Rev. Adolfo Suárez-Pasillas appointed pastor of Forest St. Michael Parish and its mission, St. Anne in Newton; Paulding St. Michael Parish; and administrator of Centro Católico in Morton, effective August 25.

Rev. Msgr. Elvin Sunds appointed administrator for Greenville St. Joseph Parish, effective July 30.

Rev. Andrew Nguyen appointed Parochial Vicar, Greenville St. Joseph Parish, effective July 30.

Rev. Aaron Williams granted a temporary leave of absence, effective July 30.

WASHINGTON (CNS) – A page on the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops answers a series of questions regarding the bishops’ vote to approve drafting a document on the Eucharist during their spring general assembly June 16-18.
Presented in a question-and-answer format, the page reviews four questions including why the document is being developed and whether the bishops voted to ban elected officials from receiving holy Communion.
The webpage – www.usccb.org/meaning-eucharist-life-church – is dated June 21, three days after the bishops announced the vote to allow the Committee on Doctrine to draft the document and present it for discussion when the bishops reconvene in person in November.

The U.S. bishops approved advancing a plan to draft a document to examine the “meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the church” following a lengthy debate during their assembly, held virtually due to the pandemic. The action passed with 168 votes in favor and 55 votes against it. There were six abstentions.
Chieko Noguchi, USCCB director of public affairs, told CNS in an email June 24 that the question-and-answer online document was developed by her office in collaboration with Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, doctrine committee chairman, and Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, chairman of the Committee on Communications.
“We were hearing from people who seemed to misunderstand the vote, so it was created and then shared with all bishops with the approval of the conference president,” Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, she wrote.
In two paragraphs leading to the questions, the webpage states that the vote approves the drafting of a teaching document on the Eucharist, explaining: “The question of whether or not to deny any individual or groups holy Communion was not the ballot.”
Noting the Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life, it says that “the importance of an ever deeper understanding of the beauty and mystery in our lives” is not a new topic for the bishops to address.
“The document being drafted is not meant to be disciplinary in nature, nor is it targeted at any one individual or class of persons. It will include a section on the church’s teaching on the responsibility of every Catholic, including bishops, to live in accordance with the truth, goodness and beauty of the Eucharist we celebrate,” it says.
The first question addresses why the bishops acted on this during their meeting.
In response, the webpage explains the bishops have had a “major concern” that Catholics have had a declining belief and understanding of the Eucharist. The concern is so deep, it said, the bishops made the Eucharist the major theme of their 2021-2024 strategic plan.
The webpage also says the Communion document “will serve as a foundation for the conference’s Eucharistic Revival Project, a national effort focused on reviving eucharistic faith.
The second question asks whether the recent vote actually bans politicians from receiving Communion.
“No, this was not up for vote or debate. The bishops made no decision about barring anyone from receiving holy Communion,” the response says.
It stresses that all Catholics are called to “continual conversion,” while the bishops have “repeatedly emphasized the obligation of all Catholics to support human life and dignity and other fundamental principles of Catholic moral and social teaching.”
The third question focuses on whether the bishops plan to issue a national policy on withholding Communion from politicians.
“There will be no national policy on withholding Communion from politicians,” the online document says in response. “The intent is to present a clear understanding of the Church’s teachings to bring heightened awareness among the faithful of how the Eucharist can transform our lives and bring us closer to our creator and the life he wants for us.”
The final question asks if the Vatican told the bishops not to move forward on drafting a teaching document on the Eucharist.
The webpage says this was not the case but that the Vatican has encouraged the bishops to “engage in dialogue and broad consultation” and that the discussion during the recent spring general assembly was part of that process.
“It is important to note that collaboration and consultation among the bishops will be key in the drafting of the document,” the webpage says.
A consensus emerged among the bishops’ during the debate on drafting the document to convene regional discussions, the outcomes of which would be forwarded the doctrine committee.

(Visit www.usccb.org/meaning-eucharist-life-church for more information on the bishops vote.)

“I am really proceeding in my life here with the hope that God will heal the whole world one day from this pandemic … The challenge and the risk gave me a chance to deepen my faith, to deepen my trust in God.”

