AGUASCALIENTES, México – El padre Adolfo realiza su primera misa, en la parroquia Jesés de Nazaret, en su pueblo natal Jesús Maria, el dia 7 de Junio. Esta misa de acción de gracias estuvo concurrida por familiares, amigos y parroquianos, todos celebrando con alegría la ordenación de un hijo de este pueblo. (Foto cortesía del padre Adolfo Suarez Pasillas)
Por Berta Mexidor
JACKSON – El sábado 15 de junio se celebró un taller vivencial para parejas, con el título” Viviendo en la Primavera de Nuestras Vidas”, en los predios de la parroquia de Santa Ana.
El taller estuvo organizado por la Oficina del Ministerio Hispano y tuvo la presencia de sus coordinadores, el hermano Ted Dausch y las hermanas María Elena Mendez y Maria Josefa Álvarez, ambas MGSpS.
Las sesiones fueron impartidas por tres parejas: Ali y Patricia López; Edward y Susana Flores y, Victor y Luguetty Rodríguez.
Las veinte parejas participaron activamente y ofrecieron además su testimonio sobre los retos enfrentados y la preparación cristiana para el porvenir de su relación matrimonial.
Los organizadores y facilitadores ofrecieron temas como “Diferencias Hombre- Mujer”, “Los lenguajes del amor” y las “Estaciones del Matrimonio. El taller” Viviendo en la Primavera de Nuestras Vidas” fue el último evento de la oficina del Ministerio Hispano.
La hermana María Elena Mendez, MGSpS hizo la conclusión de este taller y de múltiples años de servicio con la siguiente declaración” … con este evento, que estuvo muy bueno, por cierto, el Ministerio Hispano cierra una puerta para abrir otra que dará paso a la Oficina Intercultural. No se desanimen, los retos y los logros siguen para la comunidad hispana que, como un bebé, ha crecido y ahora da sus siguientes pasos”, escribió en la cuenta de Facebook.
Por Berta Mexidor
JACKSON – Con el lema “Principales Valores Humanos y Cristianos de la Familia” el 31 de mayo, la Federación del Movimiento Familiar Cristiano(MFC) celebró su reunión anual cerrando el ciclo 2018-2019.
Estuvieron allí presentes el obispo Joseph Kopacz y los asesores espirituales del movimiento – el padre Odel Medina, ST, el hermano Ted Dausch de la orden de los Hermanos Cristianos y las hermanas Magdalena Carrillo, María Elena Mendez, María Josefa García, todas Misioneras Guadalupanas del Espíritu Santo
Después de la oración inicial se le dió la palabra al obispo Kopacz y al padre Odel. El obispo Kopacz recalcó que el Espiritu Santo, “estaba en la reunion” y que la virgen Maria e Isabel son un ejemplo de como las familias se ayudan entre sí.
Luego se leyeron los reportes anual y financiero.El movimiento impulsa los temas que rezan en su estandarte: Amor, Buena Voluntad, Confianza en Dios, Sacrificio, Humildad Obediencia, Perdón, Reconciliación, y Responsabilidad. Primeramente, Dios. Con estas metas en mente, durante todo el año el equipo coordinador se reunió mensualmente.
Los delegados- la pareja Mazy, los presidentes- el matrimonio Melo y todos los coordinadores asistieron a juntas de asesoramiento, coordinaron la Asamblea Regional, realizada el pasado marzo juntamente con familias de Alabama y rezaron el Rosario en grupo a distancia, temprano en la mañanita.
El MFC agradeció al Obispo y al padre Quyet, de la Catedral de San Pedro por su apoyo
Al final se entregaron certificados a todas las parejas que completaron una de las cuatro etapas del movimiento.
El fin de semana terminó con una kermes, donde las familias se reunieron para pasar un rato de esparcimiento pleno de deportes, juegos, sol y convivencia.
Por Carol Zimmermann
BALTIMORE (CNS) – Durante la asamblea de primavera, de la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de los EE. UU. (USCCB, por sus siglas en inglés), del 11 al 13 de junio en Baltimore, quedó claro que los obispos tenían que responder a la crisis de abuso sexual en la iglesia; y en su último día los mismos aprobaron una serie de procedimientos para iniciar este proceso.
