By Carol Glatz ROME (CNS) – With Advent coming during an ongoing pandemic, Christians are called to hold on to hope and foster a season of compassion and tenderness, Pope Francis said.
During Advent this year, too, “its lights will be dimmed by the consequences of the pandemic, which still weighs heavily on our time,” he said Nov. 22. “All the more reason why we are called to question ourselves and not to lose hope.”
“The feast of the birth of Christ is not out of tune with the trial we are going through because it is the quintessential feast of compassion, the feast of tenderness. Its beauty is humble and full of human warmth,” the pope said during an audience with organizers and participants in a Christmas music contest. The contest was proposed and promoted by the Pontifical Foundation Gravissimum Educationis and Don Bosco Valdocco Missions association, based in Turin.
The contest invited people between the ages of 16 and 35 to produce new songs inspired by Christmas and its values: life, love, peace and light, according to the initiative’s website, christmascontest.it/en/. Contestants were competing in three categories: lyrics, music and interpretation, and the best three pieces will be performed during the 2021 edition of the annual Christmas concert at the Vatican.
Pope Francis leaves after celebrating Mass for the feast of Christ the King in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Nov. 21, 2021. (CNS photo/Remo Casilli, Reuters)
The pope thanked the groups who came up with the idea for the contest, “which gives voice to the young, inviting them to create new songs inspired by Christmas and its values.”
“The beauty of Christmas shines through in the sharing of small gestures of genuine love. It is not alienating, it is not superficial, it is not evasive,” he said.
The beauty of Christmas “expands the heart, opening it up to gratuitousness – gratuitousness, a word artists understand well! – to the giving of self,” and it can also foster cultural, social and educational life and activities, he added.
Pope Francis quoted what St. Paul VI told artists during Advent in 1965: “This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair.”
It must not be the false beauty “made of appearances and earthly riches, which are hollow and a generator of emptiness,” Pope Francis said. It must be the real beauty “of a God made flesh, the one of faces — the beauty of faces, the beauty of stories” and the beauty of “creatures that make up our common home.”
He thanked the young people, artists and other participants “for not forgetting to be custodians of this beauty that the nativity of the Lord makes shine in every daily gesture of love, sharing and service.
I was raised in a generation that taught that God gave each of us a vocation to live out. In the religious ethos of that time, particularly in Roman Catholic spirituality, we believed that we were put on this earth with a divine plan for us, that God gave us each a special vocation to live out. Moreover, this was not something we were free to choose for ourselves; it was God-given. Our task was to discern that vocation and give ourselves over to it, even at the price of having to renounce our own dreams. We remained free to accept or not, but at a peril. To be unfaithful to your vocation meant a misguided life.
There’s an important truth in that notion, though it needs some critical nuances. First, in that spirituality, they thought of vocations in a very restrictive sense, essentially envisaging only four basic vocations: priesthood, religious life, marriage, and single life. Further, they tended to put too much gravity on the choice, namely, if you chose wrong or if you resisted your God-given vocation, it might endanger your eternal salvation. There were some unhealthy fears connected to the choice.
I saw that first-hand when I served as the provincial superior for our religious order for six years. One of my tasks was to apply to Rome for the laicization of priests leaving the priesthood. I saw how many of those leaving the priesthood had chosen that vocation under undue pressure and false fear. Their choice had not been a free one.
Padre Ron Rolheiser, OMI
That being said, the old notion of vocation is essentially still true and is too easily lost in a world and culture that generally puts personal freedom above all else. We need to learn again the importance of finding one’s vocation and giving oneself over to it.
Admittedly, vocation needs to be defined more widely than choosing between priesthood, religious life, marriage, and single life. Instead, it needs to be defined as an obedience to the inner dictates of our soul, our gifts, our talents, and the non-negotiable mandate inside us to put ourselves in service to others and the world.
James Hollis, a Jungian therapist writing from a purely secular viewpoint, highlights precisely this point. “Our real desires and our destiny are not chosen for us by our ego, but by our nature and ‘the divinities.’ … Something within us knows what is right for us and its insistence on expression is what keeps us awake at night, nudges us from within during our busiest hours, or causes us to envy others. Vocation is a summons of the soul. … It’s as if we were sent to this land with a royal assignment, and if we have only dithered about and forgotten the task, then we have violated our reason for being here.” How true.
