Monthly Archives: July 2015

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT

  • CHATAWA St. Mary of the Pines Retreat Center, eighth annual, “Speak Lord I’m Listening,” retreat for men and women using the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Friday-Sunday, July 24-27. Led by Father Bill Henry. Cost is $140 per person, double occupancy, $160 per person for single rooms and $40 for commuters. Details: Charlene Brown, 601-248-4310.
  • CLARKSDALE St. Elizabeth Parish, Latin Mass, Sunday, July 19, at 2 p.m. Father Scott Thomas, pastor, will celebrate.
  • GLUCKSTADT St. Joseph Parish, 12-week adult summer Bible study, “Revelation: The Kingdom Yet to Come,” Wednesdays at 10 a.m. in Heritage Hall. Cost of the book is $22. Details: parish hall, 601-856-2054.
  • MOBILE, Ala. – Little Sisters of the Poor discernment retreat, “Fun in the Sun,” Aug. 7-8 for single women 17-35, led by Father Victor Ingalls and the Little Sisters of the Poor. No charge. Details: Sister Carolyn, lsp, vocmobile@littlesistersofthepoor.org, 251-591-3700.

PARISH, SCHOOLS & FAMILY EVENTS

  • AMORY St. Helen Parish vacation Bible school will be held in conjunction with First Presbyterian Church Sunday-Tuesday, July 19-21, from 5 – 8 p.m. at the parish. Supper will be served each evening.
    – Annual cookout for both churches, Wednesday, July 22, at 6 p.m. in the parish hall. St. Helen parishioners will be responsible for desserts.
  • BOONEVILLE St. Francis of Assisi Parish, vacation Bible school, “Come to the Feast,” Tuesday, July 14, from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m for children ages four- years to fourth grade.
  • CLEVELAND “Life After Loss,” help and support group meets at St. Luke Methodist on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. Details: Our Lady of Victories Parish office, 662-846-6273, or Larry Lambert, licensed counselor, 662-719-8756.
  • GRENADA St. Peter parishioners are invited to attend the “Casting Crowns” concert and pre-concert party in Greenwood on Saturday, July 18. Tickets are $25. Details: Tara Trost, 662-515-9126.
  • GREENVILLE St. Joseph Parish, vacation Bible school, July 13-16 from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m. for children attending five-year-old kindergarten through fifth grade. Details: Mary Ann Barker, 662-335-5251.
  • HERNANDO Holy Spirit Parish, boat ride at the Reelfoot Lake, Wednesday, July 15. Participants will meet at the church parking lot at 5:30 a.m. and get back that evening about the same time. The cost is $10 per person. Details: holyspiritladies@gmail.com or call Cil, 662-420-9875.
    – Parish fair planning meeting, Wednesday, July 29, at 2 p.m. Details: Missi Blackstock, 662-822-1862.
  • JACKSON The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) workshop, scheduled for July 18, was rescheduled for January or early February. Details: Fran Lavelle, 601-960-8473, or fran.lavelle@jacksondiocese.org.
  • JACKSON St. Richard Parish, family game night, Thursday, July 16, from 5:30 – 8 p.m. in Foley Hall. Bring your own beverages and $5 for pizza.
    – “Sonnets, Strings, and Things,” Sunday, July 19, at 2 p.m. Reading of poems and musical entertainment by Jake Slinkard, a graduate of St. Joseph School.
  • JACKSON Holy Family Parish, strategic plan meeting for 2015-2016, Saturday, July 25, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Past, present and future parishioners invited.
  • JACKSON The Knights of Columbus, pro-life rosary, Saturday, July 25, at 9 a.m. at the Marian Prayer Garden beside the cathedral. St. Peter parishioners are invited.
    MADISON St. Joseph School sixth annual Bruin Burn, Saturday, July 18, beginning at 7 a.m. at St. Anthony Catholic School, 1585 Old Mannsdale Road. 5K Run/Walk is $25 per person, and the one-mile fun run is $15 per person. Register online at www.racesonline.com. Details: Bubba Garrard, 601-668-8571, bgarrard06@gmail.com.
  • MERIDIAN St. Patrick Parish, vacation Bible school, July 13-16 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. for children who have completed kindergarten through fifth grade. Details: Ashley Alexander, 601-934-7160.
  • NATCHEZ St. Mary Basilica, “Directors Chorus” Wednesday, July 22, at 7 p.m. Presented by the Mississippi Chapter of the American Choral and Director Association and directed by Dr. Jo-Michael Scheibe, director of Choral Activities at the University of Southern California. Free and open to the public.
    – Blood drive, Monday, July 27, from noon – 6 p.m. in the O’Connor Family Life Center. Schedule your appointment at www.unitedbloodservices.org.
  • TUPELO St. James Parish feast day, Saturday, July 25, pilgrimage walk along the Natchez Trace. Meet at the church at 7:30 a.m. to be shuttled over to the Chickasaw Village to start the walk at 8 a.m. There will be a spiritual pilgrimage in the church beginning at 9 a.m. Afterwards, there will be a breakfast in Shelton Hall provided by the Hispanic community.
    – Confirmation will be held during the vigil Mass on July 25 at 4:30 p.m. in Shelton Hall.
    – Parishioners are invited to attend “Dancing Like the Stars,” Saturday, Aug 22, at the Bancorpsouth Center. An evening that raises money for the Boys and Girls Club of North Mississippi. Tickets are $50 for the show and dinner and $20 for the show. Details: www.bgcnms.org/nikki-ivancic.aspx,
  • –SHAW St. Francis of Assisi Parish, summer social with cookout, Sunday, July 26, at 6 p.m.

