Updates

Men’s Holy Week prayer breakfast at St. Richard builds on decades of tradition

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By Joe Lee
JACKSON – For Anthony Thomas and the guys who put on the annual St. Richard men’s prayer breakfast on the Monday of Holy Week, an especially early start to the day carries on a tradition that’s in its seventh decade. It’s the opportunity to see old friends, make new ones, and grow in their faith together that keeps these men coming back.

“I moved to the parish in 1974 and got involved in the breakfast the following year,” Thomas said after a group of over 40 enjoyed a tasty, balanced meal of pancakes, sausage, fresh fruit, orange juice and coffee in Foley Hall. “We’ve had only four chefs over the years: Joe Daschbach, Jay Potter, David Evers and Mike Prince, who’s doing it now. We’re fortunate to have had people who can cook that know what they’re doing.”

Bishop Kopacz, Anthony Thomas and Father Joe Tonos

Bishop Joseph Kopacz, who celebrated a pre-dawn Mass while Thomas and his team of volunteers were next door preparing the meal, also spoke at the breakfast and described his recent pastoral trip to Ireland, a journey that included visits with retired Irish priests who pastored in the Diocese of Jackson and family members of deceased priests who pastored here.

“The presiding bishop has always been the Holy Week speaker since I’ve been in charge of the speakers, which goes back to the mid-1980s,” Thomas said. “I think anybody you talk to who attends enjoys the fellowship as much as the message, but we don’t ever want to book a speaker and then have a small crowd. We enjoy Bishop Kopacz, and there’s always a good turnout for him. We had a nice group this morning.”

“For me to be here as bishop, with the privileged position to be able to go to Ireland, represent the diocese, visit these retired priests and offer a word of thanks and affirmation, that’s a beautiful thing,” Bishop Kopacz said. “And to come back and share the experience with (the breakfast attendees) gives them a perspective and the understanding that the church here has a lot of life. We never need to take that for granted; it’s a gift of faith that we have to keep alive.”

Bishop Kopacz noted that many of the breakfast attendees have had personal relationships for decades with the bishops he and Msgr. Elvin Sunds visited in Ireland, such as Father Michael O’Brien and Father P.J. Curley. (Visit mississippicatholic.com/category/bishop to read Bishop Kopacz’s column about the trip, “May the road rise up to meet you,” his first to Ireland since before the Covid pandemic.)

“For Anthony, this is a niche,” Bishop Kopacz said. “It requires others who are setting it up, doing the cooking. He’s an old pro; he’s up early and bringing it together.”

JACKSON – Bishop Joseph Kopacz speaks at the annual men’s prayer breakfast at St. Richard parish on Monday, April 3. (Photo by Joe Lee)

St. Richard parishioner Jeff Cook, who served as an altar server during Mass before enjoying the breakfast, was an attendee for several years before returning after the pandemic to begin helping in the kitchen. He’s one of many regulars who has known Thomas for years and finds his energy and leadership inspiring.

“If it wasn’t for Anthony, I wouldn’t be here,” said current breakfast chef Mike Prince. “I’ve cooked for fifteen years, and the breakfast is a sacrifice, but I learned to keep my head up, keep a positive attitude and trust in the Lord. The first one I ever did, (Foley Hall) was brand new. I forgot to turn the oven hoods on, and in the prayer before breakfast, all the fire alarms in the building went off.

“We always pray before we serve, and God always seems to blaze the trail. In our heyday, 50 was a good crowd, but today was a good crowd. I think the breakfast is a good outreach program for the church, and a great opportunity for the men of the parish to get together to share faith, hear positive stories, and just fellowship.”

Synod’s ‘messy,’ ‘joyful’ North American phase concludes with call to mission, moves to Rome

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By Gina Christian

(OSV News) – The final document for the North American phase of the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality was released April 12, capturing a process of dialogue and discernment that two participants described as ‘messy,’ ‘joyful’ and unifying – like the synod itself.

