Minneapolis pastor recalls heroism amid tragedy at school Mass shooting
By Joe ruff and Josh MCGovern
MINNEAPOLIS (OSV
News)
– For the first time since the Aug. 27 attack by a shooter who killed two children and wounded at least 21 more victims at an all-school Mass where he was presiding at Annunciation Catholic Church, Father Dennis Zehren publicly described his attempt to save the children.
“If I could have got between those bullets and the kids,” Father Zehren said, his voice breaking with emotion at an Aug. 30 news conference outside Annunciation elementary school.
“That’s what I was hoping to do. … the doors were barred, shut on the outside by the gunman,” said Father Zehren, Annunciation’s pastor. “We tried to get out. I think some of the fathers would have gone out there and gang-rushed him if they could have, and I would have been right there with them.
Parishioners arrive for the first Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis Aug. 30, 2025, following a deadly shooting at the adjacent church Aug. 27. The shooter opened fire with a rifle through the windows of the church and struck children attending Mass during the first week of school, killing two and wounding 21 others.
(OSV News photo/Tim Evans, Reuters)
“But I think by that time, the damage was done,” and the shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Father Zehren said.
“It’s a difficult memory,” Father Zehren said. “It just was loud (the gunshots). It just kept coming, and my first instinct was to just rush toward where the bullets were coming from. There were some fathers who were heading in the same direction, and I was on the phone with 911 just hoping to peek out the window to see which direction (the shooter) might be going in. So I could give them some help. But it was a flurry, and like I said, it seemed to keep coming.”
The news conference took place before the first parish Mass – held at the Annunciation Catholic School’s auditorium instead of the now-desecrated church –since the shooting. The school is steps away from the church.
Identified as Robin Westman,
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Hurricane Katrina 20th anniversary a call to racial equity, justice, say bishops
By Gina Christian (OSV News) –
The 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina marks a call to “renew our commitment to racial equity and justice in every sector of public life,” said two U.S. Catholic bishops.
Auxiliary Bishop
Roy E. Campbell Jr. of Washington, chairman
of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on African American Affairs, and retired Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry of Chicago, chairman of the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, issued a joint statement Aug. 26 reflecting on the tragedy.
The hurricane, one of the five deadliest in U.S. history, struck the nation’s Gulf Coast Aug. 29, 2005, as a Category 3 storm, with 120-140 mph winds and stretching 400 miles across the coast. At one point, the storm became a Category 5, but weakened before striking land.
Katrina made multiple landfalls, inflicting what the National Weather Service called “staggering” damage and loss of life, particularly in Louisiana and Mississippi. A total of 1,833 were killed by the storm, which at the time caused some $108 billion dollars in damage, according to NWS.
New Orleans was ravaged by the storm, with at least 80% of the city flooded by Aug. 31, 2005, NWS noted on its website, adding that the impact was “heightened by breaks in the levees that separate New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain.”
– Continued on page 6 –
Honoring Karla Luke 12 Lavelle pens column in tribute to Luke’s service
St. Joe Bruin News 13 Cassreino trains students in real-world journalism
Youth 14 Youth photos from around the diocese
SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT
DIOCESE – Cathedral of St. Peter, Prayer Service in Solidarity with Dreamers and Migrants, Thursday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. Details: Sister Amelia Breton at amelia.breton@jacksondiocese.org.
Cathedral of St. Peter, Remembrance Mass, Saturday, Sept. 20 at 10:30 a.m. Join us for a special Mass for those who have experienced the loss of a child from pregnancy through adulthood. Details: Debbie at debbie.tubertini@jacksondiocese.org.
Diocesan Young Adult Pilgrimage to St. Mary Basilica in Natchez, Nov. 8. Register by Nov. 1. Cost $25. Fee does not include transportation, meals or optional overnight stay. Details: https://jacksondiocese. flocknote.com/signup/222556 or email amelia.rizor@ jacksondiocese.org.
FLOWOOD – St. Paul, “Mold and Make Me” Women’s Retreat, Oct. 17-19 at Our Lady of Hope Retreat Center. Join Father Anthony Quyet and discover how to see the finger of God in our everyday lives. Register by Sept. 21. Details: finance@spaulcc.org.
GREENWOOD – Locus Benedictus, “Healing From Abortion” 12 week program (begins Sept. 2), each Tuesday at 6 p.m. Details: to register call (662) 561-6018-1232 or email t.lambert0814@gmail.com.
GLUCKSTADT – St. Joseph, Millions of Monicas – Praying with confidence for our children, each Tuesday from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in the church. Join with other mothers and grandmothers as we pray for our children’s faithful return to the church. Details: email millionsofmonicas@stjosephgluckstadt.com.
JACKSON – St. Richard, An Evening with Mary, Thursday, Oct. 16 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in Foley Hall. All ladies are invited for a special evening with speaker Kimberly Harkins on “My Year with Mary.” Details: RSVP by Oct, 10 to bulletin@saintrichard.com.
PARISH & YOUTH EVENTS
CLARKSDALE – St. Elizabeth, Parish Fair, Tuesday, Sept. 23 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Fun for all with spaghetti dinner and more! Details: church office (662) 624-4301.
FLOWOOD – St. Paul Early Learning Center, Annual Golf Tournament, Friday, Sept. 19, tee off at 1 p.m. at Bay Pointe Golf Club. Registration opens at 11 a.m. Details: register at https://bit.ly/3Jn4XlS or stpaullearningcenter@gmail.com.
JACKSON – St. Richard, Special Kids Golf Tournament, Thursday, Oct. 9 at Deerfield Golf Club in Canton. Details: visit https://saintrichard.com/specialkids for more information.
St. Richard, Cardinal Fest and Chili Cookoff, Saturday, Oct. 18 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the football field. Enjoy food, music, games, art and more! Details: purchase your tickets here https://bit.ly/StRCardinalFest2025.
MADISON – St. Francis, Parish Mission “Hope and Pilgrimage,” Oct. 26-27 from 5:30-7:45 p.m., with speaker and author Joan Watson. All are welcome. Please RSVP. Details: church office at (601) 856-5556.
OLIVE BRANCH – Queen of Peace, Golf Tournament, Sunday Sept. 28 at 1 p.m. at the Wedgewood Golf Club. Cost: $125/player. Details: Tim at (901) 515-8598.
SEPTEMBER 12, 2025 MISSISSIPPI CATHOLIC
SOUTHAVEN – Christ the King, Fall Festival, Saturday, Oct. 18 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Join us for food, games, music and more! Details: church office (662) 342-1073.
Queen of Peace, Wild West Six Parish Roundup, Sunday, Sept. 28, begins will Mass at 3 p.m. followed by games, activities and wraps up with dinner at 6 p.m. Bring the whole posse! Details: church office (662) 895-5007.
Queen of Peace, Blood Drive, Sunday, Sept. 28 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Appointments encouraged. Walk-ins welcome. Visit www.donors. vitalant.org and use the code queenop or call Nina at (901) 518-6426.
SOUTHAVEN – Christ the King, Yard Sale, Sunday, Sept. 21 after 11 a.m. Mass. Stop by for a bargain!
FEATURE PHOTO: ... Welcome Father Marvin Gyasie...
Questions? We have answers. *Medicare Plans & Drug Plans Leading Companies & Plans Local Mississippi Agent Call Today 601-991-0081
PORT GIBSON – Father Marvin Gyasie, SVD, receives the Roman Missal from parishioner Johnnie Brown during his installation at St. Joseph Parish on Aug. 16, 2025. (Photo by Tereza Ma)
Providence in new beginnings
By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
On Wednesday, Sept. 3, in an inspiring gathering of faith and tradition, the Archdiocese of Mobile celebrated the installation of the Most Rev. Mark S. Rivituso as the third archbishop and the 10th bishop of Mobile. The Diocese of Jackson, along with the dioceses of Biloxi and Birmingham, comprises the Province of Mobile in solidarity with the archdiocese.
During the Mass, Bishops Louis Kihneman, Steven Raica and I were front and center in the sanctuary as a sign of unity and fraternity. The faithful and clergy from Mobile to St. Louis, the home of Archbishop Rivituso, filled the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to overflowing.
Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi, now emeritus, officially welcomed the assembly at the outset and delivered a riveting history of the Archdiocese of Mobile that included ties with the Archdiocese of St. Louis. At the end of the liturgy, the congregation gave a standing ovation to Archbishop Rodi for his 17 years of dedication as their shepherd. May he enjoy the good fruit of retirement under God’s loving gaze.
Following Archbishop Rodi, Christophe Cardinal Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, extended a warm greeting on behalf of Pope Leo XIV, whom
the cardinal represents to all the dioceses and archdioceses in the country. He then read the papal bull – the document from the Holy See that made Archbishop Rivituso’s appointment official.
The bull dramatically announces the pope as the “Servant of the Servants of God,” a title first adopted by Gregory the Great in A.D. 590. Sept. 3 happened to be the feast day of this remarkable shepherd and doctor of the church. This surely was a moment of divine providence for the new archbishop as he undertakes his ministry, asking the intercession of St. Gregory and all the saints.
In his homily and closing remarks, Archbishop Rivituso joyfully expressed his gratitude for the honor and gift bestowed upon him to serve in his new home in the church of Mobile.
During my 11 and a half years as bishop of Jackson, I have been blessed to be a concelebrating bishop at the consecration and installation of Bishop Kihneman in Biloxi, the installation of Bishop Raica in Birmingham, and now the installation of Archbishop Rivituso. These are fond memories that are carried along by the rivers of time.
This sacred event in the Archdiocese of Mobile has further personal significance for my ministry. On Sept. 16, I reach the age of 75, when all active bishops are required to submit their letter of resignation to the pope. Although a resignation may be accepted immediately in urgent cases, the usual sequence is an extension of ministry for one or two more years. Nonetheless, it is a milestone in time that requires unambiguous action from a bishop.
P.O. Box 2130 Jackson, MS 39225-2130 Phone: 601-969-3581 E-mail: editor@jacksondiocese.org
Volume 71 Number 15 (ISSN 1529-1693)
Publisher Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz
Communications Director Joanna Puddister King
Production Manager Tereza Ma
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-ofstate. 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 w www.jacksondiocese.org
What follows is my letter to the Holy Father:
Your Holiness, On Sept. 16 this year, I will be 75 years old. Abiding by the wisdom of the church as contained in the Code of Canon Law, I am submitting my letter of resignation. Of course, I will continue to serve the Lord Jesus and his church unreservedly as ordinary until I am directed otherwise, or until the day my successor is chosen and in place as the 12th bishop of the Diocese of Jackson.
I give thanks to our loving God for your apostolic ministry as the successor of St. Peter in the first year of your pontificate during this Jubilee of Hope. May the Lord continue to bless and prosper your Petrine ministry for many more years.
Sincerely yours in Christ, +Joseph R. Kopacz Bishop of Jackson
Indeed, some birthdays are more significant than others. In a counter-intuitive way, there is a sense of freedom in not knowing when the resignation will be accepted. “Therefore, keep watch, for you know not the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13) is the wisdom of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels.
This is the familiar spirituality of Advent – a blessing and a reminder that the gift of time is finite, and the work in the vineyard of the Lord awaits with the dawn of each new day.
BISHOP’S SCHEDULE
Wednesday, September 17, 8:15 a.m. – School Mass, St. Anthony School, Madison
Thursday, September 18, 7 p.m. – Prayer Service for Dreamers & Migrants, Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, Jackson
Saturday, September 20, 10:30 a.m. – Mass of Remembrance, Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, Jackson
Sunday, September 21, 11 a.m. – Red Mass, St. John, Oxford
Friday, September 26, 9 a.m. – Homecoming Mass & Groundbreaking, Vicksburg Catholic School
Sunday, September 28, 10 a.m. – Confirmation, St. Joseph, Woodville
Sunday, October 5, 10:30 a.m. – 150th Anniversary Mass & Celebration, St. James, Magnolia
Saturday, October 11, 6 p.m. – Homegrown Harvest Fundraiser for Seminarians, St. Francis, Madison
Sunday, October 12, 4 p.m. – Confirmation, Christ the King, Southaven
Tuesday, October 14, 7:30 a.m. – Mass, Carmelite Monastery, Jackson
Tuesday, October 21, 5 p.m. – Catholic Foundation Annual Meeting & Dinner, Country Club of Jackson
Wednesday, October 22, 12 p.m. – Catholic Charities Journey of Hope with Father Burke Masters, Country Club of Jackson
Thursday, October 23, 12 p.m. – Catholic Charities Journey of Hope with Father Burke Masters, St. James, Tupelo
All events are subject to change. Check with parishes, schools or organizations for further details.
