Monthly Archives: October 2017

2017 Bishop’s Cup Winners

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Congratulations to the Bank Plus team from the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, winners of the 35th Annual Catholic Foundation Bishop’s Cup golf tournament, held on Thursday, Sept 15 at Lake Caroline.
Proceeds from this year’s tournament will benefit the newly established George Roman Charitable Trust. This trust, established by the Bishop’s Cup Committee in honor of George Roman’s work, will fund grant projects from parishes, schools and organizations around our diocese. Through the guidance of George Roman, Executive Director of The Catholic Foundation from 1992-2008, the Bishop’s Cup golf tournament flourished.
Please mark your calendars for the 36th annual Bishop’s Cup September 13, 2018. Next year the proceeds will benefit the Reverend Patrick Noonan Memorial Trust. Father Noonan, who served in parishes all across the diocese, played in the Bishop’s Cup each year and was a huge supporter of the Foundation. His newly established trust will fund projects around our diocese for parishes and schools.

Congratulations Bank Plus – playing for the Cathedral of St. Peter

2017 #iGive Catholic training underway

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By Christopher Luke
JACKSON – #iGiveCatholic returns to the Diocese of Jackson on Tuesday, Nov. 28. The one-day giving blitz offers parishes, schools and organizations a chance to raise money online with support from the Catholic Foundation and the iGiveCatholic organization. Twenty-eight people completed the first training for participants on Wednesday, September 27, in Jackson. Training will continue until the final session, a webinar set for Tuesday, October 24, at 2 p.m.
During this mandatory training, representatives will learn how to register their ministry on the #iGiveCatholic website, promote the giving day using volunteers, social media, newsletters, emails, bulletin announcements, etc., and thanking and following-up with donors.
Trena Robinson, Director of Advancement and Communications/Public Relations for the Mound Bayou St. Gabriel Mercy Center is participating for a second year. “Attending the #iGiveCatholic training session was very informative. I learned about the new requirements as well as the updated technology guidelines. The marketing ideas session was very intriguing,” she said. “Examples of how to reach more donors through the use of social media were given.” Last year, the proceeds from #iGiveCatholic were used towards the renovation of the cafeteria at St. Gabriel. This year, the proceeds will be allocated to a new roof on the learning center.
#iGiveCatholic is a 24-hour online crowdfunding effort that is held the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. The Catholic Foundation has made this opportunity possible by paying the entry fee for the entire diocese. The campaign involves 16 total arch/dioceses with a goal to raise $3.5 million in gifts. The goal for the Catholic Diocese of Jackson is $150,000. #iGiveCatholic isn’t just a fund-raiser. It is also an opportunity for the Catholic community to affirm its faith as disciples of Jesus Christ by sharing gifts out of love for God and one another.
In 2016, the campaign included the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Houma-Thibodaux, Biloxi, and Austin, Texas. This year the campaign has extended to the Archdioceses of Atlanta, Ga., Kansas City, Kan., and Mobile, Ala., the Dioceses of Helena, Mont., Knoxville and Memphis, Tenn., Lexington and Owensboro, Ky., Lubbock, Texas, and Paterson, N.J.
Last year, donors exceeded the $1.5 million goal, giving $1.8 million dollars with a total of 6,826 gifts. The Catholic Diocese of Jackson raised $132,736 from 1,019 givers.
How does #iGiveCatholic work? Donors will visit iGiveCatholic.org, the online platform and search for their participating parishes, schools, ministries, and not-for-profit organizations. From November 10-26, donors can schedule gifts to their favorite ministry. Donors can also donate on the actual giving day. Leaderboards on the website will keep track of donations to each organization. The minimum donation is $25.00 and there is no maximum.
Parish, school, or not-for-profit organization representatives have a little time left to sign up for the effort. All it requires is a training session and some enthusiasm. Contact Christopher Luke at 601-960-8481 or email at cluke@jacksondiocese.org to get details.