“It’s amazing what comes about when … you invoke the Holy Spirit in the conversation,” Julia McStravog, a theologian and co-coordinator of the North American team for the synod’s continental phase, told OSV News.

“The synodal approach provoked a genuine appreciation and joyfulness on the part of the people of God to be able to engage in conversation, even if they were talking about difficult issues,” team co-coordinator Richard Coll told OSV News. Coll also serves as executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development.

Led by Catholic bishops from Canada and the United States, McStravog, Coll and their fellow team members have now synthesized the results of synod listening sessions throughout the two countries, producing a 36-page final document available for download at usccb.org/synod. (According to the USCCB, the Catholic Church in Mexico is participating in the global synod with the Latin American Episcopal Council, or CELAM, given its long partnership with that conference.)

Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez joins college students, other young adults and ministry leaders during a synodal listening session at La Salle University April 4, 2022. (OSV News photo/CNS file, Sarah Webb, CatholicPhilly.com)

The North American synod team – consisting of eight bishops, three laywomen, two priests, two laymen and two women religious – spent time in prayer, silence and discussion to distill responses for inclusion in the text, which forms a response to the Document for the Continental Stage issued by the Holy See’s General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops in October 2022.

The final document for the continental stage from North America, along with the contributions of the six other continental assemblies, will form the basis of the “Instrumentum Laboris,” the global synod’s working document, to be released by the General Secretariat in June.

Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, who leads the North American team with Canadian Bishop Raymond Poisson of Saint-Jérôme-Mont-Laurier, Quebec, presented the document at the Vatican April 12.

Launched by Pope Francis in October 2021, the multi-year synod of bishops – the theme of which is “communion, participation and mission” – seeks to cultivate an ongoing dynamic of discernment, listening, humility and engagement within the Catholic Church.

The North American report highlighted three key themes: the implications of baptism, communion with Christ and one another, and missionary discipleship as a living out of the baptismal calling.

“Our baptismal dignity is inseparable from our baptismal responsibility, which sends us forth on mission,” the document stated. “Every human person possesses the dignity that comes from being created in the image of God. Through baptism, Christians share in an exalted dignity and vocation to holiness, with no inequality based on race, nationality, social condition, or sex, because we are one in Christ Jesus.”

By virtue of their baptism, participants in the synod’s North American phase expressed “a desire for a greater recognition of, and opportunities for, co-responsibility within the church and her mission,” with greater collaboration “among the laity and the clergy, including bishops,” said the document. It stressed “there can be no true co-responsibility in the church without fully honoring the dignity of women.”

An “authentic acknowledgment and respect for the gifts and talents of young people is another vital aspect of a co-responsible church in North America,” said the document.

Amid “polarization and a strong pull towards fragmentation,” synod participants in North America emphasized the need to “maintain the centrality of Christ,” especially in the Eucharist.

The document candidly acknowledged that a “significant threat to communion within the church is a lack of trust, especially between bishops and the laity, but also between the clergy in general and the lay faithful.”

The clergy sexual abuse crisis in particular has caused “major areas of tension in North America,” as have “the historical wrongs found in the residential (and) boarding schools for Indigenous people, which … included abuse of all kinds,” said the document.

In their introduction to the document, Bishop Flores and Bishop Poisson admitted the need to “(make) efforts to listen more effectively to those from whom we have not heard, including many who have been relegated to the margins of our communities, society and church.” They noted their “absence” in the synodal process was “not easily interpreted but was palpably felt.”

Among those often missing from synodal sessions were priests, with bishops acknowledging their responsibility to address that lack “by example and by conveying the transparency and spiritual/pastoral fruitfulness of synodality.”

Synod participants listed women, young people, immigrants, racial or linguistic minorities, LGBTQ+ persons, people who are divorced and civilly remarried without an annulment, and those with varying degrees of physical or mental abilities as marginalized within the church.

Outreach and inclusion of these groups is ultimately driven at the local level by the faithful actively living out their baptism, McStravog told OSV News.