In late summer, vocation directors from across the country gather to pray, learn and encourage one another at the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors (NCDVD). This annual gathering is truly a gift – it renews us spiritually, strengthens us in our work, and reminds us that we are not alone in the challenges of vocation ministry.
Much of the conference’s vitality is thanks to longtime executive director Rosemary Sullivan. With a son who is a priest and daughters who help run the event, she has poured her heart into supporting vocation directors. Her leadership and faith have made NCDVD a place where our ministry can thrive.
At the heart of the conference is prayer. Each day the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for adoration, we pray morning and evening prayer together, and we celebrate Mass as a community. A midweek retreat morning gives us the chance to focus deeply on our relationship with the Lord. These moments keep us grounded –not just as professionals, but as disciples who depend on Christ to sustain our work.
Workshops also provide practical guidance. This year, I learned about preparing seminarians for ordination and ensuring they continue to receive strong support as new priests. Other sessions offered ideas for organizing the vocations office and finding balance in the often-busy life of a vocation director. These insights help us
serve our seminarians better and encourage us to keep striving for holiness.
But the conference is not all work – it is also joyful. I am grateful for the leaders and brother priests who make it possible each year. Spending this time together was a moment of true renewal, and I returned home energized for the mission ahead.
That mission comes into special focus next month at our sixth annual Homegrown Harvest Festival on Oct. 11. This event is a joyful celebration of our seminarians – the future shepherds of our diocese. We are blessed to have 12 men currently in formation, and your prayers and support are vital as they discern God’s call. I hope to see many of you at the festival as we pray together for even more laborers to be sent into the Lord’s harvest.
(For more information on vocations, visit jacksonvocations.com or contact Father Nick at nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.)
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Father Nick Adam
An unnatural wound
IN EXILE
By Father ron rolheiser, oMi
Few things in life are as difficult as the death of a young person, particularly one’s own child. There are many mothers and fathers, with broken hearts, having lost a daughter, a son, or a grandchild. Despite time and even the consolation of faith, there often remains a wound that will not heal.
There’s a reason why this wound is so unrelenting, and it lies not so much in a lack of faith, as in a certain lack within nature itself. Nature equips us for most situations, but it does not equip us to bury our young.
Death is always hard. There’s a finality and an irrevocability that cauterizes the heart. This is true even if the person who has died is elderly and has lived a full life. Ultimately nothing prepares us, fully, to accept the deaths of those whom we love.
But nature has equipped us better to handle the deaths of our elders. We are meant to bury our parents. That’s the way nature is set up, the natural order of things. Parents are meant to die before their children, and generally that’s the way it happens. This brings its own pain. It’s not easy to lose one’s parents or one’s spouse, one’s siblings, or one’s friends. Death always exacts its toll. However, nature has equipped us to handle these deaths.
Metaphorically stated, when our elders die, there are circuits in our hardwiring that we can access and through which we can draw some understanding and acceptance. Ultimately, the death of a fellow adult washes clean, and normality returns because it’s natural, nature’s way, for adults to die. That’s the proper order of things. One of life’s tasks is to bury one’s parents.
But it’s unnatural for parents to bury their children. That’s not the way nature intended things, and nature has not properly equipped us for the task. Again, to utilize the metaphor, when one of our children dies (be it through natural disease, accident, or suicide) nature has not provided us with the internal circuits we need to open to deal with this.
The issue is not, as with the death of our elders, a matter of proper grieving, patience and time. When one of our children dies, we can grieve, be patient, give it time and still find that the wound does not get better, that time does not heal, and that we cannot fully accept what’s happened.
A hundred years ago Alfred Edward Housman wrote a famous poem entitled, To An Athlete Dying Young. At one point he says this to the young man who has died:
Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay.
Sometimes a young death does freeze forever a young person’s beauty that, given time, would eventually have slipped away. To die young is to die in full bloom, in the beauty of youth.
However, that addresses the issue of the young person who is dying, not the grief of those who are left behind. I’m not so sure they, the ones left behind, would say: “Smart lad, to slip betimes away.” Their grief is not so quick to slip away because nature has not provided them with the internal circuits needed to process what they need to process. We are more likely to feel a darkness of soul that W.H. Auden once expressed in the face of the death of a loved one:
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The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good. (“Twelve Songs”)
When one of our children dies, it’s easier to feel what Auden expresses. Moreover, even understanding how much against nature it is to have to bury one of your own children does not bring that child back, nor put things back to normal, because it’s abnormal for a parent to bury a child.
However, what that understanding can bring is an insight into why the pain is so deep and so unrelenting, why it is natural to feel intense sorrow, and why no easy consolation or challenge is very helpful. At the end of the day, the death of one’s child has no answer.
It’s also helpful to know that faith in God, albeit powerful and important, does not take away that wound. It’s not meant to. When one of our children dies, something has been unnaturally cut off, like the amputation of a limb. Faith in God can help us live with the pain and the unnaturalness of being less than whole, but it does not bring back the limb or make things whole again.
In effect, what faith can do is teach us how to live with the amputation, how to open that irreparable violation of nature to something and Someone beyond us, so that this larger perspective, God’s heart, can give us the courage to live healthily again with an unnatural wound.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)
The
Pope’s Corner
Hope is knowing that God is near and that love will win, pope says
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Christian hope is not about avoiding pain and suffering but about knowing that God gives people the strength to persevere and to love even when things go wrong, Pope Leo XIV said.
When Jesus allowed himself to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he showed that “Christian hope is not evasion, but decision,” the pope told thousands of people gathered in the Vatican audience hall Aug. 27 for his weekly general audience.
“The way that Jesus exercised his freedom in the face of death teaches us not to fear suffering, but to persevere in confident trust in God’s providential care,” the pope said in his address to English speakers.
“If we surrender to God’s will and freely give our lives in love for others, the Father’s grace will sustain us in every trial and enable us to bear abundant fruit for the salvation of our brothers and sisters,” he said.
A person of faith, the pope said, does not ask God “to spare us from suffering, but rather to give us the strength to persevere in love, aware that life offered freely for love cannot be taken away by anyone.”
Jesus lived every day of his life as preparation for the “dramatic and sublime hour” of his arrest, his suffering and his death, the pope said. “For this reason, when it arrives, he has the strength not to seek a way of escape. His heart knows well that to lose life for love is not a failure, but rather possesses a mysterious fruitfulness, like a grain of wheat that, falling to the ground, does not remain alone, but dies and becomes fruitful.”
Naturally, Pope Leo said, Jesus “is troubled when faced with a path that seems to lead only to death and to the end. But he is equally persuaded that only a life lost for love, at the end, is ultimately found.”
“This is what true hope consists of: not in trying to avoid pain, but in believing that even in the heart of the most unjust suffer-
ing, the seed of new life is hidden,” he said.
After spending more than 90 minutes greeting people in the audience hall, including dozens of newlywed couples, Pope Leo went into St. Peter’s Basilica, where hundreds of people who did not get a place in the hall had been watching the audience and waiting for their turn to see the pope.
The pope thanked them for their patience, which, he said, “is a sign of the presence of the Spirit of God, who is with us. So often in life, we want to receive a response immediately, an immediate solution, and for some reason God makes us wait.”
“But as Jesus himself taught us, we must have that trust that comes from knowing that we are sons and daughters of God and that God always gives us grace,” the pope said. “He doesn’t always take away our pain or suffering, but he tells us that he is close to us.”
Pope Leo XIV lifts a baby as he greets visitors at the conclusion of his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican Aug. 27, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
‘ ... We know that Jesus was there with us ...’
– Continued from page 1 –
the suspected shooter was a former Annunciation student, then known as Robert Westman, whose mother had been previously employed by the school. Westman fired from three guns through Annunciation’s stained-glass windows around 8:30 a.m. during the first all-school Mass of the PreK-to-eighth-grade school’s academic year. Westman died by suicide in the parking lot.
Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis joined Father Zehren at the news conference, at one point placing his hand on the priest’s shoulder in support. The archbishop concelebrated the Mass that followed.
The archbishop and Father Zehren opened the news conference describing the importance of the Mass to the Catholic faith. The fact that Annunciation parish would hold a public Mass so soon after the church shooting might surprise some, the archbishop said.
“And yet it’s so important for us in our Catholic tradition for Masses, where we most experience God’s presence and God’s love,” Archbishop Hebda said. “And it’s the place where we come together to be a community.”
Father Zehren said the Mass is what the parish community needs.
“This is why we’re here,” he said. “They just want to be together. They want to pray. They want to help and do anything they can.
“Mass is the heart of what we do,” Father Zehren said. “The Mass is not just a worship service. Because we recognize that as Catholics … we enter into the paschal mystery of Jesus.”
That mystery is presented to the community each time a Mass is celebrated, the priest said.
“Whenever we gather at Mass, we are re-presented with Jesus ... at the Last Supper. We are presented with his suffering ... with his dying, and ... with his
rising from the dead,” Father Zehren said.
Asked about the impact of the church attack occurring during a Mass, Father Zehren said he would be “reflecting on that for the rest of my life.”
“I will never be able to unsee,” Father Zehren said. “But in addition to the sorrow and the terror, we know that Jesus was there with us. … Jesus comes to the depths of what we are going through. That’s where he brings the healing and the salvation for whatever we go through.”
Attending the Mass with his family was Sean O’Brien, an Annunciation alumnus and parent who said he was at the Aug. 27 Mass in the back of the church with his 2-year-old daughter, Molly, when shots rang out. His son Emmett, an Annunciation preschooler, was in the basement. His other children, fourth-grader Conor and first-grader Finley, were sitting with their classmates.
“I saw a shaft of light going through the window and that’s when I knew we were being attacked,” O’Brien said.
“I grabbed my daughter, and we went behind a pillar. ... When the shooting stopped, we said, ‘OK, who needs help?’ And we did what we could.’”
O’Brien, 37, said he rushed to an injured student and remained there until the police came.
“There were people taking action that were motivated by the love they felt for the people around them, from the very moment things started,” he said. “And that’s only going to continue and get stronger.”
Sean’s wife, Mallory, said she learned that Finley was with her eighth-grade buddy, in a school tradition where older students accompany younger students to school Masses.
“They held hands all the way to the school” as students were evacuated, Mallory O’Brien said.
The O’Briens expressed gratitude that no one in their family was injured. And with service and community in mind, they are helping others where they can.
“We’ve really been getting together all week ever since Wednesday (Aug. 27),”
Sean O’Brien said after the Mass. “The best thing for us has been to be together with the people that we love in this parish and in this community. … To be here, to be together again, really means a lot. There’s no place we’d rather be.”
Father Dennis Zehren, pastor of Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, becomes emotional as he speaks to the media Aug. 30, 2025, about the recent shooting at the church. (OSV News photo/ Tim Evans, Reuters)
At Mass in the school’s auditorium the following day, Father Zehren talked about the immense help parishioners and neighbors, community responders and others have provided one another. He compared it to the book of Exodus passage in which Moses lifted his arms and hands in prayer, and when he wearied, the Israelites fell back in battle. When Moses held up his arms, they prospered in the fight.
“That’s what we’ve been experiencing in so many ways around here. All of you. All of our neighbors, all of our community, police, first responders, they’ve been a rock underneath us,” he said Aug. 31. “And they will continue to be a rock for us. There (are) so many people who will be continuing to hold up our hands in prayer.”
(Joe Ruff is editor-in-chief and Josh McGovern is a reporter for The Catholic Spirit, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.)
‘... Katrina revealed how quickly entire communities can be overlooked ...’
– Continued from page 1 –
Compounding the damage were key failures in governmental response, and in their statement, Bishop Campbell and Bishop Perry said that “despite the scale of devastation, it took days before the federal government responded with aid.”
More broadly, they observed, Hurricane Katrina “threw into stark focus the deep racial and socio-economic disparities across various sectors, including environmental justice, systemic housing inequality, and disaster response.”
The bishops pointed out that “some of the most catastrophic damage occurred in neighborhoods like the Ninth Ward, a predominantly Black neighborhood, which was under so much water that many of the residents had to take refuge in their attics and on their rooftops to avoid the rising tides.