Charities to relocate domestic violence shelter

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Rendering of shelter layout. (Graphic courtesy of Catholic Charities)

(Editor’s note: October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Catholic Charities has offered a way out for those in abusive situations for decades through counseling, advocacy and a shelter for women and children hoping to break the cycle of abuse. Bishop Joseph Kopacz recently announced that the shelter will soon have a new home. The bishop submitted the following reflection to area publications describing the new operation and inviting the community to step in and help.)
We at Catholic Charities are excited to know that in the near future the goal of a new domestic violence shelter will be realized in the city of Jackson. Early 2018, a newly renovated building will be providing a safe haven for adults and children suffering from the trauma of domestic violence and human trafficking.
Catholic Charities has provided this critical service since the 1980s and very soon we will be able to do so in a building specifically designed to serve this vulnerable population. It is challenging enough for an adult to leave a destructive relationship, but it is daunting to do so with children and youth who may or may not understand the gravity of the situation.
Our new shelter will be able to serve the children at each developmental stage while their parent or caregiver receives the support to begin again. We are so grateful for our dedicated staff at Catholic Charities who accompany our brothers and sisters, as well as for our benefactors whose generosity allows us to further our mission to serve and empower. Together we are a visible sign of Christ’s love.
The facility will be divided into three main functions: the housing area, a childcare center and offices for the administrative staff. The shelter will include eight bedrooms beautifully designed to meet the individual needs of the family. Staff members will be housed on-site to assist victims 24-hours a day. Other amenities will include a therapeutic group and counseling area, a suite of offices to assist victims, a family room, dining area and bathing facilities. The shelter will be confidentially located and will serve Copiah, Hinds, Rankin, Madison, Issaquena, Sharkey, Simpson, Yazoo and Warren counties.
The childcare program will offer individual and therapeutic groups/intervention to 35 children ranging in ages from six weeks to 12-years old. Trained staff and teachers will work in the program. The childcare program will offer enrichment activities with a well-designed playground in the rear of the building. Finally, a commercial-grade food preparation area will be onsite to prepare meals and snacks for the victims and children.
Work continues to make the shelter both safe and welcoming. The next step is to find partners in that effort. Contact the program directors for more information on how your parish, school, youth group or office can help in the final touches by calling 601-326-3714 or 601-326-3758.
Those who wish to help can also participate in the Purple Dress Run, an evening 5-K walk and run, Thursday, Oct. 19, at Hal and Mal’s in downtown Jackson. Register online by clicking the icon at www.catholiccharitiesjackson.org.

St. Michael parishes celebrate patronal feasts

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FOREST – Members of St. Michael Parish celebrated the feast of the Archangels, including their patron Michael as well as Gabriel and Rafael, with Mass, music, a picnic and lots of family fun on Saturday, Sept. 24. In top photo, people line up for Communion. In lower photo, Sister Obdulia Olivar, MGSpS helps with tug-o-war. (Photos by Sister Maria Elena Mendez)

Respect Life Month inspires prayer vigils

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JACKSON – Deacon Nick Adam, at left, waits to speak at the kickoff to 40 Days for Life in Jackson on Wednesday, Sept. 27, at noon outside the abortion clinic in Fondren. 40 Days for Life is a national campaign of prayer, fasting and advocacy focused on an end to abortion. (Photo by Suzan Cox)

JACKSON – Pro-Life Mississippi sponsored a memorial service in downtown Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 9, to mark the National Day of Remembrance for the Unborn. Sister Dorothea Sondgeroth, OP, was one of several local faith leaders who led rally participants in prayer for aborted babies and their families. (Photo courtesy of ProLife Mississippi)

Youth invited to pre-synod meeting

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By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has invited Christian and non-Christian young people from around the world to a meeting in preparation for the Synod of Bishops on youth in 2018.
Before concluding his weekly general audience, the pope said the March 19-24, 2018, pre-synod meeting will be an opportunity for the church to listen to the hopes and concerns of young men and women.
“Through this journey, the church wants to listen to the voices, the sensibilities, the faith as well as the doubts and criticisms of young people. We must listen to young people,” Pope Francis said Oct. 4.
The theme chosen by the pope for the Synod of Bishops, which will be held in October 2018, is: “Young people, faith and vocational discernment.”
The general secretariat of the synod said the initiative “will allow young people to express their expectations and desires as well as their uncertainties and concerns in the complex affairs of today’s world.”
Young people attending the meeting will represent bishops’ conferences, the Eastern Catholic churches, men and women in consecrated life and seminarians preparing for the priesthood, the general secretariat said.
The gathering also will include representatives from other Christian communities and other religions and experts in the fields of education, culture, sports and arts.
“The pre-synod meeting will enrich the consultation phase, which began with the publication of the preparatory document and its questionnaire, along with the launch of an online website containing a specific questionnaire for young people,” the synod office said in a statement.
Conclusions drawn from the meeting, the general secretariat added, will be given to members of the Synod of Bishops “to encourage their reflection and in-depth study.” Young people attending the meeting also will take part in the Palm Sunday Mass at the Vatican March 25, coinciding with local celebrations of World Youth Day.
(Editor’s note: Young people from the Diocese of Jackson are encouraged to take the synod survey: youth.synod2018.va/content/synod2018/it.html)

