JACKSON – About 200 runners and walkers grabbed their running shoes and purple dresses for Catholic Charities 10th annual Purple Dress Run at the District at Eastover in Northeast Jackson on Thursday, Oct. 21 in honor of National Domestic Violence Awareness month. Racers ran and walked through the Eastover neighborhood to raise awarness about domestic violence and to raise money for Catholic Charities domestic violence shelter.
If you need assistance escaping abuse, please call Catholic Charities Jackson at (601) 366-0222 or 1-800-273-9012 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE(7233) or chat online at www.hotline.org.
Photo finish! At the last second, Steven Hernandez edged out the overall win with a pace time of 6:44 in the 5k run over Daniel Burnett with a 6:45 pace.
Patrick Weldon took home the best dressed win and first place in his age category at the Purple Dress Run.
At age 83, Richard Edmonson won the 70+ age category in the 5k run with a pace time of 11:50. Way to go!
Jessica Diamond and Rowdy (with a little help) cross the finish line with the overall win in the female 5k run category.
By Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D. Later this month on the Feast of Christ the King, the Diocese of Jackson will begin a Year of the Eucharist that is more than timely as we continue steadily to welcome back to Mass our Catholic faithful to take up their rightful place as members of the Body of Christ. We are not quite back to pre-pandemic numbers and vigor, but we have made significant strides. For active Catholics the sacrifice of the Mass is always the cornerstone for our faith in the crucified and risen Lord, and also at times the fertile ground for controversy in the modern era.
The first document of the Second Vatican council to be passed and presented to the Catholic world was Sacrosanctum Concilium by the near unanimous vote of 2174 to 4. This was Dec. 4, 1963, and in this document on the Sacred Liturgy that had priority of place among the eventual 16 documents of the Council, we read that the Council Fathers desired to “impart an ever increasing vigor to the Christian life of the faithful and to foster whatever can promote union among all who believe in Christ.”
Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz
It’s not surprising that they and we look to the celebration of the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the Mass, to strengthen the bonds of unity that should always be a labor of love among the children of God, perhaps especially in our generation. Furthermore, the council fathers stated that “the liturgy, through which the work of our redemption is accomplished, most of all in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, is the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true church.”
One of the well-known quotes of the Vatican Council came from this document. “The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows.”
This power of God’s undying love first flowed in the water and blood from the broken body and pierced side of Jesus on the Cross. These were the headwaters of the sacramental life of the church, specifically Baptism and the Eucharist, that have become a mighty river flowing through time.
The one priesthood of Jesus Christ begun on the Cross, is given birth at every baptism, and made manifest in the gathering of the People of God at Mass in Word and in Sacrament. Through Baptism and Holy Orders, the two forms of the priesthood, laity and ordained, become one as the Body of Christ gathering around the tables of Word and Sacrament, the Body and Blood of the Lord. The eyes of faith give us the privilege of seeing and celebrating this unbreakable bond between heaven and earth, the most exalted unity that is possible in this world. We become one with the ascended Lord Jesus to give praise to God the Father, in order to better fulfill our mission of salvation, and to build up God’s Kingdom on Earth, a kingdom of life, justice and peace. Indeed, this is the font from which our power flows.
Is this upcoming “Year of the Eucharist” a good fit with the recently proclaimed world-wide process of the Synod on Synodality? We respond with an unqualified yes, knowing that the theme for the Synod is “Communion, Participation and Mission,” which is solidly Eucharistic in purpose and process. As in the Liturgy, we want the voices of our Catholic faithful to be raised in dialogue throughout the Synod process.
The following quotations from Sacrosanctum Concilium illuminate a clear path for us for the Synod to sow the seeds that will provide an abundant harvest. “Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that fully conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy. Such participation by the Christian people as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people (1 Pet. 2:9; cf. 2:4-5), is their right and duty by reason of their baptism.” Likewise, we pray to approach the Synod as disciples of the Lord through fully conscious and active participation as a redeemed people seeking that unity for which Jesus ardently prays, allowing the Holy Spirit to bless and surprise us.
Finally, let us allow the dialogue and silence that are essential for our liturgical prayer as stated in the final quote from Sacrosanctum Concilium, resonate in our hearts and minds as we approach the Synod on Synodality.
“To promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes. And at the proper times all should observe a reverent silence.”
