Category Archives: Columnists

Team mentality drives professional learning communities

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Forming our Future
Margaret Anzelmo
Professional learning communities (PLCs) are becoming more and more commonplace in today’s schools as a means of professional development, growth and school improvement. Professional learning communities operate under a set of core values that distinguish this professional development model from more traditional ones and that coincide naturally with the values of Catholic education. The most common models for PLCs include a focus on learning for all, a collaborative culture, collective inquiry into best practice and research, action orientation, a culture of continuous improvement and a results orientation.
PLC values lie at the heart of what already occurs in Catholic schools across the nation and in our diocese every day, so the transition to becoming a professional learning community often occurs more naturally and easily for these institutions than for public ones.
Providing academic excellence for a diverse body of learners, modeling the idea of community in daily life, and educating the whole child are PLC principles already inherent in Catholic schools and are principles that are also in keeping with Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year of Mercy. What better way to be merciful than to collaborate as schools and as a diocese to meet student needs?
According to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, one of the intentions of this Year of Mercy will be to encourage Christians to meet people’s needs in tangible ways. The logo for the Year of Mercy is Jesus as the Good Shepherd with a lost soul over His shoulders. As Catholic school educators, we are called to model these exact principles daily.  The culture is naturally there, so for a Catholic school to become a PLC, the focus typically becomes more about developing PLC structures and in engaging the school community to work together in reviewing data, learning together, designing instruction and developing common assessments to meet the needs of the diverse population of learners.
In our diocese, we have taken this concept a step further. Our diocesan schools work together to write and implement curriculum, a curriculum that our teachers wrote for our students, and to share assessments and strategies. We operate as a PLC consisting of 13 schools and hundreds of educators, and our students benefit. They benefit academically due to this individualized response to their needs but also benefit emotionally in that they are able to feel supported and loved as they receive appropriate instruction and gain confidence with their successes.
Organizational characteristics, such as culture, leadership and capacity building, and operational characteristics, such as professional development, data collection and systemic trust contribute to successful implementation and transformation of schools and dioceses into professional learning communities.
Catholic school leaders should model and create a culture of collaboration and trust and set a timeline for implementing the structural components of PLCs, such as the protected time for collaboration, development of norms and professional development of each component to build the capacity of the faculty and create a merciful, spiritual, inclusive learning atmosphere for students.
The population of today’s Catholic schools has changed. Students and teachers alike need intentional, individualized learning, with the goals of improving knowledge and practice. Teachers cannot meet the needs of today’s students without the ongoing, focused support and learning provided by PLCs. Professional learning communities meet the professional development needs of today’s teachers which in turn maintains the level of academic excellence present in Catholic schools and creates an environment ready to meet the 21st century needs of our students and to demonstrate the ideals of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
In addition, the concepts of a professional learning community meld perfectly with the theme for our diocesan schools for the 2015-2016 school year. This theme is two-fold. We are TEAMing Up for Catholic Education, with TEAM as an acronym for Teaching Everyone About Mercy.
We meet the needs of our students and our staffs academically, spiritually, emotionally and even physically, and we sometimes carry along the souls of those who otherwise would have been lost. If those sound like insurmountable tasks, it is because they would be without our faith – when we operate together as one Body in Christ, as a professional learning community that collaborates to meet the spiritual and academic needs of those whom we encounter.
As the Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Jackson, we are a professional learning community. We truly are a team and with that, we make evident the beauty, the joy, and the excellence that is Catholic education. Our students will leave us as productive, successful members of society who not only have an excellent academic foundation but also are ready to put mercy into practice due to the spiritual principles taught directly to them and modeled for them in their schools each and every day.
When we TEAM up together as the Diocese of Jackson schools and as a professional learning community, we show that Catholic education is the priority that leads to excellence for all.
(Margaret Anzelmo is the coordinator of academic excellence for the Office of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Jackson.)

