Santa Barbara, mártir. Dic. 4 Inmaculada Concepción de la Santísima Virgen María. Dic. 8 San Juan Diego. Dic. 9 Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Dic. 12 Natividad de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo. Dic. 25 Sagrada Familia de Jesús, María y José. Dic. 27 Día de los Santos Inocentes. Dic. 28
Celebracion Virgen de Guadalupe St. Anne Carthage: Procesión y Misa. Dic. 11 St. Joseph Holly Springs: Novena Dic 3. Misa y fiesta Dic. 11, 6 p.m.
Sigue la página web de Mississippi Catholic/Español Facebook @ Diócesis Católica de Jackson, MS
COLUMBUS – Annunciation kindergarten students wrap up their unit on dinosaurs with a dinosaur parade up and down the school hallways. (Photo by Katie Fenstermacher)
Garden delight
SOUTHAVEN – (Top) Sacred Heart PK-3 student, Ollie, gets help watering pansies the children planted earlier in the week. (Bottom) Vincent and Shayla water the broccoli that they planted as a follow up to learning about the story of creation. (Photos courtesy of Sister Margaret Sue Broker)
Red Ribbon Week
MERIDIAN – Fifth graders Jackson Spitzkeit and Helena Rutledge have their picture made by their teacher Lindi Palmer. This dress up day was a part of Red Ribbon Week – “Dress as your favorite book character – Good Character Counts!”(Photo by Emily Thompson)
Art: of Mass and of pumpkins
SOUTHAVEN – Izzy, Eli and Maddie with Bishop Joseph Kopacz during the recessional of Mass at Sacred Heart School on Monday, Oct. 18. (Photo by Sister Margaret Sue Broker)
MADISON – For St. Anthony’s annual pumpkin contest, third grader Madison McCullough put together Father Albeen Vatti and Kindergartener, Morgan McCullough made Msgr. Mike Flannery. (Photo by Amanda McCullough)
Exploring science
MERIDIAN – Fourth grader Jeremiah Mari presents his contraption to the judges of the Knights of Columbus Creative Contraptions Competition at St. Patrick School. Pictured left to right: Mark Hampton, Mouise Richards, Bob Leo, Jeremiah Mari and Tom Zettler. (Photo by courtesy of St. Patrick School)
COLUMBUS – Annunciation seventh grade student, Hollis Fenstermacher, participates in a “Melting Ice Lab” which is an inquiry-based activity that lets students explore the effects that melting ice has on the temperature of its surroundings. (Photo by Katie Fenstermacher)
JACKSON – As a part of National Vocations Awareness Week, we hear from our diocesan seminarians, and the encouragements they received as they began to ponder God’s will and the possibility they may be called to priesthood.
“Father Martin Ruane, my first pastor, was a big influence on me. Father Ruane was a joy-filled priest. A joy-filled priest gives a powerful witness to the light of Christ in the world.” – Deacon Andrew Bowden (Deacon Andrew will be ordained to the priesthood in May 2022.)
“I converted to Catholicism while I was pursuing my undergraduate degree after reading a copy of St. Augustine’s Confessions that I found in a used bookshop in Florida. I almost immediately began to feel a call to ordination.” – Carlisle Beggerly (Carlisle will be ordained to the diaconate in preparation for priesthood in June 2022.)
“I graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from New Mexico Tech. I had a couple job offers after I graduated. I accepted a job as a nuclear engineer, but before I could start working, I needed a security clearance. While I was waiting for that clearance, I went to confession one day, and a priest said that I should be a priest. When the priest said that, I said, ‘No way! I’ve always wanted a wife and kids.’ Then, I left, [but] what he said stuck with me, and I began my discernment.” – Ryan Stoer (Ryan is in his 2nd year of Theology studies, he is scheduled for priestly ordination in Spring 2024.)
“My first memory of Catholicism is seeing the funeral of St. John Paul II on television. At the time I was awestruck by all the proceedings. I had so many questions about what was happening and who this man was for whom the whole world was coming to a halt. I became more and more interested as I grew up.” – Tristan Stovall (Tristan is in his 2nd year of Theology studies, he is scheduled for priestly ordination in Spring 2024.)
