Updates

What is a pilgrim anyway?

Posted on by

By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
The Jubilee Year of Hope is well underway, a year of favor from the Lord in which Pope Francis is encouraging and challenging us to be Pilgrims of Hope. What is a pilgrim anyway?

Over 40 years ago in the early years of my priesthood I participated in a biblical study tour to the Holy Lands and Rome to experience firsthand the earthly life of Jesus, the beginning of the church in Jerusalem, and its growth in Rome. In preparation for this three-week spiritual adventure the leader reminded all participating priests that we are undertaking this trip as pilgrims, not tourists. Most of us heard the call for pilgrimage and packed simply, except for one in the group who took along a large empty suitcase for souvenirs.

Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.

Later this year the Diocese of Jackson will sponsor a pilgrimage to Rome that will include passing through the Holy Door of one of the four major Basilicas. We will see ourselves as pilgrims for these ten days, all the while keeping in mind that the Holy Father is exhorting us to be pilgrims of hope in heart and mind as an enduring and defining state of life.
How? One of the prophets of old illuminates for us the path of pilgrims. “You have been told, o mortal, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: to do justice, to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) It’s a way of being in this world that overcomes and transcends all who cast their shadows over the light of faith, the power of hope and the primacy of love. As pilgrims we are called to touch lightly on this earth, not in a superficial manner, but in a way that inspires us to understand that to walk upon this earth is a miracle.

I am writing this column on the 11th anniversary of my consecration and installation as the 11th bishop of the Diocese of Jackson. Applying the lens of Pilgrims of Hope I have experienced my episcopal ministry at its core as pilgrimage, journeying to many holy sites, i.e. our parishes, schools and ministries, and back again to the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle. In ordinary and extraordinary moments, in season and out of season, my life is filled with encounters with the sacred. Recognizing this gift is the key. Each of us in has to do the personal work to “stir into flame” (2Timothy 1:6) our baptismal call to be alive and active as the Lord’s anointed and pilgrims of hope. Our identity as God’s children flourishes through prayer, through the sacraments, through works of justice and goodness accomplished in a spirit of humility. When we fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:12) “each of us may be able to offer a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed, in the knowledge that, in the Spirit of Jesus, these can become, for those who receive them, rich seeds of hope.” (Jubilee Document)

As this edition of Mississippi Catholic circulates throughout the diocese, I will be in India for my second pastoral visit to this amazing country from where we have 15 priests serving in our diocese. Truly, this is a pastoral visit to spend time with the bishops and provincial who have priests on mission in the Diocese of Jackson. But at its core it is a pilgrimage to many holy sites and ministries in the land where St. Thomas the Apostle first proclaimed the Gospel.

Wherever we are in this world, St. Paul reminds us that in the end “our citizenship is in heaven.” Yet, the journey begins here and the blessing and challenge is to see this world as God sees it, and to accompany one another as pilgrims with an abiding concern for justice, goodness and solidarity for all.

White House suggests it will strip funds from Catholic Charities

Posted on by

By Kate Scanlon
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The White House Jan. 28 sought to clarify what would and would not be impacted by a directive to freeze federal financial assistance programs and suggested it would seek to strip federal funds from nongovernmental organizations including Catholic Charities as part of its effort to enforce its immigration policies.

Catholic Charities USA urged the Trump administration to reconsider the freeze of the funds in a Jan. 28 statement. A judge temporarily blocked the freeze the same day.

The White House budget office ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans, which could impact trillions of dollars in government spending and halt public programs that affect millions of Americans, according to a memo from that office. These orders could impact Catholic entities that rely on such grants.

Migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. walk into a temporary humanitarian respite center run by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in McAllen, Texas, April 8, 2021. (CNS photo/Go Nakamura, Reuters)

In her debut press briefing as White House press secretary Jan. 28, Karoline Leavitt said “this is not a blanket pause on federal assistance in grant programs from the Trump administration,” arguing “individual assistance” will not be impacted, listing “Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, food stamps, welfare benefits” as examples.