El 13 de junio, votaron para implementar el documento “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“Tú eres la luz del mundo”), emitido por el Papa Francisco en mayo último para ayudar a la Iglesia Católica a proteger a sus miembros del abuso y responsabilizar a sus líderes.
Los obispos también aprobaron el documento “Reconociendo nuestros compromisos episcopales” para responsabilizarse con los compromisos de la carta, incluyendo una política de cero tolerancias para con el abuso. El documento dice que cualquier código de conducta en sus respectivas diócesis con respecto al clero también se aplica al obispo.
Los obispos votaron a favor del protocolo relativo a las “restricciones no penales disponibles para los obispos”, que describe las opciones canónicas para un obispo retirado, por renuncia o removido, “…debido a una conducta sexual indebida con adultos o negligencia grave en el cargo…,” aún si sus actos fueron encontrados antes o después de su renuncia.
La primera acción, el 12 de junio, fue la votación para la implementación de un sistema de terceros que permitiría a las personas realizar informes confidenciales en línea, de denuncias de abuso en contra de obispos, y a través de un número de teléfono gratuito. El sistema, que sería operado por un proveedor externo contratado por la USCCB, se debe implementar a más tardar el 31 de mayo de 2020.
Avanzar fue sin duda un tema de la asamblea que, el 11 de junio, se hizo eco de Francesco Cesareo, presidente de la Junta Nacional de Revisión, quien pidió un mayor papel para los laicos en la investigación de denuncias de abuso o reacción a los informes de abuso contra obispos, una revisión exhaustiva de la “Carta para la Protección de Niños y Jóvenes” y una revisión en el proceso de auditoría con respecto a la implementación diocesana de la carta.
Un pequeño grupo de manifestantes, en gran parte en silencio, estuvo el 11 de junio frente al hotel donde se estaba llevando a cabo la reunión. Una de las demandas del grupo fue que los obispos denuncien los abusos ante la policía.
En el último día de la reunión, los obispos también aprobaron una redacción para mantener el tratamiento de la pena de muerte en el Catecismo para Adultos de los Estados Unidos, en línea con el catecismo universal revisado.
Los obispos también dieron su consentimiento, mediante el voto por voz, para continuar con la causa de la santidad de Irving “Francis” C. Houle, de la Diócesis de Marquette, Michigan, un hombre del que se dice haber recibido los estigmas 16 años antes de su muerte en 2009, pero quien antes de eso tenía “…muchas curaciones físicas y espirituales extraordinarias…” atribuidas a él, según una biografía.
(A este informe contribuyeron Dennis Sadowski, Mark Pattison, Rhina Guidos y Christopher Gunty.)
Por Maureen Smith
CANTON/MCCOMB – La Diócesis de Jackson concluyó la temporada de ordenación el 25 y 26 de mayo con las ordenaciones de César Sánchez Fermín y Andrew Nguyen al diaconado de transición.
En la Diócesis de Jackson los seminaristas son ordenados en el diaconado en sus parroquias de origen. Como ambos hombres son extranjeros se seleccionaron las parroquias donde encontraron un segundo hogar, para el diácono Sánchez, la parroquia del Sagrado Corazón de Cantón y para el diácono Nguyen, la de St. Alphonsus en McComb.
Durante su homilía, en ambos ritos de ordenación, el obispo Kopacz recitó todas las obligaciones de un diácono centrándose en servir a un solo Señor. Luego el obispo Kopacz preguntó a César y Andrew si estaban dispuestos a seguir el ejemplo de Cristo para servir al pueblo de Dios.
El sábado y domingo 25 y 26 de mayo, el Sagrado Corazón y St. Alphonsus, respectivamente, estuvieron llenas de feligreses de todas las edades y nacionalidades, docenas de sacerdotes y diáconos, incluido el Padre Joseph Krafft del Seminario de Notre Dame en Nueva Orleans, donde los seminaristas de la diócesis completan sus estudios.
El diácono Sánchez es de San Andrés, México, donde “aprendió a leer, orar y reflexionar con la Biblia,”dice. Solía tocar la batería en una banda con sus amigos. Todavía le gusta tocar la guitarra y cantar. Encontró su llamado a la vida sacerdotal a los 17 años, en un retiro vocacional que tocó su corazón.
