March 21, 2010, East Tennessee Catholic

CNS/MIKE NELSON, THE TIDINGS

In the garden Jesus is depicted in the Garden of Gethsemane in this stained-glass image from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. Catholics throughout the world celebrate Good Friday on April 2 this year.

THE EAST TENNESSEE

Volume 19 • Number 14 • March 21, 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

Bishop condemns church’s antiCatholic tracts

Help support our seminarians A special collection will be taken up on Easter weekend to benefit their education. By Bishop Richard F. Stika

BY DA N M CW I L L I AMS

he distribution of anti-Catholic tracts by a Pigeon Forge Baptist church ceased on March 5, the same day Bishop Richard F. Stika condemned the action.

The story made its way nationwide via online news sites, blogs, and local- and cableTV newscasts in just a few days, and both the bishop and Pigeon Forge priest Father Jay Flaherty received praise for their handling of the situation.

A student at Pigeon Forge High School showed a Chick Publications tract titled “The Death Cookie” to a fellow student who is a parishioner of Holy Cross Church in Pigeon Forge. Copies of the tract were being distributed by members of Conner Heights Baptist Church, whose pastor, the Rev. Jonathan Hatcher, at first defended them in early media reports. The 1988 tract, which uses cartoons to claim that the Church was founded by the devil and that Catholics

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Colin Blatchford

Anthony Budnick

Dustin Collins

Jeff Emitt

Michael Hendershott

rayers answered are always a cause of great joy, and I would like to share with you one such answered prayer. But it is not just my prayer that has been answered but one of yours as well: our prayers for vocations are bearing abundant fruit.

I am pleased to announce that in addition to the 10 seminarians from our diocese currently en-

rolled in studies for the priesthood, as many as seven more men are preparing to begin seminary studies this next academic year.

Given the relatively small size of our diocese, this number of vocations is indeed significant, and we give thanks to the Lord God. This tremendous blessing, however, also poses a serious challenge, and in or-

der to meet it, I must ask for your help.

Each seminarian is a wonderful investment in the future of our local church. The annual cost of priestly formation is approximately $45,000 per seminarian. Of course, this is but a small investment in comparison to the priceless gift of a well-trained, wellformed priest who will minister to the parish community

and celebrate the sacraments that touch and shape our lives from beginning to end.

In order to help meet the cost of seminarian education, I have asked that a special collection be taken up on Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday, April 3 and 4, for our seminarians.

Over the next several weeks, we will offer information about the challenges

of providing for seminarian education and how parishes and Catholic groups and organizations can help.

The generosity of your prayers for vocations has resulted in a rich harvest of those answering God’s call to the priesthood. Now I ask also for your generosity in supporting these men through their formative studies and training. ■

Adam Kane

Christopher Manning

Doug Owens

Michael Poston

Scott Russell

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Tracts continued on page 7

Please pray for our priests

Download prayers and a rosary booklet: bit.ly/priestprayers.

Diocesan Hispanic youth help write Lenten study book They successfully argue for the 2010 Pascua Juvenil edition’s theme—the theology of the body—as they work on the guide for the fourth year in a row.

BY D AN M C WILLIAM S

ispanic youth from the Diocese of Knoxville worked on the Pascua Juvenil Lenten study book for the fourth straight year and successfully campaigned for the 2010 edition’s focus on the theology of the body.

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The bilingual book, published by the South East Pastoral Institute in Miami, is titled Una Mirada Hacia Ti: Cuerpo, Sexo y Vida Cristiana (“Looking Toward Ourselves: Body, Sex, and Our Christian Life”). Pascua Juvenil means “a youth’s

Passover.”

About 180 youth from 10 dioceses in SEPI’s nine-state region worked on this year’s edition. The project required much travel to workshops around the South.

The young authors met in

DAN MCWILLIAMS

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. ■

Mario Lourdes Garza, diocesan director of Hispanic Ministry, and Mario Mérida look over the 2010 Pascua Juvenil book at the Chancery office.

CO-WRITER MARIO

Lake Placid, Fla., last May 16 and 17 to select the theme of the book. The writing took place Sept. 12 and 13 in Columbia, S.C.; Nov. 14 and 15 in Cullman, Ala.; and Feb. 6 and 7 in Orlando.

Mario Mérida, 27, a parishioner of St. Thomas the Apostle in Lenoir City, is a veteran of all four Pascua Juvenil book-writing efforts.

“It was very hard, but it was a very rich experience when we were working on it,” he said.

The delegation from Knoxville that traveled to each book-writing workshop was composed of Mr. Mérida and Lourdes Garza, the diocese’s director of Hispanic Ministry, as well as Miguel Ojeda, Benjamin Velásquez, Reina Palacios, Lorenzo Garcia, Edgardo Andablo, Lourdes Vázquez, Youth continued on page 6

letters to the

EDITOR

Books to prevent ‘spiritual malnutrition’

Bravo and kudos to Father Bob Hofstetter for sharing his biography and bibliography with us.

The writings of Thomas Merton plus Henri Nouwen’s Reaching Out (Zondervan, 1998), Brian Pierce’s We Walk the Path Together (Orbis, 2005), and William Young’s The Shack (Windblown Media, 2007), and for good measure, the works of Richard Rohr, can provide good spiritual nourishment. It would be nice if these books were required reading for all those who preach in the diocese lest we folks in the pews suffer from spiritual malnutrition. ■ —Girard J. Etzkorn, Ph.D., Crossville Letters should be 350 words or less and will be edited for grammar, style, clarity, and length.

Submit them by e-mail or mail: mweaver@ dioknox.org, 805 Northshore Drive Southwest, Knoxville, TN 37919. Letters to the editor reflect the opinions of their authors and not those of the editorial staff or the publisher.

Faith-formation classes continue he 2010 series of adult faith-formation classes will continue throughout the year and in locations around the diocese. Classes are offered at no charge to all interested adults in the diocese.

Sessions take place on Tuesdays or Thursdays at 7 p.m. and end at 9. Online registration is available at dioknox.org/events/event-calendar/?cat=27.

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Spirituality, taught by Father Michael Woods.

Explores the foundations of how our faith is expressed and deepened through prayer and spirituality. The class will examine the concept of spiritual development and how intimate communion with God is available to all people.

■ Tuesday, April 20, Holy Spirit Church, SoddyDaisy ■ Tuesday, May 11, Notre Dame Church, Greeneville What we believe, taught by Deacon David Lucheon. Explores the foundations of what we profess as Catholics. The class will examine the principal truths of the faith as expressed in the creeds of the church.

■ Tuesday, April 20, St. Mary Church, Oak Ridge ■ Thursday, Oct. 14, St. Mary Church, Johnson City ■ Tuesday, Nov. 9, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Chattanooga Personal morality, taught by Father Michael Sweeney. Explores the foundations of what we believe as Catholics and why we believe it. How do we know the church’s position on moral issues is correct? How do we live as faithful Catholics in a world that seemingly rejects the church’s teachings at every turn? This session will examine the concepts of human dignity, freedom, law, sin, virtue, and conscience as well as current moral issues. It will also provide insight into how we may explain the church’s position to those who are searching for answers in a confusing world.

■ Tuesday, Oct. 5, St. Stephen Church, Chattanooga ■ Thursday, Nov. 4, location TBD

Catechist orientation The diocese’s catechetical formation program for adults also continues in 2010, with four catechetical days.

The program, presented in collaboration with Aquinas College in Nashville, is intended for parish catechists, teachers in Catholic schools, ministry leaders, and other interested adults.

Each catechetical-formation session will take place on a Saturday and will include hourlong modules on the Creed, the sacraments, morality, prayer, and methods. All sessions are offered free of charge. Online registration is available at dioknox.org/events/event-calendar/?cat=35 Catechetical days, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (choose one) ■ March 20, Notre Dame Church, Greeneville ■ March 27, St. Jude Church, Chattanooga ■ May 22, St. Mary Church, Oak Ridge

living the

READINGS

BY FATHER JOSEPH BRANDO

Feast of forgiveness As long as we live, God gives us opportunities to be liberated from sin.

The Temple area is a rather large plaza where huge crowds could gather on holy days.

Every day interested people could find religious teachers and gather around them. An above-average crowd would have gathered on the day described in today’s Gospel.

It was the Feast of Tabernacles, a joyous harvest festival.

Tabernacles referred to the temporary shacks farmers built in the fields. The harvesters would sleep in the shacks when it was too dark to work and start again at first light. That saved them the travel time between home and field. The harvest was a merry

time to thank God for providing food for another year and to think about the coming of the Messiah.

According to John, Jesus came to the Temple early in the morning, as it were, harvesting people. It must have been a great joy for our Lord to see virtually all the people coming to hear him.

Then the scribes and Pharisees arrived to test him. They came dragging a woman who, perhaps, had been caught trying to make money by offering her sexual services to the outof-towners who were celebrating the feast a little too much.

They demanded that Jesus sentence her to death by stoning. Jesus’ reaction was to doodle on the ground. He would have nothing to do with such shenanigans. When pressed further, he made the famous statement, “Let the one among

you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

To their credit, the scribes and Pharisees went away, beginning with the eldest. None of them would desire to ruin the feast by conducting an execution. They made Jesus’ point. The time of the Messiah is a time of joy, when people are liberated. Salvation is God’s will and Jesus’ mission.

Jesus did not condone the woman’s sin. What he gave her was the chance to repent.

He gives that same chance to us for as long as we live. Paul, in the second reading, addresses the subject of salvation from the other end. Paul wrote that he has not yet attained resurrection from the dead. Salvation is not a goal we achieve on earth. It is a pursuit. Damnation is not a state that exists here on earth.

It is the natural consequence, after death, of our refusing God’s love here on earth. ■ March 21, fifth Sunday of Lent Isaiah 43:16-21 Psalm 126:1-6 Philippians 3:8-14 John 8:1-11

Luke’s passion narrative Jesus was ‘the one in charge’ throughout his suffering and death.

alm Sunday is distinguished not only by the distribution of palms but also by the reading of one of the passion narratives. This year we read the passion according to Luke. Luke’s passion narrative presents Jesus from the Last Supper to his last breath as the one in charge. Jesus knew his Father’s will was that he should suffer for us, and he was committed to making it happen.

In the 95 verses of Luke’s narrative there are no less than 15 instances that show Jesus is actively working for our salvation. Let’s look at them: 1. Jesus begins the Passover meal, say-

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ing, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer.”

2. Jesus gives the first cup to the apostles, saying that he is bringing the kingdom of God. 3. When the apostles argue about who will betray him, Jesus intervenes and later offers them the privilege of sitting at his table in his kingdom and of judging Israel.

4. Jesus calls for Peter to strengthen the brothers after he recovers from his denials.

5. Jesus predicts his condemnation and relates it to biblical prophecy.

6. During the agony in the garden, Jesus promises to do the

Father’s will and is strengthened by an angel.

7. After the meal, when Jesus is apprehended, he stops the disciples from fighting the soldiers and then heals the man whose ear had been cut off.

8. In the garden Jesus tells his adversaries that this is their hour, as he had announced before the meal.

9. In the midst of his torture and interrogation at the high priest’s house, Jesus, ever in control of his environment, stops to look at Peter after his third denial of the Lord.

10. Jesus impresses Pilate, who twice declares him innocent.

11. Jesus tells the

Seek what is above In rising from the dead, Christ broke ‘all the rules of common sense.’