Through voices raised in dialogue, attitudes shaped by prayer, and silence cultivated out of respect for one another, we will experience a deeper sense of communion, participation and mission. Perhaps, we will achieve a harmony and solidarity under the guidance of the Holy Spirit at the level of 2174 to 4.
Por Obispo Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D. A finales de este mes, en la Fiesta de Cristo Rey, la Diócesis de Jackson comenzará un Año de la Eucaristía que viene muy oportuno cuando estamos dando la bienvenida a la Misa de nuevo a nuestros fieles católicos, para que ocupen el lugar que les corresponde como miembros del Cuerpo de Cristo. No hemos vuelto del todo ni a los números ni a la fuerza previos a la pandemia, pero hemos logrado avances significativos. Para los católicos activos, el sacrificio de la Misa es siempre la piedra angular de nuestra fe en el Señor crucificado y resucitado y a veces, también el terreno fértil para la controversia en la era moderna.
El primer documento del Concilio Vaticano II que se presentó y aprobó al mundo católico fue Sacrosanctum Concilium por votación casi unánime de 2174 a 4. Esto fue el 4 de diciembre de 1963, y en este documento sobre la Sagrada Liturgia que tenía prioridad de un lugar entre los eventuales 16 documentos del Concilio, leemos que los Padres conciliares deseaban “impartir un vigor cada vez mayor a la vida cristiana de los fieles y fomentar todo lo que pueda promover la unión entre todos los que creen en Cristo.”
Obispo Joseph R. Kopacz
No es de extrañar que ellos y nosotros contemplemos la celebración de la Eucaristía, el sacrificio de la Misa, para fortalecer los lazos de unidad que siempre deben ser una obra de amor entre los hijos de Dios, quizás especialmente en nuestra generación.Los padres conciliares afirmaron además que “…la liturgia, a través de la cual se realiza la obra de nuestra redención, sobre todo en el sacrificio divino de la Eucaristía, es el medio sobresaliente por el cual los fieles pueden expresarse en su vida y manifestarse a los demás, el misterio de Cristo y la verdadera naturaleza de la iglesia verdadera.”
Una de las citas más conocidas del Concilio Vaticano proviene de este documento. “La liturgia es la cumbre hacia la que se dirige la actividad de la Iglesia; al mismo tiempo, es la fuente de la que fluye todo su poder.”
Este poder del amor eterno de Dios fluyó primero en el agua y la sangre del cuerpo quebrantado y el costado traspasado de Jesús en la Cruz. Estas fueron las cabeceras de la vida sacramental de la iglesia, específicamente el Bautismo y la Eucaristía, que se han convertido en un caudaloso río que fluye a través del tiempo.
El único sacerdocio de Jesucristo iniciado en la Cruz nace en cada bautismo y se manifiesta en la reunión del Pueblo de Dios en la Misa, la Palabra y el Sacramento. A través del Bautismo y el Orden Sagrado, las dos formas del sacerdocio, laicos y ordenados, se vuelven uno como el Cuerpo de Cristo reunido alrededor de las mesas de la Palabra y el Sacramento, el Cuerpo y la Sangre del Señor. Los ojos de la fe nos dan el privilegio de ver y celebrar este vínculo inquebrantable entre el cielo y la tierra, la unidad más exaltada que es posible en este mundo. Nos convertimos en uno con el Señor Jesús ascendido para alabar a Dios Padre, a fin de cumplir mejor nuestra misión de salvación y construcción del Reino de Dios en la Tierra, un reino de vida, justicia y paz. De hecho, esta es la fuente de la que fluye nuestro poder.
¿Cuán bien encaja este próximo “año de la Eucaristía” con el proceso mundial recientemente proclamado del Sínodo sobre la sinodalidad? Respondemos con un rotundo sí, sabiendo que el tema del Sínodo es “Comunión, Participación y Misión,” que es sólidamente eucarístico en propósito y proceso. Como en la liturgia, queremos que las voces de nuestros fieles católicos se eleven en diálogo durante todo el proceso del Sínodo.
