“The Diocese of Jackson supported and would continue to support a religious exemption on behalf of the mission of the Catholic Church with regard to education and social services. We would like to continue to provide these services while remaining faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church. The diocese had no involvement in the other portions of the bill that addressed business and government operations. The church will continue to work to protect its First Amendment right to worship, to educate and to serve in the public domain while respecting the dignity of all citizens.”

I responded to the recent inquires and feedback with the above statement regarding diocesan support for religious freedom that was signed into law in Mississippi with HB 1523 (Letter to Legislators). This law is wide ranging and it affects not only First Amendment Rights for recognized religious denominations, but also supports individual citizens with respect to freedom of conscience. The controversy, as we know, surrounds the conflict between religious freedom and freedom of conscience vs. discrimination. Most notably, although not exclusively, this has focused upon same sex civil unions and the redefinition of marriage in the law of the United States. For me as the Bishop of Jackson it is important to address this matter of vital importance as follows.

Parish Life and Worship The unchanging teaching of the Catholic Church regarding marriage for nearly two thousand years has been the indissoluble and faithful union of one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage between two baptized Christians. This is one of our seven Sacraments. I first wrote about it last summer after the Supreme Court ruling. Read it here. This unchangeable teaching has been restated by Pope Francis in his just released Post Synod Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, (The Joy of Love). “Marriage is between a man and a woman, and homosexual unions cannot be placed on the same level as Christian marriage.” (AL250) That said, it is important that we all learn to imitate God’s unconditional love for everyone. Pope Francis wholeheartedly continues: “The Church makes her own the attitude of the Lord Jesus, who offers his boundless love to each person without exception.” (AL250) Furthermore, everyone is a son or daughter; everyone has a family history; everyone has bonds of love with family members; and everyone has friends in difficult and painful situations. “It is a matter of reaching out to everyone, or needing to help each person find his or her proper way of participating in the ecclesial community, and thus to experience being touched by an unmerited, unconditional, and gratuitous mercy.” AL297

Pope Francis is beloved by many because he is able to reaffirm the teachings of the Church with fidelity, compassion, and hope, a standard for the entire Church. Some want to frame the debate surrounding the Church’s teaching as discrimination and hostility toward homosexual persons. On the contrary, we are being faithful to our mission to “speak the truth in love” and to live with the heart and mind of our risen Lord who came that all might be reconciled to God.

The Mission to Educate At the end of Saint Matthew’s Gospel, in the great mandatum directed to his apostles, Jesus said: “Go and baptize all the nations, teaching them everything I have commanded you, and know that I am with you until the end of the age.” The Church has been faithful to this mission for nearly two thousand years in a myriad of ways: most notably in the family, in parish communities, and in formal education. The Catholic Diocese of Jackson has been part of this mission to educate since its inception in 1837 in all manners of teaching, including in our Catholic School system begun in 1847. I provided a broader overview of our proud legacy of education in the State in my letter to the State Legislature. You can read the letter here. All teachers who formally represent the Catholic Church in our schools or parishes must teach what the Church believes, and must live in a manner that is in harmony with Church teaching. With respect to marriage in our mission to teach a Catholic must be married in the Church. If a Catholic is living with another – even if the couple is a man and woman – without benefit of marriage, or married civilly without benefit of a Church marriage, then they would not be hired, or their employment would be terminated. Same sex civil unions are seen in this light and the standards that underlie our Catholic ethos would apply. This is not a matter of discrimination but of being faithful to the mission and Gospel teachings entrusted to the Church by the Lord Jesus. My letter to the Legislature concerns the right of the Church to hire and commission educators without animus or prejudice to our tradition of faith. Lastly, it is essential to point out that the Catholic Church in Mississippi has educated all who have come through our doors, beginning with the children of slaves in the 1840s. Non Catholics comprise a significant percentage of those who occupy the seats in our school system, both as students and teachers, and diversity has been our hallmark since desegregation.

