By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
After God set the world in motion through the work of creation, he fashioned man and woman from the dust of the earth in the divine image and likeness and entrusted them with the task of developing this grand handiwork. Then and now, God intends that we not lose sight of his divine presence when we apply our talents to building a world that gives glory to the creator, dignity to human life everywhere and a profound awe for the beauty of our planet. For further motivation and inspiration, we, as disciples of the Son of God, recall the words of sacred scripture that proclaim, “for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible … all things were created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:15-17) Through faith we know that love is our origin, love is our constant calling and love is our fulfillment in heaven.

We also know that for as long as we live there is much to be done. Perhaps this Labor Day more than ever reminds us that throughout our lives the work of building and rebuilding is constant.

Recall the sobering yet hopeful words from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. “We know that the whole creation has been groaning with labor pains together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons and daughters, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:19-23)

Are we ever groaning these days, as the pandemic grinds on in many corners of our society and world, whether it be over our children, academically and developmentally, or the loss of life and the suffering that ensues. Considerable rebuilding will be necessary.
Blessed Mother Teresa understood well the lifetime task of building a religious community to serve the dire needs of the present moment, and to endure for generations to come in a world where there are no guarantees. In a poem attributed to her entitled, “Anyway” she mused, “What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.”
Clearly, what she is saying is that when necessary, rebuild and create something better. We can apply her wisdom to the destructive drives inherent in humanity or to the overwhelming power of nature. It seems that wherever we turn, too many are caught between a rock and a hard place, Scylla and Charybdis, the rocky shoals or the churning whirlpool.

On the one hand, there is the destructive power of nature in the virus silently stalking, in raging fires, in howling hurricanes, in unforeseen flooding or in heaving earthquakes. On the other hand, destruction boils over from the abyss of human nature, alienated from our loving creator, in acts of violence, terrorism and war. What once was, is no more and people are pressed to choose. Look ahead and rebuild in one form or another or look backward and wallow in inertia. The Book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that in the cycle of living, “there is a time to break down, and a time to build up.” (3:3) As God’s children we want to be busy about living.

This weekend is the 20th anniversary of 9/11 that obliterated many lives, destroyed iconic structures, wreaked havoc upon our nation’s psyche, and unleashed a 20-year war whose official ending is still spilling blood. Indeed, all of creation groans. Yet, this crisis immediately revealed the goodness and courage of first responders and many others who put aside concern for self in the hope of rescuing their neighbor and the stranger. It took 14 years for the majestic One World Center to be built on the spot of the Twin Towers that were destroyed. It will take a lifetime or more for those who directly experienced this horror to heal. We pray that the work of reconciliation will never cease.

The Son of God, the one through whom and for whom all creation came to be, revealed life’s inevitable vulnerability on Calvary. Yet, on Easter Sunday the dawn from on high broke upon us and we who walk in the shadow of death, now walk by faith and labor with a purpose everyday of our lives, because Christ lives.

In the big questions about our lives and in our daily and familiar tasks, may we know that in God our lives are a labor of love, whether we are building something new with great confidence, or rebuilding in the face of loss. In the prologue of St. John, we know whence the power comes to regain our footing and our hope. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things were made through him. In him was life, and the life was the light for all. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
Dear friends in Christ, due to the pandemic many diocesan, parish and school events and programing were derailed, postponed or curtailed. One of the casualties earlier this year was the parish in-pew process for the 2021 Catholic Service Appeal.

Consequently, our goal of $1,153,654 is down approximately $344,000. All things considered; this shortfall is directly related to the cancellation of the in-pew process over health concerns surrounding the spread of the COVID-19. But as the contributions to the appeal slowed to a trickle by early summer, I and other diocesan officials realized that we had to arrange for one final push to overcome the deficit that will surely have a negative impact on our ministries.

The best approach would be to conduct the in-pew process as the cornerstone for this 11th hour drive, which is now scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 28 and 29. A seven-month delay is unprecedented with this critical step for the success of the service appeal, but then again, we are navigating through unprecedented times.