“Today, we pray with those who still suffer from the loss of family and friends and whose very identities were affected,” said the bishops.
They also noted that the storm resulted in “the loss of irreplaceable items handed down through generations such as photos, videos, diaries, genealogical records, documents, and other mementos that are an essential means of sharing a person’s existence, history, and culture.”
In addition, said the bishops, “many residents were unable to return home because gentrification caused their former neighborhoods to become unaffordable.
“Disparities, rooted in historical and structural
A statue of Jesus stands amid rubble near a destroyed grotto outside St. Michael Church in Biloxi, Miss., Sept. 12, 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Aug. 29, 2025, marks the 20th anniversary of the deadly storm, which made landfall in the Gulf Coast region. A total of 1,833 were killed. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
racism, intensified the suffering of many Black residents,” they said.
The hurricane and the response missteps “revealed the fragility of our cities to natural disasters and the reality of poverty among the most vulnerable in our country,” the bishops noted.
Bishop Campbell and Bishop Perry extolled the “powerful witness of the Catholic Church” that countered the “inadequate governmental response” to Katrina, citing the work of Catholic Charities USA and its local agencies, the USCCB’s Catholic Campaign for Human Development and Catholic Home Missions Appeal, the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Knights of Columbus.
The two bishops stressed the “dire need for equitable investments in climate resilience and preparedness,” amid storms intensified by climate change.
“Katrina revealed how quickly entire communities can be overlooked, their cultures erased as neighborhoods vanished – taking with it cherished cultural spaces and historic landmarks,” said Bishop Campbell and Bishop Perry.
They added that two decades later, “many still struggle to rebuild intangible bonds,” with “ongoing mental and physical injuries” still evident today, while the “gap between the wealthy and poor continues to grow.”
Concluding their statement, Bishop Campbell and Bishop Perry said, “Let us join together, as one community, responding to the call to be leaven for the world. As church, let us be a lifeboat in the flood waters of injustice.” SEPTEMBER 12, 2025
Annunciation Church to be reconsecrated before Mass there resumes
By Maria Wiering
ST. PAUL (OSV News) – Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis will be reconsecrated before it again holds Mass after an Aug. 27 shooting during a Mass for schoolchildren left two children dead and 18 other victims wounded.
“The church does make provision” for reconsecrating a church building after a desecration, Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda told OSV News Aug. 28. “I’ve never had to do that, but I think it will be an important time. Here, where the church is still a crime scene and where there’s been substantial destruction, I think it’s probably going to be a while before we’re able to do that.”
While there are other places on the campus of Annunciation Catholic Church and Annunciation Catholic School that could hold Mass in the interim, “my understanding is that the church’s tradition is that no Mass or sacrament would be celebrated in there until there is that rite of reconsecration,” Archbishop Hebda said.
Canon No. 1211 in the church’s law states, “Sacred places are violated by gravely injurious actions done in them with scandal to the faithful, actions which, in the judgment of the local ordinary, are so grave and contrary to the holiness of the place that it is not permitted to carry on worship in them until the damage is repaired by a penitential rite according to the norm of the liturgical books.”
“I’m grateful that I will have that privilege of doing that at some point,” Archbishop Hebda said, speaking at the archdiocesan headquarters in St. Paul. “The church has such wisdom even about human nature and the human person, and even to have a ritual that would help people in that time of need, I think, is very significant.
A young woman walks past a memorial outside Annunciation Church in Minneapolis Aug. 30, 2025, which is a home to an elementary school and was the scene of a shooting. The shooter opened fire with a rifle through the windows of the school’s church and struck children attending Mass Aug. 27 during the first week of school, killing two and wounding 18 others. (OSV News photo/Tim Evans, Reuters)
“You hope that it will be an opportunity, whenever that occurs, for some healing,” he added, noting that he will work with Annunciation’s pastor, Father Dennis Zehren, on appropriate timing for the ritual. “It would be a priority for me, as I know it is for him.”
A former student at the school whose mother also previously worked there, the shooter, identified as Robin Westman, fired from three guns through Annunciation’s stained-glass windows around 8:30 a.m. during Annunciation Catholic School’s first allschool Mass of the PreK-to-eighth-grade school’s academic year. Westman died by suicide in the parking lot.
Investigators are working through a hate-riddled online manifesto posted by the shooter and other evidence to determine a clear motive for the violence and why Annunciation was targeted. Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, were killed in their pews. Other victims, including 15 children and three adults in their 80s, were taken to nearby hospitals, including Hennepin County Medical Center, a Level 1 trauma center.
An extensive, spontaneous memorial of flowers, gifts and messages outside of the church includes tributes to Merkel and Moyski, as well as prayers for those injured and the school’s families.
Archbishop Hebda visited the school Aug. 27 and has since presided at several prayer services for the victims and the mourning community.
Annunciation Catholic Church was founded in 1922. Its parish school was founded by Dominican sisters the following year. The present church building was completed in 1962.
Fletcher loved his family, Harper was a ‘joyful’ big sister: Annunciation
victims mourned
(OSV News) – Eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel “loved his family, friends, fishing, cooking and any sport that he was allowed to play.” Ten-year-old Harper Moyski was a “joyful” big sister, who was “bright” and “deeply loved.”
The parents of both children confirmed as victims of the Aug. 27 shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church issued their first statements in the aftermath, mourning the loss of their children.
Jesse Merkel, Fletcher’s father, said the hole left in his family’s hearts by his son’s death will never be filled, during an Aug. 28 press conference outside Annunciation School in Minneapolis.
In his remarks, Jesse Merkel said they would never be allowed to “watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming.”
He also noted prayers for the family of Harper Moyski and of the other people affected by the shooting, and expressed gratitude for “the swift and heroic actions of children and adults alike” inside the church.
“We ask not for your sympathy, but your empathy as our family and our Annunciation community grieve and try to make sense of such a senseless act of violence,” Merkel said. “Please remember Fletcher for the person he was, and not the act that ended his life.”
Harper was a “bright, joyful, and deeply loved 10-year-old whose laughter, kindness, and spirit touched everyone,” her parents, Michael Moyski and Jackie Flavin, said in a statement issued Aug. 28.
“Our hearts are broken not only as parents, but also for Harper’s sister, who adored her big sister and is grieving an unimaginable loss. As a family, we are shattered,” they said.
“While our immediate focus is on Harper and our family’s healing, we also believe it is important that her memory fuels action. No family should ever have to endure this kind of pain. We urge our leaders and communities to take meaningful steps to address gun violence and the mental health crisis in this country,” they continued.
“Harper’s light will always shine through us, and we hope her memory inspires others to work toward a safer, more compassionate world.”
Choking back tears, Fletcher’s father pleaded: “Give your kids an extra hug and kiss today.”
He said, “We love you, Fletcher, and you’ll always be with us.”
Harper Moyski, 10, and Fletcher Merkel, 8, killed Aug. 27 in a shooting during a school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minn., are pictured in this undated photo. (OSV News photo/courtesy Moyski-Flavin and Merkel family)
Father Sam Messina remembered as priest of prayer and joy
vibrant center of community.
Family members remembered Father Sam as a steady presence across generations. His niece, Rita Hoyle, said she grew up with her uncle’s energy and warmth. “Every summer when we visited Mississippi, he’d show up at my grandparents’ house, loud and boisterous, just happy to see everyone. He had such a big heart,” she said. Hoyle added that even in his later years, “He always said, ‘I love my nieces to pieces,’ and even when he struggled with dementia, he still remembered that. That means a lot to me.”
Dr. Joseph Messina, Father Sam’s first cousin and a physician in Grenada, called him “a vital part of my life for as far as I can remember.” He said, “He was at my baptism, he officiated at my wedding,
Ma)
By Joanna Puddister King
GRENADA – Parishioners, clergy, family and friends filled St. Peter Catholic Church on Aug. 18 to celebrate the funeral Mass of Father Sam Messina, a priest of the Diocese of Jackson for more than 60 years. Father Messina, who died Aug. 30 just days away from turning age 87, was remembered as a devoted pastor, a joyful friend and a man of deep prayer whose ministry touched communities across Mississippi.
The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at his home parish, where he offered his first Mass in 1965. Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz presided, with dozens of priests and deacons concelebrating. Music included hymns dear to Father Sam, such as Amazing Grace and On Eagle’s Wings.
In his homily, Father Jeffrey Waldrep described Father Messina’s life as “long and large in virtue and in merit, a life long and selfless love.” He drew from the day’s readings to remind mourners that “death is not the end … it’s a mere passage to glory.”
Father Waldrep recalled Messina’s dedication to daily prayer, particularly the Liturgy of the Hours and the rosary, which he learned from his mother. “Anytime we were in the car going to a mission or parish, he would say, ‘All right, get your rosary out, Jeffrey,’ and we would pray together,” Waldrep said. Though known to be exacting at times, Messina’s joy in priestly ministry was constant. “He never complained about celebrating Mass or taking Communion to the shut-ins. It was never an inconvenience. He loved being a priest and said he would do it all over again.”
Near the close of Mass, Bishop Kopacz reflected on Messina’s decades of service, stretching back to the era of Bishop Richard Gerow. He noted Messina’s leadership in reviving the permanent diaconate program under Bishop Joseph Latino, and his devotion to parish life in Grenada, Batesville and other communities. “You couldn’t have a better heart of the servant priest overseeing Christ the servant in the permanent diaconate,” Kopacz said. He also recalled celebrating Messina’s 50th jubilee in Batesville, where the parish hall Messina helped build became a
and he was present at every important family event, whether joyous or sad. He was someone that I admired, that I looked up to, and I will always cherish until my dying breath.” Dr. Messina’s son, Philip, a senior at Kirk Academy, said he will remember his cousin for his kindness and humor. “Every time you saw him, he always had a smile on his face and was cracking jokes. He’d light up every room he went into,” Philip said. “I’m really going to miss him, and he’ll always live in my mind for the rest of my life.”
Ordained in 1965, Father Messina served parishes in Jackson, Starkville, Batesville, Grenada, Greenville, Natchez, Vicksburg, Port Gibson, Anguilla, Sardis and West Point; and additionally in Hattiesburg and Chatawa. He was remembered for his pastoral care, ecumenical friendships and simple pleasures such as fishing and bird-watching. Even in retirement and during years of illness, he remained faithful to prayer and to the people he served.
As the final commendation was prayed, Bishop Kopacz entrusted his brother priest to God’s mercy. “Into your hands, Father of mercies, we commend our brother Father Sam in the sure and certain hope that he will rise with Christ on the last day,” he prayed. Burial followed in the parish cemetery, with family inviting clergy and mourners to a reception afterward.
“Father Sam lived not just a faithful life, but a faith-filled life,” Father Waldrep said. “We pray that he now receives his eternal reward.”
KnitWits ministry weaves prayer and love into every stitch
By Joanna Puddister King
VICKSBURG – Every Thursday morning, the fellowship hall at St. Michael Catholic Church fills with quiet conversation, prayer and the steady click of knitting needles.
That’s when the parish’s KnitWits ministry gathers to create hats, scarves, blankets and other handmade gifts for people in need across Mississippi.
Formed several years ago by parishioners, the group now numbers about 15 members from St. Michael, St. Paul Parish in Vicksburg, St. Edward Parish in Tallulah, Louisiana – and even one Baptist friend.
“They are such a loving group of ladies,” said Father Robert Dore, pastor of St. Michael. “What they create with their hands becomes an expression of faith, generosity and care for others.”
are making blankets for 72 children in the foster care system, including 12 in Vicksburg and 60 in the Jackson metro area.
The ministry also makes cap and scarf sets for shelters and rehab centers, toys and baby blankets for pregnancy resource centers, and shawls and lap blankets for the homebound or those recovering from illness. When an infant is baptized at St. Michael, the KnitWits provide a handmade receiving blanket.
VICKSBURG – Handmade hats, scarves and blankets line the tables at St. Michael Church. The KnitWits ministry gathers weekly to knit and crochet items that are donated to clinics, shelters and families across Mississippi. (Photo courtesy of Father Robert Dore)
The KnitWits meet from 10 a.m. to noon for prayer, fellowship and crafting. They pray for the community, for the world, and for the people who will receive their gifts.