“I first felt a desire for priesthood when I was a senior in high school. When I was in college, that desire grew. By participating in, and leading, mission trips to serve the homeless through the Catholic Campus Ministry I realized a desire I have to serve others. The more I did this, the deeper that desire grew and I felt a greater excitement for service to the people of God. The feeling of a call to priesthood became so great that I couldn’t ignore it…” – Will Foggo (Will is in his 2nd year of Pre-Theology studies, he is scheduled for priestly ordination in Spring 2026.)
“I was convinced that I would play college basketball. They say: ‘If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.’ In the summer of 2018 I went to a Catholic youth conference called Steubenville On the Bayou. It was a faith filled experience and was the first time I considered the priesthood. I had an amazing encounter with our Lord during the exposition of the Eucharist. After returning home I started to receive spiritual direction. This helped me to pre-discern my vocation.” – Grayson Foley (Grayson is in his 2nd year of Philosophy studies, he is scheduled for priestly ordination in Spring 2028.)
Please keep our seminarians (and religious discerners and postulants) in your prayers, and remember that you can be a great influence for young people just by sharing with them that they would make a great priest or religious.
PEARL – Seminarians gathered for the Ordination of Deacon Andrew Bowden on Saturday, May 15, 2021 at his home parish of St. Jude. Left to right: Grayson Foley, Tristan Stovall, Deacon, Ryann Stoer, Carlisle Beggerly and William Foggo. (Photo from archives)
Diocesan vocations events aim to give time and space to listen for God’s call
With so much distraction and ‘noise’ in the word, God’s call can be difficult to hear. The Department of Vocations is offering young men and women opportunities to retreat and listen to the call of God. Here is a timeline of what has happened, and what will happen in the coming months to give our young people time and space to listen.
June 2021 – Quo Vadis? I The question where are you going was explored at this three-day retreat for young men who are open to priesthood. Father Nick and the diocesan seminarians led the retreat and gave talks to the 14 men in attendance.
November 19-21, 2021 – Quo Vadis? II Coming off the success of the first retreat, the Diocese of Baton Rouge and the Diocese of Jackson have teamed up to offer another discernment retreat. Father Josh Johnson, vocation director for Baton Rouge and Father Nick Adam are leading the retreat along with seminarians from both dioceses. Young men ages 15-25 are invited to attend.
Winter/Spring 2022 – Nun Run II The Department of Vocations is leading a trek north to visit several different religious communities in early 2022. Father Nick will begin recruitment in December for this trip. The first Nun Run was held in Fall of 2019 and was a huge success. Kathleen McMullin was on that trip and is now a postulant in a religious community!
The Department of Vocations also offers individual and small group visits to seminaries and religious communities based on need and circumstance. Several young men have been hosted at the seminary by Father Nick and our seminarians in the past year. If you are interested in any of these events, or want to know how you could help, please email nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.
CHATAWA – Father Nick Adam directs an activity at the Quo Vadis retreat for young men open to the priesthood in June 2021. (Photo by Ron Blalock Photography)
JACKSON – About 200 runners and walkers grabbed their running shoes and purple dresses for Catholic Charities 10th annual Purple Dress Run at the District at Eastover in Northeast Jackson on Thursday, Oct. 21 in honor of National Domestic Violence Awareness month. Racers ran and walked through the Eastover neighborhood to raise awarness about domestic violence and to raise money for Catholic Charities domestic violence shelter.
If you need assistance escaping abuse, please call Catholic Charities Jackson at (601) 366-0222 or 1-800-273-9012 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE(7233) or chat online at www.hotline.org.
Photo finish! At the last second, Steven Hernandez edged out the overall win with a pace time of 6:44 in the 5k run over Daniel Burnett with a 6:45 pace.
Patrick Weldon took home the best dressed win and first place in his age category at the Purple Dress Run.
At age 83, Richard Edmonson won the 70+ age category in the 5k run with a pace time of 11:50. Way to go!
Jessica Diamond and Rowdy (with a little help) cross the finish line with the overall win in the female 5k run category.
By Berta Mexidor JACKSON – This year the Bishop R.O. Gerow Assembly 554 of the Knights of Columbus, has gotten involved in the Wreaths Across America program by sponsoring the Clinton Cemetery. They have identified approximately 250 veterans’ gravesites which they hope to lay wreaths on Dec. 18 at noon. The mission is to remember, honor and teach. “What a beautiful and meaningful way to remember and honor our veterans during the Christmas season,” said the Knights of Columbus.
