Category Archives: Diocesan News

Clarksdale Immaculate Conception celebrates 70 years

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By Maureen Smith
CLARKSDALE – Many will tell you the founding of Immaculate Conception Parish was a routine happening in a diocese that was expanding in leaps and bounds at the time. Others will tell you it was a miracle. The characters in this story include a soldier, a death row inmate, a loving community leader who never even got to see the mission he helped found and the Blessed Mother.
Members of Immaculate Conception gathered Sunday, Sept. 13, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its founding with a Mass and brunch. Before the Mass started parishioner Linda Johnson gave a short history. Bishop Joseph Kopacz was the principal celebrant with Father Scott Thomas, pastor. Choir members from other local churches joined the celebration.
During the Mass representatives from the parish and school, including Father Thomas, Sister Teresa Shields, former teacher and current director of the Jonestown Community Center, and Earl Gooden, finance council member, lit candles honoring deceased bishops and priests, religious sisters and brothers and parish members.
Father Robert O’Leary, SVD, served in World War II. In 1940 he made a promise to found a church in honor of the Immaculate Conception if he survived. Years later, and halfway around the world, death row inmate, Claude Newman, admired a fellow inmate’s miraculous medal. The inmate gave it to him and soon after Newman said a beautiful woman visited him in his cell telling him, “if you want to follow my son, call for a priest.” Father O’Leary answered the call and he and some Sisters began to instruct the convict in the Catholic faith.
As the story goes, Newman claimed the beautiful woman had already instructed him about confession and the Eucharist. He also reminded Father O’Leary about his promise to found a parish for Mary. The priest and sisters were stunned. Before Newman was executed, he is said to have told Father O’Leary that he would act as an intermediary with the Blessed Mother if the priest ever needed anything.
In the early 1940s a group of African-Americans in Clarksdale, including Samuel Keith Harrington, appealed to then Bishop Oliver Gerow for a school. The bishop used $5,000 sent to him for a mission in the black community. He sent Father O’Leary in 1945 and the promise was fulfilled when the school was running by 1947.
By the time the parish was built and ready for dedication, founding father Harrington was near death. His friends hatched a plan to carry him to the church for Mass, but he didn’t make it. He was the first person to he buried out of the parish.
The school closed in 1990, but the parish still makes use of the building for activities and receptions. The old convent has been converted into a dormitory house for the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. During the anniversary celebration parishioners looked at old yearbooks and shared their memories of the parish while speaking of their hopes for a strong future.

