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May recollects ordinations past, yet to come
From the Archives
By Mary Woodward
These past few weeks, I have been working on our upcoming ordination liturgies. Deacon Will Foggo will be ordained Saturday, May 16 in the Cathedral of St. Peter in Jackson. On July 18, Bishop Kopacz will ordain seven permanent deacons in the Cathedral, as well. Ordinations are beautiful liturgies and I invite you all to come and witness them in person or if you cannot make it in person, pray for these new ordinands.
Reflecting on May as the traditional month for priestly ordinations, I am rerunning a previous article on our diocesan bishops and the interconnectedness of dioceses in our region. I have updated it with more current information.
Our diocese was the 13th diocese established in the United States on July 28, 1837. Nashville and Dubuque were established the same day, but we claim pride of place due to strategic location and age.
We have a unique communion with three venerable and historic archdiocesan sees – Baltimore, the primal see of the U.S.; New Orleans, our first metropolitan provincial see; and Mobile, our metropolitan see, where Mass was first celebrated in 1703.
Bishop John Joseph Chanche (1) and Bishop William Henry Elder (3) are natives and products of Baltimore both being ordained bishops in Assumption Cathedral there in 1841 and 1857. Bishop James Oliver Van de Velde (2) was ordained a priest in Baltimore in 1827.
In 1852, Bishop Chanche ordained Francis Xavier Leray a priest in Natchez. Leray went on to become Archbishop of New Orleans in 1883. Bishop Elder, in 1859, was co-consecrator of John Quinlan, second bishop of Mobile, and Dominic Manucy in 1874, who went on to become third bishop of Mobile.
Bishop Francis Janssens (4) was elevated to Archbishop of New Orleans in 1888 and was principal consecrator of Bishop Thomas Heslin (5) in St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans in 1889. Prior to being elevated to bishop, Bishop Heslin was ordained a priest in the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile by Bishop John Quinlan in 1869.
Bishop Quinlan added the portico to the Mobile cathedral and is buried under it instead of in the crypt chapel. He will be able to see his portico again on the day of the resurrection of the dead when his tomb is opened.
In 1890, Bishop John Edward Gunn (6) was ordained a priest in Rome by the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople, which has nothing to do with the current thread, but I thought it was an interesting fact. In 1911, Bishop Gunn was ordained a bishop in Atlanta in Sacred Heart Church, which he built. Two of his three consecrating bishops were Archbishop James Hubert Blenk, Archbishop of New Orleans and fellow Marist, and Bishop Edward Allen of Mobile.
Bishop Richard Oliver Gerow (7) was born and raised in Mobile being baptized, confirmed, and in 1924 ordained a bishop in the Cathedral there by Bishop Allen. In 1927, Bishop Gerow was a co-consecrator of Archbishop Thomas Joseph Toolen of Mobile. Thirty years later, Bishop Gerow was principal consecrator of Vicksburg native, Joseph Bernard Brunini (8) in our Cathedral of Saint Peter the Apostle in Jackson. It was a co-cathedral then.
Bishop Brunini was a co-consecrator Bishop Joseph Lawson Howze as auxiliary of Jackson in 1973. Bishop Howze was a native of the Mobile area in Daphne and went on to become the first bishop of Biloxi when it was established in 1977.
Bishop William Russell Houck (9), a native of Mobile, was ordained a priest in the Mobile Cathedral in 1951. Another interesting aside, Bishop Houck was ordained a Bishop on May 27, 1979, in Rome by St. Pope John Paul II in a group of 27 bishops ordained that day.
New Orleans native, Bishop Joseph Nunzio Latino (10) was ordained a priest in St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans by Archbishop John Cody in 1963. Forty years later, he was ordained a bishop in our cathedral by Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb of Mobile. Bishop Houck served as a co-consecrator.
Bishop Joseph Richard Kopacz (11) was ordained a bishop in our cathedral in 2014 by Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi, archbishop emeritus of Mobile and native of New Orleans. Bishop Latino served as co-consecrator.