The Mission to Serve In the same letter to the State Legislators I made an appeal to the First Amendment Right to serve with regard to Catholic Charities which has been at the forefront of outreach to vulnerable populations in Mississippi since the mid 1960s. Currently there are 23 programs or ministries that serve homeless veterans, victims of domestic violence and rape, legal immigrants, unaccompanied refugee minors, and children in the state foster care system, to name a few. We serve all who are in need or in crisis situations with expertise, compassion, confidentiality, and respect. The dignity of each person is upheld, and no one is turned away. The two areas of concern of which I wrote surrounded adoption and foster care, asking the legislators to uphold our desire to serve while remaining faithful to our tradition of marriage in the placement of children. Throughout the country these programs have been addressed differently by state. At this time an accommodation for religious organizations is not needed in Mississippi with HB1523. (Should this law be repealed, we would again request these specific exemptions.) Although we are receiving public funds to carry out these programs, I still believe that it would be beneficial to our State for all sectarian and non-sectarian organizations to work together to serve vulnerable children. If a sectarian organization, like the Catholic Church, can only go so far because of their beliefs, other organizations can then address this gap in service. I believe that legislators can apply First Amendment common sense to support the service of the Church in society when by far and away it is a legacy of service for the common good.

In conclusion, I hope that it is clear that the Catholic Church in Mississippi is committed to building up the quality of life for all Mississippians, treating all with dignity and respect while remaining faithful to our tradition of faith, education, and service. Our role in supporting this bill was limited to the specific issues outlined above. This is invoked with malice toward none. Likewise, there is certainly a place for freedom of conscience in the public domain, an inviolable attribute of human dignity, but it should never be employed to discriminate against any person, a direct assault against human dignity.

