Saints for a new situation

Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI

IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Everywhere in church circles today you hear a lament: Our churches are emptying. We’ve lost our youth. This generation no longer knows or understands the classical theological language. We need to announce Jesus again, as if for the first time, but how? The church is becoming evermore marginalized.

That’s the situation pretty much everywhere within the secularized world today. Why is this happening? Faith as a spent project? Secularity’s adolescent grandiosity before the parent who gave it birth, Judeo-Christianity? The “buffered self” that Charles Taylor describes? Affluence? Or is the problem mainly with the churches themselves? Sexual abuse? Cover-up? Poor liturgies? Poor preaching? Churches too liberal? Churches too conservative?

I suspect it’s some combination of all of these, but I’ll single out one issue here to highlight, affluence. Jesus told us that it’s difficult (impossible, he says) for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. No doubt, that’s a huge part of our present struggle. We’re good at being Christians when we’re poor, less educated and on the margins of mainstream society. We’ve had centuries of practice at this. What we haven’t had any practice at, and aren’t any good at, is how to be Christians when we’re affluent, sophisticated and constitute the cultural mainstream.

So, I’m suggesting that what we need today is not so much a new pastoral approach as a new kind of saint, an individual man or woman who can model for us practically what it means to live out the Gospel in a context of affluence and secularity. Why this?

One of the lessons of history is that often genuine religious renewal, the type that actually reshapes the religious imagination, does not come from think-tanks, conferences and church synods, but from graced individuals – saints, wild men and women who, like Saint Augustine, Saint Francis, Saint Clare, Saint Dominic, Saint Ignatius or other such religious figures can reshape our religious imagination. They show us that the new lies elsewhere, that what needs fixing in the church will not be mended simply by patching the old. What’s needed is a new religious and ecclesial imagination. Charles Taylor, in his highly-respected study of secularity, suggests that what we’re undergoing today is not so much a crisis of faith as a crisis of imagination. No Christians before us have ever lived within this kind of world.
What will this new kind of saint, this new St. Francis, look like? I honestly don’t know. Neither, it seems, does anyone else. We have no answer yet, at least not one that’s been able to bear much fruit in the mainstream culture. That’s not surprising. The type of imagination that reshapes history isn’t easily found. In the meantime we’ve come about as far as we can along the road that used to take us there, but which for many of our children no longer does.

Here’s our quandary: We’re better at knowing what to do once we get people into a church than we are at knowing how to get them there. Why? Our weakness, I believe, lies not in our theological imagination where we have rich theological and biblical insights aplenty. What we lack are saints on the ground, men and women who, in a passion and fidelity that’s at once radically faithful to God and fiercely empathic to our secular world, can incarnate their faith into a way of living that can show us, practically, how we can be poor and humble disciples of Jesus even as we walk in an affluent and highly secularized world.

And such new persons will appear. We’ve been at this spot before in history and have always found our way forward. Every time the world believes it has buried Christ, the stone rolls back from the tomb; every time the cultural ethos declares that the churches are on an irrevocable downward slide, the Spirit intervenes and there’s soon an about face; every time we despair, thinking that our age can now longer produce saints and prophets, some Augustine or Francis comes along and shows that our age, like times of old, can too produce its saints; and every time our imaginations run dry, as they have now, we find that our scriptures are still full of fresh insight. We may lack imagination, but we don’t lack hope.

Christ promised we will not be orphaned, and that promise is sure. God is still with us and our age will produce its own prophets and saints. What’s asked of us in the moment is biblical patience, to wait on God. Christianity may look tired, tried and spent to a culture within which affluence and sophistication are its current gods, but hope is already beginning to show its face. As secularization, with its affluence and sophistication, marches unswervingly forward we’re already beginning to see a number of men and women who have found ways to become post-affluent and post-sophisticated. These will be the new religious leaders who will teach us and our children, how to live as Christians in this new situation.

(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.)

