JACKSON – Odds are you’ve got a Christmas list going by now — gift ideas for everyone from your nephew to your goddaughter to your mailman. But what about the birthday boy? What’s the gift Jesus gets from you this Christmas?
Artwork: Madonna and Child, Provincia di Firenze, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, c. 1466-1469. Public Domain.
If you’ve ever read the Book of Leviticus, you know all about the sacrifices God asks of the Israelites, referred to in the reading from Hebrews today. Leviticus can be a chore to read — a little repetitive, a little intimidating. There’s a lot of very specific actions that God asks His Chosen People to complete to make up for whatever they have done wrong. In essence, it’s a bit of a wish list for gifts.
But it’s a wish list that can really confuse you. What’s God going to do with a cereal offering? The kidneys of an animal? If you look closely, what God is doing here is beautiful. He’s customized his wish list to only those things He knows the Israelites can give. It’s God saying, in what amounts to theological baby-talk for folks who barely know of Him and His ways, exactly how they could be stewards. “Do this, but don’t do that. If you do that, do this and you will find My mercy.”
Our guide to stewardship — the Gospels of Christ — is less precise because by the time of Christ, God’s people have grown in understanding of love and mercy and relationship with the divine. Through Christ, we find out that God’s real wish list didn’t really consist of cereal offerings and the kidneys of various animals. It’s far simpler, but luckily, it’s something we still have on-hand.
ST. LOUIS – Sister Mary Dorothy Calhoun, RSM passed away on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022. Joan Marie Calhoun was born on Dec. 31, 1933; predeceased by parents, John Worthing Calhoun (1943) and Dorothy Louise Tremoulet Calhoun Brundige (1992); sister, Dorothy Calhoun Jackman (1982); brother, John Worthing Calhoun, Jr. (2015); and stepfather, William Hart Brundige (1955). Survived by brother, William Hart Brundige Jr; nieces and nephews, John Daniel Jackman, Jr., MD; Michael Calhoun Jackman; Joan Jackman Becker; Worthing Francis Jackman; John Worthing Calhoun III; Catherine Clann Calhoun; Susan Calhoun Waggoner; William Hart Brundige III and John Dudley Brundige.
Sister Mary Dorothy (Joan) was a graduate from Holy Name of Jesus School and Mercy Academy, and entered the convent in 1952 at the Mother of Mercy Novitiate, St. Louis Province; graduate of St. John’s Hospital School of Nursing in St. Louis, 1958; B.S Nursing, St. Louis University, 1960; Masters in Hospital Administration, St. Louis University, 1968; Certification in Clinical Pastoral Education, Baptist Hospital, New Orleans, 1990.
Sister Dorothy’s (Aunt Sis’) life of dedication (nursing, administration, ministry) included supervisor of obstetrics, delivery, nursery, OR, ER and director of nursing services at Mercy facilities in New Orleans, Brownsville, Texas, St. Louis, Missouri and St. Paul, Minnesota (1958-1967); administrator (CEO/CFO) Mercy Hospital New Orleans (1968-1973); administrator (CEO/CFO) St. John’s Hospital Springfield, Missouri (1973-1977); administrator (CEO/CFO) Mercy Health Center Laredo, Texas (1977-1980); Director of Pastoral Services for Sisters of Mercy and Mercy Hospital New Orleans (1981-1992) and St. Joseph’s Mercy Health Center Hot Springs, Arkansas (1992-1995); Pastoral Care Chaplain Hot Springs (1995-2014); Volunteer at Mercy Hospital Fort Smith, Arkansas (2014-2020). Sister Dorothy’s past two years were spent in prayer and works of mercy, in loving care with the retired Sisters of Mercy in St. Louis.
In the Diocese of Jackson, Sister served in ministry and on the board of Mercy Hospital in Vicksburg.
Funeral services were held on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022 in the chapel of Catherine’s Residence in St. Louis; interment in Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis. Donations in memory of Sister Mary Dorothy Calhoun RSM are appreciated, to Catherine’s Residence Ministry Fund, Sisters of Mercy – The Americas, 2039 N Geyer Road, St. Louis MO 63131, attention Sister Richard Mary Burke, RSM.
By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A daily examination of conscience is an important tool for recognizing where God is at work in one’s life and where “the evil spirit” tries to lead one astray, Pope Francis said.