Archbishop Mark S. Rivituso, our new metropolitan of Mobile, barring any unforeseen circumstances, will be ordaining and installing our next bishop (12) – whenever that time comes. Archbishop Rivituso, a native of St. Louis, was ordained a priest by Archbishop John May, who for a time served as bishop of Mobile (1969-80).
Well, that was a whirlwind of trails and tributaries surrounding the episcopal lineage of our region that gives a glimpse of the extraordinary interconnectedness of our bishops and dioceses. Even more, it is a microcosm of apostolic succession.
All this revelation of Catholic chronicles springs forth from memories of ordinations past inspired by the month of May. Pray for our clergy and think about coming to one of the upcoming celebrations.
(Mary Woodward is Chancellor and Archivist for the Diocese of Jackson.)
Catholic Charities to honor Father Burke Masters, Tommy Turk at annual Bishop’s Ball
By Joe Lee
JACKSON – Originally from Joliet, Illinois, and the parish priest at St. Isaac Jogues Church in nearby Hinsdale, Father Burke Masters almost seems like a native Mississippian despite living most of his life near Chicago.
Even casual sports fans remember his starring role on the 1990 Mississippi State baseball team that made the College World Series, and many people across the state have met him through his keynote appearances at Journey of Hope luncheons in 2019 and 2025.
“Since college, Mississippi has always been like a second home,” said Masters, who was ordained as a priest in 2002 and authored A Grand Slam for God, published in 2023 by Word on Fire Press. “I grew up in Illinois but spent five years in Starkville. Coming back to see friends I’ve known since I arrived there in 1985 is like a home week for me.”
Masters will be honored at the 21st annual Bishop’s Ball on Thursday, June 18 at the Westin in Downtown Jackson. Also honored will be Jacksonian Tommy Turk, whose “Friends for a Cause” nonprofit supports Squat & Gobble each Thanksgiving, a beloved event that helps fund the Catholic Charities domestic violence program.
“The Bishop’s Ball gives us a chance to honor the support of the bishop each year, as well as others who have contributed significantly to Catholic Charities,” said executive director Christina Bach. “As one of our major fundraisers, it provides the necessary funds to support Born Free/New Beginnings, a substance use recovery program for pregnant or parenting women in order to keep families together and help babies enter the world free of drugs.”
Other programs support victims of sexual assault, and counseling services are available for families with children experiencing behavioral issues. Catholic Charities of Jackson’s efforts reach 65 of Mississippi’s 82 counties.
“Our honorees have been very committed to Catholic Charities for a long time,” Bishop Joseph Kopacz said. “Tommy Turk has directed a generous amount of the proceeds from community fundraisers to Catholic Charities, raising money and awareness in the process.
“Father Burke has traveled to our diocese on separate occasions to evangelize and to raise money out of love for the work of Catholic Charities and the people of Mississippi. It is a blessing to honor these men of God.”
Masters will also receive a Knights of Columbus award from Cameron Ellis and Luke McClure from the regional KC insurance office that serves Alabama and Mississippi.
“Catholic Charities does so much for the poor,” Masters said. “In Matthew 25, Jesus teaches that ‘whatever you did for the least of my brothers and sisters, you did for me.’ That’s the call for all of us to share the good news God has given to us, and Catholic Charities is on the front lines all over the world and certainly in Jackson.”
“It is often said that Catholic social teaching is the best kept secret in our Church,” Kopacz said. “This is certainly true for many in our diocese regarding Catholic Charities, whose programs serve those in need throughout our state. Come out and enjoy the evening and support the mission to be a visible sign of Christ’s love.”
(Visit https://event.gives/bb26 to purchase tickets to the Bishop’s Ball or to sponsor the event.)
Listening leads to new lay formation hub honoring legacy of Bishop William Houck
By Joanna King
JACKSON – A new diocesan initiative focused on strengthening lay leadership and faith formation across the Diocese of Jackson is taking shape through the newly established Bishop William R. Houck Center for Lay Formation, an effort church leaders say grew directly out of listening sessions held during the diocesan Pastoral Reimagining process.