“The Christmas Cradle”

Tony Rossi

LIGHT ONE CANDLE
By Tony Rossi
Kids are used to getting presents for Christmas, and likely giving a few themselves. But Meadow Rue Merrill wants to expand their horizons by making it a fun family tradition to also give gifts to Jesus in a special way. That’s what inspired her children’s book The Christmas Cradle.
Merrill won a Christopher Award last year for her memoir Redeeming Ruth, about her adoption of a disabled orphan from Uganda. The mother of five joined me on “Christopher Closeup” recently to discuss The Christmas Cradle, which tells the story of a girl named Molly and her family who visit her Aunt Jenny to celebrate the holiday. Molly comes across a Christmas cradle in a box and asks her aunt its purpose. Aunt Jenny explains, “Growing up, we played a game to share God’s love with others. Each December, we sang carols, delivered meals, and visited people who were lonely. Then we wrote each act of love on a card and put it in the cradle as a gift for Jesus. On Christmas morning, we read the cards and prayed for each person we’d served.”
In writing the book, Merrill said she contemplated the questions, “How do we give a gift to Jesus, who has everything? I feel like we can do that best by giving gifts to other people in His name.”
Merrill doesn’t just approach that idea from the standpoint of a giver, but also a recipient of kindness. She recalls, “One of my favorite Christmas memories was when we truly had very little to give our kids, and a neighbor encouraged them to write letters to Santa. I was thinking, ‘Why? We don’t even have the ability to [afford anything].’ But on Christmas Eve, [this neighbor] invited our family over to her home, and there in the middle of her living room was a pile of Christmas gifts [for my family], including for the baby that I was pregnant with. As my husband and I brought those home that Christmas Eve, it really was the kind of magic that we all hope for – but somehow spending it on ourselves doesn’t make it happen. It’s when we find someone with a greater need than ourselves to give it away.”
Part of Merrill’s awareness of poverty stems from her experience adopting Ruth. She says, “Ruth won our hearts with her bright smile and the laughter in her eyes. It took a great amount of sacrifice to meet her physical needs, and yet the joy she brought us was so incredible.”
Unfortunately, Ruth passed away due to health complications, but her legacy lives on. Merrill says, “Getting to know Ruth and meeting her needs opened our eyes to the needs of children around the world, and in our own communities, who don’t have what they need. I realized how far our gifts, donations, and even time, can go when we invest those in the lives of someone else. Ruth changed our hearts forever in the way we look at things, and we want to reach out and share what we have with others.”
Merrill hopes that people don’t just read The Christmas Cradle, but act on it. She concludes, “When [families] have the opportunity to do a good deed for someone else, they can write it on a little piece of paper and put it in the cradle. Then on Christmas morning, we can remember those people who we served by taking out their names on the cards and praying for them.”

(Tony Rossi is the Communications Director for The Christophers, a Catholic media company. The mission of The Christophers is to encourage people of all ages, and from all walks of life, to use their God-given talents to make a positive difference in the world. Learn more at www.christophers.org.)

“Oh, Tidings of Con-on-flict and Joy, Conflict and Joy”