At the same time, “the bishops really took to heart the call … to reach out to the periphery,” Coll told OSV News, who added that virtual synod sessions enabled broader participation.
Synod participants consistently articulated a longing for better formation in the faith and in Catholic social teaching, the document said.

As the synod process moves into its next phase, Coll and McStravog pointed to the need for humility and openness to God’s will.

“We don’t have all the answers, and none of this is pre-packaged,” said Coll. “You have to trust that the Spirit will be there to guide us despite the messiness – or maybe because of it.”

(Gina Christian is a national reporter for OSV News. Follow her on Twitter at @GinaJesseReina.)

Called by name

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Another ‘school year’ is reaching its end for our seminarians. This means final exams and papers and looking ahead to the summer.

Only one of our seminarians will be on parish assignment this summer. Following his first year of studies, EJ Martin (St. Richard, Jackson) will spend his summer at St. John the Evangelist in Oxford with Father Mark Shoffner. John Le (St. Francis, Brookhaven) will be doing clinical pastoral education in Houston, Texas. This is a summer of hospital chaplain fieldwork that many seminaries recommend as men continue to progress toward ordination.

Four of our seminarians, Will Foggo (St. Paul, Flowood), Grayson Foley (St. Richard, Jackson), Ryan Stoer (St. Richard, Jackson) and Tristan Stovall (Holy Cross Philadelphia) will be joining me during the months of June and July in Cuernavaca, Mexico. We have partnered with the Monastery of Our Lady of the Angels in Cuernavaca to provide our seminarians with a summer immersion so they can be on the road to fluency in Spanish by the time they get ordained.

Father Nick Adam

We have two men who have discerned that the Lord is not calling them to priesthood. Tripp Bond (St. Patrick, Meridian) and Straton Garrard (St. Richard, Jackson) have decided to leave the program, or ‘discerned out.’ It is never easy to ‘lose’ a seminarian, but we remember that the seminary is not a place for those who have already decided that they are going to be priests – this is the common misconception that I’ve been trying to debunk. The seminary is the place where men discover whether or not they are called to be priests. I am grateful that Straton and Tripp asked the question in the first place, and we pray that their life has been enriched by their time in formation and that they will grow in holiness as they pursue their life outside priestly formation.

As our program grows, we trust in the Lord. We have one new seminarian for the Fall – Wilson Locke (St. Joseph, Starkville) – and a few others who are seriously considering entering. God is answering our prayers, and supporting vocations means supporting our men whether or not they become priests. If our program is healthy, then we will have more men ‘discern out’ because we are inviting and supporting men who are truly open to God’s will to study in the seminary and discover whether they are called to the priesthood.

The best thing you can do is encourage the young men that you see in your parish to consider the priesthood, and to remind them that seminary is not the end, it is just the beginning. Please pray for all of our seminarians and for Tripp and Straton. Thank you for supporting our program, and we beg the Lord to bring forth more laborers for the harvest.

                                                                                         – Father Nick Adam

For more info on vocations email: nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.

In the Eucharist, we strays can find our ‘forever homeland’

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GUEST COLUMN
By Sister Alicia Torres

I love dogs. Not like I love my family, or like I love Jesus, but I really do have a strong affection for dogs.

A few months ago, I came home from teaching and was welcomed by an unfamiliar, and rather unpleasant, smell in the convent. Entering our large dining room, I noticed the puppy crate had been set up, and indeed was being used! Little Charlie was about 5 months old and it was love at first sight. Although he really did stink.

Earlier that morning, my religious community was serving over 400 families at our weekly food pantry when – seemingly out of nowhere – Charlie had shown up – soaking wet, muddy and full of friendly energy. Sister Kate noticed that this rather large Siberian Husky puppy was causing distress among our pantry guests and quickly put him on a leash.

When I met him some hours later, Charlie had already been given the first of several (very necessary) baths and was making himself at home. He was all cuddles and kisses. Everyone was his friend, and he made sure you knew you were loved.