Columnist David Brooks, also speaking from a secular place, strongly agrees. A vocation, he writes, is an irrational factor wherein you hear an inner voice that is so strong that it becomes unthinkable to turn away and where you intuitively know that you don’t have a choice, but can only ask yourself, what is my responsibility here? As well, the summons to a vocation is a holy thing, something mystical, a call from the deep. Thus, discerning your vocation is not a matter of asking what you expect from life but rather what life expects from you.
What would Jesus say? As we know, Jesus was fond of teaching in parables and his parable of talents (Matthew 25 and Luke 19) is ultimately about living out one’s God-given vocation. In that parable, those who use their talents thrive and are given even more talents. Conversely, those who hide their talents are punished. In essence, the message is this: If we use our God-given talents, we will find meaning and blessing in our lives; on the other hand, if we don’t use our talents, those very gifts will snakebite us, poison our happiness, and generally embitter our spirits. Show me a man who is bitter and envious, and most times you will see a gifted man who, consciously or unconsciously, is frustrated because he has not used his talents or has used them in a manner that doesn’t serve others. Bitterness and envy are often the unhappy residue from being snake-bitten by our own unused or misused intelligence and gifts.
There’s a voice inside us issuing forth from the depths of our souls that speaks for our talents, our temperament, our unique circumstance in life, our moral and religious sensitivities, and even for our wounds. This voice is gentle, but firm and unrelenting, as it tells us that we are not free to do anything we want with our lives. We need to surrender them to something higher than ourselves.
And indeed, there’s a peril in not listening, though what’s at stake in not our eternal salvation, but our happiness and generativity on this side of eternity.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)
Kneading Faith By Fran Lavelle The Year of the Eucharist was inaugurated in our diocese on the Feast of Christ the King and will be celebrated through the 2022 liturgical year. Our theme, “Stay with us, Lord,” comes from Luke’s Gospel (24:13-49) referred to as the Emmaus story.
In it we hear about two disciples, on their way to Emmaus, talking about the recent events in Jerusalem. Jesus encountered the two on the road and talked with them as they continued their journey though they did not recognize him. As night approached, they urged Jesus to stay with them. While he was at table Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened, and they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Central to the Emmaus story is the journey of the two disciples. Not just the physical journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, but the journey of faith and belief in the Risen Christ.
There is an old saying attributed to the Sioux Indians, “The longest journey is from your head to your heart.” This is true especially when it comes to matters of faith.
Our ability to believe in what we do not see and what we do not understand takes a lot of trust and faith. Believing in and understanding the Eucharist is one of those things that requires great faith and trust. If you have not considered your disposition at Mass when receiving Communion, I invite you to do so.
A favorite priest friend from Kentucky, would remind his congregants regularly that we need to check ourselves to make certain we are becoming more like that which we receive, that is Jesus. If our answer is no, we need to consider why not. If our answer is yes, we need to ask God for the grace to continue to be transformed by the Eucharist.
To find greater meaning in the devotional aspects of the Year of the Eucharist it is timely to focus on our personal understanding of the Eucharist. No matter how old you may be or how many years you have been a communicant, make this the year you take a deeper dive.
There are many great books written on the subject by many worthy theologians, from the Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas to more modern studies like Alexander Schememann’s, The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom or Bishop Barron’s most recent book simply titled, Eucharist. The point is to read something that will help you to continue to be transformed by the Eucharist.
Another idea is thinking about how we are present during the Mass. When I was working on my master’s degree, I took a course on the Eucharistic prayers. Prior to that course I had never read them independent of the Mass. We did a combination of exegesis and Lectio Divina of the text. In doing so I became aware of the text in a more comprehensive way and aware of what resonated most with me. It opened a whole new understanding and way of thinking about the Eucharist for me. I remember that year wanting to use my new insights on anyone who would listen. So instead of sighing when the priest began the first Eucharist prayer thinking – dang! this is the long one – I came to appreciate the hope-filled message that each prayer uniquely conveys.
