Palm Sunday Cathedral St. Peter, 2017
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Category Archives: Diocesan News
Good Friday at Jackson St. Therese, 2017
Chrism Mass St. Peter Cathedral April 11, 2017
Greenville welcomes Wies as new principal
GREENVILLE – St. Joseph Catholic School is pleased to announce the appointment of Stephen Wies of Cleveland, Miss., as principal of the K3-12 school, effective July 1.
“Steve Wies is a great family man and a good Catholic, faithful to both his family and his church community,” said Father Bill Henry, pastor of St. Joseph Parish. “I am impressed with his love for education and his leadership abilities. He will be a principal that will lead by example, and will be someone our students can emulate in faith and in their academic pursuits.”
This decision caps a months-long search process that began when Paul Artman announced his intention to retire after 12 years as both teacher and principal of St. Joseph School, and Michelle Gardiner announced her retirement as Our Lady of Lourdes (OLOL) principal after nine years at the helm and 12 years at OLOL.
The St. Joseph School advisory council thanked Principals Artman and Gardiner for their many years of Service to St. Joseph Catholic Schools. Members remain most grateful for their leadership and contributions.
“Both Paul and Michelle have been a blessing and an asset to Catholic education for many years,” said Catherine Cook, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Jackson. “I am grateful for their willingness to share their gifts with us and I am thrilled to welcome Steve Wies to the Catholic school family in the diocese,” added Cook.
A product of Catholic schools in Missouri, Wies comes to St. Joseph from Cleveland High School. Since 2010, Wies has served as Cleveland’s athletic director and math teacher, as well as baseball and soccer coach.
He has an exemplary track record at Cleveland High School, managing the day-to-day operations of 21 high school and eight junior high programs, handling the budgeting, scheduling, maintenance, inventory, security and overall needs of the school’s athletic programs.
Wies says his philosophy of education includes five pillars. “Set high expectations for all involved in the educational process. Establish clear policies and procedures with rewards and consequences. Be transparent. Be fair and consistent. Seek out the good in people, show appreciation and acknowledge their achievements.”
“I know youngsters are very impressionable, so I intend to impress upon them a Catholic foundation that will carry them into a productive adulthood life,” he says.
Wies earned his associate’s degree at St. Louis Community College, his bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Delta State University, and his master’s degree in educational administration from Delta State University. He earned his Mississippi Class AA Administrator’s License in 2005. He is an active member of Cleveland Our Lady of Victories Parish.
Wies and his wife, Selena, have been married for 27 years and are the parents of two daughters, Anna (23) and Emily (20).
Camden marks 10th anniversary with music, liturgy
CAMDEN – On Sunday, March 26, members of Sacred Heart Parish gathered to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the parish. Former pastor Father Mike Barth, ST, now the director of the Shrine of St. Joseph in Stirling, New Jersey, returned for the occasion. Here is an excerpt from his homily on that joyful day.
Bishop Kopacz – thank you for your presence … To Father Raul, Pastor, Mayor Bolden, Judges Chinn and Griffin, Supervisor Griffin, Sister Mary Ann, Sister. Donna, Sister Joyce, Father Antone, Brother Senan and other clergy and religious women and men; Sacred Heart Parish Council members and good people of Sacred Heart, Holy Child Jesus and the Camden community, I am most honored and happy to be here with you as we celebrate together the 10th anniversary of this church and parish structure! God is indeed good! Amen? It’s been a minute, as they say, since I have stood here before you! The Lord has had me on a journey over the last few years and I’ve had to pack my suitcase more than once but it’s all good and it’s all in His hands – I’m just glad to be here with you today.
I think it helpful to put this 10th anniversary, that we celebrate this morning, into a larger context. This year, 2017, is the 74th anniversary of the Missionary Servant’s ministry among you at Sacred Heart and the 155th year, give or take a few, that the Catholic Church has been present in this area of Camden and Sulphur Springs, Mississippi. All we do here this morning and all we celebrate is in God’s good plan – a plan that covers a whole lot of years, not just 10, a plan that shows us that we serve a mighty good God, a God who is always looking out for us and who is ever present to us – even when we don’t realize it! Let’s give God some praise this morning!