Jessica Ryan leads the group, recording prayer requests and organizing projects. This year they
Parishioners support the effort with donations of yarn and funds, helping the group expand its reach. In the past year, the KnitWits produced hundreds of items: afghans, shawls, hats, toys and fidget pads for clinics, hospices, shelters and pregnancy centers across the state. Their Christmas project alone supplied 80 hat-and-scarf sets each to St. Joseph Hospice and Belmont Gardens Rehabilitation.
Through every stitch, the KnitWits remain faithful to their mission: to knit together love, prayer and service.
GRENADA – At St. Peter Catholic Church, Father Jeffrey Waldrep, with Father Sam’s niece Rita Heuel (left) and cousin Cheri Messina (right), places the pall over the casket during the funeral Mass for Father Sam Messina. Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz looks on with Deacons Ted Schreck and Denzil Lobo. (Photo by Tereza
Religiosas en México acompañan a migrantes 'atrapados' por políticas de EEUU
La hermana María Magdalena Silva Rentería escucha a un hombre que busca trabajo, el 1 de abril de 2025. Los migrantes llegan a CAFEMIN, un albergue para mujeres y familias migrantes en Ciudad de México. (Foto OSV News/Rhina Guidos, Global Sisters Report)
Por rhina Guidos CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (OSV News) – Es difícil saber cuántos han pasado por el mural en el albergue administrado por las Hermanas Josefinas en Ciudad de México y han compartido el sentimiento escrito en la pared: "En un tren viajan sueños sin miedo a cruzar fronteras". Uno de los sueños compartidos por los miles que han pasado por CAFEMIN, un albergue para mujeres y familias migrantes en Ciudad de México, es llegar con bien a los Estados Unidos (EE. UU.). Es algo que algunos desean tanto que los lleva a creer que el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump cambiará su opinión sobre migrantes y su política hacia ellos y les dejará entrar al país, dijo la hermana María Magdalena Silva Rentería.
"No creo que veamos ese milagro, pero tenemos que continuar acompañándolos porque tienen esa esperanza", dijo la hermana Silva, directora ejecutiva de CAFEMIN, le dijo a Global Sisters Report.
Junto con otras religiosas y un equipo de colaboradores, la
hermana Silva acompaña y aboga por los migrantes que viajan por México, lo que solía ser la última parada en rumbo al sueño de muchos: Estados Unidos.
Pero la misión de la hermana se ha vuelto mucho más difícil desde que Trump asumió la presidencia por segunda vez a principios de este año, pues desmanteló no solo las vías que muchos usaban para entrar a EE.UU., sino que también recortó fondos de ayuda humanitaria para migrantes.
"El 20 de enero marca todo un nuevo paradigma para el mundo migrante", dijo la hermana Silva sobre el día en que comenzó el segundo mandato de Trump.
El impacto afectó no solo a los migrantes que no pudieron avanzar, sino también a los que les ayudan; y ha sido profundo, dijo la hermana Silva.
En abril, la agencia de la ONU para los refugiados (ACNUR) anunció el cierre de cuatro oficinas en México después de que la administración Trump recortara el 60% de su presupuesto. La Organización Internacional para
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Obispos: El 20º aniversario del Huracán Katrina, un llamado a la equidad y justicia racial
Por Gina Christian (OSV News) – El 20 aniversario del huracán Katrina marca una llamada a "renovar nuestro compromiso con la equidad racial y la justicia en todos los sectores de la vida pública", dijeron dos obispos católicos estadounidenses.
El obispo auxiliar Roy E. Campbell Jr. de Washington, presidente del Subcomité para Asuntos Afroamericanos de la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de EE.UU. (USCCB por sus siglas en inglés), y el obispo auxiliar retirado Joseph N. Perry de Chicago, presidente del Comité Ad Hoc contra el Racismo de la USCCB, emitieron una declaración conjunta el 26 de agosto reflexionando sobre la tragedia. El huracán, uno de los cinco más mortíferos de la historia de EE.UU., azotó la costa del Golfo de México el 29 de agosto de 2005 como tormenta de categoría 3, con vientos de 120-140 mph y una extensión de 400 millas a lo largo de la costa. Llegó a alcanzar la categoría 5, pero se debilitó antes de tocar tierra. Katrina tocó tierra en múltiples ocasiones, causando lo que el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional cali-
ficó de "asombrosos" la cantidad de daños y pérdidas de vidas humanas, sobre todo en Louisiana y Mississippi. Un total de 1.833 personas perdieron la vida a causa de la tormenta, que en su momento causó daños por valor de unos 108.000 millones de dólares, según el servicio meteorológico.
Nueva Orleans fue devastada por la tormenta, con al menos el 80% de la ciudad inundada el 31 de agosto de 2005, señaló el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional en su sitio web, añadiendo que el impacto fue "agravado por las roturas de los diques que separan Nueva Orleans del lago Pontchartrain".
Para agravar los daños hubo fallos clave en la respuesta gubernamental, y en su declaración, los obispos Campbell y Perry dijeron que "a pesar de la magnitud de la devastación, pasaron días antes de que el gobierno federal respondiera con ayuda".
En términos más generales, observaron que el huracán Katrina "puso de manifiesto las profundas disparidades raciales y socioeconómicas en diversos sectores, como la justicia medioambiental, la desigualdad sistémica en materia de vivienda y la
respuesta a las catástrofes".
Los obispos señalaron que "algunos de los daños más catastróficos se produjeron en barrios como el Ninth Ward, un barrio predominantemente Afroamericano, que quedó bajo tanta agua que muchos de los residentes tuvieron que refugiarse en sus áticos y tejados para evitar la subida de las mareas".
"Hoy rezamos con los que aún sufren por la pérdida de familiares y amigos y cuya propia identidad se vio afectada", dijeron los obispos en su comunicado. También señalaron que la tormenta provocó "la pérdida de objetos irremplazables transmitidos de generación en generación, como fotos, vídeos, diarios, registros genealógicos, documentos y otros recuerdos que son un medio esencial para compartir la existencia, la historia y la cultura de una persona".
Además, dijeron los obispos, "muchos residentes no pudieron regresar a sus hogares porque el aburguesamiento hizo que sus antiguos barrios se volvieran inasequibles".
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Cualquier cosa para sobrevivir día a día ...'
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las Migraciones (OIM) también anunció despidos en el país debido a los recortes, además de la dramática reducción de la Agencia de los Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID), que ayudaba a financiar la asistencia médica y psicológica para migrantes. Algunas de esas organizaciones colaboraban con personal capacitado para ayudar a migrantes que sufren explotación, abuso físico y sexual, y con quienes combaten la trata de personas y otras formas de violencia, dijo la hermana Silva. Algunas ayudaban a los migrantes a regresar de forma segura a sus países de origen cuando eran deportados, mientras que otras les ayudaban a encontrar lugares alternativos de refugio cuando no podían regresar.
Esto ha dejado a lugares como CAFEMIN intentando cubrir necesidades que van más allá de la comida, el alojamiento y el acompañamiento que brindan las hermanas y otros ministerios de religiosas y religiosos.
Además, en lugares como México, se ha creado un nuevo fenómeno al que hay que atender, lo que algunos han denominado "migración al revés", algo que se refiere a "los migrantes (que) abandonan su viaje hacia la frontera entre EE.UU. y México, y comienzan a viajar hacia el sur", de regreso a su país de origen, según describe el Centro Niskanen en un informe publicado en abril.
La información pública sobre el nuevo flujo de migrantes es escasa, según este centro, ya que muchos países no han publicado cifras de las personas que van de regreso, pero el fenómeno es evidente en lugares como CAFEMIN y en un campamento cercano, junto a las vías del tren. En esos dos lugares, Mario Monroy, coordinador de integración local para CAFEMIN, escucha necesidades y, ahora, sueños frustrados de los que no pueden ir ni al norte ni al sur.
"Ya estuviéramos allá" en Estados Unidos, dijo con nostalgia una joven en el campamento, quien se identificó como Yesenia, oriunda de Venezuela, cuya madre había conseguido una cita a través de la aplicación CBP One, algo que desapareció el 20 de enero.
La herramienta móvil se usó durante la administración del presidente Joe Biden para conseguir una cita en los puertos de entrada de EE.UU. y comenzar el proceso de solicitar asilo. Miles de venezolanos, haitianos, nicaragüenses y cubanos la usaron para entrar a este país de forma segura mientras buscaban refugio de problemas políticos, económicos y de otro tipo en sus países de origen. Pero, al igual que el flujo de migrantes, la aplicación dio un giro al comenzar el nuevo mandato de Trump y pasó a llamarse CBP Home, instando a quienes la habían utilizado a que regresaran a sus países.
Jesús Ricardo Rojas Romero, otro venezolano que estaba en el campamento, dijo que no tuvo la oportunidad de presentar su caso porque nunca le ofrecieron una cita. Y ahora, junto con otros migrantes, se ha quedado atrapado en Ciudad de México debido a las restricciones del país, que limitan los movimientos de los migrantes y su capacidad para trabajar.
Intentando calmar al Gobierno de Trump y evitar el aumento de aranceles, el Gobierno de México ha tomado medidas drásticas contra los migrantes que intentan avanzar hacia la frontera con EE.UU.
Autoridades han acorralado a grupos de migrantes en varias partes del país, incluso usando agentes militares, para impedirles el rumbo al norte, dijo la hermana Silva. Sin poder trabajar ni moverse, algunos migrantes tocan música, piden limosna, venden comida o cualquier cosa para sobrevivir día a día.
Monroy dice que les comenta a los que comienzan a trabajar con el mundo migrante que su misión implica enfrentarse al lado más cruel de la humanidad.
"La crueldad ha moldeado experiencias y cuerpos. Yo le digo al equipo que trabaja conmigo que para dar frente a esa crueldad humana (se necesita) bondad", afirmó.
Monroy, quien resultó herido cuando intentaba impedir la violencia contra migrantes mientras las autoridades avanzaban hacia una caravana, dijo que sabe exactamente a quién defender, al igual que hermanas como Silva, quienes afirman que no abandonarán a los migrantes, aunque las condiciones empeoren.
"La vida consagrada se va mantener" con los migrantes, dijo la hermana Silva. "Son las que van a
sostener a como dé lugar, pero está fuerte", apuntó. Monroy cuenta que una vez le preguntó a una hermana del albergue cómo sabía que Dios existía y ella le respondió que lo sabía porque Dios es amor y ella es testigo de constantes actos de amor en su ministerio con los migrantes. Monroy dijo que eso le hizo compadecerse de aquellos en EE.UU. que pierden la oportunidad de experimentar a Dios en esos actos de amor que se encuentran al atender a los más despojados.
"Ella me dijo que Dios es un acto de amor y al final seremos juzgados por cuanto amamos", dijo. "Yo le diría a la sociedad en Estados Unidos que pierden una gran oportunidad de amar, pierden una gran oportunidad de conocer a Dios, porque estas personas se aferran tanto a la vida. Recorrieron miles de kilómetros, país tras país, buscando sobrevivir. No son una carga", agregó.
Es cierto que hay obstáculos que parecen insuperables, afirmó la hermana Silva, quien indicó que "el sueño de llegar a Estados Unidos es un sueño imposible" en estos momentos.
Pero ella cree en la sabiduría de las personas y dice que ellos saben por qué tomaron la decisión de irse de sus países. Tal vez quienes acompañan a los migrantes deban enfrentar ahora retos que los lleven a descubrir nuevos métodos que no dependen de la ayuda de los países más ricos, dijo.
"Yo digo, pues, bendito Donald Trump que nos ubicó en nuestra realidad y que tendremos que ver este tema de la sustentabilidad de los albergues para que no nos peguen estas situaciones", manifestó esta religiosa y agregó: "Esto es todo un replanteamiento".
(Este artículo fue publicado originalmente por Global Sisters Report y distribuido a través de una colaboración con OSV News. Rhina Guidos es la corresponsal regional de Global Sisters Report para Latinoamérica.)
' ... Katrina puso de manifiesto la rapidez con la que comunidades enteras pueden ser olvidadas ...'
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"Las disparidades, enraizadas en el racismo histórico y estructural, intensificaron el sufrimiento de muchos residentes negros", afirmaron.
El huracán y los errores en la respuesta "revelaron la fragilidad de nuestras ciudades ante los desastres naturales y la realidad de la pobreza entre los más vulnerables de nuestro país", señalaron los obispos.
