Author Archives: Tereza Ma

Celebrando las ordenaciones

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Obispo Joseph Kopacz

Por Obispo Joseph Kopacz
Homilia de la ordenación del Diácono Nick Adam y Deacon Aaron Williams el 31 de mayo de 2018, la Visitación
“Hijos mios ustedes van a ser ahora avanzados a la orden del presbiterado. Deben aplicar sus energías en la tarea de enseñar en el nombre de Cristo, el jefe maestro. Mediten sobre la ley de Dios: crean lo que lean, enseñen lo que creen, y pongan en práctica lo que enseñan. Dejen que la doctrina que enseñan sea alimento puro para el pueblo de Dios. De la misma manera deben llevar a cabo su misión de santificar en el poder de Cristo. En el memorial de la muerte y resurrección del Señor, hagan todos los esfuerzos posibles para morir al pecado y caminar en la vida nueva de Cristo. Cuando bauticen traerán a mujeres y hombres al pueblo de Dios. En el sacramento de la penitencia perdonarán los pecados en nombre de Cristo y de la Iglesia. Con el aceite santo aliviarán y consolarán a los enfermos. Orecer alabanza y gracias a Dios durante todo el día, orando, no sólo por el pueblo de Dios, sino por el mundo entero. Recuerden siempre el ejemplo del Buen Pastor, que no vino para ser servido, sino para servir y para buscar y rescatar a quienes estaban perdidos”.
* Desde el rito de la ordenación
Permítanos acompañar a María e Isabel mientras se encuentran la una a la otra en uno de los momentos más alegres en toda la Escritura. Las generaciones se encuentran cuando una mujer de edad bendice a las más jóvenes.
Decir que están entusiasmadas está muy lejos de la realidad. Son dos mujeres que el Espíritu Santo ha abrazado, y están en fuego por Dios. Han aceptado el plan de Dios en sus vidas y están liberadas. María está con todos aquellos que son llamados cuando están muy joven y Elizabeth con los llamados después que han pasado su juventud. Cantan hoy por todas los grandes mujeres olvidadas que han convertido a la eternidad a tiempo.
En este drama divino de salvación, pasamos a los diáconos Aaron y Nick que han aceptado la invitación del Señor Jesús a ser discípulos, amigos y sacerdotes de Jesucristo, sacerdotes de la Nueva Alianza para la Diócesis de Jackson en nuestros días. Como María, su “sí” a la llamada del Señor fue moldeada en sus familias a lo largo de muchos años, de muchas maneras ordinarias. Le agradecemos a sus familias por construir fuertes cimientos sobre los que construir. Como María e Isabel, han adaptado sus vidas con el plan de Dios para ellos, y poniendo un poco de nerviosismo aparte, proclaman la grandeza de Dios, y se regocijan en Dios su Salvador. Llamados por su nombre hemos afirmado su rotundo sí a estar aquí. Están deseoso de servir en la Iglesia para la salvación de todos. Su deseo de entrar en acción es como el caballo, Justificar, que ganó el Derby de Kentucky y el Preakness y pronto va a salir fuera de la puerta en el Belmont. El entusiasmo, la energía y el celo son los signos de una auténtica vocación, haciendo de la vida algo hermoso por Dios, como la madre Teresa solía decir.
Pero como sabemos, no siempre es 75 grados y humedad baja. A veces el índice de calor es más de 100, y sentimos el peso de nuestras responsabilidades. Nuestra primera lectura es una de las muchas que hay en las Escrituras que narra la historia del Antiguo Testamento sin ilusión. Moisés estaba al borde con los Israelitas deambulando en el insoportable calor del desierto sintiendo la enorme carga de sus responsabilidades. “¿Concebí a estas personas que me diste, o las parí? Son demasiado pesadas para mí para cargarlas”.
Una sincera oración que resuena en el corazón de cualquiera de nuestras vidas, a veces. De una manera profunda, Moisés anticipa la cruz y el poder de Dios trabajando. Las intenciones de Dios a través de la cruz y la resurrección de su Hijo es que las bendiciones son para sobrepasar las cargas, y que las cargas pueden incluso ser un trampolín para una vida mejor, que tomemos nuestras dificultades y alegrías y oremos por ellas y para nosotros, obispos y sacerdotes, que vivamos el prototipo de Moisés y los setenta ancianos en colaboración y comunión el uno con el otro y con Dios, compartiendo mutuamente los gozos y las cargas.
Para que Dios se propone, a través de la cruz y de la resurrección de su Hijo, que las bendiciones son para sobrepasar las cargas, y que las cargas pueden incluso ser un trampolín para una mayor vida útil, que nos tomamos nuestras dificultades y las alegrías de la oración, y para nosotros, Obispos y sacerdotes, que vivimos el prototipo de Moisés y los setenta ancianos en colaboración y comunión el uno con el otro y con Dios, compartiendo mutuamente los gozos y las cargas.
La segunda lectura, tomada de la carta de san Pablo a los Romanos, retrata los ritmos del Evangelio para un discípulo, incluyendo a los ministros ordenados, infundido con la gracia de Dios: un sincero amor-odio del mal-sosteniendo la buena disposición para servir con celo, no haraganes, fervientes-gozosos perseverantes con generosa hospitalidad, -bendiciéndose el uno al otro como el ejemplo de María y Elisabeth– acompañando a la gente en la alegría y en el dolor, humildes y sabios con sabiduría evangélica. Estas virtudes permiten al ordenado atender a las cosas de Cristo, tener su mente y corazón. Su cultivo nos fortalecerá en nuestras vocaciones para servir al Señor con alegría, incluso en el calor del día.
Sabemos que cada uno de los misterios del rosario: gozosos, dolorosos, gloriosos y luminosos desbordan con vida divina. En el encuentro de la Visitación con Elizabeth, María de Nazaret, Nuestra Señora de la prontitud, simboliza la Iglesia que está pronta a ir donde sea necesario, a servir y a acompañar al pueblo de Dios en nuestras familias, y con el prójimo y el extraño por igual.
María e Elizabeth bailando juntas por el nacimiento de sus hijos, ejemplifican la Iglesia la cual da reverencia a la vida y a la dignidad de la persona humana en todas sus etapas, evidente en las obras de misericordia espirituales y corporales, y en nuestro compromiso con la justicia social.
Proclamando la grandeza del Señor y regocijándose en Dios su Salvador representa la Iglesia que celebra con alegría los sagrados misterios, especialmente en la Eucaristía, la fuente de vida y resurrección del Señor, esta sagrada comida sacrificial en la que celebramos la misericordia de Dios y recibimos la fuerza para el camino en la Palabra y en el sacramento.
Con corazones llenos del amor de Dios acompañamos con alegría al diácono Aarón y al diácono Nick al ofrecer sus vidas en el Rito de la ordenación a abrazar el sacerdocio de Jesucristo.