Digging into many meanings of peace

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By Karla Luke
“Peace be with you,” are the first words our resurrected Lord spoke to the fearful Apostles hiding in the Upper Room on that first day of the week. Peace. Assuredly, peace must have been the last thought on their minds after all of the terrifying events they witnessed in the final days of Jesus’ human life on Earth. Their friend and brother, betrayed, denied, falsely accused, tortured and murdered was now standing before them with an offer of peace. What a contrast!
When we think of peace, we generally think the absence of conflict or war; however, in the scriptural sense, peace is much more. When we possess true peace, we enjoy wholeness, harmony and right relationship with God, others and self. Peace, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, is a gift from God to us that is to be shared with all. Jesus, our brother, the Prince of Peace, came to unite heaven and earth and to show, by His selfless and loving example, how to be in right relationship with God and others. In The Joy of the Gospel – Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis suggests that in order to achieve peace we must become a people.
People in every nation enhance the social dimension of their lives by acting as committed and responsible citizens, not as a mob swayed by the powers that be. Let us not forget that “responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation.” Yet becoming a people demands something more. It is an ongoing process in which every new generation must take part: a slow and arduous effort calling for a desire for integration and a willingness to achieve this through the growth of a peaceful and multifaceted culture of encounter. (220 Evangelii Gaudium)
Pope Francis proposes that we can build a people of peace by being attentive to four specific areas: time, unity, reality and wholeness.
Time is greater than space – Today much emphasis is placed on immediate results. Let’s face it, we live in an instant gratification society. The power goes to the person that makes it happen the fastest! Pope Francis tells us that we must focus more on the processes that develop societies and help move people more toward full and meaningful lives under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and less on outcomes that benefit a few.
Unity prevails over conflict – Conflicts exist everywhere, in families, societies and among nations. People choose to address conflicts either by ignoring them, embracing them or facing them head on. It is the latter, recommended by Pope Francis, that has the greatest impact on building peace. In facing conflict we endeavor to go beyond the surface of the issue and establish meaningful dialogue affording dignity to all involved in hopes of coming to a deeper understanding of one another.
Realities are more important than ideas – We consistently struggle with trying to connect ideas to realities. In some ways we bury reality in unattainable objectives and fundamentalism. While it is good to have high aspirations, we must not lose sight of the present condition. While Jesus’ incarnation is the reality of the Word made flesh, it illustrates that reality is necessary to evangelization. The history of our salvation is the reality and we must continue act in that same justice and charity to bring to life the word of Matthew’s Gospel, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”
The whole is greater than the part – There exists a relationship between the whole and the part: namely, we must be attentive to the worldly condition as well as our own local condition. Working for peace and justice in own community can have an exponential effect on other communities thereby assuring everyone, even the poor, of their own rightful place in society. We seek to maintain our own God-given individuality while pursuing the common good.
So as Catholic Christians when we come to that part of the Liturgy that invites us to share the gift of peace, let us remember that we are truly expressing the desire for wholeness, harmony and right relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Peace be with you!
(Karla Luke works in the Office of Education. She is writing reflections on Pope Francis’ Joy of the Gospel all year.)

Confirmation begins next phase of journey

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Kneading Faith
By Fran Lavelle
Bishop Joseph Kopacz has begun his annual trek to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation with young people and their families around the diocese. If you are the parent, Godparent, grandparent, auntie, uncle or close friend of one of these confirmandi, you might want to clip this article and place it in their Confirmation card along with whatever encouraging words you may wish to share. Here goes…
Dear Young People: Confirmation is not Catholic graduation. You are not, by far, finished developing, learning and growing as a Catholic Christian. You, dear one, are just beginning your journey of faith as an adult in the church. As the years pass and you grow and mature in your life, so too will your faith.
Up until confirmation you had a team of adults to help you grow in your faith including: your parents (as first catechists), your priest and other religious, your parish family and your Catholic family. Your team members did their level best to help teach you about the faith, inspire you to follow the example of Jesus, and enkindle in you a love for God. In confirmation you complete the sacraments of initiation that were first begun with your Baptism.
Let’s talk about that word “initiation” for a minute. If you plan on joining a fraternity of sorority at college you become a full member after you have gone through a period on initiation. Civic and religious organizations have initiations too. It is a way of setting aside time to learn about the very organization you intend to join.
Who was the founder? What are the requirements to remain a member in good standing? What is the purpose of the organization? Are there dues? What purpose does the organization serve? Is it philanthropic? Educational? Social? Once you have learned about the history, structure and function of the organization during initiation one can make an assessment as to whether or not the organization fits your needs.
Confirmation is in many ways the same except our period of initiation lasts from the time you are Baptized until the time you are Confirmed. All that time in between is your Catholic initiation. During your Catholic initiation you learn about our founder, Jesus Christ; learn about what it means to be a fully functioning member of the Church; and, discover the rich gift of the Sacramental life of the Church.
Along the way you experience other rites of initiation such as First Eucharist and penance. These are sacramental building blocks that help you develop as a person of faith and as a practicing Catholic.
By your consent in being confirmed, you are completing what your parents began for you in baptism. You are telling the church that you are ready to fully participate in the life of the church as an adult. Congratulations, you are now in the position to own your faith. You are primarily responsible for your continued spiritual development. Fear not, you will not have to undertake this responsibility alone. In your journey of faith there will be many people who walk with you, challenge you and encourage you to keep focused on God’s will and his ways.
And remember, just as it took years for you to complete the initiation phase of your spiritual development it will take many years to grow into your faith as an adult. Keep in mind that God will meet along the way and love you right where you are. May you always walk with confidence of his great love for you.
(Fran Lavelle is Director of the Department of Faith Formation.)