Sister Alicia Torres and Charlie in the convent of the Franciscans of the Eucharist in Chicago. (OSV News photo/Courtesy Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago)

Through the neighborhood grapevine we learned that Charlie had been abandoned by his owners. Caring for man’s best friend is not easy: It takes time, attention and resources. The people who had originally owned Charlies must have thought, “Surely the nuns will take care of him.” And we did.

But could we become his forever home?

In religious life (and really all Christian life), a great virtue to cultivate is detachment.
Unfortunately for me, that virtue wasn’t kicking in (nor was I really attempting to foster it) when it came to Charlie. All I wanted was to keep him. But with three German Shepherds, our little Franciscan community already had our hands full, and for all of his positive character traits, there was not one drop of guard dog in Charlie. At the time we had a small renovation project going on in the convent, and not one “stranger” (construction worker) who entered was bereft of a kiss from him.

Six days after he came to us, we were able to locate a proper Husky rescue, and a few weeks after that, we received the good news that Charlie had been adopted – he had found his forever home.

If you and I are honest, we really are looking for the same thing as Charlie, aren’t we? Don’t we have a deep, innate desire for home? And no matter how good it can get this side of heaven, that desire is just never fully satisfied.

During my theology classes, I was blessed to befriend Father Tom Norris, an Irish theologian and a visiting professor to Mundelein Seminary. He had a way of teaching – and storytelling – that could leave one not only stunned but speechless and immobile – as if he could open a wellspring of grace, and you couldn’t help but let yourself be lovingly soaked in the glory. One day, as he was describing the paschal mystery he stated: “Good Friday is when the ‘homeland’ enters exile so that the exiles may enter the ‘homeland.’”

I was totally blown away; I began to realize in a new way that the paschal mystery wasn’t just something that happened 2,000 years ago.

What happened on Good Friday and what was victoriously completed in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus is represented for us in the Eucharist at every Mass. In those moments of consecration – so timeless – we are invited with the priest to truly pray the Mass. In doing so, we enter into something that is real, and truer than anything this side of heaven.

Charlie had to roam for a few months before he found “homeland,” but you and I don’t ever have to wait that long. The forever home we long for begins right here, right now, in every Eucharist.

(Sister Alicia Torres is an executive team member for the National Eucharistic Revival, editor of the Heart of the Revival e-newsletter, and a member of the Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago, a religious community that carries out the mission of the church through service to the poor, evangelization and teaching.)

Anniversaries in ordinary times

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ON ORDINARY TIMES
By Lucia A. Silecchia
With the arrival of Easter, one of the greatest joys in the lives of parishes around the world is the opportunity to welcome new sisters and brothers in Christ through the sacred celebrations at the great Easter Vigil. To all who celebrate this profound moment this year, welcome! May the graces flowing from the waters of Baptism, the sustenance of the Eucharist and the life of the Holy Spirit fill your soul now and always.

Lucia A. Silecchia

My own welcome to you is filled with great gratitude.

Each year, the faith-filled witness of catechumens and candidates is an inspiration to the parishes that became your spiritual homes and the parishioners who filled the candle-lit pews that evening. I hope that you know how much it means to see you bring your enthusiasm, commitment, joy and devotion to a faith I can too often take for granted because it seems so familiar.

But, if this time of year marks the welcome of new members, that also means that this is the time when many others are celebrating the anniversaries of their own Easter Vigil welcomes. They are marking one year or many years since they, too, were received into the embrace of a faith ever ancient and ever new. To you, happy anniversary! I hope that you will celebrate with great joy.


I mark the date of my own Baptism with gratitude to my parents, godparents and all who have helped me along life’s way since that long ago July when I was five weeks old. Alas, however, I have no recollection of that day.

I hope, though, that you who came to this celebration as adults remember that day with joy and celebrate your anniversaries in special ways.

I hope that you have become active members of the parishes you joined that special day – and all the parishes you have called home since then.

