By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Lent, the spiritual season of prayer and sacrifice, has an extra pull to it this year because once again – and now for the third time – it will be under the cloud of the coronavirus pandemic.

And even though the third Lent in a pandemic can feel like a lot like a Jesus’ third fall on the road to Calvary, people who spoke with Catholic News Service focused more on the season’s path to Easter and how this year’s Lent also coincides with an optimism around COVID-19 cases dropping in the U.S.

“It’s a perfect storm: lower (coronavirus) numbers just as Lent approaches,” said Mary DeTurris Poust, former communications director for the Diocese of Albany, New York.

Poust, who teaches yoga, leads retreats and writes a blog called “Not Strictly Spiritual,” said that during recent virtual retreats she has led, it’s obvious how much people want to reconnect in person.

And maybe this Lent, which starts on Ash Wednesday, March 2, is the time to do just that, she said about being with the parish community: gathering for Mass, prayer services and also for the returning soup suppers and fish fries.

After the tremendous losses of the past two years, she said, this Lent could be a good time for a reset. “Lent is the perfect opportunity to recalculate the internal GPS” of where we’re going, Poust said, speaking about individuals but also more broadly about what parishes can do as they look to welcome people back.

So many Catholics like the ritual of Lent and all of its “bells and smells,” she said, which makes this season a great opportunity “to pull them back in the best way.”

Jen Sawyer, editor-in-chief of Busted Halo, a Paulist website and satellite radio program, said in times of uncertainty, people “rely on muscle memory” of traditional faith practices they are used to. But this year, she thinks Lent’s usual traditions might have a different feel.

“It seems like this is the Lent we’re most prepared for; we’ve all sacrificed so much” she said. The desert experience of Lent has already been lived out and with so many people exhausted from the past two years, she said this Lent offers new opportunities to find peace, community and faith.

Paulist Father Larry Rice, campus chaplain for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, agreed, saying the church is more than ready for Lent 2022 and he hopes it will help people “respond to all the trauma we have been through.”

“We are living with long-term, low-grade trauma,” he said, adding that for many, the pain is just under the surface and he sees Lent as the antidote. “As Christian people, we believe our destination is not Good Friday. We go through that to get to Easter,” he said.

He also said this year has the added hope that “by the time we get to Easter, the pandemic we’re experiencing will look different.” And with wisdom acquired in the past two years, he also added: “There are no guarantees; there could be new (coronavirus) variants.”

The past two Lents did not have that same thread of hope.

Lent 2020 started off without a hitch with just a small number of COVID-19 cases in the country but by the second week of Lent, in early March, some dioceses urged parishes to curtail handshaking at the sign of peace and Communion from the chalice. By the third week of Lent, many dioceses lifted Sunday Mass obligations and stopped public Masses and Lenten services such as Stations of the Cross, prayer services and fish fries.

Last year during Lent, more churches were open – although many were limiting congregation sizes and requiring parishioners to sign up for Masses. Fish fries were back, as carry-out events, and in many dioceses, ashes were sprinkled over heads on Ash Wednesday.

This year, parishes are open – with differing mask regulations and social distancing in place – and the beloved fish fries are back with both in-person or carry-out options.

“These past two years for all of us have not been easy, but God has been with us,” said Mercy Sister Carolyn McWatters, a liturgist and chair of the Prayer and Ritual Committee for the Sisters of Mercy.

Sister McWatters, who lives at the Sacred Heart Convent in Belmont, North Carolina, and is involved in ministry there with the order’s retired sisters, emphasized the need to reflect on the pandemic experience this Lent. She said it’s important to recognize how we lived beyond what we could control, the inner resources we relied on and where we saw goodness and grace at work.

“The cross is never a dead end. It points to new life. Where are the signs of life for me, my community, the country, the world?” she asked.

Spiritual growth is often about relinquishing control, she said, which was certainly an aspect to pandemic life but the coronavirus also involved the hardship of isolation which was especially experienced by the retired sisters.

The convent, part of a national center for the Mercy sisters, had been a frequent spot for meetings and gatherings and many came for Sunday Masses and dinners, which was all put on hold for the past two years.

“Everybody is looking for the end,” she said.

The view of these retired Mercy sisters echoes what many are feeling, but Sister McWatters also cautions against people focusing on being victims right now and seeing the pandemic purely as “woe is me.”

Similarly, she said, Lent is not gloom and doom but should be a “joyful embrace of what will help me to grow more deeply.”