Intersection of faith, salvation and action

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Reflections on life
By Father Jerome LeDoux, SVD
“Why me?” is the oft-repeated query when dark, painful times descend upon us hapless human beings. “What have I done to deserve this?” is another familiar way of asking the same question. One can say that there are three stages of belief in God, of which the third is often the most difficult for perhaps most people.
Blaise Pascal’s wager tackles the first stage of belief in God. In summary of a lengthy philosophical dissertation, the wager states:
1. If you believe in God and God does exist, you will be rewarded with eternal life in heaven: thus an infinite gain.
2. If you do not believe in God and God does exist, you will be condemned to live in hell forever: thus an infinite loss.
3. If you believe in God and God does not exist, you will not be rewarded: thus a finite loss.
4. If you do not believe in God and God does not exist, you will not be rewarded, but you have lived your own life: thus a finite gain.
Criticisms of the wager strike me as being pedantic and cerebral instead of simple and down-to-earth. Critics object that the wager presupposes many things such as an immortal soul and a Judaeo/Christian-based notion of God that affirms the faith of believers rather than converts non-believers, since it posits one God to believe in, thereby excluding another god or gods that people may believe in. But Pascal was not militating for Christian belief, but rather for the raw belief in God that one living in the totally isolated world of an undiscovered jungle might have.
Therefore, even though Pascal speaks of God in the singular, it seems that he does not want his wager to exclude polytheists, those who believe in multiple gods. In fact, the Church includes polytheists and everyone else in its statement on the will of God that all people be saved, “Facienti quod in se est, Deus non denegat gratiam.”
Translated roughly in the plural, “God does not deny grace to those who do what they are capable of doing.” That means, “those who follow the light of reason.”
Thus, aborigines in the deepest jungles, who have had no contact with any people, the Bible or any knowledge beyond the stone age, will be saved – given the grace of God – if they believe and do what is in their understanding to believe and do, even if that understanding is deficient as to the true nature of God. The other way of saying it is that God does not condemn us because of invincible ignorance; that is, ignorance for which we are not responsible and cannot do anything about. The stipulation is that those aborigines are willing to accept whatever God wants.
“Whatever God wants” makes everything implicit in the generic belief in God that knows no details about God or religion. An aborigine or anyone who knows nothing about all the knowledge, science, writings and other media and marvels of the modern world may have a somewhat fuzzy idea of a Supreme Being or may find deities in the sun, moon, oceans, mountains or universe. Nonetheless, if such a person submits herself/himself to the will of the Creator, everything falls into place.
Thus, baptism, a condition sine qua non of salvation, is included in the will of the Creator embraced by the generic believer. Such baptism is known as baptism of desire. Ditto for the implicit acceptance of Jesus Christ, without whom there is no salvation. Implicit in accepting what God wants is, “If I but knew Jesus, I would embrace him and all his teachings.” The same goes for acceptance of God’s Church.
So, unconditional belief in God and the acceptance of God’s will cover all our spiritual needs, no matter how little we have heard or read about them. Still, it is not enough to believe in God, Jesus and their Holy Spirit. James 2:19 warns us, “You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe that and tremble.”
It is the third part of faith that is so difficult, because it challenges us and our petty agendas, faults, sins, doubts, pains, grief, deprivations, disappointments and failures. Enter Thomas, Didymus, the one of little faith, who had to see and touch the nail prints in the hands and Jesus and the lance scar in his side. He was not unlike Peter, who denied Jesus thrice, and all the other apostles who fled before the ferocity of the Roman soldiers on Good Friday. (John managed to sneak back later.)
Together with the other apostles – and everyone else except the three steadfast Marys – Thomas was numb when confronted with the reality that Jesus had risen from the dead. It had to be a ghost, not flesh and blood! Actually, they were in a tailspin, cowering for fear of the Jews until the rending event of Pentecost.
Resurrection through Jesus – that final prerequisite of faith and salvation – will carry us through all doubt, fear, anxiety, pain, grief, depression and failure.
(Father Jerome LeDoux, SVD, is pastor of Our Mother of Mercy Parish in Fort Worth, Texas. He has written “Reflections on Life since 1969.)

Who am I to judge?

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IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Perhaps the single, most-often quoted line from Pope Francis is his response to a question he was asked vis-à-vis the morality of a particularly-dicey issue. His infamous-famous reply: Who am I to judge?
Although this remark is often assumed to be flighty and less-than-serious; it is, in fact, on pretty safe ground. Jesus, it seems, says basically the same thing. For example, in his conversation with Nicodemus in John’s Gospel, he, in essence, says: I judge no one.
If the Gospel of John is to be believed, then Jesus judges no one. God judges no one. But that needs to be put into context. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t any moral judgments and that our actions are indifferent to moral scrutiny. There is judgment; except it doesn’t work the way it is fantasized inside the popular mind. According to what Jesus tells us in John’s Gospel, judgment works this way:
God’s light, God’s truth, and God’s spirit come into the world. We then judge ourselves according to how we live in the face of them: God’s light has come into the world, but we can choose to live in darkness.  That’s our decision, our judgment. God’s truth has been revealed, but we can choose to live in falsehood, in lies.
That’s our decision, our judgment to make. And God’s spirit has come into the world, but we can prefer to live outside that spirit, in another spirit. That too is our decision, our judgment. God judges no one. We judge ourselves. Hence we can also say that God condemns no one, though we can choose to condemn ourselves. And God punishes no one, but we can choose to punish ourselves.
Negative moral judgment is self-inflicted. Perhaps this seems abstract, but it is not. We know this existentially, we feel the brand of our own actions inside us. To use just one example:  How we judge ourselves by the Holy Spirit.
God’s spirit, the Holy Spirit, is not something so abstract and slippery that it cannot be pinned down. St. Paul, in the Epistle to the Galatians, describes the Holy Spirit in terms so clear that they can only be rendered abstract and ambiguous by some self-serving rationalization.
So as to make things clear he sets up a contrast by first telling us what the Holy Spirit is not. The spirit of God, he tells us is not the spirit of self-indulgence, sexual vice, jealousy, rivalry, antagonism, bad temper, quarrels, drunkenness or factionalism. Anytime we are cultivating these qualities inside of our lives, we should not delude ourselves into thinking we are living in God’s spirit, no matter how frequent, sincere or pious is our religious practice. The Holy Spirit, he tells us, is the spirit of charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and chastity. Only when we are living inside of these virtues are we living inside God’s spirit.
So then, this is how judgment happens: God’s spirit has been revealed. We can choose to live inside the virtues of that spirit or we can choose to live instead inside their opposites. One choice leads to a life with God, the other leads away from God. And that choice is ours to make; it doesn’t come from the outside. We judge ourselves. God judges no one. God doesn’t need to.
When we view things inside this perspective it also clarifies a number of misunderstandings that cause confusion inside the minds of believers as well as inside the minds of their critics. How often, for instance, do we hear this criticism: If God is all-good, all-loving and all-merciful, how can God condemn someone to hell for all eternity? A valid question, though not a particularly reflective one.  Why? Because God judges no one; God punishes no one.
God condemns no one to hell. We do these things to ourselves: We judge ourselves, we punish ourselves and we put ourselves in various forms of hell whenever we do choose not to live in the light, the truth and inside God’s spirit. And that judgment is self-inflicted, that punishment is self-inflicted and those fires of hell are self-inflicted.
There are a number of lessons in this. First, as we have just seen, the fact that God judges no one, helps clarify our theodicy, that is, it helps deflate all those misunderstandings surrounding God’s mercy and the accusation that an all-merciful God can condemn someone to eternal hellfire. Beyond this, it is a strong challenge to us to be less judgmental in our lives, to let the wheat and the darnel sort themselves out over time, to let light itself judge darkness, to let truth itself judge falsehood and to, like Pope Francis, be less quick to offer judgments in God’s name and more prone to say: “Who am I to judge?”
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.)