I hope that the godparents and sponsors who supported you as you began your faith journey continue to walk with you in that faith.

I hope that if life has had difficult moments since then, that your faith has sustained you and the sacraments strengthened you.

I hope that if life has had joyous moments since then, that your faith has been at the center of your happiness.

I hope that when the excitement of your first Easter Vigil passed, the same spirit that guided you to the church inspires your desire to learn more and understand more deeply the faith you first professed that night.

I hope that the members of the parish family who welcomed you with joy continue to be your companions on your journey through this life.

I hope that you have remained powerful witnesses to others as you live out your own life of faith and inspire others to seek greater closeness to God just as others inspired you.

I hope that this year, as you see others make the same commitments you once made, you will support them with your prayers and welcome in the special way only you can.

Thank you for the “yes” that brought you to the faith we share, the hope we treasure, and the love that God alone can give. As we celebrate Easter joy, I hope that you will remember your anniversary, and invite others to share it with you in celebration.

Please remember the joy of that “yes” – whether it was last year, or many years ago. I hope that the joy of that “yes” sustains you through all of your ordinary times.

Happy Anniversary!

(Lucia A. Silecchia is a Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Research at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. “On Ordinary Times” is a biweekly column reflecting on the ways to find the sacred in the simple. Email her at silecchia@cua.edu.)

Struggling to give birth to hope

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IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI

After Jesus rose from the dead, his first appearances were to women. Why? One obvious reason might be that it was women who followed him to his death on Good Friday, while the men largely abandoned him. As well, it was women, not men, who set off for his tomb on Easter morning, hoping to anoint his dead body with spices – so it was women who were in the garden when he first appeared. But there is, I believe, a deeper and more symbolic reason. Women are the midwives. It is generally women who attend to new birth and women who are more paramount in initially nurturing new life in its infancy.

In any birth a midwife can be helpful. When a baby is born, normally the head pushes its way through the birth canal first, opening the way for the body to follow. A good midwife can be very helpful at this time, helping to ease that passage through the birth canal, helping ensure that the baby begins to breathe, and helping the mother to immediately begin to nurture that new life. A midwife can sometimes mean the difference between life and death, and she always makes the birth easier and healthier.

Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Jesus’ resurrection birthed new life into our world, and in its infancy that life had to be specially midwifed, both in its emergence and in the initial breaths it took in this world. The resurrection birthed many things, and these had to be midwifed; initially by the women to whom Jesus first appeared, then by the apostles who left us their eyewitness accounts of the risen Jesus, then by the early church, then by its martyrs, then by the lived faith of countless women and men through the centuries, and sometimes too by theologians and spiritual writers. We still need to midwife what was born in the resurrection.

And many things were born in that event – an event as radical as the original creation in what it gave birth to. The resurrection of Jesus was the “first day” a second time, the second time light separated from darkness. Indeed, the world measures time by the resurrection. We are in the year 2023 since it happened. (Christianity was born with that event. New time began then. But scholars calculated that Jesus was thirty-three years old when he died and so they added thirty-three years so as to begin new time with the date of his birth.)

Prominent within what the resurrection gives birth to and what needs still to be midwifed, is hope. The resurrection gives birth to hope. The women in the Gospels who first met the resurrected Jesus were the first to be given a true reason for hope and were the first to act as midwifes of that new birth. So too must we. We need to become midwives of hope. But what is hope and how is it given birth in the resurrection?

Genuine hope is never to be confused with either wishful thinking or temperamental optimism. Unlike hope, wishful thinking isn’t based on anything. It’s pure wishing. Optimism, for its part, takes its root either in a natural temperament (“I always see the bright side of things”) or on how good or bad the evening news looks on a given day. And we know how that can change from day to day. Hope has a different basis.