“Learn to read in the book of our hearts what has happened during the day. Do it. Just two minutes, but it will do you good, I promise,” the pope told visitors at his weekly general audience Nov. 30.
Continuing his series of audience talks about discernment, the pope spoke again about “spiritual consolation” and about using a daily examination of conscience to distinguish between what just feels good and “genuine consolation,” which, he said, “is a sort of confirmation that we are doing what God wants of us, that we are walking on his paths, that is, on the paths of life, joy and peace.”
Relying on the teaching of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, the pope explained that consolation comes from knowing that a thought or impulse is good at its beginning, middle and end, because it inclines one to do something good, is motivated by love for God and others and leads to a sense of peace.
Pope Francis delivers his talk during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Nov. 30, 2022. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
On the other hand, the pope explained, “the evil spirit” can sneak in and distract one from doing good or sow anger toward others or pride.
Pope Francis used the example of the thought or urge to pray, accompanied by “affection for the Lord and my neighbor, it invites gestures of generosity, of charity: it is a good beginning.”
But, he said, if “every time I have to wash the dishes or clean the house, I have a strong urge to pray – this happens in convents” – then the impulse is not all good.
“Go wash the dishes, then go pray,” he said, because “prayer is not an escape from one’s tasks.” And, the pope said, “if I begin to pray and, like the Pharisee in the parable, I tend to be self-satisfied and to disdain others, perhaps with a resentful and sour spirit, then these are signs that the evil spirit has used that thought as a key to enter into my heart and to transmit his feelings to me.”
Then, Pope Francis said, one should ask, “Where does that thought take me? For example, it can happen that I work hard for a good and worthy task, but this pushes me to stop praying; I find I am increasingly aggressive and angry, I feel that everything depends on me, to the point of losing confidence in God. Here, evidently, there is the action of the evil spirit.”
The devil’s style is “devious, masked,” the pope said, and he usually starts with something important to the person and then twists it.
“The more we know ourselves, the more we sense where the evil spirit enters, his ‘passwords,’ the entrance to our heart,” Pope Francis said.
“Before ending your day, stop a bit and ask what has happened (that day) – not in the newspapers,” he said, but in one’s heart.
“Noticing what happens is important,” he said. “It is a sign that God’s grace is working in us, helping us to grow in freedom and awareness. We are not alone; the Holy Spirit is with us. Let’s see how things are going.”
My early religious training, for all its strengths, placed too heavy an emphasis on fear of God, fear of judgment, and fear of never being good enough to be pleasing to God. It took the biblical texts about God being angry and displeased with us literally. The downside of this was that many of us came away with feelings of guilt, shame and self-hatred, and understood those feelings religiously, with no sense that they might have more of a psychological than a religious origin. If you had feelings of guilt, shame and self-hatred, it was a signal that you were not living right, that you should feel some shame and that God was not pleased with you.
Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Well, as Hegel famously taught, every thesis eventually spawns its antithesis. Both in the culture and in many religious circles today, this has produced a bitter backlash. The current cultural and ecclesial ethos has brought with it a near-feverous acceptance of the insights from contemporary psychology vis-à-vis guilt, shame and self-hatred. We learned from Freud and others that many of our feelings of guilt, shame and self-hatred are really a psychological neurosis, and not an indication that we are doing anything wrong. Feelings of guilt, shame and self-hatred do not of themselves indicate that we are unhealthy religiously or morally or that God is displeased with us.
With this insight, more and more people have begun to blame their religious training for any feelings of guilt, shame and self-hatred. They have coined the term “Christian neurosis” and have begun speaking of “being in recovery” from their churches.
What’s to be said about this? In essence, some of this is healthy, a needed corrective, though some of it also suffers from its own naiveté. And, it has landed us here. Today, religious conservatives tend to reject the idea that guilt, shame and self-hatred are mainly a neurosis (for which our religious training is responsible), while religious liberals tend to favor this notion. Who is right?
A more balanced spirituality, I believe, combines the truth of both positions to produce a deeper understanding. Drawing on what is best in current biblical scholarship and on what is best in contemporary psychology, a more balanced spirituality makes these assertions.
First, that when our biblical language tells us that God gets angry and unleashes his fury, we are dealing with anthropomorphism. God doesn’t get angry with us when we do wrong. Rather what happens is that we get angry with ourselves and we feel as if that anger were somehow “God’s wrath.” Next, most psychologists today tell us that many of our feelings of guilt, shame and self-hatred are in fact unhealthy, a simple neurosis, and not at all an indication that we did something wrong. These feelings only indicate how we feel about ourselves, not how God feels about us.