Las siguientes citas de Sacrosanctum Concilium nos iluminan un camino claro para que en el Sínodo sembremos las semillas que proporcionarán una abundante cosecha. “La Madre Iglesia desea fervientemente que todos los fieles sean conducidos a esa activa participación, plenamente consciente en las celebraciones litúrgicas y que exige la naturaleza misma de la liturgia. Tal participación del pueblo cristiano como “familia escogida, real sacerdocio, nación santa, pueblo redimido (1 Pedro. 2: 9; cf.2: 4-5), es su derecho y deber por razón de su bautismo”. Asimismo, rezamos para acercarnos al Sínodo como discípulos del Señor a través de la participación plena consciente y activa como pueblo redimido que busca esa unidad por la que Jesús reza con ardor, dejando que el Espíritu Santo nos bendiga y nos sorprenda.
Finalmente, dejemos que el diálogo y el silencio, que son esenciales para nuestra oración litúrgica como se indica en la cita final de Sacrosanctum Concilium, resuenen en nuestros corazones y mentes a medida que nos acercamos al Sínodo sobre la Sinodalidad.
“Para promover la participación activa, se debe alentar a la gente a participar mediante aclamaciones, respuestas, salmodias, antífonas y cánticos, así como con acciones, gestos y actitudes corporales. Y también, en el momento oportuno, todos deben guardar un silencio reverente.”
A través de las voces que se elevan en el diálogo, las actitudes moldeadas por la oración y el silencio cultivado por el respeto mutuo, experimentaremos un sentido más profundo de comunión, participación y misión. Quizás logremos armonía y solidaridad bajo la guía del Espíritu Santo en el nivel de 2174 a 4.
While this is officially “Vocations Awareness Week,” here in the Diocese of Jackson we are dedicated to the fact that all of us should be open to the will of God in our lives, and rooted in prayer and relationship with the Lord, we seek to live out whatever the call ends up being. We are vocationally aware every day.
Father Nick Adam
Kathleen McMullin is a shining example of that. I remind you that Kathleen entered the community of the Franciscan Sisters of the Martyr St. George (Alton, Illinois) in early September. The call to consecrated life and the dedication to living out the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience is a call to live like Christ in a radical way.
Kathleen is discerning a call that in many ways provides her with more temporal challenges than the call to diocesan priesthood. As a diocesan priest, I can own things. If I want to go to the store, or to get some take-out, I can, and I can drive my own car there to boot. For Kathleen and vowed religious, everything they have is shared in common.
At the Benedictine monastery where I attended seminary it was always funny to see the monks fully habited driving back onto campus in random “community” vehicles that had to be “checked out” from their superior. This call to radical poverty is a path to freedom, however, and it gives Kathleen and her brothers and sisters the power to witness to a materialistic world that there is more to life than what we own. She has discerned that her call is to be in that community because she is confident in God’s love for her and she knows that no matter what happens, God will bring forth greater fulfillment in her life than anything else the world has to offer. She trusts that God has asked her to live and discern in that community for a reason, and I am so excited to see what the Lord has in store for her.
Kathleen is in her late-20s, and she has been “vocationally aware,” for a very long time. She stayed open to God’s will while she graduated from high school, and college, and was trained as an occupational therapist, and finally she received the “go ahead” from the Lord to go deeper, to take a leap, and to trust him more fully. She was, and is, supported by a community of believers who inspire her and who are inspired by her. The fact that she remained open to this call and she was eventually able to respond to the Lord in such a beautiful way is a testament to the “Vocation Awareness” that is present in our diocese.
The greatest way we can remain “aware” is to pray for more vocations, and to pray for specific people in our community who we know are either thinking about priesthood or religious life or would make excellent priests and religious. Thank you for remaining vigilant and for continuing to beg the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers into the field.
– Father Nick Adam
If you are interested in learning more about religious orders or vocations to the priesthood and religious life, please email Father Nick Adam at nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.
Kathleen McMullin is pictured on the far left on a visit earlier in 2021 to the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George community in Alton, Illinois. McMullin entered the community in early September this year.
By Berta Mexidor JACKSON – This year the Bishop R.O. Gerow Assembly 554 of the Knights of Columbus, has gotten involved in the Wreaths Across America program by sponsoring the Clinton Cemetery. They have identified approximately 250 veterans’ gravesites which they hope to lay wreaths on Dec. 18 at noon. The mission is to remember, honor and teach. “What a beautiful and meaningful way to remember and honor our veterans during the Christmas season,” said the Knights of Columbus.