“It is the responsibility of this president and this administration to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” she said, arguing the directive was to combat “wokeness” running afoul of Trump’s other executive orders on topics including diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

But questions remain about how the White House will define “assistance provided directly to individuals,” as indicated in the memo. Illinois and other states were cut off from the portal that is used to request and manage Medicaid spending, the office of that state’s Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, said.

The White House confirmed the outage, with Leavitt writing on social media that they are “aware of the Medicaid website portal outage,” but said it would soon be available.

“We have confirmed no payments have been affected – they are still being processed and sent,” she said. “We expect the portal will be back online shortly.”

Leavitt was asked about the impact on organizations like Meals on Wheels, which is funded in part by the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) program, to deliver meals to homebound seniors, rather than the grant funds going directly to the seniors themselves.

“It does not affect individual assistance that’s going to Americans,” she replied.

Elsewhere in the briefing, Leavitt was asked if Trump “intended to permanently cut off funding to NGOs that are bringing illegal foreign nationals to the country, such as Catholic Charities?”

“I am actually quite certain that the president signed an executive order that did just that,” she said.
Kerry Alys Robinson, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, issued a statement that did not reference the exchange in the White House briefing room but defended the work of her organization.

“Last year, 92 percent of the services provided by the 168 independent Catholic Charities agencies around the country covered basic needs – access to food, housing, health care and other necessities – for families and individuals struggling to get by,” Robinson said. “These vital services include food pantries for those who can’t afford groceries, childcare programs for low-income families, meal deliveries for homebound seniors, job training resources for veterans, temporary and permanent housing, mental health services and much more.”

The millions of Americans “who rely on this life-giving support,” she added, “will suffer due to the unprecedented effort to freeze federal aid supporting these programs.”

“The people who will lose access to crucial care are our neighbors and family members,” Robinson said. “They live in every corner of the country and represent all races, religions and political affiliations.”

“For more than a century, the Catholic Charities network has worked with the government to care for poor and vulnerable people in every community in the U.S., and we continue to be eager to work with government to care for our neighbors in need. We strongly urge the administration to rethink this decision,” she continued.

The group also urged its supporters to contact their congressional representatives.

OSV News has reached out to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and is awaiting a response. Both CCUSA and the USCCB have said they abide by the law in their work with migrants and refugees.

In a Jan. 26 statement, issued hours after Vice President JD Vance questioned the motives of the U.S. bishops’ criticism of President Donald Trump’s new immigration policies in an interview that aired that morning, the USCCB said, “Faithful to the teaching of Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church has a long history of serving refugees.”

“In 1980, the bishops of the United States began partnering with the federal government to carry out this service when Congress created the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP),” the statement said. “Every person resettled through USRAP is vetted and approved for the program by the federal government while outside of the United States. In our agreements with the government, the USCCB receives funds to do this work; however, these funds are not sufficient to cover the entire cost of these programs. Nonetheless, this remains a work of mercy and ministry of the church.”

(Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.)

March for Life puts pro-life vision that welcomes babies,supports families in focus

Posted on by

By Maria Wiering
(OSV News) – “Let me say very simply: I want more babies in the United States of America,” Vice President JD Vance told a cheering crowd at the 52nd National March for Life Jan. 24.

“I want more happy children in our country, and I want beautiful young men and women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them,” he said. “And it is the task of our government to make it easier for young moms and dads to afford to have kids, to bring them into the world, and to welcome them as the blessings that we know they are, here at the March for Life.”

In his first public appearance following Inauguration Day, Vance was the final speaker at the annual march’s two-hour rally preceding attendees’ walk from the Washington Monument grounds to the U.S. Supreme Court Building. Other speakers included Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. It is the first time both leaders of Congress’s chambers attended a March for Life.

Students from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, hold the March for Life banner outside the U.S. Supreme Court during the annual March for Life in Washington Jan. 24, 2025. (OSV News photo/Elizabeth Frantz, Reuters)

While most speakers – policymakers and pro-life advocates – spoke specifically about making abortion “illegal and unthinkable” in post-Dobbs America, Vance championed a pro-family vision that not only rejected abortion, but also supported raising children.
Noting his own three young children, Vance, who is Catholic, said, “The task of our movement is to protect innocent life. It’s to defend the unborn; and it’s also to be pro-family and pro-life in the fullest sense of that word possible.”