Sawyer also stressed that faith is meant to be joyful and said that Busted Halo with its “Fast Pray Give Lent Calendar” and InstaLent photo challenge aims to get that across and will continue that this Lent particularly by urging people to try something new – a new book or prayer – and to check in with others after so much pandemic isolation.

“We don’t often think of Lent as a vibrant time of community connection,” she said, adding that Catholics are “used to the desert” experience often associated with the season. But this Lent, that might change.

By Samantha Smith
ATLANTA (CNS) – Under the bright lights and falling confetti, surrounded by his team, their families and thousands of fans in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Sean McVay raised high the Vince Lombardi Super Bowl championship trophy Feb. 13.

To win the game feels outstanding, said McVay, head coach of the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams were behind in the third quarter and most of the fourth quarter, before scoring the winning touchdown with 1:25 left in Super Bowl LVI against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Rams won 23-20.

McVay called it “poetic.”

“You talk about a resilient team, coaches, players; I’m so proud of this group,” said McVay in postgame comments. “We talk about competitive greatness all the time, being your best when your best is required.”

McVay, 36, the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl championship in NFL history, is a graduate of Marist School in Atlanta. He gives the Catholic school a lot of credit for instilling in him many “foundational principles” he said have been instrumental in his achievements.

Marist is an independent Catholic college preparatory school owned and operated by the Society of Mary. It is the oldest Catholic secondary school in the Atlanta area.

During his five seasons with the Rams, McVay has led the team to five consecutive winning seasons, two Super Bowl appearances and now a Super Bowl championship.

As his coaching career continues to soar, he continues to hold fond memories of his time at Marist School.
“Marist is a special place because of all the unique people,” McVay said to the 2021 Marist graduating class at their guest speaker. “I’ve been so fortunate and blessed because there’s so many of the foundational principles that were instilled in me from the time I got here, from seventh grade to 12th grade, that have been instrumental in a lot of the things that have been good in my life.”

The school honored McVay with the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2020.
McVay gravitated to football from soccer in eighth grade at Marist, following the footsteps of three McVay generations.

His father, Tim, played football at Indiana University in Bloomington. His grandfather, John, was vice president and director of football operations for the San Francisco 49ers from 1979 to 1995 and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2013.

Alan Chadwick, head football coach at Marist for more than 40 years, described McVay as explosive, agile and competitive as a Marist player.

“He brought great intensity to his preparation, workouts and had tremendous understanding of the game,” said Chadwick.

McVay was a four-year starter and quarterback his junior and senior year while playing for the Marist War Eagles. In 2003, he led the football team to a state championship and was named the Georgia AAAA Offensive Player of the Year. McVay was the first player in the school’s history to rush and throw for 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons.

Atlanta Auxiliary Bishop Joel M. Konzen, who was principal of Marist School while McVay attended, remembers him as an easygoing and friendly student.

In 2003, when Marist won the state championship, Bishop Konzen recalls McVay’s leadership.

“The team acknowledged that he was their leader,” the bishop told The Georgia Bulletin, newspaper of the Atlanta Archdiocese. “Sean gave most of the credit to his teammates for a win, making light of his own contribution. That kind of modesty was how Sean demonstrated his commitment to the Marist Way.”

After graduating from Marist in 2004, McVay attended Miami University where he played wide receiver. In 2007, he received Miami’s Scholar Athlete Award and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in health and sports studies in 2008.
His NFL career began as assistant wide receivers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After working for one year as the quality control and wide receivers coach for the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League, McVay returned to the NFL as assistant tight end coach for the Washington Redskins in 2010.

While coaching for Washington, it was apparent that McVay was going to be a good coach, said Chadwick.
McVay was promoted twice, eventually becoming Washington’s offensive coordinator. In 2016, he coached the offensive unit to record breaking statistics for the franchise.

McVay was named head coach for the Los Angeles Rams in 2017. At 30, he was the youngest NFL head coach in history. The Associated Press named McVay the Coach of the Year in 2018 – the youngest head coach to ever receive the award.

Three years ago, McVay made his first Super Bowl appearance as head coach for the Rams against the New England Patriots when the game was hosted in Atlanta.

Chadwick and McVay have kept in touch over the years. After the Rams won the NFC championship game against the 49ers Jan. 30, Chadwick reached out to his former player to wish him luck in the Super Bowl.

“He’s done extremely well for himself and should continue to do that for many years to come,” said Chadwick.

(Smith is a staff writer at The Georgia Bulletin, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.)

By Catholic News Service
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Jerome Bettis, in his football days, got the nickname “The Bus” because he was carrying would-be tacklers along with him during his punishing runs from scrimmage.

