Category Archives: Diocesan News

Hope Surges On: Reflections on Hurricane Katrina ten years later

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Eighteen hundred lives lost. A million people displaced, some for years. Sixteen billion dollars in insurance claims. Thousands of homes reduced to rubble or flooded beyond repair. Dozens of churches and schools inundated. A decade ago this week we were still reeling as the pictures of what Hurricane Katrina left came into sharper focus every day. As the chaos of the actual storm subsided, we faced the enormity of what it would take to make things right.
Everyone in this region has a Katrina story. For some, it’s a story of luck – a close call. For others, it is a story of loss and grief, but for many, the story is resilience. As we remember the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we want to honor your stories, especially the ones still unfolding. This issue of Mississippi Catholic is dedicated to letting people tell their experience during and since Hurricane Katrina. The focus is riding the surge of hope, seeing new life, being thankful for the generosity of our neighbors.
We cannot possibly tell all your stories, but we would love to hear them. We tried to include the perspective of some of our leaders who had to wrap their heads around how to minister to the coastal diaspora as well as some of those who sought and found help here in the Diocese of Jackson. We hope we have honored all those whose lives took a turn during the last week of August 2005.

Personal Reflections:
By Karla Luke  There were three scriptures that kept me sane
By Lindsay Blaylock  She said “Welcome.” Since that day, we have been home

First Response:
By Sr. Donna Gunn   We all belonged to something bigger than ourselves
By Linda Raff    The generosity of people … brought help and hope to so many
By Father David O’Connor    Our visitors would need hospitality for an extended period

A Plan Emerges:
By Msgr. Elvin Sunds   Katrina brought out what is best and noblest in us …
Sr. Deborah Hughes   Opportunity to make Gospel teachings truly come alive

Shepherds reflect:
Bishop Joseph Latino    We, as the community of faith, are the hands and face of God …
Bishop William Houck   Our memories help us to be grateful …
By Archbishop Thomas Rodi   A resiliency that comes from deep within
By Bishop Roger Morin   I oftentimes heard spontaneous prayers of praise to God

Pastoral Assignment

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Upon the recommendation of Father Stephen Rehrauer, CSsR, provincal for the Redemptorists of the Denver Province, Father John Gouger, CSsR, is appointed to join the Redemptorist community serving the Mississippi Delta based out of Greenwood. Fathers Patrick Keyes and Thanh Nguyen, who were part of that the community, will leave the diocese, effective Sept. 1.
+ Bishop Joseph Kopacz
Diocese of Jackson