Paul wrote the comW hen mandment, “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth,” he was presenting us with the first natural consequence of Easter. Easter is the most glorious, richest feast day of the whole Church year. It celebrates Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. In doing so, it establishes the criteria on which we base our Christian lives.

If Jesus is risen, we need to be people of the spirit and not

of the body. If Jesus is risen, our minds must be set on heaven and not earth. If Jesus is risen, our thoughts ought to be centered on the sacred and not on the secular. All of these imperatives come from Paul in our second reading.

All of these duties were generated from the Easter Day experience of the disciples. It began with Mary, going out before sunrise to finish the burial rites the disciples had failed to complete before sun-

women of Jerusalem not to cry for him for they would undergo worse later.

12. On the cross he forgives his executioners, making an excuse for them.

13. The sign displaying his crime identifies him as “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

14. On the cross Jesus is still was in charge, granting eternal life to the “good thief.”

15. Jesus dies, calmly commending his spirit to the Father.

Luke’s message is that Jesus voluntarily and victoriously attacked the forces of darkness and defeated them so we could live. ■ March 28, Palm Sunday Isaiah 50:4-7 Psalm 22:8-9, 17-20, 2324 Philippians 2:6-11 Luke 22:14–23:56

set on Friday. The Easter Gospel relates that she did not see Jesus in the tomb where they had left him. The point is, she was looking for him in the wrong place. In a manner of speaking, she was the first to prove the rule Paul penned 20 or more years later. She looked below, not above. But her next two moves were much better.

Her dismay turned into the greatest news ever voiced, as Readings continued on page 3

April 4, Easter Sunday Acts 10:34, 37-43 Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17-22-23 Colossians 3:1-4 John 20:1-9

For further details about both programs, contact Father Richard Armstrong at rarmstrong@ dioknox.org or 865-584-3307. ■ Bishop Richard F. Stika Publisher Mary C. Weaver Editor Dan McWilliams Assistant editor

THE EAST TENNESSEE

Take note of ETC deadlines e welcome submissions about parish and community events. Send notices by e-mail (mary@dioknox.org), fax (865-584-8124), or mail (805 Northshore Drive Southwest, Knoxville, TN 37919). To make sure we receive information about upcoming events in time for publication, please submit it by the following deadlines: ■ Monday, March 29, for the April 11 issue ■ Monday, April 12, for the April 25 issue ■ Monday, April 26, for the May 9 issue ■ Monday, May 10, for the May 23 issue ■ Monday, May 24, for the June 6 issue.

When submitting photos or information about past events, please keep in mind that we have a backlog of submissions. ■

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MARCH 21, 2010

805 Northshore Drive S.W .

Margaret Hunt Administrative assistant Toni Pacitti Intern

Knoxville, TN 37919-7551

The East Tennessee Catholic (USPS 007211) is published twice monthly by the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, 805 Northshore Drive S.W., Knoxville, TN 37919-7551. Periodicals-class postage paid at Knoxville, Tenn.

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TH E E A S T TE N N E S S E E C ATH OLI C

he dwells

AMONG US

BY BISHOP RICHARD STIKA

First anniversary ‘I love being bishop,’ Knoxville’s shepherd writes as a milestone approaches.

Recently I received a phone call from a friend of mine in St. Louis, and he posed some interesting questions. What is it like to be a bishop, after almost one year? What is it like to be the bishop of Knoxville? Do you miss St. Louis? Do you miss the state of Missouri? Do you miss your family and friends?

Well, let me tell you, my sisters and brothers, I love being a bishop because I love being a priest. To be a priest and a bishop is truly a humbling experience, and I truly believe that I am not worthy.

But I do believe in the Lord’s call.

A good friend of mine, Father James Swift, the former provincial of the Congregation of the Mission, known as the Vincentians, recently gave me some great material to reflect on. I spoke to him about how I still do not understand fully what it means to be a bishop of the Church. I spoke to him about how I still find it very difficult to believe. I told him I am still processing the very idea.

After years of administration in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, I understand the administrative aspects of running a diocese, even though I can no longer use the line I used so often when I was faced with a difficult decision.

So often I would say, “Well, I’ll bring it to the archbishop and see what he says.” But now, to quote that famous Missourian Harry S Truman, “The buck stops here.”

My dear friend Father Swift said that if I truly believe the Holy Spirit is part of the decision-making process of the Church, if we believe that the Holy Spirit guides the Church, if we believe that the Holy Spirit guided the cardinals to choose the Holy Father, who eventually chose me to shepherd the Church of Knoxville, then even though I might believe I am not worthy to be a successor of the Apostles and bishop of this diocese, I have been chosen.

So to answer the question “What is it like to be the bishop of Knoxville?” I say without equivocation, that I love being bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville, for it allows me the opportunity to be a pastor: to be pastor of a Church from Helenwood to Chattanooga, from Kingsport to Townsend, from Soddy-Daisy to Crossville and of all the different parishes and institutions I am privileged to serve.

As a pastor I witness daily the face of Jesus in the work of Marriage Encounter and Cursillo and Search, in the work of the Ladies of Charity,

and in parishes that adopt other parishes throughout the world, especially in Haiti and Colombia.

In the beautiful cultures that make up the fabric of the church of East Tennessee and the languages that speak of the faith that allows us to know God. In the commitment of my brother deacons and priests from around the world who are so committed to be another Christ to the people they are called to serve with a spirit of humility.

In the 10 seminarians who are studying for the diocese and the six or seven men who are now contemplating joining them in September.

In the consecrated women who serve the church so faithfully.

In so many different ways I see the face and the voice of Jesus.

It brings me joy to pray with you. In the Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in confirmations and church dedications and parish-hall festivities. In fish fries and visits to the parishes that make up this wonderful church of Knoxville. It brings me joy to stand behind the bench at a high school football game and root for our team, as so often I feel like the owner of a team. To sit in the stands of a gymnasium and see a well-played basketball game by our young men or women. To sit at a baseball game and enjoy America’s favorite pastime, hoping someday one of the members of the team will play for the St. Louis Cardinals.

To hear children sing at school or to sit in a cafeteria and chat with those with so much life ahead of them and to hear about their dreams and celebrate with them the occurrences of their life.

To witness a stage production or choral festival or the servers who are excited about serving at Mass for the first time.

To witness daily the work of Catholic Charities and how its staff represents Jesus. The faithful teachers at our schools who give so much and make so little.

To the Knights of Columbus and their families who are so good to the Church and our community in so many ways.

To witness the dedicated service of those who work at the Chancery and in other areas of the Diocese. Those unseen people who do so much for the Lord and his people.

With all of this, to reflect why wouldn’t I love to be a bishop—and the bishop of Knoxville.

To truly see the face of Jesus, to see how he is trusted by so many. Most Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, I thank you for this privilege, and I pray daily that I may be worthy.

Also, thanks be to God for the work of those involved in vocation recruitment. You know, we may have as many as seven new men entering the seminary this fall. These men, God willing, will join the 10 who are already in formation. But with this gift comes a very practical challenge to our budget. So now I come to you.

The average cost of supporting a seminarian in the Diocese of Knoxville and in effect in the United States is about $45,000 per year. We have to provide certain things, such as insurance, and give them a small stipend, as well as pay for tuition, especially in theology.

Well, given the 10 men who are already studying for the Diocese of Knoxville and with the possibility of five to seven more—which is indeed a great blessing—I have now authorized, after consulting with the priests and finance council of the diocese, a second collection that will be taken up each year to help with the formation of these young men. This year the collection will be taken on Easter Sunday. Then we will evaluate to see whether this is the right time. This yearly collection will assist in the formation of those who wish to serve you, the people of God, in East Tennessee.

I also ask your prayers for those who are preparing to be received into the Church at the Easter Vigil. Pray for the candidates and catechumens and their families as they prepare for this special journey.

In some ways their journey is complete—but it is also just beginning with the Easter Vigil.

Bishop continued on page 7

BISHOP STIKA’S SCHEDULE These are some of Bishop Stika’s appointments: March 21: 11:30 a.m., confirmation, Immaculate Conception Church, Knoxville; 6 p.m., confirmation, Holy Ghost Church, Knoxville March 22: 8:15 a.m., meeting with Congressman Jimmy Duncan; 6 p.m., welcome dinner for Mother Anne Marie, OP, Notre Dame High School, Chattanooga March 23: 8 a.m., breakfast with East Knoxville clergy March 24: 8 a.m., Catholic Day on the Hill, Nashville; 11 a.m., Mass, St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows Church, Nashville March 26: 5 p.m., Mass, St. Dominic Church, Kingsport; 6:30 p.m., Catholic Charities dinner, Jonesborough March 28: 11 a.m., Mass, Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus March 30: 7:30 p.m., Chrism Mass, Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; 9 p.m., public reception after Mass, Sacred Heart Cathedral School gymnasium April 1: 7:30 p.m.; Mass, Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus April 3: 8:30 p.m., Easter Vigil Mass, Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus April 4: 11 a.m., Easter Mass, Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus April 6: 7 p.m., confirmation, St. Mary Church, Gatlinburg April 11: 10:30 a.m., installation of Father David Boettner, EV, as rector, Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ■

Penance services scheduled throughout the diocese ere is a list of remaining Lenten penance services around the Diocese of Knoxville:

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Chattanooga Deanery 7 p.m., except as noted. March 18—Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Chattanooga; March 21— St. Catherine Labouré, Copperhill, 6 p.m.; March 23—St. Stephen, Chattanooga; March 24—St. Bridget, Dayton, 6:30 p.m.; March 25—St. Jude, T H E EA S T TE N N E S S E E C AT H OL IC

Chattanooga

Cumberland Mountain Deanery 7 p.m. Eastern Time, except as noted. March 23—St. Francis of Assisi, Fairfield Glade, 6 p.m.

CDT; March 29—All Saints, Knoxville

Five Rivers Deanery 7 p.m. March 22—Notre Dame, Greeneville; March 23—St. Patrick, Morristown; March 24—

Holy Trinity, Jefferson City; TBA—St. Anthony of Padua, Mountain City

Smoky Mountain Deanery 7 p.m. March 22—Our Lady of Fatima, Alcoa, and John XXIII, Knoxville; March 23—Sacred Heart Cathedral, Knoxville; March 24—Holy Ghost, Knoxville, and Immaculate Conception, Knoxville, at IC; March 25—St. Joseph the Worker, Madisonville ■ www.d ioknox.org

new

APPOINTMENT

Bishop appoints new coordinator for Vocation Promotion for Religious ishop Richard F. Stika announced on March 10 that he had appointed Sister Mary Christine Cremin, RSM, as diocesan coordinator for Vocation Promotion for Religious.

“Sister Mary Christine will be working with all the religious communities in the Diocese of Knoxville to actively foster vocations by means of retreats, parish visits, and open communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Knoxville,” he wrote. “I am grateful for Sister Mary Christine’s willingness to serve in this leadership capacity and ask for your prayers for her as she undertakes this new ministry.”

The bishop also thanked the former coordinator, Sister Yvette Gillen, RSM, “for her leadership in this role for the past nine years.”

“I appreciate her faithful service and dedication over the years,” he wrote. ■

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Bishop grants leave of absence to Father Tony Dickerson ishop Richard F. Stika announced in a March 12 memo that Father Tony Dickerson had requested and been granted a leave of absence “to discern the future of his priestly ministry.” Father Dickerson had been serving as spiritual director at Knoxville Catholic High School. ■

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Readings continued from page 2

Peter heard her shrill voice announce that Jesus was not where they thought he would be.