The wreaths are made of live greenery with a red velvet bow and cost $15. Wreaths can be purchased for an unspecified veteran at the Clinton Cemetery, for a specific veteran at the Clinton Cemetery, or for a veteran buried somewhere other than the Clinton Cemetery. Wreaths purchased for placement at other cemeteries will be available for pick up at Holy Savior Church at 714 Lindale Street in Clinton on Dec. 18 at 3 p.m. Wreaths must be purchased prior to Nov. 19, 2021, so orders can be placed.
Wreaths can be purchased online at https://kofc554.org/wreaths or by mail – just visit their website for details.
Honoring veterans buried at the Clinton Cemetery this holiday season is the mission for members of the Knights of Columbus Bishop R.O. Gerow Assembly 554, which are participating in the annual Wreaths Across America sponsorship drive. The national wreath-laying remembrance effort is planned for Dec. 18. (Photo WAA Staff)
By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With many people around the world facing exclusion and inequality, the social teaching of the Catholic Church can inspire new economic systems that are more “people-centered,” Pope Francis said.
Christians must not “remain indifferent” to those affected by an “economic system that continues to discard people’s lives in the name of the god of money, fostering greed and destructive attitudes toward the resources of the earth and fueling various forms of injustice,” the pope said Oct. 23.
“Our response to injustice and exploitation must be more than mere condemnation,” he said. “First and foremost, it must be the active promotion of good: condemnation of what is wrong, yet promotion of what is good.”
The pope addressed participants of an international conference sponsored by the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation. The two-day conference reflected on “Solidarity, Cooperation and Responsibility: The antidotes to fight injustices, inequalities and exclusions.”
Established in 1993, the foundation seeks to promote the teaching of St. John Paul II’s 1991 encyclical on social and economic justice.
Pope Francis praised the foundation for its “commitment to financing study and research by young people on new models of economic and social development inspired by the church’s social doctrine.”
“This is important and greatly needed: in soil contaminated by the predominance of finance, we need to sow many small seeds that can bear fruit in an economy that is equitable and beneficial, humane and people-centered. We need possibilities able to become realities, and realities able to offer hope. This means putting into practice the social teaching of the church,” he said.
Reflecting on the conference’s theme, the pope said that solidarity, cooperation and responsibility represent the “three pillars of the church’s social teaching,” which places the human person at the center of “the social, economic and political order.”
Rather than an individualistic world view, the church’s teaching is based on the word of God that “seeks to promote integral human development on the basis of our faith in the God who became man.”
“In every sphere of life, today more than ever, we are bound to witness our concern for others, to think not only of ourselves, and to commit ourselves freely to the development of a more just and equitable society where forms of selfishness and partisan interests do not prevail,” the pope said.
Pope Francis said Christians must be inspired by the teachings of Jesus and care for others with a “love that transcends borders and limits,” giving witness that “it is possible to pass beyond the walls of selfishness and personal and national interest.”
“We can be ‘brothers and sisters all,’ and so we can and must think and work as ‘brothers and sisters of all,’” he said. “This may seem to be an unrealistic utopia. But we prefer to believe that it is a dream that can come true. For it is the dream of the triune God. With his help, it is a dream that can begin to become reality, also in our world.”
Pope Francis leads an audience with members of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation at the Vatican Oct. 23, 2021. The organization promotes the social teaching of the Catholic Church, in particular the teaching in St. John Paul II’s Encyclical Centesimus Annus. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
By Kurt Jensen WASHINGTON (CNS) – It’s a question Jeanne Mancini has already been asked so many times, she has an answer ready to go.
On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an appeal by Mississippi to remove a lower court’s injunction on its law banning most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy.
Should the court rule in favor of the state law in a decision to be handed down next year, overturning Roe v. Wade and sending the abortion issue back to the states, will there still be a need for the annual rally and march in Washington?
Or will March for Life, a fixture since January 1974, instead become a decentralized arrangement of statewide marches?
“We will make an announcement if and when that happens,” Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, told Catholic News Service.
