By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – Wanda Thomas, the new CEO for Catholic Charities of Jackson, is no stranger to the agency or the good work being done there. She is set to start Monday, June 17. Thomas worked as a therapist at Charities in the early 2000s and has gone on to earn more credentials and more experience both in social work and the supervision of that work at other agencies in the state.
Thomas spent many years at Canopy Children’s Services, formerly known as Mississippi Children’s Home Services, as a regional director, director of intensive in-home services and program director of their therapeutic foster care services. Catholic Charities has similar programs.
“I have a passion and drive for change. I like to see change over time. I like to look at where we have come from. I like to build things. The services and programs (at Catholic Charities) are there, but as the new person I can come in with new thoughts and new ideas and think outside the box,” said Thomas. “I am looking forward to adding to what is already in place and having a positive impact,” she added.

Msgr. Elvin Sunds, former executive director for Catholic Charities, was on the search committee for a new leader. “She has 20-some years of experience in social work. She is a licensed master social worker, which is important to the agency. She has supervised programs similar to the ones offered at Catholic Charities. She is certainly qualified,” said Msgr. Sunds. “The committee was impressed with her enthusiasm, her communication skills and her commitment to the mission of Catholic Charities,” he explained.
Thomas describes herself as very mission driven. The mission of Charities, she said, is one of the reasons she felt called to apply for the position. She believes her experience will help her in her new role because she has faced many of the challenges facing the staff already in place. “That’s going to give me a great opportunity and window into what we may need to improve on, what we are missing, but I have also been in their shoes. I have had to come up with solutions to many of these challenges,” she said.
“I want to strengthen what we already have in place – highlight what we are doing well. (I want to focus on) retention. You can only be as successful as your staff, so I want to retain talented individuals, to recruit, to provide them with development to do their best jobs. I want them to teach me how to work alongside them. To me, I am building a whole new team,” she said.
Thomas said when therapists and staff members work with people in crisis or people who have experienced trauma, they can carry part of those burdens with them. “I want to restore hope, in a way. What they are doing is having an impact. I want them to see that impact. When you can show how they are being beneficial, that can be a motivator,” said Thomas. “The health of an agency and its culture carries out into the community,” she added.
For the past three years, Bishop Joseph Kopacz has acted as CEO for the agency in collaboration with John Lunardini, the Agency’s COO for the past year and a half. “I am most grateful to John Lunardini for his invaluable contribution to the wellbeing of the agency through the strengthening of our financial base, our relationships with our funding sources and the advancement of our marketing and development. For sure, he will bring his skills and added experience from the social service world to any future employment,” Bishop Kopacz said.
Thomas will be the first non-Catholic at the helm of the agency. The bishop plans to remain present to direct the Catholic identity efforts at the office, and to further strengthen the vital role that Catholic Charities has for the diocesan mission and vision, but will hand the day-to-day operations over to Thomas. “Wanda Thomas has a great sense of what our mission needs to be, and we will move forward with a great team,” said the bishop.
Charities was formally chartered in 1963, but has its roots in the founding of a pair of orphanages in Natchez in the 1850s. It currently operates a number of social service programs including therapeutic foster care, adoption, the Solomon Counseling Center, services for the survivors of domestic violence, refugee and migrant support services and services for families experiencing mental health crises.

Background:
“I was born in King’s Daughters Hospital in Greenville, Mississippi on the Feast of Our Lady of Victory(the Rosary). In the same hospital as Jim Henson who created Kermit the Frog. I was born into a family heritage composed of German, French, English, Sicilian, Mexican, Scotch-Irish and Choctaw. With ancestors ranging from Native Americans, to German indentured servants immigrating to the colonies in the 1740’s, to a 20th century Mexican immigrant, my family covers all of what makes America.
I am the first son of my parents, both whom are the oldest of their siblings, and I have one brother who is ten years younger than me. I grew up attending Mass at St. Joseph Parish in Greenville and attended Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary School and then St. Joseph High School until my family moved to Fort Walton Beach, Forida, where I spent the last three years of high school at Choctawhatchee High School in Ft. Walton. I graduated in 2005, started college and then moved back to Greenville where I would attend college at Mississippi Delta Community College. I graduated from nursing school at MDCC as a Registered Nurse in 2010 and worked at Delta Regional Medical Center in the Cardiovascular ICU until entering seminary for the diocese.”

Home parish:
St. Joseph, Greenville.