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IN EXILE

Father Ron Rolheiser

By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Be still and know that I am God. Scripture assures us that if we are still we will come to know God, but arriving at stillness is easier said than done. As Blaise Pascal once stated, “All the miseries of the human person come from the fact that no one can sit still for one hour.” Achieving stillness seems beyond us and this leaves us with a certain dilemma, we need stillness to find God, but we need God’s help to find stillness. With this in mind, I offer a prayer for stillness.
God of stillness and of quiet …
• Still the restlessness of my youth: still that hunger that would have me be everywhere, that hunger to be connected to everyone, that wants to see and taste all that is, that robs me of peace on a Friday night. Quiet those grandiose dreams that want me to stand out, to be special. Give me the grace to live more contentedly inside my own skin.
• Still the fever I inhale from all the energy that surrounds me, that makes my life feel small. Let me know that my own life is enough, that I need not make an assertion of myself, even as the whole world beckons this of me from a million electronic screens. Give me the grace to sit at peace inside my own life.
• Still my sexuality, order my promiscuous desires, my lusts, my polymorphous aching, my relentless need for more intimacy. Quiet and order my earthy desires without taking them away. Give me the grace to see others without a selfish sexual color.
• Still my anxiety, my heartaches, my worries, and stop me from always being outside the present moment. Let each day’s worries be sufficient onto themselves. Give me the grace to know that you have pronounced my name in love, that my name written in heaven, that I am free to live without anxiety.
• Still my unrelenting need to be busy all the time, to occupy myself, to be always planning for tomorrow, to fill every minute with some activity, to seek distraction rather than quiet. Give me the grace to sit in a quiet that lets me savor a sunset and actually taste the water I’m drinking.
• Still the disappointment that comes with age. Soothe the unacknowledged anger I feel from not achieving much of what I’ve wanted in life, the failure that I feel in the face of all that I’ve left untried and unfinished. Still in me the bitterness that comes from failure. Save me from the jealousy that comes unbidden as I begrudgingly accept the limits of my life. Give me the grace to accept what circumstance and failure have dealt me.
• Still in me the fear of my own shadow, the fear I feel in the face of the powerful, dark forces that unconsciously threaten me. Give me the courage to face my darkness as well as my luminosity. Give me the grace to not be fearful before my own complexity.
• Still in me the congenital fear that I’m unloved, that I’m unlovable, that love has to be earned, that I need to be more worthy. Silence in me the nagging suspicion that I’m forever missing out, that I’m odd, an outsider, that things are unfair, and that I’m not being respected and recognized for who I am. Give me the grace to know that I’m a beloved child of a God whose love need not be earned.
• Still in me my false fear of you, my propensity for a misguided piety, my need to treat you like a distant and feared dignitary rather than as a warm friend. Give me the grace to relate to you in a robust way, as a trusted friend with whom I can jest, wrestle, and relate to in humor and intimacy.
• Still my unforgiving thoughts, the grudges I nurse from my past, from the betrayals I’ve suffered, from the negativity and abuses I’ve been subject to. Quiet in me the guilt I carry from my own betrayals. Still in me all that’s wounded, unresolved, bitter, and unforgiving. Give the quiet that comes from forgiveness.
• Still in me my doubts, my anxieties about your existence, about your concern, and about your fidelity. Calm inside me the compulsion to leave a mark, to plant a tree, to have a child, to write a book, to create some form of immortality for myself. Give me the grace to trust, even in darkness and doubt, that you will give me immortality.
Still my heart so that I may know that you are God, that I may know that you create and sustain my every breath, that you breathe the whole universe into existence every second, that everyone, myself no less than everyone else, is your beloved, that you want our lives to flourish, that you desire our happiness, that nothing falls outside your love and care, and that everything and everybody is safe in your gentle, caring hands, in this world and the next.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.)

Fall Faith Formation Day offers framework for diocesan vision

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By Maureen Smith
MADISON – One hundred thirty catechists from across the diocese attended a day-long gathering at St. Joseph School on Saturday, Sept. 30. Fall Faith Formation Day took the Diocese of Jackson’s Pastoral Priorities as its inspiration, offering as its theme: inspire, embrace, serve. When the diocese launched a new set of priorities last year, Bishop Kopacz and his team framed them around a new vision statement to Inspire Disciples, Embrace Diversity and Serve Others.
Fran Lavelle, director of Faith Formation for the diocese, has been anxious to offer catechists an opportunity to get together. “We wanted to make sure everybody in the formational ministries had a chance to be part of a day that maximized our opportunity to bring in some good speakers and it has given us some great ideas for what we want to do next year,” she added.

