirt all wrapped around your feet and that sort of thing. We could never go anywhere without another sister with us as a companion. We had a very rigorous horarium, or daily schedule, that everybody kept.”

That community life, she said, “was very formal [before Vatican II]. Right at the end of Vatican II, I did my masters in theology during that time, and the various constitutions from Vatican II came hot off the press, and we studied them in the classes. It was a very exciting time to study. Then I was put in charge of formation for our province of Detroit.”

The numbers of future sisters were a lot higher when Sister Timothea was in the convent than they are now.

“The years that I was director of formation, we had 34 postulants, 42 novices, and 75 in temporary vows,” she said. “The numbers were tremendous. Then things kind of took a spin, if you will. The external structures changed radically.

And that was when experimentation was going on, with the encouragement of the Church. A group of us decided to experiment in terms of the essentials of religious life, and we were asked to put that into the formation program for our sisters. That led to our foundation of a new community of Sisters of Mercy.”

A famous generation of young people came along about 50 years ago.

“I remember in the late ’60s when I was in charge of formation, we had people entering who were in the hippie generation, and they had lived in communes and all kinds of situations,” Sister Timothea said.

“They were looking for community.

They would drive me to the wall with their questions. ‘Why do we do this?’ ‘Why?’ ‘Why?’ ‘Wouldn’t it be easier if we did it this way?’

“It was a very difficult time to be in charge of formation, because all kinds of wild things were going on all around them, and they could see them. To try to get them to look at what is essential to the Church and how the Church treasures religious life — that was a challenge.

“Some survived, and they stayed,” Sister Timothea continued. “It was a time when there was a crisis in the priesthood. Priests were leaving their commitment, and many of them counseled sisters to do the same. So much attention had been put on the externals that the heart and the mystery of what religious life was all about was neglected. And they didn’t have that.

It was a time when the middle-aged group, who should have been the stability of the whole community — they left. That was really hard, because then you had the young, who had no experience in religious life, and the elderly, and you had this big gap in between.”

The RSMs of Alma still wear their habits.

“Perfectae caritatis and every document that has come out of Rome on religious life since Vatican II has stressed the importance of religious habit,” Sister Timothea said.

Sister Timothea has two titles: “Mother” and “Sister.”

“Within the community I’m ‘Mother,’ because I’m one of the foundresses of the community. But in general it’s ‘Sister.’” ■

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

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locations. n Father Edward James Cleary. Born April 18, 1914; ordained May 18, 1940; incardinated into the Diocese of Memphis in 1971; died Nov. 10, 1997.

His assignments included: assistant pastor of the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville; assistant pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Memphis; assistant pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Nashville; editor of the Tennessee Register; professor at Father Ryan High School in Nashville; administrator pro tem at Resurrection Church in Cleveland; chaplain, U.S. Army Air Corps; pastor, St. Paul Church in Whitehaven. n Father James William Murphy Jr. Born Sept. 12, 1922; ordained April 3, 1948; incardinated into the Diocese of Memphis in 1971; died Oct. 11, 2016.

His assignments included: assistant pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Memphis; assistant pastor of St. Thomas Church in Memphis; director of the Ladies of Charity for the West Tennessee Deanery; Blessed Sacrament Church in Harriman; St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Cookeville; pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Union City; administrator of St. John Vianney Church in Gallatin; pastor of St. Anthony Church in Memphis; pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Alcoa and attached mission; pastor of St. James Church in Memphis. n Father James Arthur Rudisill.

Born May 16, 1926; ordained May 19, 1951; retired Feb. 10, 1995; died Feb. 8, 2008.

His assignments included: assistant pastor of St. Ann Church in Nashville; assistant pastor of Christ the King Church in Nashville; assistant pastor of Holy Name Church in Nashville; chaplain of Scouting for Middle Tennessee; chaplain of the Catholic Business Women’s League in Nashville; assistant pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Memphis; youth director for the West Tennessee Deanery; pastor of Holy Angels Church in Dyersburg; pastor at St. Rose of Lima Church in Murfreesboro; pastor at Notre Dame Church in Greeneville and its mission in Rogersville; moderator of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women for the Chattanooga Deanery; associate pastor and pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Chattanooga; chaplain Knights of Columbus Council 610 in Chattanooga; pastor at St. Catherine Church in Columbia; dean of the Southwest Deanery; pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Hohenwald, Christ the Redeemer Church in Centerville, and St. Cecilia Church in Waynesboro. n Father Edward Albert Walenga.

Born Nov. 2, 1926; ordained May 30, 1953; died Nov. 27, 1983.

His assignments included: assistant pastor of Little Flower Church in Memphis; assistant pastor at Holy Ghost Church in Knoxville and professor at Knoxville Catholic High School; assistant pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Chattanooga and chaplain to Newman Clubs; pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Humboldt; chaplain of the Knights of Columbus Council in Jackson; pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Cookeville; pastor of St. Patrick Church in McEwen and Dickson mission; pastor of Notre Dame Church in Greeneville and St. Henry Mission in Rogersville; pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Springfield and the St. Michael Mission in Cedar Hill; pastor of St. John Vianney Church in Gallatin. n Father Roger R. Lott, a Benedictine monk/priest in Cullman, Ala.; ordained in 1954; removed from duty and placed in a restricted setting by his order in 1996; died May 22, 2011.

In the 1950s, Father Lott was in residence at the cathedral serving in the Diocese of Nashville while pursuing a degree at Peabody College in Nashville. n Monsignor William Floyd Davis.

Born Aug. 17, 1929; ordained May 26, 1956; incardinated in the Diocese of Memphis in 1971; died Oct. 26, 2011.

His assignments included: assistant pastor of Christ the King Church in Nashville; Middle Tennessee Deanery area Scout chaplain; TH E EAST T E N N E S S E E C AT HO L I C

administrator of the Church of the Assumption in Nashville; director of the Catholic Youth Office of the Diocese of Nashville; director of the Kentucky-Tennessee Region of the National Council of Catholic Youth; pastor of the Church of the Assumption; administrator of St. William Church in Millington; assistant pastor of St. Louis Church in Memphis and teacher at Catholic High School for Boys in Memphis; pastor of Notre Dame Church in Greeneville and its Rogersville mission; pastor of St. Patrick Church in McEwen and St. Christopher Church in Dickson. n Joseph L. Reilly. Born Dec. 16, 1928; ordained May 26, 1956; dismissed from the priesthood of the Diocese of Nashville 1965.