Los obispos Campbell y Perry ensalzaron el "poderoso testimonio de la Iglesia católica" que contrarrestó la "inadecuada respuesta gubernamental" al Katrina, citando el trabajo de Catholic Charities USA y sus agencias locales, la Campaña Católica para el Desarrollo Humano de la USCCB y Catholic Home Missions Appeal, la Arquidiócesis de Nueva Orleans y los Caballeros de Colón.
Los dos obispos subrayaron la "extrema necesidad de inversiones equitativas en resiliencia climática y preparación", en medio de tormentas intensificadas por el cambio climático.
"Katrina puso de manifiesto la rapidez con la que comunidades enteras pueden ser olvidadas y sus culturas borradas al desaparecer los barrios, llevándose consigo espacios culturales preciados y monumentos históricos", afirmaron los obispos Campbell y Perry.
Añadieron que, dos décadas después, "muchos siguen luchando por reconstruir lazos intangibles", con "continuas heridas mentales y físicas" aún evidentes hoy en día, mientras "la brecha entre ricos y pobres sigue creciendo".
Concluyendo su declaración, los obispos Campbell y Perry dijeron: "Unámonos, como una sola comunidad, re-
spondiendo a la llamada de ser levadura para el mundo. Como Iglesia, seamos un bote salvavidas en las aguas de la injusticia".
(Gina Christian es reportera multimedia de OSV News. Síguela en X @GinaJesseReina.)
Una estatua de María yace entre los escombros cerca de una gruta destruida a las afueras de la iglesia de San Miguel en Biloxi, Misisipi, el 12 de septiembre de 2005, tras el paso del huracán Katrina. El 29 de agosto de 2025 se cumple el vigésimo aniversario de la mortífera tormenta, que tocó tierra en la región de la costa del Golfo. (Foto de OSV News/Bob Roller)
La Providencia en nuevos comienzos
Por obisPo JosePh r. KoPaCz, d.d.
El miércoles 3 de septiembre, en una inspiradora reunión de fe y tradición, la Arquidiócesis de Mobile celebró la instalación del Reverendísimo Mark S. Rivituso como el tercer arzobispo y el décimo obispo de Mobile. La Diócesis de Jackson, junto con las diócesis de Biloxi y Birmingham, que incluye la Provincia de Mobile con la arquidiócesis.
Durante la misa, los obispos Louis Kihneman, Steven Raica y yo nos colocamos estuvieron al frente y al centro del santuario como signo de unidad y fraternidad. Los fieles y el clero desde Mobile hasta St. Louis, el hogar del arzobispo Rivituso, llenaron la Catedral de la Inmaculada Concepción.
El arzobispo Thomas J. Rodi, ahora emérito, dio la bienvenida oficial a la asamblea desde el principio y compartió una historia fascinante de la Arquidiócesis de Mobile que incluyó vínculos con la Arquidiócesis de St. Louis. Al final de la liturgia, la congregación aplaudió de pie al arzobispo Rodi por sus 17 años de dedicación como pastor. Que disfrute del buen fruto de la jubilación bajo la mirada amorosa de Dios.
Después del arzobispo Rodi, el cardenal Christophe Pierre, nuncio apostólico en los Estados Unidos, extendió un cálido saludo en nombre del Papa León XIV, a quien el cardenal representa ante todas las diócesis y arquidiócesis del país. Luego leyó la bula papal, el documento de la Santa Sede que hizo oficial el nombramiento del arzobispo Rivituso.
La Esquina del Papa
La bula anuncia dramáticamente al papa como el "Siervo de los Siervos de Dios", un título adoptado por primera vez por Gregorio Magno en el año 590 d.C. El 3 de septiembre fue el día de la fiesta de este notable pastor y doctor de la iglesia. Este fue sin duda un momento de divina providencia para el nuevo arzobispo al emprender su ministerio, pidiendo la intercesión de San Gregorio y de todos los santos.
En su homilía y palabras de clausura, el Arzobispo Rivituso expresó con alegría su gratitud por el honor y el regalo que se le otorgó para servir en su nuevo hogar en la iglesia de Mobile.
Durante mis 11 años y medio como obispo de Jackson, he tenido la bendición de ser un obispo concelebrante en la consagración e instalación del obispo Kihneman en Biloxi, la instalación del obispo Raica en Birmingham y ahora la instalación del arzobispo Rivituso. Estos son buenos recuerdos que son cargados por los ríos del tiempo.
Este evento sagrado en la Arquidiócesis de Mobile tiene un significado personal adicional para mi ministerio. El 16 de septiembre, cumplo 75 años, cuando todos los obispos activos deben presentar su carta de renuncia al Papa. Aunque la renuncia puede ser aceptada inmediatamente en casos urgentes, la secuencia habitual es una extensión del ministerio por uno o dos años más. Sin embargo, es un hito en el tiempo que requiere una acción irrefutable de un obispo.
Lo que sigue es mi carta al Santo Padre:
con nosotros!
Reciba más historias por correo electrónico de Mississippi Católico.
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Su Santidad, El 16 de septiembre de este año, cumpliré 75 años. Cumpliendo con la sabiduría de la iglesia contenida en el Código de Derecho Canónico, presento mi carta de renuncia. Por supuesto, continuaré sirviendo al Señor Jesús y a su iglesia sin reservas como ordinario hasta que se me indique lo contrario, o hasta el día en que mi sucesor sea elegido y ocupe el puesto como el 12º obispo de la Diócesis de Jackson. Doy gracias a nuestro Dios amoroso por vuestro ministerio apostólico como sucesor de san Pedro en el primer año de vuestro pontificado durante este jubileo de la esperanza. Que el Señor siga bendiciendo y prosperando vuestro ministerio Petrino durante muchos años más.
Sinceramente suyo en Cristo, +Joseph R. Kopacz Obispo de Jackson
De hecho, algunos cumpleaños son más significativos que otros. De una manera contraria a la intuición, hay una sensación de libertad en no saber cuándo se aceptará la renuncia. "Por tanto, velad, porque no sabéis el día ni la hora" (Mateo 25:13) es la sabiduría del Señor Jesús en los Evangelios. Esta es la espiritualidad familiar del Adviento: una bendición y un recordatorio de que el don del tiempo es finito, y el trabajo en la viña del Señor espera con el amanecer de cada nuevo día.
La esperanza es saber que Dios está cerca y que el amor triunfará, dice el Papa León
by Cindy Wooden
CIUDAD DEL VATICANO (CNS) – La esperanza cristiana no consiste en evitar el dolor y el sufrimiento, sino en saber que Dios da a las personas la fuerza para perseverar y amar incluso cuando las cosas salen mal, afirmó el Papa León XIV.
Cuando Jesús se dejó arrestar en el Huerto de Getsemaní, demostró que "la esperanza cristiana no es evasión, sino decisión", declaró el Santo Padre a miles de personas reunidas en el Aula Magna del Vaticano el 27 de agosto para su audiencia general semanal.
"La forma en que Jesús ejerció su libertad ante la muerte nos enseña a no temer el sufrimiento, sino a perseverar con plena confianza en el cuidado providencial de Dios", afirmó el Papa en su discurso a los angloparlantes.
"Si nos entregamos a la voluntad de Dios y entregamos libremente nuestra vida por amor al prójimo, la gracia del Padre nos sostendrá en cada prueba y nos permitirá dar fruto abundante para la salvación de nuestros hermanos", concluyó.
nos la puede quitar". Jesús vivió cada día de su vida como preparación para el "momento dramático y sublime" de su arresto, su sufrimiento y su muerte, dijo el Papa. "Por eso, cuando llega, tiene la fuerza de no buscar una vía de escape. Su corazón sabe bien que perder la vida por amor no es un fracaso, sino que posee una misteriosa fecundidad. Como el grano de trigo que, al caer en tierra, no permanece solo, sino que muere y da fruto". Naturalmente, dijo el Papa León, Jesús "se siente turbado ante un camino que parece conducir solo a la muerte y al fin. Pero está igualmente convencido de que solo una vida perdida por amor, al final, se reencuentra".
"En esto consiste la verdadera esperanza: no en tratar de evitar el dolor, sino en creer que, incluso en el corazón de los sufrimientos más injustos, se esconde la semilla de una nueva vida", dijo.
El papa León XIV saluda a los niños y a las familias durante su audiencia general semanal en la Sala Pablo VI del Vaticano, el 27 de agosto de 2025. (Foto CNS/ Vatican Media)
La persona de fe, afirmó el Papa, no pide a Dios "que nos libre del sufrimiento, sino que nos dé la fuerza para perseverar en el amor, conscientes de que la vida ofrecida libremente por amor nadie
"Sin embargo, como Jesús mismo nos enseña, debemos tener esa confianza que solo viene porque sabemos que somos hijos e hijas de Dios, y que Dios siempre nos da la gracia", dijo el Papa. "No siempre nos quita el dolor, no siempre nos quita el sufrimiento, pero nos dice que está cerca de nosotros".
Harper Moyski, de 10 años, y Fletcher Merkel, de 8, perdieron la vida el 27 de agosto en un tiroteo durante una Misa escolar en la Iglesia Católica de la Anunciación en Minneapolis, Minnesota, aparecen en esta foto sin fecha. (Foto OSV News/cortesía de las familias Moyski-Flavin y Merkel)
NACIÓN
MINNEAPOLIS (OSV News) – Fletcher Merkel, de ocho años, "amaba a su familia, a sus amigos, la pesca, la cocina y cualquier deporte que se le permitiera practicar", y el vacío que su muerte ha dejado en los corazones de su familia nunca se llenará, comentó su padre en una conferencia de prensa celebrada el 28 de agosto frente a la escuela Annunciation School de Minneapolis. Harper Moyski, de diez años, era una hermana mayor "alegre", "brillante" y "muy querida", según declaró su familia en un comunicado el 29 de agosto. Fletcher y Harper fueron confirmados como víctimas del tiroteo del 27 de agosto en la iglesia católica Annunciation. Las familias de los dos niños asesinados han hablado públicamente por primera vez. Conteniendo las lágrimas, el padre de Fletcher, Jesse Merkel, dijo que nunca se les permitiría "verlo convertirse en el maravilloso joven en el que se estaba convirtiendo". Merkel también expresó su gratitud por "las rápidas y heroicas acciones de niños y adultos por igual" dentro de la iglesia. "Por favor, recuerden a Fletcher por la persona que era y no por el acto que acabó con su vida", añadió. Los papás de Harper, Michael Moyski y Jackie Flavin, describieron a su hija como "brillante, alegre y profundamente querida", y dijeron en un comunicado: "Nuestros corazones están destrozados no solo como papás, sino también por la hermana de Harper". Hicieron un llamamiento a la acción, instando a los líderes y a las comunidades a abordar la violencia armada y la salud mental. "La luz de Harper siempre brillará a través de nosotros, y esperamos que su recuerdo inspire a otros a trabajar por un mundo más seguro y compasivo", dijeron.
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. (OSV News) – Las autoridades policiales arrestaron a un hombre de Alabama después de que presuntamente profiriera amenazas criminales contra una iglesia del condado de Orange, y se encontrara en su vehículo un alijo de municiones y chalecos antibalas, según informaron las autoridades el 2 de septiembre. El Departamento del Sheriff del condado de Orange dijo que sus investigadores fueron contactados el 28 de agosto por un sacerdote "en relación con correos electrónicos sospechosos y amenazantes" enviados a la abadía de San Miguel de la orden norbertina en Silverado Canyon. Afirmaron que el sospechoso, Joshua Michael Richardson, de 38 años, residente en Alabama,
"primero envió correos electrónicos que se interpretaron como amenazantes", antes de visitar la iglesia "en persona y proferir nuevas amenazas". La Diócesis de Orange no respondió de inmediato a una solicitud de comentarios de OSV News. El Departamento del Sheriff del Condado de Orange dijo que sus investigadores y agentes "localizaron y detuvieron rápidamente a Richardson por amenazas criminales" y que posteriormente encontraron chalecos antibalas, cargadores de alta capacidad, nudillos de bronce y cuchillos tras registrar su vehículo. "Agradecemos a las autoridades su rápida actuación para garantizar la seguridad de nuestra comunidad parroquial", dijo Jarryd Gonzales, jefe de comunicaciones de la Diócesis Católica de Orange. Refiriéndose al reciente tiroteo masivo en una iglesia católica de Minneapolis, añadió: "Nuestras parroquias y escuelas siguen reforzando las medidas de seguridad".