Led by the diocesan Office of Faith Formation under the direction of Fran Lavelle, the center is designed to provide accessible formation and ministry training opportunities for parish and school leaders, catechists, youth ministers and other lay leaders throughout the diocese.
“The absolute best part of my ministry is working with people,” Lavelle said. “The second-best part of my job is looking at ways to better serve our parishes and schools, especially concerning faith formation.”
Lavelle said the idea for the center emerged after parish and deanery listening sessions identified the need for stronger lay leadership formation.
“Better formation for lay leaders was one of the clarion calls from both individual parishes and the deaneries,” she said. “When you ask people how the Church can better serve them, it is important to act on what you hear.”
An advisory committee formed in late 2024 began reimagining how the diocese could support lay ministry and leadership development. That process ultimately led to the creation of the Bishop William R. Houck Center for Lay Formation.
The center is named in honor of former Bishop William R. Houck, who served the Diocese of Jackson from 1984 to 2003 and was widely recognized for his commitment to Catholic education, evangelization and lay ministry. During his tenure, Houck served as chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Evangelization, which published the landmark 1992 document, Go and Make Disciples: A National Plan and Strategy for Catholic Evangelization in the United States. The document, still used today, continues to encourage Catholics to embrace the mission of discipleship.
“Bishop Houck was an esteemed educator and a devoted advocate for lay ministry,” Lavelle said. “His vision and voice laid the foundation for lay leadership training in the Diocese. It is our hope to expand his vision to provide high-quality formation and training at every parish, mission and school.”
According to the center’s website, its mission is “to provide lay leaders in the Diocese of Jackson training and formation with emphasis in catechetical, pastoral and ecclesial applications.”
The initiative is built around three foundational pillars: education, evangelization and the development of well-formed lay leaders. The website notes that ongoing formation in Scripture and Catholic teaching helps disciples live out their call, while strong parish communities depend on prepared leaders who can serve with “knowledge, confidence and compassion.”
Unlike a traditional diocesan institute, the Houck Center is not housed in a physical building. Instead, it operates as an online resource hub hosted through the diocesan website. Participants can access diocesan workshops, online courses, ministry resources and leadership development opportunities in a variety of ministry areas.
“We really wanted something accessible to people no matter where they live in the diocese,” Lavelle said. “This is about meeting parish leaders where they are and helping them continue to grow in confidence and faith.”
Current areas of formation include campus ministry, catechist training, family ministry, intercultural ministry, liturgy, OCIA, prison ministry, youth ministry and young adult ministry, along with leadership training opportunities for pastoral councils and parish ministry teams.
One of the center’s first major initiatives is a redesigned Pastoral Ministries Workshop, a longtime diocesan leadership program that has now been restructured to better accommodate busy parish volunteers and ministry leaders. Previously offered as a four-year program requiring participants to attend a weeklong summer session each year, the workshop has been reformatted into a more flexible intensive weekend model.
“The length of time to complete the old program, along with the difficulty many volunteers had getting away for an entire week, made us realize we needed a more accessible format,” Lavelle said. “We wanted to preserve the richness of the formation while making it realistic for people serving in parish ministry.”
The new two-year program consists of six four-hour sessions focused on prayer, theology, pastoral leadership and practical ministry skills. Courses will be offered concurrently in English and Spanish, reflecting the diversity of the diocese and the center’s emphasis on broad accessibility.
This year’s workshop topics include the foundations of Catholic pastoral ministry, pastoral identity and spirituality, and communication and relationship-building in ministry. Participants will explore themes such as servant leadership, intercultural communication, conflict transformation and spiritual practices that sustain ministry.
Lavelle said the workshop is intended not only for new ministers and catechists, but also for experienced parish leaders seeking renewed formation and support.
“Our primary goal is to provide a foundation in Catholic pastoral ministry through prayer, theology, practical skills and reflection,” she said.
This year’s workshop will be held July 31-Aug. 2 at Eagle Ridge Conference Center in Raymond. Registration is open through July 10. More information about the Bishop William R. Houck Center for Lay Formation can be found at jacksondiocese.org/bishop-houck-center-for-lay-formation.