His assignments included: the Cathedral of the Incarnation; Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Chattanooga, St. Michael Church in Memphis, and St. Henry Church in Nashville. n Paul Frederick Haas. Born Dec. 14, 1933; ordained May 23, 1959; dismissed from the priesthood of the Diocese of Nashville May 24, 1977; died June 7, 1979.

His assignments included: assistant pastor of the Cathedral of the Incarnation; Middle Tennessee Deanery area Scout chaplain; assistant pastor of St. Ann Church in Nashville and teacher at Father Ryan High School; assistant pastor of St. John Church in Memphis and teacher at Memphis Catholic High School for Boys; assistant pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Memphis. In addition to assignments in diocesan records, he is also known to have served at St. Jude Church and Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga and in the Diocese of Little Rock, Ark., and the Diocese of Owensboro, Ky. n Paul Wiley St. Charles. Born June 23, 1939; ordained May 21, 1966; Incardinated into the Diocese of Memphis in 1971; dismissed from the priesthood of the Diocese of Memphis 2004; died Dec. 27, 2009.

His assignments included: assistant pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Knoxville; assistant pastor of St. John Church in Memphis; chaplain for Scouting in the Memphis area; moderator for the Ladies of Charity; director of the Catholic Youth Office for the Memphis area and part-time professor of Catholic High School for Boys in Memphis; administrator of St. Luke Church in Smyrna; chaplain of the Mercy Convent in Nashville. n William Claude Casey. Born Jan. 4, 1934; ordained May 2, 1969; incardinated in the Diocese of Knoxville Sept. 8, 1988; dismissed from the priesthood of the Diocese of Knoxville 2010; currently incarcerated.

His assignments included: associate pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Chattanooga; Chattanooga Deanery master of ceremonies; pastor of Notre Dame Church in Greeneville; East Tennessee regional director of the Department of Rural Development; Kingsport Deanery master of ceremonies; member of the diocesan Liturgical Commission; director of the Kingsport Deanery Catholic Youth Office; director of the Kingsport Deanery Council of Catholic Women; diocesan director of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference; pastor of St. Dominic Church in Kingsport; dean and episcopal vicar of the Kingsport Deanery; director of vocations for the Kingsport Deanery; pastor of St. John Neumann Church in Farragut. n Edward Joseph McKeown. Born March 18, 1944; ordained Jan. 31, 1970; dismissed from the priesthood of the Diocese of Nashville March 1, 1989; currently incarcerated.

His assignments included: associate pastor of St. Edward Church in Nashville and part-time professor at Father Ryan High School; associate pastor at Holy Rosary Church; director and program director of the Nashville Deanery Catholic Youth Office; associate pastor at St. Joseph Church in Madison; administrator of Blessed Sacrament Church in Harriman, St. Ann Church in Deer Lodge, and St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City; academic duties at Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga; administrator of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in South Pittsburg,

in residence at St. Augustine Church in Signal Mountain; associate moderator, then director of the Chattanooga Deanery Catholic Youth Office; associate pastor at St. Augustine Church in Signal Mountain; administrator of St. Bridget Church in Dayton; pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church in Harriman and its mission; pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City and St. Ann Church in Deer Lodge; co-director of the diocesan RENEW Program. n Ronald W. Dickman. Born July 13, 1944; ordained June 5, 1971; dismissed from the priesthood of the Diocese of Nashville 1991.

His assignments included: director of Camp Marymount; associate pastor of St. Edward Church and full-time professor and later principal at Father Ryan High School; associate director of vocations for the Nashville Deanery; diocesan director of vocations; associate pastor of St. Henry Church in Nashville; associate pastor of St. Ignatius of Antioch Church; Catholic Charities of Tennessee; St. Mary Villa in Nashville. n Franklin T. Richards. Born March 18, 1947; ordained Jan. 26, 1973; dismissed from the priesthood of the Diocese of Nashville March 1, 1989.

His assignments included: associate pastor of Christ the King Church; assistant vocations director of the Diocese of Nashville; director of Camp Marymount; associate pastor of St. Henry Church; vocations director of Nashville Deanery; pastor of St. Patrick Church in Nashville; principal of Knoxville Catholic High School; pastor of the Seymour Catholic community; associate pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Clarksville.

The Tennessee Register does not include the title “Father” with the names of priests who have been dismissed from active ministry.

The names of two priests who were ordained for the Diocese of Nashville, one whose last assignment in the diocese ended in 1964 and the other who was incardinated into the Diocese of Memphis in 1971, appear on lists of priests accused of abuse in other dioceses. n Walter Emala, who was ordained in 1952, is named on lists published by the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pa., and the Archdiocese of Baltimore. n James Kemper, who was ordained in 1942 and remained in active ministry until 1964, is named on a list published by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, N.M. The list published by the Diocese of Nashville only included the names of diocesan priests, although the name of one religious order priest, Roger Lott, a Benedictine, was included because he is accused of abuse while in Nashville.

James F. X. Pratt, SJ, who served in the Vanderbilt University campus ministry for many years, was recalled by his order in 2003 for investigation into an allegation pertaining to a time before his ordination as a priest and before his assignment at Vanderbilt. His removal was widely reported in the media at the time, but the Jesuits did not provide details of the allegation or the results of their investigation.

There are no allegations of abuse by any of these priests in the files of the Diocese of Nashville, but their cases will be evaluated through the Diocese of Nashville Review Board process.

The diocese instituted its safe environment program and began conducting background checks in 1986. In the late 1980s, the Diocese of Nashville began to conduct a series of seminars and informational sessions as well as developing educational programs for students, teachers, and parents on the issue and prevention of child sexual abuse.

Over the years, the diocese has worked in cooperation with Our Kids, the Rape and Sexual Abuse Center, Catholic Charities, and the victims advocacy group You Have the Power to enhance a broad safe environment program.