This building, by itself, made of brick, steel, glass, sheetrock and concrete, is not all that significant. What makes it special however, and the reason we celebrate today, is what it signifies or what it stands for – what it points to. First and foremost, it points to God and is meant to help us recognize each time we enter and gather to worship the grandeur, beauty and awesomeness of God. It signifies our desire to give our best to God – to move us through wood, glass and art to see the beauty of the Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It signifies or points to commitment – the commitment of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity to this community and your commitment to your parish, your faith community. It signifies a long- awaited dream to have a parish, a predominately African American Catholic Parish, built on these sacred grounds. It signifies the faith of a people – a people whose history has too often been marked by struggle, misunderstanding and racial discrimination – yet a people with a faith so strong, a faith that was always not a “hope so faith but a know so faith”, that even in the midst of all that struggle could stand and praise God day after day, lift up voices in praise, clap hands in glory and know that soon and very soon God would set things right, that the rain of justice would come down and that an awesome God would deliver them. Yes, my brothers and sisters, this building, this sanctuary is special because when we gather here, when we call on the name of Jesus, when we break the Eucharistic bread and share the cup, when we proclaim the Word of God, when we pour out hearts filled with joy and sorrow, with doubt and confusion – Jesus is present – not in brick and glass but in the living stones of each and every person gathered. Are you with me?
A church is not a church without people, a church is not a church without the faith of a people, a church is just an empty shell without the living stones of the faithful. Never forget that you are the church, you are the sanctuary of God precious Spirit, wherever you are God is present. God is surely present here, especially in the Eucharist, but God is here so that we may be fed and strengthened, so that we may then go out and be the missionary disciples God calls us to be! So, we gather and celebrate, we give thanks, we ask God to remain with us, we summon the Sweet Holy Spirit to remain here with us and with this community for generations to come. May this building, this sanctuary, built of living stones, always be a place of celebration and nourishment now and forever. Amen.
Abbey Youth Fest returns
By Abbey Schuhmann
COVINGTON, La., – On Saturday, March 25, more than 300 teens and adult leaders from around the Diocese of Jackson traveled to St. Joseph Abbey and Seminary College in Covington, La., for the 2017 Abbey Youth Festival (AYF). The 16th annual festival fell on the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord and this year’s theme was “Be It Done Unto Me.”
The seminarians at St. Joseph Seminary College play a vital role in the production of AYF including our own, Andrew Bowden, Hayden Schmitt, and Tristan Stovall. The festival has grown over the years and now hosts around 250 groups from all across the south with more than 4,500 participants coming together each year for a day-long event to experience music, prayer, catechesis, fellowship and fun.
With the torrential rain and devastating floods that affected the Covington-area last spring, the 2016 festival was cancelled for the first time in its history. While this year’s forecast was not ideal for an outdoor event, accommodations were made and the program continued.
The teens and adults from our diocese remained optimistic and weathered the storm throughout the day determined to experience all the festival has to offer. The program featured keynote presentations from Katie Prejean McGrady, Stephanie Grey and David Calavitta. Dave Moore and The Josh Blakesley Band entertained the crowd with awesome music. Each speaker shared thoughts regarding the theme, “Be It Done Unto Me,” on how we all have a call to serve the Lord, how do we discern that call in our daily lives and how can we live as faithful sons and daughters of our Lord.
Participants have the opportunity throughout the day to visit different vendor booths including religious orders and communities from all around the country. Groups also have the opportunity to tour the beautiful Abbey church on campus. The event focuses on evangelization and faith formation through vocational discernment, prayer, and catechesis.
The entire event ends with Mass and candlelight adoration; often times the highlight of the event for most participants. This year the Mass was celebrated by Bishop Shelton J. Fabre of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux and the homilist was Father Joshua Johnson of the Diocese of Baton Rouge. Father Johnson challenged the teens to become fully alive in Jesus Christ. He gave witness to this through his own, personal vocation story as well as stories that he shared that have impacted him throughout the years.
He suggested the teens follow “The 5 W’s” in order to help them enter into a deeper relationship with Christ.1. When will you pray and spend time with the Lord? 2. Where will you pray? 3. What will you do? Read scripture, attend adoration, spend time with the Blessed Sacrament after mass – were just a few of his suggestions. 4. Who will be your accountability partner? 5. Why are you going to do this? To become fully alive in Christ.