Trio of spiritual giants offer inspiration

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By Bishop Joseph Kopacz
During 2015 we are marking anniversaries of life’s beginnings and endings of three significant Christians and Americans whose legacy will endure for generations to come. These outstanding citizens in hope of the Kingdom are Sister Thea Bowman, Thomas Merton, and Abraham Lincoln. Sister Thea succumbed to cancer 25 years ago; Thomas Merton, born one hundred years ago, died unexpectedly in Bangkok, Thailand, by accidental electrocution in 1968, and Abraham Lincoln passed at the hand of an assassin’s bullet 150 years ago. The lives of all three were cut short but their words and their deeds are likely to inspire for as long as people of good will and transcendent faith search for meaning in their lives.
A series of local events have marked the 25th anniversary of Sister Thea’s death, and there are many alive today who walked and served with her in the Diocese of Jackson. Recently “Thea’s Turn” was staged at Madison St. Joseph School, and the brilliance of the presentation captured the ordinariness of the young Bertha and the saintliness and historic virtue of Thea, the passionate religious. Her little light shone brightly during this and other commemorative events held locally and in many settings throughout our region and nation. In 1987, a few years before here death, Sister Thea appeared on 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace. She inspired him and many viewers with the following.
“I think the difference between me and some people is that I’m content to do my little bit. Sometimes people think they have to do big things in order to make change. But if each one would light a candle we’d have a tremendous light.”
Many of the Christian faith, especially in the Catholic Church, but also throughout the inter-faith world and among people of no religious faith, are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk who was passionately committed to a life of solitude and social justice on the world stage. Out of solitude as a monk in Gethsemane, Kentucky, he wrote prodigiously as an author (more than 70 books), a poet and a letter writer, corresponding with people in all walks of life from all corners of the globe. His way of life as a monk, combined with his prophetic world view on issues of justice and peace, and his personal letters in response to all who wrote to him, proclaimed to the world what he believed, that “We are already One.” This vision for humanity resounds in the following quotation from his works.
“What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but also disastrous.”
Abraham Lincoln was the determined public servant who sought the highest office in the land at the time when the nation was on the brink of Civil War. He became, in life and in death, the symbol of its blood soaked struggle for unity as the 16th president, the first in a line of four assassinated presidents. Throughout his adult life he experienced enormous setbacks, including a failed business, the death of his son, a nervous breakdown, election defeats for the State Legislature of Illinois, the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Senate, as well as nomination for the Vice Presidency. He finally achieved electoral success as the President of the United States, and the rest is history. He was passionately committed to the preservation of the Union as he proclaimed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in the aftermath of that brutal battle. We recall a portion of his address.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal… It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work, which they who fought here, have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Whenever we probe more deeply into the lives of people we consider worthy of honor and emulation we discover that their lives were not without struggle, suffering and sacrifice. Let us not forget during this Easter Season to look no further than the suffering and death of the Lord on the cross, and his ultimate triumph in the resurrection. In earthly terms, Jesus the Nazarene was put to death at a much younger age than Sister Thea, Brother Thomas, and President Abraham, but his sacrificial death raises up all who lay down their lives for the salvation and advancement of humanity.
Certainly, our three great souled men and woman would be the first to acknowledge that they were “earthen vessels” holding an eternal treasure as Saint Paul writes so poetically to the Corinthians. In a colloquial manner of speaking, they had “clay feet” but their vision for humanity was eternal. They understood the mandate of Jesus to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthew’s Gospel. “Let your light shine before all, so that others may see goodness in your acts, and give praise to your Heavenly Father.” Likewise, may the Lord inspire us during this season of Easter hope to reflect his light in our time upon the earth.