As in years past, the march drew tens of thousands, many of them young adults. Some traveled more than a day on buses, missing high school and college classes to join others along the National Mall in the mid-Atlantic cold.

The 2025 march also commemorated a leadership change for the event’s organization, with longtime president Jeanne Mancini handing off her role to March for Life’s incoming president, Jennie Bradley Lichter. While Mancini emceed the 2025 march, both women spoke, with Bradley Lichter also introducing Vance.

The march was founded to protest Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in all 50 states. That decision was overturned in 2022 with the court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, thus returning abortion policy to lawmakers. At the rally, March for Life leaders addressed the march’s role in the changed abortion landscape, with abortion laws now varying widely by state. The march, they insisted, must continue.

“Today we affirm that the pro-life generation will not rest until every single abortion facility in our nation closes its door for good. We will march until every child is protected by federal law, until abortion is unthinkable, and until every pregnant woman receives excellent prenatal care,” said Hannah Lape, president of Wheaton College Voice for Life. Her group carried the 2025 march’s iconic banner.

The march came four days after President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term, following a campaign that disappointed many pro-life advocates in certain respects. Trump was hailed for pro-life actions during his first term. Since then, he reversed support for a federal abortion ban, stating he believes U.S. states should determine their own abortion laws. He also posted on social media positively about “reproductive rights,” and indicated he would not restrict access to mifepristone. The drug, while it is prescribed in some miscarriage care protocols, is widely used for nearly two-thirds of abortions in the U.S.

A majority of Americans support some legal limits on abortion, while keeping the practice largely intact, according to a Knights of Columbus-Marist poll released Jan. 23. The annual survey found that 83% of Americans supported pregnancy resource centers and 67% of Americans support some legal limits for abortion. But 60% support limiting abortions to the first three months of pregnancy – a limit that would leave most abortions legal as nine out of 10 abortions occur in the first trimester.

“All of you here – all of you – have the power to change minds,” Lila Rose, a Catholic and longtime pro-life advocate, told the crowd during the march rally. “You are the voice for those who have no voice. Remember, science is on our side. The truth is on our side. We must simply have the courage to speak the truth with love.”

The March for Life was preceded by two large-scale events: Life Fest 2025 at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Virginia, held the evening before and the morning of the march; and the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

Marcela Rojas, who lives in the Archdiocese of New York, said that she attended the march with a group of 75 people, many of them mothers who brought their small children.

“Within our being, in our womb, there is a life,” she said of pregnant mothers. “It is a life that we cannot choose for. It is already another life that does not belong to us, and we are not the ones to decide whether it lives or not.”

(Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News. Contributing to this story was OSV News correspondent Marietha Góngora V. in Washington.)

Called by Name

Posted on by

I stated this last issue of Mississippi Catholic, but I’ll state it again … we have set a date for Homegrown Harvest 2025! In this Jubilee Year of Hope, we will have our 6th Annual Event on Oct. 11, 2025 at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Madison. Please save the date.

Homegrown Harvest has become a sort of touchstone for me as vocation director. I had conversations just before the pandemic with Bishop Joseph Kopacz and with the development team at the diocese about having an event that allowed our supporters to encounter our seminarians and see all the good things that are store for the future of the church. Then … Covid. And so, our first Homegrown Harvest happened at St. Jude in Pearl and there were about six people in attendance. We somehow managed to figure out the technology and had a live event over Zoom that night as Bishop Kopacz and I spoke with Father Jim Wehner about vocations, and some other things happened I’m sure. It was all a blur.

I am so grateful at how this event has grown since then. We want to continue to make it better and more fun, and, of course, keep raising money to support our seminarians and the great ways that we are reaching out to young men throughout the diocese and accompanying them in their discernment.
In other news, Father Tristan Stovall took a group of ten (10), yes, I said ten college students down to Notre Dame Seminary at the end of January. We are so blessed to have Father Tristan as assistant vocation director. He’ll be leading another seminary trip on Palm Sunday weekend to St. Joseph Seminary College in Covington.