ADDENDUM
The First Communion and confirmation photos from Olive Branch Queen of Peace, New Albany St. Francis and Ripley St. Mathew’s published on the edition of June 26 were taken by Joseph Swords.

CASH CRAWL
JACKSON Catholic Charities inaugural “Cash Crawl” during Fondren’s First Thursday, Aug. 6, from 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. This is a fund-raiser for the Rape Crisis Center with an opportunity to take home $1,000.
Entry fee is $25. Tables will be set up along State Street and throughout Fondren for your chance to play along. Visit participating merchants and draw a card to enter for a chance to win the big prize.

IN MEMORIAM
INDIANA – A Mass of Christian Burial for Sister Mary Junkin, D.C., was celebrated June 27 at Seton Residence Chapel in Evansville, Ind. Burial followed at St. Joseph Cemetery in Evansville. Sister Junkin died June 24 at Seton Residence. She was 89 years of age and spent 62 years as a Daughter of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.
Sister Junkin began her ministry in education at St. Joseph School in New Orleans. She taught at Cathedral Schools in Natchez from 1973-1974 and served as principal from 1974-1981. She also served as librarian at the school and at St. Mary’s Parish.
She is survived by her sister, Marty (J.W., III) Seibert of Natchez, nieces and nephews.

Marriage and its redefinition: a response

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By Bishop Joseph Kopacz
Grace and peace from God our Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Many have raised their voices from across the spectrum of ideologies, religious convictions and all levels of society in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to legally sanction same sex marriage throughout our country. I too want to weigh in on such a critical court decision that has radically altered the definition of marriage. In doing so I am mindful of the inspired words of Saint Peter in his first letter. “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” (1Peter 3,15)
The church, as stewards of the mysteries of God, and servants of Jesus Christ (1Cor. 4,1) has been entrusted with a way of life in marriage that is solidly set in Scripture, in tradition, in Christian Anthropology, and in our Sacramental life. The union of man and woman in marriage emerges out of God’s creative work as the primary relationship for all of human life. It has been the cornerstone, not only for the church, but also for civil society for millennia. Its demise in the modern world has led to enormous problems for individuals, families, and society.
The Catholic Church has cherished and celebrated the sacrament of marriage among its seven sacred gifts (sacraments) bequeathed to us by the Lord Jesus. The roots of marriage are foundational in the Word of God beginning with the second chapter of Genesis where a “man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife and the two become one flesh.” (Genesis 2, 24).
Jesus clearly confirmed God’s creative action regarding marriage in Mark’s Gospel when he reminded his hearers about his Father’s intention from the beginning. (Mark 10, 6-10). Later in the New Testament the basis for the sacrament of marriage is established when the author of Ephesians eloquently wrote “that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5, 25). Therefore, the love of husband and wife in marriage is a sacred sign of the Lord’s faithful and permanent love for us.
Therefore, we are stewards and servants of the sacred institution of marriage that we are not free to change in our tradition of faith. In the light of faith and reason, it is regrettable that what God intended from the beginning has been trampled so often in our modern world, and now redefined.
Yet, our unshakeable commitment to the dignity of every human person created in the image and likeness of God, and in need of salvation, motivates all of our ministries and parish life. Our personal experience of the merciful love of God, the key to eternal life, must direct our encounters, actions and conversations with all people, including our brothers and sisters of same sex attraction, and lifestyles. Although the Church cannot accept the redefinition of marriage, we are compelled by the command of Jesus Christ to love one another as he has loved us. This is the love that moves heaven and earth, and seeks to reconcile all people with God and one another.