Recibiendo nuevo crecimiento en Semana Santa

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Por Obispo Joseph Kopacz
Desde el sepulcro vacío hasta cada círculo ilimitado del amor de Dios vivo en el corazón de los creyentes, es el milagro de la resurrección del Señor a nuestro alrededor. Este es el Cuerpo de Cristo, la iglesia, dos billones en un mundo de siete billones de personas. De una fascinante manera, el cuerpo del Señor en este mundo se compara al universo en el que nuestro planeta es una minúscula mota. La creación y la iglesia continúan creciendo a un ritmo acelerado.
La proclamación del evangelio se ha expandido y acelerado en los últimos decenios debido al repentino impacto de los medios sociales y del internet. Es más, la migración de decenas de millones de personas del campo a la ciudad en muchos países permite que el evangelio llegue a muchos más de ellos.
Sin embargo, el crecimiento en el Cuerpo de Cristo se produce constantemente en las comunidades cristianas de todo el mundo como la buena usanza antigua, de persona a persona y de familia a familia.
Durante la celebración de la Vigilia Pascual muchas de nuestras parroquias locales y en las parroquias de toda la Iglesia Católica universal, le dieron la bienvenida a los elegidos y a los candidatos a la plena comunión a través de los sacramentos de iniciación, el bautismo, la confirmación y la Comunión.
Cada una de las personas que se acercó y afirmó, “Creo en Jesucristo, crucificado y resucitado de entre los muertos”, se convirtió en una parte del creciente círculo del amor de Dios. En la liturgia de la Vigilia Pascual del Sábado Santo en la catedral, participamos en la alegría del Señor con tres nuevos bautizados y en general, 14 fueron iniciados plenamente en la comunidad parroquial.
Para muchos de los catecúmenos, los candidatos, sus padrinos y patrocinadores, estos son momentos de cambio en sus vida. Su respuesta a la llamada del Señor, la mayoría de las veces mediante el ejemplo y la invitación de amigos y familiares, es una fuente de renovación para nosotros, la tradicional familia católica. Su fervor y alegría pueden ser contagiosas para nosotros, renovando nuestro entusiasmo para vivir las Buenas Noticias.
Sin embargo, también sabemos por experiencia que la expansión de la iglesia también experimenta la pérdida de sus miembros. No es necesario mirar más allá de nuestros familiares, vecinos y amigos para ver que en muchos de los cuales la semilla y el don de la fe se plantaron se han marchitado por la falta de participación activa. Racionalmente, sabemos que esto es inevitable, sobre todo entre los católicos de cuna, pero cuando es alguien cercano a nosotros puede ser una inquietante y triste realidad.
Las tentaciones y los obstáculos que pueden destruir o frenar la semilla de la fe fueron identificados por Jesús en su parábola del sembrador y la semilla en los Evangelios de Mateo, Marcos y Lucas. La semilla que cae en el camino y es pisoteada representa el espíritu del mundo, con todos sus negocios y distracciones que agarran la semilla de la vida. O lo que es peor, como dice Jesús, es el espíritu del Maligno, que sin cesar está tratando de destruir el don de la fe.
La semilla que cae en suelo rocoso no es capaz de penetrar profundamente en la tierra y vive en precariedad, y cuando el sufrimiento o la persecución por causa del nombre de Jesús viene a llamar, el discípulo tambaleante a menudo se aleja. El sufrimiento o la persecución pueden fortalecer nuestra fe y nuestro amor por el Señor, especialmente en su cruz, pero esto requiere raíces profundas.
Además, la semilla que cae entre espinos tiene un gran riesgo porque a medida que el crecimiento ocurre el hostil entorno sofoca la planta. Jesús habló de estos obstáculos o amenazas como la ansiedad o el miedo, o la seducción de las riquezas y el placer que abundan en nuestro mundo material. Aparte de la fe y su compañero la moral, muchas personas se van a la deriva.
Sin embargo, la semilla cae en buena tierra, y podemos ver la cosecha de 30, o 60, o el ciento por uno. Esta es una gran retribución por el tiempo que invertimos porque es la obra del Señor que no puede ser superada en generosidad. Esta es la sangre y el agua que brotó de su costado en la cruz, representados en la imagen de la Divina Misericordia fluyendo del lado de Cristo, que nosotros conocemos como la visión comunicada a la Hermana Faustina.
En la víspera del Domingo de la Divina Misericordia, el Papa Francisco declaró el Año Santo de la Misericordia que comenzará a finales de este año, un año de gracia del Señor, que abre la puerta al perdón y a la reconciliación en nuestras vidas. A medida que avanzamos en el 2015, como una iglesia esta será nuestra oración, y esta será nuestra esperanza en preparación para el Año Santo de la Misericordia.
La sabiduría detrás del anuncio del papa es transparente. Él no está solamente rogando ardientemente por la renovación de la iglesia en todo el mundo a la luz de la muerte y resurrección del Señor, sino que también nos está inspirando a ser instrumentos de la Divina Misericordia de Dios por los perdidos y alejados. Jesucristo no tiene otro cuerpo ahora pero el de nosotros, y cuando el Señor sopló el don del Espíritu Santo sobre los Apóstoles en la primera Pascua y los envió al mundo en su nombre, él hace lo mismo por nosotros. “Como el Padre me ha enviado, así también los envío yo”. Recuerden que en la Última Cena, Jesús reveló el contenido de su mandato con la Eucaristía y el lavado de los pies: “Haced esto en memoria mía”, y “como yo lo he hecho, así lo deben hacer”.
Estas imágenes han sido marcadas en nuestra conciencia como cristianos católicos, y cada vez que las ponemos en práctica abrimos las puertas a lo sagrado, y a la misericordia divina. La evangelización fluye de la misericordia de Dios buscando a todas las personas.
El mensaje del Evangelio se está expandiendo y acelerando en todo el mundo, pero no está en piloto automático. La iglesia y sus miembros están envueltos en el plan de salvación de Dios, y es un constante trabajo de amor a fin de que el Reino de Dios, reino de la vida, de la justicia y la paz puedan ser una mayor realidad para todas las personas. Jesús dijo que fuéramos a todas las naciones, y el Papa Francisco, el sucesor de San Pedro, nos inspira a ir hacia aquellos que están en los márgenes, o que hemos marginado, con el fin de bendecir a cada persona con la misericordia y la paz de Dios. El mundo nunca puede aplastar, quemar o ahogar el don de la Misericordia Divina.
En efecto, el Señor ha resucitado del sepulcro, regocijémonos y alegrémonos, Aleluya..