However, that being admitted, it is too simple to write off our feelings of guilt, shame and self-hatred as a mere neurosis. Why? Because even if these feelings are completely or largely unmerited, they may still be an important voice inside us, that is, while they don’t indicate that God is displeased or angry with us, they still can be a voice inside us that won’t be silent until we ask ourselves why we are displeased and angry with ourselves.
Here’s an example. There is a wonderfully enlightening exchange in the 1990s movie, “City Slickers.” Three men are having a conversation about the morality of having a sexual affair. One asks the other, “If you could have an affair and get away with it, would you do it?” The other replies: “No, I still wouldn’t do it.” “Why not?” he is asked, “nobody would know.” His response contains a much-neglected insight regarding the question of guilt, shame and self-hatred. He replies, “I would know and I would hate myself for it!”
There is such a thing as Christian “guilt neurosis” (which incidentally is not limited to Christians, Jews, Muslims and other religious persons, but is universal among all morally sensitive people). However, not all feelings of guilt, shame and self-hatred are neurotic. Some are trying to teach us a deep moral and religious truth, that is, while we can never do a single thing to make God angry with us for one minute, we can do many things that make us angry with ourselves. While we can never do anything to make God hate us, we can do things that have us hate ourselves. And, while we can never do anything to make God withhold forgiveness from us, we can do things that make it difficult for us to forgive ourselves. God is never the problem. We are.
Feelings of guilt, shame and self-hatred do not of themselves indicate whether we have done something wrong, but they do indicate how we feel about what we have done – and that can be an important moral and religious voice inside us.
Not everything that bothers us is a pathology.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)
This is a meditation with a St. Joseph candle from the “Advent Box” booklet by Banafsaj Christian Designs in Lebanon. The booklet comes with an accompanying set of the Holy Family figurine candles. (CNS photo/courtesy Banafsaj Christian Designs)
NATION PROVIDENCE, R.I. (CNS) – In the past several years, an increasing number of Providence College graduates have pursued a vocation with the Dominican order that runs the Rhode Island university. “During the five years I was in Providence, we had at least one student enter the novitiate at the end of each year,” said Dominican Father Michael Weibley, whose first assignment after ordination was as a chaplain and professor at Providence College. “An average of a novice a year like that is a tremendous blessing for the order,” said the priest, who this year was named pastor of SS. Phillip and James Parish in Baltimore. The increased number of vocations coming from the college emerges in a climate of declining rates of new vocations, particularly for religious orders: In the past 60 years, the total number of active religious priests in the United States has been reduced by more than half. In the past 20 years, the Dominican Province of St. Joseph, which comprises the Northeastern corner of the United States, has been reporting steadily increasing vocations, with many of the new recruits being drawn directly from Providence College. For the novices currently emerging from Providence College, the call to preaching seems to be coming at a much younger age. Seeing “younger and younger friars on campus or students your own age going directly into the novitiate after graduating” makes it “easier to envision yourself actually pursuing that lifestyle,” said Dominican Brother Nicodemus Thomas, a 2018 graduate.
VATICAN VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis told Italian students to “dream big” like St. John XXIII and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. about the world of peace and justice they would like to see. And at the same time, he wished them a good Advent journey “made up of many small gestures of peace each day: gestures of acceptance, encounter, understanding, closeness, forgiveness and service. Gestures that come from the heart and are steps toward Bethlehem, toward Jesus, who is the prince of peace.” Pope Francis met Nov. 28 with some 6,000 Italian schoolchildren, teens and their teachers, who have been participating in the program of the National Network of Schools for Peace. The program is focusing on the theme, “For Peace. With Care,” and Pope Francis told them that the second part is essential. “Usually, we talk about peace when we feel directly threatened, as in the case of a possible nuclear attack or a war being fought on our doorstep,” the pope said. And “we care about the rights of migrants when we have some relative or friend who has migrated.” But even when war is not near or threatening someone known, “peace is always, always about us! Just as it always concerns another, our brother or sister, and he or she must be taken care of,” the pope told the students.