State marches that began a few years ago, she said, were not planned in anticipation of any Supreme Court decision, but rather as a way “to strengthen the grassroots” and provide opportunities for activism for those who don’t make the long trip to Washington.
Carrie Severino, president of Judicial Crisis Network, identified the challenge should the court uphold the Mississippi law. “It really just puts the ball back in (the states’) court. There should be 50 Marches for Life,” she said during the Oct. 27 announcement of next year’s theme, “Equality Begins in the Womb.”
“We want to expand this rigorous debate about inequality” to the unborn, Mancini said at the Heritage Foundation, where the theme was announced.
Calling the theme a cry for “inherent human dignity because of who we are in our essence,” she added, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere, including in the womb.”
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said in a statement that “it reclaims a key word – equality – and reminds us that unless children in the womb enjoy it, the rest of us lose it as well.”
The March for Life is scheduled for Jan. 21. The event, which starts with a rally near the National Mall followed by a march to the Supreme Court, is always held on a date near the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 rulings, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, companion rulings that legalized abortion nationwide.
“It’s going to be one of the most significant years for the march yet,” said Severino. “This court has an opportunity like none it has had before with the Dobbs case.”
Journalists take photos of the March for Life participants outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington Jan. 29, 2021, amid the coronavirus pandemic. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)
The Mississippi law was enacted in 2018, but it never took effect because a federal appellate court immediately blocked its enforcement. The state’s single abortion clinic is still performing them.
With Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, as well as Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, Severino said, “we now have a majority of justices on the court who believe the Constitution must be interpreted according to its original understanding, and its original meaning.”
The turnout of more than 100,000 people for the 2020 March for Life is considered the all-time high for the event. Attendees packed the National Mall to hear President Donald Trump address the rally in person.
But in January of this year, the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and heavy security following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol reduced the march to its smallest turnout – an invited core group of 80.
Instead of the usual march up Constitution Avenue, the group took a winding route through Washington streets to the Supreme Court and were joined midway by about 100 others.
“We never thought of not doing the march,” Mancini told CNS. But, she added, she didn’t think she could comment on whether any of the current plans represent “back to normal.”
Mancini, who has headed the march since 2012 when she took over from its founder, the late Nellie Gray, said: “I wouldn’t call any march I’ve been part of a predictable march. It’s always been a little bit unpredictable.”
The bus pilgrimages that traditionally bring thousands of marchers to the nation’s capital also are difficult to predict for 2022 until reservations are confirmed by organizers and bus companies.
At the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, Ed Konieczka, assistant director of university ministry, said their goal is to have 240 students, about 50 more than in 2020, head for Washington on five buses, with an event to be held in Bismarck coinciding with the national march.
John Pratt, director of youth ministry for the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend, Indiana, told CNS that “if we are able to go, my sense would be that we would have about 80% of the participation as compared to recent years. In 2019 and 2020, we sent 10 busloads (just over 500 pilgrims) from our diocese.”
For 2022, he said, “350 to 400 (seven to eight busloads) is pretty realistic.”
NATION WASHINGTON (CNS) – Ahead of President Joe Biden’s Oct. 29 meeting with Pope Francis, panelists in a webinar offered mostly praise for Biden’s sincerity and what they said is his commitment to his Catholic faith. “We believe President Biden treats his vocation as a sacred one,” said Mary J. Novak, executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby organization. Biden and the pope both “lead with a very clear conviction that solidarity is essential to our faith,” she said during the Oct. 26 event. In announcing the webinar, a Network news release called the meeting of the two leaders “an important inflection point for global and U.S. politics.” The White House has indicated that discussion topics for Biden and the pope in their private meeting at the Vatican are likely to include climate change, income inequality and migration. Webinar participants highlighted these same issues as those they hoped the two leaders would discuss. Whether the issue of abortion will come up is not known; Biden as a Catholic supports legal abortion, while church teaching upholds the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. One prominent U.S. pro-life leader, Judie Brown of the American Life League, said in an Oct. 28 statement that Pope Francis “needs to hold Biden accountable” for “his pro-abortion views.”