Visitation perfect complement to ordinations

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Bishop Joseph Kopacz

(Editor’s note: Bishop Joseph Kopacz offers his homily from the Mass of Ordination for Father Aaron Williams and Father Nick Adam as his column this week. The ordinations were on Thursday, May 31, the Feast of the Visitation.)
By Bishop Joseph Kopacz
“My sons you are now to be advanced to the order of the Presbyterate. You must apply your energies to the duty of teaching in the name of Christ, the chief teacher. Meditate on the law of God: believe what you read, teach what you believe and put into practice what you teach. Let the doctrine you teach be pure nourishment for the people of God. In the same way you must carry out your mission of sanctifying in the power of Christ. In the memorial of the Lord’s death and resurrection, make every effort to die to sin and to walk in the new life of Christ. When you baptize you will bring men and women into the People of God. In the sacrament of penance you will forgive sins in the name of Christ and the Church. With holy oil you will relieve and console the sick. You will offer praise and thanks to God throughout the day, praying not only for the people of God but for the whole world. Always remember the example of the Good Shepherd who came not to be served but to serve and to seek out and to rescue those who were lost.”
– From the Rite of Ordination
Let us accompany Mary and Elizabeth as they encounter one another in one of the most joyful moments in all of Scripture. Generations are bridged as an older woman blesses the younger.
To say that they are enthusiastic falls way short of the reality. They are two women whom the Holy Spirit has embraced and they are on fire for God. They have accepted God’s plan in their lives and they are set free. Mary stands with all who are called too young and Elizabeth with all so called past their prime. They sing today for all of the great unsung women who have turned eternity to time.
In this divine drama of salvation, we turn to Deacon Aaron and Nick who have accepted the Lord Jesus’ invitation to be disciples, friends and priests of Jesus Christ, priests of the new Covenant for the Diocese of Jackson in our day. Like Mary, their Yes to the Lord’s call was molded in their families over many years, in many ordinary ways.
We are grateful to your families for building strong foundations on which to build. Like Mary and Elizabeth, they have aligned their lives with God’s plan for them and placing a little nervousness aside, they proclaim the greatness of God and rejoice in God their savior. Called by name we have affirmed their resounding yes to be here. They are zealous to serve in the Church for the salvation of all. Their desire to spring into action is like the horse, Justify, who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness and soon will surge out of the gate at the Belmont. Enthusiasm, energy and zeal are the signs of an authentic vocation, making one’s life ‘something beautiful for God,’ as Mother Teresa was fond of saying.
But as we know, it’s not always 75 degrees and low humidity. Sometimes the heat index is well over 100 and we feel the burden of our responsibilities. Our first reading is one of many in the Scriptures that tells the story of the Old Testament without illusion. Moses had it to the brim with the Israelites wandering around in unbearable desert heat feeling the enormous burden of his responsibilities. “Did I conceive these people you gave me or give birth to them? They are too heavy for me to carry.”
An honest prayer which resounds in the heart of any one of our lives at times. In a profound way, Moses anticipates the Cross and the power of God at work. For God intends, through the Cross and Resurrection of his Son, that the blessings are to surpass the burdens and that the burdens can even be stepping stones to greater life, that we take our burdens and joys to prayer and for us as bishops and priests, that we live the prototype of Moses and the seventy Elders in collaboration and communion with one another and with God, sharing one another’s joys and burdens.