Here’s an example: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a deeply faith-filled scientist, was once challenged by an agnostic colleague after making a presentation within which he tried to show how the story of salvation history fits perfectly with the insights of science regarding the origins of the universe and the process of evolution. Teilhard went on to suggest, in line with Ephesians 1:3-10, that the end of the whole evolutionary process will be the union of all things in one great final harmony in Christ. An agnostic colleague challenged him to this effect: That’s a wonderfully optimistic little schema you propose. But suppose we blow up the world with an atomic bomb. What happens to your optimist schema then? Teilhard answered in words to this effect: If we blow up the world with an atomic bomb, that will be a set-back, perhaps for millions of years. But what I propose is going to happen, not because I wish it or because I am optimistic that it will happen. It will happen because God promised it – and in the resurrection God showed that God has the power to deliver on that promise.

What the women who first met the risen Jesus experienced was hope, the kind of hope that is based on God’s promise to vindicate good over evil and life over death, no matter the circumstance, no matter the obstacle, no matter how awful the news might look on a given day, no matter death itself, and no matter whether we are optimistic or pessimistic. They were the initial midwives helping to give birth to that hope. That task is now ours.

(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)

‘Keyboard warriors’ don’t evangelize, pope says,
they just argue

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By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Sharing the Gospel requires literally “going out,” witnessing to the joy of faith in person and not just sitting at home, being “keyboard warriors” who argue with others online, Pope Francis said.

“One does not proclaim the Gospel standing still, locked in an office, at one’s desk or at one’s computer, arguing like ‘keyboard warriors’ and replacing the creativity of proclamation with copy-and-paste ideas taken from here and there,” the pope said April 12 during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

Holding the audience during the Octave of Easter, with tens of thousands of daffodils and tulips still decorating the square, the pope continued his series of audience talks about “evangelical zeal,” looking at how that differs from pretending to share the Gospel while really just seeking attention or pushing one’s own ideas.

Pope Francis greets a girl dressed in a traditional costume as he welcomes her and three other youngsters to take a ride with him in the popemobile before his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican April 12, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

At the end of the audience, before leading prayers for peace in Ukraine, Pope Francis noted that April 11 was the 60th anniversary of St. John XXIII’s encyclical, “Pacem in Terris” (“Peace on Earth”).

The encyclical, he said, offered humanity “a glimpse of serenity in the midst of dark clouds” of high tension between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The document, published in 1963, is as relevant as ever, Pope Francis said, reading one line as an example: “Relations between states, as between individuals, must be regulated not by armed force, but in accordance with the principles of right reason: the principles, that is, of truth, justice and vigorous and sincere co-operation.”

In his main talk, the pope focused on the need for missionary disciples to be ready to set out and to be open to exploring new paths as they seek to share the Gospel through word and deed.

Departing from his prepared text, Pope Francis told people in the square, “I exhort you to be evangelizers who move, without fear, who go forward to share the beauty of Jesus, the newness of Jesus, who changes everything.”

The pope imagined someone replying to him that, “Yes, father, he changed the calendar because now we count years as ‘before Jesus’” and after.

But, even more, the pope said, Jesus “changes one’s heart.”

“Are you willing to let Jesus change your heart?” he asked those in the crowd. “Or are you a lukewarm Christian, who doesn’t move? Think about it a bit. Are you enthusiastic about Jesus and go forward? Think about it.”

“A herald is ready to go and knows that the Lord passes by in a surprising way,” the pope said, so one cannot be “fossilized” by human calculations about what is likely to be successful or by thoughts that “it has always been done this way.”

Being a missionary disciple means “not letting pass by the opportunities to promulgate the Gospel of peace, that peace that Christ knows how to give more and better than the world gives.”