American Parish: CNS reporter features Greenwood communities

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By Patricia Zapor
GREENWOOD (CNS) – Franciscan Father Gregory Plata is the key to one example of how Catholic parishes are dealing with the decline in the number of priests.
He’s pastor of two small, geographically close, but vastly dissimilar parishes in Greenwood. Three missions and a struggling school also are his responsibility. Combined they serve 2,385 square miles of the Mississippi Delta, where Catholics have always been few and scattered.
As part of a look at how different types of parishes handle contemporary challenges, Catholic News Service reporters visited churches around the United States over the past few years. This package of stories, American Parish, presents a glance at some of the kinds of communities that Pope Francis might see if he had the time to visit a variety of parishes on his visit to the United States.
Workloads like Father Plata’s, with responsibilities for multiple parishes and missions, are one way U.S. dioceses have adapted to deal with a 35 percent decline in the number of priests since 1965.
Fifty years ago, the nation’s 17,637 parishes and 49 million Catholics were served by 58,632 priests. Today, nearly the same number of parishes – 17,458 – accommodate 31 million more Catholics, with 38,275 priests.
Until last summer when some Redemptorist missionaries came to do Hispanic outreach in the Greenwood area, it was just Father Plata and a retired priest covering the four weekend and five weekday Masses, and all pastoral needs for hospital and home visits and sacraments at two parishes and three missions scattered across Leflore County.
Three miles across town at Immaculate Heart of Mary, the older of the two churches in Greenwood where Father Plata also is pastor, a paid staff of three manages day-to-day functions. That includes a joint religious education program for both parishes. About 300 families are in Immaculate Heart Parish and 200 at St. Francis.
Volunteers in the two parishes and the missions make nearly everything else possible.
At St. Francis School, thin resources mean the teachers are mostly retired public school employees, who can only afford to work there because they have pensions to supplement their low pay, acknowledged the principal, Franciscan Sister Mary Ann Tupy.
As when the Franciscans opened the St. Francis Mission – first a school and then the church – as an outreach to impoverished African-Americans at the height of civil rights tensions, the order’s missionary commitment continues. Besides Father Plata and Sister Mary Ann, Franciscan Brother Craig Wilking, development director, finds the school grants and other forms of financial support. A retired military chaplain, Franciscan Father Adam Szufel, is in residence at St. Francis, celebrating Mass and helping ensure the mission churches get regular visits from a priest.
In the past year, the Redemptorists established a presence in the county, primarily to serve the growing population of Hispanic immigrants. One has been living at St. Francis and joining Father Plata and Father Szufel in pastoral services.
The ongoing commitment of the Franciscans to Greenwood was further stretched a few years ago, when Father Plata was asked to also serve as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary because of a shortage of priests in the Diocese of Jackson.
The two parishes traditionally have been home to distinct communities. Although the days have passed when blacks were pointedly told they were unwelcome at Immaculate Heart, few African-Americans worship there regularly.
On the other hand, the formerly all-black congregation of St. Francis includes a handful of white regulars, who either find the Mass schedule suits them better or, as several said, they appreciate the more multicultural community and lively liturgies. St. Francis’ growth in the last decade has come largely from Hispanics, leading Father Plata to schedule a weekly Spanish Mass, which is generally better attended than the English one.
Marc Biggers, a lifelong Immaculate Heart parishioner, said that since his childhood the black and white communities of Greenwood have come a long way toward being comfortable with each other.
“The last 10 to 15 years we’ve really mingled a lot better,” he said. Sharing a pastor has helped. “At first the transition to having a Franciscan was kind of awkward,” he said. “But I think it’s working.”
Katherine Fisher a parishioner at St. Francis, said she does not go to Immaculate Heart for Mass primarily because she has so many obligations at St. Francis. But she and other African-Americans expressed some lingering discomfort with their Catholic counterparts across town, largely dating to the racial tensions of decades ago.
A cracked blue window pane above the front door at St. Francis has intentionally been left unrepaired since someone shot a gun at the church in the 1960s, a pointed reminder of the struggles faced by the Franciscans and the parishioners.
Father Plata described the sentiments within the two parishes toward each other as “not exactly a division, but more that people are more comfortable in their own cultures.”
Immaculate Heart parishioner Dave Becker is among those who recognized that while the two churches have quite different cultures, they will need more and more consolidation if the Catholic presence in Greenwood is to survive.

Author, statue-rescuer reflects on upcoming feast, novena offered for St. Therese