The second reading from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans portrays the Gospel rhythms for a disciple, including the ordained, infused with God’s grace: sincere love — hatred of evil — holding on to the good — readiness to serve — zealous, not slackers, fervent — joyful — enduring — persevering — generous — exercising hospitality — blessing one another with the example of Mary and Elizabeth – accompanying people in joy and sorrow — humble — and wise with gospel wisdom. These virtues enable the ordained to attend to the things of Christ, to have his mind and heart. Their cultivation will empower us in our vocations to serve the Lord with gladness, even in the heat of the day.
We know that each of the mysteries of the rosary: joyful, sorrowful, glorious and luminous overflow with divine life. In the Visitation encounter with Elizabeth, Mary of Nazareth, Our Lady of Promptness, signifies the Church who is prompt to go where needed, to serve and to accompany God’s people in our families and with neighbor and stranger alike.
Mary and Elizabeth dancing together over their unborn children, exemplify the Church who reverences life and the dignity of the human person at all stages, evident in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and in our commitment to Social Justice.
Proclaiming the Greatness of the Lord and rejoicing in God their Savior represents the Church who joyfully celebrates the Sacred Mysteries, especially in the Eucharist, the life-giving death and resurrection of the Lord, this sacred sacrificial meal at which we celebrate God’s mercy and receive strength for the journey in Word and Sacrament.
With hearts overflowing with God’s love we joyfully accompany Deacon Aaron and Deacon Nick as they lay down their lives in the Rite of Ordination to embrace the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

Madison St. Joseph names athletic director, football coach

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MADISON – St. Joseph School named former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond as the school’s new head football coach and Bruin basketball coach Michael Howell as athletic director during a news conference on Friday, June 1.


Howell, who will continue to coach Bruin basketball, will manage and oversee all 21 St. Joe sports. Bond will take over a football program that went 7-4 in the regular season last year before falling to Perry Central in a first-round playoff game.
“Being a head coach made the difference,” Bond said. “This place just felt right. I’ve got some friends with their kids here. I’ve always heard great things about the school. And I said I wanted to be a part of that.”
St. Joe fields 21 boys and girls sports. Boys sports include baseball, basketball, football, soccer, swimming, bowling, track and cross country; girls sports include softball, basketball, soccer, cheerleading, swimming, bowling, track and cross country,
Howell, 32, who is entering his second year as head basketball coach, said he hopes to improve all sports on campus. Howell said that Bruin coaches have high expectations for their sports, “but they need some resources to meet those expectations.”
Howell said he plans to do what he can as athletic director “to get them those resources – fundraising, helping them with scheduling, whatever I need to do to help them get up to the level they want to get to and just trying to see each student athlete be successful.”
Before joining the St. Joseph Catholic School staff in 2017, Howell worked as an assistant basketball coach at Brandon High School. In his first year as head basketball coach, Howell took the Bruins to an Elite 8 berth in the state high school playoffs.
Bond, 57, played quarterback at Mississippi State University from 1980-1983. Bond’s college career included a 6-3 win over Alabama in 1980, one of the greatest wins in school history. He led Mississippi State to appearances in the Sun Bowl in El Paso in 1980 and the Hall of Fame Classic in Birmingham in 1981.
In college, Bond ran the wishbone offense; he said he doesn’t plan to run the wishbone at St. Joe.
“We are going to have to have an athletic quarterback; he’s got to be a threat,” Bond said. “It’ll be some type of option game. We’ve got some pretty good athletes. From what I saw . . . we’ve got some talent and we’ve got some kids who want to play.”
Principal Dena Kinsey said Howell’s promotion and Bond’s hire highlight St. Joseph’s support for a strong athletic program. She said a good athletic program combined with an outstanding college prep curriculum gives St. Joe students a well-rounded education.
“I’m so excited about the 2018-19 school year,” Kinsey said. “We have some fabulous leadership in place who will bring the St. Joe family together and move us forward.”