Sister alies therese

From the hermitage
By sister alies
Advent prepares us and heightens our longing. Our longing finds its place alongside our ancestors and God’s expressions of longing in the Hebrew Bible. Consider what our Catechism says: “The coming of God’s Son to earth is an event of such immensity that God willed to prepare for it over centuries. God makes everything converge on Christ: all the rituals and sacrifices, figures and symbols of the ‘First Covenant.’ God announces Christ through the mouths of prophets who succeeded one another in Israel. Moreover, God awakens in the hearts of pagans a dim expectation of this coming.” (522) Further, “When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present the ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for Jesus’ second coming. By celebrating John the Baptist’s birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: ‘Jesus must increase, but I must decrease.’” (524)
Depending on how I live and celebrate Advent, I am at least either a pagan with a ‘dim expectation’ or part of the faithful with an ‘ardent desire’ to fully meet Jesus. I should like to be the latter, but alas I find within myself blocks and winding paths that seem to veer right away from an ardent desire. Lazy? Fearful? Hopeless? Whatever the blocks in me might be, or in you, they will eventually be removed by Jesus. I suspect that’s the point of Advent so that when we do come to reflect more deeply upon the story of Christmas our hearts might be ready to entertain some of its cost.
I was reflecting that Christmas is both joy and conflict when I came across a book I’d read some years ago, The First Christmas, What The Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’ Birth, by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. It made me continue to consider longing and conflict. Simply put, Jesus was a refugee Child forced from His country of birth, crossing the borders into a foreign land, Egypt. Other children were being killed and it would be some two years before the Christ Child returned home with Mary and Joseph to Nazareth.
This past year we have been plagued for many and various reasons with raids, separation of children from parents, immigrants and refugees being expelled, deported or jailed. In both cases we see the conflict and battle of speaking truth to power. There is nothing wrong with a just immigration policy. But for thousands of tiny children scared and made mute by the trauma we have to wonder how Jesus and His parents faired in Egypt.
Christmas, its story, facts and symbols, points to the conflict within and the conflict to come. Most of us have a pretty complete understanding of the Christmas story so our reflection upon it might be too swift. Let’s consider some of Matthew’s story you might have skipped over. Borg and Crossan share: “Mathew’s story sounds the theme of fulfillment but its emotional tone is ominous. Driven and dominated by Herod’s plot to kill Jesus, it is dark and foreboding. It speaks of the murderous resistance of the rulers of this world to the coming of the kingdom of God.”
I like the Catechism’s explanation of the ‘Christmas Mystery:’ “Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this poverty heaven’s glory was made manifest. The Church never tires of singing the glory of the night: The Virgin today brings into the world the Eternal and the earth offers a cave to the Inaccessible. The angels and shepherds praise Him and the magi advance with the star, for You are born for us, Little Child, God Eternal. To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this we humble ourselves and become little … Christmas is the mystery of marvelous exchange.”
Equally the text in the Catechism tells us of the conflict midst the beauty: “the flight into Egypt and the massacre of the innocents make manifest the opposition of darkness to the light: ‘He came to His own home, and His people received Him not. (John 1:11) Christ’s whole life was lived under the sign of persecution. His own share it with Him. Jesus’ departure from Egypt recalls the Exodus and presents Him as the definitive liberator of God’s people.”
Venture deeper into Advent and begin the Christmas season, alert to both the joy and conflict and see how it plays out in our world and in our own hearts.
Blessings.

(Sister alies therese is a vowed Catholic solitary who lives an eremitical life. Her days are formed around prayer, art and writing. She is author of six books of spiritual fiction and is a weekly columnist. She lives and writes in Mississippi.)

Annunciation school celebrates expansion

By Katie Fenstermacher
COLUMBUS – Supporters of Annunciation school celebrated the institutions expansion on Thursday, Nov. 21 with a ribbon cutting ceremony and reception. Talks of expanding the campus have been ongoing for several years due to increasing enrollment every year. Annunciation Columbus enrollment has almost doubled in the last seven years and the school has seen a 97% increase in that time. After much discussion and research, school administration decided the best plan of action financially would be to build on the current location.


Annunciation began a capital campaign last spring to raise the $3 million needed to move forward with an expansion. The new expansion includes six new classrooms, a computer/STREAM lab, science lab, library and administrative offices. The front of the school also received a revamp. During the ceremony, representatives from each committee that worked on the expansion were present, as well as Bishop Joseph Kopacz and Catherine Cook, Superintendent, to cut the ribbon on this exciting new venture.
Principal, Joni House stated, “The construction of this new building is more than just walls and ceilings, it is the opportunity to continue our mission of higher learning in a Christ-centered environment. It gives us the opportunity to accept additional students each year and offer a more STREAM focused curriculum.”
“What an honor it is to work along so many others who have sacrificed personally and financially to provide an ever-expanding learning environment for our Annunciation Catholic School students and faculty. As we continue our school’s mission of building character, fostering community and creating lifelong learners, we can’t help but remember those sacrifices of so many in our school’s history. They formed the foundation that we have the privilege to be building on. The new opportunities that will be afforded our students and faculty is absolutely amazing, What a challenge and opportunity,“ said Father Jeffrey Waldrep, pastor of Annunciation school and church.
For more information, or to schedule a private school tour, please contact (662) 328-4479 or visit www.AnnunciationCatholicSchool.org.

