MS Catholic June 23, 2023

Sacred calling answered, Beggerly ordained as new priest for diocese

BY JOANNA PUDDISTER KING

JACKSON – Homegrown seminarian, Carlisle Beggerly was ordained as a priest for the Diocese of Jackson on May 27 at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle in Jackson, where family, friends, priests, deacons, fellow seminarian and supporters from around the diocese were present for the joyous occasion.

Growing up in Florence, Beggerly had a profound spiritual awakening during his college years. Influenced by St. Augustine’s Confessions, Beggerly embarked on a quest to find the church to which Augustine belonged, ultimately leading him to the Catholic faith. Under the guidance of Father Bill Voller in Hattiesburg, Beggerly received instruction and embraced Catholicism, sensing a calling to the priesthood from the very beginning of his conversion.

After spending time with a religious order, Beggerly realized it was not the perfect fit and decided to pursue a di erent path. Even upon completing law school at Mississippi College, the call to priestly life continued to resonate within his heart.

After moving to West

Point and joining Immaculate Conception parish, Beggerly made the decision to enter seminary for the Diocese of Jackson, drawn by a deep desire to minister to the people who influenced and shaped his life.

After the Liturgy of the Word during the Mass of ordination for Beggerly, Bishop Joseph Kopacz called upon his worthiness and testimony was given by Father Nick Adam, director of vocations for the diocese.

“Relying on the help of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, we choose this man, our brother, for the order of the priesthood,” said Bishop Kopacz to applause from those gathered for the occasion.

During the Rite of Ordination, Bishop Kopacz anointed Beggerly’s palms with holy chrism. Afterward, his hands were wrapped in a binding cloth. At his first Mass of Thanksgiving at his home parish of Immaculate Conception West Point, Beggerly explained a tradition that sometimes accompanies the ritual.

“The cloth symbolically represents the ropes that were

– Continued on page 24 –

Seminarian takes next step towards priesthood, Stovall ordained to transitional diaconate

BY JOANNA PUDDISTER KING AND TEREZA MA

JACKSON – In a momentous ceremony held at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle on May 20, Tristan Stovall was ordained to the transitional diaconate for the Diocese of Jackson, marking a significant milestone in his journey towards the priesthood. Surrounded by family, friends and members of the diocese, the ordination of Stovall was a joyous occasion filled with faith, hope and celebration of vocations.

Deacon Stovall’s path to the diaconate began in the red clay hills of Neshoba County, where he first encountered Catholicism, being fascinated with the funeral of Pope St. John Paul II as a young boy. At the age of 15, his interest and thirst for knowledge of the Catholic faith grew when he attended Mass for the very first time at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. After that experience the young Baptist knew then that he “had to become Catholic.” This journey ultimately led him to convert to Catholicism in 2014, where he was received into full communion with the church.

Throughout his faith journey, Stovall’s desire to dedicate his life entirely to God grew stronger, and the example of the saints, particularly St. Catherine of Siena, played a significant role in his discernment. Drawn

to the care of souls, he felt a calling to the diocesan priesthood, which he believed was his specific ministry within the church.

The ordination ceremony itself, was presided over by Bishop Joseph Kopacz, who bestowed the sacrament of Holy Orders upon Stovall. As the faithful witnessed the laying on of hands and the prayers of consecration, the solemnity of the mo-

U.S. bishops meeting 7 Recap of U.S. bishops spring assembly in Orlando

JACKSON – Bishop Joseph Kopacz pours holy chrism on the hands of Carlisle Beggerly during his Solemn Mass of Ordination at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle. Pictured left to right, Deacon Mark Bowden, Chancellor Mary Woodward, Bishop Joseph Kopacz, Deacon Denzil Lobo, Father Carlisle Beggerly and Will Foggo, seminarian. (Photo by Michael Barrett)

SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT

CHATAWA Marian Servants, Annual “Speak Lord I’m Listening” Retreat, Friday, July 14 at 7 p.m. till Sunday, July 16 at 12 p.m. at the Our Lady of Hope Retreat Center. This retreat will give you the techniques to pray and meditate on the scriptures to deepen your relationship with the Lord. Father Bill Henry will preside. Cost: $300 (includes housing and meals); or $200 for commuters (includes meals). Register by July 7. Husbands and wives welcome. Details: contact Charlene at (601) 276-5954.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Catholic Charismatic Renewal Conference, July 21-22 at John Carroll Catholic High School at 300 Lakeshore Parkway held by the Diocese of Birmingham. Conference theme is “Victory in Jesus” and will feature Father James Blount, with Father Eric Gami and Teresa Ragusa, a miracle COVID survivor. Father Blount is an internationally known healing ministry priest of the Society of Our Lady of the Trinity (SOLT) of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. Registration $25 for individuals and $65 for family of three or more. All are welcome! Details: Sally Smith at (205) 983-4150 or mustardsally14@gmail.com. To register visit www.catholiccharismaticrenewal.org.

WASHINGTON D.C. Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage, Sept. 30 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Join with Catholics from around the country to seek the intercession of Our Lady. Hear life-changing talks; celebrate Mass and pray the rosary. For more information visit rosarypilgrimage.org.

PARISH, FAMILY & SCHOOL EVENTS

BATESVILLE St. Mary, Rummage Sale, Aug. 4-5 at the parish center. You are welcome to start bringing your gently used items to the center. Details: parish office (662) 563-2273.

HERNANDO Holy Spirit, Cocktails and Catholicism, Friday, July 14. Featured speaker is Father Dennis Schenkel of the Diocese of Memphis on “Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk: Evangelizing as a Catholic.” Details: church o ce (662) 895-5007.

NATCHEZ St. Mary, Thursday Night at the Movies; June 29 “Father Stu,” July 13 “The Shack,” and

July 27 “The Scarlet and the Black.” Suitable for adults and older teens. Soft drinks, snacks and popcorn available for small donation. No admission fee, donations to Miss-Lou Pregnancy Center accepted. Details: church o ce (601) 445-5616.

RIDGELAND Catholic Charities, Back to School Giveaway, Friday, July 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free school supplies, games and food provided. Register at https://bit.ly/CCSchoolSupplyGiveaway23 Details: marsha.burton@ccjackson.org.

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL & YOUTH EVENTS

BATESVILLE St. Mary, VBS, July 14-16 at the parish center. Volunteers needed. Details: Robin at (662) 934-8170.

BROOKHAVEN St. Francis, “Stellar” VBS, July 16-19 from 5:30-8 p.m. Launch kids on a cosmic quest where they’ll have a blast shining Jesus’ light to the world. Volunteers needed. Details: call Emily at (601) 757-0579.

GREENVILLE St. Joseph, VBS for grades K to fifth grades, July 16-18 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at St. Joe High School. Visit stjosephgreenville.org to register or volunteer. Details: Alyssa at (662) 820-0868.

MERIDIAN St. Patrick, Hero Hotline VBS, June 26-30 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the parish center. All children entering Kindergarten through sixth grade welcome. Registration fee $10 but no child will be turned away. Register at catholiccommunity.mycokesburyvbs.com. Details: church office (601) 693-1321.

St. Patrick, Chronicles of Narnia youth movie nights, July 5, 12 and 19 at 5:30 p.m. in the Father Vally Room. Details: church o ce (601) 693-1321.

NATCHEZ St. Mary, “Stellar” VBS, July 17-22, evening hours to be announced. Details: church office (601) 445-5616.

JUNE 23, 2023

MISSISSIPPI CATHOLIC

19-21. Learn the science of fertility in order to monitor reproductive health and wellness. Cost: $750. Details: events.boma-usa.org.

NATIONAL BLACK CATHOLIC CONGRESS

GATHERING, July 20-23 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Join with other Black Catholics and those who minister to Black Catholics for a celebration of faith and culture. Details: nbccongress.org.

FEATURED PHOTO ... New Graduates...

PEARL St. Jude, VBS – Family Style, June 28, July 5 and 12th from 6:30-7:30 p.m. We will have picnic supper, Bible story, crafts, inside and outside fun and games. Mass at 6 p.m. Target audience is Kindergarten through fifth grade and their families. No charge, canned good donations welcome. Details: to attend please contact Kathleen so we know how many to prepare for –(601) 939-3181.

REMINDERS/ NOTICES

JOB OPENINGS

Catholic schools across the diocese have a variety of positions open. Please visit https:// jacksondiocese.org/ employment for an opportunity near you.

INDIANAPOLIS Eucharistic Congress, July 17-21, 2024. Registration is now open. See what Our Lord has in store for this next chapter for the Catholic Church in United States. Purchase tickets at https://bit.ly/3ydav9Q. Details: EucharisticCongress.org.

NASHVILLE Billings Ovulation Method Teacher Training, Oct.

APPLIANCE AUDIO VIDEO BEDDING FURNITURE SUPERSTORE

MOBILE – It’s graduation season! Deacon Wesley Lindsay, Patti Greene, Deacon Mark Bowden and Deacon David Rouch each graduated with a masters in theology from Spring Hill College on Saturday, May 6. (Photo by Rhonda Bowden)

MISSISSIPPI CATHOLIC JUNE 23, 2023

let there be light

“Prayer of thanksgiving” for priests of the Sacred Heart

Editor's note: Below is the homily, Bishop Kopacz gave at the Feast of the Sacred Heart on Friday, June 16 at Christ the King parish in Southaven.

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BY BISHOP JOSEPH R. KOPACZ, D.D.

We gather joyfully at the Eucharist, the great prayer of thanksgiving, as we mark the hundred anniversary of the arrival of the Priests of the Sacred Heart in the United States, and 80 years here in northern Mississippi, known as the Southern Missions. Father Hendrick “Ardi” Ardianto, SCJ informed me before Mass that it is also the 100th anniversary of the Sacred Heart Fathers in Indonesia where their mission continues to thrive. This beloved and dynamic religious order, founded in 1878 by the Venerable Father Leon John Dehon whose missionary desire was to di use far and wide the Sacred Heart of Jesus, remains faithful to Christ’s work of rebuilding our world into God’s kingdom of justice and love.