Seeing the seminary helps young men see that there are just normal people at the seminary. The seminarians are not monks, and they are not hermits, they are normal young men who are discerning a call to a unique state in life. I’m so grateful that Father Tristan has such a love for the work that he’s doing, and it is a great help to have a brother priest on board who can lead these types of trips. He is also leading a trip for young women to see the Nashville Dominicans in the coming weeks. Thanks Father Tristan!

Our second wave of six-week discernment groups with men ages 15-25 are ramping up this month. If you remember the Called by Name campaign that we held last November – all the names that surfaced from that initiative are being contacted by members of the vocation team to see if they’d like to participate in one of these groups. Please keep these young men and the vocation team in your prayers and pray to the Father to send out more laborers for the harvest!

Father Nick Adam, vocation director

(For more information on vocations, visit jacksonvocations.com or contact Father Nick at nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.)

Join the Vocation Office email list: https://jacksondiocese.flocknote.com/VocationsSupport

Ecumenism: the imperative for wholeness inside the Body of Christ

Posted on by

IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
For more than a thousand years, Christians have not experienced the joy of being one family in Christ. Although there were already tensions within the earliest Christian communities, it was not until the year 1054 that there was a formal split, in effect, to establish two formal Christian communities, the Orthodox Church in the East and the Catholic Church in the West. Then, with the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, there was another split within the Western Church and Christianity fragmented still further. Today there are hundreds of Christian denominations, many of whom, sadly, are not on friendly terms with each other.

Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Division and misunderstanding are understandable, inevitable, the price of being human. There are no communities without tension and so it is no great scandal that Christians sometimes cannot get along with each other. The scandal rather is that we have become comfortable, even smug, with the fact that we do not get along with each other, no longer hunger for wholeness, and no longer miss each other inside our separate churches.
In almost all our churches today there is little anxiety about those with whom we are not worshiping. For example, teaching Roman Catholic seminarians today, I sense a certain indifference to the issue of ecumenism. For many seminarians today this is not an issue of particular concern. Not to single out Catholic seminarians, this holds true for most of us in all denominations.

But this kind of indifference is inherently unchristian. Oneness was close to the heart of Jesus. He wants all his followers at the same table, as we see in this parable.

A woman has ten coins and loses one. She becomes anxious and agitated and begins to search frantically and relentlessly for the lost coin, lighting lamps, looking under tables, sweeping all the floors in her house. Eventually she finds the coin, is delirious with joy, calls together her neighbors, and throws a party whose cost no doubt far exceeded the value of the coin she had lost. (Luke 15:8-10)

Why such anxiety and joy over losing and finding a coin whose value was probably that of a dime? Well, what’s at issue is not the value of the coin; it’s something else. In her culture, nine was not considered a whole number; ten was. Both the woman’s anxiety about losing the coin and her joy in finding it had to do with the importance of wholeness. A wholeness in her life that had been fractured, and a precious set of relationships was no longer complete.

Indeed, the parable might be recast this way: A woman has ten children. With nine of them, she has a good relationship, but one of her daughters is alienated. Her nine other children come home regularly to the family table, but her alienated daughter does not. The woman cannot rest in that situation, cannot be at peace. She needs her alienated daughter to rejoin them. She tries every means to reconcile with her daughter and then one day, miracle of miracles, it works. Her daughter comes back to the family. Her family is whole again, everyone is back at the table. The woman is overjoyed, withdraws her modest savings, and throws a lavish party to celebrate that reunion.

Christian faith demands that, like that woman, we need to be anxious, dis-eased, figuratively lighting lamps, and searching for ways to make the church whole again. Nine is not a whole number. Neither is the number of those who are normally inside our respective churches. Roman Catholicism isn’t a whole number. Protestantism isn’t a whole number. The Evangelical Churches aren’t a whole number. The Orthodox Churches aren’t a whole number. No one Christian denomination is a whole number. Together we make up a whole Christian number – and that is still not a whole faith number.