WORLD BEIRUT (CNS) – Violette Yammine aims to illuminate Advent and Christmas hope for Lebanese facing tough times. The graphic designer has launched an “Advent Box” that includes a “Meditations for Advent with the Holy Family” booklet, with an accompanying set of Holy Family figurine candles. Separately, there is also a children’s Christmas story. The two Christmas season family participation projects are the first offerings of Yammine’s Catholic design firm “Banafsaj,” which is how Violette is pronounced in Arabic. Yammine, a Maronite Catholic, considers her enterprise – Banafsaj Christian Designs – a way “to offer beautiful violets, and scents, to the Lord.” In Lebanon, she noticed, most Christian family-oriented publications are produced by evangelical churches. So, she decided “to put all my talent in the service of Christ.” The Advent booklet and accompanying Holy Family candles are intended for the three Sundays preceding Christmas. Yammine said she hopes it will spark “an Advent well spent in prayer.” The first Sunday reading concerns the Annunciation, intended for the Mary candle. The second Sunday reading is the revelation to Joseph, and thus the Joseph candle. The birth of Jesus is the third and final Sunday reading, with the candle of baby Jesus in the manger.
ACCRA, Ghana (CNS) – As Ghana’s national soccer team, the Black Stars, joins other national teams for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, some Ghanaian citizens have been talking about Iñaki Williams, who was named after a Catholic priest. His parents, Ghanaians Felix Williams and Maria (Mary) Arthuer, crossed the Sahara and, when they got to Morocco, jumped the border fence to Melilla, one of two Spanish cities in North Africa. The Guardian reported that, on the advice of a lawyer, they said they were from Liberia to apply for political asylum. They ended up in Bilbao, Spain. A Caritas volunteer, then-Deacon Iñaki Mardones, was instrumental in helping them when they arrived in Bilbao. “I went to pick them up at Abando (railway) station,” Father Mardones told La Provincia, a Spanish magazine. At the time, Maria was seven months pregnant. “I remember them with the suitcase and the uncertainty on their faces,” Father Mardones told La Provincia. The report on them said they understood Spanish, “but when I started to speak they looked at me without understanding anything. When I switched to English they sighed in relief.” He helped them to an apartment used by Caritas, and even helped them get to the hospital for their child’s birth.
My first parish after graduating from college was Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Columbus, Ohio. Holy Spirit also had an elementary school and was truly a neighborhood parish. The parish was mostly made up of families with young children and older married couples who raised their children in the parish and school.
Fran Lavelle
That first year at Holy Spirit was the first time I was really aware of World Marriage Day. It may have been that during my high school and college years I had not paid attention, or it might be that our university parish did not celebrate World Marriage Day in a significant way. In any event, I recall the priest at Holy Spirit inviting all of the married couples to stand and re-new their wedding vows. As the married couples stood, I remember looking around and seeing a sea of children still seated along with myself. It was and still remains a powerful image in my mind. I remember witnessing those couples, young and old, recommitting their lives to one another. The vow to love one another in good times and in bad is much more profound knowing that a couple have had their share of both in the years they have been husband and wife.
I have a friend who has been married for over 50 years. In reflecting on her marriage, she speaks to how organically their marriage has evolved over the years. She told me once that she and her husband have had four “mini-marriages” within their one marriage. It is natural that as we age, we grow and mature.
In their marriage they were able to meet the challenges of their changing relationship as they moved through the various stages of life. Now retired, they have had the opportunity to look back and see that the work they put into remaining together built a bond that they could not have imagined on their wedding day. She tells me often that it is all a gift. The good and the not so good helped them grow in their love and strengthened their commitment to one another. If you are a couple or know a couple who have been married for a number of years you know exactly what I am talking about.
The church in her wisdom rightly celebrates the gift of marriage as both vocation and sacrament. It is important for single people, young couples, and newlyweds to see what enduring love and sacrifice look like.
Each February the diocese celebrates the gift and witness of marriage. Under the leadership and planning of the Office of Family Ministry all couples celebrating their 25th, 50th and 60th wedding anniversaries are invited to the Diocesan World Marriage Day celebration. It will be held Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, at 3 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Jackson, Mississippi. There will be a Mass followed by a reception. To register contact your parish office or go to www.jacksondiocese.org/family-ministry to register yourself. For additional information or questions, please contact Debbie Tubertini at the Office of Family Ministry at (601) 960-8487 or email debbie.tubertini@jacksondiocese.org.