In 1992, 10 years before the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People was adopted in response to the clergy sex abuse crisis in Boston, the Diocese of Nashville adopted a safe environment

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program that included a process to review individuals regarding their fitness for ministry and investigate allegations of abuse.

Those procedures had been used on a trial basis in the late 1980s, and Bishop Edward U. Kmiec promulgated them for the entire diocese in early 1992.

The Diocese of Nashville is one of several dioceses across the country that has decided to release the names of priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors in the wake of the Pennsylvania grand jury report last summer that outlined allegations from six dioceses in that state.

The Pennsylvania allegations, some of which go back as far as 70 years, involved 301 priests and more than 1,000 victims. The report also included efforts by Church leaders to cover up the abuse.

In 2002, when the clergy abuse scandal erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston and other dioceses around the country, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

The Charter, which was revised in 2005, 2011, and 2018, was adopted to provide a comprehensive set of procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, stipulating zero tolerance for anyone credibly accused of even a single incident of abuse of a minor, permanently removing them from ministry.

It also established: lay review boards to investigate allegations against priests, deacons, lay employees, and volunteers of the Church and to recommend policies to prevent further abuse; education programs to detect and prevent abuse; background checks for anyone who works with minors; and guidelines for reconciliation, healing and accountability.

Since 2002, the Diocese of Nashville and its insurance company have spent approximately $6.5 million on counseling and pastoral assistance to victims of abuse. The total includes a $1.1 million settlement in lawsuits related to Edward McKeown.

The Diocese of Nashville has been audited several times since the adoption of the Charter and has been found to be in full compliance with the Charter every time.

“We’ve grown better because of the Charter,” Bishop J. Mark Spalding told the Tennessee Register in August after the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report. “So many more people are open to speaking up, open to reporting and open to holding people accountable. That doesn’t mean we’re perfect.”

“One slip is one slip too many,” he added. “One failure to implement the Charter undercuts the whole thing.”

In the wake of the Pennsylvania grand jury report and the revelations of credible allegations against Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of abuse of minors and sexual misconduct with seminarians, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a plan to address the new abuse scandal that was discussed at the conference’s meeting in Baltimore Nov. 12-14.

The plan calls for a full investigation of the questions surrounding Archbishop McCarrick by a group of laypeople identified for their expertise, a procedure to make it easier to report abuse and misconduct by a bishop, and efforts to develop better procedures to resolve complaints against bishops.

Pope Francis is calling the presidents of every Catholic bishops’ conference in the world to Rome in February to discuss the prevention of the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.

Tennessee law requires and the diocese for many years has urged anyone who reasonably suspects that abuse is taking place to report it to the civil authorities.

For more information about reporting abuse and the Diocese of Nashville’s Safe Environment policies for the protection of children and youth, visit www.dioceseofnashville.com/child-safety. ■ DECEMBER 2, 2018 n A15

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sociate pastor at St. Joseph Church in Madison and then Holy Rosary Church in Donelson.

Bishop James D. Niedergeses gave him his first assignment as a pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Lawrenceburg, the parish where the bishop had grown up.

“That was a wonderful parish. I enjoyed it there,” Father Kirk said.

Yet, the assignment had its challenges, he said. “There had been an older priest at that point. I did a few different things.”

One of which was to give more emphasis to the parish’s youth ministry.

“If you don’t have a deep conversion as a teenager,” Father Kirk said, “you might not have one until you are in your 40s.”

Throughout his priesthood, and even before, Father Kirk has made an effort to reach out to Catholics who have left the Church.

“I was always concerned about people who left the Church,” he said. “In grammar school the nuns would talk more about people leaving the Church or not practicing the faith. That sort of opened my consciousness to it.”

Also, his grandmother was always praying for one of her sons who had left the Church and that one of her sons would become a priest, Father Kirk recalled. None of her sons ever became priests, but his grandmother’s prayers were answered in the next generation with three priests: Father Kirk, his brother, and their cousin, Father Albert Kirk.

After four years in Lawrenceburg, Father Kirk served as pastor for three years at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Springfield and St. Michael Mission in Cedar Hill.

Bishop Niedergeses then asked Father Kirk to found St. Luke Parish in Smyrna, which experienced significant growth after the opening of the Nissan Plant there.

“It was a very busy time,” Father Kirk said of his seven years at St. Luke. The parish celebrated Mass in a renovated horse barn before they raised enough money to build a permanent church.

He served at St. Ann Church in Nashville for a year before spending the next three years as pastor of St. Patrick Church in McEwen.

His next stop was as pastor at St. Paul the Apostle Church in TullaBishop continued from page A2

the needs of the Church, the world, our community and civil leaders, and other needs.

All of this has served to prepare us for the Liturgy of the Eucharist, which begins with the offertory.

Just as at the presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple, St. Joseph brought the offering of the poor — two turtledoves — as prescribed by the law, so, too, we now bring our poor offering of body and soul — all that we are — to the altar. All our joys and sorrows, all our prayers and sufferings, our vocation as a husband or wife, father or mother, all our struggles and triumphs — in a word, all that we bring forward with the gifts. And through the priest who acknowledges the goodness of the Lord who has blessed us with all that we now offer, he bids us, “Pray brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the almighty Father.”

Sr. Regina

homa. “I was there for 14 years.”

While there, he again was involved in building a church, this time St. Mark Church in Manchester.

“They had been meeting in a Protestant church for 17 years,” Father Kirk said.

After leaving St. Paul, Father Kirk served as the associate pastor of St. Philip Church in Franklin for five years as the health of the pastor, Father Edward Arnold, declined.

During that time, “I had been looking around in Spring Hill and Thompson Station because they were building a lot of houses,” Father Kirk said. “I kind of knew there was going to be a need for a church there.”

As part of his ministry to reach out to fallen-away Catholics, Father Kirk sent out a mailing to homes in the Spring Hill and Thompsons Station area. Included was a question about the need for a Catholic parish in the area.

“We had 400 responses,” Father Kirk said. “They were kind of begging for that.”

In 2008, Father Kirk was asked once again to establish a new parish, this time the Church of the Nativity.

“It’s been a good time,” he said of his 10 years at Nativity.