(For questions on the Center or the upcoming Pastoral Ministries Workshop, contact fran.lavelle@jacksondiocese.org.)
Let there be a rising tide of the Spirit
By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
During the heart of the Easter season, I celebrated my 49th anniversary of priesthood. From the sanctuary of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Scranton on May 7, 1977, to the sanctuary of St. Peter the Apostle in Jackson on Feb. 6, 2014, until this present moment, I have been caught up, in the words of Pope St. John Paul II, in this “gift and mystery” of the priesthood of Jesus Christ.
Actually, my first celebration of ordination occurred on April 23, 1976, with the call to the diaconate. Therefore, for more than 50 years, by God’s grace, I have fought the good fight and kept the faith, but have not yet finished the race. May there be many more years ahead in the plan of God’s providence.
Indeed, let us give thanks for all of our priests, past and present, mindful of those who are celebrating their anniversaries at this time of year. Ad multos annos!
The Diocese of Jackson rejoices this weekend with the ordination to the priesthood of Will Foggo who will celebrate his first Mass at St. Paul in Flowood.
During the Easter season, the Church also rejoices in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation. Our catechumens and candidates entering the Church at the Easter Vigil were the first to receive the gift of God’s loving spirit, followed by candidates in many parishes throughout the diocese.
In fact, a bishop’s travels throughout his diocese in the Easter season mirror the missionary journeys portrayed in the Acts of the Apostles, when the apostles and the first evangelists traversed far and wide to carry the Gospel across the Mediterranean world and strengthen fledging Christian communities. The proclamation of the Gospel to the nations and the sanctification of existing communities and individual believers is the work of the Holy Spirit, begun at Pentecost and continuing until Christ comes again.
With Pentecost on the horizon, let there be a rising tide within us to entreat an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. May we also know and understand the power of the Holy Spirit’s presence and the poverty of his absence. We are invited, therefore, to deepen our relationship with the Holy Spirit, both in prayer and in everyday life, listening to his voice within us.
“The Holy Spirit, breath of Jesus and atmosphere of heaven, is also the breath of his body, the Church. And we are aware of his presence if the Church is itself in the full sense; that is, if it is kingdom of God, heaven come down on earth, because of unity. We are reminded that without the Holy Spirit, God is distant, Christ remains in the past, the Gospel is a dead letter, the Church is a mere organization, and ‘mission’ is mere propaganda. But being in the Holy Spirit, the cosmos is lifted up and groans in the gestation of the kingdom of God, the risen Christ is present, the Gospel is the power of life, the Church signifies trinitarian communion and ‘mission’ is a Pentecost.” (Chiara Lubich, Essential Writings)
“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.”
Happy Ordination Anniversary
May 7
Bishop Joseph Kopacz
(ordained priest)
May 11
Father Mark Shoffner
Father Adolfo Suarez Pasillas
May 14
Father Panneer Selvam Arockiam;
Father Andrew Bowden;
Father Jason Johnston; and
Father Joseph Le
May 17
Father Matthew Simmons
May 18
Father Tristan Stovall
May 23
Deacon Hank Babin
May 24
Father Bob Goodyear, ST
May 27
Father Carlisle Beggerly
Father Charles Bucciantini
Father Leon Ngandu, SVD
May 29
Father Hilary Brzezinski, OFM
May 31
Father Nick Adam
Father Lincoln Dall
Father Binh Nguyen
Father José de Jesus Sanchez
Father Rusty Vincent
Father Aaron Williams
Bishops’ Civil Rights pilgrimage shows need to face past to build new future
By Gina Christian
(OSV News) – Several U.S. bishops recently traveled on pilgrimage to key sites commemorating the nation’s Civil Rights Movement and the legacy of slavery and racial discrimination – with two bishops telling OSV News the journey showed the need to face the past, before seeking to change the future.
“It’s important to learn about the past, as odious as this is, as evil as the sin of racism and slavery is,” said Bishop William A. Wack of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida. “We have to admit it, that it was part of our history, part of our nation, really a part of our culture. … It’s hard to move on if we have not confronted it together.”