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The theme of the 2022 March for Life in Washington is “Equality Begins in the Womb.” “We want to expand” the nation’s current “rigorous debate about inequality” to the unborn, said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. She made the comments Oct. 27 at the Heritage Foundation, where the theme was announced. Calling the theme a cry for “inherent human dignity because of who we are in our essence,” she added, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere, including in the womb.” The March for Life is scheduled for Jan. 21. It is always held on a date near the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 rulings, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, which legalized abortion nationwide. Carrie Severino, president of Judicial Crisis Network, said 2022 is “going to be one of the most significant years for the march yet,” said Severino, referring to oral arguments to be heard Dec. 1 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It’s an appeal by Mississippi to remove a lower court’s injunction on its law banning most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. A ruling in the case is expected next year. If the court upholds the state’s law, many expect Roe v. Wade to be overturned.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CNS) – When the Taliban began taking control of Afghanistan in mid-August, “in one night, everything changed,” recalled Adam. Adam, his wife and their 7-year-old son are three of the more than 150 Afghans whom Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Nashville have helped and will continue to help resettle in the next several months through the State Department’s Afghan Placement Assistance Program. At the beginning of September, the Department of Homeland Security implemented Operation Allies Welcome “to support vulnerable Afghans, including those who worked alongside us in Afghanistan for the past two decades as they safely resettle in the United States,” according to the official Department of Homeland Security website, further leading to implementation of the placement program. Since August 2018, Adam served as an Afghan interpreter for U.S. service members through the security office at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Because of his service to the U.S. troops, he requested his family’s true identity remain anonymous to protect their loved ones who are still in Kabul. Adam hopes to study anthropology and prepare for his dream career. “My hope for my future in America is to serve as I served before,” Adam said. “I want to serve for the government because the government can help Afghanistan; the government can help my people.”
VATICAN VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With the COVID-19 pandemic still underway and with restrictions on gatherings still in place in some countries, the Vatican has again extended the period of time when people can earn a plenary indulgence for visiting a cemetery and praying for the souls of the faithful in purgatory. Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican tribunal dealing with matters of conscience, said the indulgences traditionally obtained during the first week of November can be gained throughout the entire month of November, the Vatican announced Oct. 28. The cardinal said he was acting in response to “pleas recently received from various sacred pastors of the church because of the state of the continuing pandemic.” Traditionally, the faithful could receive a full indulgence each day from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8 when they visited a cemetery to pray for the departed and fulfilled other conditions, and, in particular, when they went to a church or an oratory to pray Nov. 2, All Souls’ Day. Because of the pandemic and the popularity in many cultures of visiting cemeteries for All Souls’ Day, some local governments and dioceses closed cemeteries in the first week of November to prevent crowding. That led Cardinal Piacenza to issue a decree in 2020 extending the period for the indulgences. The decree for 2021 renewed those provisions.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square this year will have a distinctly Indigenous, Andean look with the centerpiece being a “Hilipuska” baby Jesus, that is, one wrapped in a blanket bound with a long cord known as a “chumpi.” The super-swaddled baby is typical of the Andean highlands, particularly in Peru’s Huancavelica region, which is home to the five artists who created the 30-piece Nativity scene. In a statement released Oct. 28, the Vatican City State governing office said the scene was chosen, in part, to mark the 200th anniversary of Peru’s independence. “The Three Kings will have saddlebags or sacks containing foods characteristic of Huancavelica, such as potatoes, quinoa, kiwicha and cañihua, and will be accompanied by llamas carrying a Peruvian flag on their backs,” the Vatican said. “In the crèche, there also will be statues of different animals belonging to the local fauna such as: alpacas, vicuñas, sheep, vizcachas, flamingoes and the Andean condor,” which is the national symbol of Peru. The crèche will sit under a spruce tree, which is expected to be about 90 feet tall. The tree will come from a sustainably managed forest in the Dolomite mountains of Italy’s Trentino-South Tyrol region. The round wooden ornaments also will come from Trentino, the Vatican said.
WORLD WELLINGTON (CNS) – New Zealand’s Catholic bishops have prepared guidelines for health professionals, chaplains and priests to assist them in their pastoral work with people who decide to die under the country’s End of Life Choice Act that takes effect Nov. 7. While the church opposes the deliberate taking of human life, it cannot turn away people who choose “assisted dying” under the new law, said Bishop Stephen Lowe of Hamilton, New Zealand, vice president of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The church must help people view the questions and choices they face through a Christian lens, Bishop Lowe said in a statement released by the bishops’ conference Oct. 28. “Individuals often find themselves in complex places. In these times, the church tries to offer guidance to people as best they can, but people make their own choices,” he said. “Often as a church, we find ourselves caring for people dealing with the consequences of such choices. Our pastoral practice is always called to be a reflection of our God, who does not abandon his people,” he added.