El matrimonio y su re-definición, una respuesta

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Por Obispo Joseph Kopacz.
La gracia y la paz de parte de Dios nuestro Padre y de nuestro Señor Jesucristo esté con todos ustedes.
Muchos han levantado sus voces desde el espectro de las ideologías, las convicciones religiosas y desde todos los niveles de la sociedad en respuesta a la decisión de la Corte Suprema de sancionar legalmente el matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo en todo el país.
Yo también quiero expresar mi opinión en ésta crítica decisión judicial que ha cambiado radicalmente la definición de matrimonio. Al hacerlo, estoy consciente de las inspiradoras palabras del Apóstol San Pedro en su primera carta. Honren a Cristo Señor en sus corazones. Estén siempre preparados a responder a todo el que les pida razón de la esperanza que ustedes tienen, pero háganlo con humildad y respeto. (1 Pedro 3:15)
La iglesia, como administradora de los misterios de Dios y ayudante de Jesucristo (1Cor. 4:1) ha sido encargada de una forma de vida en el matrimonio que está sólidamente establecida en las Escrituras, en la tradición, en antropología cristiana y en nuestra vida sacramental.
La unión de un hombre y una mujer en el matrimonio surge de la obra creadora de Dios como la relación primaria para toda la vida humana. Ha sido la piedra angular, no sólo para la iglesia, sino también para la sociedad civil a lo largo de milenios. Su desaparición en el mundo moderno ha causado enormes problemas para las personas, las familias y la sociedad.
La Iglesia Católica ha estimado y celebrado el sacramento del matrimonio entre sus siete sagrados dones (sacramentos) legado por el Señor Jesús. Las raíces del matrimonio están fundamentadas en la Palabra de Dios, comenzando con el segundo capítulo del Génesis donde “un hombre deja a su padre y a su madre para unirse a su esposa y los dos serán una sola carne” (Génesis 2:24).
Jesús claramente confirmó la acción creadora de Dios sobre el matrimonio en el Evangelio de San Marcos cuando le recordó a sus oyentes sobre la intención de su padre desde el principio, (Marcos 10: 6-10). Más adelante en el Nuevo Testamento, la base para el sacramento del matrimonio se establece cuando el autor de Efesios elocuentemente escribió, “que los esposos amen a sus esposas como Cristo amó a la iglesia y se entregó a sí mismo por ella” (Efesios 5:25).  Por lo tanto, el amor de marido y mujer en el matrimonio es un signo sagrado del fiel y permanente amor del Señor por nosotros.
Por lo tanto, somos administradores y servidores de la institución sagrada del matrimonio que no somos libres para cambiar en nuestra tradición de fe. A la luz de la fe y la razón, es lamentable que lo que Dios destinó desde el principio ha sido pisoteado tan a menudo en nuestro mundo moderno, y ahora re-definido.
Sin embargo, nuestro inquebrantable compromiso de la dignidad de toda persona humana, creada a imagen y semejanza de Dios, y en necesidad de salvación, motiva todos nuestros ministerios y la vida parroquial. Nuestra experiencia personal del amor misericordioso de Dios, la clave de la vida eterna, tiene que dirigir nuestros encuentros, acciones y conversaciones con todas las personas, incluyendo a nuestros hermanos y hermanas de la misma atracción sexual y estilos de vida.
Aunque la iglesia no puede aceptar la re-definición del matrimonio, estamos obligados por el mandato de Jesucristo a amarnos unos a otros como él nos ha amado. Este es el amor que mueve cielo y tierra, y trata de conciliar a todas las personas con Dios y con el otro.

New Bibles distributed

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africanamericani071015The Office of Black Catholic Ministry is distributing hundreds of African American Youth Bibles to schools and parishes across the diocese. The Bibles are funded through a grant from the Extension Society and Black and Indian Missions.
Holly Springs Holy Family School and Jackson Sister Thea Bowman School have already received a few dozen copies each and parishes in the diocese will also receive copies to add to their libraries or provide to their youth groups.
“The purpose of this new edition of the Bible is to provide a fully illustrated view of the Bible that is culturally relevant to youth of all backgrounds. It’s educational and provides a view of the Bible in a way that engages youth and adults through full color maps and easily digestible chronological history,” said Will Jemison, coordinator for the Office of Black Catholic Ministry. “It also stands out through its reference to the evil of slavery and how it relates to African American experience,” he said.
The Bible, published in January, 2015, was the result of years of research and work by retired Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida, who is president of the National Black Catholic Congress, and St. Mary’s Press.