Featured photo… Bells over Natchez …

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NATCHEZ – Father Aaron Williams blesses four bells before their installation at St. Mary Basilica on Wednesday, April 5. For more photos from the bell blessing visit: https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2023/04/05/the-bells-of-st-mary-new-bells-for-natchez-church-blessed-then-lifted-into-church-tower-in-preparation-for-easter-celebration. (Photo by Ben Hillyer/The Natchez Democrat)

Calendar of events

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SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT
METAIRIE, La. Five-day Silent Directed Retreat, June 26 – July 2 at the Archdiocese of New Orleans Retreat Center (5500 Saint Mary Street, Metairie). Cost $500, includes room and board. Meet daily with a spiritual director, pray with scripture and spend the rest of the day in silence, prayer and rest. Register at franu.edu/retreat. Details: tyler.trahan@franu.edu or call (225) 526-1694.

PARISH, FAMILY & SCHOOL EVENTS
CLARKSDALE St. Elizabeth, Parish Community Social in McKenna Hall on Friday, April 28 at 5:30 p.m. Congregations of Immaculate Conception, St. Elizabeth and St. Mary will have a meet and greet and fish fry. Details: church office (662) 624-4301.

FLOWOOD Birthright of Jackson, Mom’s Day 5k, Saturday, May 13 at 8 a.m. at the Flowood Nature Park. For more information or to register: https://raceroster.com/events/2023/67290/moms-day-5k

GREENVILLE Paul and Wadel Abide Memorial Golf Classic, Friday, May 12 at the Greenville Golf and Country Club. Cost: 4-person scramble $150 per golfer, includes cart fee, drink tickets and entry to social. Non-golfers cost is $60 and includes two drink tickets and entry to social. Enjoy food, drinks, door prizes and awards after golfing. Proceeds benefit St. Joseph School Scholarship Fund. Details: school office (662) 378-9711.

GREENVILLE St. Vincent de Paul, Open House, May 2 from 4-6 p.m. Stop by to see renovations and God’s hands at work. Details: call (662) 378-3105.

HERNANDO Holy Spirit, Yard Sale, Friday, May 19-20. Start saving item donations now. Donations accepted beginning May 8. Details: church office (662) 429-7851.

HOLLY SPRINGS CSI – Catholic Service Initiative presented by Northwest Parishes of Mississippi Youth Ministry, Sunday, June 4 through Friday, June 9 at Gregory House. For students completing grades 9-12 in May. Deadline for sign-up is April 30. Cost is $50, with scholarships available upon request. Details: For more information contact Vickie at (662) 895-5007.

JACKSON 17th Annual Sister Thea Bowman School Draw Down, Saturday, April 29 at 6:30 p.m. in the school multi-purpose building. $5,000 Grand prize. Cost $100, second chance insurance extra $20 per ticket. Details: (601) 351-5197 or stbdrawdown@gmail.com.

MADISON St. Catherine’s Village, Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support Group, meets fourth Wednesday of each month from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Campbell Cove building. Lunch provided. All are welcome. Details: call to RSVP (601) 856-0123 or email cynthia.armstrong@fmolhs.org.

MADISON St. Joe School, Bingo Night, Tuesday, May 2 in the St. Joe gym. Early bird games at 6:30 p.m. and regular games at 7 p.m. Packages range from $25-45. Concessions available. Must be 21 to play but all ages welcome to attend. Details: email tharris@stjoebruins.com.

MADISON St. Francis, Save the date: Cajun Fest, Sunday, May 21. Details: church office (601) 856-5556.
MERIDIAN Knights of Columbus State Convention, April 28-30 at the Threefoot Hotel. For more information visit: kofc-ms.org/convention/2023

NATCHEZ Cathedral School, 39th annual Crawfish Countdown, Friday, May 5. Join us for a fun night of crawfish, ice-cold beverages, chance to win $5,000 and more.

NATCHEZ Rosary-making Workshop with Face in the Sun Custom Jewelry, Thursday, May 11 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at OutsideIN MS (112 N. Commerce Street). Participants will learn to make a rosary using a beading method. Class fee $25, all materials and tools provided. Bring your reading glasses. Pre-registration and advanced payment required. Details: To register contact Robin at (662) 515-0490 or rsperson@bellsouth.net.