The parish started meeting in a converted storefront before construction of the current church on Buckner Lane was dedicated twoand-a-half years ago.

In establishing new parishes, Father Kirk’s first priority wasn’t the buildings where they met. “My major emphasis always was the priest has to build the people,” he said.

“I’ve always focused on building ministry and liturgy.”

He’s always found that the parishioners are eager to help. “I’ve always found the people come forward. They know the needs of the church,” he said. “I like it when they own the parish, when they take charge of different things.”

After his retirement becomes official, Father Kirk will move into the old rectory at the Church of the Assumption in Nashville, which is currently vacant. From there, he will be available to help out by celebrating Mass at other parishes as needed, he said.

“I won’t be a pastor. I won’t have these administrative things,” Father Kirk said. “I can just concentrate on priestly ministry work.” ■ At the consecration, the gifts we have offered, by a miraculous and holy exchange, are transformed (transubstantiated) into the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! The gift that we offered during the offertory is now offered up to God in union with Christ’s sacrifice. We began by offering our self with and through the gifts of bread and wine, and now we offer ourselves through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ. Every grace we receive with an open heart serves to transform us more and more into the image of Christ, but holy Communion even more so. Only our selfishness, and the withholding of the total gift of our self to Christ, can prevent that transformation.

The words Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman by the well, “If you knew the gift of God” (John 4:10), are words He speaks to us before every Mass. And to receive this gift of God, we need to bring our gift to the altar. ■ © 2018 Handmaids of the Precious Blood

Fr. Jacques Philippe to hold pre-Lenten retreat, conferences for Diocese of Knoxville Father Jacques Philippe, a world-renowned Catholic author and lecturer who has sold more than 1 million books in 24 languages, will lead a pre-Lenten retreat and conferences in the Diocese of Knoxville Feb. 28-March 4.

Father Philippe will give talks on a variety of faith topics, including inner peace, personal prayer life and forming a deep relationship with God, and how to grow through trials and suffering.

Over the course of the five-day retreat, Father Philippe also will lead discussions, celFr. Philippe ebrate Mass, lead adoration and benediction as well as sign his books.

The pre-Lenten retreat will take place at All Saints Church and All Saints parish hall. The two conferences will be held at cathedral hall adjacent to the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Father Philippe was ordained a priest in 1985, beginning his work in spiritual direction and leading retreats. He is a member of the Community of the Beatitudes, an ecclesial family of consecrated life founded in France in 1973.

His community gathers faithful from all states of life (married or unmarried lay people, seminarians, priests, permanent deacons, men and women consecrated in celibacy) who wish to conform as closely as possible to the model of the early Christian community through the common life, the sharing of goods, voluntary poverty, and an intense sacramental and liturgical life. Members of the community (which has a contemplative vocation based on Carmelite spirituality), are actively engaged in the service of the poor and the proclamation of the Gospel.

Sister Mary Charles Mayer, RSM, facility coordinator and delegate for religious for the Diocese of Knoxville, said Father Philippe’s retreat and conferences will be a spiritually enriching way to begin Lent in 2019.

Ticket information will be made available soon at www.dioknox.org.

Funeral Mass celebrated for Nancy Byrne, longtime St. Jude School staff member A funeral Mass for Nancy Byrne was celebrated Oct. 15 at St. Jude Church in Chattanooga.

Mrs. Byrne, who served at St. Jude School, died Oct. 10 following a two-year battle with ovarian cancer.

Monsignor Bob Hofstetter, pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Newport, celebrated the Mass. Interment following the Mass was at Mount Olivet Cemetery.

For the past 25 years, Mrs. Byrne worked for St. Jude School in the office, as the cafeteria manager, and as director of admissions. She loved the students at St. Jude School and the teachers and staff, who formed “Team Nance” to honor Mrs. Byrne as she fought ovarian cancer.

Mrs. Byrne Mrs. Byrne, of Signal Mountain, used her background in medical anthropology to research ovarian cancer and its treatments. She was described as an inspiration to many at Chattanooga’s Program in Women’s Oncology. She was a lifelong student who earned a master ’s degree and pursued a Ph.D. Her love of reading led to the “NCB Library” in her home, which held several thousand books.

She graduated from Cleveland High School as an honor student and attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she met her husband, Ben. They were happily married for 46 years.

After she and Ben moved to Chattanooga, she re-entered the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and was the Jeffrey Brown Scholar. She pursued studies in anthropology and medical anthropology. In 1994, she was a contestant on the “Jeopardy!” television show, where she placed second.

Mrs. Byrne, who was born in Cleveland, was preceded in death by her parents, Charles Beecher Casada and Olva Lee “Brownie” Brown, and her grandparents, Alda Brown and Arthur Brown of Trenton, Ga. She is survived by husband Ben and daughter Courtney Anne Byrne. Courtney and husband Lebron Kaylor have two sons, Clark, 3, and Griffin, 7 months.

Advent penance services scheduled around the diocese Here are the remaining Advent penance services around the diocese, received as of press time: Chattanooga Deanery 7 p.m. EST, unless noted. Dec. 5 — Holy Spirit, Soddy-Daisy; Dec. 6 — Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Chattanooga, 6 p.m.; St. Catherine Labouré, Copperhill, 6:30 p.m.; Dec. 10 — St. Bridget, Dayton, 6:30 p.m.; St. Mary, Athens; Dec. 11 — St. Augustine, Signal Mountain; Dec. 13 — St. Stephen, Chattanooga, 6 p.m.; Dec. 17 — Sts. Peter and Paul, Chattanooga, 6 p.m.; St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Cleveland; Dec. 18 — St. Jude, Chattanooga Cumberland Mountain Deanery 7 p.m. EST, unless noted. Dec. 4 — St. Alphonsus, Crossville, 6 p.m.

CST; Dec. 6 — St. John Neumann, Farragut, 6:30 p.m.; Dec. 10 — St. Teresa of Kolkata, Maynardville; Dec. 12 — Knoxville Catholic High School, 10:40 a.m.; Dec. 13 — St. Therese, Clinton, and St. Joseph, Norris, at St. Joseph; Dec. 18 — St. Francis of Assisi, Fairfield Glade, 6 p.m. CST; Dec. 21 — Our Lady of Perpetual Help, LaFollette, 6:30 p.m.