Bishop Wack was among six prelates who traveled to Alabama for a March 18-20 “Lenten Experience in Montgomery and Selma.”
Joining Bishop Wack were Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, California; Bishop J. Mark Spalding of Nashville, Tennessee; Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz of Jackson, Mississippi; Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala of Washington; and Auxiliary Bishop Felipe Pulido of San Diego.
The second such event coordinated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation and the Catholic Mobilizing Network, the trip saw the bishops – along with USCCB and network staff, and USCCB subcommittee consultant Gloria Purvis – visit multiple locations in just two and a half days.
During the pilgrimage, the bishops celebrated Mass at local parishes, and met with civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, as well as Dianne Thelma Harris, a foot soldier in the peaceful 1965 Voting Rights March.
The itinerary featured stops at Montgomery’s three Legacy Sites: the Legacy Museum, which surveys the nation’s 400-year span of enslavement, racial terrorism, codified segregationism and mass incarceration; the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which memorializes more than 4,400 Black people lynched between 1877 and 1950; and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, which provides an immersive view into the lives of enslaved persons.
Other Montgomery sites in the tour were City of St. Jude, which was the final stop for Civil Rights marchers from Selma before their arrival at the state capitol on March 24, 1965, and the Dexter Parsonage Museum, where Civil Rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his family lived during his 1954-1960 tenure as pastor of the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church.
Bishop Wack told OSV News the parsonage – which had been bombed several times during Rev. King’s pastorate – left a deep impression, as he recalled a pivotal moment when Rev. King, sitting at his kitchen table after an attack, prayerfully discerned a call to persist in the Civil Rights Movement.
“He became a real person to me sitting right here – there’s the sink, here’s where he made the coffee. And then he sat down and he had this moment of deep, intense prayer with God,” Bishop Wack recalled. “As a bishop, I’ve had moments like that: ‘God, what do you want me to do? Where should I go?’”
In Selma, the group crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where in 1965 some 600 Civil Rights marchers for voting rights were brutally attacked by law enforcement, with the violence filmed by local television and later broadcast. While in Selma, the pilgrims dined at the Edmundite Missions, a Catholic social services agency through which the Society of St. Edmund has offered support for 90 years.
Bishop Kopacz told OSV News that the pilgrimage revealed “incredible truth and reconciliation opportunities.”
He pointed to the need to document the historical sweep of slavery, racism and injustice in the nation’s history, and to see its ongoing effects.
“What Alabama has done is really brought forward the history that goes back to the onset, to the the transatlantic passage and the beginnings of slavery,” he said.
The slave trade saw some 12 million to 20 million Africans enslaved in various Western nations, including the U.S., over a period of four centuries. The United Nations recently condemned the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity,” and passed a resolution also calling for reparations by member states to affected nations.
Recalling his visit, Bishop Kopacz traced how the legacy of slavery continued through “the years of Jim Crow,” the codified racial caste system that prevailed in southern and border states from 1877 to the mid-1960s; racial lynchings; and through capital punishment, which Stevenson and others argue disproportionately impacts people of color.
Bishop Kopacz said that capital punishment – which the Catholic Church condemns – is “dragging forward this chapter of our life here in America” marked by the violent history of slavery and racism.
Slavery “wasn’t just ended with the Emancipation Proclamation,” said Bishop Wack, referencing the 1863 presidential decree that declared slaves in some U.S. states free.
Rather, said Bishop Wack, slavery “perhaps took different forms,” as “there was a lot of discrimination that continued.”
Both Bishop Kopacz and Bishop Wack told OSV News they planned to bring their pilgrimage experiences back to their respective flocks, encouraging prayer, reflection and – as Bishop Wack said – “courageous conversations” to help counter the sin of racism.
“In order to have reconciliation and change toward greater justice, we need that deepening awareness,” said Bishop Kopacz.
(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News.)
Called by Name
Another priestly ordination is upon us. I remember Will Foggo coming to my office at St. Richard in the spring of 2020 with his seminary application in hand. He was one of the first men that I helped through the application process as vocation director.