If his body was not in the tomb and nobody had taken him away, the only alternative was unbelievable.

But if it were true that Jesus had risen from the dead as he predicted, all the rules of common sense had been broken, and new ones needed to be fashioned.

So Mary took Peter and the beloved disciple to the tomb. They too failed to see Jesus by looking in the tomb. That made them the second and third violators of the commandment Paul had not yet written.

But they must have had some crime-scene investigative experience. They searched the tomb and found the burial cloths in one place and the head cloth rolled up in a separate spot.

The beloved disciple saw enough to believe.

When Mary returned later, she looked up, listened, and recognized the Lord, risen from the dead. ■ Father Brando is pastor of St. Mary Parish in Gatlinburg.

WEEKDAY READINGS Monday, March 22: Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62; Psalm 23:1-6; John 8:12-20 Tuesday, March 23: Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 102:2-3, 16-21; John 8:21-30 Wednesday, March 24: Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95; Daniel 3:52-56; John 8:31-42 Thursday, March 25: Solemnity, the Annunciation of the Lord, Isaiah 7:10-14 and 8:10; Psalm 40:7-11; Hebrews 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38 Friday, March 26: Jeremiah 20:10-13; Psalm 18:2-7; John 10:31-42 Saturday, March 27: Ezekiel 37:21-28; Jeremiah 31:1013; John 11:45-56 Monday of Holy Week, March 29: Isaiah 42:1-7; Psalm 27:1-3, 13-14; John 12:1-11 Tuesday of Holy Week, March 30: Isaiah 49:1-6; Psalm 71:1-6, 15, 17; John 13:21-33, 36-38; chrism Mass, Isaiah 61:1-3, 6, 8-9; Psalm 89:21-22, 25, 27; Revelation 1:5-8; Luke 4:16-21 Wednesday of Holy Week, March 31: Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 69:8-10, 21-22, 31, 33-34; Matthew 26:14-25 Holy Thursday, April 1: Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15 Good Friday, April 2: Celebration of the Lord’s Passion, Isaiah 52:13–53:12; Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-17, 25; Hebrews 4:14-16 and 5:7-9; John 18:1–19:42 Holy Saturday, April 3: Mass of vigil, Genesis 1:1–2:2 and Psalm 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12-14, 24, 35; Genesis 22:1-18 and Psalm 16:5, 8-11; Exodus 14:15–15:1 and Exodus 15:1-6, 17-18; Isaiah 54:5-14 and Psalm 30:2, 46, 11-13; Isaiah 55:1-11 and Isaiah 12:2-6; Baruch 3:915 and 3:32–4:4 and Psalm 19:8-11; Ezekiel 36:16-28 and Psalms 42:3, 5 and 43:3-4; Romans 6:3-11 and Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23; Luke 24:1-12 Easter Monday, April 5: Acts 2:14, 22-33; Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11; Matthew 28:8-15 Easter Tuesday, April 6: Acts 2:36-41; Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22; John 20:11-18 Easter Wednesday, April 7: Acts 3:1-10; Psalm 105:1-4, 6-9; Luke 24:13-35 Easter Thursday, April 8: Acts 3:11-26; Psalm 8:2, 5-9; Luke 24:35-48 Easter Friday, April 9: Acts 4:1-12; Psalm 118:1-2, 4, 22-27; John 21:1-14 Easter Saturday, April 10: Acts 4:13-21; Psalm 118:1, 14-21; Mark 16:9-15 ■ MARCH 21, 2010

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OLPH, Chattanooga ■ The religion department created a

prayer book for every Our Lady of Perpetual Help School family, with prayers for many occasions. The book was blessed by Father Jim Vick.

St. Catherine Labouré, Copperhill ■ Bernie Blanche prepared an Irish

meal for the annual St. Patrick’s Day party March 14.

■ Mark Caddell, grandson of Richard and Kathy Jabaley, played his guitar on EWTN on March 17.

■ The Knights of Columbus St. Catherine’s Roundtable is sponsoring its Three-Minute Fish Dinner immediately after Stations of the Cross on Friday, March 26, in the parish hall. Prices are $7 for adults and $3 for children under 12. Take-out is available. Call Peter Winne at 706-492-7372 for more information. The fish dinner Feb. 26 raised $250 for the Knights’ charity efforts.

■ Newcomer: Ralph Martinez

St. Jude, Chattanooga ■ Storyteller and actor Father Joseph

Morris of the Archdiocese of Atlanta will present the entire Gospel of St. Mark in two hours at 7 p.m. Friday, March 26. Baby-sitting will be provided with an RSVP. Call Kyra Ross at 423870-2386.

■ The junior high youth will go spelunking from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 27. Cost is $30. Adult chaperones are needed.

St. Stephen, Chattanooga ■ The parish is starting a Caring Hearts & Hands ministry. Its vision is to be the go-to group for a variety of situations, including providing a meal for a bereaved family after a funeral, providing meals for a family during an illness or another circumstance, and preparing and decorating for church receptions such as those following first Holy Communion or confirmation.

Parishioners may sign up for the ministry following Masses on the weekend of March 20 and 21. For more information, call Elaine Williams at 423-6455835 (cell) or 899-3811 (home).

Cumberland Mountain Deanery

All Saints, Knoxville ■ The youth ministry is selling gift certificates for HoneyBaked Hams to raise funds for a trip to a Catholic Heart Workcamp this summer. Denominations of $25 and $50 are available.

Contact youth minister Annie Nassis at 865-531-0770 or annieatallsaints@ yahoo.com.

■ Seventy-five couples celebrated their anniversary at All Saints’ World Marriage Dinner on Feb. 12. Couples who attended are celebrating anniversaries ranging from 70 years for Pat and Ruth Tyrrell to five years for Marshall and Laura Stout and Juan Manuel Urguiza and Paola Martinez.

St. Francis of Assisi, Fairfield Glade ■ The parish will have a blessing of the sick at an 8 a.m. Mass on Wednesday, March 23.

■ Volunteers are needed to visit homebound parishioners and those at the local hospital and nursing homes. Virtus training is mandatory for those who wish to volunteer for this service. Call Mary Hall at 931-7078314 or Norma Hall at 707-9974.

■ Anniversaries: Ted and Jean Bowles (58), Ray and Susan Butkus (56), Ed and Claire Sisson (55), Don and Carolyn Beck (55)

St. Mary, Oak Ridge ■ The Home and School Association

will host a wellness day March 19.

The day will begin with Mass at 8 a.m. and include interactive learning stations for children to visit from 9 a.m. to noon. Call Julie Hubbard at 865-4832864 for more information.

■ The Knights of Columbus will present an Easter-egg hunt for children ages 11 and younger on Easter Sunday, April 4. To volunteer or learn more, call Grand Knight Mark Patrick at 207-2409.

St. Thomas the Apostle, Lenoir City ■ Tickets are available for the St.

Thomas Women’s Guild’s annual Spring Luncheon and Card Party, which will be held Thursday, May 13 at the family-life center. Proceeds support local community nonprofit agencies.

■

MARCH 21, 2010

Tickets are $15. To purchase tickets or learn more, call Pam Skinner at 865408-9817 or Sarina Baker at 408-2410.

■ Father Ron Hicks and two children from Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos homes in El Salvador will visit the parish on the weekend of March 20 and 21. St. Thomas parishioners have supported NPH for the past four years.

■ A volunteer is needed to act as special-events coordinator for the parish. Contact Joe Heckman at joe.heckman@att.net or 865-988-4482 for further details.

■ Newcomers: Kathleen Edwards, Harold McArdle Five Rivers Deanery

St. Dominic, Kingsport ■ New Clothes for Kids needs com-

mercial work space and/or a storage place. Call parishioner Anissa Lyttle at 423-360-4065.

St. Elizabeth, Elizabethton ■ Volunteers prepared and served

meals for 219 homeless and elderly on March 6 at St. John Episcopal Church as part of the community-wide Food for the Multitude program. The next opportunity for St. Elizabeth parishioners to volunteer is Saturday, April 10.

■ The Knights of Columbus will host a St. Patrick’s Day fundraising dinner March 20 for its Food for Families program, which helps ARM (Assistance Resource Ministries). A food drive is also being planned for the weekends of April 17 and 18 and April 24 and 25.

■ The Knights recently distributed $1,000 to Happy Valley High School in Elizabethton for a new refrigerator for its independent-living classroom and $507.34 to Mountain Region Hearing and Speech Center in Kingsport. The funds were raised in the Knights’ Tootsie Roll drive in November.

■ Anniversaries: Cathy and Alan Hoard (30), Leann and Marc Clemons (15) ■ Newcomer: Hugh F. Buckles

St. Patrick, Morristown

egistrations for a pilgrimage to Fatima and Ireland with Father Patrick Resen of St. Catherine Labouré Parish in Copperhill, are being accepted through the end of March.

The trip, departing from Knoxville, is planned for Monday,

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April 12, through Wednesday, April 21.

The trip is being arranged by 206 Tours. Pilgrims will go on a city tour of Dublin, attend Mass daily, stay in firstclass hotels, and ride in luxury motor coaches.

The group will also

tour the Knock folk museum, Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, and more.

The cost is $2,899.

Breakfast and dinner are included. For more information, contact Dolores Maglione at 865-9820090 or maglioned@ bellsouth.net. ■

St. Augustine youth wins pro-life oratory contest hattanoogans for Life held an oratory contest Feb. 19 at Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga. Six students took part in the contest and presented five- to seven-minute speeches on abortion

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and how the establishment of personhood could be used to overturn Roe v. Wade.

First place went to Nathan Bird, a parishioner of St. Augustine in Signal Mountain.

Matthew Kniedler of St. Jude in Chatta-

nooga placed second, and Elizabeth Tuggle of Shepherd of the Valley in Dunlap finished third.

Each student who took part in the contest received a prize and a goody bag with pro-life materials. ■

FATHER PETER IORIO

Chattanooga Deanery

4

Still time to register for Fatima and Ireland pilgrimage

BY TONI PACITTI

Luncheon for newcomers at St. Thérèse of Lisieux The welcome committee of St. Thérèse of Lisieux Parish in Cleveland hosted a luncheon for new parishioners Feb. 28. The event organizers were Scott and Mary Beck and their daughter, Christina.

■ Lenten meals will be served at

6 p.m. Friday, March 26, in the parish center. Donations will benefit YES, the Youth Emergency Shelter, in Morristown. Stations of the Cross will follow the meals at 7 p.m.

■ The parish library is open before and after the 5 p.m. Saturday Mass, from before the 9 a.m. Mass until after the 11:30 a.m. Mass on Sundays, and from 12:30 p.m. Wednesdays until after the 7 p.m. Mass.

■ A Seder meal will be served at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 31, in the parish hall.

■ The social-action committee will collect food for Morristown Central Services on Sunday, April 4. Nonperishable food should be left at the collection point in the narthex.

■ The annual spring spruce-up of the parish grounds is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 10. Volunteers are needed.

■ Divine Mercy Sunday will be celebrated at 3 p.m. April 11.

Smoky Mountain Deanery

Our Lady of Fatima, Alcoa ■ The Council of Catholic Women will

hold a Lenten spiritual retreat for women of the parish from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 27. Pastor Father Bede Aboh will celebrate Mass at 9, with light refreshments and presentations by the Sisters of Mercy to follow. The theme is “Mary, the Mother of God: Her Womanhood and Ours.” For more information, call Cheryl Land at 865-983-9610.