It was no doubt a wet and soggy day for our group, however; the weather did not dampen our experience with Abbey Youth Festival 2017. This event is an excellent opportunity for our teens to see the bigger church and fellowship with other young Catholics. This was the 7th year for our diocese to sponsor a trip to the Abbey Youth Festival. Make plans to participate in the 2018 event scheduled for Saturday, March 17th!
(For more information visit www.abbeyyouthfest.com or contact Abbey Schuhmann in the Office of Youth Ministry – 601-949-6934 or Abbey.Schuhmann@jacksondiocese.org)
Ite ad Joseph – go to Joseph: patron inspires special devotion
By Mark Shoffner
GREENVILLE – On Monday March the 20, St. Joseph parish celebrated their patron with a joint school Mass, Litany to St. Joseph and the construction of a St. Joseph Altar. The celebration was the first of its kind in Greenville. I was able to coordinate and construct with the support of our priests and the administration and faculty at the school to really do something special for our patron.
Building altars to those we venerate is not an unusual thing in Catholic tradition. We have altars to our Blessed Mother and her various apparitions, our patron saints in our parishes and altars are constructed along eucharistic processions as places to stop and pray. The history of St. Joseph altars go back to the Middle Ages on the island of Sicily.
The island of Sicily was struck by a great drought that devastated the local crops. Fields became so barren that nothing new could be cultivated for many years. The only crop that would grow was the humble fava bean. This large bean had been previously grown only as livestock feed, now it was seemingly the sole source of nourishment for the island and its starving people and animals. Such terrible conditions lead the Sicilian people to pray fervently to St. Joseph, their patron, to deliver them from the famine. And deliver them, he did.
The rains returned, the crops flourished and the people, once at risk of starvation, now rejoiced at the blessings God had granted them. In order to show gratitude to St. Joseph for his fatherly help in their time of great need, the Sicilians constructed an altar filled with fresh fruit and vegetables that the rains had enabled them to grow.
Over time, this tradition grew to its current form: colorfully decorated altars with fava beans, elaborate cakes, traditional Italian cookies, fresh produce, as well as statues and images of St. Joseph, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus and notable Italian saints such as St. Lucy, St. Francis and St. Benedict. This tradition made its way to the United States when masses of Sicilian immigrants came through the port of New Orleans and today this devotion to St. Joseph is still very active, especially in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Traditionally, all the food on an altar is donated and then distributed to the poor, ensuring that the blessings St. Joseph wins for us are passed on to others.
The elementary and high school children learned and practiced special music from old hymnals in honor of St. Joseph and joyfully sang out during the Mass. The school was led in the recitation of the litany of St. Joseph by Father Bill Henry, pastor of St. Joseph, and SGA Vice President Carson Mansour.
The big reveal came when the children gathered in the cafetorium and were led in the blessing of the altar by Father Tom Mullally, SVD, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Greenville. He blessed the altar and the children with a shower of holy water. The children wrote prayer petitions to St. Joseph and received a cupcake after they toured the altar to view all its components. Surrounding the altar were nearly 2,000 cans of food which the children had collected to go to our local St. Vincent de Paul Society to help the disadvantaged in Greenville. Just like centuries ago, St. Joseph fed the hungry who prayed to him.
It was truly a sight to behold. This kind of celebration for our patron had never occurred in our parish and I was glad I was able to bring something I learned down in Louisiana back to the parish. Our lives as Catholics involve more than praying and going to Mass. Our Catholic faith is full of traditions big and small that extend into our communities and cultures as well as help us grasp and understand the faith. This tradition I’m sure has helped us locally to reach out to the Protector of the Church and our patron, St. Joseph.
(Mark Shoffner helps with Faith Formation at Greenville St. Joseph Parish)
Other Persons Are a Gift
Guest Column
By Sister Constance Veit, lsp
A few days ago I met a very little girl who made a big impression on me. Grace and her older brother Benedict suffer from a rare genetic disorder that has resulted in serious hearing impairment and limited physical growth. The two come to our home for the elderly each week with their mother to pray the rosary with our residents. Watching Grace and Benedict interact with the elderly, I was amazed by their maturity and graciousness. I almost felt that I was in the presence of angels – such was the radiance of these two beautiful little ones in the midst of our frail seniors.