The Year of the Eucharist will take on many different forms of observation. There will be the outward devotions like Eucharistic processions, exposition and adoration, and a diocesan Eucharistic Congress. All of these are exceptionally good expressions of faith and love. But we can also take on small and personal acts that draw us closer to Jesus in the Eucharist.
For example, being aware of how we treat people in the parking lot after Mass. When I lived in Northern Virginia, I was always astounded that we needed the local police to help navigate traffic after Mass. I mean if we ever had the incentive to be kind to one another on the mean streets of Alexandria, Virginia it should have been minutes after several hundred people just received Jesus!
It is fitting that we say, “Stay with us, Lord.” Stay with us beyond the dismissal rite. Stay with us in our cars, at the restaurant during brunch, and as we enter the new week be it at school, work or home. Stay with us, Lord when we are on social media, at sporting events and in the ordinary places we find ourselves each day. Stay with us, Lord and together we can become more like you. Let the Eucharist be the mirror we hold up to see ourselves growing to be more like Jesus.
(Fran Lavelle is the Director of Faith Formation for the Diocese of Jackson.)
By Carol Zimmermann BALTIMORE (CNS) – The U.S. bishops’ focus on the significance of the Eucharist in the life of the church isn’t just about on the statement they approved at their fall meeting.
It also is about something bigger: a three-year eucharistic revival that will culminate with the National Eucharistic Congress 2024 in Indianapolis.
The bishops approved a motion Nov. 17 during their general assembly in Baltimore to host this congress with 201 votes in favor, 17 against and five abstentions.
Auxiliary Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who was recently named bishop of Crookston, Minnesota, gave the bishops details about this planned revival just before they voted on it.
The bishop, who is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, said the revival could be a time of healing for the entire church as well as a movement of evangelization and a reawakening of understanding of the sacrament of the Eucharist for Catholics across the country.
The revival will officially start on the feast of Corpus Christi June 16, 2022, with a diocesan focus that will include eucharistic processions and other events of adoration and prayer around the country.
In 2023, the emphasis will be on parishes and resources aimed at increasing Catholics’ understanding of what the Eucharist really means.
Part of the impetus prompting this effort was a Pew study in the fall of 2019 that showed just 30% of Catholics understand the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Bishop Cozzens noted the price tag for the National Eucharistic Congress – $28 million – is expensive, but said it is worth it and can be doable with fundraising.
He said many apostolates and ministries are donating time and resources to help make the eucharistic revival a reality. Some bishops questioned the cost of the congress that wraps up this venture, but others spoke about the potential this will have to bring Catholics back to the church and bring those in the church to a deeper sense of devotion and a stronger faith.
Bishop Cozzens pointed out that such large-scale church events can be transformative and said the National Eucharistic Congress may end up being something the Catholic Church revisits 10 years from now.
Blessed Carlo Acutis will be the patron for the first year of the revival. The Italian teen, who was beatified in October 2020, died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15. He was a programmer who used social media to unite many people and spread Christian values.
In his apostolic letter proclaiming the youth “blessed,” Pope Francis said he “cultivated a friendship with our Lord Jesus, placing the Eucharist and the witness of charity at the center of his life.”
By Carol Zimmermann BALTIMORE (CNS) – Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, spoke to the U.S. bishops Nov. 16 about the importance of listening to people in the church and being open to the work of the Holy Spirit. He addressed the bishops on the first day of two days of public sessions at their fall general assembly Nov. 15-18 in Baltimore.
The archbishop noted that he has been in the role of apostolic nuncio for five years and has been on a journey with the U.S. bishops through challenges of religious disaffiliation, the sexual abuse crisis, increasing secularization, polarization within the nation and the church, and most recently the global pandemic.
He quickly jumped into discussing a topic fresh on the bishops’ minds from hearing about it the previous night at their opening Mass and one they will continue discussing in preparation for an upcoming world Synod of Bishops: synodality.
“I believe that synodality is an answer to the challenges of our time and to the confrontation, which is threatening to divide this country, and which also has its echoes in the church,” Archbishop Pierre said.
Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, speaks Nov. 16, 2021, during a session of the fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the first in-person bishops’ meeting since 2019. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)
“It seems that many are unaware they are engaged in this confrontation, staking out positions, rooted in certain truths but which are isolated in the world of ideas and not applied to the reality of the lived faith experience of the people of God in their concrete situations,” he said.