And so, we are meant to be anxious around these questions: Who no longer goes to church with us? Who is uncomfortable worshiping with us? How can we be comfortable when so many people are no longer at table with us?

Sadly, today, many of us are comfortable in churches that are far, far from whole. Sometimes, in our less reflective moments, we even rejoice in it: “Those others aren’t real Christians in any case! We’re better off without them, a purer, more faithful church in their absence! We’re the one true remnant!”

But this lack of solicitude for wholeness compromises our following of Jesus as well as our basic human maturity. We are mature, loving people and true followers of Jesus, only when, like Jesus, we are in tears over those “other sheep that are not of this fold.” When, like the woman who lost one of her coins, we cannot sleep until every corner of the house has been turned upside down in a frantic search for what’s been lost.

We too need to solicitously search for a lost wholeness – and may not be at peace until it is found.

(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)

Presentation in the temple shows how God lives among us, pope says

Posted on by

By Justin McLellan
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The presentation of Jesus in the temple of Jerusalem shows that God’s closeness to humanity is not confined to a place of worship but is manifested in his living among people, Pope Francis said.

“God is present in the midst of his people, not because he dwells within four walls, but because he lives as a man among humanity,” the pope said before praying the Angelus with visitors in St. Peter’s Square Feb. 2. “ This is the novelty of Jesus.”

Pope Francis gives a thumbs up to visitors in St. Peter’s Square gathered to pray the the Angelus at the Vatican Feb. 2, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

The day’s Gospel reading from St. Luke recounted how Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the temple 40 days after his birth, following Jewish tradition. The “heartfelt voices” of Simeon and Anna, who had long awaited the messiah, “resound among the ancient stones of the temple, announcing the fulfillment of Israel’s expectations,” the pope said.

Simeon described Jesus in “three beautiful ways,” the pope said. “Jesus is salvation, Jesus is light; Jesus is a sign of contradiction.”

“Like the sun that rises over the world, this child will redeem it from the darkness of evil, pain and death,” Pope Francis said. “How much we need light, this light, even today!”

Simeon then prophesied that Jesus will be “a sign that will be contradicted” so that “the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

“Jesus reveals the criterion for judging all of history and each of our lives,” Pope Francis explained. “And what is this criterion? It is love: those who love, live; those who hate, die.”

The pope urged Christians to reflect on whether they, too, are longing for God: “Do I wish to see the face of the Lord? Do I await the manifestation of his plan of salvation?”

After praying the Angelus, the pope called for people to say “no” to war.

“It destroys everything, it destroys life and induces us to disregard it,” he said; “let us not forget that war is always a defeat.”

Pope Francis renewed his Jubilee year appeal for Christian government leaders “to do their utmost in the negotiations to bring all the ongoing conflicts to an end.”

“Let us pray for peace in tormented Ukraine, in Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan and North Kivu,” he said, referring to the region in Congo where intense fighting flared up in late January, leading to the deaths of hundreds of people.

Grace and growth in the Year of Hope

Posted on by

Reflections on Life
By Melvin Arrington
Pope Francis has recognized 2025 as a Holy Year, a Jubilee Year of Hope. In 2025 we, as “pilgrims of hope,” are called to renew ourselves, to transform ourselves into all that God wants us to be.

As Christians we have reasons to be hopeful. First and foremost, we are made in the image of God, and He has chosen us to be His adopted children. He has given us meaning and purpose for our lives. And He has promised that we will spend all eternity in heaven if we remain faithful to Him.

According to the Catechism, hope, like faith and charity, the other two theological virtues, is “infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as His children and of meriting eternal life.” (CCC 1813) “Infused,” as my handy little Catholic Dictionary states, means that God, through His grace, imparts hope to the soul; it’s not something we can acquire through our own efforts other than our willingness to receive it.