The wreaths are made of live greenery with a red velvet bow and cost $15. Wreaths can be purchased for an unspecified veteran at the Clinton Cemetery, for a specific veteran at the Clinton Cemetery, or for a veteran buried somewhere other than the Clinton Cemetery. Wreaths purchased for placement at other cemeteries will be available for pick up at Holy Savior Church at 714 Lindale Street in Clinton on Dec. 18 at 3 p.m. Wreaths must be purchased prior to Nov. 19, 2021, so orders can be placed.
Wreaths can be purchased online at https://kofc554.org/wreaths or by mail – just visit their website for details.
Honoring veterans buried at the Clinton Cemetery this holiday season is the mission for members of the Knights of Columbus Bishop R.O. Gerow Assembly 554, which are participating in the annual Wreaths Across America sponsorship drive. The national wreath-laying remembrance effort is planned for Dec. 18. (Photo WAA Staff)
By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With many people around the world facing exclusion and inequality, the social teaching of the Catholic Church can inspire new economic systems that are more “people-centered,” Pope Francis said.
Christians must not “remain indifferent” to those affected by an “economic system that continues to discard people’s lives in the name of the god of money, fostering greed and destructive attitudes toward the resources of the earth and fueling various forms of injustice,” the pope said Oct. 23.
“Our response to injustice and exploitation must be more than mere condemnation,” he said. “First and foremost, it must be the active promotion of good: condemnation of what is wrong, yet promotion of what is good.”
The pope addressed participants of an international conference sponsored by the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation. The two-day conference reflected on “Solidarity, Cooperation and Responsibility: The antidotes to fight injustices, inequalities and exclusions.”
Established in 1993, the foundation seeks to promote the teaching of St. John Paul II’s 1991 encyclical on social and economic justice.
Pope Francis praised the foundation for its “commitment to financing study and research by young people on new models of economic and social development inspired by the church’s social doctrine.”
“This is important and greatly needed: in soil contaminated by the predominance of finance, we need to sow many small seeds that can bear fruit in an economy that is equitable and beneficial, humane and people-centered. We need possibilities able to become realities, and realities able to offer hope. This means putting into practice the social teaching of the church,” he said.
Reflecting on the conference’s theme, the pope said that solidarity, cooperation and responsibility represent the “three pillars of the church’s social teaching,” which places the human person at the center of “the social, economic and political order.”
Rather than an individualistic world view, the church’s teaching is based on the word of God that “seeks to promote integral human development on the basis of our faith in the God who became man.”
“In every sphere of life, today more than ever, we are bound to witness our concern for others, to think not only of ourselves, and to commit ourselves freely to the development of a more just and equitable society where forms of selfishness and partisan interests do not prevail,” the pope said.
Pope Francis said Christians must be inspired by the teachings of Jesus and care for others with a “love that transcends borders and limits,” giving witness that “it is possible to pass beyond the walls of selfishness and personal and national interest.”
“We can be ‘brothers and sisters all,’ and so we can and must think and work as ‘brothers and sisters of all,’” he said. “This may seem to be an unrealistic utopia. But we prefer to believe that it is a dream that can come true. For it is the dream of the triune God. With his help, it is a dream that can begin to become reality, also in our world.”
Pope Francis leads an audience with members of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation at the Vatican Oct. 23, 2021. The organization promotes the social teaching of the Catholic Church, in particular the teaching in St. John Paul II’s Encyclical Centesimus Annus. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
No man is an island. John Donne wrote those words four centuries ago and they are as true now as they were then, except we don’t believe them anymore.
Today more and more of us are beginning to define our nuclear families and our carefully chosen circle of friends precisely as a self-sufficient island and are becoming increasing selective as to who is allowed on our island, into our circle of friends, and into the circle of those we deem worthy of respect. We define and protect our idiosyncratic islands by a particular ideology, view of politics, view of morality, view of gender, and view of religion. Anyone who doesn’t share our view is unwelcome and not worthy of our time and respect.
Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Moreover, contemporary media plays into this. Beyond the hundreds of mainstream television channels we have to choose from, each with its own agenda, we have social media wherein each of us can find the exact ideology, politics, and moral and religious perspective that fosters, protects and isolates our island and makes our little nuclear clique, one of self-sufficiency, exclusivity and intolerance. Today we all have the tools to plumb the media until we find exactly the “truth” we like. We have come a long way from the old days of a Walter Cronkite delivering a truth we all could trust.