Five Rivers Deanery 7 p.m., unless noted. Dec. 3—Good Shepherd, Newport; Dec. 4—St. Michael the Archangel, Erwin, 6 p.m.; Dec. 5—Notre Dame, Greeneville; Dec. 6—St. Dominic, Kingsport; Dec. 10—St. Elizabeth, Elizabethton; Dec. 11—St. Mary, Johnson City; Dec. 13—St. Henry, Rogersville; Dec. 20—St. Patrick, Morristown

Did you know you can receive weekly cartoons and short reflections and news from the Handmaids of the Precious Blood? Visit their website, nuns for priests.org, and sign up for the FIAT newsletter. You also can learn about praying for priests and adopting them.

A16 n DECEMBER 2, 2018

Smoky Mountain Deanery There are no penance services in the Smoky Mountain Deanery; instead, the faithful are asked to take advantage of their parishes’ regular confession times. ■

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op Stika said the bishops worked to strengthen procedures for addressing cases of sexual abuse and were set to vote on them in Baltimore.

But prior to the meeting, Pope Francis urged the bishops to delay any action until he meets with episcopal conference presidents in February.

Bishop Stika said much of what came from the general assembly was good, including his meeting with protesters outside of the general assembly who were demanding action by bishops to address sexual abuse.

“But there also was disappointment that the Holy Father and the Congregation for Bishops postponed

Bishops continued from page A9

The charter, which established a comprehensive set of procedures for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, has led to a reduction in the number of cases of sexual abuse since 2002, according to the Church.

“Much of what appeared in the Pennsylvania report happened 50, 40, 30, 20 years ago. Part of the process since 2002 has been training the faithful to identify possible situations and encouraging them to not be fearful in terms of reporting a person of authority or a priest to the police and to the Church,” Bishop Stika said.

At the fall general assembly, Bish-

the vote on the three components of bishops accountability. Bishops in private conversations, regional settings, and in the public forum began to coalesce behind certain ideas that we would like to proceed with, one of which was the process of investigating a bishop who himself has abused someone,” the bishop said.

The three components are implementing a system where people can report misconduct by bishops, either by personal misconduct or covering up others’ misconduct; establishing a review process for allegations; and the third component is bishops’ accountability to each other.

Bishop Stika said the USCCB

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COURTESY OF ANN MCELHINNEY

Gosnell continued from page A10

— persuaded them to do the book, which became the screenplay for the movie.

Mrs. McElhinney said that while she researched the story behind the movie from an objective standpoint, she arrived at the project from more of a prochoice point of view.

“I didn’t come at this from a pro-life perspective at all. If anything, it was better to describe me as pro-choice than pro-life. I’ve had a rather big ‘come to Jesus’ on that. I’ve had a big conversion because I didn’t know. I just didn’t know,” she said.

“You would have to be very hardhearted not to be changed by this story.

It really clarifies what abortion is about for people who have been persuaded that it was a clump of cells and not a human being and all of that. Having seen all the evidence from the trial, I have no doubt about what gets aborted,” she added, referring to the children who are killed in an abortion.

While Dr. Gosnell is the film’s real-life antagonist, the film also highlights the actual protagonists who overcame opposition forces, primarily Pennsylvania state government, to bring the abortionist to justice.

And in some ways similar to the authorities who investigated, indicted, and won the conviction of Dr. Gosnell, Mrs. McElhinney and Mr. McAleer have pushed back against popular resistance to getting their film made.

Mrs. McElhinney described how difficult it was to get the movie made and the juxtaposition of favorable response to it.

“It’s abortion. It’s very simple; it’s abortion. People are incensed. I don’t have to explain to anyone how contentious the issue of abortion is. If anyone witnessed what happened to Brett Kavanaugh, that’s pretty clear that that was nothing to do with sexual assault. It was everything to do with politics. And the politics involved was abortion. And that crazy behavior, that completely insane behavior was based on that,” she told the banquet guests.

“So, Hollywood understands the power of a movie. The Vietnam War was nearly ended because of movies.

This is an incredibly powerful tool to affect people’s emotions. A lot of people don’t listen to politics and don’t listen to politicians, but people watch movies and they get very, very affected by them,” she added. “I think this is one of those films that is like that. We are getting reactions that are unbelievable, unprecedented. I’ve spoken to people in the industry who know how people react to movies, and this is unprecedented.”

She explained that “Gosnell” has nearly a 100 percent rating from audience members who saw the film shortly after its release and responded on the movie and television industry ratings website Rotten Tomatoes. However, the film received a nearly evenly split 55 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from the few film critics who reviewed the movie.

The project has consumed four years of the couple’s life. The producers of documentaries related to fracking, mining, and global warming called “Gosnell” one of their most challenging endeavors.

News website “The Daily Wire” reported Oct. 22 that on its second weekend of theatrical release, “Gosnell” “continued to enjoy solid per-theater performance despite reports of it being suspiciously dropped from highperforming theaters after opening weekend. The website also reported, citing leading online box-office reporting service “Box Office Mojo,” that the

Production team Ann McElhinney, center, made the “Gosnell” movie with husband and co-producer, Phelim McAleer, left, and filmmaker Magdalena Segieda, right. film earned more than $2 million in the first two weeks from 668 screens and was among the top 10 grossing films in its first weekend.

“It’s a very tough environment,” Mrs. McElhinney said, noting that she is traveling across the United States and in other countries, too, promoting the film, and a social media campaign also has been under way.

“We’re trying everything. We are the scrappy little independent movie trying to make a name for ourselves; it’s not easy. But people are great, and this country is full of amazing leaders who have really rallied behind us. We have had unbelievable response from people like the people in Knoxville.”

She said groups and organizations from New York City to California and many places in between have supported the movie. She pointed out that there is demand to see the film in Canada, Germany, Holland, England, and even Ireland, which in May held a referendum where voters overwhelmingly overturned a national ban on abortions.

She observed that despite a formidable pro-choice constituency throughout the world, the United States is an “extremely” religious country, as are some European countries, locations where pro-life sentiment still can be found.