■ Howard Bott recently achieved the third degree in the Knights of Columbus. George Golightly was named Knight of the month for February. Don and Roseanne Nichols were named the Knights’ family of the month.

COURTESY OF CAROL ADAMS

NOTES

Haiti priest with DOK ties serving aboard hospital ship Father Herve Granjean, a Haitian priest with ties to East Tennessee, has been serving the survivors of the Haitian earthquake and the crew of the USNS Comfort by saying Mass and giving the sacraments aboard the hospital ship. The ship is on duty offshore in the Port-au-Prince bay. Father Granjean has raised funds for St. Antoine–St. Augustine School in Petite Riviere de Nippes through visits to East Tennessee parishes, including St. Francis of Assisi in Fairfield Glade and St. Augustine in Signal Mountain. The American Haitian Foundation in Signal Mountain built the school in 1998 and continues to fund it.

COURTESY OF GEORGE LECRONE SR.

parish

St. Albert the Great, Knoxville ■ Chris Vollmar of Hunter and Associ-

ates is offering a 10 percent discount to parishioners for help with taxes.

Contact Chris at ChrisV98@comcast. net or 865-924-0272.

■ Baptism: Paige Elizabeth, daughter of Cathy and Tony Bloyd

St. Joseph the Worker, Madisonville ■ The parish cookbook is now avail-

able and being sold downstairs after Mass for $15. Proceeds will support the church. ■

St. Jude troop presents three Eagle awards Boy Scout Troop 172 at St. Jude Parish in Chattanooga recently presented three Eagle Scout awards. Brothers Alexander and Wesley Blanton received Scouting’s top honor along with Chris Muzyn. The ceremony marked the first time that Troop 172 presented the Eagle award to brothers at the same time. The three boys also received recognition certificates from the Diocesan Catholic Committee on Scouting. From left are parents Leonard and Margaret Muzyn, Chris, Alexander, Wesley, and parents Monica and Dennis Blanton. Greg Kniedler is the Troop 172 Scoutmaster.

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TH E E A S T TE N N E S S E E C ATH OLI C

CALENDAR

BY TONI PACITTI

There’s still time to register for Catholic Schools Day on the Hill, which will take place Wednesday, April 14. The event gives students an opportunity to advocate with their legislators at the state capitol on issues of importance to the Church, attend Mass at St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows Church downtown, and discuss and debate current policy issues. Registration deadline is March 26. Cost is $20 each for students and for teachers and chaperones. For more information, contact Kathleen Murphy at 615-828-4713 or tncppc@bellsouth.net. Download a registration form and tentative agendas at tncppc.org. Catholic Day on the Hill for adults will be held Wednesday, March 24.

The seventh annual Fighting Irish– Warriors Spring Classic, a high school baseball doubleheader benefiting Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, is set for Saturday, May 1, at Smokies Park in Kodak. Knoxville Catholic High School will take on Gibbs in the second game at 7 p.m.

The evening will begin with a concert at 4 p.m. by the Grace Christian Academy high school ensemble. The special-events choir from St. Joseph School in Knoxville will also perform.

The Warriors of Christian Academy of Knoxville will play Grace Christian in the first game at 5. Tickets for adults are $4 in advance (groups of 10 or more), $5 in advance for singles, and $6 at the gate. Student tickets are $2 in advance for a group of 10 or more, $3 in advance for singles, and $4 at the gate. To purchase tickets, call KCHS at 865-560-0313, CCET’s Pregnancy Help Center at 212-4942, or the other participating schools.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Chattanooga will host an open house for students entering grades one through eight in the 2010-11 school year from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, March 18. RSVP to 423-622-1481 or Teresa hennen@catholicweb.com.

Knights of Columbus Council 610 will host a “Black & White Ball,” an evening of dining and fellowship from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday, March 27, at the Loose Cannon Gallery in Chattanooga. The event will benefit the Firth family, who have lost two children to cancer and have another child battling cancer. Dress is formal. Costs: $40 per couple, $20 for singles.

The Chattanooga Deanery’s summer God Camps are set. “Dare to Dream,” for rising high school students, will be held June 21 through 26. Cost is $130.

“Reach,” for rising seventh- and eighthgraders, is set for June 28 through July 1. Cost is $95. “Discover,” for rising fifth- and sixth-graders, will be held July 1 through 3. Cost is $80. For more details, contact Donna Jones at 423267-9878 or djones6029@gmail.com.

The Knox County chapter of Tennessee Right to Life will hold its high school oratory and art contests Tuesday, April 13. Students may download a registration form at trlknox.org.

Registration deadline is Thursday, April 8. The chapter is also asking pro-life supporters to submit their names for inclusion in its annual Mother’s Day ad in the Knoxville News Sentinel. Cost (to help pay for the ad) is $10 per person or $15 per family. For more information, contact the chapter at 865-689-1339 or trlknox@knology.net.

The fourth annual Catholic Relief Services Food Fast will begin at noon Saturday, March 27, and end at the 1:30 p.m. Mass in Spanish on Sunday, March 28, at St. Mary Church in Oak Ridge. The fast is sponsored by the Pastoral Juvenil Hispana, the diocesan Hispanic youth and young-adult ministry. Funds collected will be donated to CRS for its programs to defeat infant mortality in Guatemala. For more information, contact Mario Merida at 865-640-2202 or r.luis99@yahoo.com or Lourdes Garza in the diocesan Office of Hispanic Ministry at 637-4769 or lacosecha@dioknox.org.

Registration is under way for Catholic Charities’ inaugural golf tournament, set for Monday, May 10, at Cherokee Country Club in Knoxville. Cost is $1,000 per four-person team and inTH E EA S T TE N N E S S E E C AT H OL IC

cludes hospitality, prizes, and player gifts. For more information, contact Mike Smith at 865-250-1215 or irish100@chartertn.net.

The seventh annual Chattanoogans for Life banquet has been set for 7 p.m. Friday, April 23, at the Chattanoogan hotel. The theme is adoption. Singer and pro-life advocate Jaime Thietten is the guest speaker this year. Tickets are $50 or $400 for a table for eight. To reserve a spot or a table, call Sue Shranko at 423-8255912. To learn more or volunteer, call Kitty at 322-8356 or 290-7314 or visit chattanoogansforlife.org.

Bishop Richard F. Stika will host a bilingual celebration at St. Dominic Church in Kingsport on Saturday, July 31, to honor married couples and their commitment to the sacrament of marriage. The celebration will include Mass, an opportunity to renew wedding vows, and a luncheon for couples and their family and friends following the liturgy. Mass will begin at 11 a.m. To attend the luncheon, RSVP to Marian Christiana of the diocesan Office of Marriage Preparation and Enrichment at 423-892-2310 or mchristiana@dioknox. org or Karen Byrne at 865-584-3307 or kbyrne@dioknox.org.

Tennessee Right to Life will host its seventh annual Pro-Life Women’s Day on the Hill on Wednesday, March 31, at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown.

This year’s speaker is Abby Johnson, a former director of Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas, who became pro-life after witnessing an abortion via ultrasound.

High school singers are needed for the 2010 National Catholic Youth Choir, conducted by Axel Theimer.

Youth entering grades 10, 11, and 12 this fall are eligible to participate. A camp and tour will be held from June 15 through 29 at St. John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minn. Cost is $900, and scholarships are available.

Applications are due Monday, March 8.

Application and audition materials may be found at CatholicYouthChoir.org.

For more information, contact Dorothy Kantor at 320-363-3154 or dkantor@ csbsju.edu.

Bereavement Services of East Tennessee is sponsoring its 10th annual Bereavement Resource Fair from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 24, at First Seventh Day Adventist Church, 3611 Kingston Pike in Knoxville. This year’s fair will also include “Living with Grief: Cancer and End-ofLife Care,” the Hospice Foundation of America’s 17th annual national teleconference, broadcast via satellite and webcast from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Registration is $30; the teleconference resource book is $10 while supplies last.

Continuing education units are available for an additional fee if requested.

For more information on registration or vendor participation ($35 per table), call BSET committee member Kelly Berry at 865-577-6666. Send registration to BSET, 3704 Chapman Highway, Knoxville, TN 37920.

Camp Marymount, a Catholic residential summer camp in Fairview (17 minutes west of downtown Nashville), is accepting campers for the 2010 summer season. Activities include horseback riding, arts and crafts, nature hikes, canoeing, and archery. An open house will be held from 2 to 4 p.m.

Sunday, April 18. To register or learn more, visit www.campmarymount.com or call 615-799-0410.

Registration is under way for the One Million Rosaries for Unborn Babies prayer event May 7 through 9. To register or learn more, visit www.Saint MichaelTheArchangelOrganization.org or send your intentions to P.O. Box 41257, Memphis, TN 38174. Families, schools, and parishes have registered rosaries to date.

Charismatic Masses will be celebrated at 5 p.m. Sundays, April 25, Aug. 29, and Oct. 24, at Holy Spirit Church in Soddy-Daisy. Father Dan Whitman of Holy Trinity Parish in Jefferson City will be the celebrant. Call Dee Leigh at 423-842-2305.

Calendar continued on page 6

COURTESY OF CRAIG GRIFFITH

on the

GROUNDBREAKING IN JEFFERSON CITY Participating in the ceremony at St. Mary’s Jefferson Memorial Hospital were (from left) Dr. Justin McGoldrick, SMJMH chief of staff and emergency-department medical director; Mercy Sister Pat Connolly, Mercy Heath Partners Mission representative; Ken Carpenter, SMJMH board chair; Mercy Sister Martha Naber, MHP regional liaison for Mercy Sponsorship and SMJMH board member; David Bunch, SMJMH president; Darrell Helton, Jefferson City mayor; Alan Palmieri, Jefferson County mayor; Doug Kennedy, president of Johnson & Galyon Inc.; and George Ewart, owner of Ewart Architects.

St. Mary’s Jefferson Memorial Hospital expanding elow-freezing temperatures and a dusting of snow didn’t dampen the excitement or deter attendance at a groundbreaking and project blessing Feb. 16 at St. Mary’s Jefferson Memorial Hospital (SMJMH) celebrating the Jefferson City facility’s 2010 expansion.

The $3.2 million capital-improvement project is being funded through a combination of capital resources allocated from Catholic Healthcare Partners, parent company of Mercy Health Partners (MHP), as well as a $517,000 federal grant awarded to MHP in late 2009 in support of the SMJMH expansion.

“We are grateful for all who made resources possible for this project,” said

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SMJMH president David Bunch.

This represents the hospital’s first major expansion since the facility opened in January 2001. Construction, slated to conclude this fall, includes a 4,500-squarefoot addition to the second floor and renovation of approximately 15,000 square feet on the first and second floors. Key components of the project include renovation of emergencydepartment facilities and addition of six exam rooms, a new state-of-the-art intensive-care unit and step-down unit, and enhanced patient-registration areas.

The SMJMH emergency department, intended to serve 15,000 to 18,000 patient visits annually, now sees more than 27,000 patients each

year, said Mr. Bunch.

“With the ongoing support of this community, St. Mary’s Jefferson Memorial will continue to serve the needs of Jefferson County and beyond,” said Mercy Sister Martha Naber, MHP regional liaison for Mercy Sponsorship and SMJMH board member.

Sister Martha and Mercy Sister Pat Connolly, MHP Mission representative, were joined by Father Dan Whitman, pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Jefferson City, in leading prayer and Scripture readings during a ceremony before the groundbreaking.