VATICANO
CIUDAD DEL VATICANO (CNS) – El papa León XIV ha hecho un llamado a los líderes beligerantes de Sudán para que negocien la paz y permitan que la ayuda llegue a la población civil. "En El Fasher, muchos civiles están atrapados en la ciudad, víctimas del hambre y la violencia", dijo el 3 de septiembre, citando también un deslizamiento de tierra mortal y la propagación del cólera. Instó a la comunidad internacional a abrir corredores humanitarios y detener la catástrofe.
MUNDO
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (OSV News) – Un nuevo informe indica que los ataques contra la Iglesia católica en Nicaragua han disminuido considerablemente en 2025, pero esta disminución no significa que el gobierno haya suavizado su represión. La abogada e investigadora exiliada Martha Patricia Molina, autora del informe "Nicaragua, una Iglesia perseguida", afirmó que este año solo se han documentado 32 agresiones, frente a las más de 300 registradas en 2023. Desde 2018, ha contabilizado más de 1000 incidentes, que van desde el acoso al clero hasta la confiscación de escuelas y organizaciones
12 de septiembre de 2025
benéficas. Molina afirmó que la disminución del número de ataques en 2025 no significa que se esté "estableciendo una relación cordial" entre la dictadura y la Iglesia. Por el contrario, dijo, "el clero no puede denunciar bajo ninguna circunstancia los abusos y la vigilancia diaria a los que está sometido". Cientos de clérigos y religiosos permanecen en el exilio, entre ellos cuatro obispos. En agosto, el papa León XIV recibió a tres de ellos en una audiencia privada en el Vaticano, un gesto que, según los observadores, reafirma el apoyo papal a los obispos nicaragüenses en conflicto. La Iglesia católica ha sufrido una intensa persecución desde 2018, cuando las parroquias y universidades dieron refugio a los manifestantes en sus instalaciones para protegerlos de la policía y los paramilitares, y posteriormente acompañaron a las familias de los presos políticos.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (OSV News) – Una misionera irlandesa secuestrada en Haití ha sido liberada tras casi un mes de cautiverio. Gena Heraty, que lleva tres décadas trabajando en Haití, fue secuestrada el 3 de agosto cuando unos hombres armados irrumpieron en el orfanato Saint-Hélène, cerca de Puerto Príncipe. Heraty y varias otras personas, entre ellas un niño de tres años con discapacidad, se encuentran ahora a salvo y reciben atención médica y psicológica. La Agencia Fides, una rama informativa del Dicasterio para la Evangelización, confirmó la liberación el 1 de septiembre. Heraty dirige el orfanato, que forma parte de una red internacional que atiende a niños vulnerables en toda América Latina. Su familia expresó su "profunda gratitud" por las oraciones y los esfuerzos mundiales que lograron su liberación, al tiempo que pidió privacidad mientras se recupera. El viceprimer ministro irlandés, Simon Harris, había pedido su liberación inmediata, elogiando su dedicación de toda la vida a los pobres de Haití cuando fue secuestrada. El secuestro pone de relieve el agravamiento de la crisis en Haití, donde las pandillas controlan la mayor parte de la capital y millones de personas se enfrentan a una grave hambruna. Los líderes de la Iglesia advierten que la escalada de violencia está paralizando la labor pastoral y humanitaria. Entre principios de abril y finales de junio, la violencia armada en Haití ha causado la muerte de 1520 personas y heridas a otras 609, según un nuevo informe sobre los derechos humanos en Haití publicado el 1 de agosto por la ONU.
TOME NOTA
Vírgenes y Santos
Santísimo Nombre de María. 12 de septiembre
San Juan Crisóstomo. 13 de septiembre
Exaltación de la Santa Cruz. 14 de septiembre
Nuestra Señora de los Dolores. 15 de septiembre
San Pio de Pietrelcina. 23 de septiembre
San Vincente de Paúl. 27 de septiembre
Santos Miguel, Gabriel y Rafael Arcángeles. 29 de septiembre
Envíenos sus fotos a editor@jacksondiocese.org
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LÍNEA DIRECTA DE PREVENCIÓN DE FRAUDE El Departamento de Asuntos Temporales de la Diócesis de Jackson ha contratado a Lighthouse Services para proporcionar una línea directa anónima de fraude financiero, cumplimiento, ética y recursos humanos. Esta línea directa permite un método adecuado para reportar sucesos relacionados con la administración temporal dentro de parroquias, escuelas y la oficina de cancillería.
www.lighthouse-services.com/ jacksondiocese Hispanohablante USA: 800-216-1288
Gena Heraty, a longtime Irish missionary in Haiti pictured with a child in a 2012 photo, has been freed after nearly a month of captivity, the news agency Agenzia Fides confirmed Sept. 1, 2025. Heraty was among several people – including a 3-year-old child – taken in the early hours of Aug. 3 after gunmen breached the Saint-Hélène orphanage in Kenscoff, near Haiti’s capital of Port-auPrince. (OSV News photo/courtesy NPH International)
NATION
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. (OSV News) – Law enforcement officials arrested an Alabama man after he allegedly made criminal threats against an Orange County church, and a cache of ammunition and body armor was found in his vehicle, authorities said Sept. 2. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said its investigators were contacted Aug. 28 by a priest “regarding suspicious, threatening emails” sent to the Norbertine order’s St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado Canyon. They said the suspect, Joshua Michael Richardson, 38, an Alabama resident, “first sent emails that were interpreted as threatening,” before visiting the church “in person and made additional threats.” The Diocese of Orange did not immediately respond to a request for comment from OSV News. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said its investigators and deputies “quickly located and detained Richardson for criminal threats,” and that they subsequently found body armor, high-capacity magazines, brass knuckles, and knives after searching his vehicle. “We are grateful to the authorities for their quick action in ensuring the safety of our parish community,” said Jarryd Gonzales, head of communications for the Catholic Diocese of Orange. Noting the recent mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic church, he added, “Our parishes and schools continue to strengthen security efforts.”
VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV publicly called on the leaders of Sudan’s warring factions to negotiate an end to the violence and to ensure aid can reach desperate civilians. A day after sending a telegram of condolence for people who died when heavy rains triggered a landslide in a remote area of Sudan, the pope publicly called for peace and for prayers Sept. 3 at the end of his weekly general audience. “Dramatic news is coming from Sudan, particularly from Darfur,” Pope Leo said. “In el-Fasher many civilians are trapped in the city, victims of famine and violence. In Tarasin, a devastating landslide has caused numerous deaths, leaving behind pain and despair. And as if that weren’t enough, the spread of cholera is threatening hundreds of thousands of people who are already exhausted.” The pope called on “those in positions of responsibility and to the international community to ensure humanitarian corridors are open and to implement a coordinated response to stop this humanitarian catastrophe.”
WORLD
JERUSALEM (OSV News) – As the Israel-Hamas war nears the two-year mark, Catholic leaders have headed to Jerusalem, the Palestinian West Bank and Israel on a pastoral visit. The delegation is headed by Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, who serves as vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari, president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association-Pontifical Mission; and members of the Knights of Columbus, including Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly and Supreme Secretary
John A. Marrella. In a Sept. 2 press release issued by CNEWA-Pontifical Missions, Msgr. Vaccari said the visit was meant to provide accompaniment and solidarity with those suffering from the war, sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 invasion of Israel. “The Gospel compels us to witness, to stand in solidarity with all those who suffer at the hands of terror, war and famine, to answer the question put to Jesus in the Gospel of St. Luke, ‘And who is my neighbor,’” said Msgr. Vaccari. “By visiting the church of Jerusalem, from which our faith has spread throughout the world, we hope to communicate to our suffering sisters and brothers of our unity in resolve and purpose in assisting them in their time of Golgotha, as we work together to seek justice and advance the cause of lasting peace.”
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (OSV News) – An Irish missionary held hostage in Haiti has been freed after nearly a month in captivity. Gena Heraty, who has served in Haiti for three decades, was taken on Aug. 3 when armed men stormed the Saint-Hélène orphanage near Port-au-Prince. Heraty and several others, including a 3-year-old child with disabilities, are now safe and receiving medical and psychological care. Agenzia Fides, a news branch of the Dicastery for Evangelization, confirmed the release Sept. 1. Heraty leads the orphanage, part of an international network serving vulnerable children across Latin America. Her family expressed “deep gratitude” for the global prayers and efforts that secured her release, while asking for privacy as she recovers. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris had called for her immediate release, praising her lifelong dedication to Haiti’s poor when she was kidnapped. The abduction highlights the worsening crisis in Haiti, where gangs control most of the capital and millions face severe hunger. Church leaders warn that escalating violence is crippling ministry and humanitarian work. Between the beginning of April and the end of June, armed violence in Haiti has killed 1,520 people and injured 609 more, according to a new report on human rights in Haiti which was released on Aug. 1 by the U.N.nuclear-free future.
‘Christ calls us to be Christ for one another,’ Mobile’s new shepherd tells faithful
Editor’s note: Bishop Joseph Kopacz and Chancellor Mary Woodward were in attendance at the installation of Archbishop Mark S. Rivituso. From the archives will return in our next edition.
By RoB HeRBst/tHe CatHoliC Week MOBILE, Ala. (OSV News) – About 45 years later, the trade between the Archdiocese of St. Louis and Archdiocese of Mobile is complete.
Archbishop Mark S. Rivituso, a former auxiliary bishop of St. Louis, was installed as the third archbishop of Mobile Sept. 3 at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.
Archbishop Rivituso, 63, was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Louis by Archbishop John L. May, who previously served as bishop of Mobile.
While Archbishop Rivituso expressed gratitude for his new assignment on the Gulf Coast, he learned from Archbishop May’s tenure to pray for good weather.
“I don’t know if it’s fact, fiction or embellishment … but it was told to me during (Archbishop May’s) time in Mobile that the area suffered the devastation of a hurricane. Immediately after that, John L. May was appointed to the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The saying goes, ‘One hurricane and you’re gone,” Archbishop Rivituso joked at the closing of Mass.
MOBILE – Archbishop Emeritus Thomas Rodi (right) hands newly installed Archbishop Mark Rivituso the crozier of Bishop Michael Poitier, first bishop of Mobile, signifying the transfer of the Archdiocese of Mobile to Archbishop Rivituso. (Photo by Mary Dillard, courtesy Archdiocese of Mobile)
Archbishop May was appointed as archbishop of St. Louis in January 1980, four months after Hurricane Frederic hit Mobile.
However, weather was no issue on this September sun-soaked day. About 700 people filled the cathedral for Mass, including Cardinal Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United States, along with about 25 visiting bishops and archbishops. Those in attendance included Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of St. Louis, Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans as well as Archbishop W. Shawn McKnight of Kansas City, Kansas, and Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger of Detroit, who were both installed archbishops earlier this year.
MOBILE – Archbishop Mark S. Rivituso displays the papal bull during his installation Mass at the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile, Ala., Sept. 3, 2025. Archbishop Rivituso was previously an auxiliary bishop in St. Louis. (Photo by Mary Dillard, courtesy Archdiocese of Mobile)
Those unable to sit in the cathedral watched the Mass via livestream at the nearby Saenger Theatre in downtown Mobile.
Archbishop Rivituso succeeds Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi, who served the Archdiocese of Mobile for 17 years. Archbishop Rivituso is the 10th bishop of Mobile and third archbishop of Mobile, dating back to 1829.
While Archbishop Rivituso was installed to lead the Archdiocese of Mobile, he expressed his desire for the faithful to work alongside him in sharing the love of Jesus to all in the southern half of Alabama.
“I am installed as shepherd of the church in the Archdiocese of Mobile, but I acknowledge humbly my need for the faithful to be one with Jesus, be one with me as we show the shepherding love and care of Christ to all in this local church,” Archbishop Rivituso said during his homily.
Cardinal Pierre – a proud Frenchman –opened the Mass and Archbishop Rodi then spoke briefly about the history of Mobile, which was the first permanent French colonial settlement in the U.S.
But before publicly reading the papal bull in which Pope Leo XIV appointed Archbishop Rivituso, Cardinal Pierre deadpanned with a finger wag: “Rivituso … he’s not French.”