The service appeal is an essential component of our annual diocesan budget, funding approximately 20% for our ministries and programs. To put a human face on this deficit, a 25% shortfall of $344,000 is most of what it costs to educate our six seminarians for the academic year ahead. Or this is most of the annual contribution to our Catholic Charities that each year is an unrestricted flow of income that can be used for shortfalls in programing. So much of the work of Catholic Charities is accomplished off the radar, but we are serving vulnerable populations throughout Mississippi, and the vast majority of our sisters and brothers whom we empower are not Catholic. We do the work because we are Catholic, and so we lift up the victims of domestic violence, those weighed down under the yoke of drugs and alcohol, homeless veterans who put their lives on the line, children and young people in foster care and adoption services, young people afflicted by mental health issues and family turmoil, disaster relief, counseling and immigration services, academic enrichment for underserved children and much more. Through all of these programs we fulfill our mission to be a visible sign of Christ’s love.

Fittingly, we are concerned about the gaping deficit in this year’s goal, because all of our diocesan ministries that serve the Lord depend upon your generosity through the service appeal. The office of communication, including our Mississippi Catholic publication, Faith Formation and Evangelization, Youth ministry and Campus ministry, and more, will be adversely affected unless we can substantially or totally erase the deficit.

We are grateful to all who have contributed to this year’s appeal so far. Some even went the extra mile and made a second contribution, realizing that regular donors might not be able to give due to the setbacks of the pandemic.

Currently, we are down 1,470 donors for this year’s appeal. Clearly, the postponement of the in-pew process is the major culprit.

If you are able to contribute at the 11th hour of the 2021 appeal, please know that each and every gift will be a blessing. Whether you can take the opportunity through the in-pew-process on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 28 and 29, through the mail or online giving, be assured that you will be supporting the mission of the Diocese of Jackson to serve others, to inspire disciples and to embrace diversity. Sister Thea Bowman would be so proud to behold each little light glowing together to become a beacon of hope for all in need, and for the glory of God.

By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
On the 25th anniversary of his election as the Successor of Peter, and early in the new millennium St. John Paul II on April 17, 2003 bestowed upon the church the Encyclical Letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia. On this day, the church throughout the world was celebrating Holy Thursday, the beginning of the Paschal Triduum, the institution of the Eucharist, and the foundation for the sacrament of Holy Orders. Instituted at the Last Supper and fulfilled in the death and resurrection of the Lord on Easter morning, “the Eucharist stands at the center of the church’s life” from the beginning.
In this document St. John Paul ardently expressed his hopes and dreams for all of the Lord’s disciples in the Catholic Church throughout the world. “I would like to rekindle this Eucharistic ‘amazement’ by the present Encyclical Letter, in continuity with the Jubilee Year in 2000. To contemplate the face of Christ and to contemplate it with Mary, is the “programme” which I have set before the church at the dawn of the new millennium, summoning her to put out into the deep on the sea of history with the enthusiasm of the new evangelization. To contemplate Christ involves being able to recognize him wherever he manifests himself, in his many forms of presence, but above all in the living sacrament of his body and blood. The church draws her life from Christ in the Eucharist; by him she is fed and by him she is enlightened. The Eucharist is both a mystery of faith and a mystery of light.”

We recall that in 2002 St. John Paul instituted the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary that begin with Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan, and continue with the Wedding at Cana, the Proclamation of the Kingdom, the Transfiguration, and culminate with the Eucharist, “the source and summit of the Christian life” the iconic statement from Lumen Gentium, the document on the church from the Second Vatican Council.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a boundless fountain of new life where each generation of the faithful is called to be renewed in Eucharistic “amazement,” from the Successor of Peter in Rome to communities of faith on all points of the compass in the universal church. In recent months, the raucous rhetoric surrounding the prospective document on the Eucharist from the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops has misrepresented the goal of the Conference’s strategic plan for renewal in the church in the spirit of St. John Paul’s Apostolic Letter, Ecclesia de Eucharistia. The following is an overview of a deliberative process that was well underway independent of any political distortion.
“The 2021-24 USCCB Strategic Plan will guide the Conference during the uniquely challenging times we face as a church and nation. The theme chosen for the 2021-2024 USCCB strategic plan, “Created Anew by the Body and Blood of Christ: Source of Our Healing and Hope” emerged as the result of listening sessions with Bishops, the National Advisory Council and USCCB senior staff who were asked to reflect on the challenges and opportunities facing the church in the four years ahead. The need for healing and renewal through a reinvigorated focus on the Blessed Sacrament emerged as the theme most commonly discussed and embraced among the groups; as such, it naturally evolved and was adopted as the theme of the 2021-24 USCCB strategic plan that will guide the Conference over the next four years.”
Moreover, the dispersion of the faithful brought about by the pandemic gives even greater impetus to the wisdom of the strategic plan. The extensive dialogue among the bishops at the recent June meeting appears to have righted the ship and the forthcoming document on the Eucharist will align with the strategic plan for 2021-2024.
Worthiness to receive the Body and Blood of the Lord, or being in the state of grace, has been part of the church’s tradition from the beginning as we read in the words of St. Paul. “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For everyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on themselves.” (1Corinthians 11:27-29)
Obviously, worthiness is a critical element that cannot be dodged because sin and scandal weaken the Body of Christ and compromise the church’s mission in this world. Worthiness and the essential call of the Lord to repentance and conversion are ever ancient and ever new, will be integral in the impending document. For sure, there is a rightful time and place for disciplinary action in the life of the church in every generation, but this publication of the Bishops’ Conference does not have the authority to address personal situations. This is the realm of a particular pastor or bishop.
Coming soon in a church near you, we will have the opportunity this summer to hear, contemplate and celebrate for several weeks the Bread of Life discourse of Jesus from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. In the words of St. John Paul II may the proclamation of these gospel passages, our Lord’s own words, be a source of Eucharistic “amazement” spiritual food to sustain us on the path of life, and the pledge of eternal life.