Favorite Saints and why?
St. Augustine, because he was not perfect and he had a past which Christ Jesus rescued him from certain destruction. He is a good model for those who give themselves to God and work it out each day with hope.
Mother Mary, she is so loving and helpful to all of her children, making herself known to us all throughout the ages in our local circumstances. She is eternally glorifying God by pointing us towards her Son and reminding us of Christ Jesus’ love for us. St. Benedict, devoted and well-ordered. He founded monasticism which has given the world so much and his brother monks gave me so much to me in my time at St. Joseph Seminary College which is run by Benedictine monks.
St Patrick has always been inspiring as he was a missionary, he overcame so much, and he was so beloved by the Irish priests in my parish who loved me so much and gave me such good examples. He found ordinary ways of teaching great mysteries to those whom he ministered, something I´ve taken a cue from.
St. Mark, my confirmation saint who I picked because I thought I was being lazy. He was an evangelist, he ministered in the Nile Delta city of Alexandria. He stayed close to St. Peter and wrote what he heard. His Gospel shows in great brevity and hurriedness the Lord’s desire to cast out demons with the presence of the Word Incarnate. I hope to preach and heal with this closeness to the Lord and the Church.

Do you have a favorite devotion, religious image or prayer and why?
I am mesmerized by the icon of Our Lady of Bethlehem which I was able to see firsthand when I visited the Holy Land last year. She is so beautifully adorned, wife and mother, watching over her children. Pray for peace in the Holy Land and for persecuted Christians.
I love to move between the Sacred Heart and Good Shepherd image of our Lord as he guides me and gives me the greatest example of what I am to be.
I ponder the wounds of Jesus’ feet, and the place where his side was pierced. I reverence these wounds of Our Lord and I pray with them very regularly.

Who vested you at ordination and why?
Msgr. Patrick Farrell, who was my first parish priest and who baptized me as a baby. I loved him so dearly when I was growing up. I used to process out with him and I wanted to be the first to hug him on Sunday mornings. I want to thank him for his priestly ministry by having him vest me. There is a part of the baptismal rite where the minister speaks to the child and claims him or her for Christ our Savior with a sign of the cross, an eternal action upon a soul. As he claimed me for Christ Jesus and clothed me in the white baptismal garment of salvation, I see it most proper that he should further vest me in the garments of the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

Do you have any hobbies?
I like to cook. Baking, grilling, working a stovetop, I enjoy it all. I enjoy seeing the enjoyment of those for whom I cook for. I’ve played golf since I was two, I enjoy my annual dove hunt with my good friends, and I really enjoy gardening. Planting things, digging up stuff, stoppin on the roadside to dig up heirloom plants from old homesites, I love good dirt, really because I’m from The Delta.

In what parishes have you served?
Our Lady of Victories, Cleveland; St. Joseph Starkville, and St. Dominic Hospital.
 
Can you tell me a little about your vocation story?
I’d thought about priesthood since third grade and been encouraged by teachers, priests, sisters and parishioners. It was always in my head through elementary, high school, and college despite me not actively pursuing it.
I was working one night in the hospital on an elderly man and I thought of St. Mother Teresa and Father Richard Ho Lung. I’d seen the work of his order on EWTN. I had a profound thought of, ‘What is their motivation for doing their work,’ which was much like my own in the hospital? I worked up the courage to reach out to Father Kent Bowlds who met with me regularly for about a year to help me see where the Lord was leading me. The motivation I was looking for that night in the hospital, it was Love. The love and mercy God has for us all and how we are called to be his hands and feet to bring that love to all people
 
Can you share something about yourself people may not know?
I was my high school mascot, and I taught myself how to sew in order to make my costume.
I also carry a shovel and green boots in my car, so that nothing will stop me from bad weather or an interesting plant on the roadside.
 
What advice do you have for those discerning a vocation?
Talk to someone! Prayer is more than essential and there are people who need you. Religious sisters, Brothers, Priests, Deacons, there are people in our parishes who need you and Mississippi needs the witness of good Catholic Priests to bring the Gospel to the world through Christ in the sacraments.

Is there one part of priesthood in particular you are looking forward to?
What are you looking forward to about your first parish assignment?
It›s going to be exciting to say the Mass for people and lead them to God. I›m also looking forward to blessing people and the things that pertain to their lives (fields, homes, etc.). I am particularly excited about the Sacrament of Reconciliation, bringing people back to God who loves them despite their faults and desires to be with them in every aspect of their lives. The loving and merciful heart of God, poured out for us through Confession is what I’m looking forward to.