Rev. Jesuraj Xavier
St. Francis Assisi Parish in New Albany

By Danny McArthur
CORINTH – As pastor of St. James Catholic Church in Corinth, Father Mario Solórzano is responsible for sharing God’s gift in English and Spanish to more than 400 combined members with mass services in Corinth, Belmont and Booneville.
Once COVID-19 hit, that responsibility also included leading his parish through the pandemic.
“Those days were very stressful for me, and sometimes I didn’t know what to do,” Solórzano said.
COVID-19 brought a similarly dramatic change for the Father Jesuraj Xavier, pastor of St. Francis Assisi Catholic Church in New Albany. Early on, he was afraid to leave his home, even for essentials.
His primary concern, he said, was for the members of his community, more so than himself. Xavier was afraid of exposing those he saw regularly as part of his duties to the virus.

“I just stayed at home and the church,” Xavier said. “I had a fear all the time I should not become sick, because if I become sick, the people will be affected if we have to close the church or stop the masses.”
Over the past year, the pandemic would challenge the two pastors in ways they’d never previously experienced, causing them to rethink faith, service and worship for the various rural parishes they serve.
Changing Catholic practices
More than a year ago, as COVID-19 cases began to rise, church leaders received information from the Catholic Diocese for rules they needed to implement, such as using masks, sanitizing, social distancing and, eventually, cessation of in-person services.
St. Francis closed in-person services from mid-March 2020 to May 2020, during which they moved to livestreaming services in Spanish and English.
Xavier found the transition to be difficult, at least emotionally.
“It was a great shock,” Xavier said. “That was not our normal custom, but people didn’t want to miss Mass. Even if they are not able to take part in person, they want to see it.”
Sacred practices, such as offering Holy Communion, had to be altered to minimize coronavirus spread. Funeral masses were paused until 2021, limiting Father Xavier to graveside services. With hospitals limiting visitation, he couldn’t even perform final rites.
“The pandemic has changed the mode of our Catholic practices,” FatherXavier said.
Of the parishes he serves, only St. Francis adopted livestreamed masses. When in-person church services resumed, they came with changes. To shorten services, his church cancelled Sunday classes with kids and adults.
In Fulton, where most of his attendees are English-speaking and older, attendance lessened. Many parishioners had health complications. With a COVID-19 infection forcing them to close for two weeks and some parishioners becoming sick in July and August, some didn’t feel safe attending in person.
Some days, Father Xavier would make the 45-minute drive from New Albany to Fulton to preach to just five people.
“It really discourages you,” he said. “But one thing I am convinced of myself is that I should never be worried about how many people are coming, but I should do what I have to do with the sincerity of my heart.”
At St. James, the church implemented social distancing by moving services to their large family life center. Even before the pandemic, Father Solórzano’s community had begun exploring ways to transmit services in nursing homes. Cameras set up in the sanctuary helped when services moved from in-person to virtual.
“We were blessed because we worked to communicate with everyone in the parish,” Father Solórzano said. “I celebrate by myself many times almost the whole season of Lent and Easter.”
Father Solórzano adapted to the changes forced upon him by the pandemic. He offered moments of prayer on WhatsApp. Members set up sanctuaries inside their homes. He called his parishioners and would visit them outside at a distance. Other times, he might bring something they needed, like food or medicine.
“Thank God I have not been sick, but always I was concerned about the health of people,” Father Solórzano said.
A deepening of faith
Both pastors saw the pandemic’s spiritual and mental toll on their congregations and themselves. For some, the pandemic began to diminish or weaken their faith; for others, it pushed them to become more active and gain a closer relationship to God.

For Father Xavier, faith has been a comfort, especially when he thinks of his friends and family in his native India, where COVID-19 has infected more than 29 million people as of Monday and killed roughly 377,000 of those infected, including three priests within Father Xavier’s home diocese.
The pandemic and its toll have tested Father Xavier in ways he’s never before experienced. But rather than lose faith, Father Xavier said he used the questions in his heart to give him strength.
“Trusting in God, I am really proceeding in my life here with the hope that God will heal the whole world one day from this pandemic and safeguard India and our country as well,” Father Xavier said. “The challenge and the risk gave me a chance to deepen my faith, to deepen my trust in God.”
With COVID-19 vaccines readily available, Father Solórzano has encouraged everyone within his church to receive a shot. And when he hears people spreading misinformation about the vaccine, he tries to encourage members instead to put their faith in God.
For Father Solórzano, vaccination is about more than caring for your own health; it’s about caring for the health of others.
As a man of God, he believes that’s his obligation.
“I believe God is calling me to be responsible for others, too,” he said. “I cannot think only of myself.”