MADISON – Jessica McMillian spoke about creative catechesis at Faith Formation Day at St. Joseph High School. (Photos by Maureen Smith)

MADISON – Raquel Escobar of Tupelo St. James, and Stacy Wolf and Kathleen Edwards of Pearl St. Jude Parish listen to Father Joseph Brown speak.

Jim Schellman, former director of the North American Forum on the Catechumenate, took on the inspire theme, offering a plenary session called ‘A people on the way.’ Schellman is nationally known for his work in the catechumenate and liturgy. Father Joseph Brown, SJ, used his plenary session to talk about embracing diversity. He wrapped his talk around traditional spirituals, music and storytelling. Slaves, he said, sang because they had faith. He called on the audience to remember “how we were all slaves and strangers in a strange land,” as we are connected to the Israelite tradition.
Father Brown said we have to stop calling groups other than our own ‘them’ and try to find ways to tell and listen to the stories everyone has to tell.
Bishop Joseph Kopacz closed the day with the theme of service. He spoke about his work with Catholic Charities, the most visible direct service arm of the Catholic Church.
Between the plenary sessions, attendees could select breakout sessions, which included: youth liturgy, led by Father Jason Johnston, on faculty at St. Joseph High School; creative catechesis led by Jessica McMillan, coordinator for youth ministry at McComb St. Alphonsus Parish; adult faith formation, offered by Wes Williams, who leads several faith enrichment and formation programs at his parish of Madison St. Francis. Father Brown and Schellman also hosted breakouts.
Carrie Lambert, youth minister at Natchez Basilica of St. Mary, enjoyed creative catechesis. “You need to find God everywhere you are and in everything you do. You need to look for him in ways that you wouldn’t think of necessarily so you can reach your youth – whether it’s the little ones or the teens – you find that kernel in there, find a way to get their attention and make it applicable to them. That’s what I love,” she said.
Gladys Russell, Jackson Holy Family Parish coordinator for youth, attended the breakout on liturgy where Father Jason discussed how understanding the liturgy is key to getting young people really involved. “One of the points we need to get across to our youth is the idea of giving of ourselves as Christ gave of himself for us,” she said.
Arista Evans from Canton Holy Child Jesus echoed that sentiment and appreciated the time she could spend with other youth ministers. “I want to get more ideas and find ways to bring the kids closer to Christ and give them a meaning and a reason for wanting to come to Mass instead of because their Mama is making them. I also wanted to get ideas on how to get the parents more involved with bringing their kids to Mass, because they can’t come to Mass unless their parents bring them,” said Evans.
Several catechists who attended Williams’ breakout session said they enjoyed hearing about different programs he has utilized. “He told his own story which was fascinating to follow. He said about five percent of Catholics are involved. Most come to Mass to put in their time. To get them to be missionary disciples takes a lot of work,” said Sister Lael Niblick, CSA, lay ecclesial minister from Amory St. Helen Parish.
“I was interested in learning ways to attract young professionals, just like the speaker, who had grown up Catholic, but no longer owned their faith. He spoke about living through jarring experiences that call your attention. For him it was the death of his father,” explained Joyce Brasfield-Adams of Jackson Holy Family.
Brasfield-Adams praised the day overall, saying it is good for catechists to share their journey with one another. “It’s important that we have sessions like these where we are able to get together to be fed; where we learn something for ourselves. As catechetical leaders, we try so hard to give something to someone else that I wanted something for me,” she explained.

Bishop Kopacz schedule

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Thursday, October 19 – Senior class visit, Greenville St. Joseph High School.
Thursday, October 19, 6 p.m. – Catholic Charities 6th Annual Purple Dress Run, Jackson, Hal & Mal’s.
Saturday, October 21, 11 a.m. – Opening Mass, Encuentro, Madison St. Francis of Assisi.
– 4 p.m. – Mass, Robinsonville Good Shepherd Parish
– 6 p.m. – Mass and blessing of new center, Olive Branch Queen of Peace Parish.
Sunday, October 22, 11 a.m. & 12:30 p.m. – English and Spanish Mass, Southaven Christ the King Parish.
– 4 p.m. – Confirmation, Southaven Christ the King Parish.
Monday, October 23, 9 a.m. – Mass, Southaven Sacred Heart School.
Monday, October 23, 1 p.m – Mass, Holly Springs Holy Family School.

Only public events are listed on this schedule and all events are subject to change. Please check with the local parish for further details