Catholic conference, inspires, informs, acknowledges special supplement

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By Contyna McNealy
BUFFALO — Great people. Great fellowship. Great renewal. This year’s Catholic media conference provided close to 300 media professionals with wonderful opportunities to learn from and collaborate with colleagues from across the U.S. and Canada. For three days, June 24 – 26, the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center bustled with participants eager to attend the many workshops and master camps offered. As a first time attendee, it was inspiring to meet and break bread with so many gracious, passionate people in the Catholic media industry.
The conference kicked off with a welcoming reception and dinner which featured a tribute to Buffalo’s very own, Tim Russert. Before his death in 2008, Russert was a tenacious journalist, bestselling author, commentator and renowned host of “Meet the Press.” The Diocese of Buffalo along with the Buffalo Historical Museum showcased a video to honor Russert for his standard of excellence in journalism and his unwavering commitment to family and faith. His tribute deepened my appreciation for the work of good editors and journalists. They have such an important job in that they are not just in the business of reporting news and evangelizing; they are responsible for accurately recording the history of the church.
The following night, Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe echoed the conference’s theme “Power of the Word.” She urged Catholic communicators to use their voices to “speak for the voiceless.” A Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sister Rosemary devotes her life to empowering women held captive by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda.
Her work as director of St. Monica’s Vocational School in Gulu, Uganda, provides these young women and mothers with hope, education and training. She called upon the Catholic media to not “sugarcoat evil” and to continue to cover the atrocities inflicted upon the Ugandan women. Telling the story “keeps it from happening again.”
Shortly after her keynote address, Sewing Hope — a documentary profiling Sister Rosemary and the young women she nurtures — aired at the conference. It was with this small group of attendees that Sister Rosemary viewed the film in its entirety for the first time. Despite the film’s account of immeasurable tragedy, it was all overwhelmingly eclipsed by its revelation of amazing love. Sewing Hope is available for viewing on Netflix streaming.
Father Thomas Rosica, CEO of Salt and Light Catholic Media in Canada, also addressed the Catholic media. Noticing a trend in certain media coverage of Pope Francis as being only surface news, he appealed for media representatives to “go beyond the surface and discover the story within the story.” Father Rosica challenged journalists to fully read the Pope’s closing 2014 address to the Synod of Bishops on the Family and his more recent environmental encyclical “Laudato Si” (Praise be to you). These works “tell the deeper story” of the Pope’s “message of mercy” and his overall “revolution of normalcy.” Journalists were encouraged to communicate the full depth of the Pope’s message to a world truly in need of mercy and normalcy. Salt and Light’s  2013 documentary, The Francis Effect, was also shown as part of the conference schedule. It can be purchased or rented on demand online at saltandlighttv.org.
In addition to two powerful keynote speakers, the presentations of awards and recognitions for excellence in Catholic media were equally inspiring. The Catholic Press Association (CPA) presented the Bishop John England Award to the late Cardinal Francis George of Chicago. Cardinal George was recognized for diligently advocating for the First Amendment rights of Catholic newspapers. His featured columns in the Catholic New World tackled the seriousness of religious freedom and were often reprinted in diocesan publications across the country. Joyce Duriga, editor of the Catholic New World in Chicago, received the award on his behalf.
Former president of the CPA, Greg Erlandson was awarded The St. Francis de Sales Award for his prestigious career in Catholic media. In 2014 he served as a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Erlandson is currently president and publisher of Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division in Huntington, Ind.
The CPA’s awards banquet and presentation was held in the evening on the last night of the conference. This special ceremony recognizes excellence throughout the Catholic press industry. Mississippi Catholic was among this year’s winners. With the entry of the 2014 special supplement, Follow Me: A Journey to Priesthood, the staff of Mississippi Catholic placed second in the category of “best coverage of a routine sacramental event.” The 20-page supplement featured in-depth articles on the history of priesthood in Mississippi and profiles of Fathers Binh Nguyen, José de Jesús Sánchez and Rusty Vincent, who were ordained last May at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle.
The theme of the conference took on a deeper meaning for me. I appreciated how “Power of the Word” speaks to the important role of Catholic communicators. The experience of learning from and listening to individuals with such high standards in communication moved me from the status of simple appreciation to absolute admiration.
It was such an honor to represent Mississippi Catholic and the Diocese of Jackson at this year’s conference. I look forward to having many more priceless opportunities to laugh, share stories and troubleshoot problems with people who can truly relate to the unique and rewarding experience of working for the church.
(Contyna McNealy is the creative services coordinator for the Diocese of Jackson and the production manager for Mississippi Catholic.)