(Reprinted with permission of the Daily Journal – djournal.com. Danny, the community voices reporter, covers social issues and nonprofits for the Daily Journal.)

By Joe Atkins
OXFORD – Embedded in Mississippi’s political leadership since time immemorial regarding Medicaid and other social programs is the attitude that somebody somewhere is going to get a free ride.
Back in the 1960s, U.S. Sen. John Stennis and Congressmen Jamie Whitten and Thomas G. Abernethy, all Mississippi Democrats, fought tooth and nail against funding for food programs and other government assistance to the poor and needy, like the Head Start preschool program. The federal government adopted the Medicaid program in 1967. Mississippi waited until 1969.
Mississippi is one of the 12 states in the nation – most of them in the U.S. South – that thus far have refused a largely federally funded Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Today, however, a strong and growing push toward expansion of the Medicaid program is underway in the nation’s perennially poorest and unhealthiest state, a push led by clergy and judiciary leaders as well as a growing number of business leaders.

“We are in a crisis,” says Perry C. Perkins Jr. of Working Together Mississippi (WTM) and the Industrial Areas Foundation. WTM is doing grassroots work across the state to expand health care options for Mississippians. “Why? Our politics are totally politicized. Too many Mississippians earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to qualify for tax credits that would reduce their health insurance costs.”
A letter supporting Medicaid and issues like post-partum care for needy mothers signed by 350 clergy and other local leaders recently went out to the state’s governor and legislature. Perkins’ Working Together Mississippi plans to expand that number to 600 clergy with a thousand or more local leaders participating in so-called “Civic Academy” discussion sessions. He and others are urging citizens to call or write state leaders and their representatives in the legislature.
In a June 6 column published in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo, state Senator Chad McMahon, a Republican representing Lee and western Itawamba counties, called for a serious discussion of Medicaid expansion.
“I’m hearing from farmers, who are small business owners employing as many as 10 employees, that want health insurance for their families and their employees,” McMahon wrote. “Some of the largest corporations in the state are located in the district I represent, and they are expressing their desire to expand Medicaid for their employees and their families.”
McMahon, who hasn’t yet taken an official position on the issue, said that Medicaid is not a government welfare program – indeed two-thirds of those who’d benefit from an expansion are employed but get no insurance from their employer – but rather a “government insurance program” that offers minimum coverage. Already one out of three Mississippians receive Medicaid.
“Sustainable and affordable access to healthcare for Mississippians is important to me,” McMahon wrote. “Whether that healthcare or insurance is public or private is the field of discussion. I would prefer a private sector solution if one is available that is affordable, sustainable, and offers access to world class healthcare.”
Many Mississippians have anything but “world class healthcare.”
The state ranks 1st in kidney disease, death from pneumonia and flu, strokes and cancer. It ranks 50th in COVID-19 vaccinations, and number 1 in infant mortality and problem pregnancies. Perry Perkins comes to “Civic Academy” meetings armed with such statistics from the Kaiser Foundation and other sources.
In a rural state, at least a half-dozen of 19 publicly owned hospitals are in poor financial health, according to a 2017 state auditor’s report. Five rural hospitals have already closed.
Perkins says expanding Medicaid would reach 300,000 Mississippians plus pump $690 million of federal dollars into the state’s economy. Each state gets a 90 percent federal match for the expansion. Uncompensated care, a huge issue for rural and other hospitals, would decline by as much as 50 percent.
Politicians like McMahon are starting to listen, and legislative hearings are planned for this summer. Next door, Louisiana passed a Medicaid expansion five years ago.
However, state Attorney General Lynn Fitch was one of 18 state attorneys general – all Republicans – to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the ACA. The court this month refused. Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn is busy these days pushing elimination of the state income tax just five years after the Legislature passed the largest tax cut in the state’s history. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves recently declared the state would no longer accept federal COVID-19-related unemployment benefits.
Still, Perkins remains optimistic. “There is movement. (Most) Mississippi voters support Medicaid expansion. The clergy are pushing it. Business people, too.”

(Joe Atkins is a veteran journalist and professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi. He attends St. John’s Catholic Church in Oxford and can be reached at jbatkins3@gmail.com.)