By Bishop Joseph Kopacz
(Editor’s note: This week’s column is the homily Bishop Kopacz delivered at the Mass of Chrism on Tuesday of Holy Week.)
At the outset of this Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy we have observed the ancient tradition of the opening of the Holy Door and have entered upon a pilgrimage with the Church throughout the world into the heart of God’s mercy that we, in turn, may become merciful like the Father.  This is the abundant life promised by the Lord, announced by the prophets, Isaiah this evening, realized in His death and resurrection, celebrated passionately during these holy days, and intended to be lived every-day.
From Rome anticipating the Jubilee of Mercy Pope Francis offered these words. “With these sentiments of gratitude for everything the church has received, and with a sense of responsibility for the task that lies ahead, we shall cross the threshold of the Holy Door fully confident that the strength of the Risen Lord, who constantly supports us on our pilgrim way, will sustain us.”
At the center of the Jubilee Prayer of Mercy are the words spoken to the Samaritan woman at the well in John’s Gospel. “If you only knew the gift of God!” What a powerful and life changing encounter that was between her and the Lord, and our gathering today at the Mass of Chrism proclaims that Jesus Christ encounters us in many ways through God’s life giving mercy.
At one of the 17 listening sessions that were held throughout the diocese, at which more than a thousand people participated, one person fervently spoke out that we need to do a better job living and teaching the wonder and awe of our Catholic faith, the gift of God handed down for nearly 2,000 years. Perhaps another way of saying that if we only knew the gift of God handed on to us.
The Mass of Chrism is an inspiring Eucharist that brings us together as faithful disciples of the Lord from across the diocese to celebrate the gift of God in manifold ways  In particular, we who are priests, gather to renew our life in Jesus Christ, the High Priest in a way that celebrates our communion with one another that flows from the Blessed Trinity, and our unity through faith and baptism with all of God’s people who have a share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ through faith and baptism as proclaimed earlier from the Book of Revelations.
We are so grateful for your prayers, good will, and collaboration with us throughout the year, and through the years. For many of us who were able to be here in the cathedral for Bishop Houck’s funeral liturgies, and for all of us who were here in spirit, we had a prelude to the Mass of Chrism in the celebration of his life as a priest and bishop, and the priesthood of the faithful throughout the Diocese of Jackson. He was with us 37 years as a bishop, auxiliary, ordinary and emeritus. What a gift!
At the listening sessions around the diocese, the gift of the priesthood through the cultivation of vocations, was a dominant theme. This consensus from the people of God revealed their love for the priesthood, and a desire to participate in the Eucharist on the Lord’s Day, as the cornerstone and the source and summit of our faith, our prayer, our service and our unity.
Many people throughout our diocese know the gift of God given to the church in the life-giving death and resurrection of the Lord, and many expressed their gratitude to be able to participate in the Mass on a daily or a regular basis.
Moreover, out of a deep hunger and thirst for knowledge of God through the Mass, people often expressed their desire that they want the Word of God proclaimed with zeal, and followed by homilies that inspire and guide their daily lives. The Eucharist, the gift of God, a fountain of life flowing from Word and sacrament.  As priests, this is our privilege and responsibility.
Uniquely, at this Mass of Chrism, the presence of the holy oils is a transcendent sign of the gift of God. Today they are blessed through the invocation of the Holy Spirit. As we know, the oils of catechumens, chrism, and the sick will be used in Baptism, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick, Ordination to Priesthood, and for the Consecration of new altars and churches. In each and every celebration of the sacraments we pass through the holy door of God’s mercy to encounter the crucified and risen Lord, to be forgiven and to be strengthened to live as his Body in this world.
During my recent pastoral visit to Saltillo Bishop Raul, Don Raul, and I celebrated the consecration of the newly constructed church, Divina Misericordia, built upon the largesse of the people from the Dioceses of Jackson and Biloxi. As I was incensing and anointing the walls of the Church, Don Raul, was consecrating the altar lavishly with chrism. The scent and sight of the altar’s bathing in the oil of Chrism is permanently impressed in my memory. I thought that the altar might flow right out of the sanctuary.
The Mass went nearly three hours, and Don Raul spoke for nearly 50 minutes. I am confident that we can come in under those parameters today. Regardless, we know that, our sacramental life in the church, the gift of God, is the door to the sacred, and the call to faithfully serve the Lord as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Pope Francis wrote in his Bull of Indiction: “Mercy is the very foundation of the church’s life. All of her pastoral activity should be caught up in the tenderness she makes present to believers; nothing in her preaching and in her witness to the world can be lacking in mercy. The church’s very credibility is seen in how she shows merciful and compassionate love. The church “has an endless desire to show mercy” With a different set of symbols, words and gestures, the sacrament of reconciliation remains the most personal path to mercy for all of us.
“I will never tire of insisting that confessors be authentic signs of the Father’s mercy. We do not become good confessors automatically. We become good confessors when, above all, we allow ourselves to be penitents in search of his mercy. Let us never forget that to be confessors means to participate in the very mission of Jesus to be a concrete sign of the constancy of divine love that pardons and saves.
We, as priests, have received the gift of the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins, and we are responsible for this. None of us wields power over this sacrament; rather, we are faithful servants of God’s mercy through it.” It’s not a matter of water and oil, bread and wine, but words of contrition, words of compassion and mercy, gestures of repentance and blessing, coming from the face of God’s mercy, Jesus Christ.
On this day then and every-day, may we as priests know the mercy of God in our lives and in our encounter with the Lord, the Gift of God we have received in our priesthood.
At the Mass of the Lord’s Supper as preserved in John’s Gospel, the institution of the priesthood, we have the Mandatum of the Lord to be a people of the towel and the water, as he has done, so we must do. The gift of God’s mercy which we receive and celebrate in each Eucharist is to be given as a gift in manifold ways in our daily lives.
Worship and service can never be separated. We heard that his evening at the outset of the Lord’s public ministry in Luke’s Gospel when the Lord announced a Year of Favor, a time to set captives free, to give sight to the blind, and release to those in dungeons of unspeakable injustice.
The Lord is discovered at the altar, and likewise in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, in the quest for greater justice and peace, and in bearing the weaknesses and struggles of our brothers and sisters. Pope Francis is teaching us that “mercy is the force that reawakens us to new life, and instills in us the courage to look to the future with hope.” The oils of gladness are intended to flow into the lives of all people.
I believe that together this evening at this Mass of Chrism, we know the gift of God, we do recognize and know our saving Lord, and with full and active participation, we are celebrating our identity as His Body, the church. We are co-workers in the mission called to announce the gospel to all the nations, and to work in the Church for the salvation of all.
With this sacramental vision of life, we are truly Catholic, because we recognize that our faith in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is a Holy Door to the sacred, the way to restore a fallen world, so that every year is a Year of Favor from the Lord.
With this sacramental vision before us, I invite my fellow priests to stand for the renewal of their vocation as ordained ministers in the Church.