Today, what Bettis is carrying is a full load of classes at the University of Notre Dame, as he strives to finish what he started in his college days more than 30 years ago – a bachelor’s degree in business.

Bettis, now 49, is on track to graduate this spring and get that coveted Notre Dame diploma. If he does, the Pro Football Hall of Famer will have made good on a promise to his mother, Gladys – you may remember their Campbell’s Chunky Soup commercial from 20 years ago – that he would get his sheepskin.

“I promised my mother that I would get my degree,” he said. “In my immediate family, I’ll be the first person to graduate from college,” Bettis told NBC’s “Today” show Jan. 28. And at commencement exercises in May, Bettis getting a diploma means that all 21 Notre Dame football recruits from 1990 will have graduated.

Bettis has lived much of his life in public eye as a throwback of sorts. In an era of pro football where running backs dipped, dived and swerved to avoid tacklers, Bettis was the hard-charging fullback who plunged into the line, dragging defenders with him as he motored for that extra yard.
It served him well: Bettis is eighth all-time in NFL rushing yardage at 13,662 yards, not to mention eight 1,000-yard seasons, 91 touchdowns, six Pro Bowl selections and a Super Bowl championship after the 2005 season, his final season before retiring as a player.

On campus, Bettis is another throwback. Most of the students at Notre Dame aren’t even half his age; Bettis turns 50 Feb. 16. They take their class notes on tablets or laptops; Bettis takes his notes with pen and paper.

Still, he told NBC’s Anne Thompson – herself a Notre Dame graduate: “I am a much better student at 49 because I want to learn, I want to know all of this information.”

The degree will come in handy in his post-football career, which has involved trucking, staffing, development and marketing companies as well as his career as a television personality, where Bettis is on camera for the NFL Network.
“I say to all our coaches that there are three things we should be concerned about versus integrity: Do things the right way, second is help these kids get a degree and do well in their lives, and the third is winning on the field,” said Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, on “Today.” “And Jerome getting a degree after all his success just underscores how important that is.”

By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) – On Feb. 1, Xavier University of Louisiana was among a group of several historically Black colleges and universities in the United States that received bomb threats.

The threats to the university and at least 12 other historically Black colleges and universities came a day after at least six other similar schools received these same threats.

A tweet issued by the university Feb. 1 said: “Xavier University of Louisiana received a bomb threat early this morning and is cooperating with investigating law enforcement. The campus has been cleared and classes will continue as scheduled starting at noon.”

A statement from Patrice Bell, the university’s vice president and chief of staff, said that when the school received the threat “an immediate evacuation of the area and a shelter in place for our residential students were issued” until the university received clearance to from campus, local, state and federal agencies.

She also noted the university would “continue to increase surveillance and mitigation efforts to safeguard its community.”

Xavier University of Louisiana, the nation’s only historically Black Catholic university, held its classes virtually that morning.

This was the second bomb threat the university received in less than a month. On Jan. 4, the university also was targeted along with other historically Black colleges and universities.

The recent wave of threats falling just before or at the start of Black History Month, observed every February, was not lost on school leaders and others.

A Feb. 2 statement by the general council of the Adrian Dominican Sisters said they were “horrified by the series of bomb threats that have closed down historically Black colleges and universities during the past month” including those that occurred on “the first day of Black History Month.”

“Although no bombs have been found, these terrifying and disruptive threats of violence against innocent students, faculty and staff are an assault against the foundational freedoms of our democracy — and a threat to us all,” the sisters added.

They said that as women of faith, they “stand in solidarity with our Black brothers and sisters at these iconic educational institutions and call for a thorough investigation and prosecution of these despicable hate crimes.”
The sisters said they prayed that “God’s loving care and protection” would surround and safeguard theses schools and also prayed “for the conversion of all whose hearts are poisoned by hatred.”

Both the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they were investigating the school threats.

On Jan. 31, after the first wave of recent threats, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said they were “certainly disturbing” and said the White House was in touch with federal law enforcement leadership about them.

In a Feb. 1 statement, the NAACP said it was monitoring these threats and noted that the “Black community has long been plagued by threats of domestic terrorism against them in their schools, homes and houses of worship.”

In other reaction, the leaders of the Congressional Bipartisan Historically Black Colleges and Universities Caucus said in a Jan. 31 statement that they were deeply disturbed by recent bomb threats at these campuses.

“Learning is one of the most noble and most human pursuits, and schools are sacred places that should always be free from terror,” the statement said. The group also stressed that “solving these crimes and bringing those responsible to justice should be a top priority for federal law enforcement.”