However, he added, “Congratulations on the blessing you have received from the Providence of God and by the choice of Pope Leo to become the archbishop of Mobile. May your service to the people here ... be a continuing sign of the hope with which God blesses us.”
Upon accepting the apostolic mandate, Archbishop Rivituso presented it to the archdiocese’s college of consultors and walked through the cathedral’s three aisles to show the congregation.
After displaying the papal bull, Cardinal Pierre and Archbishop Rodi escorted Archbishop Rivituso to the cathedra. Archbishop
Rodi handed the new archbishop his crosier. Archbishop Rivituso then greeted various archdiocesan dignitaries before the Mass proceeded.
The Gospel reading chosen was Luke 22:24-30 in which Jesus says, “I am among you as the one who serves” and Archbishop Rivituso stressed in his homily the need to serve all.
“We are brothers and sisters and Christ calls us to be Christ for one another,” Archbishop Rivituso said.
“I am excited to be your shepherd,” he said, “working alongside you as we show forth Christ’s shepherding care and love for all – and being especially mindful to reach out with Christ’s shepherding love and care to the poor and the homeless; to reach out with Christ’s shepherding care to our immigrant brothers and sisters in their own fears and anxieties; to be with all those who are imprisoned and on death row and show the comfort of the Lord and show a redemption in the Lord.”
He added, “With the rich history in this archdiocese of civil rights, (I am excited) to build upon the witness of those who advanced civil rights by fostering racial harmony and to be a shepherding, caring church of Jesus. (I look forward to being) present to those who feel forsaken, those who feel forgotten, those who are marginalized, those who are on the peripheries of society.”
Archbishop Rivituso also acknowledged that while many are suffering today, the faithful must remember the words from the Mass’s second reading, 2 Corinthians 4:1-2, 5-7.
“We live in very challenging times. I know many feel disconnected from one another. It is good to hear the word of God through St. Paul today – ‘We are not discouraged.’ We are ministers of hope.”
(Rob Herbst is editor of The Catholic Week, the news outlet of the Archdiocese of Mobile.)
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.
To make a report visit www.lighthouse-services.com/jacksondiocese or call 888-830-0004 (English) or 800-216-1288 (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
Amid ‘reverse migration,’ sisters in Mexico accompany migrants trapped by US policies
By Rhina Guidos
MEXICO CITY (OSV News) – It is difficult to know how many have passed by the mural at the shelter run by the Josephine sisters in Mexico City and shared the sentiment written on the wall: “Dreams travel on a train without fear of crossing borders.”
One of the dreams likely shared by the thousands who have passed through CAFEMIN, the sisters’ shelter for migrant women and families, is to get to the United States. It’s something some of them want so badly that it leads them to believe that U.S. President Donald Trump will change his mind about migrants and his policy toward them and let them into the country, said Sister María Magdalena Silva Rentería.
“I don’t think we’ll see that miracle, but we have to continue accompanying them because they have that hope,” Sister María Magdalena, the shelter’s executive director, told Global Sisters Report.
Along with other sisters and a team of collaborators, Sister María Magdalena accompanies and advocates for migrants traveling through the country, which used to be the last stop en route to the ultimate destination: the U.S.
But their mission has become much more difficult since Trump took office for a second term earlier this year, dismantling not only the legal paths many used to enter the U.S., but also cutting humanitarian aid for migrants.
“January 20 marks a whole new paradigm for the migrant world,” Sister María Magdalena said of the day Trump began his second term.
It affected not only migrants who were unable to move forward, but also those who help them, and it has been profound, Sister María Magdalena said.
UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, announced in April the closure of four offices in Mexico after the Trump administration cut 60% of its budget; the International Organization for Migration also announced layoffs in the country due to cuts; and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which helped finance medical and psychological assistance for migrants, was effectively eliminated July 1.
Some of those organizations provided trained staff to help migrants suffering from exploitation, physical and sexual abuse, and those fighting human trafficking and other forms of violence, Sister María Magdalena said. Some helped migrants return safely to their home countries when they were deported, while others helped them find alternative places of refuge when they could not return.
Aid organizations’ absence has left places like CAFEMIN scrambling to meet needs that go beyond food, shelter and companionship provided by the sisters and other religious ministries.
In addition, in places like Mexico, a new phenomenon has emerged called “reverse migration,” referring to “migrants (who) abandon their journey to the U.S.-Mexico border and begin traveling south,” back to their country of origin, the Niskanen Center said in a report published in April.
Public information on the new flow of migrants is scarce, says the center, since many countries have not released figures on the number of people returning, but the phenomenon is evident in places such as CAFEMIN and a nearby migrant camp along the railroad tracks. That’s where Mario Monroy, outreach coordinator for CAFEMIN, listens to the needs and now-shattered dreams of those who cannot go north or south.
“We would already be there” in the U.S., said a young woman in the camp, who identified herself as Yesenia, a native of Venezuela, whose mother had secured an appointment through the CBP One app, which disappeared on Jan. 20.
The mobile tool was used during President Joe Biden’s administration to secure an appointment at U.S. ports of entry to start the asylum application process. Thousands of Venezuelans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans used it to enter the country safely while seeking refuge from political, economic and other problems in their home countries. But, like the flow of migrants, the app took a turn at the start of Trump’s new term and was renamed CBP Home, urging those who had used it to return to their countries.
Jesús Ricardo Rojas Romero, another Venezuelan from the camp, said he did not have the opportunity to present his case because he was never offered an appointment. And now, along with other migrants, he is stuck in Mexico City due to Mexico’s restrictions, which limit migrants’ movements and their ability to work.
In an attempt to appease the Trump administration and avoid increased tariffs, the Mexican government has cracked down on migrants trying to advance toward the U.S. border.
Authorities have rounded up groups of migrants in various
parts of the country, even using military help to prevent them from heading north, Sister María Magdalena said. Unable to work or move, some migrants play music, ask for alms, sell food – anything to survive the day.
Monroy said he tells those new to working with migrants that the mission involves facing the cruelest side of humanity.
“Cruelty has shaped experiences and bodies. I tell the team that works with me that to face that human cruelty, you need to do it with kindness” toward the migrants, he said.
Monroy, who was injured while trying to protect migrants as authorities advanced with physical force toward a caravan, said he knows exactly who he’s defending – as do women religious like Sister María Magdalena who say they will not abandon the migrants, even if conditions worsen.
“Consecrated life will remain” with the migrants, Sister María Magdalena said. “They are the ones who will hold on no matter what happens, but this is bad,” she said.
Monroy said he once asked a sister at the shelter how she knew God existed, and she replied that she knew because God is love and she constantly sees acts of love in her ministry.
Monroy said that made him feel sorry for those in the U.S. who miss the opportunity to experience God in those acts of love found in serving those others don’t care about.
“She told me that God is an act of love and that in the end we will be judged by how much we love,” he said. “I would say to society in the United States that they are missing a great opportunity to love, they are missing a great opportunity to know God, because these people cling so much to life. They travel thousands of miles, country after country, looking to survive. They are not a burden,” he added.
It is true that there are obstacles that seem insurmountable, said Sister María Magdalena, who added that “the dream of reaching the United States is an impossible dream” at the moment.
But she believes in the wisdom of the people making that journey, and says it’s enough that they know why they made the decision to leave home.
Because of the environment of scarcity, those who accompany migrants will now face challenges that may lead them to discover new methods of helping that do not depend on the help of richer countries, she said.
“I say, then, bless Donald Trump for putting us in our place and making us see that we will have to address the issue of the sustainability of shelters so that we are not smacked by these situations,” she said, adding: “This is a complete change.”
Jesús Ricardo Rojas Romero, from Venezuela, sits with Mario Monroy, center, and Yesenia, also from Venezuela, in a migrant camp in Mexico City April 1, 2025. Monroy, outreach coordinator for CAFEMIN, a shelter for women and families, listens to the needs and now-shattered dreams of migrants who wanted to go north to the U.S. and now cannot go south, back to their country of origin, because of Mexico’s restrictions on migrants’ movements and their ability to work. (OSV News photo/Rhina Guidos, Global Sisters Report)
A ministry of faith, friendship and education
KNEADING FAITH
By
Dr. Fran LaveLLe, D. Min.
September has always been a month of change and transition as we move from the heat of summer into cooler autumn days. This September, another transition will occur. After 33 years of dedicated service in Catholic education, Karla Luke is retiring. My kind but plain-spoken friend of 11 years (like Elvis) has left the building.
I’ve worked in the diocese since July 1999 and in the chancery since October 2014. The transition from parish to diocesan ministry has its challenges. The move from working in a parish to working in the chancery changed the rhythm, flow and perspective of what I do. It also gave me the opportunity to meet and work with new people. There are people in life that, when you meet them, you just know they are going to remain with you for the long haul. That was the case when I met Karla Luke. Karla has served as the executive director for the Office of Catholic Education since 2020. When I started at the chancery, she was an assistant to the director.
A lot of living happens in 11 years – especially considering that many people spend more time with co-workers than with their own family. Karla and I have loved and supported one another through difficult situations in our ministries and personal lives. We’ve shared milestones, heartache and a lot of holy laughter. Beneath the ministry, miles and smiles deep in the DNA of our friendship lies a great love for our faith and for God’s people. Karla is dedicated
to the mission of Catholic education, but even more so to the mission of Jesus Christ. That dedication fuels everything she does.
Our offices have a natural connection, since the students Catholic schools serve often come from families engaged in parish ministries. Maintaining a solid working relationship with the Office of Catholic Education has always been a priority of mine. That priority has been easy to uphold, since each person who has served in that office during my time has been a dedicated, passionate and Christ-centered educator. Karla is no exception.
What I most admire about Karla is her resolute consistency, especially when it comes to policy. Following policy in educational systems is vital to the success of a school or system. Upholding policy, however, does not have to come at the expense of being fair, professional and kind. It takes a special kind of person to hold that tension and remain balanced. When the devastating impact of the early days of the pandemic raged, Karla drew on her leadership skills and applied her science background to make decisions that kept our schools, students, staff and faculty safe. People did not hold back in criticizing the decisions at the time, but she remained focused on policies that prioritized safety.
A heavy dose of compassion is also a hallmark of her leadership. I have witnessed Karla’s compassion time and again – whether it was a colleague going through a difficult time or a principal or faculty member in need of an advocate, Karla steps up every time. Sometimes people are not asking to be fixed,
Faith’s family tree
CALLED TO HOLINESS
By JayMie Stuart WoLFe
Our Catholic faith doesn’t appear out of thin air, and it plays out incarnationally and across history. Faith comes from somewhere, and often, that somewhere is a someone, often visibly woven into our personal genealogies.
Everyone wants to claim some connection to our first American-born pope: Dolton, Illinois – the suburb just outside the southern limits of Chicago where the Prevost children grew up; Villanova University in Philadelphia where their youngest son went to college; St. Louis, where he entered the Augustinians; Chiclayo, Peru where Msgr. Prevost served as a missionary priest, and then bishop. Even Rome had a legitimate claim long before the name Robert Cardinal Prevost was announced from St. Peter’s loggia.
So, it comes as no surprise that there’s been a lot of Louisiana chatter about our new Holy Father’s Creole roots. The news of the pope’s ancestry flooded New Orleans news outlets within a few days of his election.
More recently, the story was published by the New York Times and Dr.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. presented a copy of the pope’s lineage to him at the Vatican.
But locally, a well-researched and fascinating exhibit showing Pope Leo’s maternal family tree has drawn many to the Old Ursuline Convent Museum in the French Quarter. There, visitors can explore seven generations of the Holy Father’s New Orleans ancestors, leading back to the years just after the city’s founding in 1718. Supported by sacramental records still held in the cathedral archives, the story Pope Leo’s family tree tells is a uniquely Catholic and American one.
The pope’s family includes immigrants from Bohemia, France, Italy, Cuba, Haiti, Guadeloupe and Canada. Also among his predecessors are numerous men and women identified as people of color – some free and others born enslaved.
It appears, in fact, that perhaps the only woman ever buried inside St. Louis Cathedral was one of the Holy Father’s forebears: a young woman of color who died in childbirth in 1799 and was interred near the Mary altar along with her baby. Family marriages and baptisms, too, can be found in
just heard. Karla is a pro at what Pope Francis has called the “apostolate of the ear.” That intentional listening made her excel in her role.