(Editor’s note: Below is the homily that Bishop Kopacz delivered at the Mass of Christian Burial for Bishop Joseph N. Latino on June 9, 2021.)
By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
My first encounter with Bishop Latino was at the airport in Jackson when I arrived the night before I was announced as the 11th Bishop of Jackson on Dec. 12, 2013. He was there to welcome me. He had a very broad smile knowing that his successor was real and had arrived. His gracious and welcoming spirit remained constant over these past seven and a half years in many ways. There were some light moments even before arriving. Some mistook his middle name, Nunzio, for Nuncio, and they thought I was following the Apostolic Delegate. Others observed that my facility with the Spanish language will serve me well because I was replacing a Latino. Oh well.
Ut Unum Sint – That all may be one

The unity that Bishop Latino’s episcopal motto proclaimed is at the center of the great priestly prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper in John’s Gospel. This prayer has its source and summit in the unity that Jesus Christ has with the Father and the Holy Spirit, a mystery woven throughout the Gospel of John that so inspired Bishop Latino as seen in his Gospel selection for today’s Mass. The Gospel of John begins sublimely: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
In the middle of the Gospel at the Last Supper the washing of the feet commences with the bold assertion that “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from his supper, laid aside his garments, and tied a towel around himself.”
Toward the end of the Gospel on the night of the resurrection Jesus breathed into his apostles the gift of the Holy Spirit, after embracing them in peace and saying to them, “as the Father has sent me so I send you.” His apostles, anointed in the Holy Spirit and consecrated in the truth for mission, were sent to preach the Gospel as a living body, in all of their diversity. They were one!
In his Episcopal motto and in his choice of the Gospel for today’s funeral liturgy, we find the core of Bishop Latino’s vocation to the priesthood culminating in his consecration as the 10th Bishop of Jackson.
Today’s Gospel passage is under the heading “The authority of the Son of God.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life … For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”
There is no doubt that Bishop Latino lived his priestly vocation with a deep sense of the Lord’s call and authority over his life. Throughout his 58 years and two days in the priesthood of Jesus Christ he served with the heart of the Good Shepherd, to build up his body, the church, for the salvation of all, with that graciousness we heard at the end of the passage from Thessalonians: “Encourage one another, and build one another up.”
Like the prophet Jeremiah he felt the Lord’s call to the priesthood from his youth. Like Jeremiah, there were daunting challenges as one can expect when coming forward to serve the Lord as the Book of Sirach soberly states, but once Bishop Latino put his hand to the plow he did not look back.
He was ordained in 1963 in the middle of the Second Vatican Council. Just when he thought he had all the answers after 12 years of seminary formation, in a matter of two or three years, the church and the world changed most of the questions. Obviously, he dug deeper and in the words of Sirach he set his heart and remained steadfast, by the grace of God.
Forty years later, after steadfastly serving in the Archdiocese of New Orleans and in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux as vicar general and pastor of the Cathedral for many years, he was anticipating downsizing in his priestly duties, so to speak, like maybe a smaller parish. Oh well!
The phone rang; he took the call, and answered the call, and once again he set his heart right and remained steadfast, and moved north to become the 10th Bishop of this amazing diocese.
Bishop Latino had come forward to serve the Lord early in life, and steadfastness endured as a defining virtue of his character and his priesthood, a mindset that motivated him to work in the Lord’s vineyard in a variety of pastoral ministries, to achieve that unity for which the Lord Jesus prayed and laid down his life. Over his ten years as Bishop of Jackson, the Lord brought forth new growth, fruit that lasts to this present moment. Of course, in his unassuming matter he might say, I just stayed out of God’s way.
St. Pope John Paul II on the occasion of his 50th anniversary of ordination wrote a reflection on his priesthood entitled, Gift and Mystery. In chapter seven, he asks: Who is the Priest? What does it mean to be a priest?
He recalled the words of St. Paul. “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy.” (1Cor. 4:1-2)
We give joyful thanks for Bishop Latino’s trustworthy service for nearly six decades, for years in the fullness of his strength and as time passed accepting the changes in his health that humbled him, in the words of Sirach, our first reading.
In his retirement, at times, he grieved the physical limitations that prevented him from serving more actively in the diocese, but at the foot of the Cross his ministry of prayer and presence was a treasure for us. His early monastic formation served him well in his later years. Through it all he trusted in the Lord who called him from his youth, and in holy fear, grew old in God.
My final encounter with Bishop Latino was sitting at his bedside within hours of his death, softly saying the rosary and praying the Night Prayer, as he slowly passed from this world to the next. I spoke the words that he no longer could.
Now, Master, you let your servant go in peace. You have fulfilled your promise.
My own eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all peoples.
A light to all the nations; the glory of your people Israel.
This is the cornerstone of Night Prayer that all priests offer at day’s end, reminding us of who is the master, and whose glory is at work.
I trust that as Bishop Latino’s body wasted away, his inner self was being renewed every day, in the words of St. Paul. What is seen is transitory, what is unseen is eternal.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual life shine upon. May he rest in peace. Amen.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.

