Around the diocese
Youth
Author Archives: Mississippi Catholic
Posadas y misión pastoral: Celebraciones y radiciones de Adviento nos preparan para el nacimiento del Niño Jesús
(OSV News) — The Christmas season is a time anticipated not only by children, but by everyone. In a time when the cold winter permeates much of the United States, the warmth of celebrating as a family fills homes with the aromas of seasonal dishes and their hearts with joy.
Celebrations come one after another since the beginning of the Advent season. And many Hispanic families and parish communities live this time of preparation for the birth of Jesus with different traditions, always united in faith.
One of the traditions from Latin America is the Día de las Velitas (Day of the Little Candles), celebrated by Colombians Dec. 7 as a prelude to the commemoration of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, which the Catholic world celebrates Dec. 8. Many communities in the U.S. and the world join the Dec. 12 celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of the liturgical feasts that summons large communities of devotees of the Patroness of the Americas — with the largest pilgrimage being to her basilica in Mexico.
Among other traditions are the Novena de Aguinaldos, held Dec. 16-24 in countries such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia, as well as the traditional posadas celebrated in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and other Latin American countries. This tradition commemorates Joseph and Mary traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem and looking for a place where the Son of God would be born.
The community of St. Louis of France Church in Los Angeles County celebrates these festivities by integrating its Hispanic community, which is about 90% of the parish, and its Filipino community. “We begin with the novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe from Dec. 3 to 12,” said Father Michael Gutierrez, pastor.
After the massive celebration of Our Lady, the parish also celebrates las posadas along with the city of La Puente, said Father Gutierrez, who was born in Los Angeles. The parish also observes Simbang Gabi, a nine-day-long Filipino celebration to prepare for the coming of Christ.
The tradition of the posadas was part of an evangelizing initiative from Augustinian missionaries in the 1500s, who gave new meaning to some of the pre-Hispanic practices of indigenous people in Mexico to refocus them on the way of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.
Now, posadas start at dusk Dec. 16 and end with a Mass on Christmas Eve. They include stopping at certain homes (designated as “inns”), where the parishioners (often children) dressed up as Mary and Joseph are surrounded by other faithful, who sing litanies to the group inside the house, hoping to be let in. They are often “turned away” each home until the final home invites them in. The group kneels around the nativity scene and prays the rosary, sings Christmas carols, shares traditional dishes and drinks — such as buñuelos, tamales, atole — and breaks a star-shaped piñata.
For Alejandro Aguilera-Titus, assistant director of Hispanic Affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop, the posadas are loaded with symbolism. For example, “the piñata really represents sin, that is why the old piñatas — the authentic ones — had points that represented the seven deadly sins, then what you did was to hit the piñata as a symbol of what you wanted to break with sin, and when the candy fell, it was the grace of God that falls on you,” he said, adding that the symbol of being blindfolded as believing blindly and with the eyes of faith.
This expert also spoke of the celebration of the lulling of the Baby Jesus, a special Mexican tradition.
“This gesture of putting the child to bed is something that happens on Dec. 24,” he told OSV News. “Popular religiosity, our traditions like the posadas, like Christmas dinner and many others, give our children an experience of God and the church that takes place in the home, within the domestic church and also at the parish level.”
This year, the primarily Hispanic community of San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas, will kick off the posadas with its annual La Gran Posada, said Father Carlos Velázquez, the cathedral’s rector.
Parishioners will start at a park half a mile from the cathedral, accompanying Mary, who will ride on the back of a donkey, and Joseph. The procession includes stops at an emblematic local restaurant called Mi Tierra, the Spanish Governor’s Palace, city hall, the courthouse and finally, they will arrive at the cathedral, where Mary, Joseph, and a large group of pilgrims who have been walking and singing Christmas carols are welcomed with open doors.
“It is a wonderful moment, not only for the cathedral community, but for the whole city, and that is why we call it the Gran Posada,” Father Velázquez told OSV News. “These are moments of evangelization because we are proclaiming a story, which not only happened once in the past but is happening now in our world. There are many immigrants going from one place to another who are trying to enter and with much sadness are sometimes not admitted.”
The priest grew up in San Antonio and remembers how his grandparents would take him to the posadas as a child. “We would carry little metal lamps that we brought from Mexico that had candles inside, and there would be a procession outside the cathedral and then we would go inside,” he recalled.
