DECEMBER 26, 2025
mississippicatholic.com
NCEA president highlights joy, faith during school visits across the diocese BY JOANNA PUDDISTER KING
JACKSON – Kindergarten students in Kate Morris’ class at St. Richard Catholic School listen as Dr. Steven Cheeseman, president of the National Catholic Education Association, reads Everybody’s Tree during his Bright Lights tour visit. (Photo by Tereza Ma)
JACKSON – Dr. Steven Cheeseman, president of the National Catholic Education Association, visited Catholic schools across the Diocese of Jackson Dec. 8–9 as part of his national “Bright Lights of Catholic Education” tour, a campaign designed to celebrate and spotlight the mission of Catholic schools across the country. During his two-day visit, Cheeseman toured Annunciation Catholic School in Columbus, St. Joseph Catholic School in Madison, St. Richard Catholic School, St. Anthony Catholic School, Sister Thea Bowman Catholic School, and St. Richard Early Learning Center in Jackson. The visit was initiated by April Moore, a fourthgrade teacher at Annunciation Catholic School, who invited Cheeseman to experience Catholic education in Mississippi firsthand. The Bright Lights tour highlights schools that embody the mission and values of Catholic education while also providing opportunities for listening and learning from local communities. “Soon after beginning this role, I embarked on an exciting initiative called the ‘Bright Lights of Catholic Education Tour,’” Cheeseman said. “This nationwide campaign celebrates, learns from and shines a spotlight on the remarkable work happening in Catholic schools across the country.” The Diocese of Jackson spans a large rural region, and many of its Catholic schools serve small communities with limited resources. Despite those challenges, Cheeseman said what stood out most during his visit was the joy students clearly have for their schools. “Kids are coming in so happy and so excited to be there,” he said. “Walking in to students singing at the top of their lungs just brings tears to your eyes. There’s a tremendous joy, which gives
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Pope urges people to protect, cultivate even smallest signs of peace, hope BY CINDY WOODEN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The “confrontational” tone dominating both global and national politics is “deepening instability and unpredictability day by day,” Pope Leo XIV wrote in his message for World Peace Day. “It is no coincidence that repeated calls to increase military spending, and the choices that follow, are presented by many government leaders as a justified re-
sponse to external threats,” he wrote in the message for the Jan. 1 observance. But peace must be protected and cultivated, Pope Leo said. “Even when it is endangered within us and around us, like a small flame threatened by a storm, we must protect it.” Throughout the coming year, Pope Leo will give visiting heads of state signed copies of his message, which was released by the Vatican Dec. 18, and Vatican ambassadors will distribute it to government leaders in the countries where they serve. Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, presented the message at a Vatican news conference. “In some ways we have been beaten into accept-
INSIDE THIS WEEK
ing the logic of war, the logic of armaments, the logic of enemies,” the cardinal said. Pope Leo’s message recognizes that “the first triumph of the logic of war is that we give up our hope for peace.” “I am not a soldier, I have never been a soldier,” the cardinal said, but “even a soldier can be comforted” by Pope Leo’s appeal to cultivate “peace in his heart and in his relationships and in his prayer and in his aspirations.” While the message “does not diminish in any way the horrors that we are surrounded with,” he said, “it puts an enormous part of the responsibility on ourselves.” The theme of the pope’s message, “Peace be with
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