SAIL group offers support to grieving families

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By Maureen Smith
PEARL – When Abby Nelson moved from Hattiesburg to Pearl, she brought a mission with her to comfort women suffering from infertility or the loss of a child. The effort is very personal to her since she went through it herself. “I feel like I have a purpose for my pain,” said Nelson.
“My husband Danny and I found out we were pregnant with twin boys in November of 2008,” she said. An ultrasound revealed a problem with one of the babies. Despite a trip to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for delivery and care, Daniel Kace only lived an hour on his birth day, June 22, 2009. His brother Cain was fine. “We had Cain so I didn’t have time to grieve or process. When he was about nine months old, it all hit me,” said Nelson.
She joined a group at her Hattiesburg church called Support for Adoption, Infertility and Loss (SAIL). “It gave me a place to talk about thing with someone who was like-minded,” she explained. The group is for any woman experiencing infertility, a miscarriage, the loss of a child at any stage of life or going through the process of adoption. “God was at the center of the group, and that’s what I loved about it.”
“When we moved to Jackson this past June we joined St. Jude, the parish where I grew up and I knew I wanted to bring the group with me,” Nelson said. She spoke with her pastor, Father Jeffrey Waldrep, and he was very supportive.
“People don’t realize sometimes what a sensitive wound people are carrying around,” said Father Waldrep. “When you lose a child what you carry around is more than just grief. It’s that uncertainty – particularly if you don’t have another child – the pain of the reality of all the ‘what ifs,’ the loss of possibility,” he said. “This group lets people know that someone cares, not just in the immediate aftermath, but in the long-term. It lets people process those feelings,” added Father Waldrep. He said when a child dies, the family is often inundated with care right after the incident, but as time goes by, the family may still need an outlet for grief.
One group member, who wished to remain anonymous, agreed. She started attending in January after losing twins in Dec., 21 weeks into her pregnancy. Father Waldrep visited the couple in the hospital and told them about the group. “Your family and friends try to make you feel better, and they are very sincere, but they can’t help you sometimes,” she said. “The world will give you about a month and then they want you to go back to normal,” she said. Attending the meetings “lets you be yourself and feel what you are feeling,” said the woman. “I can talk to them about things I might not want to talk about to other people,” she added.
Parishioners at St. Jude helped SAIL put together memory boxes with a baby blanket, booties, a cross, a candle, a prayer book and contact information for the SAIL group. Nelson approached local hospitals and doctors herself to ask them to give the boxes to families who lose babies.
The group member said she appreciates the boxes because she ended up making her own box after she lost her babies. “I came home from the hospital and spread all this stuff on the kitchen table – the nurses had given us footprints and baby blankets and other things – and I thought, I want to keep this, but I just can’t look at it right now.” She had a box of her own and put her treasured baby items into it.
SAIL is faith-based, but the group welcomes any woman, regardless of her religious affiliation. “This is a good place for us to share our stories without being judged,” said Nelson. The group uses a book about grief and faith called “Holding on to Hope.”
Kathryn Bridges and Kelli McCloskey run the group in Hattiesburg that Nelson first attended. Bridges lost her son the day before her due date. “The main reason it was important to me is I had several friends and acquaintances who reached out to me who had gone through something similar. It helped me tremendously,” said Bridges. She prayed about what to do next and decided to become involved as a SAIL group leader. Her group coordinates a balloon release in honor of the national day devoted to stillborn and miscarriage awareness and hosts a prayer service in December for families who have lost babies.
SAIL has a closed facebook group and an email in addition to the in-person meetings. To find out more about the meetings email sailcentralms@yahoo.com.

MadCAPP celebrates 30 years

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By Judy Miller
CANTON – In 1985 a group of concerned citizens led by Sister Grace Mary McGuire began to ponder ways they could make a concrete difference in the lives of people living in deplorable poverty in the Canton, Flora and Camden areas of Madison County. The group became Madison Countians Allied Against Poverty (MadCAPP). MadCAAP’s Clothes Closet (Grace’s Closet) is named in honor of Sister Grace Mary.
MadCAAP was born because this group felt the call to put love into action as they identified housing repair and working with neighborhood mothers as their primary focus. Thirty years later, housing repair and education remain at the forefront of MadCAAP’s work in the community; along with the expansion of those programs we have added a clothes closet, food pantry, helping hands garden and Thanksgiving food drive and continued to develop our educational programs, now called “New Attitudes.”
This past summer, MadCAAP expanded its outreach to offer vacation Bible school (VBS) and a reading club for children.
Thirty years sounds like a big expanse of time but there are still individuals in our community who do not know about MadCAAP and have no idea of the kind of abject poverty that exists just 20 miles north of one of the most affluent areas in our state. MadCAAP’s executive director, Karen Robison, her dad, Harold Waldrop, and board president, Olivia Harrell, the latter being two of those original concerned citizens, have a shared passion for the poor that continues to inspire others to seek ways to feed, clothe, educate and care for our neighbors living in poverty.
The organization is always looking for volunteers to help in both the food pantry and clothes closet, both open Mondays and Wednesdays. Groups of students from various Catholic schools and youth groups come to Canton to assist in housing repair projects and work in our Helping Hands Garden of HOPE.
Each summer for the past 10 years a group from Wisconsin called 6:8 spends a week volunteering with MadCAAP.  In June of this year, 6:8 helped with vacation Bible school, our reading program, the garden and on housing projects. Madison St. Francis Parish is one of our contributors and is always ready to provide an evening meal for these youth and their leaders.
Right now, the food pantry is very low on many items including canned vegetables. During the summer, volunteers can help in the garden. As the holidays approach, MadCAPP invites any family or community to adopt one of our families for the holidays.
MadCAAP’s annual fund-raiser, Food for Thought, will be held on Oct. 6, from 6 – 9 p.m. at the Town of Livingston, located at the intersection of Highway 463 and Highway 22 in Madison.  As always, food will be provided by 25 of the areas top-rated restaurants, including Georgia Blue, Strawberry Café, Shapley’s, and The County Seat. Complimentary wine will be provided by Livingston Cellars. Chris Gill and the Sole Shakers will be the musical entertainment. Food for Thought’s Silent Auction is always a highlight of the event. This year’s auction includes Disney Park Hopper passes, a Destin condo rental, diamond earrings, Prada handbag, Mississippi pottery, countless gift certificates and Home Décor items.
Tickets for Food for Thought are $50 per person and may be purchased online at www.madcaap.org.  Attire is casual.  Proceeds from the event will fund MadCAAP’s programs that serve its 1,600 client families who live in poverty in our community.
(Judy Miller is the assistant to MadCAAP’s executive director.)