To define this often-repeated word in church circles today, the nuncio explained what it is not. He said synodality is not “a meeting about meetings” and went a step further to jokingly say: “If that were the case, we would certainly be in one of the lower rings of hell in Dante’s ‘Inferno.’”
He stressed that the term – and what the church is engaged in right now in the listening phase in preparation for the 2023 synod – goes beyond the physical act of hearing people to actually being close to them.
For the bishops, he said, this process should start at home by listening to each other. “The church needs this attentive listening now more than ever if she is to overcome the polarization facing this country,” he said.
The bishops’ act of listening also is a means of leading by example to help U.S. Catholics be missionary disciples engaged in their own listening and discernment that he said should be a “way of life” in families, parishes, dioceses and on the periphery.
But for all this to happen, there also has to be overall unity because, he said, “a divided church will never lead people to where it should be.”
Throughout his half-hour address to the bishops, the nuncio continued to drive home the message that more needs to be done to bring the church to where it should be.
For example, when he mentioned that the church “should be unapologetically pro-life,” he stressed the need to look at causes and factors that lead women to seek abortions and then to reach out in practical ways to mothers in need. Along that same line, he said the church needs to address racism and should go further with that by acknowledging “the lived reality” many in the church experience each day.
Also, regarding the Eucharist, he said people can have theological ideas about the Eucharist, which are important, but “none of these ideas compare with the reality of the eucharistic mystery, which needs to be discovered and rediscovered through the practical experience of the church, living in communion, particularly in this time of pandemic.”
The nuncio, hinting at a topic the bishops planned to address in their discussion of their proposed statement on the Eucharist, said many can “miss the true encounter” of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
He also noted that there is “the temptation to treat the Eucharist as something to be offered to the privileged few rather than to seek to walk with those whose theology or discipleship is falling short, assisting them to understand and appreciate the gift of the Eucharist, and helping them to overcome their difficulties.”
Looking back and ahead, the archbishop, who was appointed U.S. nuncio in April 2016, reiterated that he and the bishops had “been on the road together for more than five years” and that they would journey forward, in unity, by “listening to one another and to the Spirit and walking with our brothers and sisters.”
“We will emerge from the present crises together,” he said, “as the church Christ has called us to be.”
NATION BALTIMORE (CNS) – A funeral Mass was offered Nov. 23 at St. Peter Claver Church in West Baltimore for Beverly A. Carroll, a social justice advocate who spent her life raising her voice for African American Catholics in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the United States and the world. Carroll, the founding director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Black Catholics, died Nov. 13. She was 75. Bishop John H. Ricard, a former auxiliary bishop of Baltimore and current superior general of the Baltimore-based Josephites, celebrated the Mass for his friend. Carroll worked for many years with Bishop Ricard, who also is the retired bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee. “She was a great advocate for the community, for the church, for African Americans in the church,” said Josephite Father Ray P. Bomberger, pastor of St. Peter Claver Parish, to which Carroll belonged her whole life. “She was interested in the church, the people of the church, what was going on, (and) how we could do it better,” he said. Father Bomberger praised Carroll’s devotion to her church, both in her home community and around the country, as well as her interest in education and social justice. Carroll was a lifelong parishioner of St. Peter Claver, where she served as a corporator and parish council member.