A member of Mercy Health Partners, SMJMH is a 58-bed acute-care facility with nearly 250 associates providing health care for Lakeway-area residents. ■

KDCCW convention includes annual memorial Mass he Knoxville Diocesan Council of Catholic Women will open its 21st annual convention at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 22, with Bishop Richard F. Stika celebrating the annual memorial Mass for all the women of the diocese who died during the past 12 months.

Names of deceased women must be emailed to Karen Joubert at krjoubert@ yahoo.com before the end of March. Each woman’s name will be read aloud at Mass. The KDCCW invites everyone to attend the Mass to pray for departed

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family members and friends, even if one cannot attend the convention. All CCW spiritual moderators are invited to concelebrate the Mass.

The convention continues through Saturday, April 24.

This year’s theme is “Women of Faith, Women of Action.”

The schedule includes workshops, liturgies, entertainment, and networking in the Holiday Inn Express hospitality room each evening.

The KDCCW board will meet at 1 p.m.

April 22 at in the Deacon José Room of the parish life center.

At the banquet following the Mass for

deceased women, a special acknowledgement of Pope Benedict XVI’s “Year for Priests” will take place. The convention will end with a luncheon April 24 honoring mothers of priests, followed by a closing prayer service led by National CCW leadership-development trainers.

Registrations for the convention are being accepted through Wednesday, April 14. Registration forms are available from all affiliate presidents, the kdccw.org website, or one of the convention co-chairs: Bette Purvis at betteth410@yahoo.com or Sally Jackson at 865-494-7340. ■

NCCW president visits D.C. for social-ministry event atty Johnson of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Fairfield Glade, president of the National Council of Catholic Women, was among leaders from across the country who traveled to Washington, D.C., for the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering held Feb. 7 through 10.

Mrs. Johnson and Cullen Larsen, Southeast Region director for Catholic Relief Services (CRS), met with Tennessee Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander and U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee on Feb. 9 to discuss what they can do to help the nation’s economic recovery through job creation and health-care reform, to support meaningful and compassionate immigration reform, and to increase international assistance with spe-

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cial concern for recovery in Haiti and a “responsible transition” in Afghanistan.

“It is important for constituents to speak with their representatives about issues that are of great concern to Catholics in the United States,” said Mrs. Johnson, Tennessee state captain for the gathering. “It makes a real difference to members of Congress when you get people from their home district to talk about issues that have a huge impact on people’s lives.”

Mrs. Johnson was one of more than 400 Catholic delegates from 40 states who visited Capitol Hill during the conference, which is sponsored by more than a dozen national Catholic organizations, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and CRS. ■ MARCH 21, 2010

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Calendar continued from page 5

Youth continued from page 1

The Serra Club of Knoxville meets on second and fourth Thursdays in the Shea Room at Sacred Heart Cathedral’s office building. Meetings begin with Mass at 11:30 a.m., followed by lunch at noon and a speaker at 12:30 p.m.

The next Marriage Encounter weekend is scheduled for Aug. 27 through 29 at the Hilton Garden Inn in West Knoxville. To register, contact John or Manuela Ptacek at 865-531-1719 or celebrate-love@ earthlink.net, or visit www.loveinthesmokies.org. For more information, contact John or Anne Wharton at 423-581-1815 or ACW193@bellsouth.net.

Holy Resurrection Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Mission has Divine Liturgy celebrations at 3:30 p.m.

Sundays at Holy Ghost Church, 1041 N. Central St. in Knoxville. Call Father Thomas O’Connell at 865256-4880.

The St. Thomas the Apostle Ukrainian Catholic Mission celebrates Divine Liturgy at 10 a.m. Sundays in the chapel at the Chancery. Call Father Richard Armstrong at 865-584-3307.

Mass in the extraordinary form (“traditional Latin”) is celebrated at 1:30 p.m. each Sunday at Holy Ghost Church in Knoxville, at 3 p.m. on first and third Sundays at St. Thérèse of Lisieux Church in Cleveland, and at 3 p.m. on second and fourth Sundays at St. Joseph the Worker in Madisonville. Visit www. knoxlatinmass.net for details.

Upcoming events for Catholic Singles of Greater Knoxville (40 and over) include the following: ■ Sunday, March 21: “Brunch and banter” at Silver Spoon, 7240 Kingston Pike, 1 p.m. RSVP to Sandra J. at 865-602-6773 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays) or 504-913-1610 (cell).

■ Wednesday, March 24: Service project at Ronald McDonald House. Contact Donna T. at 531-3839 or penguin7@prodigy.net.

■ Sunday, March 28: Wildflower hike on River Bluff trail at Norris Lake. Contact Donna T. (see above).

■ Wednesday, March 31: Planning meeting for May and June events at Little Havana, 137 S. Gay St., 6:15 p.m. RSVP to Gail B. by March 30 at 966-8205 or gbraunsroth@charter.net.

■ Saturday, April 3: Knox Greenways Coalition 5K run and 2-mile walk and “dog jog,” begins at 9 a.m. at West High School. Contact Donna T. ■ Sunday, April 4: Easter luncheon at the home of Gail B. Bring a side dish, salad, or dessert. Lunch will be served at 1:30 p.m. RSVP to Gail (see contact information above) by March 31.

■ Saturday, April 10: Dinner and/or a movie. Join hosts Art and Patty at Ramon’s Pizza, 5:30 p.m. Call Patty at 566-8881.

■ Saturday and Sunday, April 10 and 11: Annual overnight hiking and camping trip at Charit Creek.

Contact Donna T. ■

Priests continued from page 10

ness of sins, and the Eucharist.

It is the priest’s identity, not his function that has led the Latin-rite church to require and the Eastern Catholic churches to recommend that priests be celibate, he said.

“Sacred celibacy,” he said, is “an authentic prophecy of the kingdom, [a] sign of consecration with an undivided heart to the Lord and to the things of the Lord, [and] an expression of the gift of oneself to God and to others.”

The modern world, which “progressively is excluding God from the public sphere,” has a hard time accepting someone dedicated to the sacred, someone “taken from the world in order to intercede on behalf of the world,” the pope said.

Priests today must “speak of God to the world and present the world to God,” he said.

“Today the most necessary prophecy is that of fidelity, which, starting from Christ’s fidelity to humanity, passing through the church and the ministerial priesthood, leads him to living his priesthood in total adhesion to Christ and the church,” the pope said.

Pope Benedict said that in many ways priesthood “remains a great mystery, even for those of us who have received the gift. Our limits and our weaknesses must lead us, with profound faith, to live and protect this precious gift with which Christ has configured us to himself, making us participants in his saving mission.” ■

Members of Pastoral Juvenil Hispana pose with Sister Carmen Gordillo Garcia, MAG, during a workshop in Columbia, S.C.

SOUTH CAROLINA TRIP

Leonardo Maldonado, Rodolfo Gudiño, Jesús López, Adán Salinas, Eddie Cabrera, Enélida Chávez, and Francisco Jiménez.

Several others from Pastoral Juvenil Hispana, the diocesan Hispanic youth and youngadult ministry, did not travel but assisted with the project, with about 25 working on it altogether. Workshops were held at the Chancery office in between the trips out of state.

The East Tennessee young people worked on chapter one, “La Teología del Cuerpo,” translated “The Body in Theology” in the English section that follows. Each chapter includes prayers; reflections; songs; Scripture; reflections; personal “stories from real life,” written by the youths themselves; and a section titled “The Church Says,” with material from papal documents or the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Mr. Mérida said that his favorite part of the project was that it gave him “the personal realization to look at my body as what it’s supposed to be: a temple of God.” He calls the book a “very good project to help youth in the conversion process.”

The book also straightens out several misconceptions youths have, he said.

“It’s a very good resource to correct a lot of things the youth have learned incorrectly in the streets about life, about morality, about bad moral decisions, and it’s helping them realize how incorrect those things are and how bad they’ve been for their life,” said Mr. Mérida.

The book also has several photos from the various workshops. Ms. Garza and Mr. Mérida are among those in a picture near the front of the book that recognizes the Diocese of Knoxville for selecting the theme.

“We were adamant about why we thought the theology of the body should be the theme, so the caption says that Knoxville stood out in the workshop for selecting the theme,” said Ms. Garza.

Diocesan youth helped edit the entire book, no small task for a 362-page publication.

That work, plus the travel, makes the whole process worth it, said Mr. Mérida, “because I like what I am doing.”

Ms. Garza said the project is a valuable one for the youth her office serves.

“I am always very pleased and grateful for their spiritual growth, and in this case their intellectual growth, because they could never have imagined that they could work on a project like this,” she said.

“Unfortunately, many of them have very limited literary skills, and it’s a challenge. But everybody has a gift, and [through Pascua Juvenil] we find those gifts and they share them.”

Copies of the book are available from the Hispanic Ministry Office for $12.50.

Call Ms. Garza or her administrative assistant, Blanca Primm, at 865-637-4769 for details. ■

Set ’em up, Father Father Ragan Schriver, executive director of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, tends bar at Lakeside Tavern in Knoxville as a fundraiser for CCET on Feb. 25. In three hours, Father Schriver raised $3,200 in tips as he served more than 100 items, including margaritas, beer, tea, water, soft drinks, and food.

The bartending fundraiser was the fourth for Father Schriver and his second at Lakeside. “It seems weird that I would be a serving at a bar, but I’ve got to say that I had a chance to talk about the work of CCET to a ton of people. Mike Smith, the organizer of the event, was awesome and talked to everyone about our services. We had many of our supporters there who generously tipped to support our work. This whole thing was a lot of fun, and all of us are so grateful to the folks who came out and also to Lakeside for giving us the opportunity.”

DAN MCWILLIAMS

A Seekers of Silence Contemplative Saturday Morning will be held Saturday, March 20, at John XXIII Catholic Center in Knoxville. The meeting will take place on Contemplative Outreach’s United in Prayer Day, and the group will view a new video featuring Father Thomas Keating, OCSO. Coffee and tea will be served at 8:30 a.m.; the workshop will run from 9 a.m. to noon. Bring a bag lunch. To RSVP, call 865-523-7931.

COURTESY OF LOURDES GARZA

The next Engaged Encounter weekend in the diocese will be held April 16 through 18 at the Magnuson Hotel in Sweetwater. To register, call Mike or Charla Haley at 865-220-0120. For more information on Engaged Encounter, e-mail Paul or Pam Schaffer at ceeknoxville@gmail.com or visit www.rc.net/ knoxville/cee.

Copyright 2010 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops 6

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MARCH 21, 2010

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TH E E A S T TE N N E S S E E C ATH OLI C

our

PRIESTS

BY MARGARET HUNT

‘Bringing God’s grace and blessing’

Q and A with seminarian Dustin Collins

BY DA N MCW I L L I A MS

One of the diocese’s newly ordained priests explains the satisfactions of helping people grow in faith.

ather Jorge Cano, a native of Colombia, was ordained to the priesthood on June 13, 2009. He is the son of Maria Lucelida Ramirez and Ernesto de Jesus Cano.

He is the third son in a family of four brothers. Father Cano is the associate pastor of St. Mary Church in Oak Ridge.

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Tell us about the people who encouraged your vocation.

My family has played a very important role in my vocation, but my father and my mother have been the keystone. When I was growing up, I remember my parents taking time every night to pray the rosary, and I remember that I joined them.

So that was a way they helped me to grow in my decision to become a priest and to get closer to God. I give credit to my parents because they were my first teachers in the faith. I remember they always told me about things of God, how to behave in church, just simple things about the faith, my first prayers—all these kind of things. They took care of my spiritual development and also they did the same thing with my brothers.