Retiring Black and Indian Mission leader left legacy in Jackson

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Father Maurice Henry Sands has been named the new executive director of the Black and Indian Mission Office, headquartered in Washington, D.C., effective Sept. 1. The Mission Office supports many of the efforts of parishes and schools throughout the Diocese of Jackson.
“I am excited to welcome Father Sands and I look forward to working with him,” said Will Jemison, Coordinator for the Office of Black Catholic Ministry for the diocese.
The announcement about Father Sands was made July 20 by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, chairman of the agency’s Board of Directors. Archbishop Charles Chaput and Baltimore Archbishop William Lori join the cardinal on the agency’s board.
Father Sands, a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit, currently serves as assistant director for Native American Affairs with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church.
Ordained in 2005, Father Sands served as a parish priest prior to his appointment to the USCCB. He is a full-blooded Native American belonging to the Ojibway, Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes, and grew up on Walpole Island (Bkejwanong First Nation) which is located in the St. Clair River one hour north of Detroit, Michigan.
“It is a great honor, and at the same time it is also very humbling, to be asked to serve as the next executive director of the Black and Indian Mission Office,” Father Sands said. “I will strive my best to be a prayerful and conscientious and obedient servant of the Lord as I assist the bishops of the United States in their efforts to evangelize and catechize and care for the spiritual and pastoral needs of African American and Native American Catholics.”
He succeeds Father Wayne Paysse, who was ordained in 1987 and has served as executive director of the agency since 2007.
“I sought to motivate ‘the People of God’ across the United States to better understand their baptismal call to continue the mission of Jesus in day-to-day life,” Father Paysse said. “I have been humbled to continue the dynamic legacy of St. Katharine Drexel in collaboration with directors of diocesan offices, pastors and principals of schools from coast to coast.”
Jemison said Father Paysse will be missed. “He was so attentive to the mission of the parishes, schools and organizations here in the Diocese of Jackson and around the country. I really appreciated his personal attention and support during his years at the Mission Office,” said Jemison.
Among Father Paysse’s many accomplishments were launching the Mission Office website www.blackandindianmission.org, re-establishing “The Sentinel,” a quarterly printed publication on Native American ministry, and hosting online magazines for Black and Indian Catholic interests.
Cardinal Dolan welcomed Father Sands to the Mission Office, and thanked Father Paysse for his many years of service.
“On behalf of Archbishop Chaput, Archbishop Lori, and myself, I would like to express our gratitude to Father Sands for taking on this important missionary role with our Native and African American Catholics,” the cardinal said. “He succeeds Father Paysse, who has served as an effective administrator and a welcoming messenger of the Gospel.
“A special word of thanks, as well, to Archbishop Allen Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit, for allowing Father Sands to participate in this ministry, and to Archbishop Gregory Aymond, Archbishop of New Orleans, for the many years of generous service that Father Paysse has given.”
The Black and Indian Mission Office is comprised of three distinct but related organizations, each with its own purpose and history. Founded by the Catholic bishops of the United States, each organization cooperates with local diocesan communities to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ and respond to real and pressing needs.
The three organizations are the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, established in 1874; the Commission for the Catholic Missions, established in 1884; and the Catholic Negro-American Mission Board, established 1907 and united with the bureau in 1980.