Pope: mercy, faith shape Latin American culture

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By Cindy Wooden and Barbara Fraser
QUITO, Ecuador (CNS) – Although still thousands of miles from his birthplace in Argentina, Pope Francis made a homecoming of sorts July 5 when he landed in Ecuador, greeted by cheering crowds and the sights and sounds of South America.
After a 12-hour flight from Rome, the pope participated in a brief welcoming ceremony at Quito’s Mariscal Sucre Airport, telling government dignitaries, bishops and special guests that his pastoral work before becoming pope had taken him to Ecuador many times.
“Today, too, I have come as a witness of God’s mercy and of faith in Jesus Christ,” he said.
Mercy and faith, he said, have shaped Latin American culture for centuries, contributing to democracy and improving the lives of countless millions of people.
“In our own time, too, we can find in the Gospel a key to meeting contemporary challenges,” the pope said, including respecting national, ethnic, religious and cultural differences and fostering dialogue.
The pope’s visit followed a period of public protests over Ecuadorean government policies. Initially triggered by proposed inheritance and capital gains taxes, the protests also have targeted what even some of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa’s supporters describe as his heavy-handed approach.
Christian values, the pope said, should motivate citizens to promote the full participation of all people in their nation’s social, political and economic life “so that the growth in progress and development already registered will ensure a better future for everyone, with particular concern for the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters to whom Latin America still owes a debt.”
The program for the pope’s July 5-12 tour of Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay was punctuated with formal meetings with government officials and with large public Masses, but it also was filled with visits to the poor, the sick and the elderly, and prisoners.
“Ecuador loves life,” Correa told the pope at the airport ceremony, noting that the constitution protects life from the moment of conception. “It establishes recognizing and protecting the family as the basic core of society and commits us deeply to caring for ‘our common home,’” referring to the environment with the same words Pope Francis used in his encyclical, “Laudato Si’.”
Correa said Ecuador’s was the “first constitution in the history of humanity to grant rights to nature.” Twenty percent of the country is protected in parks and reserves, Correa told the pope.
Some environmental and human rights organizations in Ecuador have questioned Correa’s commitment to environmental safeguards, as conflicts have erupted over plans for open-pit mining and expanded oil and gas exploration and production.
Walking the red carpet at the airport, Pope Francis was greeted by dozens of children and young people dressed in a wide variety of traditional clothes. Correa told the pope that his country is culturally diverse, with a mixed-race majority, as well as 14 indigenous peoples, including two nomadic groups that continue to shun contact with the outside world.
Correa said that “the great social sin of our America is injustice. How can we call ourselves the most Christian continent in the world if we are also the most unequal, when one of the most repeated signs of the Gospel is sharing bread?”
During the flight from Rome, Pope Francis only briefly addressed the 70 members of the media traveling with him. He thanked them for their work, which “can do so much good.” Instead of answering their questions – his practice usually only on flights back to Rome – he walked down one aisle of the Alitalia plane and up the other, greeting each person.
(Copyright © 2015 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news services may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to, such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method in whole or in part, without prior written authority of Catholic News Service.)