I stand with the Bishops of Jackson since 1944 when Bishop Richard Oliver Gerow invited the Sacred Heart Fathers to expand their mission and ministries in the United States to northern Mississippi. This was a fortuitous moment in the history of the Diocese of Natchez. For the past 80 years the SCJ’s have witnessed to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through worship, through education, and through social action on behalf of justice and the common good which is evident in the array of ministries that continue to rebuild God’s kingdom of justice and love.

On this feast of the Sacred Heart the biblical texts draw us more deeply into the height and depth, length and breadth of God’s love. From Deuteronomy we heard that God set his heart on Israel, and his compassion and mercy will endure over 1,000 generations.

Jesus in the Gospel of Luke assures his listeners, then and now, that he is “meek and humble of heart,

and we will find rest in him.” Here together at the Eucharist we are yoked to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a people set apart in praise of God “who has loved us first,” in the words of St. John in the second reading.

In this year of Eucharistic revival in our nation let us cherish the words of Father Dehon in our celebration of faith. “When we adore the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist, our adoration does not always require many words; there are moments when silence itself is eloquent. Our heart must become a ciborium in which the Eucharistic Heart alone reposes. I leave you the most wonderful of treasures, the Heart of Jesus.”

Father Dehon inspires us to embrace the awesome mystery of the real presence of the Lord. “All the sacraments are marvelous gifts of our Lord, but the Eucharist far surpasses the others. For in the others, he gives us his grace; in the Eucharist, he gives us himself.”

‘You yourselves, give them something to eat.’ (Mt 14:16). Each of us is truly called, together with Jesus, to be bread broken for the life of the world.”

This is the Dehonian spirit that continues to inspire many in our time through the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“For the past 80 years the SCJ’s have witnessed to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through worship, through education, and through social action on behalf of justice and the common good which is evident in the array of ministries that continue to rebuild God’s kingdom of justice and love.”

Pope Benedict, in Sacramentum Caritatis, (2007) the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist, captures this Dehonian charism of the Eucharist as bread broken for the life of the world. “The bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” (Jn 6:51)

Pope Benedict wrote that in these words “the Lord reveals the true meaning of the gift of his life for all people. These words also reveal his deep compassion for every man and woman. The Gospels frequently speak of Jesus’ feelings towards others, especially the su ering and sinners… Our communities, when they celebrate the Eucharist, must become ever more conscious that the sacrifice of Christ is for all, and that the Eucharist thus compels all who believe in him to become ‘bread that is broken’ for others, and to work for the building of a more just and fraternal world. Keeping in mind the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, we need to realize that Christ continues today to exhort his disciples to become personally engaged.

Volume 69 Number 13 (ISSN 1529-1693)

P.O. Box 2130 Jackson, MS 39225-2130

Phone: 601-969-3581 E-mail: editor@jacksondiocese.org

Publisher

Communications Director

Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz

Joanna Puddister King

Production Manager Tereza Ma

Contributors ......................................................................................................... Berta Mexidor

MISSISSIPPI CATHOLIC is an official publication of the Diocese of Jackson, 601-969-1880, 237 E. Amite St., Jackson, MS 39201. Published digitally twice per month January – April and September – December; once per month June, July and August. Mississippi Catholic mails 14 editions per year – twice per month in December and January; and once per month February – November. For address changes, corrections or to join the email list for the digital edition, email: editor@jacksondiocese.org. Subscription rate: $20 a year in Mississippi, $21 out-of-state. Periodical postage at Jackson, MS 39201 and additional entry offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Mississippi Catholic, P.O. Box 2130, Jackson, MS 39225-2130.

Website: www.mississippicatholic.com  www.jacksondiocese.org

Through the world-wide synodal process, Pope Francis has invited the People of God to embrace our identity through communion, participation and mission. From the water and blood that flowed from the pierced heart of Christ on the Cross, our communion flows from our Baptism and through the Eucharist. We are invited into active participation around the tables of God’s Word and Sacrament, and from this source and summit we are sent on mission to actively participate in the drama of the Kingdom of God. This Dehonian charism is alive on both fronts, so to speak, as a people of contemplation in worship, and as a people of action in an array of ministries. At this time, I invite the priest and brothers of the Sacred Heart, as well as the lay associates to come forward to renew their commitments to serve the Lord in his Kingdom of justice and love.

(To learn more about the work of the Priests of the Sacred Heart in our diocese with their ministry Sacred Heart Southern Missions, visit shsm.org.)

BISHOP’S SCHEDULE

Saturday, July 8, 5 p.m. – Mass, Holy Savior, Clinton (Confessions at 4:15 p.m.)

Sunday, July 9, 8 a.m. – Mass, Immaculate Conception, Raymond

Sunday, July 9, 10:30 a.m. – Mass, Holy Savior, Clinton

Monday, July 10, 7:25 a.m. – Mass, Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, Jackson

Thursday, July 13, 6 p.m./7 p.m. – Holy Hour with Mass following, St. Michael, Forest

Sunday, July 16, 5:30 p.m. – Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Carmelite Monastery, Jackson

Tuesday, July 18, 7:30 a.m. – Mass, Carmelite Monastery, Jackson

Saturday, Aug. 5-6, – Mission Appeal, Christ the King parish, Kingston, Rhode Island

Monday, Aug. 7, 6 p.m. – Golden Jubilee Celebration and Mass of Thanksgiving for Msgr. Elvin Sunds, St. Francis of Assisi, Madison

Sunday, Aug. 13, 11 a.m. – Confirmation, St. Francis of Assisi, New Albany

Sunday, Aug. 13, 3 p.m. – Bilingual Mass, St. Matthew, Ripley

Saturday, Aug. 19, 5 p.m. – Installation Mass of Father Cesar Sanchez, St. Jude, Pearl

Saturday, Sept. 9, 4:30 p.m. – Mass and Reception for Parish 40th Anniversary Celebration, Holy Family, Gloster

Sunday, Sept. 10, 10 a.m. – Mass and Reception for Parish 150th Anniversary Celebration, St. Joseph, Woodville

All events are subject to change. Check with parishes and schools for further details.

We are two weeks into our excursion to Mexico as myself and three of our seminarians learn Spanish and encounter the culture(s) of the central part of the country.

Our typical day during the work week consists of four hours of classes covering grammar, conversation, culture and history. Two hours each day are one-on-one with a teacher while the other two include lectures with a group and more conversation.

We are staying at a Benedictine Abbey called Our Lady of the Angels in a small pueblo within the city limits of Cuernavaca. We attend Mass each day at the monastery and a join in prayer with the monks for the Liturgy of the Hours. Our teachers live on the grounds as well, so we interact with them throughout the day and get to know them and learn about their families and their experiences on a more personal level.

On weekends, we’ve gone on excursions to encounter the cultures of the region. Our first weekend was a wide-spanning tour of the Mexico City metro area. Our second was spent in a small indigenous community called Cuautla where we worked in a parish and visited several of its 24 mission chapels.

As a priest with a large Hispanic community in his parish, I have already seen lots of fruit coming from this trip. Because we are in Mexico, I am understanding much more about

CALLED BY NAME

the people I serve back home. It has been fun to experience things here that I’ve already experienced in Mississippi. The food, the celebrations and the customs here remind me often of things that our Hispanic community at St. Peter’s already does.

It is also somewhat ‘uncomfortable’ for all of us. We are challenged as we seek to patiently encounter the differences in culture, food and other practices (for example, I have yet to encounter the use of air conditioning!) Each time a challenge has presented itself, however, the Lord is helping us grow in love and persevere. These challenges are strengthening our resolve to share the Gospel and helps us understand more about ourselves and about the world we live in, and the world that our own parishioners come from and cherish.

I am grateful for those who are helping us feel at home in Mexico. Most especially I am thankful for Brother Francisco, who is the leader of our group and a monk in the monastery. He is from Spain originally but moved to Mexico City to work in the inner-city. He had been an atheist but his time with the poor converted his heart. He is a constant source of energy and joy.

I am also very thankful to our lead teacher, Bibiana Arroyo. She and her

team are very dedicated to making sure that our education is the very best it can be, and she does a fabulous job and interacting with all the students and making sure we are feeling at home. I’ve gotten to be friends with her husband Jesús, we both love basketball.

There is still much work to be done, and more challenges to be met. Please keep myself and our other three pilgrims from Jackson in your prayers.

– Father Nick Adam, vocation director

MEXICO CITY – Will Foggo, Grayson Foley, Deacon Tristan Stovall and Father Nick Adam are pictured outside the Mexico City Museum of Art earlier in June.

The taste of banter and wine

IN EXILE

By Father ron rolheiser, oMi

Elizabeth

Poreba

ends a poem, No Good Company, with these words:

I’ve got no banter, I’m all judgement and edges, an edgy white lady

Wondering what to do, what to do next

As in Jesus is coming, look busy.

At the wedding feast in Cana, Mary tells Jesus – they have no wine – asking him to create some. What do wine and banter have in common? Both bring a needed extra into our lives.

Let’s start with wine. Wine is not a protein, something the body needs to be nourished and kept alive, part of an essential diet. It’s an extra that provides something special for one’s health. Taken with the right spirit and in moderation, wine can help lift the mood, lighten the heart and warm the conversation, even as it helps (at least for the moment) lessen some of the tensions among us. It’s a grease that can help make a conversation, a family dinner or a social gathering flow more pleasantly.

Banter? Well, like wine, if taken with the right spirit and in moderation, it can also lift the mood, lighten the heart, warm a conversation and lessen tensions at a gathering. Classical Greek thought suggested that love has six components: Eros – emotional and sexual attraction; mania – emotional obsession; asteismos – playfulness and banter; storge – care and solicitousness; pragma – practical arrangement and accommodation; philia – friendship; and agape – altruism.