There are hundreds of stories worthy of retelling. The memories I will cherish most are the everyday encounters we have shared.
When Karla begins a sentence with “Look …” you know you’d better listen. One of two things will happen when “look” leads: either you will laugh hysterically or you will learn an important lesson. If sass and finesse had a vibe, it would be Karla’s “look.”
Sometimes “look” is accompanied by “y’all,” which means the ensuing laughter or lesson will be extra. It has been a privilege to call Karla a colleague. The greater gift is calling her my friend. In fact, we identify more as sisters. I know God will continue to use her many gifts to bless her corner of the world. And I know I am a better person for having her in my life.
May there always be work for your hands to do. May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine upon your windowpane. May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near to you, and
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you. – Traditional Irish Blessing
(Dr. Fran Lavelle is the director of faith formation for the Diocese of Jackson.)
New Orleans church records, some of which may have been thrown out of the windows during the famous Good Friday fire of 1788 by Père Antoine to save them.
In any case, what Pope Leo’s family tree reveals is the largely untold history of Black Catholics in colonies that eventually became part of the United States. This information, however, leaves us all with an unanticipated gift: the opportunity to recognize that the pope so many of us are excited about would not be who he is apart from the sad history of the African Diaspora caused by transatlantic slave trade and the complex racial history that followed in the wake of it.
If the Holy Father’s great-grandparents, Eugénie Grambois and Ferdinand Baquié, had not been baptized at the font in St. Louis Cathedral, (the only part of the church that survived the 1788 fire), chances are he would not have grown up Catholic. Nor would his maternal grandparents, the Martinez family, have likely chosen to make their home in Chicago without the Great Migration of 6 million people of color who left the American South for the promise of more economic opportunity and less racism at the beginning of the 20th century.
Our family histories vary widely. But all of us share a lineage of spiri-
tual fathers and mothers whose words and deeds also make us what we are.
This summer, we observe the 1700th anniversary of the closing of the Council of Nicaea. Called by the unbaptized Emperor Constantine, the 318 bishops who gathered in Asia Minor defined what constituted Christian faith. Perhaps even more importantly, they determined what laid beyond the boundaries of orthodoxy. If they had not done so – or if the Arians had prevailed – the past 17 centuries would have been different.
The faith we profess today in the Nicene Creed remains the dividing line between what is Christian and what isn’t. Every ecumenical council since has influenced the course of history and added to the family tree of our faith.
Our task as Catholics is not only to recognize where we have come from, but to hand on what we have received. Most of us do that in the ordinary rhythms of family life, as the Holy Father’s ancestors did. Some of us, like the Fathers of Nicaea, embrace the mission by making choices that have an impact far greater and more universal than even they imagine.
(Jaymie Stuart Wolfe is a freelance writer and editor, speaker, and loves life in New Orleans.)
Cassreino builds award-winning broadcast program at St. Joe
By Joe Lee
MADISON – Terry Cassreino, checking correspondence before a recent broadcast journalism class at Madison St. Joseph Catholic School, is perturbed as he addresses his students.
“I don’t like surprises on production day,” he says crisply, bringing the chatter to a quick halt. “We work on deadlines. You can’t wait until the last minute to turn in your stories. When you do that, you slow everyone down.”
Cassreino’s direct manner is not unlike what his students will encounter from newsroom bosses should they go into journalism after college. Not all of them will. But the skill sets and real-world experiences his charges are acquiring will prepare them for success, regardless of their professional pursuits.
Before joining St. Joe as communications director in 2012, the New Orleans native and Ole Miss graduate spent nearly two decades in print journalism. With the decline of the newspaper industry, he believes the future of journalism is in multimedia – a hybrid of video, photography and the written word.
The bar at St. Joe is now very high. In 2024, the Mississippi Scholastic Press Association (MSPA) recognized Bruin Sports Radio for having the state’s best high school livestream programming, and the Junior Varsity Bruin News Now was named the state’s best middle school newscast.
Such accolades are nothing new. St. Joe routinely wins MSPA awards, and Cassreino was named the National High School Broadcast Adviser of the Year in 2023 by the Journalism Education Association at the University of Kansas, marking the first time a Mississippi educator received the prestigious award.
“I’ve learned how to be poised on camera from him, and how to interact with others when reporting,” said St. Joe senior Thierry Freeman, who co-anchors Bruin News Now (BNN) with junior Noah Sanders. “We’ve interviewed a lot of notable people. It makes you focused and concise.”
Though BNN sports anchor Addyson Russell will consider nursing school, she says she has grown to love journalism and is confident what she has learned from Cassreino will put her ahead of her peers when she starts college.
Eighth grader Grace Barbour, a reporter on last year’s award-winning JV team, praises her older classmates for making her feel like part of the team. Among them is video editor Jason Buckley, a junior who took a big risk in sev-
enth grade by overselling his capabilities.
“I told Mr. Cassreino I already knew how to edit, and I had no idea,” Buckley said. “He put me right into leadership and responsibility roles. I kind of figured it out, and he taught me along the way. Now I’m editing and producing the newscasts.”
In January 2025, Cassreino took 10 of his students to the Mississippi Capitol to cover the annual State of the State address and participate in an exclusive interview session with Gov. Tate Reeves.
“One team worked on a story about the speech, listening to it and interviewing lawmakers about the governor’s legislative agenda,” Cassreino said. “The other filmed our weekly newscast inside the Capitol and then covered the governor’s exclusive Q&A with BNN and Tupelo High School’s WTHS-TV.
“When it was all over and I saw how excited my students were, I don’t think I have ever felt as much pride in my students as I felt deep in my heart. Watching them work together, cooperate with students from Tupelo to film a co-production newscast, and interview the governor in a mock press conference setting was nothing short of amazing.”
Jack Hall, a 2016 St. Joe graduate and now a practicing attorney in Jackson, won the inaugural MPSA Orley Hood Award in 2014 for being named the outstanding sports journalist in the state.
“It was a watershed moment for me in high school,” Hall said. “Terry taught me to focus on the human aspect of sportswriting, which has helped me in several fields.”
BNN was new in spring 2016 when Cassreino asked Jason Price, then a St. Joe junior, to audition.
“I didn’t like to write, but he told me he believed I’d be great at it,” said Price, who would go on to major in broadcast journalism at Ole Miss and was the NewsWatch Ole Miss sports director for three years. “I started as a sports anchor that spring. He always encouraged enthusiasm, but I grew the most from his advice on my writing.”
“What Terry does for young people is so critical,” said MSPA executive director R.J. Morgan. “He gives them the tools they need to interrogate the world, to discern and understand it.”
“My students work hard,” Cassreino said. “They will learn to be strong, effective leaders. And they will know that successful journalists and successful adults adhere to Catholic and Christian-based morals and ethical behavior.
“I am so thankful for the support I receive from the diocese, the school, and the parents. It is so rewarding for me to know I have made a difference. I try my hardest to give my students experiences the high school student doesn’t normally get.”
MADISON – St. Joseph Catholic School communications director Terry Cassreino works with students Luke Jones, Jason Buckley and Kaitlyn Evans during a broadcast journalism class as they film an edition of Bruin News Now in the Fine Arts Building lobby. The award-winning program has earned state and national recognition under Cassreino’s guidance. (Photos courtesy of Joe Lee)
Noah Sanders, a junior, left, and Thierry Freeman, a senior, film an edition of Bruin News Now, St. Joseph Catholic School’s award-winning broadcast journalism program, in the lobby of the Fine Arts Building.
Faith, Learning and Joy
students Emiliano and Victoria hold their new siblings as their mothers stand behind them. Principal Bridget Martin blesses the families and welcomes the newest members to the school community. (Photo by Sister Margaret Sue Broker)
MADISON – (Left) St. Anthony sixth graders Cruz Warwick and Mimi Heitzmann test their engineering design skills during a STEM project. (Photo by Celeste Tassin)
MADISON – Nothing says Color Party Day like Kona Ice! Assisi Early Learning Center toddlers cooled off with sweet treats and big smiles. (Photo by Chiquita Brown)
SOUTHAVEN – Sacred Heart School
NATCHEZ – With hands folded and heart lifted, Cathedral pre-K3 student Henry Carter pauses to pray during atrium time. (Photo by Brandi Boles)
MERIDIAN – (Above) From left, St. Patrick School seventh graders Brandon Franklin, Juan Garcia and Brooklyn McCurty experiment with density towers during science class. (Photo by Glenda Rives)
JACKSON – St. Richard student Luke Mayronne reads a letter to his grandmother and plays a special Bingo game during the school’s annual Grandparents Day celebration. (Photo by Celeste Saucier)
VICKSBURG – Father Rusty Vincent of St. Paul Parish blesses students’ backpacks on Sunday, Aug. 10. (Photo by Allyson Johnston)
NEW ALBANY – Bishop Joseph Kopacz celebrated the sacrament of confirmation at St. Francis of Assisi Parish on Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. Pictured with Bishop Kopacz are Father Jesuraja “Raj” Xavier and confirmation students. Top row, from left: Mason Hall (Corinth), Amy Cunningham, Maria Palomeque (Corinth), Diego Moreno, Bishop Kopacz, Valeria Vera, Anthony Chambers, Alex Chambers and Roberto David Loredo Valdez (Corinth). Middle row, from left: Father Xavier, Sonia Rojas, Mina Hall (Corinth), Karen Ortega Antonio, Emily Romero, Isabella Kimmons, Joely Moreno, Ashley Flores, Samantha Navarro, Jesus Gonzalez, Rubi Reveles and Ivan Guzman. Front row, from left: Marcos Rojas, Luis Lopez, Luis Angel Guerrero and Alan Romero. (Photo by Joanna Manning)
JACKSON – Father Joe Tonos blesses fourth-grade students and their new Bibles during the annual Blessing of the Bibles Mass at St. Richard School. After Mass, Father Tonos spoke with the students about the importance of Scripture in their lives. Front row, from left: Jay LeBlanc, Morgan Gomez, Aeden Flood, John Ellis Ehrgott, Amanda Donovan, Warren Davis, Sunny Davis and Reid Brown. Back row: Eddie Owens, between Warren Davis and Sunny Davis; and Raegan Nelson, between Sunny Davis and Reid Brown. (Photo by Celeste Saucier)
LELAND – Father Aloys Jost, OFM, of St. James Parish, blesses students’ backpacks on Sunday, Aug. 10. (Photo by Debbie Ruggeri)
CSA feature: Intercultural Ministry
At the Cathedral of Saint Peter the Apostle, parishioner Angelica Mazy has found a calling that has both deepened her own faith and helped others discover the beauty of the church. Through her work in Intercultural Ministry, Angelica is working to become a bridge between people of different backgrounds, fostering understanding and unity within the parish community.
Her journey began during a moment of prayer and reflection. “Recently, I attended the reflection of Pilgrims of Hope,” Angelica recalls. “Some people from the group I belong to also participated, and it was there I felt called to say ‘yes’ to this ministry.”
That simple yes soon became a transformative experience. “Intercultural Ministry is helping me appreciate other cultures and understand other people,” she explains. “We can be bridges in relationships.”
Over time, Angelica has witnessed remarkable changes in others. “There have been several moments in which I’ve seen people grow,” she says. “Some who rarely attended Mass and had not received all their sacraments are living their faith and attending Mass every Sunday. Watching that transformation fills me with hope.”
Stories like Angelica’s reveal the profound impact that parish ministries can have on individuals and communities alike. They remind us that when people come together in faith, lives are renewed, hope is restored, and the church is strengthened.
The Catholic Service Appeal makes this possible. Each gift becomes part of the church’s mission to share Christ’s love across cultures and generations. As Angelica beautifully puts it, “All those who help with donations are also evangelizing with their contributions.”
By supporting the Catholic Service Appeal, you share in this mission – helping build bridges of faith, fostering unity, and opening hearts to the transforming grace of God.
The annual Catholic Service Appeal unites Catholics across the Diocese of Jackson to support 14 vital ministries that serve local communities. From faith formation and youth ministry to seminarian education and clergy healthcare, these initiatives help carry the Gospel’s message to those in need throughout the diocese. Give today to help these ministries thrive.
Angelica Mazy
Angelica Mazy (front) and others participate in a reflection session provided by the Office of Intercultural Ministry on being “Pilgrims of Hope in a Multicultural Church” on June 14,2025 at the Chancery office in downtown Jackson.