On true friendship

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Father Ron Rolheiser

IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
One of the richest experiences of grace that we can have this side of eternity is the experience of friendship.
Dictionaries define friendship as a relationship of mutual affection, a bond richer than mere association. They then go on to link friendship to a number of words: kindness, love, sympathy, empathy, honesty, altruism, loyalty, understanding, compassion, comfort and (not least) trust. Friends, the dictionaries assert, enjoy each other’s company, express their feelings to each other and make mistakes without fear of judgment from the other.
That basically covers things, but to better grasp the real grace in friendship a number of things inside that definition need explication.
First, as the Greek Stoics affirmed and as is evident in the Christian spirituality, true friendship is only possible among people who are practicing virtue. A gang is not a circle of friendship, nor are many ideological circles. Why? Because friendship needs to bring grace and grace is only found in virtue.
Next, friendship is more than merely human, though it is wonderfully human. When it is genuine, friendship is nothing less than a participation in the flow of life and love that’s inside of God. Scripture tells us that God is love, but the word it uses for love in this case is the Greek word agape, a term which might be rendered as “family,” “community” or “the sharing of life.” Hence the famous text (“God is Love”) might be transliterated to read: God is family, God is community, God is shared existence and whoever shares his or her existence inside of community and friendship is participating in the very flow of life and love that is inside the Trinity.
But this isn’t always true. Friendship and family can take different forms. Parker Palmer, the contemporary Quaker writer, submits: “If you come here faithfully, you bring great blessing.” Conversely, the great Sufi mystic, Rumi, writes: “If you are here unfaithfully, you bring great harm.” Family and community can bring grace or block it. Our circle can be one of love and grace or it can be a one of hatred and sin. Only the former merits the name friendship. Friendship, says St. Augustine, is the beauty of the soul.
Deep, life-giving friendship, as we all know, is as difficult as it is rare. Why? We all long for it in the depths of our soul, so why is it so difficult to find? We all know why: We’re different from each other, unique and rightly cautious as to whom we give entry into our soul. And so it isn’t easy to find a soulmate, to have that kind of affinity and trust. Nor is it easy to sustain a friendship once we have found one. Sustained friendship takes hard commitment and that’s not our strong point as our psyches and our world forever shift and turn. Moreover, today, virtual friendships don’t always translate into real friendships.
Finally, not least, friendship is often hindered or derailed by sex and sexual tension. This is simply a fact of nature and a fact within our culture and all other cultures. Sex and sexuality, while they ideally should be the basis for deep friendship, often are the major hindrance to friendship. Moreover, in our own culture (whose ethos prizes sex over friendship) friendship is often seen as a substitute and a second-best one at that, for sex.
But while that may be in our cultural ethos, it’s clearly not what’s deepest in our souls. There we long for something that’s ultimately deeper than sex–or is sex in a fuller flowering. There’s a deep desire in us all (be that a deeper form of sexual desire or a desire for something that’s beyond sex) for a soulmate, for someone to sleep with morally. More deeply than we ache for a sexual partner, we ache for a moral partner, though these desires aren’t mutually exclusive, just hard to combine.
Friendship, like love, is always partly a mystery, something beyond us. It’s a struggle in all cultures. Part of this is simply our humanity. The pearl of great price is not easily found nor easily retained. True friendship is an eschatological thing, found, though never perfectly, in this life. Cultural and religious factors always work against friendship, as does the omnipresence of sexual tension.
Sometimes poets can reach where academics cannot and so I offer these insights from a poet vis-à-vis the interrelationship between friendship and sex. Friendship, Rainer Marie Rilke suggests, is often one of the great taboos within a culture, but it remains always the endgame: “In a deep, felicitous love between two people you can eventually become the loving protectors of each other’s solitude. … Sex is, admittedly, very powerful, but no matter how powerful, beautiful and wondrous it may be. If you become the loving protectors of each other’s solitude, love gradually turns to friendship.”
And as Montaigne once affirmed: “The end of friendship may be more important than love. The epiphanies of youth are meant to blossom and ripen into something everlasting.”