Xavier University of Louisiana opened in 1925 and currently has about 3,000 students. It got its start from St. Katharine Drexel, who opened a high school in 1915 on the property where the university was founded by the saint and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the order St. Katharine founded in 1891.

Follow Zimmermann on Twitter: @carolmaczim

By Dennis Sadowski
DAYTON, Ohio – The history of Black Catholics and other marginalized people in the U.S. church covering more than two centuries is one worth knowing and can guide the church’s response to the challenges of racism and social justice, historian Shannen Dee Williams believes.

Addressing the online opening session of the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering Jan. 29, Williams explained that the journey of how people who are often overlooked have influenced church history deserves more than a footnote in historical record.

The gathering convened online for the second consecutive year because of the coronavirus pandemic, addressing the theme “Justice at the Margins.”

Williams, associate professor history at the University of Dayton, focused her comments on the history of Black women religious, who faced racism within the church from religious congregations and clergy. She highlighted the lives of Mother Mary Lange and Sister Thea Bowman, who have the title “Servant of God,” and Venerable Henriette Delille, all of whom withstood discrimination as they carried out their call to a religious vocation.

She called on attendees to learn, as she did over the past 15 years, about the history of Black Catholics since early in the founding of the United States.

Williams confessed it was a history she knew little about until she began researching a topic during graduate studies.

Growing up and throughout her schooling, Williams admitted that she was not interested in Black Catholic history and, although she was a lifelong Catholic, she had never seen a Black woman religious.

“In fact, the only Black sister that I knew at the time was Sister Mary Clarence, the fictional character played by Whoopi Goldberg in the critically acclaimed ‘Sister Act’ franchise,” she said.

But while searching for a topic on which to focus her graduate work, Williams came across a story about the formation of the National Black Sisters’ Conference in 1968. She excitedly called her mother later in the day to discuss her discovery.

Williams recalled that her mother was unaware there were Black nuns serving the church.

In the course of her research, Williams soon learned about the rich history of Black women who endured discrimination within the church and religious congregations in their attempts to live a religious vocation. She also found stories and documents about the Black Catholic experience overall. The more she read, the more she wanted to learn more.

“One of the powerful of those myths was my belief that Black Catholics were footnotes in the story of the development of the U.S. Catholic Church, that the story of the Black Catholic community did not become significant until the 20th century, when their numbers grew significantly as African American Southerners migrated to Northern, Midwestern and Western cities and converted to Catholicism,” Williams said.

Her research led to the revelation that Black Catholics are as much a part of the story of the American Catholic Church as are Europeans.

Since then, Williams said, her work as been “grounded in the fundamental belief in the transformative power and possibilities of Black historical truth-telling in the fight against racism and white supremacy.”

Williams invited attendees to bring justice to the margins by undertaking a series of actions that promote racial equality. One step is to pray to end “individual and institutional racism and the toxic reality of anti-Blackness,” she said.

A second action would be to “always educate ourselves” through a reading club that includes books on anti-racism and the diversity of the American Catholic Church and inviting speakers to address Black Catholic history.

Williams suggested that events in parishes and other communities can be scheduled during Black History Month (February), Black Catholic History Month (November) as well as Women’s History Month (March), Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May), Hispanic Heritage Month (September) and Native American Heritage Month (November).

Learning about the history of diverse communities will help address racism while promoting understanding and equality, Williams said.

Williams also called on Catholics to be “intentional” in supporting racial justice causes through actions such as special collections for historically Black Catholic schools and others serving marginalized people; scholarships and fellowships for descendants of enslaved and colonized people; and programs addressing mass incarceration, environmental racism and voter suppression.

“For me, the possibilities of racial justice, of reconciliation and peace are only possible through this ongoing power of Black Catholic historical truth-telling,” she said.

By Dennis Sadowski (CNS)
Edmonia Lewis, the first African American and Native American sculptor to achieve international recognition through works that reflected her Catholic faith and the dignity of people, is being commemorated on a new postage stamp.
The stamp, the 45th in the U.S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage series, will be issued Jan. 26 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington.

The stamp’s design features a painted portrait based on an Augustus Marshall photograph taken between 1864 and 1871 while Lewis was in Boston, the USPS said.

Lewis overcame multiple obstacles before arriving in Rome in 1865 and opening a studio where she incorporated the neoclassical style popular at the time and establishing herself as one of the most significant sculptors of the 19th century.

Her work is in the permanent collections at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Howard University Gallery of Art in Washington. Works also are scattered in church institutions in the U.S. and Europe. Some continue to be discovered after being missing for decades.