Alex Lindbergh, left, a freshman at Bishop Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis, arm wrestles Asia Carmon of the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis Nov. 20, 2021, during the National Catholic Youth Conference. (CNS photo/Sean Gallagher, The Criterion)
INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) – “Follow me to arm-wrestle a seminarian! See if you can beat a man who receives Communion every day!” Holding a chalk board with “Arm Wrestle a Seminarian” written on it, seminarian Samuel Hansen barked his invitation while walking through the halls of the Indiana Convention Center Nov. 20, the final day of the National Catholic Youth Conference. “It was incredibly fun,” said Hansen, a senior at Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary and a member of St. Roch Parish, both in Indianapolis. “Just walking with the sign made a lot of people laugh. I felt like a ballpark food salesman. But it energized the convention center quite a bit.” In response to Hansen’s hawking, a steady group of challengers gathered around a table promoting vocations to the diocesan priesthood that had earlier attracted fewer visitors when the seminarians manning it waited for NCYC participants to come to them on their own. As lighthearted and winsome as his strategy to attract attention was, Hansen saw it as following in the tradition of the saints. St. John Bosco, for example, did sleight-of-hand tricks and juggling acts for kids in his village to get them to listen to his catechesis lesson. The NCYC always includes a thematic area made up of villages, or venues, in the convention hall that have traditional exhibits as well as interactive educational and recreational activities for attendees. “The saints stepped out of line and took extraordinary actions to inspire others,” Hansen told The Criterion, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
VATICAN VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis signed a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Titus Brandsma, clearing the way for the canonization of the 20th-century martyr murdered at the Dachau concentration camp. The Dutch Carmelite friar was sent to Dachau for treason – after defending Jews and press freedom – and was killed with a lethal injection. The Vatican announced Pope Francis’ decision in his case and a number of other sainthood causes Nov. 25. Dachau, the notorious Nazi concentration camp in Germany most associated with the genocide of thousands of Jews during World War II, also held more than 2,700 clergy – 2,400 of them Catholic priests. Blessed Brandsma was sent there after urging editors of the Dutch Catholic press to violate a new law of the Third Reich and not print any Nazi propaganda. He also denounced Nazism as “a sewer of falsehood that must not be tolerated,” said Dianne Traflet, an assistant professor of pastoral theology and the associate dean of graduate studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, during a talk at the national World War II Museum in 2018. Pope Francis also recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Carolina Santocanale, also known as Blessed Mary of Jesus, an Italian nun born in 1852, who founded the Congregation of the Capuchin Sisters of the Immaculate of Lourdes. The Vatican did not immediately announce dates for the canonization ceremonies.
WORLD ANKAWA, Iraq (CNS) – Walking through this mainly Christian town outside of Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, it’s easy to see many changes since the victims of Islamic State militants fled here for safety seven years ago. Gone are the tents and caravans that dotted church yards and open fields to house those escaping forced conversion to Islam or death at the hands of the Islamic State militants in 2014. Colorful laundry once hung from balconies, while some people slept on church pews. The cavernous concrete skeleton of a shopping mall then sheltered 2,500 displaced people. Support from Catholic and other churches built and cordoned off rooms on three-stories; each room housed a single family, and all shared basic cooking and bathroom facilities. The unfinished structure has given way to the Ankawa Mall, where people can food shop at the French Carrefour supermarket, eat in a Turkish restaurant or buy Hello Kitty accessories at a Japanese import shop. In 2017, the Iraqi military and U.S.-led coalition troops forced out Islamic State fighters. Since then, Catholic churches and organizations have been working hard to address challenges faced by Iraq’s historic Christian community and other religious minorities. “People have faced tremendous difficulties and wounding by the Islamic State. We are still experiencing the practical effects of loss and trauma,” said Fadi, an Armenian Christian worshipping at a local church. Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Irbil stewarded the building of four schools, a university and a hospital, providing local people with badly needed employment, with assistance from Stephen Rasche, who is counsel to the Chaldean Archdiocese of Irbil.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (CNS) – When Father Francis Galvan left Sacred Heart Church in Delta Nov. 15, he did not expect to find himself at the center of a catastrophic flood and what is being called the storm of the century. But within hours, the Augustinian priest was at ground zero of rescue efforts and witnessing humanity at its best, joining with Agassiz residents in responding to the needs of stranded travelers. “There I saw and realized how the human heart in the worst situations comes out its best – eyes looking only at those in need of help,” he told The B.C. Catholic, newspaper of the Vancouver Archdiocese, by email. Father Galvan arrived in Harrison Hot Springs only to find the study week canceled due to torrential rains, so he headed over to St. Anthony of Padua Church in Agassiz to check in with pastor Father Dennis Flores. There, the two priests saw rescue helicopters flying overhead and decided to head to the town’s community center. They found themselves in the middle of a massive rescue and relief effort. “Strong winds were blowing along with heavy rains, and I watched rescue helicopters landing, one after another,” Father Galvan said. Evacuees who had been stranded by highway mudslides emerged from the helicopters.