In Los Angeles, another parish is known for their large nativity scene, another beloved fixture of Advent and Christmas. “There are figurines from different countries — there are Mexican, Guatemalan, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran figures that the parishioners have brought, and all this is part of the atmosphere and landscape of the nativity scene,” said Father Nicolás Sánchez, pastor of St. Patrick’s Church in North Hollywood.
The massive nativity scene at St. Patrick’s parish “wants to represent the diversity that exists in our parish, whether in the cultural part, in the experience of immigration, everyone is migrating to Bethlehem,” Father Sánchez told OSV News. “We all come to the United States with an objective, but what brings us together is the church, is Jesus.”
He also highlighted that the traditional posadas are an opportunity to share the church’s presence outside the parish. “Every day, a group or ministry organizes the posada in different barrios,” he said. “We celebrate the Eucharist there in the same neighborhood as a pastoral mission of our church that goes outward, inviting people to prepare with all their hearts for the celebration of Christmas.”
Like most Hispanic Catholics, this parish community will gather for midnight Mass (Misa de gallo) Dec. 24 to celebrate the birth of the Child Jesus. Before this solemn gathering, they will share a Christmas dinner in the community.
Father Sánchez emphasized the joy of the Hispanic community while assuring that his community celebrates everything traditional, “and we try to do it from the faith of a Jesus who is born in our lives, and that we also have to make him be born in the lives of others.”
(Marietha Góngora V. writes for OSV News from Bogotá, Colombia.)
Sister Thea Bowman Statue Dedication
Preparing your heart and home in Advent
By Woodeene Koenig-Bricker
(OSV News) – “When we let the world know that there is more to the holiday than presents and decorations, we fulfill our mission as Christians to evangelize the world.”
Imagine expecting a new baby. For months, you prepare to welcome this addition, but in the last month, the preparations really step up. You make sure that the crib is clean, the diapers are in place, the car seat is installed, and family and friends are ready to meet the new baby.
That sense of joyful preparation combined with anticipation is the attitude we bring to Advent as we await the arrival of Christ the Lord. Christmas is the high point, but using the days leading up to Dec. 25 to prepare both spiritually and materially is what Advent is all about!
What sets Advent apart from the usual secular preparations for Christmas is the spiritual dimension: Advent is a time of both prayer and penance. As Catholics, we are called to exercise a more disciplined approach to our spiritual lives during the four weeks of Advent and to pay special attention to our words and deeds as we wait patiently for the coming of Christ.
Waiting is a challenge, but instead of just counting down the days, we are called to use Advent as a time to deepen our relationship with God. Keep things simple: Read a Psalm as a bedtime prayer, go to confession, pray the rosary (especially on the special Marian feasts of the Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dec. 12)), spend some time in Eucharistic adoration, or go to daily Mass.
You could also say the traditional St. Andrews novena – 25 days of prayer for a holy Christmas, beginning on the feast of St. Andrew, Nov. 30. If you have children, make a “good deed” crèche: Put a slip of paper, acting as a piece of straw, in the manger each time you do a good deed so that the bed will be filled with “holy softness” for the Christ Child.
Some of the major signs of the season are decorations and lights, especially those on the outside of the house. As you decorate your house, think about how lights are more than just pretty objects. Lights, especially candles, have been used for centuries at Christmas time as a symbol of the star that showed the shepherds and wise men where to find the Christ Child. Your lights can serve as a witness to the “light of the world” that is both coming and has already arrived.
Each household develops their own traditions about when to put up a tree, stockings and other decorations. Some people like to do a little bit over the weeks; others prefer to make decorating a major part of Christmas Eve. (And in case you feel as if putting up decorations early is somehow improper, the Vatican puts up its Christmas scene, consisting of trees and a crèche, in very early December!)
St. Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first nativity scene. Invest in having a crèche of your own. Some people put theirs under the tree, others make a special scene on a table. Some families make the crèche into an ongoing tradition by adding a new figure each year.
Many families have special foods that they serve only at Christmas. As you prepare these treats, use the time to recall – and pray for – all those family members who have gone before us in death.
You might want to begin building some new and flavorful traditions. One idea from the Anglican tradition is to begin your holiday baking on the last Sunday before Advent. This Sunday is called “Stir-up Sunday” because traditional fruit cakes were mixed on this day and left to “mellow” until Christmas. The name comes from the collect prayer from the day’s liturgy: “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people.” Put a new twist on the tradition by making and freezing batches of cookie dough to be baked later in the month.
Advent is a time of hope and light. It is a time when we reaffirm that “nothing is impossible with God,” not even a virgin bringing forth a child. This Advent, find hope as you recommit yourself to spiritual renewal. This Advent, look for the Light in everything you do, from shopping for presents, to mailing cards, to making special food, to decorating the house.