Missionary Sister still responds to call with joy

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By Sister María Josefa García
My name is María Josefa García Alvarez. I was born in a town in the highlands of the state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico. This beautiful place is called Guadalcálzar.
My parents, Antonio Garcia and Maria Alvarez, of happy memory, had eight children, Felipe, Teresa, Concha, Pedro, María Josefa, Esther, Jesús and Moisés. I am the fifth daughter. I was baptized with the name Josefina in honor of San José. When I was registered they named me María Josefa, which is what my family uses. My friends call me Josefina.
At a very early age I felt that God was calling me to be a nun. I played celebrating Mass and I cared for the things on the altar. When I finished elementary school, my teacher, a Missionary of the Sacred Heart and Holy Mary of Guadalupe, invited the girls to go with her to continue studying and prepare to be missionaries.
I recognize this as the key moment in my vocational calling, although I believe that God called me from the womb: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you.” (Jer. 1:4 )
At age 12, I asked my parents permission to enter the convent, and as you might expect, my parents said no. They told me I needed to study and that later on they would reconsider. I continued my high school studies in my hometown and then I went to the city of San Luis Potosí to study preparatory school. I still did not have permission from my parents to go to the convent.
During all these years, the Lord never stopped calling me and inviting me to follow him. I was a normal young girl, with lots of friends. I attended parties and dances but none of this made me happy. I continued looking for God, participating in my church as a catechist and sharing my faith with the children. I also had a friendship with Father José S. Hernández, a priest in my home town. He was God’s instrument to take me to the final step.
He got permission from my parents and guided me to enter the Congregation of the Guadalupan Missionaries of the Holy Spirit in Morelia, Mich., on Oct. 29, 1973.
I really liked the spirituality of this congregation and I carefully studied and read the books on spirituality that the mother superior gave me.
I entered the first stage, one year as postulant, then I continued to the second stage, two years as a novice.  I had a great willingness to learn and prepare to be a good missionary.
Finally, the great day came for me. I made my first vows to God, promising poverty, chastity and obedience, in the Congregation of the Guadalupan Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, on Aug. 15, 1976.
I continued my religious training, the third phase, which is called Juniorate. During  three years I studied ecclesiastical sciences and religious. In August of 1979 I was sent to an indigenous community in the state of Guerrero in Mexico. I was already living my dream to be a missionary and I felt very happy.
A quote from the Bible that has always motivated me to continue is: “Whoever wishes to come after me must denied himself, take out his cross, and follow me For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34)
During my years of religious life I have been sent to minister in Puerto Rico, Florida, Colorado, California, Alabama and now I am serving in Mississippi. During all my years of missionary life I have constantly felt the loving presence of God in my life. His promise is: “Have no fear before them, because I am with you to deliver you.” (Jer 1:8)
After 39 years of missionary life I still say, ‘Yes, Jesus, in bad times and in good times’ to all he asks of me. It encourages me that he is with us until the end of times, his mercy and fidelity are eternal. I ask the youth no to be afraid and to give the ‘yes’ to Jesus when he calls them.
Times have changed. With the Second Vatican Council there were many changes in the whole church and religious life was no the exception; we continue in a process of profound renewal. In this Year of Consecrated Life, something new is happening even though we are not seeing it with clarity yet, but God is preparing us a great surprise. The new life in Christ will sprout.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away … (Rev. 21:1).
(Sr. Maria Josepha Garcia works in the Office of Hispanic Ministry for the diocese. Other religious who wish to send reflections for the Year of Mercy should send them to editor@mississippicatholic.com)