“There is massive overseas interest [in the film]. And this is a very religious country, this country of America. A lot of people don’t know that, but it is an incredibly religious country. So is Germany. People don’t know that, but Germany is a very, very religious country, actually a very Catholic country, an extremely Catholic country. There are other countries like that. Poland, obviously, is one, and Spain is very religious.

There are religious countries across Europe where there is an appetite for this.

There are people who feel very strongly and are very worried. The same in South America and Australia. We’re getting an amazing response from Australia. We were funded by a lot of people in Australia.”

She noted that 30,000 people donated money to the film from 17 countries, which indicates wide appeal and offers more affirmation for what she and her production team are presenting.

At the Tennessee Right to Life banquet, Mrs. McElhinney received an ovation when she announced that after the release of “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” on Oct. 12 the film quickly became the No. 1 independent film in America during the early ratings period and overall was No. 12 at the time behind several studio-backed blockbusters.

But she said it was “disappointing” that by Oct. 15, only about 120,000

people had seen the film.

“This issue matters a great deal to millions of people, and millions of people need to go see the film.”

She called the assertion by movieindustry observers that the film should only be viewed in churches “absolutely wrong.”

“This is a movie that needs to be a box-office success. If it’s not in a movie theater, it’s not a movie in the first place. Churches are not cinemas. People should be lined up around the block at the movie theater.”

She admonished conservatives for not understanding entertainment, which she said is why they are not anywhere in the entertainment marketplace. She noted that those politically and socially left of conservatives take the entertainment industry very seriously.

Pointing out that four movies made about abortion show the procedure in a positive light, she contrasted that to the people who suggest that “Gosnell” is a religious film destined to only be shown in sanctuaries.

As of Nov. 21, only 11 mainstream media movie reviewers had critiqued the film compared to the leading films, which received upward of 300 reviews.

Mrs. McElhinney, who believes reviews are instrumental in getting the word out about films, said the “Gosnell” team is working hard to overcome a lack of them, which is why she and others involved in the movie are personally promoting it.

She felt vindicated with the film’s release and its position as the No. 1 independent film in the United States in October. As difficult as it was to get the film made, it was equally difficult to get it distributed to theaters.

Because no mainstream movie industry company wanted to be involved with “Gosnell,” Mrs. McElhinney and Mr. McAleer turned to crowd-funding for financial help. They were not disappointed.

The crowd-funding campaign raised $2.3 million. And investors stepped in to help fund distribution of the movie.

“Having been so successful with the crowd-funding and having a historic campaign, we thought we would have no problem at all; distributors will go crazy for this. The agent we even had said there would be no problem getting the film out there. Then he said in his long career selling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of films, he’s never come across a situation like the one he came across with this,” Mrs. McElhinney said.

But against all odds, “Gosnell” has been in theaters appealing to moviegoers. She emphasized the fact the film is

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postponed its vote out of respect for Pope Francis.

“I think most bishops, if not all of them, were disappointed at postponing the vote because we have to do something and it just can’t be symbolic,” Bishop Stika said. “I would join with those bishops who are voicing concern that sometimes the conference doesn’t move quick enough, that we get bogged down in semantics and wordsmithing.

The perception of people in general, I think, is that we failed, that we met for four days in terms of sexual abuse and we accomplished very little. But again I know that much was done behind the scenes.” ■ rated PG-13 and contains few graphic elements.

The film stars “Superman” actor Dean Cain, Janine Turner, who was featured in the film “Cliffhanger” and TV series “Northern Exposure” and “Friday Night Lights,” and Earl Billings as Dr. Gosnell, as well as Michael Beach, Sarah Jane Morris, Cyrina Fiallo, Nick Searcy, Damon Carney, Darryl Cox, Grace Montie, and JR Hatchett.

Mr. Searcy, whose film credits include “Cast Away,” “The Fugitive,” “Fried Green Tomatoes,” “Moneyball,” “Runaway Jury,” and “The Shape of Water,” also directed “Gosnell.”

Mrs. McElhinney applauded the actors and production team for persevering to present an important story to the world. She sensed those working on the film felt pressure amid “veiled threats” from the movie industry.

“I think anyone who worked on this film is a brave and courageous person,” she said. “If this goes well, it will be an incentive to keep doing projects like this. But it’s very hard. We don’t have the Hollywood machine behind us.

We’re working every angle we possibly can.”

Stacy Dunn, executive director of the Knox County chapter of Tennessee Right to Life, said Ms. McElhinney was one of TRL’s most powerful and unique banquet speakers.

“We were fortunate to host her just days after her film ‘Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer’ had been released nationally,” Mrs. Dunn said. “As a researcher and movie producer, her dedication to uncover the truth and then make it into a fulllength feature film made for a powerful presentation. Mrs. McElhinney shared with the audience that she has been forever changed by what she discovered about late-term abortion in America, the political scandal that protects the abortion industry, and the media that covers it all up. She is now unable and unwilling to keep silent and has dedicated herself to exposing the lies about abortion.”

Mrs. Dunn pointed out that Mrs. McElhinney told the audience that although abortion is evil and the actions of Kermit Gosnell were evil, those weren’t the things that scare her the most.

“She said what keeps her up at night is how many people were willing to turn their heads in acceptance or remain silent about what was going on in that ‘house of horrors’ in Philadelphia. She encouraged everyone to overcome the silence and do everything possible to spread the truth so that the tragedy of abortion will end,” Mrs. Dunn said. “The film is well done and brutally honest. Mrs. McElhinney and her husband were able to present the graphic nature of abortion in such a way that the film has a PG13 rating. This was intentional in order to make it acceptable to the largest possible audience and have the biggest impact possible.”

Mrs. Dunn said that even with the impactful impression the film leaves with its audiences, perhaps the most powerful part of the entire film is when the credits roll at the conclusion and viewers see actual photographs that were presented during Dr. Gosnell’s trial.

“Viewers from all over the country have experienced the same thing at the end of the movie — stunned silence. The truth is just that overwhelming. The producers have been able to unmask the lie that abortion is a simple procedure that helps women and expose it for what it is, an act of violence that kills a baby and wounds a mother,” Mrs. Dunn said. ■ DECEMBER 2, 2018 n A17

Diocese of Knoxville Annual Financial Report

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, My heart is filled with great joy in this season of Advent and the coming celebration of the birth of our Lord. Soon we will celebrate the arrival of 2019 and I will be excited to mark my 10th anniversary as bishop of this wonderful example of Christ’s faith and good works — the Diocese of Knoxville.