A euthanasia advocate who suffers from an incurable condition that atrophies her muscles and has left her breathing through a ventilator, lies in bed at her home in Lima, Peru, Feb. 7, 2020. New Zealand bishops have developed guidelines for health professionals, chaplains and priests to assist them in their pastoral work with people who decide to die under the country’s End of Life Choice Act that takes effect Nov. 7, 2021. (CNS photo/Sebastian Castaneda, Reuters)
WASHINGTON (CNS) – When the U.S. bishops gather for their fall assembly in Baltimore Nov. 15-18, it will be the first in-person meeting of the full body of bishops since November 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the bishops’ June 2020 spring meeting, and their November 2020 fall assembly and June 2021 spring meeting were both held in a virtual format.
Topping the meeting’s agenda will be debate and votes on a proposed document on the Eucharist, “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church,” and on a eucharistic revival initiative.
During their spring meeting this past June, 75% of the U.S. bishops approved the drafting of a document, to all Catholic faithful, on eucharistic coherence.
Part of the impetus for the bishops’ work on this document and a eucharistic revival to increase Catholics’ understanding and awareness of the Eucharist was a Pew study in the fall of 2019 that showed just 30% of Catholics “have what we might call a proper understanding of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.”
The eucharistic revival would launch on the feast of Corpus Christi in June 2022. The three-year effort will include events on the diocesan level such as eucharistic processions around the country along with adoration and prayer. In 2023, the emphasis will be on parishes with resources available at the parish level to increase Catholics’ understanding of what the Eucharist really means. This would culminate in a National Eucharistic Congress in the summer of 2024.
The Baltimore assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will begin with an address by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United States.
The bishops also will hear from Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the USCCB.
The agenda also includes a report to the bishops from the National Advisory Council, a group created by the USCCB that is comprised of religious and laypeople primarily for consultation on action items and information reports presented to the bishops’ Administrative Committee.
Other action items on the agenda requiring debate and a vote will be an update of the “Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines”; a proposal to add St. Teresa of Kolkata to the “Proper Calendar for the Dioceses of the United States” as an optional memorial Sept. 5; a resolution on diocesan financial reporting; new English and Spanish versions of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults; a translation of “Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery Outside Mass”; “National Statutes for the Catechumenate” in English and Spanish; and the USCCB’s 2022 budget.
During the assembly, the bishops also will vote for a treasurer-elect for the USCCB, as well as chairmen-elect of five standing committees: Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations; Divine Worship; Domestic Justice and Human Development; Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth; and Migration.
The bishops elected will serve for one year as “elect” before beginning their three-year terms in their respective posts at the conclusion of the 2022 fall general assembly.
There also will be voting for board members for Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency, and the election of a new USCCB general secretary.
Also scheduled to take place will be a consultation of the bishops on the sainthood causes of Charlene Marie Richard and Auguste Robert “Nonco” Pelafigue.
Both have the title of “Servant of God” and were from the Diocese of Lafayette Louisiana, where Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel has officially opened their sainthood causes.
Charlene, a young Cajun girl who died of leukemia in 1959 at age 12, is regarded by many in south Louisiana and beyond as a saint, saying her intercession has resulted in miracles in their lives. She is known as “The little Cajun saint.”
Pelafigue was born in France and from the time he was almost 2 years old, he lived in Arnaudville, Louisiana. He died on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus June 6, 1977. He is known for his decades of ministry in the League of Sacred Heart, Apostleship of Prayer – which is now called the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.
The 2007 Vatican document “Sanctorum Mater” requires the diocesan bishop promoting a sainthood cause to consult with the body of bishops on the advisability of pursuing the cause.