This Advent, prepare your home and your heart for the coming of Emmanuel, God-with-Us, Jesus Christ.
(Woodeene Koenig-Bricker writes from Oregon.)
Movie Review: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
By John Mulderig
NEW YORK (OSV News) – Gentle and family-oriented, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” (Lionsgate) offers top-flight holiday entertainment for a wide range of age groups. In adapting author Barbara Robinson’s 1972 children’s novel, helmer Dallas Jenkins blends wry humor and touching drama while also successfully conveying some valuable insights.
As a small-town church prepares for the annual production of its tradition-bound yuletide pageant, the show’s long-standing director, Mrs. Armstrong (Mariam Bernstein), is suddenly put out of commission by an accident. So youthful stay-at-home mom Grace (Judy Greer) volunteers to step into the breach.
As Grace tries to get her bearings, she’s daunted to find that the Herdman children, a brood of six notoriously misbehaving siblings – led by the eldest, Imogene (Beatrice Schneider) – have bullied their way into the principal roles. Imogene, in particular, is determined to play the Virgin Mary.
Grace is inclined to give the neglected kids a chance to prove themselves. Yet she also justifiably fears that they’ll wreak disaster.
As she wavers, Grace is cheered on by her young daughter, Beth (Molly Belle Wright), and gets guarded support from her husband, Bob (Pete Holmes). She’s opposed every step of the way, however, by a band of close-minded fellow parishioners.
As narrated by the adult Beth (Lauren Graham), this is a mutual conversion story in which characters on both sides of the little controversy end up getting a better grip on the reason for the season. Thus the Herdman kids, as newcomers to worship and scripture, bring a fresh perspective to the tale of Christmas that helps renew the faith of those jaded by its familiarity.
Penned by Ryan Swanson, Platte F. Clark and Darin McDaniel, the script also treats with a delicate touch such themes as pigeonholing prejudice and the positive influence of religious role models. All this far outweighs the few quasi-irreverent exclamations used to illustrate the Herdmans’ naughtiness – wayward language that’s immediately rebuked by others on screen.
Overall, although small fry are unlikely to find it of interest, “Pageant” makes welcome entertainment for all others.
The film contains a few mild oaths and a single rude expression. The OSV News classification is A-II – adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG – parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
(John Mulderig is media reviewer for OSV News. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @JohnMulderig1.)
Happy Ordination Anniversary
December 16
Father Alexis Zuniga
Velasquez, ST
December 18
Deacon Carlos Sola
December 19
Father Thomas Mullally, SVD
December 19
Father Octavio Escobar Rangel, OdeM
December 27
Father Antony
Chakkalakkal
December 27
Father Augustine
Palimattam Poulose
Sainthood cause to open for beloved Irish actress turned nun, parish priest confirms
By Michael Kelly
DUBLIN (OSV News) – The sainthood cause of an Irish nun killed in an earthquake in Ecuador in 2016 is to open early next year, it has been revealed.
Derry-born Sister Clare Crockett was a promising actress with little interest in religion when she went on a Holy Week retreat in Spain in 2000 that changed her life.
The then 18-year-old self-confessed “wild child” felt a profound call to religious life, and entered the convent of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother.
Following her death in the 2016 Ecuador earthquake, stories soon began to spread of her holiness of life and devoted pastoral service. Her grave in her native Derry soon became a place of pilgrimage, and devotion to her intercession has grown. She has been credited with bringing many young people back to the practice of their Catholic faith.
Father Gerard Mongan, parish priest of her native parish of St. Columba’s in Derry’s working-class Bogside neighborhood, told OSV News that “news of the opening of Sister Clare’s cause for canonization has been received with great joy and anticipation in Derry.”
Father Mongan confirmed to OSV News that the cause for Sister Clare will open in Madrid Jan. 12. From this point she will be declared a servant of God and the intensive scrutiny of her life and ministry will continue with both a postulator and vice postulator appointed to present the case to the Vatican.
Father Mongan said he hopes that the news will help devotion to Sister Clare to spread far and wide. “She already has a huge following of devotees who are inspired by her remarkable conversion story.
“The people of Derry and beyond are overwhelmed by the possibility that one day, they will have their own saint. In particular, she has been an inspiration to many young people who have been inspired by her life, especially her infectious joy.
“She has already brought countless people back to the practice of their faith. We all look forward to the official opening of her cause when she will become (a) servant of God. Exciting times ahead!” Father Mongan said.