While we have much to look forward to in 2019, I want to also express my thanks and gratitude for the wonderful generosity and tremendous support you have given to our diocese in 2018. Thanks to you, the Catholic Church in East Tennessee continues to grow. We have made significant strides this past year, but we maintain our spirit and roots as a mission diocese established by Saint John Paul II in 1988.

Looking back at 2018, the year in which we celebrated our 30th anniversary, we certainly didn’t start slowly. We made history on March 3 by dedicating the new Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Five cardinals, 18 bishops, 106 priests, 58 deacons, and 39 men and women religious took part in the three-hour dedication Mass, along with more than 800 East Tennessee Catholics. The dedication of our new cathedral made news around the world and we continue to receive new visitors — both Catholic and non-Catholic, eager to witness the beauty of this symbol of our faith. Thanks to you, the new cathedral will remain a welcoming home for worshipers for centuries to come.

The growth of our diocese has been exemplified in many other ways. In September, I traveled to Unicoi County to elevate St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Mission as the newest parish in the Diocese of Knoxville. The Glenmary Home Missioners founded St. Michael with 36 members just six years ago. I am grateful for their hard work and for the dedication and the financial support of all the members of that community, which now has grown to more than 300. A new parish mission center, including worship space, was recently constructed on property in Erwin purchased by the Catholic Foundation of East Tennessee. Someday soon, St. Michael parishioners hope to build a permanent church on that site.

The St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic celebrated the fifth anniversary of its establishment in 2018. Sister Mariana Koonce, RSM, a licensed medical doctor, has grown this mobile medical mission to now include many volunteer doctors, nurses, and staff who bring the healing ministry of Jesus to people in desperate need of free medical care in six communities in our region.

During 2018 you responded when the Diocese of Knoxville requested assistance through our special collections. Thanks to your generosity we are able to assist 13 diocesan seminarians, our priests and pastors of the future, with financial support for their education. The deacons who serve at your parish are able to attend continuing formation and education classes thanks to your help. Financially struggling families who hope to provide a Catholic education for their school-age children are assisted by your giving. Victims of natural disasters, like those impacted by Hurricanes Florence and Michael, will benefit from your generosity.

You have never hesitated to answer Christ’s call when needs arise.

Because of you, our vibrant diocese has expanded to now include more than 70,000 registered members. I continue to thank God each day for your faith and support to grow His Church.

You can feel confident that, as your bishop, the resources you have entrusted to us — whether through time, talent, or treasure — are being administered with wisdom and respect, and with the sole purpose being able to continue the mission of Jesus. I extend my thanks and gratitude for all you have done, through hard work and sacrifice, to make the Diocese of Knoxville and the Catholic Church in East Tennessee a living symbol of His love.

I am honored to be your bishop and I continue to offer my prayers for you as we work together to build His kingdom.

Sincerely in Christ,

Most Reverend Richard F. Stika Bishop of Knoxville

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DECEMBER 2, 2018 n A19

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Catholic aid agency looks back on 75 years of service Catholic Relief Services celebrates a milestone in serving the world since WWII

By Catholic Relief Services staff

B

COURTESY OF CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES

orn 75 years ago as a result of the refugee crisis that unfolded during World War II, Catholic Relief Services, the international relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic Church, has since grown into one of the largest humanitarian aid agencies in the world while responding to some of the most devastating modern crises of our time.

“From its beginning, Catholics in the United States saw this agency as an expression of the compassion of Jesus Christ, carrying out the mission he gave us in the Gospels,” says Bishop Gregory J. Mansour of the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn and chairman of the CRS board.

“Even as the work has expanded and grown more complex, that Gospel mission has always remained the foundation of everything that CRS does,” Bishop Mansour added.

To mark its 75th anniversary, CRS held events in dioceses across the country that culminated with an event in November at its global headquarters in Baltimore.

While the organization has grown to work in more than 110 countries and employs more than 7,000 people worldwide, its mission remains unchanged: to act in solidarity with the world’s most vulnerable people while leading the Catholic faithful in the United States in doing the same.

“This is a time when we celebrate all that we have accomplished over the past 75 years, and double down on our commitment to provide lifesaving and life-transforming assistance to some of the most disadvantaged people around the world,” said Sean Callahan, CRS president and CEO, who became the agency’s eighth president in 2017.

The organization began as War

Global aid Children pump water at a borehole constructed through the Kom-Yilma project at the Bangrin primary school in the village of Pissila, Sanmatenga province, Burkina Faso, in 2017. The Beoog Biiga program, translated as “the child of tomorrow,” is a four-year, $10.8 million U.S. government-funded project through the U.S. Department of Agriculture that began in October 2014.

Relief Services after an outpouring of concern from Catholics in the United States led U.S. bishops to help thousands of World War II survivors and refugees. From the very beginning, CRS’ operating principal was to assist people based on need, regardless of race, creed, or nationality, and in partnership with local organizations, particularly Catholic Church agencies.

CRS’ first project helped shepherd some 1,500 Polish refugees into Colonia Santa Rosa, Mexico, where the agency set up a safe haven for education, training, and rehabilitation.

“It’s hard to express gratitude for everything you guys do for all the refugees throughout the world,” says Julek Plowy, a Polish refugee who was helped by CRS as a child at Santa Rosa.

As Europe regained its balance after World War II, CRS expanded its operations and opened offices in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America in order to serve those who could benefit most from the assistance of Catholics in the United States. Over the last 75 years, CRS has responded to numerous emergencies, from the Ethiopia famine of the 1980s, to the global HIV epidemic of the 1990s and 2000s, to the myriad natural disasters that can strike anywhere in the world at any time.

“CRS got its start by helping refugees, but what’s amazing is that we’re still working with refugee populations all over the world,” Mr. Callahan said. “What’s changed is that unfortunately, for so many refugees today, the period of displacement is

much more protracted than it might have been in the past. Therefore, our assistance to these populations has changed to reflect that new reality.”