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By Celeste Zepponi
Arriving early, I decided to wait in the church meeting room before going to the Adoration room for my weekly hour of prayer. As I sat down on the couch, my eyes caught site of a statue of St. Therese, The Little Flower. I immediately felt drawn to walk over and take a closer look. I slowly asked myself, “Is this the one?”
I closely examined the perfectly painted eyes and skin, the beauty of her face. I noticed the soft folds in her Carmelite habit covering her body from head to toe, falling softly and humbly to her feet. In her arms, she held a large crucifix lavishly veiled with pink and yellow roses. Everything about the statue looked perfect. I sighed a deep breath and felt joyful as I said to myself, “Yes of course, this is the statue.”
My husband and I had rescued this statue years ago. I smiled as I remembered the morning we drove through McDonalds with the statue in the back of our truck. We laughed out loud wondering what the restaurant attendant must have thought as she viewed this big statue passing by the drive-through window as we picked up our sausage,egg, and cheese biscuits, and coffee.
At that time, a local mission church was tossing the statue for a more modern one and we just couldn’t bear the thought of it going in the dumpster! Instead, we took “St. Therese” on a ride through town that sunny morning, all the way to St. Elizabeth Catholic School. The statue resided in the music room for many years. Now it is safe for viewing in the church meeting room.
I am delighted to have been part of this journey, and I am certain there is more.
Having been refreshed in my affection for St. Therese through this beautiful statue, she just seems to keep showing up! Recently, while cleaning house and straightening books, I was surprised to find a holy card with the same image of St. Therese inside a book. Only days later, I opened a random page in another book to find her image revealed again.
I asked my priest if I should pay attention to these repeated reminders of St. Therese, The Little Flower? Was she trying to tell me something? Father Scott simply and firmly said, “Yes.” He later handed me a novena to St. Therese and of course, it has the same beautiful depiction of her on the cover!
Especially, well “coincidentally,” since her feast day is coming up very soon, Oct. 1st! Could St. Theresa be trying to tell us something?
I, like Father Scott, simply and firmly say, “YES!”
(Celeste Zepponi  is an author and artist. This reflection first appeared on CatholicMom.com)
(Editor’s note: Greenwood Locus Benedictus Retreat Center is sponsoring a novena to St. Therese of the Little Flower Sept. 22-30 ending with a feast day Mass at the Chapel of Mercy on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 5:30 p.m.  If you would like your intentions remembered, send them in an envelope to Locus Benedictus, P. O. Box 10383, Greenwood, MS. 38930. The envelope will not be opened. Join us in honoring this modern-day saint who said “she would spend Heaven doing good upon Earth.”)

Missionaries honored for decade of service to Mississippi

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By Elsa Baughman
FOREST – A group of Guadalupan Missionararies of the Holy Spirit from Mississippi, California and Alabama gathered at St. Michael Parish on Saturday, Aug. 15, to celebrate Sister Maria Elena Méndez’ 25th anniversary of consecration and the anniversaries of other sisters in her congregation who were present that day.
They were also celebrating the 10th anniversary of their ministry in the Diocese of Jackson. Concelebrating the special Mass were Fathers Joe Dyer, pastor of St. Michael Parish, Michael McAndrew, a Redemptorist priest serving in Greenwood, and Father Odel Medina, pastor of Carthage St. Anne and Kosciusko St. Teresa and associate pastor of Camden Sacred Heart.
Ten years ago, Father Richard Smith, then pastor of St. Michael, invited their congregation to come serve in Forest and Morton. Sisters Ana Gabriela Castro, Yesenia Fernández and Gabriela Ramírez were the first sisters who came to minister in the diocese. Since then, other Guadalupan Sisters have served in Natchez and in Jackson.
In observance of the Year of Consecrated Life, Father Medina’s homily delved in the Gospel of the day, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Luke 1:39-56, focusing on the calling for religious life. The following is a excerpt of his homily.
Today we celebrate with joy this vocation so special that is the religious life. We see that the church is not full, but each one of us represents many of the people who are around us that has been touched by the gift of religious life. There are other sisters here present who are also celebrating anniversaries and the celebration extends to them because if we add up it would be more than 100 years of service to the church and the people of God. What a blessing!
Our God, who wants the salvation for all of us, who calls us to a different kind of life, our God, who invites us to live fully, needs us. Amazing, no? He needs us.  He can’t do it without us. In the history of salvation he calls men and women to assist him in his mission.
A person, a woman who is key to this mission, is Mary Most Holy, which gives the Savior to the world. Wow! The woman says yes! Yes, Lord! Let it be done to me according to thy word. And the word becomes flesh.
Mary Most Holy, one that has been wrapped up, so to speak, with the spirit of God and embodying the Son of God, immediately leaves in haste to visit Elizabeth, her cousin who is pregnant. She is carrying the blessing of the incarnate Word in her womb. The child her cousin has in her womb, John the Baptist, leaped of joy when Mary arrives to her house. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? . . .
There is a cascade of blessings when these two women meet. The same who helped in the plan of salvation.
How amazing that God call us, men and religious women, lay people, children, adults, because he needs us to continue to proclaim the Good News. He calls us to proclaim with our lives that he is present in the world. It is the Lord that was present in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
. . . We are here today giving thanks to God for your life, for religious life, and he will continue to call men and women, married couples, young people, children, consecrated priests to keep saying that the walks among us. There are people who do not believe, but we are called to speak with our lives that God is still present among us.
What is the call to religious life? Do we enjoy the presence of God in our hearts? That when others find us they also enjoy the fact that there are men and women that have  Christ in their hearts. Religious life is to live it fully also. It is not to be complaining or making life impossible. It is to demonstrate that God pours out his blessings on us so that we can be religious men and women enshrined. That people can see the wonder that God makes with each one of us. So that when they see it they can say, I also want to follow this God. I also want to see God do wonders in my life, from your own vocation.