In all likelihood, Grace and Benedict will never make an impact on the world scene, and yet I believe that they, and so many other little, hidden souls, make a huge difference in our world spiritually. This is what our Holy Father is suggesting by his Lenten message this year. The theme he has proposed for our 2017 journey through Lent is The Word Is a Gift. Other Persons Are a Gift.
Using the parable of Lazarus and the rich man from St. Luke’s Gospel, Pope Francis turns our attention to those whom we might usually ignore. He compares the anonymity of the rich man, who is never named in Scripture, with Lazarus, who appears with a specific name and a unique story. Lazarus “becomes a face, and as such, a gift, a priceless treasure, a human being whom God loves and cares for, despite his concrete condition as an outcast.”
The Holy Father continues, “Lazarus teaches us that other persons are a gift. A right relationship with people consists in gratefully recognizing their value.” Lent, he says, is a favorable season for recognizing the face of Christ in God’s little ones. “Each of us meets people like this every day,” says the pope. “Each life that we encounter is a gift deserving acceptance, respect and love. The word of God helps us to open our eyes to welcome and love life, especially when it is weak and vulnerable.”
This is what our foundress Saint Jeanne Jugan did so beautifully. Mindful of Christ’s promise that whatever we do to the least of his brothers and sisters we do to him, she opened her heart and her home definitively to the needy elderly of her day. She often counseled the young Little Sisters, “Never forget that the poor are Our Lord … When you will be near the poor give yourself wholeheartedly, for it is Jesus himself whom you care for in them.”
Jeanne Jugan looked upon each elderly person with the loving gaze of Christ and so she saw each one as a treasure worthy of reverence and loving care. She knew that despite outward appearances, each person to whom she offered hospitality was someone for whom Christ died and rose again; each one was someone worthy of the gift of her own life.
Pope Francis’ prayer this Lent is that the Holy Spirit will lead us “on a true journey of conversion, so that we can rediscover the gift of God’s word, be purified of the sin that blinds us, and serve Christ present in our brothers and sisters in need.” Let us pray for one another, he concluded, “so that by sharing in the victory of Christ, we may open our doors to the weak and the poor. Then we will be able to share to the full the joy of Easter.”
I thank God for my recent encounter with Grace and Benedict, for they opened my eyes anew to the beauty in each human person. My wish for you this Lent is that God lead might you to a similar life-changing encounter.
(Sister Constance Veit is the director of communications for the Little Sisters of the Poor.)
Pastoral Plan in practice – Embracing Diversity
Seminarians speak
By Deacon Nick Adam
The goals of the pastoral plan for the diocese are everywhere: embrace diversity, serve others, inspire disciples. They were formulated at more than a dozen listening sessions as Bishop Kopacz darted across dozens of counties on hundreds of Mississippi roads. Now they will be printed in bulletins, on prayer cards, in Mississippi Catholic, heck, they are even posted on bishop’s Twitter profile picture.
The best thing about the high profile reach of these goals is that the words start to sink into us and we begin to reflect on how we are doing with them without really having to think about it. The most challenging thing about these goals is that we now are called to put them into practice! I would like to take some time engaging each of these goals and offer reflections on pastoral situations that have shed light on these goals in my own ministry.
I had a wonderful, life-giving conversation recently with a friend about a very sensitive issue which led me to think about how we can embrace diversity in our diocese. The transgender movement is becoming more and more prevalent in our country and that means that priests, deacons, lay ecclesial ministers and parishioners will be confronted with this reality sooner or later.
The question has naturally arisen: how are we as a Church to deal with a person who believes that they were meant to be another sex? The answer, at one level, comes easily. We are Christians, and we were taught from an early age that we should accept and love everyone, always following Christ’s command to love one another as ourselves, and we should! We are also Catholic, however, and this means that we must affirm the inherit dignity of men and women as created in the image and likeness of God, and we cannot accept that God would be responsible for a case of “mistaken identity.”
In his Theology of the Body, John Paul II provides a beautiful and extensive reflection on the fact that our bodies literally tell a story about us. Man is literally made for woman and woman is literally made for man. In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve committed the original sin of trying to be like God. They did not realize that their destiny was not personally fulfilling all of their goals and all their desires, but the fulfillment of God’s design for them. God is the only being that is pure Love and pure Goodness, and so we always want to act in a way that is in accordance with God’s will for us.