Normally, when we think of love, we think of each of these components, except the aspect of banter and playfulness. Our romantic selves identify love very much with emotional obsession and sexual attraction. Our religious and moral selves identify love with care, friendship and altruism; and our pragmatic selves identify it with practical arrangement. Few speak of the place and importance of banter or playfulness, of healthy teasing, of humor, but these are often the grease that keeps the others flowing more smoothly.

Here’s an example: For all my adult life, I’ve lived in various religious houses, in community with other vowed religious (in my case, men). We don’t get to pick with whom we live, but are assigned to a community, along with everyone else who lives there. And we come together with our different backgrounds, different personalities and different eccentricities. This can be a formula for tension and yet, for the most part, it works, is pleasant and provides life-giving support and fellowship. What makes it work? Why don’t we end up killing each other? How do we live (for the most part) pleasantly together beyond our differences, immaturities and egos?

Well, there’s a common mission that keeps us working together and, most importantly, there’s regular common prayer that helps us see each other in a better light. But, very importantly, there is banter, playfulness, healthy teasing and humor which, like wine at a table, help take the edge off things and ease the tension inherent in our differences. A community that doesn’t stay light-hearted through banter, playfulness

and healthy teasing will eventually become everything that light-hearted is not, namely, heavy, drab, full of tension and pompous. In every healthy community I’ve lived in, one of the things that made it healthy (and pleasant to come home to) was banter, playfulness, loving teasing and humor. These are rich wines that can enliven the table of any family and any community.

This, of course, like drinking wine, can be overdone and be a way of avoiding harder conversations that need to be had. As well, banter can keep us relating to each other in ways that actually hinder genuine community. Humor, banter, the jokester and the prankster need to know when enough is enough and when serious conversation needs to happen. The risk of overdoing banter is real, though perhaps the greater risk lies in trying to live together in its absence.

Banter, playfulness, loving teasing and humor don’t just help us relate to each other beyond our differences, they also help deflate the pomposity that is invariably the child of over-seriousness. They help keep our

By Justin Mclellan

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – To recognize and address the poverty of others, Christians must become poor like the figure of Tobit from the Hebrew Bible, Pope Francis said.

Tobit, a blind and elderly man who dedicated his life to the service of others, “can show practical concern for the poor because he has personally known what it is to be poor,” the pope wrote in his message for the November celebration of the World Day of the Poor.

The papal message was published June 13, the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, patron of the poor.

Christians are called to “acknowledge every poor person and every form of poverty, abandoning the indifference and the banal excuses we make to protect our illusory well-being,” Pope Francis wrote. “Regardless of the color of their skin, their social standing, the place from which they came, if I myself am poor, I can recognize my brothers and sisters in need of my help.”

The theme for World Day of the Poor 2023 is a passage from the Book of Tobit: “Do not turn your face away from anyone who is poor.”

“When we encounter a poor person, we cannot look away, for that would prevent us from encountering the face of the Lord Jesus,” Pope Francis wrote.

In his message for the world day, which will be celebrated Nov. 19, Pope Francis listed an array of cultural phenomena that prevent people from caring for the poor: greater pressure to live affluently, a tendency to disregard suffering, virtual reality overtaking real life and a sense of haste that prevents people from stopping to care for others. He offered the parable of the Good Samaritan, who stops to help a man in the street beaten by robbers, to counter the hangups many people have against helping the poor.

The parable “is not simply a story from the past; it continues to challenge each of us in the here and now of our daily lives,” he said. “It is easy to delegate charity to others, yet the calling of every Christian is to become personally involved.”

families and communities grounded and pleasant.

I grew up in a large family, with each of us having strong personalities and plenty of faults; yet save for very few occasions, our house, which was physically too small for so large a family, was pleasant to be in because it was perennially filled with banter, playfulness, humor and healthy teasing. We seldom had wine, but we had banter! When I look back on what my family gave me, I am deeply grateful for many gifts: faith, love, safety, trust, support, education, moderation and moral sensitivity. But it also taught me banter, playfulness, healthy teasing and humor. No small gift.

At the wedding feast in Cana, Jesus’ mother noticed that, even though a wedding celebration was happening, something wasn’t right. Was it a heaviness? An over-seriousness? Was it an unhealthy pomposity? Was there a noticeable tension in the room? Whatever. Something was missing, so she goes to Jesus and says: “Son, they have no banter!”

(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)

The pope thanked God for the men and women “of every age and social status” who devote themselves to caring for the poor and excluded, the “ordinary people who quietly make themselves poor among the poor.”

Pope Francis also called for a “serious and effective commitment on the part of political leaders and legislators” to defend the rights enjoyed by all people to food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest and social services as outlined in St. John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical “Pacem in Terris” (Peace on Earth).

While recognizing the need to pressure public institutions to defend the poor, the pope praised volunteers who serve the common good in a “spirit of solidarity and subsidiarity,” saying “it is of no use to wait passively to receive everything ‘from on high.’”

The pope also pointed to the way poverty is exacerbated by inhumane working conditions, inadequate pay, the “scourge” of job insecurity and by workplace accidents resulting in death. Young people, he said, are also afflicted by a cultural poverty that destroys their self-worth and leads to frustration and even suicide.

He urged people not to fall into “rhetorical excess” or merely consider statistics when speaking of the poor, but to remember that “the poor are persons; they have faces, stories, hearts and souls.”

“Caring for the poor is more than simply a matter of a hasty handout,” Pope Francis said, “it calls for reestablishing the just interpersonal relationships that poverty harms.”

Calling for a care for the poor marked by “Gospel realism,” the pope invited Christians to discern the genuine needs of the poor rather than their own personal hopes and aspirations.

“What the poor need is certainly our humanity, our hearts open to love,” he said.

(Editor’s note: The text of the pope’s message in English can be found at https://bit.ly/2023WDP-PopeMessage)

The Pope’s Corner

On World Day of Poor, be poor like those you serve, pope says

'... culmination of years of preparation ...'

– Continued from page 1 –

ment resonated with all present, feeling the commitment that Stovall felt within his heart.

The next day, Deacon Stovall was able to take part in his first Mass of Thanksgiving at Holy Cross Philiadelphia with Father Augustine Palimattam Poulose on the Feast of the Ascension, filled with family, friends and parishioners.

“It was a beautiful experience preparing for ordination after seven years of seminary and then preparing for [my] first preaching on Ascension,” said Deacon Stovall. “It’s like a culmination of so many years of preparation.”

With his ordination to the transitional diaconate, Deacon Stovall now stands on the threshold of priesthood, embracing his role as a servant-leader within the church. As a deacon, Stovall will be an ordinary minister of Baptism, and will be able to preside at weddings, assist the priest at Mass, proclaim the Gospel and preach, as well as preside at wakes and funeral services.

Of those responsibilities, preaching is the thing that Deacon Stovall says he is most looking forward to this coming year. “The ministry of the Word is [one of] the primary things I’m going to focus on … and also the ministry of charity … becoming more attuned to people’s needs in the parish and talking with them and spending time with them.”

Currently, Deacon Stovall is in Cuernavaca, Mexico – outside of Mexico City – with Father Nick Adam and several other seminarians, taking part in a language immersion program to better serve the Hispanic community in the diocese. After returning from the program, Deacon Stovall is assigned to the Basilica of St. Mary in Natchez with Father Aaron Williams this fall before returning to seminary, and ultimately continuing his journey to the priesthood.

JACKSON – (Above) Father Augustine Palimattam assists in vesting Deacon Tristan Stovall. (Below) Bishop Joseph Kopacz presents a missal to Deacon Stovall during his ordination to the transitional diaconate.

PHILADELPHIA – Deacon Tristan Stovall preaches at his first Mass on Sunday, May 21 at his home parish of Holy Cross in Philadelphia. (Photos by Tereza Ma)

U.S. bishops advance pastoral initiatives to strengthen church amid discussions on Eucharist, priesthood, synodality

By Peter Jesserer smith ORLANDO, Fla. (OSV News)

– Meeting in Orlando for their spring assembly, the U.S. bishops moved ahead on some efforts to advance the church’s mission in the U.S., including new pastoral initiatives aimed at activating Catholics as missionary disciples. The gathering’s June 15-16 plenary sessions proved relatively smooth, but featured moments of vigorous discussion at a few points, particularly around the formation of priests.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services gave his first address as U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops president presiding over the bishops’ plenary assembly. He covered a variety of issues of concern to Catholics, such as the need for Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform and for an end to Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

“We cannot fail to see the face of Christ in all of those who need our assistance, especially the poor and the vulnerable,” he said.

The papal nuncio to the U.S., Archbishop Christophe Pierre, made his case to the U.S. bishops June 15 that synodality, oriented to Jesus Christ as their “true north,” unleashes missionary activity.

“The purpose of walking this synodal path is to make our evangelization more effective in the context of the precise challenges that we face today,” Archbishop Pierre said in his address at the U.S. bishops’ spring plenary assembly in Orlando.

The archbishop also singled out Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell of Los Angeles, who was shot to death earlier this year, as “a model of synodal service, combined with Eucharistic charity.”

The U.S. Catholic bishops gathered voiced their approval for the advancement of a cause to canonize five missionary priests from Brittany, France, known as the “Shreveport martyrs.”

“They demonstrated heroic charity during the third worst pandemic in U.S. history,” said Bishop Francis I. Malone of Shreveport, noting they were all young men who voluntarily sacrificed their own lives to journey with the dying and bring the Eucharist to the faithful.

In their message to Pope Francis, the bishops also strongly condemned an execution that the state of Florida carried out June 15 in the evening following their meeting.

Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, updated the bishops on the progress of the 2023-2024 global Synod on Synodality. Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, presented on the National Eucharistic Revival, and outlined how the “small group initiative” in the parish year could help deepen people’s relationship to Christ in the Eucharist.

“We all know how much our church needs to move from maintenance to mission ... this is really the heart of what we’re attempting to do,” he said.