By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Despite the disappointing outcome of the COP26 summit on climate change, Pope Francis said he knows it is not too late for humanity to act to combat environment destruction and increasing poverty.
The ecological crisis, the social crisis of poverty and exclusion and the health care crisis provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic are calling out “for us to change gear, to change bad habits in order to be able to dream, co-create, and act together to realize just and equitable futures,” the pope wrote in the preface to the “Laudato Si’ Reader.”
The book, available in print and as a free e-book from the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, includes the preface from Pope Francis, a message from António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, and reflections by dozens of people involved in Catholic environmental, peace or charitable agencies, ambassadors, scientists, academics, young people, farmers and Indigenous people.
With a preface by Pope Francis and a message from the U.N.’s António Guterres, the Vatican has published this “Laudato Si’ Reader,” with a wide range of reflections on Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical. (CNS screenshot/Libreria Editrice Vaticana)
The reader, published Nov. 23, comes just over six years after the publication of Pope Francis’ encyclical, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.”
In his preface, Pope Francis wrote that the pandemic makes it clearer than ever that “it is time to develop a new form of universal solidarity that is grounded in fraternity, love and mutual understanding: one that values people over profit, one that seeks new ways to understand development and progress. And so, it is my hope and prayer that we do not come out of this crisis the same way we entered it!”
With so many young people so committed to fighting climate change and advocating for a more human way of organizing social and economic life, he said, “we must listen to them with open hearts. We must follow their lead, for they are wise beyond their years.”
“This is a moment to dream big, to rethink our priorities – what we value, what we want, what we seek – and re-plan our future, committing to act in our daily life on what we have dreamed of,” the pope wrote. “The time to act, and to act together, is now!” In his message, Guterres wrote that people tend to overlook “the spiritual dimensions of the work of the United Nations,” but the values that it promotes – “peace, justice, equality, the dignity and worth of the human person – echo the teachings of the world’s religious traditions and summon us all to reduce human suffering.”
The message of Pope Francis’ encyclical is even more compelling today, he said. “Climate change has accelerated, giving the world a new normal of fires, floods and storms of epic proportions. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a grievous blow, upending lives, damaging economies and plunging families and communities into suffering and sorrow.”
“Humanity is waging war on nature,” he said, but “nature always strikes back – and is doing so with gathering fury and force.”
“Making peace with nature must be a priority for the 21st century,” Guterres wrote, and while that is an “epic policy test,” it is even more “a moral test.”
“This is a moment of truth,” he said. “If we persist with the old ways of inequality, injustice, hatred and heedless dominion over the Earth, we face disaster.”
LOUISVILLE – Louisville lost a beloved mother, sister and friend on Nov. 18, 2021. She loved being called GP (otherwise know as) Grandma Paula. She raised her children and grandchildren in love and devotion; always showing them how to be generous to others. Paula had a wonderful and kind soul with a great spirit.
She was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church where she played the piano starting at the age of 16 and played for many years afterwards. She was involved in the ministry of Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), a teacher for the Sacrament of Confirmation and eventually, a Lay Ecclesial Minister (LEM).
Paula Daly Fulton
Paula graduated from Louisville High School and continued a higher education at Mississippi University for Women and finished her specialist degree at Mississippi State University. She started her teaching career in special education then went on to be a 5th grade teacher and later special education director after retiring as principal of Fair Elementary. Her colleagues knew her as a fun and spunky soul, always willing to cheer up everybody.
To say Paula was a lady of service is an understatement. She was heavily involved in the local Prairie Girl Scout Council where she shaped many young girls’ lives and taught them to be leaders in the community. She enjoyed her time as the Louisville High Athletic Booster President and Miss. University for Women alumnae officer. Paula was also involved in the Louisville Pilot Club and served as president. She was also a member of the local Retired Teachers’ Group. Another of Paula’s favorite places to spend time was the Cornerstone Clinic and she was on the board at the Louisville Housing Authority.