The effects of this are everywhere, not least in the increasingly bitter polarization we are experiencing vis-a-vis virtually every political, moral, economic, and religious issue in our world. We find ourselves today on separate islands, not open to listen, respect, or dialogue with anyone not of our own kind. Anyone who disagrees with me is not worthy of my time, my ear, and my respect; this seems to be the popular attitude today.
We see some of this in certain strident forms of Cancel Culture and we see much of it in the increasing hard, inward-turned face of nationalism in so many countries today. What’s foreign is unwelcome, pure and simple. We will not deal with anything that challenges our ethos.
What’s wrong with that? Almost everything. Irrespective of whether we are looking at this from a biblical and Christian perspective or whether we are looking at it from the point of view of human health and maturity, this is just wrong.
Biblically, it’s clear. God breaks into our lives in important ways, mainly through “the stranger,” through what’s foreign, through what’s other, and through what sabotages our thinking and blows apart our calculated expectations.
Revelation normally comes to us in the surprise, namely, in a form that turns our thinking upside down. Take for example the incarnation itself. For centuries people looked forward to the coming of a messiah, a god in human flesh, who would overpower and humiliate all their enemies and offer them, those faithfully praying for this, honor and glory. They prayed for and anticipated a superman, and what did they get? A helpless baby lying in the straw. Revelation works like that. This is why St. Paul tells us to always welcome a stranger because it could in fact be an angel in disguise.
All of us, I am sure, at some point in our lives have personally had that experience of meeting an angel in disguise inside a stranger whom we perhaps welcomed only with some reluctance and fear. I know in my own life, there have been times when I didn’t want to welcome a certain person or situation into my life.
I live in a religious community where you do not get to choose who you will live with. You are assigned your “immediate family” and (but for a few exceptions when there is clinical dysfunction) like-mindedness is not a criterion as to who is assigned to live with each other in our religious houses. Not infrequently, I have had to live in community with someone who I would not, by choice, have taken for a friend, a colleague, a neighbor, or a member of my family. To my surprise, it has often been the person whom I would have least chosen to live with who has been a vehicle of grace and transformation in my life.
Moreover, this has been true for my life in general. I have often found myself graced by the most unlikely, unexpected, initially unwelcome sources. Admittedly, this has not always been without pain. What’s foreign, what’s other, can be upsetting and painful for a long time before grace and revelation are recognized, but it’s what carries grace.
That is our challenge always, though particularly today when so many of us are retreating to our own islands, imagining this as maturity, and then rationalizing it by a false faith, a false nationalism, and a false idea of what constitutes maturity. This is both wrong and dangerous. Engaging with what is other enlarges us. God is in the stranger, and so we are cutting ourselves off from a major avenue of grace whenever we will not let the foreign into our lives.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)
By Joe Lee MADISON – How hard has Habitat for Humanity/Mississippi Capital Area (HHMCA) been hit in 2021 by the ongoing COVID pandemic and the skyrocketing costs of building materials? The numbers are sobering.
“It cost $80,000 to build before. Now it’s $120,000,” said HHMCA executive director Merrill McKewen. “None of that (increase) was in our 2021 budget.”
That’s a whopping 50 percent leap, and over a very short period of time. When combined with COVID safety measures reducing on-site volunteers at builds from 15 at a time to only seven, McKewen and her board of directors faced serious challenges in keeping their tradition of bringing people together to build homes, communities and hope. The way forward, at least temporarily, lies in touching up previously-built Habitat homes.
“This was an unusual year,” McKewen said. “We had a cluster of homeowners who wanted to live in recycled Habitat houses. Not much big stuff is involved in recycling them – not much gutting – we’re getting the home up to standards with electrical, painting, plumbing, and clearing the property.”
HHMCA hopes to close on five safe, recycled homes before Christmas. Among them is the annual Catholic build, located this year on Gentry Street off Bailey Avenue in west Jackson. Hard-working volunteers have spent several Saturday mornings on the property and will wrap up before Thanksgiving.
“I started volunteering on the Catholic builds about 12 years ago,” said Allen Scott, incoming HHMCA board president and a parishioner at Holy Savior of Clinton. “For several years that was my total involvement — a few Saturdays a year on the Catholic build.”
JACKSON – Arthur Ring, Allen Scott and Brett Fitzgerald work on rehabbing a ‘recycled’ Habitat for Humanity home for a family that needs a place to ‘call home.’ As COVID hit and construction prices skyrocketed, Habitat has had to limit the number of volunteers and are now rehabbing homes to save on costs. (Photo by Callie Ainsworth)
“The staff at HHMCA asked me to chair the Catholic Build committee for a couple of years. When I met the families that were going to live in the houses – especially the children – and saw how happy they were, it just gave me a real feeling that I was helping somebody.”