Greenwood parish featured in national series

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By Patricia Zapor
WASHINGTON (CNS) – If Pope Francis were to have time on his U.S. visit in September to stop at “typical” parishes, it might take a week or two just to see a representative sample.
Of course, while no two parishes anywhere in the world are exactly alike, North American Catholics who grew up in the middle of the 20th century likely would have felt more or less at home at the time visiting most churches around the United States.
The average parish of those decades probably was not unlike the version found in movies such as “Going My Way,” the Bing Crosby classic. In such parishes, “Father” was in charge of a smooth-running operation, with a couple of priests to assist him. Likely, “Sister” and other religious women ran the school. A handful of laypeople had minor parish support roles, but mostly the laity was found in the pews, bringing their children to school or supporting the church through bingo, carnivals and pancake breakfasts.
Today, changing demographics of the U.S. Catholic population have brought a great deal of variety to parishes – the U.S. church is now 40 percent Latino, a proportion that is rapidly increasing. Fewer Catholics feel compelled to have the kind of every-Sunday commitment to Mass that previous generations did. And an increasingly secularized, mobile and multicultural society has ended the days when one’s neighborhood or the country where one’s parents were born dictated what church the family attended.
But perhaps more than anything else, the changes in the way Catholic parishes function is a byproduct of the dramatic shift in the number of priests. Nearly one in five U.S. parishes lacks a resident priest pastor, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. In about 430 parishes – 2.5 percent of all U.S. parishes – the management is in the hands of a deacon or layperson such as a parish life coordinator or lay ecclesial minister.
In a project intended to provide a snapshot of some of the ways the U.S. church functions, over the course of three years, Catholic News Service reporters visited a cross-section of parishes around the country. The churches were chosen because they represent particular types of communities and certain models of parish management. In an unexpected bit of overlap, it turns out that the first parish visited, St. Francis of Assisi in the white, middle-class Midwestern manufacturing town of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, regularly sends parishioners on a summer mission trip to the last parish CNS visited, another St. Francis of Assisi, this one home to mostly African-Americans and Hispanics in the poverty-stricken, rural southern town of Greenwood, Mississippi.
The parishes visited included:
St. Francis of Assisi in Manitowoc; The Church of the Sacred Heart in South Plainfield, New Jersey; St. Ann Parish of Coppell, Texas; Holy Family Parish in South Pasadena, California; Our Lady of Redemption, a Melkite parish in the Detroit suburb of Warren, Michigan. St. John By the Sea, the sole parish on Prince of Wales Island in southeastern Alaska and St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Greenwood, Mississippi, founded by the Franciscan friars to serve African-Americans in the midst of the ugliest days of the civil rights struggles in the South.
The stories will look at how these parishes faced somilar issues. For example, in Manitowoc six parishes were closed or ‘supressed’ to form one city-wide parish that rotates between three worship sites. In the California parish, a lay woman is the boss in the parish, in charge of two full-time priest-ministers, various lay and religous minsiters and three other priests who assist in various ways. The largest parish, St. Anne in Coppell, Texas, boasts more than 30,000 members in 8,900 registered families – more than the entire Diocese of Rapid City, South Dakota. In contrast, St. John by the Sea on Price of Wales Island is only accessible by plane or boat, but serves a huge geographic region.
Stories in the series will look at the state of parish finances, clergy roles, education – both elementary schools and religious education programs – and some non-traditional ways parishes organize themselves today. See the full description of all the parishes visited on www.mississippicatholic.com.
(Look in upcoming editions of Mississippi Catholic for more installments from this series. Dennis Sadowski, in South Plainfield, Mark Pattison in Coppell and Warren, and Nancy Wiechec in Klawock contributed to this story.)