I have three brothers, and they are all married and have children. My father is retired.

He used to work at the coffee plantation. My mother is a housewife. She has always been present at home, taking care of things. My parents are very, very devout Catholics who go to Mass every Sunday.

My father likes to go to Mass almost every day because my parents’ house is very close to a church. Every time I call my parents, especially my father, says, “I am praying for you every night.” And also my mother, of course, but my father reminds me that he is praying for me every night.

What is your favorite part of being a priest?

Celebrating the Eucharist for

Father Jorge Cano

me is the most enjoyable thing. Celebrating the Mass, the Eucharist, every day gives me some kind of joy, some kind of nourishment for my ministry. Also, hearing confessions has been a way for me to get to know the human being with all his or her difficulties and struggles and problems.

Being able to bring God’s forgiveness and consolation to the people who come to confession is very satisfying and rewarding to me as a priest.

Just being able to help people grow in the process of conversion and lead them toward holiness, to a new life in Christ.

What do you find most helpful to your prayer life?

Reading the Bible. So having a solid grounding in the Scriptures, praying with the Scriptures, can help a priest or any other person grow in holiness, grow as a Christian, grow in faith. One of the things that I also enjoy in my priestly life is preaching, so constant contact with the Scriptures is very helpful to me in giving the word of God to the people.

Do you have a favorite sacrament?

First the Eucharist, but besides that the anointing of the sick and reconciliation.

When people come to me and ask, “Father, give me a blessing,” or “give me the anointing,” they are looking forward to experiencing God’s strength and consolation in a time of weakness or illness.

There is a part of the rite when the priest lays his hands on the sick person. At that moment you have a special connection to that person and are bringing God’s grace and blessing, so that moment makes a person feel he or she is receiving God’s help in a time of struggle and illness.

The reason I like that sacrament is that I can touch people and make them feel that God is with them and they’re not alone.

What would you say to a young man who believes he may have a priestly vocation?

First of all, just pray—pray a lot so that God, the Lord, will help you in the process of discernment. Also, talk to a priest, which is very helpful to a young man discerning a vocation. Get involved in parish life, do some kind of ministry, and also be honest with yourself—realizing that priesthood is not for perfect men.

God calls men to be priests.

Priests are not perfect, but they are called to be holy.

Many young men think, “I’m too bad and very sinful; I don’t think I can make a good priest.”

But I would say to that young man, if you are facing struggles, if you see that you are sinful, take a moment and think, God is choosing you not because of the person you are, but you are loved by God. God chooses you for a reason. And we have the example of the saints, the apostles. St. Paul, St. Augustine, and many others were called and chosen by God, and God worked with them despite their failings. ■

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worship a “wafer god,” upset the Catholic student. The student told Father Flaherty about the tract March 3, and the priest contacted Deacon Sean Smith, the diocesan chancellor, that evening.

Deacon Smith in turn told Bishop Stika about the matter.

Meanwhile, The Mountain Press in Sevierville on March 3 and WBIR-TV in Knoxville on March 4 had interviewed Father Flaherty. The bishop issued a press release the next morning, and the Rev. Hatcher announced that afternoon that his church would stop distributing the tract.

“As bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville, I wish first to state my deep respect and love for my Protestant brothers and sisters, with whom we acknowledge and worship but one Lord and savior, Jesus Christ—and for all the members of other faiths, with whom we also share certain foundational beliefs,” Bishop Stika said in the release, acknowledging that the diocese works in solidarity with Baptists and those of other faith traditions.

“At this moment, however, I am greatly saddened by the reprehensible acts of prejudice and hatred of a few souls who, out of ignorance of Catholic teachings, have promoted the distribution of anti-Catholic tracts,” the bishop continued.

“These tracts contain outright lies and blatant exaggerations.”

The Rev. Hatcher told WBIR TH E E A S T TE N N E S S E E C AT H OL IC

that he is “obviously not schooled in the Catholic religion” and studies and preaches from the King James Version of the Bible.

“The rationale one Baptist pastor gave in support of distributing these reprehensible, discriminatory and bigoted tracts was that he was trying to point out the primary difference his church has with Catholics: the belief that a person does not and cannot work his or her way to salvation,” Bishop Stika said in the release. “Unfortunately, this pastor does not have a correct understanding of what the Catholic faith teaches in this regard—and he even admitted as much.”

The bishop went on to explain how the Church defines justification and the doctrine of the Real Presence.

Deacon Smith said, “the thing that was most important to me in our press release was that we had the opportunity to catechize about what the Catholic faith really does teach. I was pleased we could demonstrate our commitment to ecumenism and sharing our faith.”

Bishop Stika said that “this unfortunate act of hatred and prejudice yielded an opportunity to teach the Catholic faith to those who do not have an understanding of our faith.”

In describing his decision to stop distributing the tract, the Rev. Hatcher told the Knoxville News Sentinel that the issue “brought attention I didn’t want.

It brought more than I wanted.”

Father Flaherty said his first reaction to the tract was disbelief “that it still goes on.” He said it brought back bad memories of his childhood in Gallatin, a Middle Tennessee town that he said was anti-Catholic during his youth.

“That always makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up straight because I suffered a lot growing up and in high school with anti-Catholic stuff too, so it really got my attention,” he said.

Father Flaherty said the tracts have turned up before at Holy Cross.

“Usually they just put this on our windshields a lot, but they never put a name on them, but this guy did,” he said.

The Holy Cross pastor said he has heard from people from “as far away as Hawaii to Brooklyn, N.Y. I had no idea that this would grow the way it has. People have e-mailed and called from all over the country.

My sister called me to say that she had seen it on television in Nashville.

“I’ve gotten a lot of support from the people here, from a local judge, students, several ministers. A Lutheran minister from Gatlinburg came by.”

Deacon Smith said a “tremendous response” has poured into his inbox.

“I have received e-mails from as far away as Canada and from eight different states so

ustin Collins is a Theology II student at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana. He is the son of Danny and Susan Collins of Greeneville. His home parish is Notre Dame in Greeneville.

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What is your most challenging course in seminary?

Christology is currently my most challenging course. It requires us to think about Christ and come to an understanding of who he is. In doing this, we must study and think through many arguments surrounding the idea of who Christ truly is.

What is your favorite course?

My favorite course this semester is “Images of New Testament Faith.” I get to research the figures of the New Testament to get a better understanding of their meaning in the Scripture and the tradition of the Church. Many of these figures have a rich tradition behind them, and it is interesting to be able to learn about it and the different ways you can research what they have done.

What do you most look forward to in your future life as a priest?

Offering the sacrifice of the Mass and being able to administer the other sacraments to the faithful.

I also look forward to being able to give the homily at Mass and getting to know the many people of the Diocese of Knoxville.

Who inspires you?

My parish family at Notre Dame, including my mother and father, have been great inspirations. I have been inspired by the many priests who have served throughout the years as pastor of Notre Dame. They have challenged me and given me many insights into the priesthood.

When did you first consider the priesthood?

I thought about it at a young age but later grew toward other ideas. I again began to consider the priesthood when I was a freshman in high school. It was [then–Notre Dame pastor] Father Jim Harvey who first challenged me to attend the seminary. He did this while I was a senior in high school.

What about you has changed the most since you entered the seminary?

My time spent at the seminary has taught me how to balance my lifestyle. It is important for us to find time for prayer, study, and relaxation and thus be able to balance all of this together healthily. It has also helped me see the importance of education.

Along with their prayers for you, is there another way East Tennessee Catholics can support you?

To remember me in their daily prayers as I continue my education toward priesthood. It is also nice to receive a card from the people of the diocese because it allows seminarians to see that they are connected to the diocese. ■

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Spring is beginning to surround us in East Tennessee. Let us be mindful that the beauty of spring is truly a gift. For it reminds us of the gift that comes to us from God. As we all continue our journey of Lent, let us pray that we will continue our commitment to be Jesus to others. And so my sisters and brothers as I complete my first year of service to you, the people of God of East Tennessee, that is my prayer, through the intercession of St. Joseph, the faithful husband of Mary and the protector of Jesus and his model in life. I pray through the intercession of St. Joseph that we might continue in our journey together, united by Jesus, to give praise and thanksgiving to God that the Lord will continue to bless us. Until next time, God bless you all. ■

Catholic Charities’ Tri-Cities dinner scheduled for March 26 he third of Catholic Charities of East Tennessee’s annual fundraising dinners is set for 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 26, at St. Dominic Church in Kingsport. The dinners are hosted by Bishop Richard F. Stika and CCET executive director Father Ragan Schriver.

The theme of the Jonesborough Division’s dinner is “Take Up Your Cross.” Mass will be celebrated at 5 p.m., with dinner following. For more information, contact Brenda Dunn at 423-7533001 or bdunn0153@comcast.net. ■

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MARCH 21, 2010

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Catholic Charities’ Perez named to national advisory committee athaly Perez, the program manager for Catholic Charities’ Office of Immigrant Services (OIS), has been selected from an impressive group of nominees to serve on the national Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. (CLINIC).

As a member of this committee Ms. Perez will provide advice and feedback on a full range of concerns, both legal and programmatic, that diocesan programs face. CLINIC uses input from this committee to determine which issues it should address, in turn improving the effectiveness of its programs and services.

Ms. Perez has been with Catholic Charities of East Tennessee since April 2007, assisting clients in the greater Knoxville and Chattanooga areas, and became the OIS program manager in May 2008. The office provides low-cost assistance for those who cannot afford legal help, with a goal of fostering family unity and self-sufficiency.

Services include petitioning for family members, adjustments of status, renewal of work permits, citizenship and naturalization, affidavits of support, and replacement of immigration documents.

For more information on the office, call Ms. Perez at 865-971-3550 or visit www.ccetn.org. ■

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priest’s expression of the gift of himself to God and others.

■ Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, head of the Vatican’s supreme court, said March 11 that the Vatican should prepare a document giving local bishops and their tribunals a detailed procedure based on canon law for conducting their initial investigations of accusations of sexual abuse against a priest and help them determine whether they should be reported to the Vatican.

■ Archbishop Zollitsch said German bishops had compiled a “catalog” of rules to deal with such cases, including pastoral and therapeutic help for victims and their families, the appointment of a specific person in each diocese for victims to contact, and the creation of a “culture of prevention” with guidelines for schools and church-related activities where children are present.

Full cooperation with civil authorities is part of the procedure, he said, with every case of suspected abuse subject to investigation by local law enforcement as well as church authorities. These investigations remain separate, he said, and the church probe will not influence the civil one.

He said the pope had given a favorable review of the German rules and that the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation was considering whether to extend them to the universal church as a set of norms or as guidelines.

A Vatican source confirmed that the doctrinal congregation was working on a revision of the 2001 document that established the new universal norms for handling cases of sexual abuse by priests against minors. ■ Contributing to this story were Sarah Delaney and Cindy Wooden in Rome. Copyright 2010 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

life and

DIGNITY

BY PAUL SIMONEAU

Fear factor Euthanasia is not about ‘death with dignity’ but about fear.

During the turbulent and often violent period leading up to India’s eventual independence in 1947, Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) stated, “I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.” At the same time Gandhi was leading his cause of nonviolence for the dignity of his countrymen, another cause was being promoted in England for those who were also “prepared to die”—but with quite the opposite philosophy.