Recibiendo nuevo crecimiento en Semana Santa

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Por Obispo Joseph Kopacz
Desde el sepulcro vacío hasta cada círculo ilimitado del amor de Dios vivo en el corazón de los creyentes, es el milagro de la resurrección del Señor a nuestro alrededor. Este es el Cuerpo de Cristo, la iglesia, dos billones en un mundo de siete billones de personas. De una fascinante manera, el cuerpo del Señor en este mundo se compara al universo en el que nuestro planeta es una minúscula mota. La creación y la iglesia continúan creciendo a un ritmo acelerado.
La proclamación del evangelio se ha expandido y acelerado en los últimos decenios debido al repentino impacto de los medios sociales y del internet (www). Es más, la migración de decenas de millones de personas del campo a la ciudad en muchos países permite que el evangelio llegue a muchos más de ellos.
Sin embargo, el crecimiento en el Cuerpo de Cristo se produce constantemente en las comunidades cristianas de todo el mundo como la buena usanza antigua, de persona a persona y de familia a familia.
Durante la celebración de la Vigilia Pascual  muchas de nuestras parroquias locales y en las parroquias de toda la Iglesia Católica universal, le dieron la bienvenida a los elegidos y a los candidatos a la plena comunión a través de los sacramentos de iniciación, el bautismo, la confirmación y la Comunión.
Cada una de las personas que se acercó y afirmó, “Creo en Jesucristo, crucificado y resucitado de entre los muertos”, se convirtió en una parte del creciente círculo de amor de Dios. En la liturgia de la Vigilia Pascual del Sábado Santo en la catedral, participamos en la alegría del Señor con tres nuevos bautizados y en general, 14 fueron iniciados plenamente en la comunidad parroquial.
Para muchos de los catecúmenos, los candidatos, sus padrinos y patrocinadores, estos son momentos de cambio en sus vida. Su respuesta a la llamada del Señor, la mayoría de las veces mediante el ejemplo y la invitación de amigos y familiares, es una fuente de renovación para nosotros, la tradicional familia católica. Su fervor y alegría pueden ser contagiosas para nosotros, renovando nuestro entusiasmo para vivir las Buenas Noticias.
Sin embargo, también sabemos por experiencia que la expansión de la iglesia también experimenta la pérdida de sus miembros. No es necesario mirar más allá de nuestros familiares, vecinos y amigos para ver que en muchos de los cuales la semilla y el don de la fe se plantaron se han marchitado por la falta de participación activa. Racionalmente, sabemos que esto es inevitable, sobre todo entre los católicos de cuna, pero cuando es alguien cercano a nosotros puede ser una inquietante y triste realidad.
Las tentaciones y los obstáculos que pueden destruir o frenar la semilla de la fe fueron identificados por Jesús en su parábola del sembrador y la semilla en los Evangelios de Mateo, Marcos y Lucas. La semilla que cae en el camino y es pisoteada representa el espíritu del mundo, con todos sus negocios y distracciones que agarran la semilla de la vida. O lo que es peor, como dice Jesús, es el espíritu del Maligno, que sin cesar está tratando de destruir el don de la fe.
La semilla que cae en suelo rocoso no es capaz de penetrar profundamente en la tierra y vive en precariedad, y cuando el sufrimiento o la persecución por causa del nombre de Jesús viene a llamar, el discípulo tambaleante a menudo se aleja. El sufrimiento o la persecución pueden fortalecer nuestra fe y nuestro amor por el Señor, especialmente en su cruz, pero esto requiere raíces profundas.
Además, la semilla que cae entre espinos tiene un gran riesgo porque a medida que el crecimiento ocurre el hostil entorno sofoca la planta. Jesús habló de estos obstáculos o amenazas como la ansiedad o el miedo, o la seducción de las riquezas y el placer que abundan en nuestro mundo material. Aparte de la fe y su compañero la moral, muchas personas se van a la deriva.
Sin embargo, la semilla cae en buena tierra, y podemos ver la cosecha de 30, o 60, o el ciento por uno. Esta es una gran retribución por el tiempo que invertimos porque es la obra del Señor que no puede ser superada en generosidad. Esta es la sangre y el agua que brotó de su costado en la cruz, representados en la imagen de la Divina Misericordia fluyendo del lado de Cristo, que nosotros conocemos como la visión comunicada a la Hermana Faustina.
En la víspera del Domingo de la Divina Misericordia, el Papa Francisco declaró el Año Santo de la Misericordia que comenzará a finales de este año, un año de gracia del Señor, que abre la puerta al perdón y a la reconciliación en nuestras vidas. A medida que avanzamos en el 2015, como una iglesia ésta será nuestra oración, y esta será nuestra esperanza en preparación para el Año Santo de la Misericordia.
La sabiduría detrás del anuncio del papa es transparente. Él no está solamente rogando ardientemente por la renovación de la iglesia en todo el mundo a la luz de la muerte y resurrección del Señor, sino que también nos está inspirando a ser instrumentos de la Divina Misericordia de Dios por los perdidos y alejados.
Jesucristo no tiene otro cuerpo ahora pero el de nosotros, y cuando el Señor sopló el don del Espíritu Santo sobre los Apóstoles en la primera Pascua y los envió al mundo en su nombre, él hace lo mismo por nosotros. “Como el Padre me ha enviado, así también los envío yo”. Recuerden que en la Última Cena, Jesús reveló el contenido de su mandato con la Eucaristía y el lavado de los pies: “Haced esto en memoria mía”, y “como yo lo he hecho, así lo deben hacer”.
Estas imágenes han sido marcadas en nuestra conciencia como cristianos católicos, y cada vez que las ponemos en práctica abrimos las puertas a lo sagrado, y a la misericordia divina. La evangelización fluye de la misericordia de Dios buscando a todas las personas.
El mensaje del Evangelio se está expandiendo y acelerando en todo el mundo, pero no está en piloto automático. La iglesia y sus miembros están envueltos en el plan de salvación de Dios, y es un constante trabajo de amor a fin de que el Reino de Dios, reino de la vida, de la justicia y la paz puedan ser una mayor realidad para todas las personas. Jesús dijo que fuéramos a todas las naciones, y el Papa Francisco, el sucesor de San Pedro, nos inspira a ir hacia aquellos que están en los márgenes de la sociedad, o que hemos marginado, con el fin de bendecir a cada persona con la misericordia y la paz de Dios. El mundo nunca puede aplastar, quemar o ahogar el don de la Misericordia Divina.
En efecto, el Señor ha resucitado del sepulcro, regocijémonos y alegrémonos, Aleluya.