El diácono Cesar comparó su viaje de discernimiento con un músico en el escenario. “…En otras palabras, no estaba tocando la canción de la vida con el instrumento que Dios quería, debido a mi introversión y poca iniciativa. Fue una etapa en la que me contenté con lo mínimo, pero mi corazón, hecho para lo grande y trascendente, no fue engañado.”
La familia de César está principalmente en México, su padre Feliciano García López, su madre María Graciela Sánchez Fermín y sus hermanos Lizet, Alan, Jonathan, Fabián y Joel no pudieron estar físicamente presentes, y siguieron la ceremonia en línea. Su hermano, Diego, acompañó a César durante su fin de semana de ordenación y ceremonia. “Mi familia está feliz, él nos hace sentir orgullosos. Este es un sueño hecho realidad.”, dijo Diego.
El diácono Nguyen es de Vietnam. Su madre, Truong thi Mink, hizo el viaje desde Vietnam para la ordenación con ayuda de la comunidad católica en general para llegar a la misa. Fue la primera vez que vio a su hijo desde que se fue de casa.
El diácono Andrew pasó varios veranos en McComb donde la comunidad lo acogió. “Lo tomé como un honor especial porque él es tan dulce. En días festivos y algunos veranos, estuvo con nosotros, ayudando al padre Brian (Kaskie),” dijo Nita Pounds, quien cantó para la misa.
A principios de mayo, el padre Adolfo Suárez Pasillas y Mark Shoffner fueron ordenados al sacerdocio.
Los diáconos Cesar y Andrew esperan ser ordenados en el sacerdocio en el próximo año. Hasta entonces, a partir del 14 de junio., el diácono Sanchez está asignado a Madison St. Francisco de Asís y el diácono Nguyen está asignado para las parroquias de St. Patrick y St. Joseph en Meridian
(Tereza Ma y Berta Mexidor contribuyeron con esta historia)
CANTON – Como parte del Rito de Ordenación, el diácono Cesar jura obediencia al obispo de la diocese de Jackson, al presente y a los obispos futuros, en un gesto de redención ante el obispo Kopacz, el 25 de mayo. (Fotos por Berta Mexidor)
MCCOMB – El diácono Andrew se prepara para servir en su primera Eucaristia como diácono, el 26 de mayo. (Fotos por Tereza Ma)
By Mary Lynn Powersh
GREENVILLE – After 110 years, St. Joseph Church is receiving a new roof, thanks to the generosity of a parishioner’s estate. The roof which is slate-based tile is being replaced with genuine slate with a barrier underneath to help protect the church within from any water damage.
For some time now, the parishioners have been raising money for these repairs. The leaks have gotten more numerous as time has passed. Unfortunately, the century-old nails holding the tiles have rusted, causing the tiles to become dislodged. Tiles have fallen or just become barely hanging.
The spire, which is 126 feet high, was struck by lightning in 1915 and burned. One fearless fireman scaled the spire to rescue the cross on the top. For this repair, workers use a crane with a basket to get to the roof. They cut and hang each tile individually from the basket.
The church was completed in 1908 and financied by Father Paul Korstenbroek, a Dutch nobleman prior to entering the priesthood. It contains 16 exceptional mouth-blown stained glass windows in the Munich Pictorial Style, created by the Emile Frei Studios of Munich, Germany. In 2015, St. Joseph Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
A major restoration in 2007/2008 to the interior of the church included new paint, new interior and exterior doors, and the updated sound and lighting systems. Additionally, the side altars, which had been walled closed after Vatican II, were opened and restored. The Rose window in the front of the ediface, which had come from a little frame church built in 1874 on the Main Street location, was removed and restored. Many other small but important updates were made at that time.
This restoration on the church will take about four months to complete and the parish community looks forward to another one hundred years of service.
(Mary Lynn Powers is a member of the restoration committee at Greenville St. Joseph Parish.)
Sister Nancy Schreck, OSF, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis, of Dubuque, Iowa, celebrated her golden jubilee (50 years) on Saturday, June 22, at Mount St. Francis Center in Dubuque.
Sister Nancy is the daughter of Elmer and Marie Eischeid Schreck from Templeton, Iowa. She has a master’s degree in theology from Boston College (M.A.), and a doctor of ministry degree from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California.