Of course, this can mean that we run into difficulties, pain and suffering. Christ’s passion is proof that doing God’s will is not without hardship. But in this truth lies the beauty of our faith. Catholicism makes sense to me because it is the only faith that does not seek to mask or dull the pain that we all encounter in our lives, but it allows us to bring that pain to the cross and unite it to Jesus Christ.
So back to the conversation I had a few months ago about the transgender movement. My friend pleaded with me that every person deserves to be heard in the Church. They should not be skirted ‘round or whispered about just because they live their life in a different way, in short they deserve to be brought into the life of the parish. After all, these people would not show up at the Church if they did not want to be a part of it. Here my friend is right on! This is the heart of our Pastoral Plan. This is the essence of not only embracing diversity, but embracing a diverse diversity.
But we also disagreed on a few things. There are multiple studies that claim that reassignment surgery for those people who experience gender dysphoria is actually more psychologically harmful than helpful, but many times these arguments fall flat because they deny the very real feelings that men and women have regarding their own identity. I didn’t go that route with my friend, but where I really disagreed with him was when he denied the objective truth of our identity in God. God made us man and woman for a reason, and while it is true that in our broken world those identities can get skewed, this does not give us free reign to make ourselves our own god.
I would argue that a true embrace of diversity must be rooted in the Truth we affirm each and every Sunday. God is the creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, and we are not. This issue should not be something that we shy away from. We should embrace the diversity of our culture and enter into real conversations with people of varying opinions and welcome them into our faith communities. It is incontrovertible; however, that as baptized Catholics we do believe that there is objective truth out there, with a big-T! That Truth comes from God, and even if believing it causes us some suffering in this life, we know that there is a much greater goal than this life out there…Heaven!
(Deacon Nick Adam will serve a year at Jackson St. Richard Parish as he prepares for priestly ordination in 2018)
Bishop tours ecumenical pregnancy test center
By Gene Buglewicz
Bishop Joseph Kopacz, inspects hand-made infant blankets and caps in the Baby Boutique while visiting. Infant supplies are earned by clients who attend prenatal and parenting classes. Mothers can exchange points they earn for needed supplies in the Baby Boutique. Classes are given by volunteer staff at the Center. (Photo by Gene Buglewicz)
OXFORD – It isn’t often a Pregnancy Test Center hosts the bishop of the Diocese of Jackson, but Bishop Joseph Kopacz spent 90 minutes visiting with Rebecca Bishop, executive director of the Pregnancy Test Center of Oxford, two volunteer members of the center’s board of directors, Rosann Hudson and Louisa Arico, and volunteer consultant Marge Hinton. All three volunteers are members of St. John the Evangelist Parish.
Bishop Kopacz, invited by Knights of Columbus Council 10901, was able to schedule a visit to the Pregnancy Test Center before a scheduled meeting at St. John to outline the planning and implementation of the new mission, vision and diocesan priorities.
After listening to the mission of the Center and the emotional, physical and operational aspects of working with women who seek help there, Bishop Kopacz toured the facility, including the ultrasound clinic. Here the ultrasound technician can project a view of the unborn baby on a large screen for the mother and father and see the baby’s beating heart, face, fingers and toes to prove the tissue is truly a person. According to Ms. Bishop, this is the most crucial part of the counseling process. Overall, 70 percent of young parents will choose life for their baby, whether it be through adoption or as parents, after viewing the new life inside.
The center provides the couple support on their journey. One critical portion of the physical support given to client families is clothing and supplies found in the Pregnancy Test Center’s Baby Boutique. Bishop Kopacz learned that clients can attend prenatal and parenting classes and earn points which can be cashed in for newborn supplies such as diapers, clothing, blankets, even bibs.
According to Ms. Bishop, the most gratifying part of their ministry is welcoming the return of young children to the Pregnancy Test Center with their former client mothers.
The Pregnancy Test Center is supported by approximately 30 churches in the Oxford and Lafayette County area, including St. John the Evangelist and Knights of Columbus Council 10901. The Pregnancy Test Center employs three salaried staff members, with nine volunteer consultants who work directly with the clients. Many individuals and community organizations including the Rebels for Life student organization from the University of Mississippi provide on-call logistical support. The Center depends on donations and gifts from churches and organizations, and receives no state or federal funds.