Will encountered many “new” experiences along the way. He worked with a new vocation director, with new ideas about seminary preparation. He entered seminary during the pandemic and experienced formation during the restrictive “bubble” year at St. Ben’s. He was also among the first group of our seminarians to study in Mexico as a part of formation; and the first seminarian ordained to the diaconate in winter rather than spring.
Through it all, Will faced every challenge with his good-natured patience and hard work. From the start, he has been dedicated to serving the Lord, and I’m excited to see him ordained a diocesan priest.
Will’s ordination will be on Saturday, May 16 at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle; followed by his first Mass of thanksgiving Sunday, May 17 at 10:30 a.m. at his home parish, St. Paul in Flowood. If you have never attended a priestly ordination or a first Mass, I highly recommend doing so when you have the opportunity .
During ordination, Will will lay prostrate on the cathedral floor as a sign of surrender to divine providence and service to the Church. He will promise to serve the People of God through prayer, preaching, teaching, administering the sacraments and obedience to the bishop. His hands will be anointed with chrism as his very soul is conformed to Christ the priest, and entrusted with the gift and responsibility of providing the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick.
At his first Mass – which technically is not his first Mass, since that is the ordination Mass – Father Foggo will be joined by friends and family filling both the sanctuary and the pews. His home parish will rejoice in celebrating with the fruit of their own field, in the place where he worshipped for so many years.
His parents, John and Shelia, along with the rest of the family, will be in the front pew and experience the unique blessing of receiving Communion from a spiritual father who is also their son.
I am grateful to John and Shelia for the many ways that they have blessed both me and our diocese through their support of Will and their service to the Department of Vocations over the years.
Will’s longtime pastor, Father Gerry Hurley, will also be concelebrating the Mass as he approaches his 50th anniversary of priestly ministry. I am grateful for his care for Will and his support of his discernment through the years. What a gift to celebrate both a new priest and a golden-jubilarian at the same Mass. Father Hurley continues to be a joyful witness to our seminarians and diocese.
So yes, I am very much looking forward to another ordination. We pray to God that many more days like this are ahead for our diocese. For now, we simply rejoice that a good man has generously offered his life to the Church and is about to become a good priest. Thanks be to God.
Will with his parents Shelia and John on move-in day to St. Joseph Seminary College (St. Ben’s) August 8, 2020
(Father Nick Adam is Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Jackson. He can be contacted at nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.)
Pope Leo’s prayer intention for May: ‘That everyone might have food’
By Courtney Mares
ROME (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV has dedicated his prayer intention for the month of May to one of humanity’s most persistent challenges: hunger.
In a video message released on April 30 by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, the pope called on Catholics worldwide to confront the problem of food insecurity with both prayer and concrete action.
“Today we recognize with sorrow that millions of brothers and sisters continue to suffer from hunger, while so many goods are wasted at our tables,” the pope said in the video, recorded inside the Church of San Pellegrino in Vatican City.
At least 318 million people are expected to face food crisis conditions or worse this year, according to the World Food Program’s 2026 Global Outlook. The ongoing war in the Middle East could push an additional 45 million people into severe hunger before mid-year. In 2025, two famines were recorded in parts of Gaza and Sudan.
At the same time, the U.N. Environment Program reports that more than 1 billion tons of food are wasted globally every year, a contrast the pope addressed directly in his message.
Pope Leo called for a shift away from what he described as “the logic of selfish consumption” and toward “a culture of solidarity,” urging Catholic communities to take up practical measures including food banks, awareness campaigns and simpler, more responsible lifestyles.
“May our communities promote concrete gestures,” the pope said, adding that believers should approach every meal with gratitude, consume simply and “share with joy” in the knowledge that the fruits of the earth are “destined for all, not just a few.”
The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, also known as the Apostleship of Prayer, releases a prayer intention from the pope each month as part of its mission to unite Catholics in prayer for the Church’s global concerns.
Father Cristóbal Fones, director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, said the intention is a deeply personal concern for the pope.