Sister Nancy has served in several ministries including high school education, formation and integration of new members in the congregation, pastoral church leadership, congregational leadership, and in the foundation and development of Excel, Inc., a nonprofit service agency in Okolona, Mississippi, which has held Nancy’s deep commitment for many years, and where she is currently serves as program director.
In addition to having served as both vice-president (1992-2000) and president (2008-2014) of the community, Sister Nancy has served in presidency of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (1994-97) and as the U.S. Delegate to the International Union of Superior General (2008-2011).
As well as her current ministry with Excel, Inc., Sister Nancy serves on the leadership council of the Franciscan Handmaids of Mary, Harlem, New York, and as a national and international presenter on topics of religious life and scripture.
“Living a Franciscan way of life has been a deep joy and a wonderful vocation,” said Sister Nancy of her Jubilee.
(Story submitted by the School Sisters of St. Francis.)
IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
No community should botch its deaths. Mircea Eliade wrote those words and they’re a warning: If we do not properly celebrate the life of someone who has left us we do an injustice to that person and cheat ourselves of some of the gift that he or she left behind.
With this in mind, I want to underscore the loss that we, the Christian community, irrespective of denomination, suffered with the death of Rachel Held Evans who died, at age 37, on May the 4th.
Who was Rachel Held Evans? She defies simple definition, beyond saying that she was a young religious writer who wrote with a depth and balance beyond her years as she chronicled her struggles to move from the deep, sincere, childlike faith she was raised in to eventually arrive at a questioning, but more mature, faith that was now willing to face all the hard questions within faith, religion and church. And in this journey, she was beset with opposition from within (it’s hard to courageously scrutinize your own roots) and from without (churches generally don’t like being pressed by hard questions, especially from their own young). But the journey she made and articulates (with rare honesty and wit) is a journey that, in some way, all of us, young and old, have to make to come to a faith that can stand up to the hard questions coming from our world and the even harder ones coming from inside of us.
Carl Rogers once famously said: “What is most personal is also most universal.” The journey Rachel Held Evans traces out from her own life is, I submit, by and large, the universal one today, that is, the naïve faith of our childhood inevitably meets challenges, questions and ridicule in adulthood and that demands of us a response beyond the Sunday School and catechism of our youth. Not least among these questions and challenges is the one of church, of justifying belonging to one, given the propensity within our churches for infidelity, narrowness, judgmental attitudes, reluctance to face doubt and the perennial temptation to wed the Gospels to their favored political ideology.
Rachel Held Evans struggled to make the journey from the naiveté of childhood, with all its innocence and magic, where one can believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny and take biblical stories literally, to what Paul Ricouer calls “second naiveté,” where, through a painful interplay between doubt and faith, one has been able to work through the conscriptive sophistication that comes with adulthood so as to reground the innocence and magic (and faith) of childhood on a foundation that has already taken seriously the doubt and disillusionment that beset us in the face of adulthood.
The Irish philosopher, John Moriarty, whose religious story plays out along similar lines as Rachel’s, coins an interesting expression to describe what happened to him. At one point in his religious journey, he tells us, “I fell out of my story.” The Roman Catholicism he had been raised into was no longer the story out of which he could live his life. Eventually, after sorting through some hard questions and realizing that the faith of his youth was, in the end, his “mother tongue,” he found his way back into his religious story.
Rachel Held Evans’ story is similar. Raised in the Southern U.S. Bible Belt inside a robust Evangelical Christianity she too, as she faced the questions of her own adulthood, fell out of her story and, like Moriarty, eventually found her way back into it, at least in essence.
In the end, she found her way back to a mature faith (which now can handle doubt), found a church (Episcopalian) within which she could worship and, in effect, found her way back to her mother tongue. The church and faith of her youth, she writes, remain in her life like an old boyfriend. … Where, while not together anymore in the old way, you still end up checking Facebook each day to see what’s happening in his life.
Many Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants, I suspect, may not be very familiar with Rachel Held Evans or have read her works. She wrote four best-selling books, Inspired, Searching for Sunday, A Year of Biblical Womanhood and Faith Unraveled. The purpose of this column is therefore pretty straightforward: Read her! Even more important, plant her books in the path of anyone struggling with faith or church: loved ones, children, spouses, family members, friends, colleagues.