RETREATS

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St. Mary of the Pines
Eight-day retreats –  $640
Five-day retreats –  $400
Weekend directed retreats – $160
Directed Retreats: The resident retreat director is Sister Dorez Mehrtens, SSND. To schedule a retreat contact Sister Dorez, 601-783-0411 or 601-810-7758 (cell), dorezm37@yahoo.com.
Private Retreats: A private retreat is a retreat without a director and may be scheduled any time space is available. The individual chooses his/her own resources and rhythm of prayer and reflection throughout the day. Suggested donation: $65 per night. Financial assistance for any retreat is available upon request.
“Annual Women’s Retreat: Encountering God in all things,” Oct. 23-25. Sister Joan Dehmer, SSND, will be the presenter. She is on the staff of Loyola Spirituality Center in St. Paul, Minn. Cost is $135 for single rooms and $115 for double rooms, per person.
Contact: St. Mary of the Pines Retreat Center, 3167 Old Highway 51 South, Osyka, MS, 39657, 601-783-3494, retreatcenter@ssnddallas.org.

The Dwelling Place
“Jesus and my ego,” Sept. 25-27. Using Lectio Divina, participants will look at stories in the gospels designed to bring one’s ego out into the open. Led by Father Henry Shelton. Cost is $200.
“Hermitage Time,” Oct. 2-4.
Come, get away, be still and sort out your life under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Experience God’s presence in the quiet and a personally guided prayer experience adapted to your needs. Director: Clare Van Lent. Begins with 6:30 dinner. Cost is $80 per day.
Contact: The Dwelling Place, 2824 Dwelling Place Road, Brooksville, MS, 39739, 662-738-5348, www.dwellingplace.com.

Benedictine SISTERS
“Woman Spirit Rising,” Sept. 25-27. A gathering of women at the Red Tent, a safe place to tell your own stories, to do truth telling, and to share hopes and dreams. Led by Sister Mary McGhehee. Private rooms, $245, shared rooms $205 per person.
Contact: Benedictine Sisters Retreat Center, 916 Convent Road, Cullman, AL 35055, 256-734-8302, retreats@shmon.org.
Teresa In Avila: The Life of a Saint, Thursday, Oct. 15, from 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. At this retreat, special attention will be paid to the place and times in which St. Teresa lived, how she was shaped by them, and how she in turn helped shape her times. We will also consider how our own places and times shape us, and we them. Led by Sister Elisabeth Meadows, O.S.B. Cost is $30.

