CNS PHOTO/BOB ROLLER
Suffering Haitians need care Loraus Bernaud, 27, now paralyzed from the waist down, lies in a bed outside St. Francis de Sales Hospital in Port-au-Prince Jan. 31 after being seriously injured in the Haitian earthquake. The specialized care he needs is not available in Haiti. page 10
THE EAST TENNESSEE
Volume 19 • Number 11 • February 7, 2010
The
N E W S PA P E R
of the D I O C E S E of K N O X V I L L E w w w. d i o k n o x . o r g
St. Dominic School to close at end of academic year BY DA N M CW I L L I AMS
‘A voice for the voiceless’ Marchers in Washington, D.C., were urged to keep up their efforts to protect human life. By Carol Zimmermann
he closing of St. Dominic School will end a 65-year tradition of Catholic education in Kingsport. Declining enrollment and rising costs for St. Dominic parishioners to support the school led to the painful decision last month. Following majority votes by the parish council and the parish finance board recommending closure—and after consulting diocesan leaders Bishop Richard F. Stika, superintendent of Catholic Schools Dr. Sherry Morgan, chancellor Deacon Sean Smith, and finance officer Deacon David Lucheon—St. Dominic pastor Father Mike Nolan made the move Jan. 21. He announced it to St. Dominic principal Deborah DePollo and her staff and wrote a letter to parents the following day, and he made the announcement at weekend Masses Jan. 23 and 24. “Here’s what I said at the Masses,” said Father Nolan in a teleSchool continued on page 8
WASHINGTON (CNS)—Despite overcast skies, the mood at the Jan. 22 annual March for Life in Washington was decidedly upbeat, as speaker after speaker urged the crowd to keep up their efforts in the pro-life arena. Several speakers told the tens of thousands at a rally on the National Mall— bundled in winter gear and holding aloft placards with pro-life messages or banners identifying where they were from—that they were now in the majority and would continue to make inroads in society and in government policies. Although the rally’s opening prayer asked God to grant the march participants “the courage to be a voice for the voiceless,” the group didn’t seem to lack bravery. They showed stamina by simply showing up in vast numbers— many as repeat marchers—despite calls for sleet and freezing rain, which
CNS PHOTO/PETER LOCKLEY
T
MORE THAN 100,000 STRONG
March for Life participants make their way up Constitution Avenue to the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22. The annual pro-life demonstration marks the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion across the nation.
never materialized. A statement posted on the March for Life website afterward did not give a count but said the size of the crowd for this year’s rally and the march that followed “far exceeded” last year’s number. In 2009 the organization estimat-
about 1995. Across the city at the Verizon Center sports arena, more than 17,000 youths— along with men and women religious and others—gathered for the annual Youth Rally and Mass for Life sponsored by the Archdiocese of Wash-
ed the crowd to be 100,000. The U.S. Park Police, which has responsibility for the Mall, and the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia have not given official crowd counts for any demonstration since
Please pray for our priests
March continued on page 6
Rosary at abortion clinic draws 300-plus
Dear Lord: We pray that the Blessed Mother will wrap her mantle around your priests and through her intercession strengthen them for their ministry. We pray that Mary will guide your priests to follow her own words, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). May your priests have the heart of St. Joseph, Mary’s most chaste spouse. May the Blessed Mother’s own pierced heart inspire them to embrace all who suffer at the foot of the cross. May your priests be holy and filled with the fire of your love, seeking nothing but your greater glory and the salvation of souls. Amen. St. John Vianney, pray for us. ■
Bishop Stika leads the prayer for life at the Knox facility. BY DA N MCW I L L I A MS
DAN MCWILLIAMS
than 300 of the faithful joined Bishop M ore Richard F. Stika for a rosary in front of an
PRAYERS TO OUR LADY
Download prayers and a rosary booklet: bit.ly/priestprayers.
ington. Fifteen alternate gathering sites near the Verizon Center were set up to accommodate 8,000 more pilgrims. Tickets for the event were in demand weeks beforehand. As one archdiocesan official put it, “The youth are
José and wife Olga Sandoval of Holy Ghost Parish in Knoxville join the faithful at a rosary in front of a Knoxville abortion clinic Jan. 16. With them are their daughters Jazmine, 9, and Perla, 5. The Sandovals were at one end of a line stretching about 100 yards along the sidewalk across from the clinic.
abortion clinic in Knoxville on Jan. 16, six days before the 37th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. A long line of East Tennessee Catholics of all ages stretched for 100 yards or so along the sidewalk across from Volunteer Women’s Medical Clinic on Concord Street. The bishop said he was “very pleased” with the turnout. “This is the first time we’ve organized this, and we have people here from different places in the diocese. We have priests here, deacons, young people and not-so-young people, and seminarians.” Among the hundreds praying were 15 priests of the diocese, several deacons and Sisters of Mercy, and seminarians Dustin Collins and Michael Hendershott. Those traveling the farthest included Father Michael Cummins of the Catholic Center at East Tennessee State University, Monsignor Philip Thoni and Father John O’Neill of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Fairfield Glade, and Father John Appiah of Notre Dame in Greeneville. Father Jay Flaherty of Holy Cross in Pigeon Forge brought a group in a van to the rosary. Bishop Stika and Paul Simoneau, director of the diocesan Office of Justice and Peace, spoke Rosary continued on page 3