Paula loved her heritage of the Daly and Plummer family with fun reunions from Hammond, Louisiana to Philadelphia, Mississippi to Bennettsville, South Carolina. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) where she served as Regent for the Nanih Waiya Chapter. Paula enjoyed learning to play bridge; however, she preferred the comradery with friends most of all. She remained good friends with her childhood classmates and they later became known as the Sugar Bells.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Jimmie Plummer Daly and James Paul Daly. She is survived by her daughter, Stephanie Horan of Mooresville, NC; her son, Greg Fulton of Louisville; two sisters, Theresa (T.F.) Bridges of Louisville and Mary Elizabeth Haley of Grenada; two brothers, Mike (Dorothy) Daly of Brandon and Barney (Patti) Daly of Madison; five grandchildren, Brandon Fulton, Sarah Horan, Bryce Horan, Daly Horan, and Savannah Horan; and three great grandchildren, Aubree, Cooper and Bailee Ann Fulton.
Por Obispo Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D. Después de la gran solemnidad de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo, Rey del Universo y la culminación de otro año de la iglesia, fluimos sin problemas hacia la temporada de Adviento cuando la Palabra de Dios dirige nuestra mirada hacia la vida eterna, más allá del tiempo y del espacio. Es la temporada de luz en medio de las tinieblas, cuando nos preparamos para la venida final del Señor, en todo momento y en Navidad.
Ven, Señor Jesús, porque tú eres nuestra esperanza y paz, el camino y la verdad que puede guiarnos a la luz de la fe, a través de la incertidumbre y la vulnerabilidad.
La pandemia, junto con otras amenazas al bienestar digno de la humanidad, continúa intensificando los problemas personales y sociales, además de inspirar una resistencia asombrosa y una preocupación amorosa por los demás. Es una realidad que pone ante mí las atemporales palabras de Charles Dickens, en Historia de Dos Ciudades, muy adecuadas para la temporada de Adviento y para la época en que vivimos: “Era el mejor de los tiempos, era el peor de los tiempos, la edad de la sabiduría, y también de la locura; la época de las creencias y de la incredulidad; la era de la luz y de las tinieblas; la primavera de la esperanza y el invierno de la desesperación. Todo lo poseíamos, pero no teníamos nada; caminábamos en derechura al cielo y nos extraviábamos por el camino opuesto.”
Obispo Joseph R. Kopacz
Cómo cada uno de nosotros, sabia y justamente, elige en las circunstancias y pruebas de nuestra vida, mientras nos cuidamos unos a otros, esto hace toda la diferencia en el mundo. Nuestro Dios de salvación nos llama a buscar lo mejor de lo que este mundo tiene para ofrecer: sabiduría, fe, luz, esperanza y una visión para la vida eterna cuando, en verdad, lo tendremos todo.
En algunos días no es fácil, pero en medio del torbellino recordamos que todo es posible para Dios. El Adviento es una temporada sagrada que nos invita a renovar nuestro compromiso con la reconciliación, la esperanza, la justicia y la paz.
La última mitad de mi columna de esta semana es una parte sustancial de mi carta anual de Adviento / Navidad, enviada a toda la gente en casa y en la diócesis: “Espero que hayan experimentado muchas más bendiciones que cargas el año pasado. En el gran estado de la Magnolia, en toda la Diócesis de Jackson y al igual que en muchas organizaciones y eventos, ha habido un regreso constante a nuestras iglesias y una mayor participación en varios ministerios, con nuestras escuelas a la vanguardia hasta bien entrado el segundo año de la pandemia.
En el tiempo que se avecina, esperamos con ansias el Año de la Eucaristía a medida que los feligreses regresen a la iglesia en mayor número, y durante los próximos cuatro meses a reuniones en toda la diócesis en respuesta al desafío del Papa Francisco a la iglesia de permitir que el Santo Espíritu hable a través de todos los católicos bautizados.
En el ámbito personal, mi querido perro de 14 años, Amigo, tomó su último aliento el 5 de abril, lunes de Pascua. Vivió 14 años, siete como norteño y siete como sureño, una vida verdaderamente encantadora. No se necesita explicación con respecto al vacío que dejó su fallecimiento.