Because this connection between grace and hope in the life of Christians has interesting parallels with the growth process in plants, I’m going to examine some of these correspondences. Joseph Campbell, considered the leading authority on mythology, argues that a type of consciousness operates not just in humans but in all forms of life, including plants. For him, the vine that wraps itself around a tree and the leaf that opens and turns toward the sun, an activity we call heliotropism, illustrate the existence of a plant consciousness.

Although Campbell makes a compelling argument, I prefer a different approach to this subject. Weeks ago, a winter storm brought a record snowfall and near single-digit temperatures to our part of the state. As I was out walking, I noticed near the sidewalk a row of tiny green shoots powerfully pushing upward, just beginning to break through the rock-hard surface of the ground. How could this be, given the frozen ground? But there they were! Although revealing less than a centimeter of their tips, they were bursting forth with determination and confidence.

God has put in place all the elements plant life requires to flourish. Nurtured by these graces – sunshine, rain and nutrients in the ground – the little shoots will continue their journey upward and will fulfill their purpose by turning into full-grown plants. And before long the color green, which stands for life, growth and, ultimately, hope, will be all around us again!

Interestingly, the way vegetation emerges has a direct application to Christian life and serves as a metaphor for the Catholic view of hope. Like the green shoots, we are on an upward journey. We, too, are confident of renewal and advancement in the faith, nourished by God’s grace. We, too, have the goal of blossoming and becoming what we were intended to be: mature, Christ-like servants. And because green also signifies Ordinary Time, the long period of maturation in the spiritual life, we’ll see it more than any other color during the liturgical year as a constant reminder of what we’re striving for.

The Catechism defines hope as “the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.” (CCC 1817) In other words, it’s much more than just the desire or wish for something; for example, that there will be something good to watch on TV, or that my team will make the playoffs, or that my utility bills will be lower, etc. These wishes may or may not come to pass. The Catholic understanding of this virtue, however, deals with eternal things; it goes well beyond mere desire to include “the confident expectation of divine blessing.” (CCC 2090)

Hope encompasses a firm belief that God will keep His promises to us, so we have to make sure that we honor our commitment to Him and not presume on His mercy: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23)

What kinds of things should we as pilgrims of hope do during this Jubilee Year? I heartily recommend consulting the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) website, which contains a wealth of information for the Holy Year. But if a pilgrimage is not feasible, several other opportunities for personal renewal are readily available. Maybe this is the year for taking a deep dive into God’s Word, or for making more frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament, or for committing to praying a nightly rosary. Whatever we pledge to do, let’s not forget to give thanks for the amazing gift of hope, which “does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)

(Melvin Arrington is a Professor Emeritus of Modern Languages for the University of Mississippi and a member of St. John Oxford.)

Free people of color and the Catholic faith

Posted on by

CALL TO HOLINESS
By Jaymie Stuart Wolfe
Black History Month is officially observed every February, but there’s something unfortunate about that. Don’t get me wrong: it’s great to recognize the contributions of Black Americans. But dedicating a specific month to doing so seems to have had the unintended side effect of limiting the recognition they’ve earned to a paltry 28 days of the year.

In New Orleans, the gifts of Black Americans are more visible than in other places. Flavorful food, soulful music, deep community and lively joy: nearly everything both locals and visitors love about our city has roots in Black culture beautifully expressed.

Louisiana’s story of colonialism, race and culture is unique and complex. And as it turns out, African American history is not merely synonymous with the history of slavery. New Orleans bears the tragic distinction of having had the largest slave market in North America. But at the same time, the city was also home to the largest community of free Black people.

Most free people of color were French-speaking Catholics; some arrived in New Orleans already free, others purchased their freedom or acquired it through government or military service or manumission.

A middle class of merchants and artisans, free people of color attended school, owned property, and were able to build generational wealth. By 1810, 29% of the city’s population was free people of color. They lost many of the freedoms they had enjoyed under French and Spanish rule when the United States purchased Louisiana in 1803. Nevertheless, this thriving community had a lasting impact on New Orleans and well beyond it.

As restrictions increased and the imposition of Americanized racial policies took hold in the 1830s and ‘40s, free people of color created their own religious, cultural, mutual aid and educational institutions. Their examples are inspiring.