Other items to be presented and discussed at the bishops’ assembly include: – The 2021-2023 Synod of Bishops. – The work of CRS, Catholic Charities USA and Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., or CLINIC. – The 50th anniversary of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the U.S. bishops’ domestic anti-poverty program. – The “Journeying Together” process of intercultural dialogue and encounter “focused on the church’s ministry with youth and young adults that fosters understanding and trust within and across cultural families toward a more welcoming and just community of faith.” – The application and implementation of the “ Pastoral Framework for Marriage and Family Life Ministry in the United States: Called to the Joy of Love.” At their June assembly, the U.S. bishops approved a draft document that provides a pastoral framework meant to strengthen marriage and family ministry in parishes and dioceses. – The “Walking with Moms in Need” initiative of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities that asks every diocese and parish to help mothers experiencing a difficult pregnancy find services and resources or provide these when they see gaps in such services. Public sessions of general assembly discussions and votes will be livestreamed at www.usccb.org/meetings.
I do a lot of outreach to the young on behalf of my religious congregation, so I try to be aware of trends in vocations work and the common traits of emerging generations.
Recently I took some time to review the latest Study on Religious Vocations, co-sponsored by the National Religious Vocation Conference and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, hoping that it would give me an “aha moment” on how to interest young women in our community of Little Sisters of the Poor.
I was struck by a section of the report entitled Intergenerational Living. According to the 2020 NRVC/CARA study, a mere 13 percent of perpetually professed members of religious communities are younger than 60, while the same proportion are at least 90 years of age.
Sister Constance Veit, LSP
These are pretty sobering statistics!
I was consoled to read the following testimony from a young religious: “It is beautiful to have all different generations and ethnicities in one community, in one house, if we allow ourselves to see that beauty.”
What a hope-filled attitude on the part of a young religious! It really inspired me to stop bemoaning the aging of our religious communities and start seeing the beauty.
So, as we observe National Vocations Awareness Week, I would like to address a message of hope to my fellow women and men religious who, like me, are not so young anymore!
May you too take heart in realizing that young people seeking religious life are not as deterred by the older demographics of most of our communities as we thought. They don’t seem to mind that many of us are older – but they do hope that we will live simply, in solidarity with the poor, and that we will live and pray together in a spirit of joy.
So how do we connect with the young? Let’s take a few cues from Pope Francis!
We might begin by striving to become young again. The pope has suggested that we seek to renew our youthfulness at every stage of life.
“As we mature, grow older and structure our lives,” he wrote, “we should never lose that enthusiasm and openness to an ever greater reality.”
In Christus Vivit, our Holy Father encouraged us to let ourselves be loved by God, for he loves us just as we are.
A young friend and former FOCUS missionary told me that this is the essential message we need to communicate to young people. They need to know that they are loved as they are, even though God wants to give them more.
God “values and respects you,” we might say to them, borrowing from the pope’s words “but he also keeps offering you more: more of his friendship, more fervor in prayer, more hunger for his word, more longing to receive Christ in the Eucharist, more desire to live his Gospel, more inner strength, more peace and spiritual joy.”
This joy is something about which the pope very often speaks, and it is something that speaks deeply to young people in their vocational discernment.
It is something they see in the quality of a gaze or a smile, in the serenity with which a consecrated person embraces trials or suffering, and in the generous gift of self to the poor day after day.
Pope Francis insisted on joy in a recent speech to Discalced Carmelites, “It is ugly to see consecrated men and women with a long face. It is ugly, it is ugly. Joy must come from within: that joy that is peace, an expression of friendship.”
God forbid that any of us become ugly as we grow older!
In Christus Vivit, the exhortation he wrote following the Synod on young people in the life of the church, Pope Francis reminded us that Christ is alive and he wants us to be fully alive.
“When you feel you are growing old out of sorrow, resentment or fear,” he wrote, “he will always be there to restore your strength and your hope.”
So, let’s ask Jesus, “himself eternally young,” to give us hearts that are ever young and capable of loving, ready to welcome the new generations who knock on our doors just as Elizabeth welcomed the Virgin Mary into her home in the Visitation.
Let’s witness to these young women and men the JOY that fills our hearts, and is eager to fill theirs as well, if only they give themselves to Him!
(Sister Constance Veit is director of communications for the Little Sisters of the Poor.)
The author (lower left) enjoying community time in San Francisco. Next to her is Sr. Cecilia Mary Sartorius, who recently left us for the Father’s House. Sr. Cecilia served as a superior for many years and in many locations, influencing younger Little Sisters with her joyful spirit.