By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
In a manner deeply rooted in our tradition of faith, on the feast of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord, we gathered around the Altar of Sacrifice, as did Moses and the Israelites at the base of Mount Sinai, to renew and celebrate our Covenant begun in Baptism, sealed in the blood of the Cross, and confirmed in the Resurrection. The Israelites emerged from slavery in Egypt to a place of freedom in the desert, in order to gather as the People of God.
We are regathering as the Body of Christ in greater numbers after a year of being scattered, not because of the oppression of a cruel Pharoah, but because of a punishing pandemic. Even further back in our tradition of faith we resemble Noah and his family, including all of God’s creatures, who were confined in their floating home, until the day they could set foot on land and offer sacrifice to God. So too, we set foot in our churches throughout the diocese in a more ordinary manner to offer sacrifice to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

On the most fitting solemnity apart from Easter Sunday, the dispensation from the Sunday Obligation was lifted on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, rightly in place for over a year, in order that our Catholic faithful, the Body of Christ, might celebrate anew our most sublime act of worship, the holy Mass.
I have been inspired by all who have gathered this past year out of hunger for God’s Word and the sacrament of the Eucharist, and by all who have had a deep hunger to be physically present in church. More and more this longing is being fulfilled as the pandemic recedes. For those, who continue to stay apart because of health concerns, may circumstances allow them to come home, sooner rather than later.
In national surveys over the past year, many expressed that the pandemic, in the throes of suffering, death and deprivation, had strengthened their faith in God and their spiritual lives. Crucibles often do this. This growth could indicate a wide range of personal development, but for us as Catholics, outward signs that our faith in Jesus Christ has grown are confirmable. They are the hunger to be in communion with him in the sacrament of his Body and Blood, the hunger to be a living part of the Body of Christ, the gathered community, and the hunger and thirst that we have for righteousness and reconciliation in our relationships, beginning at home, and reaching out to all in our lives and in our world.
Pope Francis continually pleads for a deeper sense of fraternity in our world that compliments liberty and equality. His passion for greater unity and solidarity among peoples and nations arises from the source and summit of our Catholic identity, the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
The precious body and blood of the Lord is our lifeline in faith. Each day the Word of God resounds in accord throughout the world-wide church, a light in the darkness. The crucified and risen One is the light of the world, the bread of life, the way and the truth. His life poured out for us is food for the journey and the pledge of eternal life.
What a precious gift and mystery we celebrate in his undying love for us. How blessed we are each time we gather for the Eucharist, professing our faith that we do this in memory of the One who is with us always until the end of time and for all eternity.
On Mount Tabor, the mountain of the Transfiguration, Peter blurted out, incredulous for pure joy: “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” (Matthew 17:4) We concur that it is good for us to be back in church in our sacred places where we can see and celebrate the glory of God shining on the face of Jesus Christ, on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord, and throughout the year. Alleluia!