Sister Clare was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1982 at the height of the sectarian conflict known as The Troubles, in which over 3,000 people lost their lives.
Her home town is featured in the popular comedy series “Derry Girls,” which follows the antics of teenagers in the city.
Shortly after her death her religious congregation, the Home of the Mother, released a film charting her life. “All of Nothing” documents the last 15 years of her life and includes interviews with her family, childhood friends and the sisters from the Home of the Mother order. The film now has more than 2.5 million views on YouTube.
In 2020, the order published the first full-length biography of the religious sister.
“Sister Clare Crockett: Alone with Christ Alone” is written by Sister Kristen Gardner, who was also responsible for the documentary.
The book is based on Sister Clare’s notebooks of spiritual writings, discovered after her death. In one passage she recalls the experience that brought her to rediscover her faith on Good Friday in 2000.
“I do not know how to explain exactly what happened. I did not see the choirs of angels or a white dove come down from the ceiling and descend on me, but I had the certainty that the Lord was on the Cross, for me,” she recalled.
“And along with that conviction, I felt a great sorrow, similar to what I had experienced when I was little and prayed the Stations of the Cross. When I returned to my pew, I already had imprinted in me something that was not there before. I had to do something for him Who had given his life for me,” she wrote.
It was the start of a journey of conversion and healing that led to her – despite protests from her family and acting manager – joining the sisters and taking her first vows in 2006.
Her first assignment was in the community at Belmonte, in Cuenca, Spain, in a residence for girls that come from families in difficulty. “Her zeal for souls, especially those of the youth, was immense,” the sisters wrote in her online biography.
Soon after she was sent to the new community that was about to be opened in Jacksonville, Florida, in October 2006. The sisters began pastoral work at Assumption Parish and School.
Father Frederick Parke, who died Oct. 18, 2021, remembered Sister Clare as one beaming with enthusiasm and joy.
“The children picked up on the enthusiasm that she had for the Eucharist. She overflowed with enthusiasm for the Lord. Once you had been with her, you knew you had to pick up that same enthusiasm. It was so catchy.”
Michael Kelly writes for OSV News from Dublin, Ireland.
Pastoral Assignments
Rev. Vijay Madanu, SVD, appointed Administrator of Holy Ghost Parish in Jackson, effective Dec. 1, 2024.
Rev. Leon Ngandu, SVD, appointed Administrator of Holy Family Parish in Jackson, effective Dec. 1, 2024.
The ‘month of the dead’ brings its own strange refreshment
MORE THAN WORDS
By Bishop Robert Reed
Those of us who have experienced the death of a loved one, even if we believe that she or he has gone to a better place, still find ourselves struggling with the parting. It’s hard to let go. Sometimes it’s made a little easier if we have been present for someone’s last days, and at the moment of their death, when we experience the whole strange (and often quite beautiful) mystery of living and dying being played out before our very eyes.
Still, parting is, as Shakespeare wrote, “such sweet sorrow.”
In November, death seems uniquely before us Catholics. The month begins with the great memorial of our saints, followed the next day by the commemoration of all who have passed from this life before us.
And then the nights grow longer, and the winds come. The familiar and warm rustle of leaves diminishes and is replaced with the dry-bones clickety-click of bare branches. It all helps us to remember, and keenly, that “we have no lasting city” (Heb 13:14). At least not one here, on earth.
Thanks be to God that we Christians know physical death is not an end to our lives, but a portal to what St. Paul calls “the city that is yet to come.”
The Gospels are an invitation to us to believe fully in the glory and power of God; to hand ourselves over in all things; to put our doubts and fears themselves to death!
Think of the emotion expressed in the 11th chapter of the Gospel of John, when Lazarus, Jesus’ close friend, has died. His sisters are devastated, and their heartache moves the Lord to tears. Jesus reaches into the situation. He touches the air all around it – a word through the Word – and transforms it. Death to life. The Messiah has revealed the glory and power of God, for whom all things are possible.
The focus of our good prayer this month is not directly on us, but on those who have gone before – our ancestors of genetic and spiritual oneness. It is a venerable tradition for us, as people of faith, to remember those whom we have had to let go: grandparents, parents, siblings, relatives and friends, and those whom we have come to know, love and pray with, within the great “cloud of witnesses.”
Time can soften our griefs, but our attachments remain, until we too must be mourned and then released.