(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.)

Pope ‘ashamed’ by church’s failure to listen to abuse survivors

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By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In a letter to Catholics in Chile, Pope Francis expressed shame for the church’s failure to listen and defend survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of the clergy.
Released by the Chilean bishops’ conference May 31, the letter from the pope said that the time of “revision and purification” in the church was possible through the efforts of abuse survivors “who, against all hope or painted as discredited, did not tire of looking for the truth.”
They are “victims whose cries reached to heaven. I would like to once again publicly thank all of them for the courage and perseverance,” the pope wrote.
The Vatican announced earlier in the day that “the pope will send the president of the Chilean bishops’ conference a letter written personally by him and addressed to all the people of God, as he had promised the bishops.”
The Vatican also announced that Pope Francis will send Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and Father Jordi Bertomeu Farnos back to Chile and visit the Diocese of Osorno “with the aim of advancing the process of reparation and healing of abuse victims.”
Shortly after, Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez Errazuriz of San Bernardo, president of the Chilean bishops’ commission for abuse prevention, and Auxiliary Bishop Fernando Ramos Perez of Santiago, secretary-general of the Chilean bishops’ conference, held a news conference in Santiago to release the eight-page letter.
In his message, the pope said it has been a “time of listening and discernment” for the church to get to the root of the sexual abuse crisis in the Chilean church and to find concrete solutions and not “mere strategies of containment.”
He also acknowledged the church’s shortcomings in not listening to survivors of abuse.
“Here, I believe, lies one our principal faults and omissions: to not know how to listen to victims. Thus, partial conclusions were built that lacked crucial elements for a healthy and clear discernment. I must say with shame that we did not know how to listen and react in time,” the pope wrote.
In January, the pope sent Archbishop Scicluna and Father Bertomeu to Chile to listen to people with information about Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who, according to survivors, had allegedly witnessed their abuse by his mentor, Father Fernando Karadima.
Pope Francis said their visit was made after “verifying the existence of situations that we did not know how to see and listen.”
“As a church, we cannot continue walking while ignoring the pain of our brothers and sisters,” he said.
The church, he continued, must say “never again” to a culture that not only allowed sexual abuses to occur but also “considered a critical and questioning attitude as betrayal.”
“The culture of abuse and cover up is incompatible with the logic of the Gospel given that the salvation offered by Christ is always an offering, a gift that demands and requires freedom,” the pope said.
The pope also encouraged Chilean Catholics to continue their devotion to popular piety which is “one of the few areas where the people of God is above the influence of that clericalism that seeks to control and restrain the anointment of God upon the people.”
Like Christ, who did not hide his wounds after his resurrection but rather showed them to his disciples, the church must also be willing to show its own wounds to “be able to understand and be moved by the wounds of the world today.”
“A church with wounds doesn’t place itself at the center, it doesn’t think itself perfect, it doesn’t look to cover up and conceal its evil, but instead places them before the only one who can heal wounds and he has a name: Jesus Christ.
After the letter’s release, Juan Carlos Cruz, one of three survivors who met with Pope Francis April 27-29, said he was moved by the pope’s letter.
“There are phrases in the letter that are things that we spoke about with the pope, such as the culture of cover-ups. It is an emotional feeling to know that he was listening to us and it wasn’t just a salute,” Cruz said May 31 in an interview with Chilean radio station Tele 13.

(Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.)

Getting Ahead facilitators trained

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By Maureen Smith
FLOWOOD – More than two dozen people attended the Getting Ahead Workshop at Flowood St. Paul Parish on Saturday, May 19. The Getting Ahead program is meant to help people leaving prison reintegrate into society and start a new way of life.
“It turned out to be a great experience with 28 participants including prison chaplains of various denominations, prison volunteers, two local pastors, parents of formerly incarcerated, members of the Diocesan Faith in Action Team, representatives from Department of Corrections and social service providers,” said Sister Madeline Kavanagh, DC, one of the organizers.