Catholic Build 2019

By Joe Lee
JACKSON – As Inora Glass looked up from the tree and limb removal all around her on a steamy Saturday morning in October, she was covered in dirt and leaves and felt hot, sticky and fatigued.

She also felt exceedingly grateful. The mother of a seven-year-old daughter, Glass was hard at work with a dozen Habitat for Humanity Mississippi Capital Area (HHMCA) volunteers, putting in the sweat equity required of any Habitat homeowner as the group worked to restore and rebuild the home at 534 Cedarhurst Drive of Jackson that she will take possession of in January.

“We were out there since October,” Glass said. “We tore down the front porch of the house and two sheds in the back. We pulled roots from the ground and took limbs from the trees in front and along the back fence. It looks so much better now.”


The Cedarhurst home was designated by HHMCA for the annual Catholic build. Many Jackson-area organizations and parishes joined in, including St. Richard Jackson, St. Paul Flowood and St. Dominic Hospital. All made funding donations and the parishes contributed bottled water, breakfast, and labor at various times toward the project.

“The Catholic Build is such an important build each year. We count on the continued support of the churches and the Diocese to make the build possible,” said Merrill McKewen, executive director of HHMCA. “This year the Catholic Build is rehabbing a home in the Broadmoor area which is very important to our promise of 100 houses in five years. We are so grateful for their hard work and generous funding.”

Glass worked side by side with volunteers on Saturdays for more than two months. She even joined them at the Habitat warehouse on Mitchell Avenue to paint when the weather turned inclement on a Saturday in November. She had a front-row seat for all aspects of the construction of the home, as well as the extensive training she received from the organization that will help her as a homeowner in the future.
“It feels great. The overall experience is wonderful,” Glass said of her interaction with Habitat and the friendships she has made. “We will close on the house in January and move in. The volunteers and everyone at Habitat have been so kind. I will always thank them for coming out and making my dream come true for me and my baby.”

“Inora Glass has an incredibly beautiful spirit and is truly grateful for Habitat,” said HHMCA volunteer coordinator Kimberly Crowder. “Her spirit also reminds me of why I love doing what I do.”
For more information, visit www.habitatmca.org.

Catholic campus ministry keeps faith alive in students

By Joanna Puddister King
STARKVILLE – Catholic faith is alive and thriving in colleges in the Golden Triangle area through an outreach of St. Joseph church. The church’s Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM) at Mississippi State University also serves students at East Mississippi Community College and the Mississippi University for Women.
Students are the heart of this peer-led organization that believes college is a time for growth and formation for the whole person – body, mind and spirit.
College is truly a time for social growth and community, an avenue that CCM excels at with – free food, a language every college student understands. Tuesday Night Dinner (or TND as it is more affectionately known) hosted at St. Joseph is a great way to feed hungry students bellies and give them spiritual fuel to get them through the week by hosting interactive talks ranging from relationships, vocations, apologetics and more.