When Henriette Delille (1812–1862) had a religious experience at the age of 24, she believed that God was calling her to religious life. Although she was well educated and had been born free, women of color were disqualified from joining the established orders. Instead, Henriette and seven other young women founded a community that later became known as the Sisters of the Holy Family. Permitted to take only private vows and prohibited from wearing a habit, the sisters cared for the sick, helped the poor, taught both free and enslaved children. Taking elderly women into their home, they established the first Catholic nursing home in the United States. Mother Henriette’s influence is still felt here. She was declared venerable in 2010.

Eugène Warburg (1825–1859) was born into slavery but was freed as a young child by his Jewish father. He apprenticed as a marble cutter under a French artist, then established his own sculpture studio in the French Quarter. Warburg earned commissions for religious statuary, portraits and gravestones. The checkered marble floor he designed and created for the expansion and beautification of St. Louis Cathedral in 1850 still testifies to the quality and precision of his work.

A fourth-generation free man of color, Edmond Déde (1827–1901) began playing the clarinet as a child, then quickly moved to violin. He was considered a musical prodigy. Working as a cigar-maker to earn his passage to Europe, Dédé enjoyed a successful music career in France. He composed many pieces of classical music and is the first African American to compose a full-scale opera. “Music from Morgiane” debuted in 2025 at St. Louis Cathedral, where Dédé was baptized.

Homère Plessy (1862–1925), a French-speaking free man of color, grew up during Reconstruction, when Louisiana schools were racially integrated, Black men were able to vote, interracial marriage was legal, and more than 200 Black men held elected office. A lifelong member of St. Augustine Catholic Church, Plessy became politically active when Louisiana began passing Jim Crow legislation. Plessy challenged segregation laws with an act of civil disobedience. He is best known as the unsuccessful plaintiff in the famous Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson which established the “separate but equal” legal doctrine that was ultimately overturned in 1954.

The lives of these four free, Black, French-speaking Catholics from 19th-century New Orleans are worthy of our attention. The nobility of their enduring contributions to American society, despite the difficulties they faced as people of color, is nothing less than miraculous.

(Jaymie Stuart Wolfe is a sinner, Catholic convert, freelance writer and editor, musician, speaker, pet-aholic, wife and mom of eight grown children, loving life in New Orleans.)

US bishops call for prayer after deadly DC air collision claims dozens of lives

Posted on by

By Gina Christian and Kate Scanlon
(OSV News) – U.S. Catholic bishops – joined by Pope Francis – are calling for prayer after a deadly aviation crash in the nation’s capital claimed dozens of lives.

“Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Washington today join men and women of good will here and around the world in praying for those who perished in last night’s heartbreaking accident,” Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, the retired archbishop and current apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, said in a Jan. 30 statement.

The Jan. 29 midair collision between a regional jet operated by American Airlines and a U.S. military helicopter took place over the Potomac River at approximately 9 p.m.

American Eagle Flight 5342 – which originated in Wichita, Kansas – had been preparing to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and carried 60 passengers and four crew members on board. The helicopter involved in the collision, a UH-60 Black Hawk assigned to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, contained three troops on a routine training flight.

Debris is seen Jan. 30, 2025, as the U.S Coast Guard, local, state and federal agencies respond after American Eagle flight 5342 collided in midair with a Black Hawk Army helicopter late Jan. 29 while on approach for landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The plane, with 64 people on board, and the helicopter, with three crew members, crashed into the Potomac near the airport. (OSV News photo/U.S Coast Guard/Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles via Reuters)

The initial rescue operation was soon declared a recovery effort, with first responders and dive crews battling the Potomac’s icy waters to retrieve the bodies. The incident remains under investigation by multiple agencies led by the National Transportation Safety Board and including the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Army.

“We praise God for the generous assistance of our courageous first responders,” Cardinal Gregory said in his statement. “May this disaster serve as an impetus to strengthen our unity and collaboration.”