SAVE THE DATE
GLUCKSTADT St. Joseph VBS June 5-7 Registration for children (K5-4th graders) and youth volunteers (5th graders on up) will begin May 7. Details: email Karen at kworrellcre@hotmail.com.

MADISON St. Francis, Rocky Railway VBS express, June 19-22 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. All pre-K4 through fourth graders are invited. Details: mc.george@stfrancismadison.org.

SOUTHAVEN Christ the King VBS K-3rd grade June 19-23 6-8 p.m. and 4-8th grade June 26-30 at 6:30-9 p.m.

REMINDERS/NOTICES
NATIONAL BLACK CATHOLIC CONGRESS GATHERING, July 20-23 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Join with other Black Catholics and those who minister to Black Catholics for a celebration of faith and culture. Details: nbccongress.org.

INDIANAPOLIS Eucharistic Congress, July 17-21, 2024. Registration is now open. See what Our Lord has in store for this next chapter for the Catholic Church in United States. Purchase tickets at https://bit.ly/3ydav9Q. Details: EucharisticCongress.org.

INDIANAPOLIS National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC), Nov. 16-18, 2023 at the Indiana Convention Center. This distinctly Catholic three-day conference will include opportunities for spiritual growth, prayer, learning and service. For more information, visit ncyc.us.

WORLD YOUTH DAY: LISBON 2023 Event for young Catholics ages 16-35, though all are welcomed to attend in Lisbon, Portugal. For more information visit: https://www.lisboa2023.org/en/.

In memoriam: Sister Helen Strohman, CHM

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Sister Helen Strohman (Mary Maurice), CHM, 90, died April 7, 2023, at the Humility of Mary Center (HMC) in Davenport, Iowa.

Helen Anne Strohman was born Dec. 13, 1932, in Keswick, Iowa to Leo and Mary Agnes (Dunn) Strohman. She entered the Congregation of the Humility of Mary in 1952 and professed final vows in 1957.

Sister studied education both at Ottumwa Heights College in Ottumwa, and Marycrest College in Davenport, the latter conferring on her a BA in Elementary Education in 1967.

Sister Helen’s career in education began before profession of final vows; in 1954, she began her life as a teacher at St. Anthony School in Des Moines, Iowa. She traveled frequently, serving as a teacher, minister, and educational program director at over 20 locations in Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi and Illinois. Her teaching missions in Iowa include St. Anthony, Christ the King, West Des Moines; and Holy Trinity, Des Moines; St. Alphonsus, Davenport; St. Mary, Marshalltown; St. Donatus in the town of St. Donatus; Assumption, Granger; and St. Mary and St. Patrick in Ottumwa. She also taught at St. Austin, Minneapolis. In Mississippi, her teaching positions included Sacred Heart in Camden and the Rainbow Literacy Center in Canton.

Outside the role of traditional teacher, she also served as the director of the CHM Seeds of Hope program in Des Moines; and the YES program, the Rainbow Literacy Center and the MadCAAP educational program, all in Canton, Mississippi, programs dedicated to bringing educational opportunities to those who otherwise lack them. In particular, her work at MadCAAP focused on providing education for county jail inmates, helping them to earn their GEDs. She also served as a pastoral minister and caregiver in North English, Iowa and Peoria, Illinois. Finally. in 2003, she became the director of the Sacred Heart Hispanic Outreach in Canton. In 2022, she returned to Humility of Mary Center after beginning hospice care in Mississippi.

Sister Helen’s family and friends will miss her humor, kindness and her deep commitment to persons often overlooked or needing someone to reach out to them. She was gifted at providing these.

Sister Helen is preceded in death by her parents, brothers John Patrick and Joseph Strohman, and sisters Martha Flynn, Katie Grady, and Margaret Strohman. She is survived by sisters Rita Strohman, Sheila Falk (Howard), many nieces, nephews, cousins and her CHM community.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held on Wednesday, April 12, followed by burial in Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Davenport.

Memorials may be made to the Congregation of the Humility of Mary.