The Catholic build tradition goes back more than three decades, as parishes in Jackson, Pearl, Madison, Clinton, Gluckstadt and Canton have all contributed monetarily as well as providing volunteers.
“HHMCA informs us of the amount that will be needed to do the work, and in turn we ask our parishes to contribute at the level that is feasible for them, depending on the population of the parish community,” said Bishop Joseph Kopacz. “Most parishioners are familiar with the annual project and the invitation to contribute and respond generously. The Habitat for Humanity organization is a trusted brand, and all know that the prospective homeowners are carefully screened to assure success with their lifelong dream of home ownership.”
“We don’t give houses away,” McKewen said. “But anyone, regardless of income, can apply with us for a home if they’re willing to do the work and pay for a thirty-year zero-interest mortgage. We function as a mortgage lender with a Christian attitude.”
What drives McKewen is getting people out of poverty and into safe homes, where they have greatly improved chances of putting roots down, learning marketable skills, attaining an education and, ultimately, giving back to the community.
In addition to the thorough vetting the homeowners receive before being approved, all help physically build their new Habitat homes. That sweat equity is crucial in developing the pride the owners have in their new residences, and it’s not uncommon to witness deeply touching moments when families take ownership.
“I would encourage all HHMCA volunteers, and anyone interested in the ministry, to attend a house dedication,” Scott said. “The new homeowners are so genuinely appreciative that it is hard not to feel their emotions. My favorite memory was a house on Greenview (in south Jackson) where the four-year-old ran into the master bedroom and shouted, ‘This one’s mine!’ I truly believe that anybody who ever volunteers one time and meets the family will be hooked.”
McKewen has high hopes for a smoother 2022 and plans to return HHMCA to the beloved Broadmoor neighborhood in north Jackson, where a number of the memorable homes built during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations have fallen into disrepair and been abandoned.
“We are changing the neighborhood and will be completely rehabbing those houses, as in gutting to the studs,” she said. “We are putting homeowners into homes for $650/month and getting people out of deplorable conditions where they were paying as much as $800/month.”
“This commitment has endured the test of time,” Kopacz said. “We want families to have a place to call home, and in the process see the restoration of the blighted areas of the City of Jackson, one house and one block at a time.”
Want to help Habitat?
“There are many ways to help in addition to volunteering on a worksite,” said incoming HHMCA board president, Allen Scott. “Pray for the families and the ministry. Encourage your parish council and finance committee to financially support HHMCA. Individual donations add up, so no gift is too small.”
“The volunteer crews have to be fed so meals have to be prepared and delivered to the home site. Basically, if a person wants to be involved, we can find some way to include them in a build.”
JACKSON – Pictured left to right: Arthur Ring, Allen Scott, Bo Bender, Demetrica Clincy (homeowner), Lechen Tyler (homeowner), Polly Hammett and Marc McAllister. The group stands outside of the home Catholic Build made possible for the family. (Photo by Callie Ainsworth)
By Kurt Jensen WASHINGTON (CNS) – It’s a question Jeanne Mancini has already been asked so many times, she has an answer ready to go.
On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an appeal by Mississippi to remove a lower court’s injunction on its law banning most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy.
Should the court rule in favor of the state law in a decision to be handed down next year, overturning Roe v. Wade and sending the abortion issue back to the states, will there still be a need for the annual rally and march in Washington?
Or will March for Life, a fixture since January 1974, instead become a decentralized arrangement of statewide marches?
“We will make an announcement if and when that happens,” Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, told Catholic News Service.
State marches that began a few years ago, she said, were not planned in anticipation of any Supreme Court decision, but rather as a way “to strengthen the grassroots” and provide opportunities for activism for those who don’t make the long trip to Washington.
Carrie Severino, president of Judicial Crisis Network, identified the challenge should the court uphold the Mississippi law. “It really just puts the ball back in (the states’) court. There should be 50 Marches for Life,” she said during the Oct. 27 announcement of next year’s theme, “Equality Begins in the Womb.”
“We want to expand this rigorous debate about inequality” to the unborn, Mancini said at the Heritage Foundation, where the theme was announced.