Promoting a message of “death with dignity,” the Euthanasia Society of England, formed in 1935, officially advocated the direct taking of life, challenging the injunction of the Hippocratic Oath that had for millennia guided the conscience of those caring for and treating the sick and dying: “I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel.”

Euthanasia continues to gain legal recognition, and its very subtle language has found growing acceptance in the social conscience of a people that has grown increasingly fearful.

Eugenics and euthanasia— words derived from Greek terms that literally mean “good birth” and “good death”—represent the “alpha and omega” of the culture of death and are profoundly linked. As Pope John Paul II pointed out, “It is impossible to truly value the life of an older person if the life of a child is not valued from the moment of its conception” (Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, V,3 [1982], p. 125).

Euthanasia is defined as “an

the catholic

act or an omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2277).

Fear, however, lies at the heart of arguments in favor of euthanasia and extends beyond the simple fear of pain. Even a short examination reveals the stark difference between what the culture of death promotes as “death with dignity” and the words of Jesus that the Church continues to echo: “Do not afraid . . ., for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

In 2009 the U.S. bishops approved the fifth edition of the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” (online at bit.ly/ERD5th), a short but essential guide for the conscience of both health-care professionals and patients alike. Part Five, “Issues in Care for the Seriously Ill and Dying” (consisting of a short introduction and 12 directives), provides a concise explanation of what constitutes “ordinary,” or “proportionate,” means for preserving one’s life (which are obligatory) and what is considered “extraordinary,” or “disproportionate,” means (which are optional).

Many believe they can immunize themselves from fears of “therapeutic tyranny” by means of a “living will”—an advance medical directive that permits one to specify care and treatment to be received or avoided, should a person be incapacitated. But many of these documents can be morally problematic because of their imprecise language, which could be broadly interpreted and could lead to the withholding or withdrawal of ordinary care and treatment when such means represent little to no burden upon the

DIFFERENCE

BY GEORGE WEIGEL

The grittiness of Lent A painting reminds us that Christ carries his cross throughout history.

Child-protection training sessions he Diocese of Knoxville’s program for the protection of children and youth is based on training developed by Virtus and is offered regularly throughout the diocese.

A three-hour seminar for adults, “Protecting God’s Children,” is required for parish and school employees and regular volunteers in contact with children or vulnerable adults and is rec-

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ommended for parents and grandparents.

The following training sessions have been scheduled: ■ St. Mary Church, Johnson City, 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 26; 9:30 a.m.

Saturday, Aug. 21; 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15; 6:30 p.m.

Monday, Oct. 18 (sessions will be held in St. Anne Hall).

To register for a session, visit virtusonline. org. ■

Diocese of Knoxville procedure for reporting sexual abuse Anyone who has actual knowledge of or who has reasonable cause to suspect an incident of sexual abuse should report such information to the appropriate civil authorities first, then to the bishop’s office, 865-584-3307, or the diocesan victims’ assistance coordinator, Marla Lenihan, 865-482-1388.

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MARCH 21, 2010

Carolyn Gordon Tate, a major figure in the literary renaissance of the 20th-century American South, once wrote Flannery O’Connor about the impact that her conversion to Catholicism had had on her writing. As Miss O’Connor recalled in a letter, “Mrs. Tate told me that after she became a Catholic she felt she could use her eyes and accept what she saw for the first time, she didn’t have to make a new universe for each book but could take the one she found.” Catholicism, Carolyn Gordon Tate recognized, was realism. Catholicism means seeing things as they are. Catholicism means finding within the grittiness of reality the path God is taking through history for the salvation of the world. Lent is a good time to be reminded of these truths.

The relentless grittiness of Lent begins at the beginning, with the imposition of ashes (preferably in abundance) and the reminder that we are the www.d ioknox.org

dust to which we shall return.

Then we come to the first Sunday of Lent, when, each year, one of the Synoptic evangelists, Mark, Matthew, or Luke, focuses our attention on the temptation of Jesus—a gritty business that begins in a gritty place, the Judean wilderness. Mark, as is his wont, keeps the narrative spare; all we are told is that Satan tempted Jesus in the desert, amidst “wild beasts” and angels. Matthew, the evangelical portraitist, fills out the story by rendering the temptations in their most familiar sequence: the temptation to indulge the flesh by turning stones into bread; the temptation to test divine providence and divine favor

by Jesus’ throwing himself from the pinnacle of the Temple; the temptation to worldly power achieved through the worship of a false deity.

Luke’s account of the temptations, however, drives the story even deeper into the gritty soil of history by inverting the sequences of the second and third temptations: the last and gravest temptation takes place in Jerusalem, the holy city to which Luke’s entire Gospel is oriented. Here,

person being treated. This is the “slippery slope” that leads to euthanasia.

In the magisterial document Charter for Health Care Workers, we are reminded of the special grace found in the sacrament of the anointing of the sick: “This sacrament is a remedy for body and spirit, relief and strength for the patient in his corporal-spiritual integritycasting light on the mystery of suffering and death and bringing hope which opens the human present to the future of God. The whole person . . . receives reinforcement against the temptations of the devil and the fear of death” (No. 111).

The so-called “good birth” and “good death” of the culture of death stand in stark opposition to the Good News of the Gospel of Life. In speaking of his impending death, Jesus says of his life, “no one takes it from me; I lay it down freely” (John 10:18).

In the darkness of approaching death in the garden of Gethsemane, Peter, who had earlier professed his willingness to die at the side of Christ (cf. Luke 22:33), instead draws the sword out of fear. But Jesus ordered the sword sheathed, for it can never be drawn if death is to be evangelized and the Gospel proclaimed to the dying person (cf. ibid, No. 131).

Closing with my traditional play upon the words of Pope Paul VI, “If you want peace . . . ,” be not afraid.

Note: An excellent resource by the National Catholic Bioethics Center, “A Catholic Guide to End-of-Life Decisions,” can be viewed online at bit.ly/NCBClifedec. In addition, the Diocese of Knoxville has made available the documents “Appointment of Health Care Agent” and “Advance Care Plan.” They can be downloaded at dioknox. org/userfiles/health.care.agent and dioknox.org/userfiles/advance.care.plan. ■ Mr. Simoneau directs the diocesan Justice and Peace Office. in Jerusalem, Jesus faces the temptation to refuse the destiny the Father has appointed for him—to be the world’s savior by stripping himself of himself on the cross. Here, truly, we are at history’s hingepoint, its crossroads.

What will Jesus do? Gianfranco Ravasi puts it neatly in his commentary on Luke’s temptation narrative: Jesus, “respecting the sovereign freedom of the plan of salvation to which he has been devoted, pronounces his definitive ‘Yes’ to the Father and abandons himself completely to his destiny.” Not as an abstract matter, but here, in this place and at this time: here, in Jerusalem, amidst the history with which Luke began his Christmas narrative, with its references to the time when Augustus was emperor and “Quirinius was governor of Syria” (Luke 2:2).

One of the greatest artistic evocations of the grittiness of Lent is Peter Bruegel the Elder’s 1564 painting The Procession to Calvary, which I first saw in 2006 at the Museum of Art History in Vienna.

It’s a large work, five and a half feet by four feet, featuring hundreds of small figures, with the equally small figure of Christ carrying the cross in the center of the painting.

Bruegel included certain familiar motifs in rendering the scene: the holy women and St. John are in the right foreground, comforting Mary; the Weigel continued on page 9

TH E E A S T TE N N E S S E E C ATH OLI C

catholic

SCHOOLS

from the

PARACLETE

Reference books for all Catholics ou can’t have enough reference materials. This comes to mind as Easter approaches and the Church readies to welcome its catechumens and candidates into full communion. Of course, continual education does not benefit only new Catholics.

Cradle Catholics often take their Catholicism for granted until nonCatholic friends badger them for information.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (USCCB, 2000) is the definitive resource for Catholics, summarizing the beliefs of the universal Church. Responding to Pope John Paul II’s call to develop local catechisms that “take into account . . . the local situation and culture,” the U.S. bishops prepared and published the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults (USCCB, 2009), adapting the universal catechism for Latin and Eastern Catholics in this country.

Father John J. Dietzen has compiled questions asked of him over many years and offers his answers in Catholic Q&A: All You Want to Know About Catholicism (Crossroad, 2009).

Questions are organized in categories such as the Bible, prayer and devotions, Mary and the saints, and ecumenism. Two other popular resource books are Kevin Orlin

COURTESY OF KATHY SUMRELL

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OLPH School Spanish volunteers organize festival Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Chattanooga celebrated a Hispanic Cultural Festival on Feb. 12 for all students in grades K through eight. Students watched a PowerPoint presentation about five Spanish-speaking countries: Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. The students watched different types of popular dances performed by the Spanish volunteers at OLPH, such as the salsa, tango, and flamenco. Students visited tables with displays of items from each of the countries and sampled their cuisine. The festival was organized by the OLPH Spanish-program volunteers (above). From left are Carmen Allbritten, Angela Hodges, Lorena Esparza, Raquel Riesco, Monica Mohler, Norma Neri, Maria Flores, Ivette Palacios, Martha Varnell, Maria Bravo, Arcelia (Acosta) Camacho, and Laura Moore.

COURTESY OF LIFETOUCH

Publicity shoot for NDHS brochure Bishop Richard F. Stika visited Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga on Dec. 14 to take part in a photo shoot for a school brochure. With him are (from left) Michael Luketic, Rikora Ballard, Tina Nguyen, and Dylan San Miguel.

Call the store at 865588-0388 or 800-3332097.

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COURTESY OF DAWN GARIBAY

COURTESY OF KATHIE ETHERTON

St. Jude’s top spellers advance Christine Palisoc (left) is the 2010 spelling-bee champion at St. Jude School in Chattanooga.

She also recently won her division of the spelling competition at the National Beta Convention.

Christine and (from left) Andrew Howard, Mia Florio, Ben Sawyer, Abby Bostic, William Davis, and Patrick Martin placed in the school bee and advanced to the next level of competition.

Johnson’s Why Do Catholics Do That?

(Ballantine, 1995) and The Catholic Source Book (Harcourt, 2006)

by Father Peter Klein.

Johnson seeks to explain what Catholics believe and how those beliefs are expressed through rituals, symbols, and traditions.

Father Klein’s collection includes interesting facts about Scripture, the liturgical year, traditional devotions, the veneration of saints and heroes, and Catholic symbols.

New at the Paraclete is Saints for Dummies (Wiley Publishing, 2010). Two priests, Father John Trigilio and Father Kenneth Brighenti, who co-wrote Catholicism for Dummies, have reunited to explain the canonization process and present brief introductions to some Catholic saints. They provide a list of patron saints, favorite litanies, and famous novenas while clarifying that St. Christopher and St. Valentine are still saints, thank you, but have just been removed from the liturgical calendar of feasts.

As resource books, these publications are not meant to be read cover to cover. They help inform, engage, and renew us in our faith journey, whether we are just beginning it or have gone far along the way. ■

COURTESY OF MICHELLE DOUGHERTY

Appreciative students Third-graders Charlotte Daigle (left) and Veronica Snow celebrate Student Appreciation Day on Feb. 2 during Catholic Schools Week at St. Mary School in Oak Ridge.

far, from Louisiana to Michigan and Massachusetts to California,” he said. “What’s amazing is they’ve all heard about this from various conduits of media, from blog sites and the national news.

We’ve had this outpouring of response from people who are absolutely praising the bishop for standing up to this and talking about it.”

Father Flaherty said that “of course, I’ve had the hate mail too,” citing an envelope he received March 8.