Art historian Elizabeth Lev, who grew up in Boston and has lived in Rome for 30 years, said it was in the Eternal City, where its cosmopolitan atmosphere meant skin color mattered little, that Lewis found inspiration to pursue sculpting in her preferred medium of marble.

“Rome becomes a place where she can truly not just discover herself but become everything she always dreamed to be,” Lev told Catholic News Service. “The limitations she felt and were real in many ways in the U.S. were not limitations (in Rome).”

Lev described Lewis’ worked as reflecting her mixed ancestry as she created sculptures of notable abolitionists as well as figurative images that reflected experiences of people of color, particularly following the abolition of slavery.

Lewis also portrayed religious images, at times imitating neoclassical and Renaissance artists. One such work from 1875 depicts Moses in an imitation of Michelangelo’s 16th-century statue of the man who led the Israelites out of oppression.

An 1874 piece portrays Hagar, an Old Testament heroine who was the maidservant to Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Hagar is shown after Sarah banished her to the wilderness in a jealous rage over Hagar’s son Ishmael, whom Abraham fathered. Hagar has an empty jug at her feet while looking heavenward as she seeks water. Art experts have surmised that Lewis chose Hagar as a symbol of courage and survival, a symbol of her own experiences.

Details of Lewis’ early life are limited. She was born in 1844 in Greenbush, New York, near Albany. Later in life, Lewis maintained she was born July 4 that year. Her father was Haitian American and her mother was Chippewa. Both died before Lewis was 5.

Lewis was raised by her mother’s family until she was 12 and was known as “Wildfire,” according to a Smithsonian American Art Museum biography. In 1859 at age 15, her older brother, who had become a successful gold miner in California, helped Lewis enroll at Oberlin College in Ohio, one of the first institutions in the country to admit African Americans. She took the name Mary Edmonia Lewis.

She did not graduate, however. Despite the school welcoming African Americans, Lewis was subjected to racism and sexism. In 1862, two friends became ill after Lewis served them wine, opening the way to charges that she poisoned them.

The charges were dismissed at trial, but soon after Lewis was severely beaten by white vigilantes who left her for dead. About a year later, she was accused of stealing artists’ materials from the school, but again was acquitted because of a lack of evidence. Lewis left Oberlin in 1863 for Boston, again with her brother’s assistance. There she studied under portrait sculptor Edward Brackett.

In the resolutely anti-slavery atmosphere of Boston, Lewis was inspired to create busts of abolitionists John Brown, who led the doomed slave rebellion at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, and Col. Robert Gould Shaw, who was killed while leading the all-Black 54th Massachusetts Regiment in the Union Army’s unsuccessful second assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863.

Lev said Lewis’ work in Boston and Europe was inspired by her experiences as well as by the faith of the abolitionists, whose belief in human dignity was rooted in their deeply held religious principles.

Having saved enough money from the sale of her work, Lewis traveled to Europe in 1865 at age 20 in the hope of establishing her sculpting career. After stops in London, Paris and Florence, Italy, Lewis settled in Rome, where she opened a studio during the winter of 1865-1866 collaborating with other female sculptors in a male-dominated discipline.

Lewis’ work caught the eye of several benefactors, including John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, known as the 3rd Marquess of Bute, a Scottish magnate who became Catholic at age 21.

Crichton-Stuart financially supported Lewis, allowing her to craft works that gained enthusiastic reviews. Lev, other art historians and scholars continue to study and teach about new understandings and discoveries about Lewis and her sculptures.

Lev said that how Lewis became Catholic is uncertain. Lev related one story which finds that the Native American tribe that raised her in New York was being ministered to by Jesuit missionaries. Lev, however, doubts that was the case and points to Lewis’ time in Rome as likely being more influential in the development of her Catholic faith.
“There’s the Catholicism of this Scottish convert who is very excited about her work and she is brought into this world of Catholic patronage in Rome. Part of it is the welcome of the Catholic community,” Lev said.

One of Lewis’ most well-known sculptures is “Forever Free,” created in 1867. It depicts a Black man and woman emerging from the bonds of slavery. Lev said that while the man is standing, the woman is shown on her knees praying in thanksgiving for being freed of the bonds of slavery.

That sculpture and others, Lev said, is how Lewis used her art to communicate in a subtle and nuanced way to address issues of social justice.

“That’s where I think we can learn from someone who knew about racism really, the woman who was beaten to within an inch of her life at Oberlin. The woman who every step of the way had to overcome obstacles,” Lev told CNS.

(Lewis died in London in 1907 at age 63. She never married and had no children. She is buried in St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery in city’s borough of Brent.)