Ritual transforms ordinary actions

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IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Today we no longer understand the value and power of ritual. This is more than an individual failing. It’s the cultural air we breathe. In the words of Robert L. Moore, we’ve gone “ritually tone-deaf.”  The effects of this can be seen everywhere: Allow me two examples:
First, we see this today in the failure by so many couples to grasp the need to formalize their relationship in a ceremony of marriage. They make a private commitment to live together but feel no need to formalize this before a civil authority or inside a church. Their belief is that their love and private commitment to each other is all that’s needed. What does a formal ceremony or a church blessing add to that commitment? The prevalent feeling is that a formal ceremony, ideally even in a church, is nice as a celebration and as something to please others, but, beyond that, it adds little or nothing in terms of anything important. What does ritual contribute to actual life?
We see this same view in many current attitudes towards church-going, prayer, and the sacraments. What’s the value of participating in something when seemingly our hearts aren’t in it? What’s the value of going to church when we feel it’s meaningless? What’s the value of praying formally when, today, our hearts are a million miles away from what our words are saying?  Further still, what’s the value in going to church or in saying prayers at those times when we feel a certain positive repugnance to what we’re doing? Indeed these questions are often expressed as an accusation: People are just going through the motions of church and prayer, parroting words that aren’t really meaningful to them, going through an empty ritual! What’s the value in that? The value is that the ritual itself can hold and sustain our hearts in something deeper than the emotions of the moment.
Matthew Crawford, in his recent book, “The World Beyond Your Head,” suggests that ritual acts positively even when our feelings are negative. His words:  “Consider as an example someone who suffers not from some ragging emotion of lust, resentment, or jealousy … but rather sadness, discontent, boredom, or annoyance. A wife, let us say, feels this way about her husband. But she observes a certain ritual: she says “I love you” upon retiring at night. She says this not as a report about her feelings – it is not sincere – but neither it is a lie. What it is is a kind of prayer. She invokes something that she values – the marital bond – and in doing so turns away from her present discontent and toward this bond, however elusive it may be as an actual experience.
It has been said that ritual (as opposed to sincerity) has “subjunctive” quality to it: one acts as if some state of affairs were true, or could be. … It relieves one of the burden of ‘authenticity’.  …  “The ritual of saying ‘I love you’ … alters somewhat the marital scene; it may not express love so much as to invoke it, by incantation. One spouse invites the other to join with her in honoring the marriage, something one could honor. It is an act of faith: in one another, but also in a third thing, which is the marriage itself.”
What Crawford highlights here is precisely, “a third thing,” that is, something beyond the emotions of a given moment and our faith in each other, namely, the institution of marriage itself as a ritual container, as a sacrament that can hold and sustain a relationship beyond the emotions and feelings of the moment. Marriage, as an institution, human and divine, is designed to sustain love inside of and beyond the emotional and affective fluctuations that inevitably occur inside of every intimate relationship. Marriage allows two people to continue to love each other despite boredom, irritation, anger, bitterness, wound, and, in some cases, even infidelity.  The ritual act of getting married places one inside that container.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, when preaching at marriage ceremonies, would frequently give this counsel to couples: Today you are much in love and you feel that love will sustain your marriage. It wouldn’t. But marriage can sustain your love. Being ritually tone-deaf, we struggle to understand that.
The same holds true for church-going, the sacraments, and private prayer. It’s not a question of going through the motions on days when the feelings aren’t there. Rather it’s going through the ritual as an incantation, as an honoring of our relationship to God, and as an act of faith in prayer.
If we only said “I love you” when we actually felt that emotion and if we only prayed when we actually felt like it, we wouldn’t express love or pray very often. When we say “I love you” and when we do formal prayer at those times when our feelings seem to belie our words, we aren’t being hypocritical or simply going through the motions, we’re actually expressing some deeper truths.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.)

Charleston casts us into boat with Jesus

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By Mary Woodward
On June 21, the Sunday after the terrible tragedy of Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME Church, I sat in church trying to make sense of a world gone insane with violence, turbulent politics and this most horrific crime of murdering nine innocent people who had gathered to study God’s Word by an assailant who was welcomed in by those he slaughtered.

Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone of Charleston S.C., offers a prayer while paying his respects to the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, a pastor and state senator, inside the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., June 24. Rev. Pinckney, who was pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, was one of nine people shot and killed at the church June 17. (CNS photo/Mic Smith, The Catholic Miscellany)

Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone of Charleston S.C., offers a prayer while paying his respects to the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, a pastor and state senator, inside the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., June 24. Rev. Pinckney, who was pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, was one of nine people shot and killed at the church June 17. (CNS photo/Mic Smith, The Catholic Miscellany)