Catholic school ACT scores top public, private scores across state

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By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – Catholic School students scored higher on the ACT college test than other students in the state. Catholic students also saw an increase in scores over last year and an overall increase over a five-year period, according to the organization that administers the test.
The ACT is a test used to measure college readiness in English, math, reading and science. It is open to high school upperclassmen. Composite scores rose from 22.3 last year to 22.9 this year. The state average score was 18.7. The state score includes all of the public and private school students tested across the state. The highest possible score is 36 and the national average falls between 20 and 21. The highest gains from last year came in English and reading, both of which rose by a full point from 23 to 24 in English and 22.5 to 23.5 in reading. State averages in those subjects were 18.7 and 19.3 respectively.
Math scores rose .7 to 21.2; science scores rose .3 to 22.4. To put some of these numbers in perspective, a student with a score of 18 in English composition is considered ready for college-level courses in that subject. Students who score 22 in the Algebra section, 22 in social science and 23 in biology are all considered to be ready to pass a college course.
“We are thrilled about the increase,” said Catherine Cook, superintendent of Catholic Schools. “While we are glad to see test scores reflecting the great work being done in our schools, we will continue to work toward ensuring that each student gets what he or she needs to succeed overall in whatever path they choose,” added Cook.
The test may be taken by high school students, but the work to prepare students for graduation and college starts in the earliest grades. The Diocese of Jackson has been on a mission to improve curriculum in all of its schools with help from the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE), based out of Notre Dame University.
“In the past five years, we have implemented the ACE curriculum, which uses a set of standards written for our diocese by educators in our diocese” said Margaret Anzelmo, coordinator for academic excellence for diocesan schools. “It uses intentional structures between what students know and should be able to do at the end of the year,” she added. This individual planning means the educators in diocesan schools were able to discuss specific strengths and challenges within their schools and come up with the best ways to structure their curriculums, seek out needed resources and share success stories.
“We have also been using a standard walkthrough for principals to observe in classes and be able to offer feedback,” said Anzelmo.
Educators from every school took initial training at Notre Dame and then came back to the diocese to begin revising the curriculum for each subject and training their fellow educators on the method ACE uses. Each subject goes through a two-year assessment and revision followed by ongoing assessment and measurement.
“At the end of the day, we have great teachers and we emphasize the strength of each child,” said Anzelmo.

New museums highlight history

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By Mary Woodward
JACKSON – On a recent sweltering August morning, Bishop Joseph Kopacz looked out over the construction site of the burgeoning Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum project in downtown Jackson. The two museum project has been in the works for years and now will come to fruition in time for the Magnolia State’s bicentennial in 2017.
The Museum of Mississippi History will explore the sweep of the state’s history from earliest times to the present. The adjacent Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, the nation’s first state-operated civil rights museum, will examine the struggle for civil rights and equality that changed the course of the state and the nation.
Bishop Kopacz was visiting the site as part of a presentation on the project by Katie Blount, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH), and Trey Porter, director of community relations at MDAH. Because of it’s long history of involvement in these turbulent times and its commitment to justice and reconciliation, the Diocese of Jackson is sponsoring one of the permanent exhibits in the Civil Rights Museum. During the visit, Bishop Kopacz received an in depth look at the overall project as it has progressed.
Part of the diocese’s plan of support for the project will come in the sharing of artifacts held in the diocesan archives. In terms of the Civil Rights Movement, the diocesan archives holds artifacts and correspondence ranging from documentation of Bishop R. O. Gerow’s integration of Catholic schools to his statement on the assassination of Medgar Evers to his trip to the White House in 1963 at the request of President John Kennedy. These papers reflect the church’s prominent role in seeking justice for all of Mississippi’s people. Therefore Bishop Kopacz wanted the diocese to support the museum project in order to continue that legacy.
The archives also contains papers on the development of Mississippi’s journey to statehood from the earliest times through the eyes of the Catholic faithful and ultimately their bishops. Bishop Gerow indexed and catalogued all the previous six diocesan bishops’ papers he inherited when he became bishop in 1924.
The diocesan archives gives a unique accounting of history through the growth and spread of the Catholic faith within the boundaries of the 20th state of the union. Papers and records in the archives date back to Spanish Colonial times in 1796 Natchez and travel forward through the establishment of the diocese in 1837, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the turn of the 19th century into the 20th, world wars, great floods, economic depression, the Civil Rights Movement, up to the present day. Items from these archives, gathered and maintained by Bishop Gerow and now continually updated by the diocesan chancellor’s office, will be scanned and offered to MDAH for its collections and the two museums project.
Constructed side-by-side on North Street in downtown Jackson, the two museums will share space including a lobby, auditorium, store, and classrooms. The complex is being designed by ECD — an architectural consortium composed of Eley Guild Hardy; Cooke Douglass Farr Lemons, Ltd.; and Dale Partners — in consultation with the Freelon Group.
Since construction began in December 2013, all interior floors have been completed. Work on the roof, limestone façade, and public parking garage will be completed in 2015. Phase two, interior construction, will last sixteen months. The Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum are scheduled to open in 2017 as the centerpiece of the state’s bicentennial celebration.
The Mississippi Legislature has committed $74 million in bond funds for construction and exhibits for the “2 Mississippi Museums.” The Legislature required a dollar-for-dollar match for the exhibits. The Foundation for Mississippi History and the Foundation for the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum committed to raising $16 million — $12 million for exhibits and $4 million for endowments for the museums. The Foundations are on track to meet that goal. MDAH will seek additional public funds in 2016 to complete the exhibits and furnish the building.
The Mississippi Development Authority’s Tourism Division estimates the two new museums will welcome approximately 180,000 visitors each year. These visitors will create a projected annual tourism impact of $17.1 million in tourism expenditures, 231 direct tourism jobs in the three-county region with an estimated $6.3 million payroll, and 92 indirect jobs with a $3.3 million payroll, contributing $1.2 million to the State General Fund. Even before the museums open, the Mississippi Development Authority estimates the employment and economic impact of construction to be approximately $50 million in total brick and mortar with 500 direct and 275 indirect jobs.
For more information on the project visit the MDAH website at www.mdah.state.ms.us.