Welcoming new growth at Easter

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By Bishop Joseph Kopacz
From the empty tomb to the ever widening circle of God’s love alive in the hearts of believers, the miracle of the Lord’s resurrection is all around us. This is the Body of Christ, the Church, two billion in a world of 7 billion people. In a spellbinding way the Lord’s body in this world parallels the universe in which our planet is a miniscule speck. Creation and the church continue to expand at an accelerating pace.
The proclamation of the gospel has expanded and accelerated in recent decades due to the sudden far reaching impact of social media and the World Wide Web.  Moreover, the migration of tens of millions of people from the countryside to the city in many countries allows the gospel to reach so many more.
Yet, growth in the Body of Christ steadily occurs the good old fashioned way, person-by-person, family-by-family, in Christian communities throughout the world. Many of our local parishes, and parishes everywhere in the universal Catholic Church, welcomed the elect and the candidates into full communion through the sacraments of initiation, Baptism, Confirmation, and Communion during the Easter Vigil celebration.
Every person who stepped forward to say, I believe in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, became a part of the ever widening circle of God’s love. At the Holy Saturday Easter Vigil liturgy at the Cathedral, we shared in the joy of the Lord with three newly baptized, and overall, 14 were fully initiated into the parish community.
These are life-changing moments for many of the catechumens and candidates, and their godparents and sponsors. Their response to the Lord’s call, most often through the example and invitation of friends and family, is a source of renewal for us, the traditional Catholic family. Their zeal and joy can be infectious for us, renewing our enthusiasm for living the Good News.
However, we also know from experience that the ever-expanding church also experiences the attrition of its members. It is not necessary to look beyond our family, neighbors and friends to see that many in whom the seed and gift of faith were planted have withered for lack of active participation.
Rationally, we know that this is inevitable, especially among cradle Catholics, but when it is someone close to us it can be a troubling and sad reality.
The temptations and obstacles that can destroy or stunt the seeds of faith were identified by Jesus in his parable of the Sower and the Seed in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
The seed that falls on the path and gets trampled represents the spirit of the world with all of its business and distractions that snatch the seed of life away. Or worse, as Jesus says, it is the spirit of the Evil One who relentlessly is seeking to destroy the gift of faith. The seed that falls on rocky ground is not capable of penetrating deeply into the soil and lives in precariousness so that when suffering or persecution for the sake of the name of Jesus comes knocking, the shaky disciple often falls away. Suffering or persecution can strengthen our faith and love for the Lord, especially in his Cross, but this requires deep roots.
In addition, the seed that falls among thorns is at great risk because as the growth occurs the hostile environment chokes the plant.  Jesus spoke of these obstacles or threats as anxiety or fear, or the lure of riches and pleasure that abound in our material world. Apart from faith and its companion morality, many people are set adrift.
Yet, the seed does fall upon good ground, and we see the harvest of 30, or 60, or a hundredfold. This is a great return for the time we invest because it is the work of the Lord who cannot be outdone in generosity. This is the blood and water that flowed from his side on the Cross, portrayed in the image of Divine Mercy flowing from the side of Christ which we know as the vision communicated to Sister Faustina.
On the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope Francis declared a Holy Year of Mercy to begin later this year, a year of favor from the Lord which opens the door to forgiveness and reconciliation in our lives. As we move deeper into 2015, as a Church this will be our prayer, and this will be our hope in preparation for the Holy Year of Mercy.
The wisdom behind the Pope’s announcement is transparent. He is not only ardently praying for the renewal of the Church throughout the world in light of the Lord’s death and resurrection, but he is also inspiring us to be instruments of God’s Divine Mercy for the lost and fallen away.
Jesus Christ has no body now but ours, and as the Lord bequeathed the gift of the Holy Spirit to his Apostles on the first Easter and sent them into the world in His name, he does the same for us. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Recall at the Last Supper, Jesus revealed the substance of his mandate with the Eucharist and the washing of feet: “Do this in memory of me,” and “as I have done, so you must do.” These images have been branded into our consciousness as Catholic Christians, and whenever we put them into practice we open the doors to the sacred, and to divine mercy. Evangelization flows out of the mercy of God seeking all people.
The Gospel message is expanding and accelerating throughout the world, but it is not on automatic pilot. The Church and her members are caught up in God’s plan of salvation, and it is a steady labor of love in order that the Kingdom of God, a realm of life, justice, and peace can be a greater reality for all people.
Jesus said to go out to all the nations, and Pope Francis, the successor of Saint Peter, inspires us to go to those who are on the margins, or whom we have marginalized, in order to bless every person with God’s mercy and peace. The world can never trample, scorch or choke the gift of Divine Mercy.
Indeed, the Lord is risen from the tomb, let us rejoice and be glad, Alleluia.