By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
Pope Francis often has described the upheavals across the globe, socially and environmentally, as a change of an era, not merely an era of change. At the center of his Holy Spirit driven dream contained in his most recent books, Fratelli Tutti and Let Us Dream, the Path to a New Future, is the hope that the world would not only extol liberty and equality as the ultimate values but would evolve to form the perfect triangle with the inclusion of fraternity.
The pending feast of Pentecost beckons as the culminating moment of the Easter season next weekend, when we celebrate the transforming power of the Holy Spirit who can renew the face of the earth, and the landscape of our hearts and minds. This is the divine drama whose culmination will be at the second coming of the Lord Jesus. The early church experienced a change of an era moment very quickly, a second Pentecost event, in the home of Cornelius, last Sunday’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. (Acts 10:25-48)
Most Catholics can identify with the first Pentecost and the birth of the church when the Holy Spirit with a strong driving wind and tongues of fire launched the proclamation of the Gospel with the 120 disciples gathered in prayer, including the 12 apostles and the Blessed Mother. Peter, the first among equals of the apostles, stood up in the midst of the emerging community of believers to address the devout Jews gathered from every nation who were in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish feast of Weeks, the first fruits of the harvest. After Peter’s historic preaching of the Kerygma in the context of the Hebrew scriptures of salvation history, 3000 were baptized that day, all of them Jews. (Acts 2:41) The great commission of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 28:16-20) to the 11 apostles before ascending into heaven, to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, was in their world view a message of salvation intended exclusively for the sons and daughters of Abraham scattered in the diaspora.

The second Pentecost moment that ushered in the change of an era did not occur at the religious, economic, and cultural center of the Jews in Jerusalem, but in the living room of a pagan. Peter, again at the center of the divine drama, was pushed and prodded by the Holy Spirit in a repetitive vision to kill and consume unclean food. (Acts 10:10-16) Peter found this repulsive and refused to indulge. Upon awakening three strangers arrived and directed him to the home of Cornelius, a centurion, where he and his family were eager to offer hospitality to the preeminent leader of the disciples of the crucified and risen Lord.
What was so dramatic about this encounter, is that Peter underwent radical conversion because mixing and mingling with Gentiles was the source of his revulsion, that which the food symbolized. He began his discourse unaware that the second downpour of Pentecost was imminent. In the middle of his preaching on the crucified and resurrected Lord of history, the Holy Spirit, more or less, went over the top of Peter and fell upon the Gentile’s with the fire of God’s love. This encounter, although off the beaten path, was at least as dramatic as the first. Peter and the pious Jews from Jerusalem were shocked that the Holy Spirit could have been poured out upon the Gentiles, the uncircumcised, the pagans, the impure. (10:46) This groundbreaking moment revealed to Peter and church leadership, all Jewish at the time, that the outpouring of blood and water on the Cross and of the Holy Spirit truly was a universal gift.
The joy overflowed for many of the believers, but this revelation caused considerable division in the early church. The Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) officially resolved the question of the extent of the Mosaic Law that would be incumbent upon Gentile converts, but the battle in the trenches of church life raged for generations over the necessity of circumcision for the Gentiles, the sign of the covenant that went back to Abraham.
The first and second Pentecost moments as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles manifestly displayed that the Holy Spirit, then and now, is poured out upon the entire church, especially when gathered in prayer. At times, God’s liberating actions can take everyone by surprise.
Pope Francis calls these events, an overflow of God’s grace, and the foundation for what Pope he sees as the need for active Synodality in the Church. These forums for prayer, dialogue and discernment, where the community of believers gather, ordained and laity, are as essential to the church in the third millennium as they were in the first. They give witness to the liberty we know in Jesus Christ, the equality of dignity that all people possess made in the image and likeness of God, and the fraternity that is inherent in the Great Commission to make disciples of all the nations. Indeed, come Holy Spirit in our time, and infuse the church with the breath of God, who is ever ancient and ever new.