In a Jan. 30 post on the X social media platform, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, asked people to be “united in prayer for all those tragically impacted by the accident.”

“May we be united in prayer for all those tragically impacted by the accident near Reagan airport,” Bishop Burbidge, whose diocese borders the Potomac, said in his post.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, in a statement issued Jan. 30 “on behalf of the clergy and faithful” of the archdiocese, prayed for those “who tragically perished” in the crash and expressed “prayerful solidarity” with the families of all the victims.

“May Almighty God grant them peace and serenity and consolation to those left behind,” he said. “Reagan National Airport is a very familiar place to me. This tragedy strikes very close to home.”
Shortly after the crash, Bishop Carl A. Kemme of Wichita, Kansas, posted on Facebook that he was “praying for all involved” in the disaster.

“It is sobering to think that I and two other priests were on this very flight one week ago on our way to DC for the … March for life,” Bishop Kemme said in his post. “May God bring divine assistance to everyone involved.”

On Jan. 30, Bishop Kemme released a statement on the disaster, saying, “My heart, and the hearts of the faithful of the Diocese of Wichita, go out to the families and loved ones of all those lost in this devastating accident. 

“We pray for the souls of those who perished, including the brave members of our military, the passengers, and the crew,” said Bishop Kemme. “We also pray for comfort and strength for those who mourn, and for the first responders and recovery teams as they continue their difficult work. I encourage all to pray for those affected by this tragedy. May the souls of the departed rest in peace.”

In a Jan. 30 telegram to President Donald Trump, Pope Francis expressed his “spiritual closeness” to victims and their families and commended the souls of the departed to God’s loving mercy.

“I likewise pray for those involved in the recovery efforts, and invoke upon all in the nation the divine blessings of consolation and strength,” he said.

While the victims’ names have not yet been revealed, U.S. Figure Skating, the sport’s governing body, told media that several passengers on the commercial aircraft were young figure skaters returning from a training camp in Wichita. Russian state media reported that several of the skaters were Russian nationals.

(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina. Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News based in Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.)

Declaration of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity in service to the rights of all immigrants and refugees, beloved of God

Posted on by

The Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity (Trinitarians) have been present in the challenging reality of migration at every moment of our history. From our beginnings more than one hundred years ago, the Holy Spirit has moved us to be willing to leave everything and go to the most unprotected portion of the harvest.

Today, throughout the world, the suffering of displaced persons-immigrants and refugees-is a cry of brothers and sisters waiting to be heard, seen and found. In all our missions and the countries where we strive to live prophetically, our call to mission, the cry awaits a response.

We, Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, proclaim today, “You are not alone. We journey with you!”

Well have the bishops of the United States declared: “Together, we must be the voice of the multitudes who yearn to breathe freedom and demand that our government provide just and humane treatment for our dear brothers and sisters. It is our hope, our prayer, that we can all work together in developing a reform of the current immigration system.”

We, the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, want to be much more than a voice. Wherever we are, we wish to invite all our partners in mission and every person of good will to join us in a concrete effort of solidarity, presence and hope.

As men of faith with lives dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus, we commit ourselves to:

  • Be one with our sisters and brothers in their moments of terror and need.
  • To honor their sense of devastation and anguish.
  • Support one another and those we serve.

    With this commitment, we pledge:
  • To walk purposefully, hand in hand, with the immigrant and refugee.
  • To actively participate in all efforts for justice.
  • To be architects of protective spaces for people at risk.
  • Share resources and collaborate with others working for justice.
  • Bear witness to the fact that there are no disposable people.
  • To seek the wisdom of our elders and the audacity of youth.
  • Work to create safe spaces where people can flourish in freedom.
    Missions are people: people of all races, cultures and ways of life. People are not “illegal” or “undocumented” but beloved sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father, redeemed by the blood of Jesus on the Cross, the ultimate symbol and sign of God’s infinite love for every person without exception.

    We, Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, with all people of goodwill, commit ourselves, by the grace of God, to live this Gospel message of Jesus in loving service to our sisters and brothers, whatever the cost! Only in this way can we truly fulfill the vocation we have received.