Most votes taking place had near unanimous approval, such as the agenda items related to retranslating the Liturgy of the Hours into English, including having the future edition include some prayer texts in Latin.

The bishops approved the National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Latino Ministry with 167 in favor and 2 against and 2 abstentions. The 62-page plan seeks to re-

spond to the needs of about 30 million Hispanic/Latino Catholics in the U.S. and strengthen Hispanic/Latino ministries at the national, local and parish level.

Ahead of the vote, Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose, California, chairman of the bishops’ Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs, told OSV News there was a great need to “get moving so that (the new pastoral plan) can be implemented in our dioceses and parishes.”

A day before the vote took place, Detroit Auxiliary Bishop J. Arturo Cepeda, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church, called the plan a sign of the times that recognizes Hispanic/ Latino Catholics – who account for more than 40% of U.S. Catholics – as “missionaries among us” that can reinvigorate the life of the church.

The most contentious discussion took place regarding the proposed second edition of the “Basic Plan for the Ongoing Formation of Priests.” Some bishops took to the floor to object they had not had time to read the document, or that it was so lengthy priests would likely not read it and dismiss its contents.

Other bishops expressed concern that the discussion on “spiritual fatherhood” needed to be fleshed out, expressing concern that otherwise it could fuel the “narcissistic tendencies” and “hubris” of some priests.

Bishop Steven R. Biegler of Cheyenne, Wyoming, said he appreciated the document’s beautiful description of the Christian relationship to God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “What I find lacking is that communal relationship to the Body of Christ ... that puts us in solidarity with one another as brother and sister,” he said.

However, other bishops pushed back against delaying the document, noting the hard work that went into developing it, and that the document was meant to be a guide adapted to the realities of local churches.

Bishop Juan Miguel Betancourt, ordained as a priest for the Servants of the Eucharist and Mary, who is an auxiliary for the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, said the term “spiritual fatherhood” is “actually a term that is more familiar and clear for those who are younger in the priesthood.”

Ultimately, the bishops approved the formation document with 144 voting in favor, 24 against, and 8 abstentions.

The discussion and vote on priorities for the 2025-28 USCCB strategic plan were put on hold so that the bishops could reflect upon and, presumably, include some of the discussion from the synod conversations.

In a voice vote, the bishops approved beginning the process of consultation and revision of ethical directives for Catholic health care facilities to guide them in caring for people suffering from gender dysphoria and who identify as transgender.

Bishop Flores said potential changes would be “limited and very focused” in nature, and involve extensive consultation. He praised the calls from bishops on the floor for a “pastorally sensitive” approach to the complex topic.

The U.S. bishops also voiced approval for the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth to move ahead on drafting a new pastoral statement for persons with disabilities.

“We do believe a new statement is needed to address disability concerns in the 21st century,” Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, the committee’s chair, told the bishops June 16. The intended statement aims to emphasize the giftedness of persons with disabilities, eliminate outdated forms of referring to persons with disabilities, and would be inclusive of persons who have mental illnesses.

During the discussion, Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston joined Bishop John T. Folda of Fargo, North Dakota, in noting the importance of Catholics being allied with the disability community against assisted suicide, and the cardinal asked for more attention to support parents of children with autism.

The bishops also heard an update on the upcoming World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, and were encouraged to have their own stateside events for youth and young adults “to form them as missionary disciples.”

Finally, just before the bishops concluded their assembly, Bishop Earl A. Boyea of Lansing, Michigan, chair of the bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, discussed The Catholic Project’s 2022 study of 10,000 Catholic religious and diocesan priests that found most priests distrust their bishops with only 24% saying they had confidence in bishops in general.

Bishop Boyea encouraged the bishops to help priests “feel kinship and fraternity with us” through better personal communication, such as recognizing important moments in their lives, and better lines of communicating information to them.

“This is not the completion, but a beginning, to heal our relationship,” he said of the report.

At the conclusion of their assembly, recognizing it was the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the bishops prayed together the Litany of the Sacred Heart, invoking Jesus’ heart repeatedly to “have mercy on us.”

(Peter Jesserer Smith is the national news and features editor for OSV News. Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Contributing to this report were Jean Gonzalez, projects editor for The Florida Catholic Media in Orlando; Tony Gutiérrez, writing for OSV News from Arizona; and Maria-Pia Negro Chin, Spanish editor for OSV News.)

Bishops pray during morning prayer June 15, 2023, at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spring plenary assembly in Orlando, Fla. Pictured are Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, USCCB vice president; Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, USCCB president; Father Michael J.K. Fuller, USCCB general secretary; and Bishop Patrick M. Neary of St. Cloud, Minn. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)

St. Vincent de Paul conferences form helping hands for Rolling Fork

By Joe Lee JACKSON – Donovan Guilbeau,

who installs power lines for Southern Electric Corporation and has seen many destructive tornadoes and hurricanes over four decades, said the EF-4 storm that ravaged the Mississippi communities of Rolling Fork and Silver City on March 24 caused the worst damage he’s ever seen.

“This reminded me of the Nagasaki bomb going off in World War II. It took my breath away,” said Guilbeau, a St. Richard parishioner is a long-time member of the St. Richard of Chichester Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVDP), a national organization dedicated to feeding, clothing, and healing individuals and families in their time of need. “The damage and 26 lives lost were in a very concentrated area, and I knew we had to do something.”

Guilbeau has business associates who own property in the Rolling Fork area, and his wife has family nearby. In trying to assess what he could do to help, he turned to the St. Richard of Chichester Conference, one of five SVDP conferences in the District Council of the Diocese of Jackson (the others are St. Martin de Porres at Christ the King, St. Therese Conference, St. Joseph Conference at St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Greenville and St. Elizabeth of Hungary at Annunciation Parish in Columbus).

“I’m the St. Richard conference’s field representative for Rolling Fork and Silver City,” Guilbeau said. “Once the site was secured by the local police and the fire department, Tommy Jordan, a fellow St. Richard conference member, and I invited Carrie Robinson, president of the District of Jackson Council, to go with us.

“In this case, the news media did not blow the destruction out of proportion. I became a news reporter of sorts for SVDP, telling them what we were seeing on the ground.”

Robinson, a member of Christ the King Parish, said that all five SVDP conferences in the Jackson council eagerly came together: food and clothing was delivered from the Greenville conference, and financial assistance from the Columbus conference was provided to St. Helen’s Catholic Church in Amory to support nine families that suffered tornado damage the same weekend as the Rolling Fork storm hit.

“I ordered 875 hygiene kits from Disaster Services Corporation, which is the SVDP service arm,” Robinson said. “SVDP deployed case workers for a period of two weeks and began assisting residents of Rolling Fork and Silver City.

“The St. Richard conference donated $10,000 toward the relief efforts, which made it possible for us to serve one hot meal a day to 500-700 people for those two weeks. We also received a Rapid Response Grant from SVDP for $5,000, and a $5,000 grant from Isagenix Foundation.”

The grant money has gone toward Walmart gift cards, which have been handed out to storm victims in amounts of $25 and $50 to purchase food, clothing and other basic needs. But Dianne Clark, the Southeastern U.S. Disaster Rep for SVDP, said that one of the best things volunteers can do is listen to the victims’ stories and encourage them to talk.

“Each time you relate what you went through, it gets a little easier to talk about. Don’t keep it bottled up inside,” said Clark, who is based in Bradenton, Florida, and has seen plenty of hurricane damage in her decade-plus of SVDP service. “We’ll talk 20-30 minutes with each person to let them get things off their chests.

“It’s especially difficult if you’ve lost family members – there was one man on crutches who told us he’d just lost his mother and grandmother. Another woman said she and her husband lived in a mobile home, and

her husband climbed on top of her to protect her. They survived, but the woman was horrified to find that when she looked over at the site where her sister’s mobile home was, it was gone. The sister’s body was found later, unfortunately.

First Baptist Church of Rolling Fork became a central feeding and recovery location for disaster survivors in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

“Pastor Britt Williamson was bringing in counselors to help the victims when we were there,” Clark said. “It’s so important to get children to open up as well as the adults. We give candy to them, try to get them to talk. They’re deeply impacted by what they’ve gone through.”

The inclination by so many goodhearted people once they learn of horrific storm damage is to organize drives to deliver food, clothing, supplies and even furniture. Some even hop in their cars and drive straight to the disaster site, eager to offer whatever help they can.

But despite the best of intentions, those spontaneous acts of generosity can create additional problems. Clark pointed out that when truckloads of furniture and clothing are sent at the very beginning of the recovery, there’s often nowhere to put them because homes and buildings have been destroyed.

“There’s an urge to go in and provide resources without asking,” Robinson said. “The greatest thing we can do is allow those in need to have some dignity, and say to them, ‘We are not the experts. Tell us how we can help you. What is it that you need?’”

Robinson just led a team of volunteers from the St. Richard and Christ the King conferences to Silver City on May 18 to partner with the Mississippi Department

of Health and Human Services.

“DHS asked if we could help them feed the residents,” Robinson said. “They’re doing outreach for seniors and the disabled whose services – such as Meals on Wheels – were disrupted because of the storm. We purchased burgers, beans, chips and drinks to serve lunch, and we were also there to find out if there were additional needs from residents, such as those still without electricity.”

Guilbeau and SVDP volunteers all over the Jackson Council will gladly continue to help out in Rolling Fork and Silver City as long as it takes, and in whatever ways are needed – including through spiritual nourishment.

“We have a project called Home in a Box that provides furniture to homes that are being rebuilt,” he said. “The short-term need was for feeding; the long-term need is to rebuild. This is long-haul healing.”

“When we met with Pastor Williamson, he indicated that a lot of Rolling Fork residents are renters,” Robinson said. “Going forward, one of the needs will be to see how we can assist them in moving from renting to home ownership, which creates more stability in the community.

“But the most important thing we’ve done for our friends there – and the most important thing we can continue to do – is pray for them.”