Calling the theme a cry for “inherent human dignity because of who we are in our essence,” she added, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere, including in the womb.”
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said in a statement that “it reclaims a key word – equality – and reminds us that unless children in the womb enjoy it, the rest of us lose it as well.”
The March for Life is scheduled for Jan. 21. The event, which starts with a rally near the National Mall followed by a march to the Supreme Court, is always held on a date near the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 rulings, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, companion rulings that legalized abortion nationwide.
“It’s going to be one of the most significant years for the march yet,” said Severino. “This court has an opportunity like none it has had before with the Dobbs case.”
Journalists take photos of the March for Life participants outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington Jan. 29, 2021, amid the coronavirus pandemic. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)
The Mississippi law was enacted in 2018, but it never took effect because a federal appellate court immediately blocked its enforcement. The state’s single abortion clinic is still performing them.
With Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, as well as Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, Severino said, “we now have a majority of justices on the court who believe the Constitution must be interpreted according to its original understanding, and its original meaning.”
The turnout of more than 100,000 people for the 2020 March for Life is considered the all-time high for the event. Attendees packed the National Mall to hear President Donald Trump address the rally in person.
But in January of this year, the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and heavy security following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol reduced the march to its smallest turnout – an invited core group of 80.
Instead of the usual march up Constitution Avenue, the group took a winding route through Washington streets to the Supreme Court and were joined midway by about 100 others.
“We never thought of not doing the march,” Mancini told CNS. But, she added, she didn’t think she could comment on whether any of the current plans represent “back to normal.”
Mancini, who has headed the march since 2012 when she took over from its founder, the late Nellie Gray, said: “I wouldn’t call any march I’ve been part of a predictable march. It’s always been a little bit unpredictable.”
The bus pilgrimages that traditionally bring thousands of marchers to the nation’s capital also are difficult to predict for 2022 until reservations are confirmed by organizers and bus companies.
At the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, Ed Konieczka, assistant director of university ministry, said their goal is to have 240 students, about 50 more than in 2020, head for Washington on five buses, with an event to be held in Bismarck coinciding with the national march.
John Pratt, director of youth ministry for the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend, Indiana, told CNS that “if we are able to go, my sense would be that we would have about 80% of the participation as compared to recent years. In 2019 and 2020, we sent 10 busloads (just over 500 pilgrims) from our diocese.”
For 2022, he said, “350 to 400 (seven to eight busloads) is pretty realistic.”
NATION WASHINGTON (CNS) – Ahead of President Joe Biden’s Oct. 29 meeting with Pope Francis, panelists in a webinar offered mostly praise for Biden’s sincerity and what they said is his commitment to his Catholic faith. “We believe President Biden treats his vocation as a sacred one,” said Mary J. Novak, executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby organization. Biden and the pope both “lead with a very clear conviction that solidarity is essential to our faith,” she said during the Oct. 26 event. In announcing the webinar, a Network news release called the meeting of the two leaders “an important inflection point for global and U.S. politics.” The White House has indicated that discussion topics for Biden and the pope in their private meeting at the Vatican are likely to include climate change, income inequality and migration. Webinar participants highlighted these same issues as those they hoped the two leaders would discuss. Whether the issue of abortion will come up is not known; Biden as a Catholic supports legal abortion, while church teaching upholds the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. One prominent U.S. pro-life leader, Judie Brown of the American Life League, said in an Oct. 28 statement that Pope Francis “needs to hold Biden accountable” for “his pro-abortion views.”