And yet – never forget this! – we who have been baptized into Christ’s death live with a substantial hope; one that does not disappoint. As the book of Wisdom teaches, our hope is “full of immortality” (Wis 3:4).
That hope helps us to wonder at the depths of pain, grief and confusion that death can bring us to, until we begin to perceive the mysterious “rest of the story.” That we are standing and grieving and growing and necessarily carrying on with our lives, while encountering a place of transition, a sacred passage – a gate through which we know with certitude we too must pass – into what Christ Jesus proved to us through his resurrection: the reality of eternal life.
“Baptized into his death … we were buried therefore with him,” St. Paul preached to the Romans (Rom 6: 3-4), “so that as Christ was raised from the dead … we too might walk in the newness of life.”
That’s a refreshing concept, isn’t it? “The newness of life” encourages us to embrace all seasons of our time here and to open our minds, hearts and souls to Christ in everything that comes to us, because in all of it – the joyful and the painful and the uncertain – a kind of newness of life is revealed.
Things change; they do not end. And isn’t that a wonderful thing to contemplate, as we approach the close of another liturgical year, and look forward to the deep expectation of Advent?
(Bishop Robert P. Reed is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, pastor of St. Patrick and Sacred Heart parishes in Watertown, Massachusetts, and president of the CatholicTV Network. He is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Communications.)
Federal judge strikes down Biden ‘Keeping Families Together’ program
By Kate Scanlon
(OSV News) – A federal judge in Texas on Nov. 7 struck down a Biden administration program to protect from deportation and provide a path to U.S. citizenship for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants living in the country who are married to U.S. citizens.
The program, known as “Keeping Families Together,” which sought to allow undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens to apply for a green card without first having to leave the country, was challenged by 16 Republican-led states that filed a lawsuit after applications were made available in August. At that time, a judge put the program on hold.
“Sadly, this court decision will likely end the program, as Trump will terminate it upon taking office,” J. Kevin Appleby, senior fellow for policy at the Center for Migration Studies of New York and the former director of migration policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told OSV News.
“Instead, his administration will start targeting the exact same families for deportation, separating U.S. citizen children from their parents,” Appleby said. “Hopefully, Catholic advocates, including the U.S. bishops, will not pull their punches in opposing Trump’s mass deportation and anti-asylum plans. History will mark how the church in the U.S. defends the rights of migrants in the years ahead.”
Under the terms of the program, applicants must have resided in the U.S. for 10 or more years and be legally married to a U.S. citizen. Those approved by the Department of Homeland Security would have been permitted to remain in the U.S. for a three-year period to apply for permanent residency.
In June, the White House had said the program would benefit “approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.”
But Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, who previously temporarily blocked the program, struck it down Nov. 7, arguing the administration exceeded its authority in creating the program.
The program would have been unlikely to remain in place once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
Andrew Bailey, the attorney general of Missouri, one of the states that joined the lawsuit challenging the program, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), “The court just granted our request to throw out the Biden-Harris administration’s illegal parole-in-place program allowing illegal aliens to remain in our country after they have crossed the border. A huge win for the rule of law.”
FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy group, said in a post on X it is “deeply disappointed” by the ruling, arguing the program represented “a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of American families in desperate need of protection from being separated by our failed immigration system.”
Previously, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, who serves as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, praised the Biden administration rule at the time. He noted a similar program had been available to military service members and their families for several years.
In a June 18 statement, Bishop Seitz said, “We’ve seen the positive impacts such programs can have, not only for beneficiaries themselves but for the families, employers, and communities that rely on them,” adding that the new program was “sure to yield similar benefits.”
The Catholic Church’s magisterium outlines the church’s moral parameters on immigration. The Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs, “The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”
At the same time, the church has also made clear human laws are also subject to divine limits. St. John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical “Veritatis Splendor” (“Splendor of Truth”) and 1995 encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” (“The Gospel of Life”) — both quote the Second Vatican Council’s teaching in “Gaudium et Spes,” the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, which names “deportation” among various specific acts “offensive to human dignity” that “are a disgrace, and so long as they infect human civilization they contaminate those who inflict them more than those who suffer injustice, and they are a negation of the honor due to the Creator.”
Back in June, Bishop Seitz emphasized that “legislators have a moral and patriotic duty to improve our legal immigration system, including the opportunities available for family reunification and preservation.”
“A society is only as strong as its families, and family unity is a fundamental right,” he said. “For the good of the country, Congress must find a way to overcome partisan divisions and enact immigration reform that includes an earned legalization program for longtime undocumented residents.”
(Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) @kgscanlon.)