To learn more about SVDP, visit svdpusa.org.

(Editor’s note: This story originally ran in the digital only edition of Mississippi Catholic on May 19, 2023. To sign up to receive your digital edition visit jacksondiocese.flocknote.com or text MSCATHOLIC to 84576.)

ROLLING FORK – St. Vincent de Paul conferences across the diocese work to serve the people of Rolling Fork after devastating tornado struck the community on March 24. (Photo courtesy of Carol Evans)

Pope returns to Vatican, ‘is better than before,’ chief surgeon says

By Carol Glatz

ROME (CNS) – Pope Francis has returned to the Vatican after a nine-day hospital stay and intends to go ahead with his planned trips abroad in August and September, according to his chief surgeon.

“The pope is fine. He’s better than before,” said Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the chief surgeon who operated on the pope June 7 to repair a hernia; he also operated on the pope in 2021.

“The pope has confirmed all his trips,” the doctor told reporters outside Rome’s Gemelli hospital June 16, right after the pope was released. The pope was scheduled to attend World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, Aug. 2-6, and to go to Mongolia Aug. 31-Sept. 4.

“As a matter of fact,” Alfieri said, according to Vatican News, “he will be able to embark on them better than before because now he will no longer have the discomfort of his previous ailments. He will be a stronger pope.”

When asked about the pope’s “convalescence” to fully heal from abdominal surgery, Alfieri said, “he doesn’t convalesce; he has already started working.”

“We asked him to do some convalescence (and) this time I’m sure he will listen to us a little bit more because he has important events ahead of him and he has already said personally that he will go through with all of them, including his trips,” Alfieri said.

When the pope emerged from the hospital in a wheelchair the morning of June 16, he greeted well-wishers and journalists who asked him how he was. “I’m still alive,” he said, smiling.

He also expressed his sorrow for the recent deaths of migrants who drowned crossing the Mediterranean Sea near Greece.

He was accompanied to an awaiting white Fiat car

by his aides and Alfieri, and then, with the front passenger-side window open, waved to others lining the road as he left.

Before returning to the Vatican, he stopped to pray at the icon of Mary, “Salus Populi Romani,” in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, a stop he makes before and after every trip abroad and a stop he also made in July 2021 after undergoing colon surgery at the Gemelli.

Then the pope “stopped for a brief private visit to the sisters of the Institute of the Most Holy Child Mary, gathered for their general chapter,” the Vatican press office said. The pope also greeted police outside one of the side entrances into the Vatican to “thank them for their service.”

The Vatican press office said the pope’s Angelus address and prayer with visitors in St. Peter’s Square June 18 was confirmed as well as individual audiences in the coming days.

His general audience June 21 was canceled, however, “to safeguard the Holy Father’s postoperative recovery,” it said in a communique June 16.

Pope Francis smiles as he leaves Rome’s Gemelli hospital early June 16, 2023. Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the pope’s chief surgeon, and Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti, commander of the Vatican police force, are next to the pope as he responds to questions from Spanish journalist Eva Fernández, left, and Italian journalist Vania De Luca. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Pope Francis underwent a three-hour surgery to repair a hernia June 7. The procedure, under general anesthesia, was performed using a surgical mesh to strengthen the repair and prevent the recurrence of a hernia. Surgeons also removed several adhesions or bands of scar tissue that had formed after previous surgeries decades ago, Alfieri told reporters after the operation.

Alfieri had explained that the pope’s immediate re-

covery required avoiding undue stress or strain so as not to tear the prosthetic mesh used to reinforce the abdominal wall.

The pope had spent seven days in the hospital in July 2021 after undergoing colon surgery to treat diverticulitis, inflammation of bulges in the intestine. He was also hospitalized for three nights for a respiratory infection in late March.

Diocese announces “Pastoral Reimagining” process

By Joanna Puddister King

JACKSON – The Diocese of Jackson has a new initiative that will focus on renewing and reimagining parishes across the diocese. The one-year “Pastoral Reimagining” process, that will begin on Pentecost Sunday, will focus on parishes and missions across the diocese taking a more direct and intentional look at the reality of their communities in the spirit of the Synod of Synodality in the aftermath of the pandemic.

“We are allowing the Holy Spirit to bless and guide us in our willingness to cooperate with God’s grace in a spirit of renewal,” writes Bishop Joseph Kopacz in his column for Mississippi Catholic on the reimagining process.

The theme from the process is from Ephesians, “There is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism and one God and Father of all.” (Ephesians 4:5-6)

Thinking about the Synod process undertaken in the diocese and throughout the world, Bishop Kopacz noted that the church is at a crossroads locally and globally. With that, an extensive demographic review of the diocese will be a part of the “Pastoral Reimagining” process.

“Without a doubt [it] will enrich the local conversations,” said Bishop Kopacz.

There will be four stages of the pastoral reimagining process over the course of the year, running from Pentecost this year to Pentecost 2024.

The first stage will run from Pentecost through August 2023, with each pastor or LEM establishing a pastoral reimagining committee and having the committee view four ecclesiology video sessions and answer a series of questions designed

to guide conversation on who we are as a church, says Fran Lavelle, director of faith formation for the diocese and member of the core team who will be working on the pastoral reimagining process.

The four video sessions, led by Bishop Kopacz will focus on the four marks of the church: one, holy, Catholic and apostolic; and will be available for anyone to view on the diocese website, along with discussion questions..

Stage two, will include each parish undertaking a parish assessment that includes the current situation at the local parish, the growing edges, the areas that are diminishing, the opportunities for collaboration with other parishes in the area, and other local realities.

With this stage, demographic information will be prepared for each parish, including sacramental data, local economic data and more, says Lavelle.

The third stage will focus on each deanery working though challenges and reviewing the growing edges and diminishing areas of ministry within the deanery.

“The goal is to gain a realistic perspective of the health and well-being of the deanery within the setting of the individual parishes,” Lavelle says.

The final two stages will include a period of discernment on reports from the six deaneries in the diocese and a pastoral letter from Bishop Kopacz, concluding with a diocesan celebration at Pentecost 2024.

“Calling upon the Holy Spirit, we pray that each parish will be encouraged, as well as challenged to be whom God calls us to be,” says Bishop Kopacz.

Sister Sheila Griffin, OP celebrates jubilee

SINSINAWA, Wis. – Sister Sheila Griffin, OP, will celebrate her 70th jubilee in 2023. A Mass will be held Sunday, Sept. 10, for her and 11 other Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters celebrating 70 years. Her religious name was Sister Johanna.

Sister Sheila’s home parish is St. Patrick, Shieldsville, in the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese. She is the daughter of the late Jack and Kathryn (McGuiness) Griffin and graduated from Bethlehem Academy, Faribault. Sister Sheila’s ministry has been dedicated to education and social outreach, mainly in the South.

In the Archdiocese of Chicago, Sister Sheila taught at St. Giles, 1953-1960, and Sts. Faith, Hope and Charity, Winnetka, 1968-1972. She served as provincial councilor for the Southeast Province of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa while living in Chicago, 1984-1988.

In the Diocese of Rockford, Sister Sheila was co-principal and taught at Nativity BVM, Menomonee, 1979-1980.

In the Diocese of Jackson, Sister Sheila volunteered with the Glenmary Missions, Houston, 2006-2008.

In the Diocese of Madison, Sister Sheila helped open and taught at St. Dennis, Madison, 1960-1963, and St. Cecilia, Wisconsin Dells, 1963-1968, where she was also principal.

In the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Sister Sheila was principal and teacher at Father Benedict Justice School, Kansas City, 1980-1984.

Currently, Sister Sheila is living in community with her Dominican Sisters.

If you would like to honor Sister Sheila on her jubilee, go to the Sinsinawa Dominicans’ website at www.sinsinawa.org/jubilee.

Missionary zeal brings Van de Velde to America

FROM THE ARCHIVES

BY MARY WOODWARD

JACKSON – He only wanted to serve as a missionary priest. That was the spirit of a young James Oliver Van de Velde in May 1817 as he embarked on a rather circuitous journey to becoming the second bishop of our diocese 36 years later in 1853.

Bishop Van de Velde, SJ, is the shortest serving bishop of our diocese. His tenure lasted from his taking possession of his diocese on Dec. 18, 1853, until his death of Yellow Fever two years later on Nov. 13, 1855. All of our other bishops have served close to 10 years or more. But in his short time, +James Oliver accomplished some very important initiatives for the church.

Over the next couple of articles, I will share more about +James Oliver’s missionary ministry here in Mississippi. For now, let me give some background on his interesting odyssey to Natchez.

The following biographical details are culled from Bishop Richard Gerow’s landmark work, “Cradle Days of St. Mary’s at Natchez,” where the seventh bishop details the early days of Catholicism in the state up to the 1890’s.

Born on April 3, 1795, in Belgium near the town of Termonde, James Oliver Van de Velde was from a family of high social and o cial standing in the community. His family was a devout Catholic one and early on James Oliver showed signs of his desiring to enter the religious life.

When he turned 15, he was sent to boarding school, where he excelled in his studies, especially in the area of language. James Oliver was so proficient that a few years later at age 18 he was asked to teach his fellow students French and Flemish. During this time, he began to study English and Italian. These studies proved beneficial as he entered the Archepiscopal Seminary in Mechlin, Belgium, in his early 20’s, where he was again asked to teach his fellow students – this time adding Latin to his repertoire of languages.

It was in seminary that his desire to become a missionary began to burn within him. In early 1817, James Oliver was fortunate to meet Father Charles Nerinckx, a fellow Belgian, who was considered the Apostle to Kentucky. Father Nerinckx was returning through Belgium from a trip to Rome when he encountered the young Van de Velde at the seminary.

Sharing the need for priests to serve the missions in America, Father Nerinckx o ered to bring James Oliver to the frontier missions of Bardstown, Kentucky, where Nerinckx was based. The seminary allowed for the transfer and he joined Nerinckx and a handful of other young Belgians who were bound for Georgetown College in Washington to enter the Jesuit novitiate there.