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The theme of the 2022 March for Life in Washington is “Equality Begins in the Womb.” “We want to expand” the nation’s current “rigorous debate about inequality” to the unborn, said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. She made the comments Oct. 27 at the Heritage Foundation, where the theme was announced. Calling the theme a cry for “inherent human dignity because of who we are in our essence,” she added, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere, including in the womb.” The March for Life is scheduled for Jan. 21. It is always held on a date near the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 rulings, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, which legalized abortion nationwide. Carrie Severino, president of Judicial Crisis Network, said 2022 is “going to be one of the most significant years for the march yet,” said Severino, referring to oral arguments to be heard Dec. 1 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It’s an appeal by Mississippi to remove a lower court’s injunction on its law banning most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. A ruling in the case is expected next year. If the court upholds the state’s law, many expect Roe v. Wade to be overturned.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CNS) – When the Taliban began taking control of Afghanistan in mid-August, “in one night, everything changed,” recalled Adam. Adam, his wife and their 7-year-old son are three of the more than 150 Afghans whom Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Nashville have helped and will continue to help resettle in the next several months through the State Department’s Afghan Placement Assistance Program. At the beginning of September, the Department of Homeland Security implemented Operation Allies Welcome “to support vulnerable Afghans, including those who worked alongside us in Afghanistan for the past two decades as they safely resettle in the United States,” according to the official Department of Homeland Security website, further leading to implementation of the placement program. Since August 2018, Adam served as an Afghan interpreter for U.S. service members through the security office at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Because of his service to the U.S. troops, he requested his family’s true identity remain anonymous to protect their loved ones who are still in Kabul. Adam hopes to study anthropology and prepare for his dream career. “My hope for my future in America is to serve as I served before,” Adam said. “I want to serve for the government because the government can help Afghanistan; the government can help my people.”
VATICAN VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With the COVID-19 pandemic still underway and with restrictions on gatherings still in place in some countries, the Vatican has again extended the period of time when people can earn a plenary indulgence for visiting a cemetery and praying for the souls of the faithful in purgatory. Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican tribunal dealing with matters of conscience, said the indulgences traditionally obtained during the first week of November can be gained throughout the entire month of November, the Vatican announced Oct. 28. The cardinal said he was acting in response to “pleas recently received from various sacred pastors of the church because of the state of the continuing pandemic.” Traditionally, the faithful could receive a full indulgence each day from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8 when they visited a cemetery to pray for the departed and fulfilled other conditions, and, in particular, when they went to a church or an oratory to pray Nov. 2, All Souls’ Day. Because of the pandemic and the popularity in many cultures of visiting cemeteries for All Souls’ Day, some local governments and dioceses closed cemeteries in the first week of November to prevent crowding. That led Cardinal Piacenza to issue a decree in 2020 extending the period for the indulgences. The decree for 2021 renewed those provisions.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square this year will have a distinctly Indigenous, Andean look with the centerpiece being a “Hilipuska” baby Jesus, that is, one wrapped in a blanket bound with a long cord known as a “chumpi.” The super-swaddled baby is typical of the Andean highlands, particularly in Peru’s Huancavelica region, which is home to the five artists who created the 30-piece Nativity scene. In a statement released Oct. 28, the Vatican City State governing office said the scene was chosen, in part, to mark the 200th anniversary of Peru’s independence. “The Three Kings will have saddlebags or sacks containing foods characteristic of Huancavelica, such as potatoes, quinoa, kiwicha and cañihua, and will be accompanied by llamas carrying a Peruvian flag on their backs,” the Vatican said. “In the crèche, there also will be statues of different animals belonging to the local fauna such as: alpacas, vicuñas, sheep, vizcachas, flamingoes and the Andean condor,” which is the national symbol of Peru. The crèche will sit under a spruce tree, which is expected to be about 90 feet tall. The tree will come from a sustainably managed forest in the Dolomite mountains of Italy’s Trentino-South Tyrol region. The round wooden ornaments also will come from Trentino, the Vatican said.
WORLD WELLINGTON (CNS) – New Zealand’s Catholic bishops have prepared guidelines for health professionals, chaplains and priests to assist them in their pastoral work with people who decide to die under the country’s End of Life Choice Act that takes effect Nov. 7. While the church opposes the deliberate taking of human life, it cannot turn away people who choose “assisted dying” under the new law, said Bishop Stephen Lowe of Hamilton, New Zealand, vice president of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The church must help people view the questions and choices they face through a Christian lens, Bishop Lowe said in a statement released by the bishops’ conference Oct. 28. “Individuals often find themselves in complex places. In these times, the church tries to offer guidance to people as best they can, but people make their own choices,” he said. “Often as a church, we find ourselves caring for people dealing with the consequences of such choices. Our pastoral practice is always called to be a reflection of our God, who does not abandon his people,” he added.
A euthanasia advocate who suffers from an incurable condition that atrophies her muscles and has left her breathing through a ventilator, lies in bed at her home in Lima, Peru, Feb. 7, 2020. New Zealand bishops have developed guidelines for health professionals, chaplains and priests to assist them in their pastoral work with people who decide to die under the country’s End of Life Choice Act that takes effect Nov. 7, 2021. (CNS photo/Sebastian Castaneda, Reuters)