FLOWOOD – Marvin Edwards, standing, coordinator for prison minstry, speaks with Deacon Rick Caldwell and other participants in the Getting Ahead workshop. (Photo courtesy of Sister Madeline Kavanagh)

Twenty one attendees volunteered to work directly with prisoners and parolees as facilitators while others have committed to provide supportive service to returning citizens. Some of the training focused on the difference between being a facilitator and a teacher. Facilitators will let the prisoner take charge of his or her life and make decisions. They will listen and not assume they know the answers the parolee is looking for. Each person will have a workbook so they will do their own work instead of having a teacher show them what to do at each step. In the words of the handout, “Facilitating offers you the opportunity to help empower others by establishing, then nurturing, an environment where people find and use their own voice.”
After release, Getting Ahead community supporters will help with the challenges of everyday life, perhaps helping to find housing or recruiting companies willing to hire those recently released.
Sister Madeline and Marvin Edwards, coordinator for prison ministry for the diocese, introduced the program earlier this year and hope to have it up and running by fall of 2019. Those interested in the program can call Marvin Edwards at (601)594-8254 or Sister Madeline Kavanagh at (213)215-6103.

Advocates call for more community-based mental health options

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By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – On Wednesday, May 23, community advocates, government agencies, religious leaders, legislative leaders and people who struggle every day with mental illness got together to talk about what Mississippi needs to do a better job of mental health care. The event was the delayed Catholic Day at the Capitol held at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle. Bad weather in January forced the event into May.
About a hundred people attended the event to hear what has changed in mental health care, what some of the challenges are and where the state still has weaknesses in this area. Angela Ladner, executive director of the Mississippi Psychiatric Association kicked off the day by talking about the many facets of this complex issue. In her view, every member of the community has to be willing to join the conversation. “There are medical issues, genetic issues. We should not stigmatize that,” said Ladner.

JACKSON – Advocates filled the Cathedral Center for Catholic Charities’ Catholic Day at the Captiol Mental Health workshop Wednesday, May 23. (Photo by Maureen Smith)

Ladner is a proponent of community-based intervention and care. From the perspective of the psychiatric community, she believes that fast intervention in a crisis, followed by reintegration into the community with supportive services, is the best approach. In her perfect model for addressing people who have not gotten the preventive care they need, “if I go into crisis, somewhere from zero to 72 hours I can go to a single point of entry in my community.”
Those first three days are critical to a full recovery. “Medically, data shows after 72 hours your brain is damaged from that crisis. You are worse off than before,” she explained. If the patient can be stabilized at the crisis center within 72 hours he or she does not need to be committed. They can, in a perfect world, go back to their community and get follow-up care where they live to prevent a future crisis and address any ongoing mental health issues.
After Ladner’s presentation a panel of mental health workers and advocates gave their own presentations. James “Bo” Chastain, CEO of the Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield gave a very detailed power point of the work the Department of Health has done to improve services, especially in light of a Department of Justice suit filed in August of 2016 claiming the state was violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. The suit claims the state is “failing to provide adults with mental illness with necessary integrated, community-based mental health services.” The DOJ said many people are forced into institutions instead of getting the help they need at home.
Chastain outlined expansions in community services including additional crisis stabilization units in all parts of the state, adding crisis therapists and adding mobile crisis response teams. Jake Hutchins, a bureau director for community mental health services in the state, said those units answered 20,000 calls in a year.
Beyond crisis care, Ladner, Chastain and Hutchins spoke about other community issues, such as finding stable housing sources and supportive employment for those with mental illness. The state has expanded services in both those areas, providing rental assistance and job placement and support as part of its three-year strategic plan to address Department of Justice concerns.
Perhaps the most emotional presentation came from Ramona Russum, a parent who has had to navigate the system on behalf of two children. “Living with someone with a mental illness or disorder is a challenge. Living with a child with a mental disorder is literally running from place to place putting out fires,” she said.
She said she has seen improvements in community-based care. When a child can be treated in his or her community, they can stay close to home and see their families instead of going to an institution far away. Russum credits community-based care with a huge improvement in her family situation in the past year.
Marvin Edwards is the prison ministry coordinator for the Diocese of Jackson. He spoke about how many inmates come to prison with mental illness and only get worse and worse while incarcerated. He said there is one psychiatrist for 19,000 inmates so the need for reform is pressing. Edwards believes many crimes could be prevented if young people could get help before they make a terrible decision.
Henry Moore from Families as Allies, an advocacy group for families with mental illness issues, said his organization is in the process of gathering data to show what treatments and styles of treatment work and what do not. “We are speaking to the families themselves. These are authentic voices,” he said.
Joy Hogge wrapped up the mental health portion of the day. She is the president of Families as Allies. She said while things are improving, there is still much work to be done to help the people in this state. “It is important to ask people with mental illness what they want,” she explained. Sometimes community leaders make decisions without seeking input from those directly affected. “It is good that we now have mobile response teams, but now we need to ask people how they worked for them,” said Hogge.
The day was organized by Catholic Charities’ office of parish social ministry and the Faith in Action Team.

Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happend

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Sister alies therese

FROM THE HERMITAGE
By Sister alies therese
It’s that time again: graduation, whether it is from Pre-K or, High school or college. Someone has become a dentist, a vet or doctor. Some folks also participated in other sorts of graduations — ordination, completing flight or art school, or a major promotion in the workplace. Some have even married or made solemn vows! Let’s just say that to graduate is to move with some new skill or commitment to the next level. Usually that also brings new responsibilities. And those responsibilities reflect a deeper you! Dr. Suess says: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You!”
External markers in our life are very important. They may take the form of a formal graduation. However, we need to pay attention to our inner markers, growing ever deeper, showing how we’ve matured, or learned some new life skill: how to forgive, how to laugh, or how to love, for example. It is more likely that our inner life is where we experience movement towards God. That is where we actually graduate and discover our process of becoming fully who we are. Or, as Dr. Suess says: “It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.”
Becoming is clearly our goal. We use the phrase: become the very best version of yourself. Sometimes the way to prove that we have progressed is by walking through the external markers of graduating or passing difficult exams. Other times, it is sneaking a peek at those inner markers. Perhaps it will be during prayer time, retreat time, alone time in the stillness, where we intuit somehow something has grown within and we’ve changed by becoming more ‘myself in God.’ Dr. Suess asks: “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”
Our questions such as this move us forward and challenge us to allow God to enfold within us gifts we are to use to serve the community and grow in holiness. Recently we were reminded of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit when we celebrated Pentecost. Those gifts and many more mentioned throughout the Scriptures call us to stand out — to be witnesses, visible to others not for ourselves but for them to want to be like us in the doing of good deeds, the deeds of God. Consult Mt.5:16 on this.
There are others, too, whose deeds of prayer and sacrifice are more hidden. Yet they too, offer back to God the gifts they have received that others might live. Perhaps they will not see the outcome of these poor prayers or sacrifices but they will grow in trust and deeper in love with God so that they might continue their mission. We are all, however, called to an ever deepening love of God, allowing God to love us.
Mostly we are called to smile as we sacrifice for others. Dr. Suess says: “Life’s too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forgive the ones who don’t and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said it’d be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.”
We need each and every person to continue to form the precious community of the Beloved. There are no hidden diplomas or degrees or even excellent exam results — only the promise of an on-going love to be shared and put at the service of an awesome God.
Dr. Suess wrote 46 books, the first in 1936 and it had 27 rejections before publication. He was very involved in anti-racist and inclusion work ncluding Horton Hears a Who, reminding us: “a person’s a person, no matter how small.”
He was never a doctor of anything but he did have lots of external markers to reward his work: two Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Laura Ingalls Wilder and a Peabody Award. His simplicity, humor and challenge remind us of our call to grow and become ever more thoughtful, caring, and to lighten up and laugh a little, by expressing our joy on the journey. Perhaps your life will be marked with many markers both external and internal, perhaps not. Not to worry. You are not forgotten. Not only that but your smile and your light are designated by God to do good and to be seen that God might receive the glory.
I was reminded of this in Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? “When I was quite young and quite small for my size, I met an old man in the Desert of Drize. And he sang me a song I will never forget. At least, well, I haven’t forgotten it yet. He sat in a terribly prickly place. But he sang with a sunny sweet smile on his face: ‘When you think things are bad, when you feel sour and blue, when you start to get mad…you should do what I do! Just tell yourself, Duckie, you’re really quite lucky! Some people are much more, oh, ever so much more…oh muchly much-much more unlucky than you!…Thank goodness for all of the things you are not! Thank goodness you’re not something someone forgot, and left all alone in some punkerish place like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space…”
Great summer reading for all you brain-i-acs who need a little rest! Reinhold Niebuhr understood when he remarked: “Laughter is the beginning of prayer.” BLESSINGS.