The plan for James Oliver to follow Nerinckx to Bardstown, however, was upended when during the transatlantic crossing the ship encountered a violent

storm and Van de Velde was seriously injured. The loss of blood caused such weakness in him that upon arrival in the United States, he was taken to St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore to recover instead of travelling on to Kentucky. [Bishop William Houck was a graduate of St. Mary’s.]

Seeing the damage done, Nerinckx advised James Oliver to follow his fellow Belgian ship mates to Georgetown and the novitiate of the Jesuits. Again, his intellectual acumen led him to be asked by the faculty to not only be student, but also be a professor to his fellow classmates teaching “belles lettres” at Georgetown, a class studying the art and beauty of literature in and of itself. [Bishop Joseph Brunini graduated from Georgetown and was editor-in-chief of the yearbook.]

Ten years after arriving in America, James Oliver was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal, SS, in Baltimore on Sept. 25, 1827. [Archbishop Maréchal also would have ordained to the priesthood John Joseph Chanche, SS, our first bishop, in 1819.] He served some missions in Maryland before being sent to the newly established Jesuit College in St. Louis where he taught rhetoric and math. In 1833, the college became the University of St. Louis and Van de Velde became its vice president and procurator.

Finally in 1837, Van de Velde made his solemn vows and became a professed member of the Society of Jesus. During an 1838 trip to New Orleans, he stopped in the freshly erected Diocese of Natchez and for two weeks served

the Catholic congregation there which was still awaiting its first bishop – a foreshadowing of the eventual arrival of James Oliver as bishop in 15 years.

Van de Velde continued to be promoted at the University of St. Louis and in the Jesuits becoming president of the university in 1840 and vice provincial of the order in 1843. As vice provincial he oversaw the growth and flourishing of the Jesuit missions. His zeal for missions and his keen intellect and administrative skills did not go unnoticed by the Holy See so that on Dec. 1, 1848, he was appointed as the second bishop of Chicago. It required the cajoling of several friends and much prayer for him to accept, but in the end, he accepted and was ordained a bishop on Feb. 11, 1849, in the Church of St. Francis Xavier at the University of St. Louis by the Archbishop of St. Louis, Peter Richard Kenrick.

Thus, we will end this initial look at our second bishop – a man of extreme intellect and passionate zeal for the missions. In the next installment, we will explore how Bishop Van de Velde made his way from Chicago to Natchez and explore several of his initiatives in our diocese.

(Mary Woodward is Chancellor and Archivist for the Diocese of Jackson.)

Bishop James Oliver Van de Velde was born in Belgium in 1795. Mary Woodward explores his early life and how he made his way to America before being named the second Bishop of Jackson (nee Natchez) by Pope Pius IX in 1853. (Photo from archives)

NATION

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Prior to the first anniversary of a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its prior abortion precedent, pro-life activists lauded legislation passed in multiple states while advocating for additional support services for women and families facing unplanned pregnancies. The Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on June 24, 2022, undoing nearly a half-century of its own precedent on abortion as a constitutional right. The case involved a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks, in which the state directly challenged the high court’s previous abortion-related precedents in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Jeanne Mancini, March for Life president, told OSV News that the first post-Roe year has been “amazing in so many ways” in reducing abortion, but it also has introduced “an element of confusion.” The way forward, Mancini said, must be to “lean into this and do it with a lot of love” and also “emphasize the truth that pro-life is pro-woman, whether it’s the support of a pregnancy care center or funding support at the state level.”

GOWER, Mo. (OSV News) – Mother Abbess Cecilia Snell puts the number of pilgrims who in the past six weeks have flocked to her Benedictine abbey in rural

Missouri between 10,000 and 15,000. It’s a conservative estimate, she said, of the droves of people who, at times, have waited hours in line to see the body of the community’s foundress, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster. The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles disinterred her remains April 28, four years after her death at age 95, and discovered a surprising lack of decay, leading to claims of her incorruptibility and potential for canonization. Most visitors are locals, or from Kansas City or St. Louis. Some, however, have traveled from Washington state, Maine, California and Florida, but also from as far as Canada, Colombia and India, Mother Cecilia said. “It was her relationship with Christ on the path (to) holiness that led her to greatness before him. She sends a message of the value of vocation, of charity and forgiveness, even through racial barriers, and that holiness is possible in our day. Quite a few people have said, ‘I knew her. This makes me realize that I can be holy too!’” Mother Cecilia said.

VATICAN

ROME (CNS) – Devotion to Marian apparitions should lead people to Jesus and not to a particular individual or community, Pope Francis said. In an interview with the Italian state television network, RAI, broadcast June 4, the pope said Marian apparitions are “an instrument of Marian devotion that is not always true” and may be used to focus on or promote an individual. “There have been true apparitions of Our Lady, but always with her finger like this, to Jesus” he said pointing outward, “never has Our Lady drawn (attention) toward herself when (the apparition) is true, she has always pointed to Jesus.” Pope Francis said that a Marian devotion that becomes “too centered on itself” and lacks guiding people to Jesus “is no good, be it in the person that has the devotion or those who carry it forward.” Through an observatory body overseen by the Pontifical International Marian Academy, the Vatican tracks alleged Marian apparitions around the world and studies their authenticity. During his

The Diocese of Jackson has launched a third-party reporting system that will enable all diocesan employees, volunteers and parishioners to anonymously (or named if preferred) make reports. Examples of this activity include fraud, misconduct, safety violations, harassment or substance abuse occurring at a Catholic parish, Catholic school or at the diocesan level. The system is operated by Lighthouse Services. Based in Deerfield, Illinois, Lighthouse Services maintains ethics, safety and fraud hotlines for over 4,100 organizations between the U.S. and abroad.

To make a report visit www.lighthouse-services.com/ jacksondiocese or call 888-830-0004 (English) or 800-2161288 (Spanish).

The Association of Priests of the Dioceses of Jackson and Biloxi provide a small pension to our retired priests. As you consider your estate plans, please remember these faithful servants by making a donation or leaving a bequest to the Association of Priests. Our parish priests dedicate their lives to caring for us, their flocks. Let us now care for them in their retirement. Donations can be made payable to the Association of Priests and can be mailed to:

Diocese of Jackson, P.O. Box 22723, Jackson, MS 39225-2723

upcoming trip to Portugal Aug. 2-6, Pope Francis will travel to a shrine honoring the apparitions at Fátima in which Mary appeared to three Portuguese children in 1917. Public devotion to Our Lady of Fátima was approved by the local bishop in 1930 and has since been promoted by the Vatican.

WORLD

BENIN CITY, Nigeria (OSV News) – The killing of Father Charles Igechi June 7 is further evidence of Christian persecution in Nigeria, church o cials in the country say. The priest was on his way to St. Michael College, Ikhueniro, where he was assigned, when unidentified gunmen swooped in and shot him in the back. Archbishop Augustine Akubeze of Benin City said in a statement that the body of the priest was found in Ikpoba Hill, not far from Benin City, the capital and largest city of Edo state in southern Nigeria. In a June 8 condolence message, the archbishop reported “with deep sadness and sorrow in our hearts” the death of one of the priests of the archdiocese, Father Charles Onomhoale Igechi, who was ordained Aug. 13, 2022, and at the time of his death was vice principal of St. Michael College in Ikhueniro, Archbishop Akubeze asked for the faithful to pray “for the happy repose of his soul.” Josef Ishu, secretary of the Nigerian bishops’ conference Laity O ce, told OSV News the killing of the priest is “the latest evidence of Christian persecution” in Nigeria.

KHERSON, Ukraine (OSV News) – Delivering aid in Ukraine’s flooded Kherson area has become a life-threatening task. Aid workers of Caritas and other organizations told OSV News they cannot go on rescue boats without bulletproof vests and military helmets, as Russian troops have continued to fire on civilian victims and rescuers. In some towns that are still under Russian occupation, sources say the situation is so dire that people die on their own rooftops. On June 6, damage to the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in Kherson released some 4.3 cubic miles of water (a single cubic mile of water equals 1.1 trillion gallons) from the Kakhovka Reservoir, one of the world’s largest capacity reservoirs. Dozens of towns and villages along the Dnipro River have been flooded so far, with tens of thousands at flood risk, according to Ukrainian government o cials. The Institute for the Study of War, based in Washington, has assessed that “the balance of evidence, reasoning, and rhetoric suggests that the Russians deliberately damaged the dam.” Father Piotr Rosochacki, director of Caritas-Spes Ukraine since 2015, told OSV News the flooded terrain is now being “regularly shelled” by Russian troops, lamenting the attacks as “never-ending.” He appealed to Catholics around the globe not to forget about Ukraine and not to become indi erent. “The water will go away and in a month, two, others will live their own lives and forget about the dam. But people here will remain without basics like drinking water,” he said, adding that long-term help is needed “so that those people can live again.”

A resident reacts after evacuation from a flooded area in Kherson, Ukraine, June 9, 2023, after the Nova Kakhovka dam breached. (OSV News photo/ Oleksandr Klymenko, Reuters)

MISSISSIPPI CATHOLIC JUNE 23, 2023

“Padre Pio” (Gravitas)

By John Mulderig

NEW YORK (OSV News) – Viewers may be misled by the title of director and co-writer Abel Ferrara’s historical drama “Padre Pio” (Gravitas). The film is less a profile of the titular saint, played passionately by Shia LaBeouf, than a portrait of San Giovanni Rotondo, the Apulian town of his Capuchin monastery, in the period immediately after World War I.

Moviegoers in search of an uplifting hagiography, accordingly, should look elsewhere. All the more so since Ferrara’s script, penned with Maurizio Braucci, includes graphic material that precludes endorsement for a wide range of age groups as well as themes suitable only for the fully catechized.