May your commitment to your marriage be a great witness to the young people in your life just as those couples were for me all those years ago. This year I will be celebrating my first World Marriage Day as a newlywed. God willing, we will have many years to celebrate the gift of our late life vocation. Keep loving one another well. I know it is my long-term plan!
(Fran Lavelle is the Director of Faith Formation for the Diocese of Jackson.)
Our motherhouse is located on a large property in a tiny village in rural France. With its old stone buildings, expansive pastures, flower gardens and shaded pathways, it’s a gorgeously bucolic setting and the most peaceful place I’ve ever been.
During the year that I lived there I don’t think I heard a single airplane overhead, an emergency siren or even a car horn. The nighttime silence and dark, starlit skies were especially striking.
Looking up at the stars I felt the deep security of knowing I was enveloped by God’s love.
The memory of those starry Breton skies still quiets my soul and fills me with a sense of peacefulness in the midst of life’s inevitable difficulties.
Sister Constance Veit, LSP
What a contrast this is to the darkness enveloping our Ukrainian brothers and sisters this winter as their country continues to be bombarded on a daily basis. This darkness is not a blanket of security or prayerful serenity – although cries to God no doubt rise from it – but an inescapable cloud of fear and dread.
As I think of the people of Ukraine during this Advent season, I am reminded of the words of the prophet Isaiah about the people dwelling in darkness. (Is 9:2ff) This passage speaks of a burdensome yoke, a taskmaster’s rod, boots tramped in battle and cloaks rolled in blood.
This is harsh military imagery.
The people living in darkness are wounded and oppressed, like our Ukrainian brothers and sisters today. They desperately need someone to shine a light into the cold cellars and improvised bunkers in which they huddle.
They need a savior.
It is just after the winter solstice, the darkest point of the year, that we celebrate the coming of our Savior at Christmas. Isaiah proclaims, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Upon those who lived in a land of gloom a light has shone …For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.”
In their icons Ukrainian Catholics and Orthodox Christians traditionally portray the Nativity scene as a black cave surrounded by jagged rocks. This inhospitable setting represents the cruel and sinful world into which Jesus was born.
From heaven a large star sends a single shaft of light to pierce the darkness and guide the viewer’s eye directly onto the baby lying in the manger. This babe is the light that will dispel all darkness.
An Orthodox monk reflecting on the Nativity icon wrote, “O God, upon whom will the light shine if not those who live in darkness? If I truly feel that I am in darkness, then I surely will seek the light.”
This insight helps us to understand that the miracle of Christmas is not automatic. We must realize our need to be plucked out of the darkness that surrounds us – we must intentionally seek the light.
For most of our contemporary world, Christmas is filled with bright lights, shiny baubles and excesses of every kind. It is difficult to quiet our hearts enough to seek the true light we so desperately need.
Perhaps an act of solidarity with our Ukrainian brothers and sisters can help us to clarify our priorities this Christmas.
Archbishop Borys Gudziak, Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and the highest ranking Ukrainian clergyman in the United States, recently spoke at a meeting of U.S. bishops. He suggested that we open wide a window in our home, turn the lights out and sit there long enough to really feel the cold. This act of solidarity, he suggested, will help us to feel what the Ukrainian people are experiencing everyday as this war drags on.
May this simple gesture of empathy and solidarity inspire us to intensify our prayers for peace, that the light of Christ will truly pierce the darkness this Christmas – the darkness of sin and war enveloping our world, and the darkness that lurks in each human heart.
O Lord, God-Hero and Prince of Peace, how we need you! Come into our world anew this Christmas and dispel the darkness with your divine light!
(Sister Constance Veit is the communications director for the Little Sisters of the Poor in the United States and an occupational therapist.)
MERIDIAN – On Nov. 12, the Catholic community of Meridian worked with an organization called Sleep In Heavenly Peace building beds. The organization has a simple mission, “no kid sleeps on the floor in our town.” After several months of fundraising, the community raised the money to build 10 beds. Each bed costs $250 and includes the bed, mattress and bed linens. Most had little to no building experience, but came together on a cold, rainy day and got the project done. The group then helped to deliver four of the beds to children who were sleeping on the floor. We are called to serve, and Sleep In Heavenly Peace can surely help with that. (Photos courtesy of Catholic Community of Meridian)
By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) – While some people want to “reform” the Catholic Church and others want “to put the brakes on the synod process,” those involved in preparing the continental phase of the synod process want “to mend” the church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the pope, said Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, relator general of the synod.