Por otro lado, más tarde en octubre, estando mi hermana Mary Ellen aquí de vacaciones, hicimos un descubrimiento asombroso entre las cartas de cortejo de mi padre a mi madre durante los años de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Dentro del paquete de su correspondencia de Italia, donde sirvió durante la guerra, había varias cartas con matasellos de, ¡adivinen de dónde!; … la Base de la Fuerza Aérea en Columbus, Mississippi.”
¡Sorpresa, sorpresa! Justo hasta ese momento del descubrimiento, siempre había dicho que ‘nunca había conocido a nadie personalmente que hubiera vivido o viviera en Mississippi antes de mi asignación aquí.’ Comencé mi servicio aquí hacia fines de 2013; Papa (Pop) comenzó su servicio aquí a principios de 1943. Mis raíces en Mississippi son bastante profundas, se remontan a casi 70 años después.
Según la providencia y el destino, fui consagrado e instalado como el undécimo obispo de la Diócesis de Jackson el 6 de febrero, el mismo día del cumpleaños de mi padre. ¡Caramba, eso nunca lo vi venir!“
Que el tiempo de Adviento que se ha abierto ante nosotros permita al Señor preparar nuestros corazones y mentes para esperar su venida, para que en Navidad nuestras voces griten sin tregua y a pleno pulmón con el coro de los ángeles: “Gloria a Dios en las alturas y paz en la tierra.”
Following the great Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, the culmination of the church year, we seamlessly flow into the season of Advent when the Word of God directs our gaze beyond time and space to eternal life. It is the season of light in the midst of darkness, when we prepare for the coming of the Lord at the end, at every moment and at Christmas.
Come, Lord Jesus, for you are our hope and peace, the way and the truth who can shepherd us through uncertainty and vulnerability by the light of faith.
The pandemic, along with other threats to the dignified well-being of humanity, continues to intensify personal and social woes, as well as inspire amazing resiliency and loving concern for others. It’s a reality that places before me the timeless words of Charles Dickens that are quite fitting for the season of Advent, and for the times in which we live.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was a time of light, it was a time of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”
Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz
How each of us chooses wisely and justly in the circumstances and trials of our lives while caring for one another makes all the difference in the world. Our God of salvation calls us to pursue the best of what this world has to offer: wisdom, belief, light, hope and a vision for eternal life when indeed we will have everything.
It’s not easy on some days, but in the midst of the whirlwind we recall that all things are possible with God. Advent is a sacred season, inviting us to recommit ourselves to reconciliation and hope, justice and peace.
The last half of my column this week is a substantial part of my annual Advent/Christmas letter sent to the folks back home and in the diocese.
“I hope y’all have experienced far more blessings than burdens this past year. In the great Magnolia State throughout the Diocese of Jackson, as with many organizations and events, there has been a steady return to our churches, and greater participation in various ministries, with our schools at the forefront well into the second year of the pandemic. In the time ahead, we are looking forward to the Year of the Eucharist as parishioners return to church in greater numbers, and over the next four months to gatherings throughout the diocese in response to Pope Francis’ challenge to the church to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through all baptized Catholics.”
“In the personal sphere, my dear dog of 14 years, Amigo, took his last breath on Easter Monday, April 5. He lived 14 years almost to the day, seven as a northerner, and seven as a southerner, truly a charmed life. No explanation is needed regarding the void from his passing.”
“On the other hand, later in the year in October, when my sister Mary Ellen was here on vacation, we made an astonishing discovery among my father’s courtship letters to my mother during the World War II years. Within the pack of his correspondence from Italy where he served during the war were several postmarked letters from, guess where – the Air Force Base in Columbus, Mississippi.”
“Surprise, surprise! Right up to that moment of discovery, I had always stated that ‘I’ve never known anyone personally who had lived or lives in Mississippi before my assignment here.’ I began my service here toward the end of 2013; Pop began his service here toward the beginning of 1943. My roots in Mississippi are quite deep after all, going back nearly 80 years. As providence and fate would have it, I was consecrated and installed as the 11th bishop of the Diocese of Jackson on February 6, my father’s birthday. Golly, I never saw that coming!”
May the season of Advent that has opened up before us allow the Lord to prepare our hearts and minds to await his coming so that on Christmas our voices will cry out full throated and unsparingly with the choirs of angels, “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth.”