As Father Pio grapples with tormenting Satanic visions, the Italian social tensions that would eventually set the scene for the rise of Fascism mount. These are personified in wealthy, corrupt local landowner Renato (Brando Pacitto) on the one side and a group of virtuous socialists, including young would-be revolutionary Luigi (Vincenzo Crea), on the other.

The screenplay suggests points of coherence between Marxism and Christianity. But if that sounds like an uneasy mix, the attempted blending of the events unfolding inside the walls of the Franciscan refuge and those transpiring beyond it is equally unstable. Thus the picture manages to be at once respectful of Christian spirituality and anti-clerical.

The former stance leads to the moving scene in which Padre Pio receives the stigmata. The latter gives us the sight of the local parish priest, Don Anselmo (Piergiuseppe Francione), a dedicated ally of the oppressors, blessing their guns with holy water before a showdown with the good guys.

Such a caricature is, unfortunately, in keeping with the movie’s ham-handed approach to history and ideology. It’s a shame that LaBeouf’s all-in performance – as is well-known, his participation in this project has resulted in his conversion to Catholicism – should come wrapped in such a burdensome husk.

Somewhere inside Ferrara’s flawed political and social retrospective is an intriguing biopic struggling to get out of confinement. A narrower focus would have yielded much stronger results.

The film contains brief but intense gory violence, demonic behavior, rear nudity, references to incest, several rough terms and a couple of crass expressions. The

June 1

Father Anthony Okwum, SSJ

Holy Family, Natchez & St. Anne, Fayette

June 2

Father Guy Wilson

Holy Child Jesus, Canton & Sacred Heart, Camden

June 4

Father Joe Tonos

St. Richard, Jackson

Deacon Jeff Artigues

St. Joseph, Starkville

Deacon Denzil Lobo

Christ the King, Jackson

Deacon John McGinley

St. Joseph, Starkville

Deacon John McGregor

St. Jude, Pearl

Deacon Ted Schreck

Catholic Parishes of Northwest MS

June 6

Father PJ Curley

Retired

Father Daniel Gallagher

Retired

OSV

classification is A-III – adults. The

is

(John

Happy Ordination Anniversary

June 7

Father Noel Prendergast

Retired

Father Kevin Slattery

St. Therese, Jackson

June 8

Father Thomas Delaney Retired

June 9

Father Juan Chavajay

Sacred Heart, Canton

June 10

Father Robert Dore

St. Michael, Vicksburg

June 11

Msgr. Patrick Farrell

Retired

Father Thomas Lalor

Retired

June 12

Father Kent Bowlds

Our Lady of Victories, Cleveland

Father Frank Cosgrove

Retired

Father Gerry Hurley

St. Paul, Flowood

June 13

Father Mike O’Brien

Retired

Father Mario Solorzano

St. James the Less, Corinth

June 14

Msgr. Mike Flannery

Retired

Father Tom McGing

Retired

Father David O’Connor

Retired

June 15

Father David Szatkowski, SCJ

Catholic Parishes of Northwest MS

June 16

Father Jeffrey Waldrep

Annunciation, Columbus

June 18

Father Anthony Quyet

Retired

June 26

Deacon David Gruseck

Annunciation, Columbus

June 27

Father Andrew Nguyen

Immaculate Heart of Mary, Greenwood

Father Cesar Sanchez

St. James, Tupelo

Father Marco Sanchez, ST

St. Anne, Carthage & St. Therese, Kosciusko

July 16

Deacon Mark Bowden

St. Jude, Pearl

Deacon Dien Hoang

Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, Jackson

Deacon Wesley Lindsay

Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, Jackson

Deacon John Pham

St. Michael, Forest

Deacon David Rouch

St. Michael, Vicksburg

Deacon Tony Schmidt

St. Paul, Flowood

News

Motion Picture Association rating

R – restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Mulderig is media reviewer for OSV News. Follow him on Twitter @JohnMulderig1.)

Shia LaBeouf stars in the new drama “Padre Pio.” The OSV News classification is A-III –adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is R – restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. (OSV News photo/Gravitas Ventures)

Responsibilities of the brown scapular

THINGS OLD AND NEW

By Ruth PoweRs

The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is coming up on July 16, so it is appropriate at this time to learn about a popular sacramental used by Catholics that has its origin in the Carmelite order. Many people are at least somewhat familiar with the brown scapular, and may even wear one regularly, without realizing what it means and what responsibilities the brown scapular places on the wearer.

The brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel traces its origin to an English Carmelite friar, St. Simon Stock, who lived about 250 years ago. It symbolizes the garment of the Blessed Virgin and represents in a very small scale the brown and cream habits of the friars, nuns and sisters of these orders. On a larger scale the scapular is the habit of the Secular Carmelites in both congregations. This scapular places the wearer under the protection of Mary in a special way.

Many people who are not associated formally with the Carmelite orders also wear the brown scapular as a sign of their devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, but in so doing share not only in the resulting graces but also in the responsibilities which those graces confer. Because it incurs spiritual responsibilities, an individual should be invested with the brown scapular by a priest or other authorized person. Thereafter, either the brown scapular or the scapular medal may be worn.

The official manual of the Carmelite orders on the catechesis of the brown scapular provides the following description of Carmelite spirituality:

1. Frequent participation at Mass and reception of Holy Communion;

2. Frequent reading of and meditation on the Word of God in sacred Scripture;

3. The regular praying of at least part of the Liturgy of the Hours;

4. Imitation of and devotion to Mary, the woman of faith who hears the word of God and puts it into practice;

5. The practice of the virtues, notable charity, chastity (according to one’s state in life), and obedience to the will of God.

Those who wear the brown scapular are expected to take part in these practices to the extent possible according to their state in life.

Since the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a sacramental administered by the two Carmelite orders, a person who wears this scapular or medal is affiliated with the Carmelite community throughout the world, however loosely, and many find hope and consolation in the writings of the three Carmelite doctors: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and St. Therese of Lisieux.

The official manual of the brown scapular states the following:

The brown scapular is not:

1. A magical charm to protect you;

2. An automatic guarantee of salvation; or

3. An excuse for not living up to the demands of the Christian life.

The brown scapular:

1. Is a sign which has been approved by the church for over seven centuries (since the founding of the Car-

Wisdom of ordinary time

ON ORDINARY TIMES

By Lucia a siLecchia

If it is graduation season, then it is graduation speech season too. High schools, colleges, and even elementary schools seek out high profile speakers to impart their wisdom to graduates – or, at least, they aim to. I am a bit dubious about what a pampered celebrity or popular sports figure could possibly know about the life of an average graduate, and I am disappointed when political speakers bring disheartening division to what should be a final moment of unity for a class that has lived four or more years together.

When I think about the wisdom imparted to me in the speeches at my graduations, I cannot recall what any speaker said to my classmates and me.

What I have recalled, through decades of university life, is all the wisdom imparted to me by those who did not tell me how to live a good and great life, but by those who showed me how to do so. With prayerful gratitude, I can remember so many people whose lives well lived told me more than the most eloquent of speeches ever could. In the quiet, humble ways so loved by Christ, their lives were silent speeches I will never forget.

So, if you are graduating this year, enjoy your graduation and the speeches given that day. I hope that they inspire you to goodness, greatness, and holiness.

However, I hope that you will also think about what you have been taught by the people you met along the way. In their silence, not in their speeches, what did you learn from:

• The maintenance worker who, after long days at work, left for a second job to support his family and see his children attend college and live the dreams he dreamt for them?

• The staff member battling a serious illness who still spent time patiently helping students with problems that must have seemed so trivial to her?

• The teacher who taught an early morning class with grace and good cheer after spending most of her evening awake with a parent suffering with dementia and unable to sleep – or to recognize the daughter who kept vigil with her?

melite orders);

2. Stands for a decision to follow Jesus, like Mary;

a. Open to God and His will;

b. Guided by faith, hope and love;

c. Close to the needs of people;

d. Praying at all time; and

e. Discovering God present in all that happens around us.

Unfortunately, there is a great deal of misinformation in some Catholic circles regarding the brown scapular. Perhaps the most common misconception involves the “Sabbatine Privilege.” The so-called Sabbatine Privilege alleged that wearers of the brown scapular would receive early liberation from purgatory (on the first Saturday after death) through the special intercession of the Virgin Mary. This derived from a papal bull attributed to Pope John XXII, which has been known to be fraudulent since 1613, and the Carmelite order is prohibited from mentioning or supporting this “privilege.”

The brown scapular is a powerful sacramental gift to us, but one which must be understood and used properly in order to gain the graces it promises. As the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel approaches, give some consideration to making this devotion part of your life.

A special thanks goes out to Elizabeth Boggess, a member of the Secular Carmelite community in Natchez, for her invaluable help in preparing this column.

(Ruth Powers is the program coordinator for The Basilica of St. Mary in Natchez.)

• The campus chaplain who became the voice of hope and courage when public tragedy struck campus – or private heartache struck any member of the campus community?

• The fellow student who made sure that a classmate who went home after the sudden death of a parent did not fall behind, and shared notes, wisdom and review time with kind generosity?

• The server in the university cafeteria who greeted everyone with love, asked how all were doing – and really, truly wanted to know?

• The quiet classmate who found the courage to confront a bully, and in an instant changed the culture of the playing field?

• The student athlete who lost a critical match and, with grace and good sportsmanship, congratulated a victorious opponent with genuine admiration for a job well done?

• The roommate who prayed quietly at the break or close of day and whose example reawakened your own faith?

• The professor whose family extended a Thanksgiving invitation to anyone who could not travel home for the holiday weekend?

• The classmate who gave birth to a child – planned or unplanned – and did not sacrifice motherhood for mortarboard? All those who supported her with material and intangible support?

• The professor who noticed that you were not yourself and cared enough to ask what was wrong?

I have known some of these people. Others have told me about some of them.

The truth is that schools and universities are filled with people such as these. They are people who will often not be well known, whose names will not be announced as graduation speakers, and who will not be receiving honorary degrees.