(Sister alies therese is a vowed Catholic solitary who lives an eremitical life. Her days are formed around prayer, art and writing. She is author of six books of spiritual fiction and is a weekly columnist. She lives and writes in Mississippi.)

What is your piece of paradise here?

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Father Jerome LeDoux, SVD,

Reflections on Life
By Father Jerome LeDoux, SVD
Due to ministry, rarely have I had an opportunity to view the Kentucky Derby’s Run for the roses, aka “The most exciting two minutes in sports.” Official bugler Steve Buttleman sounded the clarion call to the 144th running of the Kentucky Derby. Defying the all-time record downpour that drenched the track, everyone and everything else, more than 153,000 paying customers thrilled to the University of Louisville Choir’s rendering of My Old Kentucky Home.
As the historic music rang throughout Churchill Downs, the roots of my hair tingled. It was then that, observing their happy faces, I realized that, for perhaps most of the folks there, this was their piece of paradise.
One could counter that, surely, those people have other cherished pieces of an earthly paradise in their lives. That is perfectly reasonable and desirable. Indeed, truly blessed, fortunate – whatever you want to call them – are those whose prime piece of paradise is their family. Yes, it can be affirmed that the happiest people in the world are those whose piece of earthly paradise is theirsoul mate and children.
With wanderlust almost a part of their DNA, being a jetsetter regionally and globally has always been a piece of paradise for many who have no great interest in settling down in a conventional way of life. With more affordable supersonic airliners just a few years away, jetsetters will take delight in having breakfast in Asia, lunch in Europe and dinner in the U.S.A., whether aloft or on the ground.
Plugged into a world of electronic devices such as tablets, e-readers, MP3 players and smartphones that provide apps to open up a world of information, music, movies and other entertainment, Millennials lead the charge into today’s electronic version of what they perceive as their piece of paradise.
However, they must be constrained to look deep into their own reaction to and connection to electronic devices that, at best, may deter them from meaningful communication with their family and friends. At worst, those devices become vices that draw users away from practical realities and entice them to harsh addictions.
Although entertainment is an integral part of our lives, we must shun addiction to almost nonstop entertainment on a cell phone, computer, TV, at the cinema, at a sports stadium, at a racetrack, being a nightclubber always out to play on the town or regional circuit, or anything that stifles the pursuit of transcendent values in life.
Notwithstanding, this is their piece of paradise for many a wayfarer down here.
Considered classier for the most part than nightclubbing, being a socialite in a Who’s Who world, bathing in the reflected light of celebrities, superstars in sports, business moguls, the megarich or the cream of any so-styled significant profession is the lifelong fascination and dogged pursuit of too many people to count. The Upper Crust, of course, is a bunch of crumbs held together with their own dough.
Hail the greatest celebrity and megastar of all time, the apprentice carpenter who had no formal schooling, yet knew more than the top geniuses of all time! Even though he was born in a borrowed cattle cave and was buried in a borrowed cave hewn out of the rock, his life and supernatural exploits split the reckoning of time into whatever happened before him and whatever happened after him.
Spliced somewhere in all this is the perennial pursuit of the American Dream, to which we can add the Asian, European, African Dream, etc., a piece of paradise. In this, our earthly pursuit of a piece of paradise, we have to align our civil identity and property ownership to Philippians 3:20, “Our citizenship is in heaven.”
A true piece of paradise, the killer smile of a big baby girl in 2006 as I applied ashes to her forehead on Ash Wednesday at Saint Augustine Church in New Orleans was one of the indelible highlights of my life. Perforce, I had to smile in return.
While driving back to my parish in Prairie View, Texas in 1983 with most of the Sedillo family, we stopped briefly just beyond Houston to buy some snowballs. Slumping in the rear of the station wagon, Anthony slurped his large snowball and asked, “Mama, are we in heaven?” Yes, a piece of paradise can be a moment frozen in time under widely varying circumstances tailor-made for individuals. And it is real!
“God is love, and all who abide in love abide in God and God in them.” (1 John 4:16)

(Father Jerome LeDoux, SVD, has written “Reflections on Life since 1969.)