And then the Liturgy of the Word began and the first reading was from Job. Poor Job – faithful to God even when God took everything away from him and cast him to the dump.
The letter from Paul that the love of Christ impels us transitioned us to the crowning jewel of the Gospel from Mark in which Jesus said to the wind and the sea, “quiet, be still.”
Reflecting on these readings, I began to wonder if God is speaking to us out of the storm again. Soon the homilist commenced to deliver the very homily I needed to hear in my troubled and fearful heart. He pointed to Charleston and the response to this vicious and unimaginable act by the family members of the murdered innocents. He described the deep witness of faith given by them as the best homily that could be given on this Sunday anywhere in our country.
Each family had the opportunity to address the young man whom their deceased loved one had embraced with the love and light of Christ that fateful night in the church and how that light was extinguished through this young man’s act of darkness, hate and evil.
One by one each family member through voices of anguish and incredible loss reached deep down into faith and offered forgiveness. Many even asked God to have mercy on his soul.
In the face of the violent storm of evil, fear, loss, peril, panic and violence, these Christians lived their faith and became still. With a calmness that only can come from that faith, each one looked evil in the face and said ‘be still my soul.’ Each one knew with a knowledge that only comes from faith that the Lord is right there with them, carrying them on and that the Lord was with their lost loved one in that moment when evil took them from this world.
That unshakeable faith was what Jesus was teaching when he slept in the boat during the storm. And when the disciples turned to him in fear saying: “Wake up, Jesus, we are perishing!” He awakened and calmed the storm on the sea and in their beings.
In that Gospel, Jesus then asks the disciples: “Why are you terrified? Do you not have faith?” The passage then says: “They were filled with great awe and said to one another, Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” The family members of those lost in Charleston answered the disciples’ question with their deeply profound faith.

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Mourners cast shadows on the wall of a makeshift memorial at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., June 18. Nine people were murdered the day before during a Bible study session at the church. (CNS photo/Brian Snyder, Reuters)

Where we go from here is the next step in healing our troubled and violent world? Our state and our country are at a moment in time when we have to look within ourselves and our collective psyche and come to an honest realization that the evil of racism still exists in our communities though it may be hidden just below the surface. Our Christian faith impels us to look to Christ and follow his way. In Him we find the truth. It may not fit with what the crashing sea of our world is trying to convey, but it is what we must, with calm resolve and in faith, seek.
As the Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis approaches, will we walk forward as a people of faith who look into the storm of this evil and are able to “be still” in the knowledge that Jesus is in the boat with us? Will we be able to have honest and respectful dialogue about racism and bigotry still prevalent in our society though we may wish to believe these are in the past?
Or will we continue to be tossed about on the turbulent sea that is our world today and forget that the love of Christ impels us to act with mercy and to reach out in compassion and love?
It is easy to shout: “Wake up, Jesus, we are perishing!” It is not so easy to “Be still.” And yet we have our witnesses in Charleston who in wanting to cry out “wake up, Jesus” in the face of violence and evil were able to “be still.” Though their hearts were filled with unending grief and pain, they took solace in the truth and found strength in a faith “tried in the fire” and ready. In their actions, they are the awakened Christ saying to evil and to our violent world: “quiet.”
(Mary Woodward is the chancellor for the Diocese of Jackson.)

Workshop addresses violence of human trafficking

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This photo illustration depicts the effects of human trafficking. (CNS illustration/Lisa Johnston, St. Louis Review)

By Maureen Smith
A new task force in the Diocese of Jackson is taking on the issue of human trafficking in America. The effort was started by Sister Therese Jacobs, BVM. Her order, the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, picked this urgent issue as one of its key social justice initiatives in 2014. She helped organize a workshop held at Jackson St. Richard Parish on Saturday, June 27.
Catholic Charities has developed the task force to take next steps to address the problem. A faith-based group out of Biloxi, Advocates for Freedom, provided speakers for the human trafficking workshop. Members of the task force also made presentations. Dorothy Balser, director of parish based ministries for Catholic Charities Jackson, said close to 50 people attended the workshop. “At the end we had pledge cards that gave people an opportunity to make a commitment to the effort,” said Balser. “They could request a speaker, host an informational event, form their own local task force if they were from out of town or join our task force,” she added. People were also invited to pray for the victims of human trafficking.
According to the Sisters of Charity website, “Trafficking of human persons is the buying and selling of people for any purpose, including sex, prostitution, forced marriages, servitude and forced labor. Trafficking is exploitation and a violation of human rights and human dignity and is intrinsically evil.”
Sex trafficking is the most common. “One statistic that stands out is that human trafficking is the second most prevalent crime, second only to drugs,” she said. “The picture that is before me is that you sell a drug once, but human beings can be sold multiple times a day – sometimes 20 times a day,” she said.
Sharon Robbins, one of the speakers from Advocates for Freedom said she became involved when she noticed strange activity in her own gated community. She came into contact with the founder of Advocates for Freedom when she was trying to figure out what to do about the groups of young girls being loaded into a van late at night. The information she was able to gather led law enforcement to open an investigation and take action.
Robbins urges everyone to pay attention to their surroundings, saying many people would be shocked at some of the cases happening very close to home. She said she has personally heard of stories of trafficking, even trafficking involving children, in Mississippi. She said acting on an uneasy feeling or reporting suspicious activities could save someone’s life.
Robbins said Advocates for Freedom has assisted in more than 100 rescues since it was founded five years ago and is always looking for volunteers. The group tries to help survivors immediately find a safe place to take shelter and later tries to assist with medical and legal fees as well as housing and job assistance.
“Eighty-five percent of missing children are being trafficked,” she said. She focused her presentation on tactics traffickers use to lure children who might already be in abusive situation, young people with low self-esteem or who might be shy and lonely.  Advocates for Freedom has more statistics and contact information on the organization’s website, www.advocatesforfreedom.org.
“It is happening in Mississippi and we are trying to  make sure those who are the most vulnerable are identified and targeted,” Balser explained. The task force wants to make people aware of the issue, engage law enforcement and advocate for the victims.
She said the workshop presenters said travel corridors are common sites for trafficking, especially in places where there may be a port or the intersection of two interstates. Traffickers lure young people, especially young women, through social media or they find runaways and promise them a better life.
Balser said once the group is able to identify potential victims, the task force will take on the role of identifying resources for them. “We don’t currently have safe houses. We need to identify resources and potential partners,” said Balser.
Anyone interested in joining the task force or getting involved in the effort can contact Balser, 601-355-8634, or by email at dorothy.balser@ccjackson.org.