Yet, if you are graduating, I hope you will think about those whose lives touched yours and whose lives were loving lectures without words. If you can, thank them with your words and with your prayers. No matter how eloquent your graduation ceremonies may be, it is those such as these who impart the wisdom of ordinary time.

May God bless them, and the class of 2023!

(Lucia A. Silecchia is a Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Research at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. Email her at silecchia@cua.edu.)

Long-time St. Joe band director, Russell retires

By Joe Lee

MADISON – Almost 25 years ago, Ronnie Russell had a moment that some might call an epiphany.

“I’d been the director of corporate security for the McRae’s stores in Jackson since 1977. I made a comfortable living, but it was time to get off the merry-go-round,” said Russell, who just announced his retirement as band director after 19 years at St. Joseph Catholic School in Madison. “After I left, I did a lot of thinking. I figured half my life was over. What did I want to leave behind when I was gone?”

Russell grew up in Jackson and graduated from Wingfield High School in 1973 before earning a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Ole Miss.

“My first attraction to music was at Hillcrest Baptist Church near my home,” he said. “A musician who led the singing at a revival pulled out a trumpet and played hymns on it. I thought that was the coolest thing ever and knew what I wanted to do.”

By his late twenties, Russell and his music buddies had a regular Friday night bigband gig at the Capital Towers building in downtown Jackson. Still, his dream of teaching music wouldn’t come true until he was put in touch in 2004 with the late Bill Heller, the St. Joe principal at the time.

“He was looking to get the school band re-started,” Russell said. “I remember talking to him on the phone in the Clinton Walmart parking lot – he pretty much hired me sight unseen.

“Without Bill Heller, the St. Joe Fine Arts Building would not be there. As I go back and watch recordings of some of our old music programs, Bill would introduce me as ‘the answer to his prayers.’ He didn’t know it, but St. Joe was the answer to my prayers, too.”

Father Aaron Williams, ordained as a priest in 2018 and at St. Mary Basilica in Natchez since May 2022, graduated from St. Joe in 2010. His seventh-grade year coincided with Russell’s arrival.

“I was one of three students in my grade who learned the trumpet, and within our class we were able to play the three parts of musical pieces together,” Williams said. “Ronnie was always very encouraging, even if I doubted my own ability.”

“The band was so small when I started, it was referred to as more of a jazz ensemble,” said Cole Riley, a 2008 St. Joe graduate and now a dentist in Lake Charles, Louisiana. “I had played guitar for a few years but wasn’t formally trained. Mr. Russell really helped me with reading music notation, especially the rhythm parts and lead sheets that he

would compose and hand-write for us.

“I was blown away by his devotion to us and musical knowledge. I had never heard of Tower of Power, Weather Report and Herbie Hancock until that point in my life.”

Riley added that while Russell was the kind of teacher that felt like a friend, there was no question that band members were expected to work hard and do things the right way. Those concepts were drilled into a much younger Ronnie Russell two generations ago.

“In one of my high school yearbooks, a history teacher wrote, ‘I wish you would worry a little more,’” Russell said. “I’d planned to be a professional musician – a rock and roll star – and the truth was that I was wasting my time in school. I was also fortunate to have a private teacher named Ralph Guthrie that was very blunt. I needed that honesty back then, and today I’m very old school. I don’t believe in coddling and participation trophies.”

Russell sought tirelessly to include everyone that wanted to contribute to the St. Joe band program, regardless of skill level, and that desire included working just as hard with students that struggled with social and communication skills.

“From being one of the earliest teachers to arrive in the morning to staying late arranging music for all the parts of the band, his dedication was unmatched,” said Kathryn Sckiets Blanchard, campus minister at St. Joe and a 2013 graduate. “I watched the band and the whole Fine Arts Department go from trailers by the lake to the brand-new Fine Arts Building, and I saw Mr. Russell move into the office he deserved.

“He once said that with the exception of his family, we were the most important people in his life.”

Russell continues to offer private instruction at First Baptist Church of Jackson and remains a crucial part of the annual Carols by Candlelight performances that pack the FBC sanctuary and are viewed by thousands on YouTube. He cherishes the opportunity to play with his grandson, Parker Thames, a rising junior at Clinton High School who plays first trumpet in the FBC Jackson orchestra.

“I never won anything when my students won — they did,” Russell said. “You give them the direction you think is best, and you applaud when they succeed. When they fail, you help them back up and say, ‘We’ll get them next time.’

“It starts with loving the kids. That’s what I feel for them.”

to the 29 parishes who have reached their CSA goal:

AMORY

ANGUILLA – OUR MOTHER OF MERCY

BATESVILLE – ST. MARY

BELZONI – ALL SAINTS

CARTHAGE – ST. ANNE

CLARKSDALE – IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

CLEVELAND – OUR LADY OF VICTORIES

CLINTON – HOLY SAVIOR

FOREST – ST. MICHAEL

FULTON – CHRIST THE KING

GLUCKSTADT – ST. JOSEPH

GREENWOOD – IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

HERNANDO – HOLY SPIRIT

IUKA – ST. MARY

JACKSON – CATHEDRAL OF ST. PETER THE APOSTLE

LOUISVILLE – SACRED HEART

MADISON – ST. FRANCIS

MORTON – ST. MARTIN DE PORRES

NATCHEZ – BASILICA OF ST. MARY

NEW ALBANY – ST. FRANCIS

OLIVE BRANCH – QUEEN OF PEACE

PEARL – ST. JUDE

PONTOTOC – ST. CHRISTOPHER

PORT GIBSON – ST. JOSEPH

RIPLEY – ST. MATTHEW

ROSEDALE – SACRED HEART

TUPELO – ST. JAMES

VARDAMAN – VARDAMAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY

WEST POINT – IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

We have raised $1,128,422 from 2,621 donors. We are only $71,577 from our goal. The CSA supports 14 important ministries of our diocese like seminarian education, retired priests, youth ministry and Catholic Charities just to name a few.

MADISON – Ronnie Russell pictured with several members of his first St. Joe band in 2004. Russell just announced his retirement as band director after 19 years at St. Joseph School in Madison.

(Photo courtesy of Ronnie Russell)

– ST. HELEN

Having a ‘ball’ at field day

COLUMBUS – Annunciation student Gabriella Nguyen got ready for summer with some Field Day fun on Friday, May 12. (Photo by Logan Waggoner)

CLINTON – Class of 2023 seniors were recognized at Holy Savior on Saturday, May 6. Pictured (l-r): Ryan Callegan, Cade Tripp, Father Lincoln Dall, Emillie McCombs, Cole Hatch and Aidan Camillo. (Photo by Trish Ballard)

JACKSON – (Below) St. Richard sixth graders made a trip to New Orleans on Friday, May 19 where they visited the WWII museum and St. Louis Cathedral, where Jolie Sekinger gave them tour and brief history. (Photo by Tereza Ma)

First Communion Celebration

VICKSBURG – Several students recently celebrated their First Communion at Vicksburg Catholic School. Pictured are Collins Farmer, Amelia Guider, Benjamin Ponder, Mary Thompson Ratliff, Charlie Reeder, Joe Robert and Adeline Stewart. (Photo by Lindsey Bradley)

PEARL – Parishioners brought flowers to Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary on May 2 for May Crowning at St. Jude parish. Pictured is Josh Statham placing a crown of roses on the parishes statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (Photo by Rhonda Bowden)

VICKSBURG – Second grade students celebrated Mass with Father Joseph Chau Nguyen, SVD, honoring their classmates who received First Communion. (Photo by Lindsey Bradley)

... son of Mississippi ...'

Pastoral Assignments

– Continued from page 1 –

tied around our Lord,” explained Beggerly. “And it also serves a practical reason in that it cleans the oils o your hands,” he said to laughs from the pews.

Beggerly went on to explain a custom that some priests continue today, in presenting their mothers with the cloth.

“It is custom to give this piece of cloth or maniturgium to the mother of a priest as a gift, so that she is buried with it and presents it to our Lord and says, ‘I have given You my son as a priest,’” Father Beggerly told those gathered at his home parish.

Welcoming his mother forward to receive the gift, those gathered smiled and applauded the special tradi-

tion they witnessed.

As a self-described “son of Mississippi,” Father Beggerly looks forward to ministering to the people who have helped form him through the years. His first assignment will be with the Catholic community in Meridian at St. Patrick and St. Joseph beginning July 1.

E ective July 1, 2023, I hereby announce the following appointments:

Rev. Carlisle Beggerly appointed parochial vicar of St. Patrick and St. Joseph Parishes, Meridian;

Rev. Jo n George appointed pastor of Holy Cross Parish, Philadelphia; and sacramental minister to Sacred Heart Parish, Louisville;

Rev. Cesar Sanchez appointed pastor, St. Jude Parish, Pearl.

E ective July 24, 2023, I appoint:

Rev. Stephen Okojie, Administrator Pro Tempore, St. erese Parish, Jackson; St. Stephen Parish, Magee; and sacramental minister to the Carmelite Monastery.

Most Reverend Joseph R. Kopacz Diocese of Jackson

WEST POINT – (Left) Father Carlisle Beggerly is assisted by seminarians, Will Foggo and Ryan Stoer at his home parish of Immaculate Conception in West Point. (Right) Father Beggerly hugs his mother, Kay Beggerly, after presenting her with a gift. (Photos by Joanna Puddister King)

Rev. Justin Joseph appointed parochial vicar of St. James Parish, Tupelo;

JACKSON – Father Beggerly exits the Cathedral to applause with Deacon Denzil Lobo. On right, Father Beggerly conferrs a first blessing on Jo Ann Foret. (Photos by Joanna King and Michael Barrett)

JACKSON – (Left) Bishop Kopacz embraces Father Beggerly with a fraternal hug. On left, Father Beggerly concelebrates the Eucharist with Bishop Kopacz. (Photos by Michael Barrett)