Spring Hill College announces fall masters offerings

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By Tom Tehan
This fall Spring Hill College (SHC) is offering two classes as part of its extension program available here in the Diocese of Jackson, Christian Social Ethics: War and Peace, taught by Dr. Matthew Bagot and Theology of Sacrament taught by Dr. Joy Blaylock. These classes begin Sept. 7 and end Nov. 14.
Winter classes begin Nov. 16 and end Jan. 30, 2016. They are: Synoptic Gospels taught by Dr. Timothy Carmody and Eucharist taught by Dr. Steven Wilson.
SHC has changed its graduate programs in theology and ministry to new blended-format MTS, MPS and MA programs designed for adult students seeking a part-time graduate program that allows them to continue in their professional or family commitments and still pursue a deeper and more contemporary understanding of Christian faith. There are three masters degree options:   Master of Theological Studies (MTS – 33 credit hours), Master of Pastoral Studies (MPS – 33 credit hours), and Master of Arts in Theology (MA – 48 credit hours).
Spring Hill also offers a graduate certificate program – Certificate of Spiritual Direction (CSD) and an undergraduate certificate program with the option to be completed as an undergraduate bachelor degree – Certificate of Theological Studies (CTS). For more information visit www.shc.edu/grad/theology or by email at theology@shc.edu or call 251-380-4665.
This fall I am registered for Christian Social Ethics. Upon completion of this class I will have a total of 27 credit hours. I plan on taking the class Eucharist in the winter to complete my requirements for the Certificate of Theological Studies. It has been a rewarding four years of study, reflection and developing of research papers. It has not always been easy and at times frustrating; however the rewards and the growing in faith have been well worth the effort. I’ve continued to work a full time job, balancing work, studies, family life and other various commitments.
This past spring I completed the course Synoptic Gospels taught by Dr. Timothy Carmody. This class will be taught again in the winter session.  Synoptic Gospels is the comparison of the gospels written by Matthew, Mark and Luke. The methods of study and comparison of these gospels as taught by Dr. Carmody has left me with a way to study and reflect on the gospels gaining insights that I would otherwise not have been exposed to.
SHC has two levels of courses. Level I classes are taught online with one in person class meeting on a Saturday in either Mobile or Atlanta. Level II courses are all online. The online experience allows students to structure their time as they have available. Typically the class format is as follows:
The instructor will assign the readings for the week and pose a couple of questions to be answered online and shared with the other students in the class. A threaded discussion will follow. The student will prepare a one page response to the reading assignment each week. A midterm six-eight page paper and a final paper will be required based on a question assigned by the instructor. This format varies with each instructor.
(Tom Tehan is a member of Starkville St. Joseph Parish.)