“This intention comes from the pope’s heart. It pains him deeply that so many people in the world cannot access something as essential and human as food,” Father Fones said. “This is why he is asking everyone not to remain indifferent but to take decisive action, first with prayer, then with concrete gestures of solidarity.”
(Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.)
A soul friend
IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
One of the saints who speaks to me is Therese of Lisieux, commonly known as the Little Flower. This wasn’t love at first sight. For years I was put off and left cold and uninterested by how her person and her image have become encrusted in an overly saccharine piety. She was too sweet, too pious. Not a saint for me! That changed, thanks to a friend who told me, “Don’t read books about her – read her!” I read her and found in her a soul friend.
Who is Therese of Lisieux? She was a Carmelite nun who died from tuberculous in 1897. She was only twenty-four years old when she died, and as a Carmelite nun hidden away in a convent in rural France, she died in anonymity, probably known by fewer than a hundred people. However, during the last two years of her life, as she lay dying from tuberculous, she kept several diaries. After her death, her Carmelite sisters sent her unpublished diaries to a few other convents, intending to let a small circle of religious women know of her death and a little about her life.
The rest is history. The manuscripts were leaked to a wider public and in less than ten years, printing presses were literally having trouble meeting the demand for her autobiography. Her little convent in Lisieux was receiving more than five hundred letters a day, and people from all over the world were beginning to come to Lisieux on pilgrimage. A hundred and thirty years later, little has changed. She remains extraordinarily popular.
Why? Why this perennial intrigue about Therese? Because there is something about her that touches the soul in a particularly empathic way. How so?
Therese had an anomalous background that produced an extraordinary character. Her life as a child was in many ways tragic. Her mother got sick at the time of Therese’s birth and was unable to care for her during the crucial first year of her life. She was cared for by a nurse and an aunt. As a one-year-old she was returned to her mother, but her mother was already terminally ill and when Therese was four, her mother died. Therese then chose her older sister, Pauline, to be her new mother. Five years later, Pauline entered the convent and as a nine-year-old Therese again lost a mother.
Shortly after this she took ill and almost died. This was triggered by a visit to Pauline who was then a Carmelite nun. Together with her three other sisters and her father, she had gone to visit Pauline in her convent. After Pauline had spent some time focused on her little sister, she naturally became preoccupied in adult conversation. Left out, in sheer frustration, little Therese stood right in front of her big sister and, shaking her dress, began to cry.
“What’s the matter?” asked Pauline. “You didn’t notice!” cried Therese, “I’m wearing the dress you made me!”
She then became disconsolate and on returning home took to bed and for some weeks; despite the best efforts of various doctors and every kind of cajoling by her family, hovered between life and death. Eventually she recovered. Such was the tragedy and oversensitivity of her childhood.
Yet, and this is the great anomaly, as a child, Therese was doted on and loved in a way that few children ever are. Her father, her sisters and her extended family considered her their little queen and she was cherished and made to feel extraordinarily precious and unique. Her sister Celine photographed her every move. Few children ever grow up as nurtured in love and affirmation as did Therese.
And her personality bore out the effects of both the tragedy and the love. On the one side, she could be heavy, dark, withdrawn, and otherworldly. She made easy friends with mortality, was a mystic of darkness, the austere adult, the little girl-woman, who, wounded early, grew up fast. But, on the other side, she always remained the magical child, Cinderella, who, because she was so loved and graced, developed a very robust self-esteem, a confidence and a capacity to love as few others ever have.
So loved as child, a part of her remained ever the little girl, the puella, the incarnation of childlikeness, innocence, and gaiety. Only a Therese of Lisieux could end all her letters with the phrase: I kiss you with my whole heart!
In a soul so formed lies her mystique, that is, her unique combination of depth, insight, and other worldliness, even as she desperately clings to the tiniest gifts from her family and every small token of earthly affection. Only a soul so formed could, at age twenty-two, have the complexity and wisdom to write a mystical and theological treatise that rivals that of great theological doctors, and only a soul so formed could be both a study in hyper-sensitivity and human resilience.
A saint so pathologically complex can be a soul friend to our own complex souls.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a professor of spirituality at Oblate School of Theology and award-winning author.)