In addition to helping the poor and vulnerable overseas, during its 75-year history CRS also has created impactful programming that engages U.S. Catholics in living out the Church’s mission to serve the world’s poor. For instance, in 1977, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted Operation Rice Bowl as CRS’ official Lenten program. Since then, CRS Rice Bowl has become a Lenten tradition in thousands of parishes and schools across the United States, providing a tangible way for families to pray, fast, give and learn about our poorest brothers and sisters around the world.

Today, CRS implements programming in emergency response and recovery, agriculture, health, and education. Since it was founded, the agency has helped more than 130 million people worldwide.

“We’re trying to create a more just and prosperous world for all,” Mr. Callahan said of the agency’s ongoing mission. “And we also continue to seek ways to foster within the U.S. Catholic community a sense of global solidarity, providing inspiration to live out the spiritual tradition of compassionate service to the world.”

He notes that CRS wouldn’t be able to do any of its work without its vital supporters in the U.S. Catholic Church.

“Our U.S. Catholic community brings CRS to life. They’re such a vital part of our past, present, and future, and we couldn’t do it without them,” Mr. Callahan added.

To explore more about CRS’ rich history, visit 75.crs.org. ■

CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES AT A GLANCE FOUNDED: January 15, 1943 as War Relief Services in response to World War II

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MISSION: Assist poor and vulnerable people around the world in the name of Jesus Christ

LEADERSHIP: Sean Callahan is president and CEO of CRS, serving in that role since 2017

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SCOPE: CRS serves more than 136 million people in over 100 countries from its Baltimore world headquarters

DECEMBER 2, 2018 n A21

CONGRATULATIONS to the 365 winners

NOVEMBER DECEMBER WINNERS

OF THE 2018 SCHOLARS LEADERS SAINTS CALENDAR RAFFLE

NOV 1 | John & JoEllen Iacovino

DEC 1 | Donald Nichols

NOV 2 | Michael DePollo

DEC 2 | Mark Kelly

St. Mary School-Oak Ridge

Purchased from Diocese of Knoxville website

St. Dominic School

NOV 3 | Mark Kelly

DEC 3 | John Napiewocki

NOV 4 | Karen Parker

DEC 4 | Joseph Brugger

NOV 5 | Jarrett McBride

DEC 5 | Diana Seaver

NOV 6 | Rudolph Escher

DEC 6 | Harold & Mary Lou Carman

NOV 7 | David Metz

DEC 7 | Darlene Cruz

NOV 8 | Karin Hoover

DEC 8 | Melissa Woody

Sacred Heart Cathedral School

St. John Neumann School

St. Albert the Great Church

Sacred Heart Cathedral School

Knoxville Catholic High School

Holy Ghost Church

St. Patrick Church

Knoxville Catholic High School

Knoxville Catholic High School

Knoxville Catholic High School

Notre Dame High School

St. Joseph School

NOV 9 | Paul & Pamela VonHerbulis St. Patrick Church

NOV 10 | Jason Fender

DEC 9 | Father Emmanuel Massawe St. Dominic School

DEC 10 | Joe Rummell St. Alphonsus Church

Corporate sponsor

DEC 11 | Charles Gressler

NOV 11 | Kelli Anderson

St. Patrick Church

Sacred Heart Cathedral School

DEC 12 | Erin Rudolph

NOV 12 | Margaret Brashear

St. Mary School-Oak Ridge

Our Lady of Perpetual Help School

DEC 13 | P Ta

NOV 13 | Linda Adams

Notre Dame High School

Our Lady of Fatima Church

DEC 14 | Barbara Jones

NOV 14 | Shelly Burgess

Knoxville Catholic High School

Notre Dame High School

DEC 15 | Dorothy Culter

NOV 15 | Joann Suchomski

St. John Neumann School

DEC 16 | Kim Neighbor

All Saints Church

NOV 16 | Marilyn Bartling

St. Albert the Great Church

DEC 17 | Jason Smith

Holy Ghost Church

NOV 17 | Dave Watson

St. Francis of Assisi Church-Townsend

Sacred Heart Cathedral School

NOV 18 | Rodney & Mary Frances Robey St. Elizabeth Church

NOV 19 | Pam Wilcoxon

DEC 18 | Samuel Roberts

Purchased from Diocese of Knoxville website

DEC 19 | Bruce Damrow St. John Neumann School

DEC 20 | Pam Willen-Paranac

St. Thérèse of Lisieux Church

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Our Lady of Fatima Church

NOV 20 | Kimberly Mullin

St. Mary School-Johnson City

Notre Dame High School

DEC 21 | Tom & Lisa Tamilio

St. Joseph School

DEC 22 | Janet Neighbors

Purchased from Diocese of Knoxville website

DEC 23 | Meg Foster

Our Lady of Perpetual Help School

DEC 24 | Terrance Jones

Our Lady of Perpetual Help School

DEC 25 | Mary Walker

Knoxville Catholic High School

DEC 26 | Jennifer Bogni

All Saints Church

DEC 27 | Clare Souder

Our Lady of Perpetual Help School

DEC 28 | Donna Cox

Our Lady of Perpetual Help School

DEC 29 | Jessica Counts

Notre Dame High School

DEC 30 | Carol Peters

Knoxville Catholic High School

DEC 31 | Stan Sumrell

NOV 21 | Robyn Wilson

Knoxville Catholic High School Notre Dame High School

NOV 22 | Boone Cofer NOV 23 | Joe Franklin

Notre Dame High School

NOV 24 | Audrey Kundrot

Good Shepherd Church

NOV 25 | Mary Julian

Purchased from Diocese of Knoxville website

NOV 26 | Noe Banales

Knoxville Catholic High School

NOV 27 | Blanca Rios

Our Lady of Perpetual Help School

NOV 28 | Marie Christiana

Knoxville Catholic High School

NOV 29 | Adrienne Curfew

St. Mary School-Oak Ridge

NOV 30 | Kathleen Driver

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St. Dominic School

Notre Dame High School

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

This year, calendar sales raised more than $225,000 for tuition assistance for our 10 schools.

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