JESUIT SPIRITUALITY CENTER
Directed Retreats: The Jesuit Spirituality Center specializes in personally directed retreats based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. Solitude and silence are important aspects of these retreats. Retreats may range from three days, five days, or eight days, to a full month.
Dates: Oct. 5 or 8, Oct. 20 or Oct. 22 – (3 & 5 days only), Nov. 12 or Nov. 15, Dec. 7 or Dec. 10. Retreats of eight-days begin on the first date. Retreats of five or three days begin on either date. Costs vary according to the length of the retreat.
“An introduction to the directed retreat,” Oct. 2-4. Cost is $160 (includes $70 non-refundable pre-registration fee).
An Introduction to the Directed Retreat is designed for someone making a silent directed retreat for the first time. Group and individual sessions will focus on how to pray, to journal, and to communicate prayer experiences with one’s director. This retreat will also prepare participants for a longer 3, 5, 8 or 30-day retreat. Led by Nelda Turner.
“Zen Practices for Christian Living,” Oct. 15-18. Led by Father Robert Kennedy, S.J. Come develop a deeper contemplative prayer life. Zazen or sitting meditation is the practice of stilling the mind through whole hearted attentiveness to the breath. Cost is $240 (commuters $180) pre-registration and a non-refundable $70 registration fee are required
Contact: Jesuit Spirituality Center, 313 Martin Luther King Dr., Grand Coteau, La. 70541, 337-662-5251.

Knights of Columbus offer yearlong family prayer and bonding program

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By Maureen Smith
JACKSON –The Knights of Columbus in Mississippi have provided a limited number of resource books to parishes and families throughout the state. “Building the Domestic Church, the family fully alive,” is a year-long program for families.
It comes in the form of a book of prayers, activities and reflections put together by the Knights of Columbus on a national level.  The program, which runs from October to September, contains a monthly theme, a suggested family movie and service projects. It also has prayer cards and suggestions for council activities.
“As the saints have shown throughout history, holiness in life leads inevitably to witness in our daily lives. In our time, the work of evangelization is not reserved only for an elite few, but is the responsibility of all baptized Christians.
“In a very real sense, we are all called to be missionaries. We are called to ‘proclaim’ the Gospel to those around us through our lives each day, and the privileged place for most of us to do this is within our own families,” writes Karl Anderson, supreme Knight in his introduction.
“To help our families better become what they are called to be, the Knights of Columbus has launched this initiative entitled ‘Building the Domestic Church, the faith fully alive.’ Through this program our families can realize more fully their mission to be an authentic domestic church through daily prayer, catechesis and Scripture reading, as well as through monthly charitable and volunteer projects they can do as a family,” he added.
For example, the theme for October, “Because the Lord is God of our ancestors, we want to strengthen the relationship between our family’s generations,” suggests families make a family tree together, visit relatives or send a letter to a loved one. The book suggests watching Disney/Pixar’s movie ‘Up’ to reflect on relationships between generations. The service project for the month is centered on providing food for a family in need.
“This initiative can help all families, whatever their difficulties, deepen their relationship with the Lord. It can especially help divorced parents meet their obligation to raise their children in the Catholic faith and reassure them that their communion with the Lord is not severed, but rather can continue to grow stronger through prayer, scripture reading, participation in the parish community, service to others, and evangelization. In these ways, they too can be a part of our initiative and grow in their faith,” wrote Anderson.
The Knights of Columbus in Mississippi provided 500 copies of the books to different parishes of the Diocese of Jackson through the Office of Family Ministry, but anyone can download a free digital copy on the national website at www.kofc.org/familyfullyalive.

Internet safety workshop registration open

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Spots are still available for “Catholic Citizenship in the Digital Age,” a workshop on internet safety set for Saturday, October 3, at Madison St. Joseph High School. The workshop is free, but reservations are important because orgainzers will provide lunch to attendees.
“Technology changes daily and education is important to us as good Catholics to be respectable and appropriate users of digital and social media,” said Vickie Carollo, Safe Environment Coordinator for the Diocese of Jackson. “Additionally, it is critical that as adults, we recognize our role in keeping young people safe when using electronic communication devices,” she added.
“The diocese is fortunate to have Paul Sanfrancesco of Philadelphia as the keynote speaker for the workshop.  Paul is a technology consultant for Sadlier Publishing and teaches as Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Education Department at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and Neumann University in Aston, Penn,” said Carollo.
A few years ago Sanfrancesco did a survey in his school system on how proficient teachers were at using technology. He found that many needed training not only in technology, but in online platforms such as social media. He started a summer program to train his own teachers. He now takes that program across the country
“In addition to Paul’s keynote, the workshop agenda will include an opportunity to participate in a break-out session with an education consultant from the State of Mississippi Attorney General’s Office Cybercrime Unit,”she added.
The workshop is from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3. Anyone can attend, but parents, pastors, DREs/CREs, youth ministers and school administrators are especially invited. For registration, please contact Annette Stevenson for registration at (601-960-8470) or email her at: annette.stevenson@jacksondiocese.org.