By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – The Diocese of Jackson gained two new priests on Saturday, May 11 – one a native Mississippian and another from Mexico. Both have a devotion to the Blessed Mother and although both considered the priesthood as boys, both waited until after they had worked out in the world before they entered the seminary.
Father Mark Shoffner was working as a nurse in a cardiac unit when he finally realized that he did want to pursue the priesthood. But first, he wanted to take a sort-of pilgrimage. He told his mother about his plan on his next visit home. “It was January, 2012. He sat down to the supper table. I was making supper, and he said ‘I came home to tell you something – I am about to quit my job and travel around Europe for three months with just a backpack and then I am going to go to the seminary and become a priest,’” said Eva Shoffner.
His journey through the seminary started that fall and his family was thrilled to attend the ordination. “I am so excited. We have just been anticipating this time for a long time – seven years now – and we are just thrilled that the Lord choose our son to become a priest. He has always had a great faith in God and has always had such reverence. He has always greeted each day looking for something good. He is always grateful for all things. I believe he will be a good priest,” said his mother.
Father Adolfo Suarez-Pasillas lived in Mexico and the United States, searching for his true vocation. He said his family was devoted and constantly exposed him to prayer and sacraments, but it took a long time for him to respond to God’s love. His family told Mississippi Catholic that when he was very young, he would make play altars with sticks and flowers. His mother and aunts believe the seeds of his vocation were already starting to take root.
He went through a deep depression before he finally opened his heart and started to work towards the priesthood. Father Suarez-Pasillas could have gone to any number of dioceses, but chose the Diocese of Jackson because he wanted to serve in a place where he could be with the poor and marginalized and where the church needed him most.
The night before the ordination, the candidates, diocesan seminarians, Chancellor Mary Woodward and liaison to the seminarians Father Aaron Williams gathered for a rehearsal. The mood was joyful. Bishop Joseph Kopacz joked with the men as they walked through each part of the rite – the presentation, the litany, oath of fidelity, laying on of hands, vesting, anointing with chrism, receiving the chalice and paten and, finally, standing at the altar for consecration as priests of the church.
The Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle was standing-room-only full for the Mass of Ordination. Several days of bad weather cleared Saturday morning, leaving conditions breezy, but the sun peeked through by the time Mass started. Priests from across the diocese came to celebrate as well as Bishop Emeritus Joseph Latino.
Sister Magdalena Carrillo, Monsignor, read the first reading in Spanish from the Acts of the Apostles – Paul’s instructions for the presbyters to watch over their flock, keeping them safe from wolves and liars. Sister Dorothea Sondgeroth, OP, proclaimed the second reading from Ephesians in which St. Paul urges ministers to be humble and gentle and to unify the church. Deacon Andrew Rudmann chanted the gospel, a reading from John 17 about Jesus giving the word to his apostles and sending them out into the world.
At the conclusion of the Mass, all the priests sang Salve Regina in Latin, a tradition at many diocesan liturgies. As the new priests exited the church, their seminary classmates waited to greet them with cheers and hugs.
The next stop was Jackson St. Richard Parish where a team of volunteers and caterers, led by Berta Mexidor, had arranged a reception honoring the Mississippi and Mexican roots of the ordinands. Magnolias and mariachi music made for a merry reception. The priests offered first blessings while guests snacked on tamales, Delta-inspired stuffed grape leaves and a variety of other foods.
Father Suarez-Pasillas offered his first Mass of Thanksgiving that very afternoon at Jackson St. Therese Parish while Father Shoffner traveled to his home parish of Greenville St. Joseph for a Sunday Mass.

JACKSON – The Mississippi Knights of Columbus held their annual convention in Jackson the last weekend of April with the theme “In solidarity with our Church.” The gathering gives the knights a chance to share ideas, receive training and recognize those councils and individuals who have offered exemplary service. Mississippi Knights raised more than $85,000 to support seminarians and pro-life initiatives this year. More than 300 people attended.
All photos are from the Mass Bishop Louis Kihneman of the Diocese of Biloxi celebrated at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle on Saturday, April 27.
Here are some highlights of those honored during the convention:
Knight of the Year: Norman J. Cantrelle – Most Holy Trinity Council 11995 in Pass Christian
Sir Knights of the Year: Sir Knight David Fisher, Assembly 554 Jackson and Sir Knight Stephen D’Angelo, Assembly 3625 Pass Christian.
Assembly of the Year: Bishop Gerow Assembly 554 – Jackson
Worthy Marshal of the Year: Sir Knight Craig Harrell, Worthy Marshal District 8
Family of the Year: Willie B. Jones Family -Most Holy Trinity Council 11995 in Pass Christian
Best Faith Program: Council 848; Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle Council; Jackson for the Refund Support Vocation Program (RSVP)
Best Family Program: Council 1522; Pere Le Duc Council; Bay St. Louis for the Our Lady of the Gulf Parish Picnic
Best Community Program: Council 898; Vicksburg Council for Meals on Wheels for the Homebound
Best Life Program: Council 10901; St. John Council; Oxford for BBQ Dinner Fundraiser for Pregnancy Center
Best Vocations Programs: Jackson Diocese – Council 848; Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle Council; Jackson for work with Carmelite Sisters and Monastery
Biloxi Diocese: Council 16433; St. Clare Council; Waveland for Cycle to Saints.

By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – Faithful throughout the Diocese of Jackson celebrated Holy Week in unity, but with their own cultural flavors. From an extraordinary form Mass to a modern reenactment of the Passion of Christ. Every parish started a new fire on Easter Sunday. Every Catholic was invited to renew his or her baptismal vows and every person on earth was invited to share in the joy of the resurrection.
Here are a sampling of photos of the journey from Palm Sunday to Easter from across the Diocese of Jackson. Bishop Joseph Kopacz and the entire chancery staff wish you a joyful and fruitful Easter Season.