Rachel Held Evans arose out of an Evangelical ecclesial tradition and out of the particular approach to Christian discipleship that generally flows from there. She and I come from very different ecclesial worlds. But, as Roman Catholic priest, solidly committed to the tradition I was raised in and as a theologian and spiritual writer for more than 40 years, reading this young woman, I haven’t found a single line with which to disagree. She’s trusted food for the soul.
She’s also a special person that we lost far too soon.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.)
By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN (CNS) – Like an orchestra conductor leading a symphony of different sounds and harmonies, the Holy Spirit creates a masterpiece of unity and communion that extols God’s love, Pope Francis said.
In creating this harmony, the Holy Spirit “makes the church grow by helping it go beyond human limits, sins and scandal,” the pope said June 19 during his weekly general audience.
“The Holy Spirit is the creator of communion, he is the artist of reconciliation who knows how to remove the barriers between Jews and Greeks, between slaves and free people, to make them one body,” he said.
Continuing his series of talks on the Acts of the Apostles, the pope reflected on the gift of the Holy Spirit received, which the apostles received on Pentecost and was manifested in gusts of wind and tongues of fire descending upon them.
The wind that blew through the cenacle was “an eruption that does not tolerate” closed doors, but instead bursts them wide open, he said.
Fire, which throughout biblical tradition is a symbol of God’s presence, immediately descends upon the apostles, thus “purifying and revitalizing them,” he added.
“The church is therefore born of the fire of love, a fire that burns at Pentecost and manifests the power of the word of the Risen One imbued with the Holy Spirit,” the pope said. “The new and definitive covenant is no longer based on a law written on tablets of stone, but on the action of the Spirit of God who makes all things new and is engraved in the hearts of the flesh.”
Pope Francis said that God continues to pour his Spirit upon Christians today, drawing the faithful to him through “divine attraction,” and he “seduces us with his love” so that all may receive a new life through him.
“Let us ask the Lord to make us experience a new Pentecost, which will open our hearts and tune our feelings with those of Christ,” the pope said, “so that we may announce without shame his transforming word and bear witness to the power of love that calls to life all who encounter him.”
(Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju)
By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – This year, the Catholic Charities’ Bishop’s Ball had a bonus special guest, Wanda Thomas, the new executive director for the agency. Thomas has hired just in time to attend the event to greet many of the core supporters. Brunini, Grantham, Grower and Hewes Law first was honored at the event with the Good Samaritan Award for service to Catholic Charities and the diocese.
The Bishop’s Ball is an annual event, traditionally held at the Jackson Country Club to raise money for Catholic Charities and allow the organization to thank donors and supporters face-to-face. The evening started with a silent auction followed by dinner and a live auction as well as the presentation of awards. Auction items included a Walter Anderson print, dinner with Bishop Kopacz and Sister Dorothea Sondgeroth as well as trips and artwork. The ballroom at the Jackson Country Club was packed with supporters who enjoyed an evening of fellowship and fund-raising.
The Good Samaritan Award goes to an individual or entity who has supported the mission of Catholic Charities in a special way. John B. Brunini, a devout Catholic, founded the law firm Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes more than a century ago. Since its founding in the 1890’s, the firm has grown into one of Mississippi’s largest and most respected law firms. The firm serves primarily business clients, including a number of Fortune 500 companies, and other significant Mississippi companies, including the nation’s largest privately held wireless company, Mississippi’s largest health insurer, one of the state’s largest banks, a number of the nation’s top poultry producers, and one of the state’s largest private health care systems. In addition to these entities, the firm provides legal counsel to many industry leaders in the agribusiness, automotive, timber, energy, construction, transportation and manufacturing sectors.
For more than fifty years, the firm has proudly represented the Diocese of Jackson. During this longstanding relationship, the firm has provided legal counsel to Bishops Gerow, Brunini, Houck, Latino and now Joseph Kopacz. The firm has also been instrumental in providing legal guidance and to other Catholic institutions like St. Dominic’s Hospital, the Catholic Foundation, the diocesan school system, Catholic Charities and many other diocesan incorporated and juridical entities.
Save the date for the next Catholic Charities event, the Journey of Hope luncheon in Jackson on Tuesday, Oct. 8 featuring former Pittsburg Steelers great Rocky Bleier. Bleier wrote a book about how he returned to the NFL after being wounded in Vietnam.
(Photos by Berta Mexidor)