High court takes on HHS, death penalty, but holds off on abortion cases

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The Supreme Court ruled on a handful of other cases involving issues of life and social justice before it ended its summer session. In a June 29 order, the High Court continued to shield several Pennsylvania religious institutions from having to provide employees with health care coverage that includes contraceptives.
The order in a case filed by the bishops and the Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Erie, Pennsylvania, their charitable institutions and a school said the government may not enforce the challenged provisions of the Affordable Care Act, pending final resolution of legal challenges on the merits of the institutions’ objections to what is known as the contraceptive mandate.
Justice Samuel Alito in April had granted an interim injunction to the Pennsylvania ministries.
No case challenging the mandate or the accommodation as applied to faith-based nonprofit institutions has yet reached the Supreme Court. Several federal circuit courts of appeal have ruled that religious rights are not substantially burdened by the process required for the accommodation. Only one circuit court, the 11th, granted an injunction – to EWTN, a Catholic media conglomerate. That court heard oral arguments in February over whether the company has a valid claim that spares it from following the procedures.
The Supreme Court has, however, acted in favor of faith-based institutions that are suing over the contraceptive mandate each time it has come to the high court. Five of those actions, including twice in the Pennsylvania cases, were about an injunction pending further litigation.
In another in a series of bitterly divided end-of-term cases, the Supreme Court June 29 upheld the execution protocol used by Oklahoma and several other states. The 5-4 ruling written by Justice Samuel Alito upheld lower courts that said the use of the drug midazolam in lethal injection does not violate Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling was among the last three opinions released, closing out the court’s 2014 term.
The majority opinion in Glossip v. Gross noted that it has been previously established multiple times that capital punishment is constitutional and only delved into whether the claims by Oklahoma death-row inmates that the effects of the drugs used in lethal injection are unnecessarily painful. Among the reasons Alito cited in upholding lower courts were that “the prisoners failed to identify a known and available alternative method of execution that entails a lesser risk of pain.” Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas each filed concurring opinions. Alito’s majority ruling also was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Justice Anthony Kennedy.
The Texas Catholic Conference expressed disappointment with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision June 29 which temporarily blocks Texas from enforcing new requirements on abortion clinics that would force many of them to close. The Texas law requires the clinics to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers when performing abortions. Other provisions of the law, such as requiring abortion doctors to have hospital privileges and prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks gestation, were not affected.
In a June 9 ruling, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the law, and rejected pleas by abortion clinics to suspend its implementation while it is appealed. The Supreme Court ruling prevents enforcement of the law until the fall when the high court will decide if the justices should hear an appeal from a lower court. A June 30 statement from the Catholic conference, the public policy arm of the Texas Catholic bishops, said the bishops “grieve for the unborn children who will continue to die, and are concerned for the mothers who will subjected to substandard care, while the court delays until the fall to resolve this issue.”
The Supreme Court took no action in a challenge of a Mississippi law passed last year requiring doctors at the state’s only remaining abortion clinic to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. This means the law will remain on hold until the appeals process is complete.
Aside from announcing the disposition of other cases it has been asked to review, the court is not scheduled to conduct any further business in the public eye until the 2015 term opens Oct. 5.