Prisoners suffer when prisons profit

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Millennial Reflections
By Father Jeremy Tobin, OPraem
On Friday, March 20, Governor Phil Bryant’s Task Force on Prison Procurement held a hearing at the Woolfolk Building in Jackson. Among its members was Constance Slaughter Harvey, the first African-American woman to get a law degree from Ole Miss. She is a member of Forest St. Michael Parish.
She filed the suit against the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) demanding reform at Parchman in July 1971, when it was notorious for inhumane conditions. She sees the same conditions at Walnut Grove. Since the hearing at the Woolfolk Building she visited Walnut Grove and said, “The conditions have changed but there remains a long way to go to humanize this institution.”
The Chris Epps scandal, in which former prison commissioner Chris Epps admitted to benefitting from a wide-ranging bribery scheme, caused a group of concerned clergy, across denominational lines to come together as Clergy for Prison Reform (CPR). The recent column by Rev. C. J. Rhodes, representing CPR and Bishop Joseph Kopacz’ column stating the Catholic bishops position around private for profit prisons, and the full page piece in the following issue of Mississippi Catholic by editor Maureen Smith, tell us that this is a “front burner issue.”
The issue of private for profit prisons making money and dividends for shareholders from the misfortune of a segment of the population is being contested. To make a profit these companies sign agreements with state and federal governments to efficiently run prisons, and save the governing entities money, with the promise to fill 90 percent or better bed space. Further, these companies have powerful state and national lobbies pushing for new laws that create more crimes in order to lock up more people in their prisons. The private prison lobby is behind the harshest anti-immigrant legislation being pushed in several state houses.
We, of CPR, say that this is immoral.
Private prisons are run on the cheap. Their goal is profit, period. This puts staff and inmates at serious risk. Any way they can cut corners, they do. Insufficient, or no programs, poor quality of food, low pay for staff and long hours are recipes for corruption, unrest and rioting.
MDOC is seeking to terminate the consent decree to reform Walnut Grove. I represented CPR during the hearings before Judge Carleton Reeves on April 1-2. A senior vice-president of MTC, Management and Training Corp, the Utah based company that runs Walnut Grove and East Mississippi Correctional Facility, Marjorie Brown, when asked by SPLC attorney Jody Owens if she has stock in MTC, replied “Yes.” When further asked if more inmates are housed do her dividends go up based on increased profit, she agreed.
As the testimony proceeded, Brown, with more than 30 years in corrections, still maintained that Walnut Grove could safely handle an increased population, despite their number going down to 900 plus as a result of two major riots in less than a year. From a pure profit driven business sense her reply is expected, despite the egregious mismanagement that now involves the court.
These hearings illustrate all that is bad with private for profit prisons. Reduction in crime is bad for business. Conditions in these prisons create a black market for contraband of every kind. Steve Martin, the court appointed monitor at Walnut Grove said, “It can take years to institutionalize the systemic changes needed to show long term success.”
Those of us who oppose private for profit prisons on moral grounds say this is a systemic evil impacting the poor and marginalized on several levels. To list a few: legislation to invent more crimes, anti-immigrant legislation that targets and discriminates largely Hispanics, targeting and over-policing in African-American communities, and the mass incarceration of black men, that creates a “new Jim Crow.”
The number of disenfranchised ex-offenders are rivaling conditions from years past. If 40 percent of a community are disenfranchised ex-offenders, that is 40 percent of a community unable to exercise the right to vote. For profit prisons make money out of poverty and discrimination.
(Father Jeremy Tobin, O.Praem, lives at the Priory of St. Moses the Black, Jackson.)