“When I first moved to Mississippi, I knew approximately three people here. I … learned about Tuesday Night Dinner (TND) and free food – every college student’s dream! As I started going to TND, I met lots of new people, learned about other CCM happenings and joined in on events and volunteering,” says Mississippi University for Women senior, Maggie Rodriguez.
“Over the past few years CCM has become my second family, a home away from home.”
In addition to free food, CCM has two important Catholic figures in their corner – Mother Teresa and Pope Francis – well, life-size cut-outs that is. The pair have been a main feature since the summer at campus events.
“At the New Maroon Camp, a freshman orientation type set of events, we were the first table people saw as they came into the auditorium filled with representatives from the clubs at MSU. With the cowbell in hand, Pope Francis received lots of smiles from Catholics and non-Catholics alike; likewise, Mother Teresa and her ‘Hail Mary, Hail State’ flag got plenty of positive feedback,” said director of campus ministry, Meg Kanatzar.
“They’re fabulous conversation starters! People come over just to take selfies with them.”
The “Hail Mary, Hail State” phrase ignited a powerful fundraiser that has Catholic Mississippi State fans near and far sporting the phrase on the groups signature t-shirt. Former student Joseph Kerstiens helped come up with the idea for the hugely popular shirt, with the silhouette of Saint Pope John Paul II with a cowbell and rosary in hand, with the slogan.
“We really wanted to have something that incorporated MSU and the Catholic faith, and it wasn’t long before we had the slogan ‘Hail Mary, Hail State,” said Kersteins.
Though there are a lot of fun and games, like Catholic intermural sports and monthly trivia night, the group finds time to allow students to grow deeper in their relationship with Christ with Eucharistic adoration and Bible study, in addition to service to others.
Mini-mission trips to Smith Park in Jackson with Deacon John McGinley is one way the group ministers to others. Often times, the group come on a Sunday so that they can invite the people they meet to Mass at the Cathedral of St. Peter. They also make plastic bags into beds and pillows and distribute to those that need them.
In addition to serving the homeless in Jackson, the group also ministers to their local community with volunteering at Habitat for Humanity, working in the St. Joseph food pantry and serving home-bound individuals with a food box delivery on a monthly basis.
“I want to give back to the community that has given me so much over the past four years,” says co-president of CCM, Jeremy Irwin.
“I had a tough time sophomore year and my CCM family still managed to make my time here at State enjoyable, while still growing in my faith. My hope is that I am able to help bring others the joy CCM has brought me, through Christ.”
That joy is the fuel that keeps director of the campus ministry, Meg Kanatzar going.
“Seeing someone come back on fire for their faith after attending a retreat or observing one student counsel a peer in a difficult time, or entering a chapel or church filled with students praying during Adoration. There are countless moments when I am privileged to witness students making God a priority in their lives,” said Kanatzar.

50 years since White House conference on food, hunger issues remain

By Carol Zimmermann
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Fifty years ago, the White House sponsored a Dec. 2-4 conference on food, nutrition and health designed to set the groundwork for a national nutrition policy and to advise President Richard Nixon on the best ways to eliminate hunger in the U.S.
The conference succeeded in initiating policies to improve school lunch programs and nutrition education and to give more consumer protection – which led to the nutritional labeling food buyers are now accustomed to.
The conference also helped develop the Women, Infants and Children program, which offers supplemental food assistance to low-income pregnant women and mothers and children up to age 5, and it paved the way for the first major expansion of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps low-income individuals and families buy food.
Fast forward 50 years and food policy advocates still have a lot on their plates, in efforts to address food insecurities as well as growing food-related epidemics of diabetes and obesity. They also want to ensure policies that took shape 50 years ago do not face pending cuts by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Several of the event panelists cited troubling statistics on hunger. Notably, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2019 Household Food Insecurity report said more than 37 million people in the U.S. struggle with hunger.

Two girls receive food at an outdoor soup kitchen in Washington. Fifty years after a White House conference on food, nutrition and health, policy advocates say the overall lack of access to healthy food and good nutrition remains a major issue today in the United States. (CNS photo/Jim West)


Other statistics they shared, compiled by Hunger Free America, include:
– 14.3 million households were food insecure with limited or uncertain access to enough food.
– More than 11 million children are food-insecure.
– Many households that experience food insecurity do not qualify for SNAP and rely on local food banks.
No one needs to tell these facts to those who work in public policy at Catholic Charities USA or its local agencies providing food to those in need.
Anthony Granado, vice president at Catholic Charities USA, said there are several food policies that have the support of Catholic Charities, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Health Association, Catholic Rural Life and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
Those groups submitted a joint comment objecting to the Trump administration’s proposal to tighten eligibility standards for SNAP that would cause about 3.1 million to lose food stamp benefits.
The comment, submitted Sept. 23, called SNAP the “first line of defense against hunger.”
They also said the proposed changes to SNAP would bring more people to charities for help when they are already feeding millions each year.
“Our organizations already struggle to meet the needs in our communities and are forced to turn away many for lack of resources. The proposed rule, if implemented, will only add to a demand that we cannot meet,” their comment letter said.
Lizanne Hagedorn, director of Nutritional Development Services for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, knows all about food needs and hasn’t seen them decrease by any means.
As the head of agency that administers local federally funded child nutrition programs and a community food program, Hagedorn said those who come for help are not always atypical; in recent years the agency has seen more senior citizens and college students. She also has seen a shrinking pool of volunteers to serve those in need at food pantries.
“It’s in our blood as Catholic Christians to be good stewards of food and money and to bring everybody along,” Hagedorn said. “Not in an overbearing way but understanding ‘there but for the grace of God go I.'”