As final plans are made for the continental phase leading to the Synod of Bishops 2023-24, the bishops and coordinators responsible for the regional meetings met at the Vatican Nov. 28-29.
The participants included Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Bishop Raymond Poisson of Saint-Jérôme and Mont-Laurier, Quebec, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Archbishop Broglio told Catholic News Service Nov. 30 that the meeting was “well-planned” and “quite universal,” while also making it clear how the “continental phase” was being organized differently in each part of the world.
Pope Francis leads a meeting with the presidents and coordinators of the regional assemblies of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican Nov. 28, 2022. Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, attended the meeting. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Meeting Pope Francis late Nov. 28, Cardinal Hollerich said the synod process has faced “temptations” along the way.
Particularly in the media, he said, there is a temptation to politicize the church, looking at it “with the logic of politics.”
But, he said, the 30 participants from around the world who met at the Vatican in late November “want to be able to enter into a true discernment, an apostolic, missionary discernment, so that the synodal church can carry out its mission in the world. We want to walk together with you and, above all, with the Holy Spirit and with Jesus, in order to mend our church.”
The meeting at the Vatican was meant to help finalize plans for the regional gatherings called to reflect on the “Document for the Continental Phase,” a document released in late October and echoing the themes that emerged from all the national syntheses of synod listening sessions and the contributions of religious orders, Catholic movements, Vatican dicasteries and nuncios from around the world. Participants in the continental phase will be asked to discuss what in the document “resonates” with them or what they believe is missing, said Xavière Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart, one of the synod undersecretaries.
Vatican News, reporting on the meeting Nov. 28, said representatives discussed some of the challenges the process already has raised, including “the small minority of people who have participated so far; the challenge facing the church regarding how she carries out her mission; the prevalence of personal piety rather than community-building practices and ritual; (and) the vast amount of information, proposals and suggestions that makes synthesizing or coming to conclusions difficult.”
In addition, Vatican News said, some participants saw “the need for a definition of ‘inclusive’ regarding how the voices and views of non-Catholics or former Catholics is envisioned; misunderstanding that the consultation process is meant to grant all of the requests people are raising; bringing out the voices of women is a challenge particularly in those places where societies are still patriarchal; (and) media interpretation of the synod from a sociological rather than ecclesiastical slant.”
The bishops of the United States and Canada have decided to hold 10 online sessions for their continental phase; the meetings, scheduled for 90 minutes, will take place from Dec. 14 to Jan. 21 with five sessions in English, three in Spanish and two in French.
Archbishop Broglio said the bishops chose the format to increase the number of people able to participate.
“I hope there will be an opportunity to listen to the concerns of different people,” he said. “If you do not listen, you do not know where people are,” which is essential for helping them come to a deeper relationship with Jesus.
Speaking to Vatican News, the archbishop said he hoped that listening and sharing would “help heal, at least as far as the church is concerned, some of the polarization” evident in U.S. society.
“I think the emphasis that’s been placed on listening will be a great help if people enter into these moments of conversation and dialogue and discernment with a spirit of listening to the other,” he told Vatican News.
The bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean also will hold multiple meetings, although all four will be in-person gatherings. The meetings are scheduled for El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Brazil between Feb. 13 and March 10. The bishops also have decided that 55% of the participants will be laypeople while 45% will be bishops, priests, deacons and religious.
The European gathering is scheduled for Feb. 5-12 in Prague with 200 people attending in person and up to 10 more delegates from each country following online. Catholics from Australia, New Zealand and other parts of Oceania will meet Feb. 5-9 in Suva, Fiji.
The Middle East meeting will be held Feb. 12-18 in Beirut, Lebanon, while the Asian meeting will be held Feb. 23-27 in Bangkok, Thailand. The bishops of Africa and Madagascar will sponsor a gathering in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 1-6.
VICKSBURG – On Oct. 16, St. Mary Catholic Church unveiled two historical markers during ceremonies to honor the church’s 116th anniversary. Pictured left to right with the marker are: Christopher Slaughter, Sr., Rosa Smith Griffin, Deborah Holmes Potts, Benny Terrell and Father Joseph Chau Nguyen, SVD. (Photo courtesy Leonette Thomas)