Save the Dates: Catholic Charities plans full slate of fall events

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JACKSON – Catholic Charities has three upcoming events to raise money for their many services.
Tuesday, Oct. 13 at noon, Father Jonathan Morris, author and news analyst, will speak at the Journey of Hope luncheon at the downtown Jackson Marriott hotel. Tickets are also still available for a meet and greet with Father Morris the evening before.
The fourth annual Purple Dress 5K run/walk benefiting Catholic Charities Domestic Violence Services Center is set for Thursday, Oct. 22 in a new location. The start and finish is at The Iron Horse Grill in downtown Jackson. Sponsorship opportunities are still available. Get information about these events from Julie O’Brien, 601-326-3758 or julie.obrien@ccjackson.org.
This year’s Squat & Gobble event is also in a new location, the Old Capitol Inn in Jackson. on Thursday, Nov. 13. Squat and Gobble benefits Catholic Charities Domestic Violence Office.
Additional information is available on the Catholic Charities website: www.ccjackson.org.

‘Many Saints, One Church’ Black Catholic Day of Reflection announced

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GREENWOOD – St. Francis Parish is hosting Many Saints, Once Church, a Black Catholic weekend of Reflection Friday and Saturday, Nov. 6-7. The weekend is sponsored by the Office of Black Catholic Ministry.
“We are featuring M. Roger Holland on Friday evening. He will share his amazing musical gifts with all. He is a very accomplished musician and gospel artist and composer,” said Sister Kathleen Murphy, FSCC, one of the organizers. “He has worked on Broadway, been gospel music choir director at St. Patrick’s in New York and he has compositions in the new “Lead Me, Guide Me” hymnal including the Welcome Table Mass setting,”  added Sister Murphy.
Dr. Timone Davis is the keynote speaker for Saturday.  She has worked extensively with youth and serves as formation director for the Augustus Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program based in Chicago. She employs African storytelling as she shares her message.
Father Anthony Clark, SVD, will offer breakout sessions for youth on Saturday.  He is currently pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Memphis. He has served the Diocese of Memphis particularly in the area of Multicultural Ministries for many years.
The choir from St. Augustine Parish will serve as music ministers for the closing 4 p.m. liturgy on Saturday.
“The overall theme for the day, Many Saints – One Church – arose first of all from an interview done with Sister Thea Bowman,” explained Sister Murphy. “She was asked how she felt about being called a ‘living saint.’  Her reply included the idea that we all should consider ourselves to be living saints. The One Church element of the theme arose from the current events in our country which speak so sadly of divides of many types. The planning committee felt that there is a real call for unity among peoples today. It needs to be a theme for our prayer,” said Sister Murphy.
The registration fee is $15 per person which includes the T-shirt for the event, Friday evening reception, Saturday morning grab-and-go breakfast and Saturday lunch.
In addition to spiritual enrichment, the ogranizers are offering fellowship and fun. Attendees can win door prizes featuring John Richards home decor items and shop for African attire and other items from a collection of vendors. The Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer foundation will be there as well.
The Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express in Greenwood will have special rates for rooms that weekend  for those who mention the Black Catholic gathering for the Diocese of Jackson when reservations are made.
Pre-registration will continue through Oct. 5.  On-site registration will be available, but preregistration is preferred. To register contact Will Jemison at 601-949-6935 or will.jemison@jacksondiocese.org.