“I got six publications in a letter saying that all of us are going to hell—all 1 billion of us are going to hell with Bibles in our hands,” he said.

High school students from Holy Cross “have been harassed since long before this started,” said Father Flaherty, “enough to make them rather tired of it. It’s little sly remarks like, ‘You’re not saved,’ or ‘Why don’t you get saved?’ Or, it’s ‘Catholics believe this’ and ‘Catholics believe that,’ and of course none of it is anywhere near what we believe.”

Father Flaherty said he hopes the response to the tracts leads to one end.

“My biggest thing is I’d like to see Chick Publications put out of business,” he said. “Stop this hate stuff going around all the time.” ■

St. John Neumann students make lap blankets for senior-center residents Students at St. John Neumann School in Farragut worked on a community-service project during Catholic Schools Week, celebrated Jan. 30 through Feb. 5.

Kindergartners and their third-grade buddies, firstgraders and their fourth-grade buddies, second-graders and their fifth-grade buddies, and middle school students worked together to make more than 160 lap blankets for residents at Summit View of Farragut.

Above, fourth-grader Megan Tasket and first-grader Benjamin Kozemko work on a blanket. Students later delivered the blankets to residents of the senior-care center.

TH E EA S T TE N N E S S E E C AT H OL IC

COURTESY OF PAM RHOADES

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Eighth-graders’ art honored at Sacred Heart Four Sacred Heart Cathedral School eighth-grade art students have been awarded designations in the regional Scholastic Art Competition. From left are Sienna Prater, Hayden White, Camille Baker, and Laura Stauber. Hayden received the Scholastic Gold Key for his “Heart & Sole” 3-D self-portrait shoe sculpture. Sienna and Camille received a Silver Key for their stilllife pen-and-ink drawings. Laura received an honorable mention for her still-life drawing. www.d ioknox.org

vast majority of those involved, concerned about quotidian things, are clueless about the drama unfolding before their eyes.

What is utterly striking about The Procession to Calvary, however, is that we are in Europe, not Judea: Christ is carrying the cross through a typical Flemish landscape, complete with horses, carts, oxen, and a windmill.

Christ is carrying the cross through history— right through the grittiness of everyday life.

Peter Bruegel the Elder would, I expect, want us to understand that the “procession to Calvary” is taking place in our midst too. He would be right to do so. Lent is a privileged time for recovering the sight and the commitment that let us see and enter the passion play going on around us. ■ George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. MARCH 21, 2010

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Vatican defends efforts to stop sex abuse

WIRE

Bishops reiterate objection to health bill’s wording B Y N A NCY F R AZI E R O ’B R I E N

WASHINGTON (CNS)—“Despite the good” that proposed health reform legislation “intends or might achieve,” concerns about the abortion wording in the Senate-passed bill compel the U.S. bishops to “regretfully hold that it must be opposed until these serious moral problems are addressed,” Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago said March 15.

The statement from the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops came soon after the head of the Catholic Health Association called on House members to quickly pass the Senate legislation and make changes later.

A House vote on the health reform legislation was expected by March 20, with Senate and House action to follow on a separate bill containing a set of “fixes” proposed by President Barack Obama.

Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is CHA president and CEO, said in a March 13 statement that the Senate bill isn’t perfect but would “make the lives of millions more secure and their coverage more affordable.”

She told Catholic News Service March 15 that she considered the Senate language “an acceptable way to prevent federal funding of abortion,” even if it might not be the best way or the preferred way.

Cardinal George said in his statement that the USCCB concerns were “not quibbling over technicalities.”

“The deliberate omission in the Senate bill of the necessary language that could have taken this moral question off the table and out of play leaves us still looking for a way to meet the president’s and our concern to provide health care for those millions whose primary-care physician is now an emergency room doctor,” the cardinal said.

He acknowledged that the USCCB analysis “is not completely shared by the leaders” of CHA. They believe, moreover, that the defects that they do recognize can be corrected after the passage of the final bill,” Cardinal George said.

“The bishops, however, judge that the flaws are so fundamental that they vitiate the good that the bill intends to promote.

“Assurances that the moral objections to the legislation can be met only after the bill is passed seem a little like asking us, in Midwestern parlance, to buy a pig in a poke,” he added.

A lengthy analysis posted on the USCCB website March 12 said the “House-approved healthcare reform bill follows indispensable and long-standing federal policies on abortion funding and mandates, and conscience rights on abortion, while the Senate bill does not.”

The USCCB analysis was directed at the points raised by Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, a law professor at the Washington and Lee University School of Law and co-author of a casebook widely used in the teaching of health law, in a March 11 article in The Hill newspaper.

“In our judgment, . . . the Jost analysis is wrong in most of its major claims,” the USCCB response said. “The Senate bill’s major flaws are as real as ever and must be addressed.” ■ Copyright 2010 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Pope: priests called to be prophets of God’s presence B Y C I N D Y W O ODE N

VATICAN CITY (CNS)—Priests are called to be prophets, especially now, in a world that acts as though God doesn’t matter and as though fidelity were either impossible or an attack on personal freedom, Pope Benedict XVI told more than 550 priests, bishops, and cardinals.

“In his way of thinking, speaking, judging the what happens in the world, serving and loving, relating to others, even in his dress, the priest must draw prophetic strength from his sacramental belonging” to Christ, the pope said.

Pope Benedict met at the Vatican March 12 with participants in a two-day theological conference on the priesthood, sponsored by the Congregation for Clergy as part of the Year for Priests.

The pope said that too many people, including priests, equate a priest’s identity with the functions he carries out in the church and the world, “almost like a social worker.”

But when he receives the sacrament of Holy Orders, a man’s very being changes, and he becomes part of the one priesthood of Jesus Christ, the pope said.

“The men and women of our time ask us only to be priests to the depths. The lay faithful can have their human needs met by many others,” he said, but it is only from the priest that they can receive the word of God, the sacramental forgivePriests continued on page 6

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MARCH 21, 2010

The pope has taken a firm stance against ‘filth’ in the Church. By John Thavis VATICAN CITY (CNS)— Amid new disclosures of priestly sex abuse cases in Europe, including one in the German archdiocese formerly headed by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican strongly defended the church’s response to the crisis and said the pope has led the effort to root out “filth” in the church.

The Vatican statements came in the wake of hundreds of new sex abuse allegations against priests and other church personnel that have surfaced in recent weeks in Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland.

The pope met with top German bishops March 12 and encouraged them to move ahead “with decision and courage” in investigating the widening scandal of sexual abuse of minors in Catholic schools, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, the head of the German bishops’ conference, told reporters.

Later the same day the Vatican responded to a report that a German priest accused of sexually abusing a child had been allowed to return to pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising in the early 1980s, at the time Pope Benedict XVI was archbishop there.

The Vatican press office noted that the archdiocesan official who had returned the priest to ministry had taken “full responsibility” for his “serious error“ and said the future pope, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was not involved in that decision.

In 1985, three years after Cardinal Ratzinger had been called to serve as the Vatican’s chief doctrinal official, the same German priest faced new accusations of sexual abuse and was eventually suspended from the priesthood and convicted in a civil court.

The revelations about the German case made headlines around the world, and some commentators questioned how Cardinal Ratzinger could not have been aware of details of the situation at the time.

On March 13 the Vatican countered by strongly defended the pope against what it said was an aggressive campaign to drag him personally into the widening sex abuse scandal.

“It is evident that over recent days some people have sought, with considerable persistence, . . . elements that could personally involve the Holy Father in questions of abuse. To any objective observer, it is clear that these efforts have failed,” Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said in a written commentary.

The same day the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, ran a front-page article under the headline: “The severity of Benedict XVI against the filth in the church.” It said Pope Benedict was being mischaracterized as an aloof administrator with little interest in the scandal when in fact the German pontiff had led the way in addressing past cases and preventing new ones.

“It is thanks to the greater severity of the pope that various bishops’ conferences are turning a light on cases of sexual abuse and also cooperating with civil authorities so that justice is rendered to the victims,” it said.

In an unusual interview on March 13 a key Vatican official described in detail the steps taken by the Vatican to confront priestly sex abuse www.d ioknox.org

CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

from the

Bishop Gerhard Muller of Regensburg, a German diocese dealing with cases of clerical sexual abuse, speaks at a theological conference for priests at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome on March 11. During a break in the conference, he told reporters it was “stupidity” to believe that celibacy caused clerical sexual abuse.

CELIBACY IS NOT TO BLAME

since 2001, the year the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under then-Cardinal Ratzinger, laid out strict new norms for processing such cases.

The official, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, a doctrinal congregation official from Malta who deals directly with cases of priests accused of abuse of minors, told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire that the allegation that Pope Benedict had covered up sex abuse crimes was “false and calumnious.” As head of the doctrinal congregation, he handled such cases with wisdom and courage, and as pope he has dismissed many priests from the clerical state, Monsignor Scicluna said.

Monsignor Scicluna also emphasized that the Vatican’s insistence on secrecy in the investigation of these cases by church authorities does not mean bishops or others are exempt from reporting these crimes to civil authorities.

“In some English-speaking countries, but also in France, if bishops become aware of crimes committed by their priests outside the sacramental seal of confession, they are obliged to report them to the judicial authorities. This is an onerous duty because the bishops are forced to make a gesture comparable to that of a father denouncing his own son. Nonetheless, our guidance in these cases is to respect the law,” he said.

In countries where there is no legal obligation to report sex-abuse accusations, Monsignor Scicluna said, “we do not force bishops to denounce their own priests but encourage them to contact the victims and invite them to denounce the priests by whom they have been abused.”

Monsignor Scicluna said that since the doctrinal congregation took over juridical control of the sex abuse accusations in 2001, it has processed about 3,000 cases, dealing with crimes committed over the last 50 years. He said about 60 percent of theses cases involved sexual attraction toward male adolescents, 30 percent involved heterosexual relations, and the remaining 10 percent were cases of pedophilia, in-

volving an adult sexual preference for pre-pubescent children.

Most cases of priestly sex abuse against minors have been handled without a church trial because of the advanced age of the accused, and the penalties in such cases has usually been the imposition of strict limitations on the priest’s ministry, he said.

About 20 percent of the cases resulted in a church trial, with most of the accused found guilty (the conviction rate is about 85 percent overall). Punishment can range from restrictions or removal from ministry to dismissal from the priesthood. In the most serious cases—about 10 percent of the total—the pope has dismissed the offender from the priesthood, and in another 10 percent the priest has been laicized at his request, Monsignor Scicluna said.

He said the number of new cases of sex abuse by priests has declined; last year there were 223 cases reported from around the world. And although the majority of the 3,000 or so cases handed by the Vatican since 2001 have been from the United States, by last year U.S. cases had dropped to about 25 percent of the total.

The trend is toward a growing number of countries reporting cases but a drop in the overall number of accusations, he said.

Monsignor Scicluna said that in Italy, “the phenomenon [of priestly sexual abuse of minors] does not seem to have dramatic proportions, although what worries me is a certain culture of silence which I feel is still too widespread in the country.”

Like others at the Vatican, Monsignor Scicluna noted that a very small minority of the world’s 400,000 priests were sexual perpetrators, which he said “does not correspond to the perception that is created when these sad cases occupy the front pages of the newspapers.”

In related developments: ■ Several Vatican officials rejected the idea that priestly celibacy is connected to sexually abusive behavior. The pope himself said March 12 that “sacred celibacy” was a Vatican continued on page 8

TH E E A S T TE N N E S S E E C ATH OLI C