Elsa Baughman – a Catholic Messenger

Elsa Baughman

By Berta Mexidor
JACKSON – Before being known as Mississippi Católico, the Spanish-speaking newspaper of the Diocese of Jackson was published as El Mensajero Católico (The Catholic Messenger) for more than ten years.
With the consent of Bishop William Houck, the action of several people who recognized the need to communicate in Spanish with a growing community and a team dedicated to informing, the idea materialized, and on Oct. 10, 1997, the first edition of The Catholic Messenger came to light, more than 22 years ago.
As a protagonist and record keeper of the history is Elsa Baughman. She began working in 1996, for the diocesan newspaper, then called Mississippi Today. Baughman, Venezuelan by birth, graduated of Journalism at the University of Zulia in Venezuela,and with a master’s degree in Mass Communication from the University of Southern Mississippi (USM). A mother and grandmother, Elsa (as everybody knows her), brought her rich experience, culture and the desire to break stereotypes to the diocesan newspaper.

JACKSON – From left to right, Elsa Baughman, Maureen Smith and Tyna McNeely – past employees of Mississippi Catholic pose for a photo. (Photo from archives)


Elsa arrived in Mississippi in 1976 when there were few Hispanics in the state. After graduating from USM, getting married and working in several international companies and being a Spanish teacher, she started working at Mississippi Catholic.
In December 1979, Bishop Joseph B. Brunini was the main celebrant of the first Mass to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Cathedral of San Pedro. Father Mario Vizcaino, SchP. founder of Southern Pastoral Institute (SEPI), auxiliary Bishop William Houck and father Paul Madden were co-celebrants. From there, the tradition of the Spanish Mass was established and the need to serve the growing Latino community.
Since 1982 Rogelio Solis reported Spanish activities to Mississippi Today. Among many people who contributed to promoting the newspaper in Spanish, it is Janna Avalon, who for more than 40 years directed Mississippi Catholic, Fabvienen Taylor, who wrote the first article about the differences and similarities of Latinos, Elizabeth Ayala, who wrote about the sacraments, Sister Patricia Brown, who founded and directed the Hispanic Ministry, Sister Day, Ligia Fenton, Susan Falkner and the priests Jerry Mattingly of Hazlehurst, Richard Smith of Forest, Anthony Quyet of Forest, Maureen Smith, Diocesan Communications Director and brother Ted Dausch who worked for 20 years as coordinator of Hispanic Ministry. All of them; and many more, who always supported the Hispanic celebrations and their dissemination in the Spanish newspaper.
As a committed editor, reporter and Catholic, everyone met Elsa. Even today, after her retirement, Elsa follows the events of her community and she can be seen taking pictures at St. Therese Parish in Jackson. She currently enjoys her free time with her husband, Brian, their daughters, Carla and Verónica and their grandchildren, Arianna and Roman.
“For me, working in the newspaper was a dream come true. Having met so many people and priests, traveling throughout the state and working for three bishops – William Houck, Joseph Latino, and Joseph Kopacz – were wonderful experiences. … One of my best memories, that I keep with great affection, it was the trip to the Saltillo Mission in Mexico, by invitation of Bishop Kopacz, after having reported for many years about the importance of this mission to the diocese,” Elsa concluded.

Hispanic Ministry in Mississippi, a history

By Sister Patricia Brown and Elsa Baughman
JACKSON – The first celebration of the anniversary of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Jackson was 40 years ago, it was not only a success but also the seed that, over time, began the creation of the Hispanic ministry in the Diocese of Jackson.
On Sunday, Dec. 16, 1979, at 4:30 p.m. Bishop Joseph Brunini, auxiliary Bishop William Houck, Father Mario Vizcaino, SchP., founder of Southern Pastoral Institute (SEPI), and Father Paul Madden celebrated the first Mass in Spanish at St. Peter’s Cathedral. About 200 Hispanics from the Jackson area attended that celebration.
In January 1980, a pastoral council was organized in Jackson, meeting regularly and the Sunday Mass was celebrated at St. Peter’s Cathedral in the afternoons. Religion and English classes were offered, social and religious parties were held, and a newsletter was distributed to 95 families.
The United States Census in 1980 indicated that the population of Hispanics in Mississippi was less than one percent. Many of these were migrant farm workers dispersed in the Delta area and in chicken processors in the center of the state.

Although Sister Thea Bowman did not speak Spanish, she helped the Hispanic community to continue celebrating the Eucharist in Spanish and their activities in the Jackson area.
During the 1980s, Father Michael Flannery and Father Richard Smith assisted migrant workers, near Clarksdale.
The 1990 census counted 9,752 Hispanics in the 65 counties of the diocese. The Diocese of Jackson asked Sister Patricia Broderick for a study of the Hispanic community and a plan to meet their needs. The suggestions of that proposal, written in November 1990, remain valid today, only the numbers have increased, and the needs have multiplied.
In 1991, Father José Daniel López, began celebrating Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s Cathedral. Deacon Roberto Jiménez began assisting Father Lopez, and Father Anthony Quyet, in St. Michael parish in Forest, began celebrating Mass in Spanish on April 7, 1991. Prior, Father Madden celebrated Mass in Spanish at the residence of the Echiburu family in Morton.
In 1993, Sister Jeroma Day began visiting Hispanic homes in Rosedale. Gene and Mary Helen Grabbe, lay missionaries of the Glenmary order, formed a stable community Hispanic family in the St John Neumann Mission. In September 1994, the Diocese of Jackson established the Office of the Hispanic Ministry under the direction of Sister Patricia Brown. Sister Patricia Godri arrived in Carthage in September 1994 to work as a pastoral minister in St. Anne’s Church. In 1995 the missionaries of the Glenmary Order sent Father Francisco Pellissier to serve as a sacramental minister in six counties in northeast Mississippi. On Dec. 17 that year, Father Pellissier celebrated the first bilingual mass at San Christopher Mission in Pontotoc.
Father Steve Pawelk, Sister Nancy Schreck, Father Jerry Peterson and Father Gerry Richardson were some of the first religious who served in the Hispanic community in New Albany. Sisters Patricia Sullivan, Rosemary Empen and Kris Vorenkamp oversaw services in Chickasaw and Calhoun counties. In 1996, the Catholic Center in Morton was inaugurated. The first Spanish mass in Ripley was celebrated on Dec. 12, 1997. Father Jerry Mattingly started Mass in Spanish at San Martín Mission in Hazlehurst since 1997.
In 1999, Christian Brother Ted Daush assumed the leadership the Hispanic Ministry until June of this year, giving twenty years to this ministry, supported by Guadalupean Missioneries sisters and parish leaders. Last July the Diocesan Intercultural office was created where Hispanic and Black Catholic Ministries were merged.

The establishment of the Hispanic ministry in the Diocese of Jackson allowed the increase of religious, social and cultural services to the Hispanic community in the 65 counties of the diocese.

(This article was published in Catholic Messenger on Dec. 17, 1999. Elsa Baughman updated it for this edition. Read the article in its entirety on MississippiCatholic.com.)

Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe

By Monsignor Michael Flannery
JACKSON – The actual apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe took place on the mountain of Tepeyac. There was a temple to the goddess virgin, Tonantzin, who was the mother of the gods. She was also known as the woman clothed with serpents. In the Aztec mind, the serpent stood for wisdom and perfection. It stood for death and resurrection as the snake cast its skin off every year.
Juan Diego was a 56-year-old convert to Christianity. It was Dec. 9, 1531. He was on his way to Mass at Tlatelolco by way of Tepeyac, when he heard beautiful music. He was immediately attracted to it. Music after all was the way to communicate with the gods. Then he heard a gentle voice calling his name. Before him stood a very beautiful lady. She radiated like the sun. She asked him where he was going? He responded that he was going to attend Mass. She, then, introduced herself as the mother of the true God who made the heaven and the earth. She instructed him to go to the bishop in Mexico City and to tell him to build for her a temple at Tepeyac. Juan responded immediately to say that her wish would be fulfilled, and he would go immediately. Upon arriving at the home of the bishop, he had to wait a long time before seeing him. He recounted for the bishop what he had seen and heard and the command of the Lady who called herself the Mother of God to build a temple for her. The bishop listened attentively to him and had him repeat the story again. The bishop then asked Juan Diego to return on another day to hear him again. Juan felt he had failed in his task to convince the bishop to build a temple to Our Lady.
Sadly, Juan returned to where he had seen the apparition at Tepeyac, and the apparition was before him again. He told Mother of God that he had failed in his task. Juan explained to Our Lady that he was not the one for the task as he was just a lowly unlettered man and was not one to be listened to. Our Lady should find someone more prominent for the task.
Our Lady reminded him that she could send many people to fulfill the task and that she had chosen Juan Diego and she still had confidence in him to fulfill the task she had given him. She asked Juan to return the following morning and Juan promised that he would return the next day and do as she commanded and then added that the bishop would probably not believe him.
On Dec. 10, Juan Diego went again to the residence of the bishop. The bishop questioned him at length about what he had seen, where he had seen it and what the message of the Lady was. Juan Diego answered all questions put to him. However, the bishop did not believe him and said that he needed some sign before he would believe. As Juan Diego was leaving bishop’s residence, the bishop asked two members of his household to follow Juan Diego and see what he was up to and to report back to the bishop. The two individuals followed Juan Diego back to Tepeyac but, they lost track of Juan Diego. Meanwhile, Juan was reporting back to Our Lady the details of his encounter with the bishop and how he was demanding a sign before he would believe Juan Diego. Our Lady responded that Juan Diego was to return tomorrow and that she would give him a sign to bring.
Upon his arrival at home, Juan Diego found that his uncle was gravely ill and needed the attention of a medic. On Dec. 11, Juan went in search of a doctor to assist his dying uncle Bernardino. Juan was not successful in getting a doctor, although he spent the whole day in search of a medic. On Dec 12, Juan Diego could see that his uncle was declining rapidly so he decided to look for a priest to give his uncle the last rites. In order to get the priest, he would have to pass by Tepeyac. He decided that he would go the other side of the mountain to avoid seeing Our Lady. While making his way along the other side of the mountain, there was Our Lady before him. She asked him what was going on and he explained that his uncle was about to die. He asked forgiveness for not fulfilling the task the day before. Our Lady told him not to worry about his uncle. She would take care of him. In the meantime, he was to go to the bishop and bring the sign that the bishop had requested.
She then instructed Juan Diego to go to the top of the mountain and there he would find roses. Juan reminded Our Lady it was not the season for roses to grow in December. Our Lady told him to do as he was asked. Juan Diego climbed the mountain and there before him were these beautiful roses. He picked the roses and brought them to Our Lady. Our Lady arranged the roses in his poncho. The poncho was made that it could fold up in the front and strings attached which could be tied to the shoulders. After Our Lady arranged the roses, she sent Juan Diego on his mission to go to the home of the bishop and present him with the roses. She instructed him that he was not to allow anyone else to see the roses except the bishop. Juan was also to tell the bishop that he was to fulfill what was being asked of him and to build a temple in Tepeyac in honor of Our Lady. The roses had a beautiful aroma.
The servants of the bishop were slow to tell the bishop that Juan Diego had come back. Juan was persistent. The servants wanted to examine the roses. Juan refused and said only the bishop was to see the sign. Eventually, Juan was brought into the bishop’s office. On entering, Juan reverenced the bishop and told him that he had brought the sign he had requested. With that, he released the strings on his poncho and the roses dropped to the ground. At that same moment, the impression of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted on his poncho.
The poncho of Juan Diego was made from the maguey plant. The poncho is also called a tilma. Its normal life span is 25 years. However, the tilma of Juan Diego has survived nearly 500 years. The original can be seen in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. It is still in good condition and is now encased in glass.